The Boylan Blog

2011-12-16T11:51:00.004-05:00

Please check out our blog at its new home!

http://boylanblog.tumblr.com/

Greetings

2011-11-21T06:00:00.004-05:00

“The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”
– Maya Angelou

Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that extreme, but nothing can stay the same forever, right? On that note, we’d like to say the fondest of goodbyes to this version of our blog. The Boylan Blog has had a warm and well-nurtured life on Blogger, but sometimes you’ve got to cut the cord. This week we’re moving to our new home on Tumblr at boylanblog.tumblr.com. It’s a new look and a new platform for communicating with you all, but the people and the commitment to bringing you thoughtful articles about news, culture, poetry, art, and more remain the same.

We hope you’ll consider the new blog a medium not just for hearing what we have to say but also for interacting with us. You can always check out the Boylan Blog for the latest department announcements and other things that we think will be of interest to the members of our stellar English community, but we’d also love to hear your questions, whether it’s about the goings-on at Brooklyn College or just a thought you’d like share about something we wrote. So come to the new site, learn about what’s going on in the English Department, and let us know what you're thinking about what we’re thinking!

Our new blog home (designed by the multi-talented Kate Conte and Joel Cruz) will freshen things up a bit, but we encourage you to look back at all of the old articles that remain here at boylanblog.blogspot.com. The headlines might change everyday, but the things we have to say about a poem, a film, or a book never go out of style.

Thanks for reading our blog! And without further ado, head on over to boylanblog.tumblr.com.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/change-architect-sign1.jpg

Greetings

2011-11-14T06:35:00.004-05:00

Hello (and Keep Going)

As in, Keep Going! with all of your scholastic endeavors (but stay here, reading the Boylan Blog). If you are currently (as a good friend of mine put it) "boiling in the stew of life"--up to the eyes in papers, deadlines, and notes you did or did not take (curses!), this is a message of solidarity to the 99% of the student body who didn't record every lecture, attend every class, comment on each discussion point, and so on. Keep Going! Soon you will be rewarded with turkey, football, a couple days off, and possibly a cancelled flight leaving those weirdo relatives at home.

(Are we allowed to make 99% jokes and puns?)

Anyhow, take a minute out of your boiling-stew mid-November days and check out this week's blog. Since, as part of that 99%, you're probably procrastinating anyways. Here's some clerical reminders:

1) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. The deadline isn't until January 2012, but be sure to visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

2) The Poetry Club meets every Tuesday during common hours in 2307 Boylan! Get your verse on.

3) Start sending in your submissions to the Junction! Send in your poetry and other creative writing to bczinesubmissions@gmail.com and bring a hard copy to 3416 Boylan.

4) Creative writing classes will be offered (FOR THE FIRST TIME! WOW!) during the winter session. Come to the office for more details.

Last, we'd like to genuinely thank to all of those who came to the Open Mic last Thursday. You know who you are. Every year we're reminded that the true epicenter of youth poetry is Brooklyn College; this past event was no exception. Well done to everyone.

And double thanks if you laughed at my eye-roller of a banana joke.

Be excellent to one another, and do good work,

Ryan Skrabalak

image source: http://0.tqn.com/d/dogs/1/0/R/1/-/-/Basil.lobster2.CourtneyPerry.jpg

News Briefs

2011-11-14T06:30:00.008-05:00

Remember, Remember The Fifth of November

It is the matter of a broad grin, arching eyebrows, a looping mustache, a thin goatee, and haunting eyes. For those familiar with pop culture, this description immediately brings to mind the in/famous visage of the Guy Fawkes mask worn by Hugo Weaving in the blockbuster hit “V For Vendetta.” And, if like most of us who love the movie and have read the graphic novel on which the movie is based, you know that the Guy Fawkes mask served as the symbol of something grand and revolutionary. As the character V tells us, “it is an idea... and ideas are bulletproof.” The mask--- the idea that it symbolized--- stood up against an oppressive government not unlike the one created by George Orwell in “1984.” The man behind the mask, Fawkes himself, was not just a figment of Alan Moore's (the writer of the “V for Vendetta” graphic novel) imagination, he was a soldier fighting in the Spanish war against the Low Countries in the early 1600's. What he became in/famous for however, was his involvement with the Gun Powder Plot--- a plot to de-throne King James I ( a Protestant king) in favor of his third daughter, Princess Elizabeth ( a Catholic). The November 5th Gun Powder Plot, though a failed excursion, has taken its place, much like the visage of Guy Fawkes, among British history and lore.

So, what has this all got to do with anything important? Well, it seems that four hundred years after the failed Gun Powder Plot, Guy Fawkes' in/famous visage has made its way into another revolutionary movement: the “Occupy” movement. It has now become a global symbol, showing the solidarity of the ninety-nine percent, in places such as Germany, China, Latin America, and of course, Zucotti Park. The mask, as a symbol of the movement itself, appears to signify a disenchanted generation disgusted with corporate greed and an ever-increasing gap between the one percent and the ninety-nine percent. The mask first came to the forefront of the protests through hacking group 'Anonymous', who have now joined in with the Occupy movement. It is estimated that at least one hundred thousand masks were sold last year alone, with constant increase as the Occupy movement participation expands. Still, the plot thickens, as it seems that the mask is officially licensed by Time Warner (a large, one percent-ish corporation). To get around the double-edged sword of wearing something filled with symbolism whilst inadvertently supporting the very agencies you're fighting against, Anonymous, with much success, have started producing replicas of the mask.

Still, as we take all of this into account, we must not forget the important things: a mask, and the revolutionary movement it stands for. Many people are less than impressed with the use of Fawkesian masks in the Occupy movement because they view it as protestors glorifying the wrong type of revolutionary. I would beg to differ. I don't think that the Occupiers are glorifying the mask, they are standing firmly behind an idea, and that idea is one of change--- the mask, a symbol of it. So whenever you see that broad grin, looping mustache, and haunting eyes, remember that it symbolizes an idea, and that ideas are, after all, bulletproof.

---Sarah Gonsalves

Article Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058020/How-Guy-Fawkes-masks-symbol-anti-greed-protests-globe.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Image Source: http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/_News/_SLIDESHOWS/ScenesFromTheProtests/CNBC-occupy-Chicago-scenes-17.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Victoria's Secret: 1. Everyone Else: 0

Ah, the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. The night when we all get to watch beautiful women walk down a runway in lingerie. But this year was extra special as Victoria’s Secret showcased what might just be the most expensive bra on earth: the diamond-encrusted Treasure, worth something around 2.5 million dollars, trumping last year’s contribution to the world of ridiculously priced lingerie by half a million. The only one of its kind, Treasure glittered its way down the runway on the breasts of model Miranda Kerr, who said she was nervous about wearing it because she is “still breastfeeding!” You wouldn’t know from looking at her that she just had a child, but maybe that’s because she weight trains and drinks protein shakes to prepare for her shows. She puts what The Daily Mirror calls “a lot of effort” into pre-show preparation, meaning that beyond just working out she gets “waxed, shaved, [and lasered].” Good for you, Miranda Kerr! Good for you, Victoria’s Secret! Good for you, America!

