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(04/04/06 4:00am)
Here are the 11 most common names at Brandeis: David. Jonathan. Rachel. Sara(h). -stein. -baum. -berg. Cohen. Shapiro, Shapiro, Shapiro.The Center for Modern Jewish Studies released a report a few months ago detailing Jewish life on campuses similar to, but not including, our own. Not surprisingly, it found that, for the most part, Jewish students are more likely to participate in social Jewish organizations than religious ones. Unfortunately at Brandeis, that distinction doesn't exist. There are about 20 clubs listed on the myBrandeis Web site with Hebrew or "Jewish" words; some are religiously centered, others are Zionist and still others are performance-based. There are plenty of other aspects of campus life that highlight Brandeis' Jewish roots-building names, the vacation schedule and the huge Judaic studies department, to name a few.There are many Jewish students who resent Judaism's pervasiveness, myself included. I'm sick of "Brandeis humor" being largely "Jewish humor" and the general assumption that everyone is Jewish. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk about Brandeis as the "Jewish university." It does a huge disservice to the school when it is known as that over its other, more important merits.Forty years ago, the label was both more accurate and more desirable. With the quota systems in place at prestigious universities through the 1950s, Brandeis filled an important space in the lives of the minority-especially Jewish-high-school graduates fortunate enough to attend the University. But times change.The University has been playing a balancing act ever since, between promoting itself as a high-caliber liberal arts school and as the place for Jews to be the majority. Officially, Brandeis may be institutionally nonsectarian, but it's hard to believe that claim in practice.This balancing act is a precarious one: The University wants applicants of all stripes to apply in the same numbers that the Jewish community does, but doesn't want to alienate its primary donors. It comes down to scaring away hundreds of fantastic potential Brandeisians, or not being able to receive a much-needed check from a would-be Jewish philanthropist.Unfortunately, it's cyclical: Our reputation as the "Jewniversity" attracts a disproportionate number of Jewish applicants, so the pool for new students is skewed from the get-go. But now that Jews are no longer institutionally discriminated against, there's no need for a "safe haven." The post-Brandeis culture shock is entirely avoidable, so long as Brandeis actually matches up with the outside world just a little bit more. The University's Judeo-centricity will attract enough Jewish applicants to keep the numbers higher than average.A 30 percent-Jewish student body should be fine. While it is a disservice to the students now here to have an unrealistic religious mix, Judaism is so important to Brandeis that it's also unrealistic for the percentage to mirror the national average. If one-third of the undergrads were Jewish, the community's size would still be larger than at most other universities, but not suffocating.Were there less Jews at Brandeis, it would be much more feasible to have a spring break at the same time as most other universities. That ours is during a Jewish holiday only emphasizes that the school is too Jewish. Furthermore, there'd be more happening on Friday nights. Hopefully, that would not be limited to the dining halls being open for longer hours. Because Jewish religion currently overpowers Jewish social-ness, many people rightly complain that the campus seems dead those nights.Shifting the University's emphasis, were the majority of community members even to desire it, is indeed tricky, as it is unreasonable to ask any institution to shift away from its roots and its sources of funding.But of course, it wouldn't even get to that point. This year's hiring of an assistant dean of student life for the support of diversity was a good move-recognition of a problem is the first step on the road to recovery. But more needs to be done.
(03/28/06 5:00am)
Brandeis students rallied alongside Waltham residents Saturday to urge city officials to develop more affordable housing in response to rent costs, which protesters said have tripled in the last several years. Around 50 people attended the event on the Waltham Common on the corner of Main and Moody streets. The Waltham Alliance To Create Housing, or WATCH, which ran the event, hopes the city will build permanent affordable housing for low-to-moderate-income families."It's really nice to meet people in the community and see what they're doing," said Holly Sarkissian '08, a founding member of Waltham Links, a group formed last semester that focuses on facilitating student relations with Waltham residents. Five Brandeis undergraduate students, two alumni and one Bentley student attended the rally, Sarkissian said.The Waltham Affordable Housing Committee, another community group, is backing a plan to build affordable housing units at the sites of the now-closed Banks Elementary School on Russell Street and South Middle School using non-profit developers. Banks was replaced in 2003 by the William F. Stanley Elementary School on South Street.The group said it is placing emphasis on rental housing because newer apartment complexes like Cronin's Landing and Longview Place cater to wealthier tenants.Rachel Kleinbaum '08, a founder of Waltham Links, said the club was started because Brandeis students do not know much about the Waltham community. She said the group hopes to help students "break out of the Brandeis bubble" and connect with the city."Some of the activist groups on campus are in their own little worlds," Kleinbaum said. "The great thing about Waltham is that its people are politically active."Erica Schwarz, WATCH's director of community organizing, said students like those from Brandeis have helped spread awareness for their cause. She said Brandeis students have interned and helped out at WATCH in the past."There have never been students really active in local politics," Schwarz said. "But the more people that are involved, the more you get done."Roma Goodlander '02, WATCH's job development program director, has been involved with WATCH since 2001. She was an intern with the group as an undergraduate and is currently studying non-profit management at the Heller School for Social Policy. She said she was delighted to see Brandeis students participating in the event."I feel like I'm one of them because that's how I came to WATCH and how I became interested in Waltham and these issues," Goodlander said. "I get excited to see the next generation [of Brandeis students] here."Matt LeBlanc, WATCH's Community Organizer and a member of the Waltham Affordable Housing Committee, has been working on this initiative for nearly three years. He said the rally helped remind city officials that their program is important to the community."We have the good fortune of having some beautiful, historic buildings that are available now," LeBlanc said.Kleinbaum also said there are good reasons for ordinary Brandeis students to care about the Waltham community's issues. She said the city has a good deal of history and culture to offer students, and they should get involved even if it is only for their own interests."It feels good to be able to help the town that we are so much a part of," Kleinbaum said.
(02/14/06 5:00am)
In the non-scoring St. Valentine's Day Invitational at Boston University this weekend, the Brandeis men's and women's track teams again took it easy as the Judges prepared for the Division III New England meet, now less than a week away. The event was a unique experience for the Judges. Because Boston University's indoor track is one of the best in the country, the meet drew several Division I and Division II schools and even individual runners sponsored by Nike and New Balance.Similar to last week's Tufts Invite, the coaches again took a conservative approach, caring mostly about the preparation for next weekend's meet."If somebody's 100 percent ready, they would race," coach Mark Reytblatt said "We don't have to prove anything now, we just want to be ready for the [UAAs]." Despite the cautionary approach, the men's team showed promise. In the 800-meter race, Ryan Parker '07 provisionally qualified for the Division III national championships with a time of 1:53.86, finishing in 23rd place."It was the first time I raced full out the whole season," Parker said. "I definitely wanted to run a little faster but I'm happy with it."Parker's time currently ranks as sixth best in Division III."Whether that time will stand up to get me in [to the NCAAs] remains to be seen, but I expect to be running significantly faster for the next few weeks," he said.In the one-mile race, Joel Sunshine '07 ran a season-best 4:19.60, improving his time by 12 seconds and finishing in 45th place. Dan Suher's '08 time of 4:22.72 ranked as his personal record and placed him 51st out of 115 runners. John Guilinger '08 earned his season best time of 4:25.61 and came in 64th. Matt Jennings '09 and Rod Fleming '07 ran 4:27.75 and 4:34.08, coming in 73rd and 88th, respectively."I started a little farther back in the pack than I wanted but I felt really good the whole time," Sunshine said.Had it not been for some slight confusion about the number of laps, Sunshine said that he could have placed first in his heat."On the seventh lap I started kicking, thinking I only had one lap to go," he said. "But I crossed the line and they rang the bell, which told me I had another lap."Ralph Chery '07, competing for the second time since this season after an early injury, finished the 400-meter race with a time of 50.82 seconds, improving his time from last week by almost two seconds. Also racing in the 400-meter were Feodor Melnikov '09 and Alex Smith '09, who finished with times of 51.65 and 54.07 seconds, respectively.On the women's side of the competition, even greater precaution was taken to preserve energy for the New England meet."A lot of girls didn't compete, we're saving them," Reytblat said.Megan Bisceglia '07, whose time of 5:11.79 in the mile race placed her in 27th out of 96 runners, registered the highest finish for the women's team.In the 800 meter-race, Meaghan Casey '09 placed 48th out of 109 runners with a time of 2:20.73. Alyssa Ross '07 finished just behind Casey, coming in 52nd place with a time of 2:22.21."It's not my best time and I kind of got boxed-in during my race," Casey said. "I put myself in bad positioning and I didn't have the kick I normally have at the end."In the 400-meter race, Jane Farrell placed 90th out of 120 with a time of 1:02.90. In resting much of the team and taking a cautionary approach this week, Reytblat said he hopes both the men and women will be more than ready in the New England Division III meet next weekend and the UAA championship March 3. "There are no excuses once we get there," Reytblat said.