Except maybe we should replace “good for” with “shame on.” Is making sure that every sliver of body hair and milligram of fat on her body is erased really something we should admire Miranda Kerr for? After all, is a 2.5 million dollar bra worth any less if a regular woman wears it? While it’s fantastic to be in shape, and fantastic to get back in shape after having a child, the Victoria’s Secret angels have always been an integral part of the media obsession with “the perfect body.” But there’s an even larger problem here: their contribution to unrealistic body standards in popular culture aside, Victoria’s Secret spent 2.5 million dollars creating a bra. The absurdity of that statement demands that it be repeated: Victoria’s Secret spent 2.5 million dollars creating a bra. 2.5 million could provide 50,000 cows to villages and families in need. It could pay for a year of school for roughly 250,000 children in Africa. It could support a year of contraception and counseling to a woman in South America or India. Or, it could buy a huge, gaudy, diamond-covered bra that only one or two women will probably ever wear. There’s never a perfect time to spend that much money on a hunk of glittery junk, but it seems that Victoria’s Secret couldn’t have chosen a worse time to show just how much more money they have than everyone else: with the population at 7 billion and counting, water shortages, food shortages, education shortages, cutbacks, high unemployment, foreclosures, full-to-bursting prisons and a serious AIDS epidemic (to mention just a few important issues), should we really tolerate such a brazen demonstration of waste and wealth? I suppose that’s up to you to decide as you go about your holiday shopping. Keep in mind, that amazing push-up bra that would really boost your “confidence” might actually cost you (and the world) more than a donation to a worthy charity.

--Margie Sarsfield

Article Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2011/11/10/miranda-kerr-models-2-5-million-bra-at-victoria-s-secret-fashion-show-115875-23551262/

Image Source: http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/nov2011/2/6/miranda-kerr-wearing-a-2-5-million-bra-walks-the-runway-during-the-victoria-s-secret-fashion-show-in-new-york-pic-ap-55708063.jpg

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Movement is Moving

Occupy Wall Street protestors have had it hard. Met with amused disinterest in the beginning of the protest nearly two months ago, demonstrators are now met with anger, dislike and police violence. Most are being forced out of their publically owned park encampments and are seeking refuge else where, willing to give up their space before giving up what they believe in. In response to this systematic eviction, some protestors have migrated to college campuses.

The OWS in California have migrated to Berkeley campus, taking a nod from protestors who have set up shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts’s own, Harvard campus. Unlike Harvard, (who seem to be allowing the protestors only if they are students with valid IDs and keeping their mythical gates locked otherwise) the 3,000 Berkeley nomads were not permitted to stay. The University’s policy was strictly: no tents, no slumber parties.

You have to remember that the OWS:NYC branch (for now) is in the good graces of the private owners of Zuccotti Park. The police can only glare imposingly at the protestors as long as they remain within their boundaries... Interesting trivia fact: Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend is on the executive board of those who permit OWS in the park. That must be a fun conversation at dinner.

Maybe the other OWS camps should take a cue from OWS:NYC.

-Kate

Article Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/us/occupy-wall-street-protests-shifting-to-college-campuses.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Image Source: http://cdn.visiontoamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ows-protester-being-arrested.jpg?0673a6

Culture Corner

2011-11-14T06:25:00.000-05:00

Obsession with Glamorized Beauty

America’s obsession with beauty seems to be constantly growing. In advertisements, many readers are brainwashed into thinking that they should look like the portrayed models. The photos tend to emphasize tan skin, long legs and a skinny body shape as the ideal look. However, people don’t seem to realize that the pictures are often photoshopped to such an extent that the models barely resemble their true appearances.

Check out Dove’s video below which reveals the deception behind glamorized beauty:

This idea of exaggerated beauty is also seen on the television program Toddlers and Tiaras. The episodes show children, even from the young age of two, participating in beauty pageants. The kids undergo a physical transformation in order to receive high scores from the judges. For these makeovers, pageant contestants utilize curling irons, hair straighteners, hairspray, fake eyelashes, fake nails, flippers (clip-on teeth), makeup, skin shimmer (glitter) and fake hair. As a result of beauty’s representation being distorted for these children at such a young age, they will likely think that this “plastic Barbie idealism” is necessary.

But what does all of this say about the real image of beauty? That pale skin is ugly? That women who wear sizes bigger than zero or a small is unacceptable? That you need all of these makeup products to be called pretty? With this mindset, society is inadvertently promoting eating disorders and low self-esteem.

Although celebrities such as Sofia Vergara, Kim Kardashian and Demi Lovato have come forth as role models to encourage loving one’s physical appearance, additional change needs to occur. People must educate society on these false perceptions and promote the acceptance of true beauty; otherwise there will be greater consequences than toddlers dressing like adults.

~Kerry Gertner

Article Source: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/toddlers-tiaras/pageant-tool-kit-pictures.htm
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl6rzOcuooI
Image Source: http://epicself.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/un-natural-beauty.jpg

Poem of the Week

2011-11-14T06:20:00.002-05:00

Love Poems for a Cynical Age

How to Get Under My Skin
by Mindy Nettifee

first off, you can stop looking for the zippers.
i hid those long ago, when my two sisters
and twelve-year-old boys everywhere
made rather athletic headway exploiting my soft spots,
disguising insults as compliments i wouldn’t discover
until later, in therapy,
like bummer cracker jack prizes.

get subtle.
start with how much you love orangesicles.
start with jokes about Egon Schiele and pedophilia.
start with lame stories from summer camp,
your first awkward salty kiss.

nostalgia is anesthesia.
i’m gripped by how soft you remember humiliation—
that summer you were grounded,
how you mapped the route out of that house, that town, that promise.

there’s small openings everywhere:
the last time you saw your mother,
how you picture her sleepless nights on your sleepless nights.
how you save your best punch lines.
bust one out for me.
i’ll weaken like a nurse in a massage chair.
i won’t notice i’m tearing up.

lean in and smell my shampoo.
let it get dark.
i go down when you figure out how close i came,
just by looking me in the eye.
when we compare childish suicide attempts with hot sauce and aspirin.
i go down when you cast shadows on my shadows,
when it doesn’t scare you that i don’t know how to flinch.
when you ask me for nothing.

Derrick Brown, editor of the 2008 illustrated poetry compilation The Last American Valentine, begins his collection by asking that the reader, “Come at this book quiet and ready. Come at this book with un-sarcastic amazement for that melancholy, drifting and striking feeling, whether you have it, want it, need it or wonder about it.” The “it” of which he speaks is poetry’s oldest and most fickle friend: love. The Last American Valentine is an attempt to gather together the work of an eclectic variety of American writers in order to provide a poetics of love for today’s cynical age, wherein it seems everyone either doesn’t believe love can last or believes that every love poem is a bomb of clichés waiting to explode with cheesiness across the page.

Mindy Nettifee’s poem “How to Get Under My Skin” stood out to me in Brown’s collection because of its frank but sweet simplicity. Nettifee doesn’t try to pile unrelenting metaphors atop the idea of love; instead, she forges an intimate connection between speaker and listener with details of both her life and that of her potential lover. It is the personal histories and idiosyncrasies of an individual that make it possible for us to love and be loved. That kind of feeling doesn’t begin with trite phrases or sexual advances, Nettifee seems to say, but rather with you telling me about one summer ten years ago or the things that keep you up at night. “There’s small openings everywhere,” she says—sweet and subtle ways for one human to access another.

The Last American Valentine is a mixed bag, ranging from the humorous to the sexual to the pared down and beautiful, with varying degrees of effectiveness. But whatever the results, Brown’s aim resonated deeply with me. I’ve had this secret fear since I was much younger that I would have to grow up in a world in which no one really believed in love anymore. Everything from rising divorce rates to the mocking tone that gives voice to phrases like “hopeless romantic” might lead me to think that that’s already the case, but it would be treason to my fourteen-year-old self if I gave up on that ideal now. I’m thrilled that contemporary poetry seeks to be so many things: an agent of social justice, a source of humor, a medium for the expression of joys and sorrows, a forum for quirkiness and linguistic prowess, a bridge from one desolate heart to another. But I hope I haven’t seen—and hope I never see—the day when poetry can no longer be taken seriously and sincerely as a medium for the heights of human passion. If all of the language we might use to talk about falling in love sounds clichéd, it’s probably because billions of us have shared that same beautifully sickening surge. But the task of the poet is to find new ways of speaking. And the task of the human is to find new ways of loving and relating to others. That way we never have to fear the loss of love or poetry, and we’ll always have a world in which two people can begin to ache for one another over simple talk of “orangesicles” and “lame stories from summer camp.”

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://static.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-last-american-valentine-illustrated-poems-to-seduce-and-destroy/7925330/thumbnail/320
Poem Source: Nettifee, Mindy. “How to Get Under My Skin.” The Last American Valentine. Ed. Derrick C. Brown. Long Beach, CA: Write Bloody Publishing, 2008. 23. Print.

Currently Reading

2011-11-14T06:15:00.001-05:00

Coming Clean About Stephen King

There was a time when, if you asked me to list my favorite novelists, you would have gotten half the truth. I would have certainly said Ivan Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Henry Miller. I might have added Kurt Vonnegut, Dave Eggers, or Ray Bradbury to the list if I was feeling brave. But there was no way in hell you could make me admit my love for Stephen King. What sort of self-respecting, English-majoring, intellect-having person lists Stephen King next to Virginia Woolf? Not I! But here’s the thing: when I get into one of those moods where reading a book for pleasure is about as appealing as scraping my fingernails off, I just need to pick up a Stephen King book to fall in love with reading all over again.

This happened recently: the semester is half over and I’ve had about all the required reading and analytical essays I can stand. I had started Catch-22 a few weeks prior and, while I was enjoying it, I had begun to feel like every page was a chore. Then I found an old copy of Needful Things on my bookshelf. I vaguely remembered the plot line: a creepy guy opens a store in a small Maine town, sells people things they think they need, and all hell breaks loose. Sorry, Joseph Heller, I really liked what you were doing, but it was time for some serious paperback therapy. As soon as I began reading, I felt those parts of my imagination that too much school had seemingly closed down open up again. King’s style, while not necessarily worth applause, is immediately recognizable and, in its own strange way, comforting (though, that might just be because I know it so well after having read and re-read so many of his books and short stories.) His writing is clear and often very clever. He might abuse simile once in a while, but his dialogue is pretty admirable and the man knows how to use language to build tension. But the joy I get from reading Stephen King is not from stylistic nuance: it’s the sheer fun of listening to someone tell you a story over a campfire or a good meal. It’s not being able to wait to hear what comes next. It’s knowing what comes next, but needing to find out every detail about it. It’s missing your stop because that damn bastard of an author is about to kill off that poor sweet lady – and her dog! Of course, King has his epic failures (Cujo and The Dead Zone come to mind,) but I dare you to put down The Stand or It halfway through.

So yes, world, I am willing to tell you that Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. Because beautiful prose and highly-charged themes are wonderful, important, necessary things – but a story so good you don’t leave your room for a day and a half? Now that’s needful.

--- Margie Sarsfield

Image Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ILi5pjUAbZY/R0ymPMuWGpI/AAAAAAAAADY/c5JTKi8sLfs/s320/NeedfulThingsBookCover.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-11-14T06:10:00.005-05:00

Boards of Canada, Solange, and "Left-Side Drive"

I am a huge fan of Solange Knowles. Some say that she’s famous for being Beyoncé’s younger sister, but there is so much more to Solange than her sibling relation to her older global sensation of a sister. At first, I never paid much attention to her because I assumed that her glow only came from the off-cast refractions of her older sister’s spotlight.

Silly me, how wrong was I? I took a chance and began to listen to her music in the fall of 2008, and I haven’t stopped since. Solange Knowles is a five-edged sword; she is a singer, songwriter, actor, dj, and dancer. As far as I am concerned she is an artistic genius. Her music has the ability to touch rare parts of one’s being, parts that are inanimate and/or have not been alive in a while. I listened to Solange’s sophomore album Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams and her music had the latter effect on me. Some songs made me nod my head, others made me belt along, others had me laughing and crying, and all of them made me want to dance.

Solange Knowles waited five years before releasing that sophomore album, and she is slowly torturing her fans with another 3+ year wait. She has yet to release singles from a new album, and I have been trolling music websites for any new music that I can find. I happened to stumble upon her cover of Boards of Canada’s “Left-Side Drive.”

One of my friends, a former Knowles sisters hater turned avid listener and devoted fan, posted the song on her blog. It had been a long while since I had heard anything from Solange, and it is an understatement to say that I was excited about hearing something new. I was also excited that she was covering a Boards of Canada classic. Although many viewers on YouTube have admitted to having other recreational purposes for the song (er, eh-hem), Solange wrote an abstract song about the complexities of love and relationships.

The lyrics are ambiguous; I believe it was intentional so the listener could make his or her own interpretation. The relationship she speaks of is a romantic one, the “during“ stage of love. In western media, the guy likes the girl, the guy gets the girl (with minor obstacles, quite minor), the guy lives happily ever after with the girl. This may also be the case with the girl liking the guy. No one talks about the struggle, the work, the ugly side of love. Love does not always come in pre-packaged frozen dinners—there are ellipses in a relationship; it is a slow simmer at times.

- Kerri Byam

Image Source: http://rnbxclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Solange.png
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMJ4_GmHJJ0

Currently Watching

2011-11-14T06:05:00.000-05:00

Sands of History

In the Got Talent Series, all parts of the globe have been put on watch in hopes of finding the most talented individuals, everywhere from China to America. In Ukraine’s Got Talent, 2009 winner Kseniya Simonova turns grains of sand into tears of a distant past.

Her story begins with an image of a couple peacefully sitting on the bench. It is quickly disrupted by the advent of World War II. The husband is sent off; a train signifies his departure, leaving his lover in shambles and a son. Bombs of sand invade a harmonious scene to show people in turmoil. A woman appears, ageing by the unset of war. Time passes. A child grows with the assistances of a father. But by the end of this story, the father returns to his anxious family. With such a emotional story fueled through drawbacks of war, it no wonder why members of the audience are brought to tears.

Kseniya Simonova masters fleeting art, art that causes us to stare in amazement only to vanish in mere minutes. Although the sand artist could duplicate this performance, her images will never be identical grain for grain. Sand animation eliminates the sense of permanence found hanging on museum walls. Aside from the art itself, Kseniya Simonova incorporates music to which her body synchronizes with. Every motion is executed with speed and grace, giving its observer all the more to rave over.

~Joel Cruz

Image Source: http://unrealitytv.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/americas-got-talent-logo.jpg

Illuminations

2011-11-14T05:55:00.002-05:00

Where Children Sleep

What does our room say about us? It holds our exhaustless imagination and dreams- a place where we are free to rule our own kingdoms. When I was eight, my bedroom was filled with posters of the Spice Girls, stuffed animals won from the annual school carnival, and piles upon piles of books I could never stand to throw away. Not much has changed from then till now; the posters have collected a significant amount of dust, the stuffed animals now have white cotton peeking through the threadbare edges, and the books have managed to find an official home on an actual bookshelf. This is my room.

In James Mollison's book, Where Children Sleep, he takes pictures of children and their bedrooms from all over the world, from the top floor of an apartment building on Fifth Avenue to a favela in Rio de Janeiro. After being born in Kenya, growing up in England, and working in Italy, Mollison wanted to come up with a means of addressing children's rights to people of all backgrounds, regardless of location, age, or gender. Each of the photographs come with a small caption underneath, mentioning only the first name of the child and perhaps a few words about their hobbies or jobs.

Mollison wanted to make sure the shots of the children were taken in front of a neutral background, outside of their bedrooms. This technique separates the children from the wealth or poverty surrounding them, letting them each stand alone as individuals. What is striking about the stand-alone snapshots of the children are their eyes. Each set of eyes looks back at you with a certain emotion, and as you look at their bedrooms, that emotion multiplies tenfold, and for a moment, connects your existence to the existence of a little child in another corner of the world, someone you will probably never even meet.