(02/14/06 5:00am)
It's an unfortunately typical story: An act of vandalism, or any other crime, committed against a minority group rallies the neighborhood to prove to the perpetrators that "hate won't get this community down." The townspeople join hands, sing "We are the World" and espouse the eternal brotherhood of man. They will earn a couple days of news coverage, and then the world will forget and move on, until the next time hateful people act outside the law.Last Monday, an unknown hooligan drew legs and the word "Darwin" on the Christian Fellowship's ichthys, commonly called a "Jesus Fish." The response to this vandalism has the potential to be one of those lovey-dovey, heartwarming-yet speedily forgotten-affairs. That needs to be prevented at all costs.In his e-mail to the campus community publicizing the defacement on a bulletin board in Usdan, Assistant Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams announced a soon-to-be-held interfaith dialogue. That's without a doubt a decent start, but were this event to be Brandeis' only response, it would rob itself of a very useful opportunity.First, however, the vandal's intent must be discovered. Either the defacement was the move of a fervently pro-evolution partisan, or it was the act of a worthless pile of pond scum, looking to get some people upset. I hope I am not the first to draw parallels to the vandalisms of the B'Yachad sign in November 2004, when someone-seemingly for no reason other than to cause frustration and annoyance-reworked the sign to read "B'Yach," a play on the word "bitch."Given that the vandal was probably no anti-religion ideologue, but merely a lowly, pathetic excuse for humanity, it seems unlikely that he would come to the event announced by Adams.Chances are equally low that an ideologue would come to a place where others demonstrate-with open-minded dialogue-against all he holds dear. So unfortunately, it seems like the campus consensus is to respond with impotence.There is a thin line between "peace, love and friendship" and "ineffectiveness." It isn't that I disapprove of the "love everybody" approach, but I sincerely doubt its usefulness on its own. Sitting around and preaching to the choir isn't going to change much.But what will? It's not like Brandeis can-or would-install security cameras in every nook and cranny. And barring some form of brainwashing, people cannot be forced to respect property, let alone opinions. What else is left? Cordoning Usdan off during the night hours?The members of our community who respect property, if not ideas, are rightly upset by the unwarranted conversion of the Jesus Fish into a "Darwin Fish." But righteous indignation never got anybody anywhere. The Administration, the staff, the students-everyone must make it clear to this spineless, thoughtless and pathetic excuse for a person, whoever he is, that we will not tolerate such baseness here.There is no easy, obvious and forceful response to the aforementioned crime. There is, however, a way to mitigate the ineffectiveness of the answer we have at our disposal. We must not write off the community discussion as a one-time solution. If this is the response we're going to take, we have to go all the way with it. And, of course, if the vandal is caught, he must be punished to the full extent of the law-but that solution is a no-brainer. If we continue talking about the issues and do not allow ourselves to forget that the Brandeis community values intelligent debate, only then can we prevent our response from being impotent.
(02/07/06 5:00am)
In the non-scoring St. Valentine's Day Invitational at Boston University this weekend, the Brandeis men's and women's track teams again took it easy as the Judges prepared for the Division III New England meet, now less than a week away. The event was a unique experience for the Judges. Because Boston University's indoor track is one of the best in the country, the meet drew several Division I and Division II schools and even individual runners sponsored by Nike and New Balance.Similar to last week's Tufts Invite, the coaches again took a conservative approach, caring mostly about the preparation for next weekend's meet."If somebody's 100 percent ready, they would race," coach Mark Reytblatt said "We don't have to prove anything now, we just want to be ready for the [UAAs]." Despite the cautionary approach, the men's team showed promise. In the 800-meter race, Ryan Parker '07 provisionally qualified for the Division III national championships with a time of 1:53.86, finishing in 23rd place."It was the first time I raced full out the whole season," Parker said. "I definitely wanted to run a little faster but I'm happy with it."Parker's time currently ranks as sixth best in Division III."Whether that time will stand up to get me in [to the NCAAs] remains to be seen, but I expect to be running significantly faster for the next few weeks," he said.In the one-mile race, Joel Sunshine '07 ran a season-best 4:19.60, improving his time by 12 seconds and finishing in 45th place. Dan Suher's '08 time of 4:22.72 ranked as his personal record and placed him 51st out of 115 runners. John Guilinger '08 earned his season best time of 4:25.61 and came in 64th. Matt Jennings '09 and Rod Fleming '07 ran 4:27.75 and 4:34.08, coming in 73rd and 88th, respectively."I started a little farther back in the pack than I wanted but I felt really good the whole time," Sunshine said.Had it not been for some slight confusion about the number of laps, Sunshine said that he could have placed first in his heat."On the seventh lap I started kicking, thinking I only had one lap to go," he said. "But I crossed the line and they rang the bell, which told me I had another lap."Ralph Chery '07, competing for the second time since this season after an early injury, finished the 400-meter race with a time of 50.82 seconds, improving his time from last week by almost two seconds. Also racing in the 400-meter were Feodor Melnikov '09 and Alex Smith '09, who finished with times of 51.65 and 54.07 seconds, respectively.On the women's side of the competition, even greater precaution was taken to preserve energy for the New England meet."A lot of girls didn't compete, we're saving them," Reytblat said.Megan Bisceglia '07, whose time of 5:11.79 in the mile race placed her in 27th out of 96 runners, registered the highest finish for the women's team.In the 800 meter-race, Meaghan Casey '09 placed 48th out of 109 runners with a time of 2:20.73. Alyssa Ross '07 finished just behind Casey, coming in 52nd place with a time of 2:22.21."It's not my best time and I kind of got boxed-in during my race," Casey said. "I put myself in bad positioning and I didn't have the kick I normally have at the end."In the 400-meter race, Jane Farrell placed 90th out of 120 with a time of 1:02.90. In resting much of the team and taking a cautionary approach this week, Reytblat said he hopes both the men and women will be more than ready in the New England Division III meet next weekend and the UAA championship March 3. "There are no excuses once we get there," Reytblat said.