Although a majority of the photos are of children living in third world countries, some are also from places where you would think poverty does not exist. Alyssa's tiny, scorched bedroom with the gaping roof is located in Appalachia, a couple hours drive from here. The Romanian boy who doesn't even have a roof and calls a small mattress on a patch of grass his room, lives in the outskirts of Rome. Sometimes it's easier to think of poverty as something distant that can only be found in developing countries. Seeing Indira's blanket and straw fortress with her hatchet in hand breaks our hearts, but we ask ourselves what we can possibly do for someone who lives all the way in Katmandu, Nepal. At times like this, we need to realize that poverty can be found everywhere, even in our own “first-world” neck of the woods.

I now see my Spice Girls posters on the walls of Thais' room, my stuffed animals on Kaya's floor, and my books on Lamine's wooden bookshelf. We all have a lot more in common with each other than we think; we just need to remember it and use it to implement the changes we want to see.

--Mira

Indira, 7, lives with her parents, brother and sister near Kathmandu in Nepal.
Jaime, 9, lives in a top-floor apartment on Fifth Avenue. His parents also own luxury homes in Spain and in the Hamptons on Long Island.
4-year-old Romanian boy who shares a mattress with his family in the outskirts of Rome.
Thais, 11, lives with her parents and sister on the third floor of a block of flats in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She shares a bedroom with her sister.
Lamine, 12, lives in Senegal. He is a pupil at the village Koranic school, where no girls are allowed. He shares a room with several other boys.
Alyssa, 8, lives in a small, shabby house in Appalachia.
Joey, 11, lives in Kentucky, USA, with his parents and older sister. He regularly accompanies his father on hunts. He owns two shotguns and a crossbow and made his first kill – a deer – at the age of 7.
Kaya, 4, lives in Tokyo, Japan with her parents. Her mother makes all her dresses for her, usually 3 a month.

Image Sources:
http://www.designmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/wherechildrensleep7.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01738/INdira_1738650i.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NxgRw_CGnxQ/TjUgl6fUmMI/AAAAAAAADuY/l5A5eUepY8w/s1600/where-children-sleep-new-york.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01738/Anonymous_1738646i.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01739/Thais_1739096i.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01739/Lamine_1739111i.jpg
http://www.coolbaby.es/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/where-childrensleep-Alyssa-Usa.jpg
http://img847.imageshack.us/img847/964/jamesmollison12.jpg
http://www.urbanicablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/888882.jpg

Greetings

2011-11-07T10:39:00.006-05:00

No Need to Cry!

We know you're having a tough time studying and writing essays (and maybe crying). Also the fall season is in full swing and old man winter is already hinting his arrival (hopefully later than sooner). But not to fear, the Boylan Blog is ALWAYS a warm place to cozy up with weekly articles on culture, poetry, music, and movies!

Also check out the reminders below:

1) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. The deadline isn't until January 2012, but be sure to visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

2) The Poetry Club meets every Tuesday during common hours in 2307 Boylan, so come and share your creativity!

3) Start sending in your submissions to the Junction! Send in your poetry and other creative writing to bczinesubmissions@gmail.com and bring a hard copy to 3416 Boylan.

4) Join us in the Woody Tanger Auditorium (room 150) in the library November 10th 12-2 pm for Open Mic!

5) Creative writing classes will now be offered during the winter session. Come to the office for more details.

~Ocean

Image source: http://www.womansday.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/wd2/content/family-lifestyle/holidays/carve-the-perfect-halloween-pumpkin/707645-1-eng-US/Carve-the-Perfect-Halloween-Pumpkin_featured_article_628x371.jpg

News Briefs

2011-11-07T06:30:00.002-05:00

Keeping an Eye on the Lone Star State

Looks like Texas is taking it to court. State governor Rick Perry and the US Justice Department began what could be a lengthy trial with a unique three-judge court this past Wednesday after the state sued the federal government in order to win approval for new district voting maps. The change would give Texas four additional seats in the House of Representatives, but Texan minorities are arguing that the boundaries created by the new districts discriminate against Latinos and would limit their voting power. Obama’s Justice Department claims to have significant evidence demonstrating that lawmakers in Texas took racial data into consideration when drawing the new district boundaries, and, as a result, Latinos are a distinct minority in all of the new districts.

Why so much federal interference in Texas? Because the state has a history that is marred by voter discrimination and is required under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to get permission from the federal government before making significant changes to anything voting-related. Nevertheless, many Texas officials, including Republican senator Kel Seliger, are calling such accusations hogwash and arguing that there is no sufficient evidence of discrimination. Seliger has chalked it up to the divisive political atmosphere that encourages Democrats to jump at the chance to knock down Republicans who are currently in the majority. As the back and forth continues, a San Antonio court is preparing for the possibility of having to design an entirely separate set of maps for the primaries in case the trial is not resolved by March.

And how are us non-Texans supposed to react to this finger pointing session from which we are physically so far removed? Should we be proud that Obama’s administration is keeping tabs on such discrimination? Or should we question if it’s a play of the race card in a game that was really only about getting Texas more seats in the House of Representatives? In some ways this trial plaguing one Southern state is a crystallization of much of the difficulties we as individuals face all across the country in the current political atmosphere. We can’t afford as Americans (and as humans) to let voting discrimination occur in any form, and it is our imperative as a nation to investigate these possibilities and ensure fair practices. But at the same time, there’s that uncomfortable nagging borne of partisan politics—that unsettling feeling that if our administration is doing the right thing, it’s not necessarily for the right reason. Whatever his motives, Seliger has a point: the blame game is a favorite in American politics, and there’s always a chance that this show of moral righteousness is a tool for the Democrats to keep the Republicans at bay. But while I think we’re right to question whom we can trust and do our best not to cry wolf when it comes to race, there’s a little something worth celebrating here, too. We don’t have to dig too far back in our country’s future to find a time when voting discrimination was simply the norm, and it’s a pretty good feeling to know we have an administration that isn’t letting that negative history repeat itself.

--Nora Curry

Article Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/02/141916779/court-to-decide-if-texas-voting-maps-discriminate

Image Source: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/vote-aqui.jpg

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Death vs. Money

Much talk was generated after the passing of Steve Jobs. Many spoke of Job as a marketing genius and his innumerable contributions to Apple. Countless media outlets outlined his career and praised his accomplishments. His legacy remains evident through the youngster with white headphones that sound like loudspeakers and phones that became educated just to compete with the iPhone.

Given his prestige, it’s no surprise the German Lunor Classic Rund PP, the name of Jobs’ signature glasses, bumped up in sales after his death. In Hong Kong, Power Bloom, the Asian distributor of the glasses, placed them in a display case which read, “Steve Jobs 1955-2011: We have lost an ultimate genius. What he has left us are his overwhelming ideas and his favorite glasses.”

I chose to discuss this in this week’s news brief because it’s clear that Jobs’ passing is being used to a company’s advantage. Power Bloom’s marketing executive Garick Tsui was questioned about this; he responded, “People see these as a tribute to Mr. Jobs.” Good way to cover your ass, Tsui. I would be inclined to believing this wasn’t the work of an opportunist if I hadn’t seen this before.

After the death of Michael Jackson, his music could be heard from every speaker created. Fans were buying track after track, album after album; sales were shooting through the roof. This wasn’t a marketing scheme; Michael Jackson was a phenomenal artist whose musical prowess and dancing finesse created such a demand for his music. However, there were those who began publishing books and films in, what appeared to me, an attempt to dip their hands in the money pot.

Is there a line? When a great and influential figure passes and sales relating to that individual increase, what should be considered the work of an opportunist? But is it morally inacceptable to monopolize on the deceased? I understand that when people lose someone dear to them, they cling to the things that embody the one they have lost. But, really, Steve Jobs’ glasses?