(02/07/06 5:00am)
In the non-scoring St. Valentine's Day Invitational at Boston University this weekend, the Brandeis men's and women's track teams again took it easy as the Judges prepared for the Division III New England meet, now less than a week away. The event was a unique experience for the Judges. Because Boston University's indoor track is one of the best in the country, the meet drew several Division I and Division II schools and even individual runners sponsored by Nike and New Balance.Similar to last week's Tufts Invite, the coaches again took a conservative approach, caring mostly about the preparation for next weekend's meet."If somebody's 100 percent ready, they would race," coach Mark Reytblatt said "We don't have to prove anything now, we just want to be ready for the [UAAs]." Despite the cautionary approach, the men's team showed promise. In the 800-meter race, Ryan Parker '07 provisionally qualified for the Division III national championships with a time of 1:53.86, finishing in 23rd place."It was the first time I raced full out the whole season," Parker said. "I definitely wanted to run a little faster but I'm happy with it."Parker's time currently ranks as sixth best in Division III."Whether that time will stand up to get me in [to the NCAAs] remains to be seen, but I expect to be running significantly faster for the next few weeks," he said.In the one-mile race, Joel Sunshine '07 ran a season-best 4:19.60, improving his time by 12 seconds and finishing in 45th place. Dan Suher's '08 time of 4:22.72 ranked as his personal record and placed him 51st out of 115 runners. John Guilinger '08 earned his season best time of 4:25.61 and came in 64th. Matt Jennings '09 and Rod Fleming '07 ran 4:27.75 and 4:34.08, coming in 73rd and 88th, respectively."I started a little farther back in the pack than I wanted but I felt really good the whole time," Sunshine said.Had it not been for some slight confusion about the number of laps, Sunshine said that he could have placed first in his heat."On the seventh lap I started kicking, thinking I only had one lap to go," he said. "But I crossed the line and they rang the bell, which told me I had another lap."Ralph Chery '07, competing for the second time since this season after an early injury, finished the 400-meter race with a time of 50.82 seconds, improving his time from last week by almost two seconds. Also racing in the 400-meter were Feodor Melnikov '09 and Alex Smith '09, who finished with times of 51.65 and 54.07 seconds, respectively.On the women's side of the competition, even greater precaution was taken to preserve energy for the New England meet."A lot of girls didn't compete, we're saving them," Reytblat said.Megan Bisceglia '07, whose time of 5:11.79 in the mile race placed her in 27th out of 96 runners, registered the highest finish for the women's team.In the 800 meter-race, Meaghan Casey '09 placed 48th out of 109 runners with a time of 2:20.73. Alyssa Ross '07 finished just behind Casey, coming in 52nd place with a time of 2:22.21."It's not my best time and I kind of got boxed-in during my race," Casey said. "I put myself in bad positioning and I didn't have the kick I normally have at the end."In the 400-meter race, Jane Farrell placed 90th out of 120 with a time of 1:02.90. In resting much of the team and taking a cautionary approach this week, Reytblat said he hopes both the men and women will be more than ready in the New England Division III meet next weekend and the UAA championship March 3. "There are no excuses once we get there," Reytblat said.
(02/07/06 5:00am)
At first glance, it's a perfect hostage scenario: Two damsels, the girlfriends of the two best detectives in Idaville, Fla. are strapped to chairs in a grimy, underground lair. Their kidnapper, suspected of murdering the town's mayor, emerges, reveals in painstaking detail his nefarious scheme and prepares to torture his two captives.But, as the arch-villain-a crazed, but misunderstood groundhog-approaches carrying a toothbrush, disposable razor and aerosol deodorant, just before performing a "mating dance" to Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You," it's evident this tale's conventionalities unravel in the details.The tale, of course, was "Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Groundhog," a half-hour skit performed late Saturday night in Cholmondley's by the sketch comedy ensemble Friends Like These. The troupe formed last fall, and its shows pack the coffeehouse each week. "People will go to parties, then come to see us, and go back to parties. It's flattering," said Josh Gondelman '07, one of the ensemble's founding members and de facto directors. "I kind of feel bad for them."The group performs a brand of sketch comedy unique at Brandeis: Each show, consisting of a single story instead of a series of shorter skits, is conceptualized, written and rehearsed within a week. The result is something far more impromptu, even sloppier, than Boris' Kitchen, the older and established sketch comedy troupe that performs semesterly. The group's membership, which includes about seven regular performers and several rotating ones, is composed mostly members of various improv comedy troupes on campus. They invited me to observe their Friday and Saturday rehearsals. There, Gondelman described Friends Like These's style of comedy as more similar to Upright Citizens Brigade, a New York City comedy troupe that used to have a series on Comedy Central, than Saturday Night Live.Gondelman said the group's name is well-deserved, given the intimacy he hopes surrounds Friends Like These's show. "We have a very easy rapport with the audience," he said.On Saturday night, the plot was simple. Encyclopedia Brown (Ben Kuss '07)-the 12-year-old detective whose name has graced the titles of a series of popular children's books since the 1960s-vows to uncover the whereabouts of a missing groundhog (Jay Judah '08) after the murder of Idaville's mayor (Gondelman). Encyclopedia teams up with Bugs Meany (Matt Francis '07), a local bully and wannabe detective, and the two shake down a host of locals (all played by Ben Sandler '07) in hopes of uncovering the truth. In the show's finale, Encyclopedia and Bugs finally confront the groundhog and rescue their girlfriends, Sally (Molly Jane Rosen '08) and a girl whose name the inattentive Bugs can never remember (Ethan Feuer '07). Encyclopedia's burnout brother, the original creation Farmer's Almanac Brown (Doug Gately '07), provides much of the show's antics.According to Gondelman, the group intentionally "superimposed adult relationships onto 12-year-olds." Encyclopedia is abused by his police chief father (Misha Miller-Sisson '07), who is jealous of his son's superior investigatory skills. The groundhog, unable to cope with the pressure of successfully predicting the weather each winter, has devolved into a psychopath. And Sally, whom Encyclopedia often neglects in favor of detective work, just wants her love for the boy detective to be reciprocated.It's that dichotomy-"absurd characters . with grounded motivations," as described by Gondelman-that drives Friends Like These's approach to sketch comedy. "Our show isn't [as much] about absurd characters, as it is about bringing real characters that wouldn't normally be put together," Kuss countered. "And the absurdity ensues."The troupe plans each week's show on Sunday evening, comes up with a sequence of scenes by Tuesday or Wednesday and devotes Friday and Saturday to fine-tuning continuity and inserting jokes. "The way people behave in our skits doesn't make sense in the [real] world," Gondelman said. "But we try to make it so the characters are consistent. It's a better show that way. Not only is it funnier, but the characters are thorough."But at Friday's rehearsal, each member's improvisational background was evident. Each scene is crafted extemporaneously, with off-stage cast members shouting out recommendations to the actors in each scene. Rarely is something committed to paper, save the occasional note jotted down by Gondelman."Maybe I'll just read what Jon's writing," said Kuss, looking in my direction while practicing a scene.But even their deconstructions can fall victim to absurdity."Can we give them a Jean Valjean/Javert dynamic?" Rosen asked during an encounter between Kuss and Francis' characters."Is that like The Old Man and the Sea?" Francis asked.Feuer cut in: "Old Man and the Sea? Like The Life Aquatic?"A half-second of silence. "Bill Murray could play Ernest Hemingway," Kuss said.Some weeks, group members derive ideas from sources like The Encyclopedia Brown Mysteries or Brokeback Mountain, while others shows draw inspiration from real-life events, like when a kitchen fire rendered 145 South St., the home of most of the ensemble, uninhabitable.Miller-Sisson said Friends Like These intentionally avoids "Brandeis-style" humor, and that jokes referencing the University-specifically the abundance of Shapiro buildings-are too easily made."Plus I die a little on the inside every time I hear [that type of joke]," Miller-Sisson said.Sitting down before Saturday's rehearsal, Gondelman told me that while Friends Like These strives to make its comedy as accessible as possible, there are benefits to a cult audience."We've done some disgusting, disgusting things," Gondelman said, referencing a show in which Miller-Sisson drank a "meat shake." "The feeling is that it's all between friends, that we don't mean anything by it." He said that, nonsensically, every show ends with a reference to the television show Moesha.Later that night, a scene with Kuss and Sandler proved particularly revealing."How do you know about the mayor?" Kuss asked."I-I-there was a scandal in the paper!" Sandler responded."Paper. paper. scandal. candle. candles burn. paper burns. paper burns at 451 degrees. 451 degrees... that takes me back around to you, Stinky LaRou!""Wait, can we do this scene over with some fake blood?"Friends Like These performs at Cholmondley's every Saturday at midnight. It is on hiatus this week, and will perform at The National College Comedy Festival at Skidmore University.