-- Joel Cruz

Image Source: http://photos.appleinsider.com/jobsglasses-111104.jpg

Article Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/11/04/steve_jobss_450_eyeglasses_a_hot_seller_following_death.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Journey” Ends, Questions Begin

Early Friday morning, six volunteers in the 15 million dollar Mars500 experiment walked out of their “spacecraft,” ending a 520-day long simulation of a journey to Mars. Just outside Moscow, the all-male crew cramped together for 17 months as an attempt to understand the physical and emotional toll of traveling to the fourth planet from the Sun. Upon “landing,” Italian-Colombian participant remarked “On this mission we’ve achieved the longest isolation ever so that humankind can go to a distant but reachable planet.”

An earlier 420-day simulation was cancelled in 2000 after a fistfight broke out amongst participants and one male participant attempted to kiss a female participant against her will. Perhaps this explains the all-male crew for the last simulation.

In these times of regressing public interest and support for space exploration and travel, how can this experiment function for us as citizens of the world, of the global society? Are the 17 months and 15 million dollars worth the trip to Mars? What exactly is the point of going to Mars? Just to say we’ve “done it?” Surely the psychological toll is immense—the participants of the Mars500 trial run will need pretty severe social and physical rehabilitation. After all the money spent and all the loneliness endured, can we look back and say it was worth it? Participant Romain Charles argued “Mars is the next logical step for human expansion.” What is so logical about a 15 million dollar, year-and-a-half long road trip to a desert?

--Ryan Skrabalak

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-mars-isolation-odd-idUSTRE7A349220111104

Image source: http://i.space.com/images/i/5986/i02/vote-mars-landings-10-02.jpg?1294163306

Culture Corner

2011-11-07T06:25:00.000-05:00

Detour Along Route Mundane

The cold had bite. The lake was so opaque I had mistaken it for black top. It wasn’t the dead of winter but the first weekend in November when we pulled up to our hotel at 8pm. My Mom and I drove down to Philly for the weekend to visit my younger brother at school, tour the campus and take in some much needed, non-exhaust-filled air.
My brother’s campus is twice the size of Brooklyn College’s (though not nearly as charming) complete with its own rugby/football/soccer field, right in its sloped hills heart. There’s ‘The Perch’— the equivalent to our Student Lounge in SUBO with pool tables— that has a stage, FREE coffee and beverages, couches, coffee tables, armchairs, big screen HD televisions, ID swipe-in doors to keep the space safe(and open) 24/7 and other nice accommodations that our fair college has yet to get hip to. While there, I also discovered Hogwarts— or so is the nickname my brother gives the oldest and most ornate building on the main campus. (He’s not far off the mark.)
Unfortunately the only safe places to eat along the City Avenue strip consists of Chiles, Olive Garden, Wendy’s and the ever faithful 7/11. If you brave world travelers ever find yourself in this situation, my recommendation for Olive Garden is the Venetian Sunset drink with the Seafood Primavera and a cup of the Chicken and Gnocchi soup. Or if you’re feeling like a hot tamale, the Trio Fajita and a bowl of chili should see you through Chiles without any complaints. Just expect to wait an eternity behind hungry, rowdy natives.
On the last day of our mini vacay, we visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Just two exits away from our hotel, we navigated Philly’s roads like it was the regular old George Washington. On the enormous steps of the Western entrance, the view of roughly brushed fall leaves meshed with sheer sunlight reflecting off a rushing bay sprawled out across the horizon like a sleepy morning stretch. Definitely a good sign to start the day with.
We toured exhibit after exhibit of Monet’s, Van Gogh’s, Cassatt’s, Rembrandt’s and a couple Picasso’s, though the most eye opening paintings were the ones by painters I’ll never remember. For me, the beauty of art is that the artist is only another medium. Their names, backgrounds or stories pale in comparison to what they leave behind. All else often gets lost. But the art remains. That might be the ultimate fear of an artist, too. To be overshadowed by their own creations and fall by history’s wayside. Then again, Monet and the others have gotten it together. Maybe the brilliant ones truly find balance in the end.
But the highlight of the Philly Tour was one shinning moment: finding the Rocky Balboa statue. Although the statue has been moved off to the side and down from its rightful place of glory, it didn’t stop the crowds of kids and adults running up the Eastern steps, arms up and triumphant, dancing at the top.
Eat your heart out, Thunderlips.

—Kate Conte

Image Source: http://turtlerunning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/r1rocky2.jpg

Poem of the Week

2011-11-07T06:20:00.004-05:00

“Point B”

Sarah Kay reminds me that poetry isn’t just meant to be read, it’s meant to be felt. I was fortunate enough to come across her work while looking through some of the speakers at the TED convention earlier this year. TED is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for speakers interested in sharing their ideas in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Sarah’s first poem during her presentation was “Point B,” a beautiful piece about the lessons a mother passes on to her daughter.

In the midst of our hectic lives, there is a silent comfort in the simplicity of her poem. She is not setting out to revolutionize the world with her work; she is reminding us to appreciate life, its joys and its sorrows. Her sincerity and self-acknowledged naivety breathes hope into the listener. With the political and financial turmoil our generation has been handed, Sarah makes me believe that there is still good both in us, and around us. It’s because of her that every time I think of the waves hitting the shoreline, I am filled with an unexplainable sense of optimism about the future.

My favorite line from the poem is, “I want her to see the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat.”

What does the world look like from the underside of a glass-bottom boat?

You are no longer in the boat to keep you safe: you are drifting in the wide, open sea, looking in on the people still in the boat, all cramped together and afraid of tipping over. Once you let go your fear of getting wet, you become a part of the undersea world you have only wondered about from afar. You learn to embrace the foreign and take a look at your own world from the outside. You understand better what our world has, what it needs, and what it can still do.

--Mira

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sSfbQk7DxE

2011-11-07T06:15:00.005-05:00

Lisa Jarnot

I was recently turned on to Lisa Jarnot's poetry by a professor of mine. I read a bunch of her work online, and almost immediately I identified with her words, her rhythm, her images, her song. It was one of those moments where one knows a shard of one's self lives in particular lines of poetry; a warming, familiar feeling. A hot cocoa of verse. What made the feeling even more fantastic and fulfilling was how oblivious I was to her words. The discovery was beautiful.

BROOKLYN ANCHORAGE

and at noon I will fall in love

and nothing will have meaning

except for the brownness of

the sky, and tradition, and water

and in the water off the railway

in New Haven all the lights

go on across the sun, and for

millennia those who kiss fall into

hospitals, riding trains, wearing

black shoes, pursued by those

they love, the Chinese in the armies

with the shiny sound of Johnny Cash,

and in my plan to be myself

I became someone else with

soft lips and a secret life,

and I left, from an airport,

in tradition of the water

on the plains, until the train

started moving and yesterday

it seemed true that suddenly

inside of the newspaper

there was a powerline and

my heart stopped, and everything

leaned down from the sky to kill me

and now the cattails sing.

What I love about this poem is its nonchalance, and the sort of quotidian rhythm that it sings itself in. I thought first of Frank O'Hara's poems--the opening line "and at noon I will fall in love" reminds me so much of O'Hara's "The Day Lady Died" ("because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton / at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner") and "Personal Poem" ("Now when I walk around at lunchtime"). Jarnot tosses these images over her shoulder like a peacoat and walks about with them, casually. A darkness undercuts the poem--this is where O'Hara's and hers differ--but there is a sort of jubilance that Jarnot uses to wrap about the overhanging gloom, for example "my heart stopped, and everything / leaned down from the sky to kill me / and now the cattails sing" lords an uneasiness to the piece. Jarnot's wild eye and ear for enjambment and internal rhythm lend the poem a conversational tone as well.

Jarnot lives in New York City. I just ordered her 2001 book, Ring of Fire, and I am very excited for her poetry to avalanche in my blood.

Be excellent to one another, and do good work,

--Ryan Skrabalak

Image source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HkY1TkCcO9Y/R7x2rYH19fI/AAAAAAAAAlg/iha5b99D2-U/s320/jarnot.bmp

Currently Listening

2011-11-07T06:10:00.000-05:00

"A Whole New World"

With the arrival of such innovations as Apple's iPod, it is safe to say that most of us spend our free time listening to music as opposed to the old ways of reading a book. Being avid music listeners, we have all amassed some rather impressive collections of music, varied by personal preference and spanning several decades. As such, every now and then, we inevitably come across a song we simply cannot resist listening to. And no matter how many times we press the “skip” button, we somehow always find our way back—a constant struggle and a vicious circle. For me, this is a spot-on description of my interaction with Disney's “A Whole New World” from the popular movie Aladdin. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I do listen to Disney songs. In fact, I have a vast collection of them on my iPod and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Disney's Aladdin links many of us back to our childhoods, when our imaginations were captured by blue genies, flying carpets, magic lamps, and a witty parrot. Aladdin in many ways represented a new direction for Disney—it depicted a new culture with different values, traditions, and beliefs (but we won’t get into the politics of the film). Upon release, Aladdin was well received by the general public and, to some extent, became widely-known for its soundtrack. “A Whole New World” imprinted itself on the minds of its audience not simply because it represented a significant point in the film (the point when Jasmine and Aladdin fall for each other), but because it was a beautifully written piece whose lyrics took us on that magic carpet ride along with Jasmine and Aladdin. As children, we may not have understood the concept of love and what it entailed, but we sure knew that something special was happening between Jasmine and Aladdin as they wove in and out of cloud formations. For me, the magic of the song is not the wonderful imagery or the music or any of that (though all of that is fantastic); the magic of the song is what it represents. And what it represents is a link back to my childhood (and I'm sure, a link back to many of our childhoods). It represents a time when we were innocent and unaware of the troubles of life. It represents a time when our imaginations were free to explore this whole new world with the ensemble cast of Aladdin. For this reason, “A Whole New World” will always hold a special place on my iPod if not in my heart, and will always leave me with the compulsion to hit the repeat button once it has run its course. And, as per tradition, it is now inevitably stuck in my head.

- Sarah Gonsalves

Image Source: http://a.dolimg.com/en-US/disneyfans/media/history/movies/aladdin/mov_aladdin_240x240.jpg
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLsdJlfA23E
Lyrics Source: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/movies/aladdinworldmid.htm

Lyrics

I can show you the world 
Shining, shimmering, splendid 
Tell me, princess, now when did 
You last let your heart decide?
 
I can open your eyes 
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride. 

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view 
No one to tell us no
Or where to go 
Or say we're only dreaming.  

A whole new world 
A dazzling place I never knew 
But when I'm way up here 
It's crystal clear 
That now I'm in a whole new world with you 
Now I'm in a whole new world with you.  

Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling 
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling 
Through an endless diamond sky.

A whole new world 
Don't you dare close your eyes 
A hundred thousand things to see 
Hold your breath - it gets better
I'm like a shooting star I've come so far
 I can't go back to where I used to be.

A whole new world 
Every turn a surprise 
With new horizons to pursue
Every moment red-letter 
I'll chase them anywhere 
There's time to spare 
Let me share this whole new world with you.  

A whole new world 
That's where we'll be 
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
 For you and me.

Currently Watching

2011-11-07T06:05:00.000-05:00

The Never-ending Final Destination

If you fast forward twenty years, it is likely that moviegoers will be watching Final Destination 11 in theaters. This movie saga seems to be never-ending, yet it still manages to rake in impressive profits and consistent audiences. The Final Destination series is like the energizer bunny—it keeps going and going and going.
The first movie of the saga was shown in theaters in the year 2000. The sequels that followed were released every three years, with the exception of Final Destination 5, which was released only after two years of the previous film. Each movie’s plot is based on a group of teenagers or young adults who cheat death. One of the main characters foresees an event, ranging from an airplane explosion to a rollercoaster accident, which would result in the group’s untimely death. However, by the protagonist preventing this prophetic vision from coming true, Death seeks revenge by killing off these characters one by one.
The movies are known for its gore and pyrotechnics. Although the films’ conclusions are predictable--everyone always dies—you are still somehow sucked into the plot and held in suspense by the death scenes. Now the ultimate question: How long will it take before audiences tire of this movie series?

Check out the first Final Destination trailer below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD_MAz96L70

~Kerry Gertner

Article Source: http://finaldestination.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Destination_(series)
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD_MAz96L70
Image Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NI-cnP2EfN4/TlkByx2c0sI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/EVJrZgmCcjs/s1600/2.gif

Illuminations

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Secret World of Henry Darger

The number of pages in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy: up to 2,500. The number of pages in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series: up to 4,176. The number of pages in Henry Darger’s unpublished manuscript, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion: 15,145. That number doesn’t include the hundreds of illustrations meant to accompany the text. 15,145 single-spaced pages, discovered posthumously and written in between shifts as a dishwasher and janitor, about the adventures of seven prepubescent sisters fighting a war against evil, sadistic adults.

Darger’s private world has become the art world’s epitome of “outsider art,” characterized by works made by naïve or untrained artists who have had little contact with mainstream art institutions, and who are often mentally ill. While there is controversy over whether or not Darger himself suffered from mental illness, his work reflects a vast inner fantasy completely removed from the world as we know it, and the violence and sexual deviation in some of his illustrations suggest that Darger may have channeled some personal turmoil into his art. Alongside brilliant, watercolor scenes of pastoral bliss where young girls and friendly beasts play happily are bloody scenes of torture and war where young girls are impaled, crucified, and left bleeding on the ground (we’re talking entrails and empty eye sockets here).

The Vivian Sisters and their fellow females are often portrayed with male sexual organs, a phenomenon Darger never explains in the accompanying text. Darger used cartoon girls from magazine and newspapers, like the Coppertone girl and Little Annie Rooney as templates for his illustrations, but The Story of the Vivian Girls is also populated by fantastical creatures of Darger’s own creation, such as the “Cat Headed Blengin” and the “Eagle Headed Blengin,” dragon-like amalgams of the worldly creatures for which they are named and Darger’s own imagination.

Praised for his use of color and for his surreal and vivid landscapes, Darger is certainly the epitome of the unfettered artist: he worked in complete privacy, telling no one of the world he was creating, had no formal training, and created without thought to critical reactions. Did he ever plan to make his work public? It’s hard to know for sure, but one gets the feeling that Darger was creating this world for himself and only himself. He placed himself as a character in his manuscript, and while an autobiography was discovered along with The Story of the Vivian Girls, there is no evidence that he ever wanted anyone to know what he was up to alone in his apartment. Which makes me wonder: do we have any right to be examining, studying, and psychoanalyzing his work? What would Darger say if we asked him why his beloved Vivian Girls have penises? Darger lived an isolated life, holding menial jobs and generally avoiding contact with the outside world; now, he’s an art world celebrity. He has no known living relatives, no one who might be offended or embarrassed by the spreading of work that was probably never meant to be spread, but does that make it alright? Surely, artists can learn something from studying Darger’s skill as a painter and the depth of his fantasy, but aren’t we still participating in voyeurism? Does the right to privacy stop at death? Keeping in mind that we are getting it out of context, the following passage from The Story of the Vivian Girls might make a few observers uneasy:

“All the Gold in the Gold mines
All the Silver in the world,
Nay, all the world,
Cannot buy these pictures from me,
Vengeance, thee {terrible} vengeance
On those who steals or destroys them.”