(01/24/06 5:00am)
We at Brandeis have quite the reputation for political activism. But we do our predecessors a huge disservice by failing even to maintain political awareness.One of my responsibilities at the Justice is to come up with a question for "Brandeis Talks Back," or "B-talks." I then find four people to answer it. Last week, because of an article and editorial we were running, one of the photo editors suggested the question, "What do you think Jack Abramoff did?" My initial reaction was that it was a poor choice of a B-talks question-obviously people would know about Abramoff '81. He's only behind one of the largest Congressional bribery scandals in years, and just a few weeks ago, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion. Printing four correct answers is neither funny nor interesting. But I misjudged my peers. It took me longer than I thought it would to find four people willing to have their pictures and names printed next to a wrong answer. Had I found someone who knew the name, we would have printed it. But I had to go through a total of 10 people, because so many passed on answering. They felt embarrassed about looking uninformed. I returned to the Justice office appalled at what I had encountered. How is it that at Brandeis, reputedly one of the most politically active-and by implication, aware-campuses in the nation, 10 randomly selected students had no idea about one of the biggest news stories of the last few months-especially one about our own alumnus? I decided to find out if it was just poor luck. Surely it was just chance that the people I happened to ask didn't know who Abramoff was. Unfortunately, I am no pollster: I don't know statistical formulas, or any other polling strategies. All I had were my pen, a notepad and my wits.This time, I decided to add an extra element. All four people in last week's B-talks remembered who Abramoff was-or at least, they claimed to-with some prompting; would that be the general case this time?I conducted a highly informal survey of 125 people I saw in Usdan and the Goldfarb Library. I did not take down names, genders, class years or majors. I only asked them the very same question I used last week: "What do you think Jack Abramoff did?"The result startled me, in two ways. The lingering optimism I had about our campus was again diminished after seeing how few people could instantly recall Abramoff's misdeeds. Fifty-three people had instant recall, and gave answers involving at least 2 of the following words: corrupt, lobbyist, Congress and Native Americans. The remaining 72 were just as clueless as the 10 I encountered previously. The percentages round to: 42 percent knowing and 58 percent unaware.Yet there is some hope. Out of the 72 people who could not instantly identify Abramoff based on his name, 68 remembered (or again, claimed that they did) after being prompted by at least one of the following phrases: corrupt lobbyist or Native Americans. This means that 94 percent of the "unawares" could remember with prompting, or, in other words, only four out of 125 (3 percent) had absolutely no idea who Abramoff was.Was the poll representative of the entire Brandeis student body? Possibly not. What would a representative poll find? I don't know, but I have a sinking feeling that the numbers would be similar. I recognize it depends on the people I asked; politics majors probably are more up-to-date with current events than theater majors are (not to knock on thespians).Perhaps this is too idealistic-or snobbish-of me, but that I should find anyone not keeping up with current events is scary, especially at this university. I don't believe the so-called "Brandeis Bubble" exists outside of people's minds; I'm not restricted by Brandeis's boundaries, and there's no reason for you to be, either. If we are going to be the leaders of our generation, as we are told over and over again, we must pay attention to the goings-on of our current leaders, so that we never repeat their crimes and blunders.
(01/17/06 5:00am)
Jason Prapas '06 had two lofty goals entering his senior year last September, and neither had anything to do with graduating. That month, the singer and guitarist and his bandmates in Great Day for a Race began recording their first full-length album and started to line up a slew of off-campus shows for the year. After a semester of late-night rehearsals and weekend recording sessions-not to mention the hard work of their manager and good friend Matt Shuman '06-Great Day for a Race is greeting 2006 having achieved both goals. The band will release its debut album All that Life Intends in grand fashion Saturday night with a performance in Levin Ballroom, and will gig throughout the Boston area this semester at venues like the Middle East and Plough and Stars."We made no compromises," Prapas said of the album. Great Day, which also includes guitarist Ryan Pressman '06, bassist Mayank Puri '08, saxophonist Rich Frank '06 and drummer Brian Schon '06, has already established in the last year and a half a sizeable fan base within the Brandeis campus and, along the way, become somewhat of a fixture at Cholmondley's. The band's story begins even before any of its members came to Brandeis. Hoping to expand some songs he had written in high school on an acoustic guitar, Prapas began jamming with Schon their first year. The two shared "similar ideas for how the songs could sound with a whole band," Prapas said.Three years later, All that Life Intends is the culmination of their ambitions. The record features a number of songs familiar to fans such as "Stoplight," "Quarter Passed," "Run Along" and "Anymore." Also included on the hour-long disc are about half a dozen newer tunes, including "You Can't See Me With Your Eyes Closed" and "The Dancer." The record has a wonderfully raw sound to it and makes especially good use of Prapas' distinctive voice. An untitled bonus track prominently highlights Prapas' impressive vocal range and falsetto and Pressman shines during his extended solo in "Run Along." Schon and Puri provide a solid rhythm section throughout the record while Richard Frank livens things up with a warm saxophone. On the surface, the album displays Great Day's retro-rock influences from start to finish. Yet, the band defies easy classification on every track, thanks in large part to Prapas' unorthodox but well-executed vocal style, which juxtaposes well with the band's sound. The vocal lines often seamlessly infuse subtle Mediterranean sounds into a classic rock 'n' roll template. While some notes sound almost accidental, every moment of the record fits perfectly with the one preceding it. Some tracks channel modern-rock acts like The Strokes and The Killers while others feature a more all-American '50s sound. These qualities blend nicely on "Quarter Passed," a highlight of the record that echoes the straight-rhythm sounds of Buddy Holly mixed with a new wave-derived vocal style.The record reflects over three years of collaboration. By their sophomore year, Prapas and Schon were living feet away from Pressman and Frank, and the four soon formed Great Day's first incarnation. They played their first show that year at The Stein."We were so nervous to play in front of people," Prapas said. "We played three or four original songs and a couple of poorly executed covers."The group began performing at Chum's, finding that despite their inexperience and then-lack of a bassist, "people seemed to enjoy our music, so we played a few more shows on campus that year," Prapas said.By the next school year, Puri had joined the band."Junior year, the Facebook phenomenon hit Brandeis in full force. I would search for bass players online like a musical stalker," Prapas said. "That's when I found our little Indian blessing."Prapas continued to write new songs while Great Day practiced together. Upon each new number's completion, Prapas said, "I'd bring it to the band and we'd make it sound fuller." He said that the band became more serious this year, and All that Life Intends is proof of this. While recorded without the luxury of the finest equipment, the album captures accurately the live sound that has fueled Great Day's recent surge in popularity on and off campus. While their future plans remain uncertain, the band hopes the new album is only the first of many triumphs in their final months at Brandeis. According to Prapas, Great Day for a Race has even "loftier goals for this semester," including securing a slot this April at SpringFest.Great Day for a Race will perform Saturday in Levin Ballroom at 8 p.m., at the official release party for All that Life Intends.