---Margaret Sarsfield.

Image Sources: http://imgs.abduzeedo.com/files/nathan/henrydarger/darger12.jpg
http://imgs.abduzeedo.com/files/nathan/henrydarger/darger21.jpg

Greetings

2011-10-31T06:35:00.010-04:00

“You’ve got to be really brawny to have that kind of strength—the strength to relax.” Or so says leading (angry) man Jimmy Porter in John Osborne’s 1956 play Look Back in Anger. As you stare down the barrel of the second half of the semester, Porter’s words might seem like the antithesis of everything we’ve been taught about hard work, but sometimes our greatest strength is in learning how to balance all of our responsibilities and still have moments to simply enjoy being in our own skin. Maybe that means putting on a clever costume today and doing some trick-or-treating. Or maybe it means curling up somewhere with a book that no one told you you had to read. Maybe it means baking some cookies, watching a good movie, or going for a cozy walk in the chill Fall air. But however you go about it, just remember as you start powering your way through to December that you can’t do everything everyone asks of you without doing something for yourself. After all, we just saw the biggest October snow since the 19th century. You owe yourself a warm beverage and some time with your feet up.

But before you start relaxing too much, check out these announcements:

1. You’ve been asking about it and here it is! Our Open Mic is next Thursday, November 10th from 12:15 pm – 2:15 pm in the Woody Tanger Auditorium. If you’d like to perform your original work, sign up on the door of our office in 3416 Boylan before the slots fill up! Otherwise, we’d love to have you in the audience to witness your talented peers in action.

2. If words on a page are more your cup of tea, fear not! The Junction is accepting submissions for this year’s issue and we’d love to read your work! Email us your poetry, other creative writing, and artwork at bczinesubmissions@gmail.com and bring a hard copy of writing submissions to 3416 Boylan.

3. The English Department is offering three Creative Writing classes during intersession. There will be two sections of Intro to Creative Writing (M-F 9:30 am-12 pm, 2 pm-4:30 pm) and one section of Fiction 1 (M-F 9:30 am-12 pm). Stop by the office or shoot us an email at boylanblog@gmail.com to get information about course codes/sections.

4. The BC Slam Team is hosting its second open slam this Thursday, November 3rd at 7:00 pm in the Occidental Lounge (SUBO) to finish assembling a stellar team, so check it out!

And as always, come by 3416 Boylan during the week with all of your questions. Now start exercising your strength of relaxation with a leisurely scroll through this week’s Boylan Blog!

Happy Halloween!

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://gotshabbat.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/relax.jpg

News Briefs

2011-10-31T06:30:00.006-04:00

The 2012 Presidential Race May Not Be As Sexy

Three years after the 2008 election, little has changed in America’s economic climate. We are still in a recession, and as of August 2011, the country’s unemployment rate is at 9.1%.

President Obama is running for a second term, and presidential campaigns for the Republican Party are picking up speed. Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney may be at odds with each other for the upcoming primaries, but in the end, it is all for one cause: to run for office against the current President of the United States in hopes to become the next President of the United States.

Obama met with donors in Hollywood who offered $38,500 each toward his campaign. He informed his beneficiaries that the 2012 election will not be as sexy as the historic (and sexier) 2008 election. Many presidents have been re-elected over the years, ranging from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Obama has a fighting chance to win again. However, President Obama’s wavering popularity is enough reason to worry.

Attendants at the fundraiser such as Will Smith and Magic Johnson listened to Obama’s precaution toward ensuring a successful re-election. He warned that the upcoming process will not be an easy one; it will take persistence and hard work.

So, here we are again. Get your ballots ready. The United States of America is due for a less sexy presidential election in a year.

- Kerri Byam

Image Source: http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/obama-hope-sheppard-feirey1.jpg
Article Source: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-warns-hollywood-election-will-not-be-sexy-first-one

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Switched at Birth

If you look into the nursery of a hospital, you will see rows of babies bundled up in blankets like cocoons. With the vast number of babies in the room, it would certainly be a challenge to identify your own child merely by physical features. In order to recognize your child, you can either look at the label on the bassinets or check the wristband attached to each child. The label on the bassinette states the baby’s doctor, gender, mother, date and time of birth, weight, height, and length. But what if something goes wrong with this process? What if your baby is wrongly labeled or the label itself goes missing? What if your baby is taken home by someone else?

One would think that with the combination of modern technology and a hospital staff’s caution that this situation could never happen. Think again. Two girls who were born in eastern Russia and grew up a few miles from each other were unknowingly switched at birth. The girls were born only fifteen minutes apart in the same maternity ward and were accidentally given the incorrect nametags.

The twelve-year-old girls and their respective families recently found out this surprising news. One of the two mothers, Yuliya Belyaeva, was told by her ex-husband that he would not pay child support for their daughter Irina because she did not resemble him at all. The results of many DNA tests revealed that neither Yuliya nor her ex-husband was Irina’s birth parent. As a result, Yuliya was determined to find her biological daughter.

With the police’s help, Yuliya was able to locate the daughter she gave birth to. Yuliya stated that “their daughter, Anya, was blond and looked just like me and my ex-husband. And our daughter was dark-skinned and had dark hair and looked like the other father. He's a Tajik, and she looked just like him."

Nevertheless, after finding out the truth, both girls chose to stay with the parents who raised them. This predicament has led both girls, as well as their families, to befriend one another. However, due to the distress that resulted from this mistake, both families are suing the hospital for $160,000 in damages.

- Kerry Gertner

Image Source: http://static.blisstree.com/files/2009/01/cmsphoto017565-hospital-nursery.jpg
Article Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/girls-switched-birth-stay-wrong-moms/story?id=14803170

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7 Billion

Today is a pretty special day here on Earth! The global population just hit 7 billion, and we can all give ourselves a pat on the back because it wouldn’t have been possible without each and every single one of us! Why, it was only just 12 years ago that we crossed the 6 billion threshold. The UN has estimated that by 2100, the population will reach a staggering 10 billion people; some of us lucky few might even survive to see this happen.

For those of us who might be having a hard time grasping how big 7 billion really is, here are a few analogies to boggle the mind: 7 billion seconds ago, it was the year 1789 and George Washington was being inaugurated into office; if you decided to take 7 billion steps along the equator, you would have walked around the world 106 times; if you stacked 7 billion people on top of each other, you would have reached 27 times the distance to the moon (Please take into consideration that we now have enough people to take on this endeavor…are you busy next weekend?).

All jest aside however, the concept that we have managed to make so many of us has some pretty serious implications. Everyday I push and shove my way on the subway to get to school on time, but now that I can put a number to the people I’m pushing and shoving, it all becomes a little more surreal and a lot more frightening. Does this Earth have what it takes to carry our weight? Can we make the necessary changes to accommodate all the newcomers?

Food and water shortages, overcrowding, scarcity of jobs, destruction of natural habitats – these are just some of the problems our generation is currently facing and will continue to struggle with in the future.

At times like this, it’s easy to feel disheartened by all the Goliaths waiting for us to shoot down. But it’s also times like this when we need to look back on our past achievements and recharge our batteries of hope. If you haven’t noticed, we humans can be pretty darn amazing. We can talk to people miles away, drive to the other side of the country in a matter of days, heck, we don’t even let gravity keep us down. So then why can’t we tap into our well of amazingness and solve the problems ahead?

With 7 billion ideas, talents, and inspirations all working with each other, we definitely can.

- Mira

Image Source: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2011/10/23/1319388589182/Tapei-motorbikes-007.jpg
Article Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/29/world/7-billion/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Redefining "Bird Brain"

Are humans the only species with enough smarts to craft a language? Although many animals have their own form of communication, none has the depth or versatility heard in human speech. We are able to express almost anything on our minds by uttering a few sounds in a particular order. But are the rules of grammar unique only to human language? Perhaps not; according to a recent study, songbirds may also communicate using a sophisticated grammar, a feature absent in even our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates.