(01/17/06 5:00am)
Hopefully for Steven Spielberg, future projects will not cause him so much grief due to lunatic actors and hardline critics as his movies in 2005. Tom Cruise, the star in the director's updated version of War of the Worlds, dominated idle summertime headlines after jumping on Oprah Winfrey's furniture and shrieking at the Today anchor Matt Lauer.Spielberg was rather detached from Cruise's ramblings, but he has come under direct fire from the right wing recently with the release of Munich, his excellent visualization of Israel's response to the execution of 11 of its athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.There have always been conflicting accounts of the steps Israel took after Munich. Spielberg's source material is Vengeance, a widely-criticized book by the Canadian journalist George Jonas. It is well-known, however, that the retribution against the terrorist group Black September, which carried out the Munich massacre, was fierce and sometimes ruthless.Revenge is often a bloodsport, and Munich's right-wing critics are incapable of acknowledging the possibility that counterterrorist spies are capable of nastily violent actions, no matter what the provocation. Spielberg's detractors want to see his movie as a political treatise rather than entertainment. Although Munich is provocative and thoughtful, it remains at least a partially fictionalized account of what happened after the 1972 Olympic Games. The leader of the Mossad team, Avner, adroitly played by Eric Bana, is pensive and uneasy in his execution of Black September leaders.That detail, however, is a rallying point for Munich's critics, the more extreme of which often say any less-than-rosy depiction of Israel is tantamount to comfort for terrorists and treason against the Jewish faith. Shortly after the release of Munich, David Horowitz, the right-wing nut who spoke at Brandeis in March 2004, filled his Web site with screeds against Spielberg and his screenwriter Tony Kushner for making the Mossad characters something other than Palestinian-killing automatons.Debbie Schlussel, a svelte blonde who sits just to the left of Ann Coulter on the political spectrum, complained in a screeching review that some of the Black September leaders in Munich were shown to be fathers and husbands. Much to Schlussel's contempt, Spielberg showed the human side of the Israeli assassins by making them wrought with worry over the proximity of a target's wife and daughter to a bomb. Perhaps she would have preferred a movie in which the non-combatant families of terrorists were not a point of concern and blown up all the same.Critics of Munich have also pointed out that Avner is too concerned for his family's safety. In the film, he has his family move to Brooklyn to avoid retribution for his mission. In real life, there were retaliations at embassies and aboard airplanes for the assassinations Israel carried out in the wake of Munich. Why wouldn't Avner move his family out of the line of fire?Munich is not a paean to the Palestinian cause, despite what Horowitz, Schlussel and the rest of the right-wing hate machine think. The murders of the 11 Israeli athletes, woven throughout the film, are as vivid and gory as the Omaha Beach landing sequence in Saving Private Ryan. The athletes are appropriately shown as unwitting, albeit resistant, victims, and their murderers as bloodthirsty terrorists. Maybe the critics missed these scenes, but they do not establish Munich as an anti-Israel work. If anything, this movie is pro-Israel, but without being hyper-nationalistic.Dennis Ross, the former U.S. envoy to the Middle East and a former visiting professor at Brandeis, gave his sober analysis of Munich to a round-table discussion hosted by the magazine Foreign Policy. Ross does not disagree with targeted killings-they have been effective in taking down leaders of Hamas and Chechnyan rebels-but says Spielberg's film gives rise to important debate on the topic.The most forceful part of Munich was its humanity, on both sides of the fight. Some of the Black September leaders, terrible as their deeds were, were well-manicured and cultured, while the Israelis were sometimes hesitant, nervous, even regretful. It is simply an attempt to humanize the chaos in the wake of a horrid event.
(01/17/06 5:00am)
JANUARY
(12/13/05 5:00am)
AlbumsAntony and the Johnsons 'I Am A Bird Now'It's a concept album about becoming a woman. Or it's about becoming one's true self. Either way, it's the most uplifting, inspiring record of the year. These should be the anthems for 17-year-old girls. Antony sings like a chanteuse on her death bed from inside a hollowed-out piano. My uncle sits in his bubble bath every night with a glass of wine and warbles through these tracks. This is the sound of a particular unique beauty not often realized, and deserves all the accolades it has received.-Benjamin YakasThe Agony Scene 'The Darkest Red'This album took me a while to fully appreciate, because it is so loud and brutal. The Darkest Red, with its speed metal and hardcore influences, has to be one of the most crushing albums I've ever heard. Still, The Agony Scene managed to pull off multiple songs with clean vocal chorus lines without losing their integrity. These songs leave me singin' along with my toes tapping. From "Scars of Your Disease," an entirely hardcore vocal song, to "Prey," a song driven by its melodic chorus line, The Agony Scene never lets up, creating an entire album of quality songs with replay value. If you're looking for a great metalcore album, this is the one.-Seth RobertsSufjan Stevens'Illinois'What was perhaps most astounding about the second installment in New Folk wunderkind Sufjan Stevens' "50 States" project wasn't just the sheer variance found within its 22-track span-muted confessionals about serial killers, banjo ditties for The Great Emancipator, celebratory Chi-town anthems and more-but the fey, orchestral stylization that made it so surprisingly cohesive given its length. Adorned with childlike choirs, full string sections, blaring horns, steel drums and Stevens' own saccharine vocals, Illinois is at once novel and ingenious, a larger-than-life Americana narrative steeped equally in the folklore and indie folk traditions.-Jonathan FischerMovies'Sin City'I've never seen a better transition from graphic art to film. The movie manages to incorporate all the noir, humor and horror of Frank Miller's series and still make a movie that stands alone. I eagerly await a sequel, which will hopefully include a few more of his sordid tales.-Matt Wright'Walk The Line'Walk The Line is intelligent, well-acted and entertaining at the same time. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a compelling and haunting performance as Johnny Cash, and Reese Witherspoon plays a perfect June Carter. The film follows Cash and Carter's rocky love affair and includes many songs actually performed by Phoenix and Witherspoon. Walk The Line is, in many ways, the typical "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll movie." It pulls you in from the beginning, however, and takes you along for an impressive, tumultuous and powerful ride.-Jessica Sedaca-Rosenberg'The Aristocrats'The Aristocrats, a documentary about an inside joke among comedians, was certainly the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Raunchy, obscene and off-the-wall, this movie was so gleefully vulgar that people left the theater trying to concoct their own versions of the description of a family stage show. This is the kind of movie that would make fans of The Passion of the Christ combust. And we may never again be able to watch re-runs of Full House after watching Bob Saget go bluer than the deepest ocean.-Benjamin Freed'The Constant Gardener'The Constant Gardener is neither sugarcoated nor corny. Rather, it portrays a realistic story of pharmaceutical interests superceding human livelihood, in which a desperate husband decides to follow the footsteps of his wife: truth at all costs, no matter the price. And there is quite a price to pay. Boosted by powerful performances from its lead actors Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, as well as a fine supporting cast, The Constant Gardener uses beautiful cinematography to express the point of view of another protagonist: the continent of Africa and its people. Flush with vivid color and stunning landscapes, director Fernando Meirelles contrasts a lively Africa with a gloomily-colored, technological, cold Europe, and though the movie is satisfyingly resolved, it nonetheless ends with a legitimate question: How much does the West truly care about the African people-whose fortunes come alive in this film-but who, in reality, are dying in great numbers, despite the cynical West's ability to help?-Amit Shertzer'Red Eye'So it was more than a tad idiotic. It featured exploding buildings, 11th-hour plot twists up the wazoo and 20-minute blocks of time reserved for the gratuitous throwing-of-things at current "It Boy" Cillian Murphy. Still, Wes Craven's ostensible "thriller"-endangered children, Dr. Phil-related plot points, rocket launchers and all-was the unintentional howler of summer 2005, and as such, it occupies the fond place in my heart reserved for gloriously stupid airborne movies. That is, at least until the perfectly-named Snakes on a Plane arrives in theaters later this year. Sss!-Jennifer Morrow
(12/13/05 5:00am)
Fans of standup comedy are tearing from grief instead of laughter as they mourn the death of comic great Richard Pryor. Pryor died this Saturday at 65 from a heart attack. He had suffered from multiple sclerosis for the past 20 years. His health was also weakened by his drug problem, which resulted in a cocaine-induced heart attack at 36 and serious burns from a freebasing accident at 39. Starting out as a stand-up comedian, Pryor broke into film and television in the 1960s. Pryor hit it big when he starred in Silver Streak in 1976 with Gene Wilder. Pryor also wrote and performed several autobiographical works, a movie called Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, about his attempted suicide, and a few films featuring his standup, which provided hysterical commentary on his difficult childhood. Pryor also appeared on several television shows, such as Happy Days and his ill-fated The Richard Pryor Show. Pryor won five Grammys and one Emmy Award. He will be remembered for his legendary wit and an unabashed and revolutionary use of profanity in his comedy.As of Friday morning, Matt Damon's identity is now that of a married man. Damon tied the knot with girlfriend Luciana Bozan at a private ceremony in Manhattan. Damon met his new wife, now an interior designer, at a club in Miami two years ago, where she was working as a bartender. The two instantly became inseparable-Bozan joined Damon in Europe for the shooting of Ocean's Twelve, met his family and friends in Boston and bought a house with him in Florida. Damon asked Bozan to marry him over Labor Day weekend. Access Hollywood reported that the couple is expecting a child, but Damon's representatives won't confirm the claim. However, Damon has admitted to the press that he would very much like to be a father. Damon is currently shooting The Good Shepherd, a government thriller also starring Robert De Niro and Angelina Jolie. Hopefully Damon won't follow in Pitt's footsteps and let his paternal desires sway him to leave his wife for Jolie.
(11/01/05 5:00am)
To the Editor: Three cheers to Matt Brown '08 for his article in last weeks Justice, titled "Too Much PC can be BS." Not only is it a wicked cleva title, it totally uses two-letter abbreviations to make a four-letter point: PCer's=suck!I know I've suffered, like Matt, when I saw all these dang liberal posters all over the place. Just the other day, there was one about stopping genocide and another one about stopping the Iraq war. Then I saw a malicious-looking, greasy-haired, Che Guevara fan club member tearing down Republican posters. Before I smacked him with my four-pound economics textbook, I thought "damn!, this PC oppression is too much for me to take." Thank god I had some mp3s of old Rush Limbaugh's show handy, and then rocked out to Lynyrd Skynyrd, otherwise I might have cracked. Free Bird!But the real genius of Matt's piece is when he busts out the hard facts. He deftly cites the American Heritage dictionary (most likely the best dictionary because it uses "American" in the title) to make sure we know that some 'Deisers are officially PC. If you're one of those students, I'd give up hope now cuz (by definition) it sounds like you won't get laid... ever. I mean, who wants to "support broad social, political and educational change" when we could watch Girls Gone Wild #23. Stop being so damn "overly concerned" with such nonsense and let's kick some Guevara butt and watch some titties! Plus, caring about the third world is so damn boring and offensive. Fair Trade coffee and labor parity, ugg. I mean c'mon, we're never gonna have to work minimum wage jobs or farm coffee beans, why should we care? Let's give new meaning to "freedom of expression" by not expressing ourselves at all. That would be totally rebellious-take that, PC police!-Eric Blasco '06
(10/25/05 4:00am)
Three cheers to Matt Brown for his article in last weeks Justice, titled "Too Much PC can be BS." Not only is it a wicked cleva title, it totally uses two letter abbreviations to make a four letter point: PCer's=suck!I know I've suffered, like Matt, when I saw all these dang liberal posters all over the place. Just the other day, there was one about stopping genocide and another one about stopping the Iraq war. Then I saw a malicious looking, greasy haired, Che Guevara fan-club member, tearing down Republican posters. Before I smacked him with my 4 lb. economics textbook, I thought "damn!," this PC oppression is too much for me to take. Thank god I had some mp3's of old Rush Limbaugh show handy, and then rocked out to Lynyrd Skynyrd, otherwise I might have cracked. Free Bird!But the real genius of Matt's piece is when busts out the hard facts. He deftly cites American Heritage dictionary (most likely the best dictionary because it uses "American" in the title) to make sure we know that some Deis'ers are officially PC. If you're one of those students, I'd give up hope now cuz (by definition) it sounds like you won't get laid... ever. I mean who wants to "support broad social, political, and educational change" when we could watch Girls Gone Wild #23. Stop being so damn "overly concerned" with such nonsense and let's kick some Guevara butt, and watch some titties! Plus, caring about the third world is so damn boring, and offensive. Fair trade coffee and labor parity, ugg. I mean c'mon, we're never gonna have to work minimum wage jobs or farm coffee beans, why should we care? Let's give new meaning to "freedom of expression" by not expressing ourselves at all. That would be totally rebellious, take that PC police! Sincerely, Eric Blasco PS. Matt (if you're out there), we should hang and tell dirty jokes together, that'll screw with those liberal commie squares.
(10/11/05 4:00am)
The men's soccer team had reasons to be optimistic about its postseason chances after the first four games of the season: a new field, a 4-0 record with a combined score of 15-3 and two UAA Player of the Week awards honoring one rookie scoring phenom, Ben Premo '09 and one veteran goal keeper, Pat Makridakis '06, both of whom, like their team, far surpassed preseason expectations.But as the team approaches its last seven games of the season, the optimism had been replaced by something closer to desperation. "We're just not scoring goals," coach Mike Coven said.On Wednesday, the men's soccer team fought back to force extra play before a heartbreaking blown save by Makridakis gave visiting MIT a 3-2 overtime win Wednesday. A few days later, the Judges were blown out of the water 7-1 against conference powerhouse University of Rochester. Brandeis has gone 2-4-1 since the first four games of the season, and the team is 0-1-1 in conference play with a 6-4-1 overall record.Numerous dedicated Judges fans toughed out the rainy weather on Saturday to watch their team fall quickly to UAA rival Rochester. The Yellowjackets, ranked No. 5 in the country, tallied four goals in the first half and never looked back in cruising to victory. The Yellow Jackets poured on seven goals before Jason Ring '07 blasted a shot from just outside the box for his first collegiate goal to avoid the shutout."Top to bottom, that's a wonderful soccer team," Coven said of Rochester. "They were bigger, stronger and faster."Against MIT, Brandeis' comeback hopes were dashed just 39 seconds into the first overtime in Wednesday's game, when sophomore James Zorich hit a soft shot from 30 yards out that slipped through the hands of Makridakis to give the Engineers the victory."I took my eye off it and I just blew it," Makridakis said of the goal. "There's really nothing else to say."The Engineers had scored first in the 22nd minute of the first half when sophomore Chase Lochmiller headed a cross into the back of the net. MIT added a second goal 11 minutes later when sophomore Joshua Campoverde kicked in a loose ball from the box."The first half against MIT, we were horrific," Coven said. "We gave up two horrible goals and didn't get anything going."Goalie Jake Knoll '08 suffered a broken leg while making a save later in the half and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. He was replaced by Makridakis.In the second half, Brandeis came out strong and pulled to within 2-1 in the 60th minute when Kevin Murphy '09 fired a shot into the goal from 20 yards out. The Judges continued to pressure the Engineers' defense and finally tied the game with 5:26 remaining in regulation, when captain Scott Zackaroff '07 slipped a rebound past MIT rookie goalie Thomas Caldwell. The Judges fired off three more shots before the end of regulation, and went into overtime re-energized before the MIT game winner slipped through Makridakis' hands 37 seconds later. Despite the loss, Coven acknowledged the team's improvement in the second half."The second half might have been the best half we've played all year," Coven said. "I don't know if they even caught the midfield line. We were all over them."Coven tinkered with the lineup slightly for the game against Rochester. Adam Goldstein '09 and Zach Cohen '09 started in place of more experienced players. After Knoll's injury during the MIT game, Coven started Matt Kaplan '06 in goal over Makridakis. Makridakis took Kaplan's place in the second half after Rochester was leading 4-0. "I think [Kaplan] and [Madridakis] are equal goalkeepers and I'm going to give [Kaplan] a chance," Coven said. A lagging offense continues to be a major problem for the Judges, who have not scored more than two goals in a game since a 4-0 victory against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Sept. 13. Coven attributed part of the problem to the recent ineffectiveness of Premo due to the fact that he has been seeing more attention from opposing defenses.Zackaroff said that the team as a whole needs to work on their offensive output. "I think we need to find our feet more," Zackaroff said. "We're not getting shots off fast and we need to be more creative on the ball."The road ahead in the UAA season continues to be challenging. On Friday, the team travels to Pittsburgh to take on Carnegie-Melon at 5:30 p.m. in a UAA contest followed by a trip to Atlanta to play Emory University, ranked No. 6 in the country, on Sunday at 11 a.m. "We can improve by coming together as a team and working on our weaknesses." Stewart said.Coven put things simply: "We have to win some games." -Jonathan Zimmerman contributed to this article
(10/11/05 4:00am)
I had said that I would talk to him tomorrow. I was wrong. My grandfather died before I was done with classes the next day. Within 11 hours of his death, only two weeks ago, I was back in Los Angeles with my family. I will never again see his face or hear his voice. He will never again tell me how proud his is of me, and I will never again smile at his unnecessary excitement at minute technological progress.The grief still overpowers me. Days have passed, and I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that I cannot call my grandpa to see how he is. My mom's dad died before I was born, but my mom's mom remarried before I was born. Death has never hit me this hard; great-aunts and -uncles have passed away, but I was never close to them. I have seen death on the news, but those have just been statistics to me.I grew up within 10 minutes of all my grandparents. I would see them at least once a week and talk to them every few days. I was incredibly fortunate.Coming to Brandeis was neither an easy nor a difficult decision for me; I just woke up one morning and said that I would be going to Brandeis. One part that made me nervous was that Brandeis was on the other side of the country. For the next four years, I would be 3,000 miles away from my family. More specifically, I would be 3,000 miles away from four people with whom I had only a limited amount of time left: my grandparents.For most of my first semester here, I talked to someone in my immediate family every few days. When I came home for Thanksgiving last year, however, I realized that I had been pretty much excluding four people who, in their own words, lived for my cousins, my siblings and me.Since then, I have called my grandparents once a week. The "Friday calls," as they named our ritual, were more about me than them; more often than not, the conversations would consist of my talking about the week and their telling me how proud they were. Wrinkly though they may be, my personal cheerleaders make me feel great. And knowing that just hearing me talk makes them happier than the "too many channels" on satellite TV makes me feel even better.Why would I subject you to all this? Most of you do not know me, and probably do not care about my story. If I, someone who talked to my grandfather weekly, can feel this much pain and regret for not talking to him more often, how much more so will someone who does not talk to his family feel when a close relative dies? We have a tendency here to become so wrapped up in our own busy schedules that we forget about the outside world, whether that outside world is news or family.Blood really is thicker than water. Your relatives are always there for you. It does not matter if you cannot stand them, because they are the people who made you, biologically or otherwise. There can be no substitution for those people.People tried to comfort me. "He's with God" did not work. I am alive; when grandpa died, it did not matter to me where he went, it mattered that he was not here with me. Others would say something like, "Good will come from this." Since I subscribe to that belief in any other situation, I begrudgingly agreed. Lo and behold, some good has come from this. I realized the importance of family and hopefully some of you will share this realization with me, without having to learn it the hard way. Call your grandparents-if they are still alive-and talk to them for 10 minutes. They will gush, and you will feel better for it.
(09/20/05 4:00am)
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."For a complete nincompoop, Roger Rabbit sure was wise. Laughter truly is the best medicine. A chortle or a giggle will expel those dark rain clouds that seem to follow only you. A snigger or snort provides the antidote to the poison that is a bad mood. What it all comes down to is very simple: "Smile, darn ya, smile!"I firmly believe that we can best appreciate life only when we have a healthy sense of humor. It doesn't matter if it is dark, witty, absurd or whatever, as long as we can laugh at the crazy stuff life throws at us. And, as we all know, there's a lot of crazy stuff out there.I get the impression that a fair number of Brandeisians are rather serious. Don't get me wrong, serious is fine, it worked for the Victorians-but my way is better. Seriousness is only acceptable in extreme moderation.A corollary of my theory, by the way, is that a huge number of people here take themselves way too seriously. It's a shame. Why do so many people here not get it? Maybe, as one of my colleagues suggested, it stems from the inherent social awkwardness, in his opinion a quality of Brandeis students. If many students cannot read facial and vocal cues, how can they detect sarcasm? An alternative root may be the overemphasis we place on academics. Too often students here work on Friday and Saturday nights-even once in a college career is one too many times. As they are not out having fun, getting some release from stress, no wonder they lack a sense of humor. The two are very much linked. Or maybe there's something in the water?You may be thinking that on a campus with three improvisational groups, a sketch comedy troupe and a handful of self-proclaimed stand-up comedians, I'd have no need to discuss this. However, enjoying comedy is very different from having a sense of humor. Enjoying comedy means that you understand jokes and appreciate them. A sense of humor is about reactions to sarcasm, satire, and cynicism. It is the ability to take life's obstacles with a wry grin and to deal with annoying people.Therefore, someone without a sense of humor will not understand satire and sarcasm for what they are; unfortunately, such poor souls will overreact to them. When people overreact, it's a sure sign that they take themselves too seriously. For that, all I can say is that the health center should start distributing chill pills.I, however, have no need for these medications. Anyone who looks the way I do cannot afford to take himself too seriously, so when people are being jerks, I laugh at them. People like that are not worth my time or effort. Thus, I can escape an overdeveloped sense of seriousness.Now, I realize that no one, after reading this article, is suddenly going to develop a sense of humor. In my first draft, I included a "how to grow a sense of humor" guide that came across as kind of obnoxious-and that is a freely admitted understatement. After some thought, I concluded that a sense of humor cannot be forced-it is part of an internal process, which cannot be taught. All I can hope to do for you is suggest and inspire.Realize that life will only be as fun as you make it. If you let little things get to you, you will not have a good time. Force yourself to change how you think about other people. What's worked for me is just not to care about them as people; in other words, their very existence is insignificant to me. I highly recommend it. Remember, life has too much potential to squander it, so have fun, laugh at stupid people and enjoy!
(09/13/05 4:00am)
Bangles, fluorescent pink wigs, tacky dresses and a half-naked guitarist all face me and a sea of sweaty bodies. It's Wednesday night, the band is yelling at me to "get down, down, down" and somewhere in my head a voice repeats, "there's a sharp sensation stretching from your right shoulder to your chest but until you start hyperventilating, you're dancing through the pain."I scribbled these thoughts down late Wednesday night, sitting down after an explosive show at Cholmondley's sponsored by the Radical Student Alliance featuring campus improv faves Bad Grammer, B-52s cover band Hottpants, Jukebox! and two fledgling post-punk acts hailing from Washington, D.C, Backtalk and How We Tie Knots.It was apparent from the crowd's reaction that the night belonged to Hottpants, Jukebox!, which consists of singers Josh Russel '06 and Tahlia Orbach-Smith '06, guitarist Daniel Duffy '07, bassist Mayank Puri '08, keyboardist Cora Mae '04, drummer Arthur Bergevin '08 and dancers Courtney Rand '07 and Maria Pinto '07.They introduced themselves, offering the disclaimer that they had only practiced once. The opening riff of "Rock Lobster," with its kitschy rockabilly crawl, negated the need for such modesty-the spirit of Fred Schneider and Co. instantly came alive in an octet making no stabs at seriousness. Throughout that song and the rest of the set, Russell paraded around Chums, dancing with fans and on the bar while his bandmates' near-operatic shrills emerged from the stage. For the crowd, who might've treated a lesser performance with the lack of enthusiasm reserved only for bad cover acts, never stopped dancing, their flailing arms and gyrating hips mirroring the absurdity of the band standing before them.Hottpants, Jukebox! didn't need to be taken seriously-their three-song set's infectiousness and energy were rare for a college cover band, providing a performance that campus bands will strive to equal in future shows.The rest of the night was another story. Bad Grammer's brief set seemed plagued by first-show jitters. After introducing new members Matt Hope '09 and Will Friedman '09 by having the audience stare at each member's backside, they played a number of acting games-all your standard improv fare-that mused on subjects ranging from the edibility of Creepy Crawlers, a partying succubus and the world's worst peeping toms, Aramark employees, Goosebumps titles and X-Men.Later, bands Backtalk and How We Tie Knots offered short but dynamic sets, taking cues from both their native city's experimental strain of post-punk and San Francisco's East Bay punk scene (which spawned Operation Ivy and Rancid). Following Hottpants, Jukebox!, the crowd emptied out, but the two acts trudged on.Backtalk went first, playing three originals and a cover of Grimple's "A Fucked Up Beautiful Day." Their songcraft was simple, but their delivery inventive-keyboardist and singer James Murphy filled in for the absence of bass guitar with some deep Moog riffs.At first, How We Tie Knots sounded much more abrasive, but a melodic sense more characteristic of the most popular punk acts of the mid-'90s eventually emerged. The formula was simple: harmonized, gang-esque vocals, soaring guitars playing three-chord hooks and lyrics focused around anarchism and blasting militarism and capitalism. And while the band offered nothing remarkable, they echoed a point made clear by Hottpants, Jukebox!: Music should never be a chore. Sometimes it's better to turn off your brain and dance.
(09/06/05 4:00am)
The Brandeis chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) was chartered at last night's Union Senate meeting, culminating a summer of planning to support aid efforts in Darfur. But the group's work-raising awareness about the genocide in the Sudan and encouraging the U.S. government to send more relief-is far from over. The next big date is Oct. 6, when STAND hopes three to five million people worldwide will fast from one meal or refuse luxury goods and donate the money saved to relief efforts in Darfur. Known as Darfur Fast, this movement aims to be "a luxury fast simple enough that everyone can be involved," according to Weldon Kennedy '06, who helped write STAND's national bylaws and worked to create the Darfur Fast Web site.STAND began last September at Georgetown University, and has since expanded to about 200 schools in the U.S. and Canada. It became a unified national coalition at a conference at Georgetown this August. According to Masaya Uchino '06, this status as a national movement helps the organization achieve more than many other student groups. STAND has partnered with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and mtvU, the college-oriented branch of MTV.Extensive outreach has attracted famous participants for the Oct. 6 fast, including actor Bill Cosby, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.The list even includes NBA player Dikembe Mutombo and the chief rabbi of Poland-two strikingly different figures. "This is not a partisan issue; this is for everyone," Kennedy said. The celebrity names "give more legitimacy to the student movement," said Patrick Schmitt, a senior at Georgetown who is one of the key players in STAND's national endeavors. Kennedy said that the fast can be a "foot in the door" for people, and a way to "register your discontent with genocide." He said that most people are aware of the Sudan crisis, but are not aware of its complexity, or of "how terrible and minimal are the efforts" to end the killing."The U.S. has been idly sitting by, with declared genocide," Kennedy said. "This is almost disgusting to me."In early 2003, two rebel groups in Sudan attacked military installations, leading to retaliations by Janjaweed, or government-sponsored militias. This intensified a 20-plus-year civil war, and quickly escalated into genocide, as officially recognized by U.S. Congress in July 2004 and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2004. The Darfur Fast Web site (www.darfurfast.org) cites recent reports by the World Food Program, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice: 3.5 million people are now hungry and 400,000 people have died in Darfur since early 2003.In addition to the fast, STAND-Brandeis plans to hold a vigil and teach-ins led by students and professors. The chapter is encouraging Brandeis students to call the State Department all day on Sept. 13 and urge the government to increase aid to Darfur. A benefit dinner is slated for early October, with a panel of speakers including John Prendergast, advisor to the president of the International Crisis Group. On the agenda for the fast day itself is a rally in Boston.Sean Lewis-Faupel '08 is working with the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur to plan this event. Oct. 6 is an appropriate date, as it occurs during Ramadan, a period of fasting in Islam, and is also Tzom Gedaliah, a fast day in Judaism that commemorates the assassination of a religious leader. STAND is merging with Brandeis Against Genocide in Sudan, a group formed last spring. Matt Rogers '08, one of the presidents of last year's group, said that the merge will allow more work on a national level.Kennedy said the group can make everyone at Brandeis more aware and knowledgeable. "This is going to be intense," Kennedy said. "We are going to push people to the point of compassion fatigue.