In each experiment, the birds were presented with the same songs until they became familiarized with the tune. The researchers then created novel songs by shuffling the notes around. But not every new song caught the birds’ attention; rather, the finches increased response calls only to songs with notes arranged in a particular order, suggesting that the birds used common rules when forming the syntax of that song. When the researchers created novel songs with even more complicated artificial grammar—for example, songs that mimicked a specific feature found in human (Japanese) language—the birds still only responded to songs that followed the rules.

If the tweets of birds can be roughly likened to strings of human words, and if birdbrains process songs in a way similar to how human brains process language, future research may tackle whether these animals possess other cognitive abilities once thought to be singularly characteristic of human intelligence. The next time you hear a bird chirping outside your window, you might think twice about what’s going on inside his little birdbrain.

- Ocean

Image Source: http://kswpgoodfriends.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/birds-singing.jpg
Article Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20615-first-evidence-that-birds-tweet-using-grammar.html

Culture Corner

2011-10-31T06:25:00.002-04:00

Fitting Tribute or Total Travesty?

Much to my dismay, my father and grandfather embarked on a cross-country trip this past September and October. Obviously, I couldn't go because of school, and was sort of bitter (they later rewarded me with a t-shirt and an e-mail attachment of the 350-some-odd pictures from the trip). It took them two and a half weeks to drive from my hometown of Albany, New York to San Francisco, California. Of course, they documented the journey with countless brochures and photos of them standing in front of iconic scenes and locales: Chicago's Loop and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, to name a couple. There was one I didn't recognize, though: my father smiling in front of a sort of half-assed face carved into the side of a mountain. A weird Mount-Rushmore-looking hybrid: The Crazy Horse Memorial.

The Crazy Horse Memorial, which isn't far from the more widely known in situ or "in place" memorial of Mount Rushmore, began in 1929 when chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziółkowski, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too." Ziółkowski, who had helped with the carving of Mount Rushmore, designed a model of Crazy Horse on a stallion's back, pointing out over the Black Hills of South Dakota. The monument is carved into the side of these hills--more specifically, Thunderhead Mountain, a sacred place for the Lakota Culture. The project is still underway. It's enormous. When (or if) finished, the 641 feet by 563 feet sculpture will be the largest in the world, and and first non-religious sculpture to hold the record since 1967.

Americans sure are funny, aren't they? Crazy Horse rebels against the encroachment of the federal government on Sioux lands in the mid-1860s. They go to war. Crazy Horse is killed by federal soldiers in prison. A Polish-American immigrant is chosen to erect a monument in his name, the largest in the world if completed. It's quite the story, really.

There's more to it, though--since the memorial is funded privately (the memorial's commission has reportedly turned down several offers of government cash, each around 10 million), it's taken over 60 years to carve it out of Thunderhead Mountain. And it's not even a third of the way done. Additionally, many modern-day Sioux and other historians liken the carving of Thunderhead Mountain to the carving of, say, Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The memorial, to some, is simply insulting--a gigantic, indelible insult at that.

There are no projected finish dates for the memorial, whose construction is now headed by Ziółkowski's daughter, Monique.

--Ryan Skrabalak

image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Crazy_Horse_Memorial_2010-2.jpg

Poem of the Week

2011-10-31T06:20:00.001-04:00

Scars: An Open Letter to Hollywood from Heath Ledger
By Marshall “Soulful” Jones

If you're here, he's not Im not And I’m sure you'd like to know why we're not Ill tell you.... He loved her And she's not here right now because of you ....Fame is a disease We all got it We're all sharing needles with it If you're not careful

You will die before you die

I mean, look at us
NO!
NO!
Silly!
Put the suicide note down
AND LOOK AT US

Look at all the bottles on the floor
Half of these things I cant even pronounce
But
Did you notice Xanax reads the same forward and backward?
No
I thought it was funny
Anyway
Apparently my apartment on Broome st
Did not sweep enough under the rug
So now you see what you've done
Now you know how I got these scars
See the camera keeps rolling
Like a wheel
Turning your insides
You cant have a normal life
Without a production team
With a search warrant for your bad day
How many tabloids do you think it took to ruin him
How many gossip sites did it take?
How many lines of cocaine do you think we need to forget
That everyday we're getting farther and farther away from EVERYTHING
We love
Oh you thought he was acting?
Oh You think I'm not real
Oh I’m real
REEL TO REEL
And when you 're sick with fame like him
You need people like me to keep you laughing
So when the lady left with everything
I said Why So Serious
Just take two Ambien
Those are good for the nightmares
Take one of these
Two of those
A whole #%^#$%& of these

I kept the bathroom cabinets jokes coming

Because Painkillers can shove your mistakes off a balcony
And you can still smile about it
You think you know him
You don't
I was there
I was there to tell him that if were gonna go anywhere
We were gonna go out with a bang
So WHY SO SERIOUS!

It’s a Friday night at the Nuyorican Poetry Café. All of us are tipping elbows and sucking in as much air as possible in order to fit in the space we managed to claim. Mahogany L. Browne, the host of every Friday night, introduces Marshall Soulful Jones. Paper in hand, he utters the title of his poem in his natural voice. No one is prepared for what is able to unfold.

A resurrection occurs in the chambers of his throat. Twitch. His voice becomes the narrator of every nightmare you ever had as a child. Twitch. The tilt of his head allows shadows to sit underneath his eyes. Twitch. The helpless sheet of paper is strained and caressed between bipolar fingers. Twitch. This is not the same man Mahogany introduced seconds ago…

Soulful Jones becomes the reason why The Dark Knight became a blockbuster hit. He becomes the character we wished we got more of; he takes on the persona of The Joker. This villain’s lunacy is underscored by the influx of his tone and the disorientated speech. This poem erases the line between Heath Ledger and The Joker. Fame and it’s entourage of drugs, stress, and lack of privacy pushes Ledger to the point of insanity. The rhetorical question, “Oh you thought he was acting?” verbally assails Hollywood’s ignorance and neglect of failing to acknowledge clear the indications of much needed assistance.

Hollywood ignores those that define it.

-Joel Cruz

Currently Reading

2011-10-31T06:15:00.002-04:00

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

There are moments in life when you feel the world touch you. When you understand the big things, like destiny, love and purpose...
I was fifteen and wandering the left wing corridor of my high school. After hours, I was probably supposed to be getting batteries for walkie-talkies during play rehearsal and taking my sweet time. Upon my meandering, I saw a nun sitting at the teacher’s desk in my homeroom. (Not as ominous as it sounds. Nuns are pretty much an old habit with Catholic schools.) Something made me go in and strike up a conversation. I sat Indian style on the desk top opposite hers. She talked. I listened. She told me about Truman Capote, how his wife and kids had showed up at her convent one night after he was violent. She told me I should tie my shoe laces and hem the bottom of my pants. She told me about where she went to college; she told me how much better things would be. She told me a couple of books to read- jotted down the names and author on a small piece of paper. She wished me well and sent me back to my life.
Six years later, my Mom took a position teaching art at my old high school, though truth be told it was hers first. One day she came home, put on a pot for tea on the stove top and told me a famous author was coming to talk to the students. She told me the name; I told her I never heard it before in my life. She went on and on about how witty and sharp-tongued the author was- how I should meet her and ask her every question I could. But I was busy. The day she was coming was my 21st birthday. I spent the night getting mildly wild and happy and then catching a 7am flight to Tampa. PS- best week of my life.
When I got back, Mom gave me an autographed copy of the author’s book. Personalized, just for me, wishing me happy birthday and love. I was touched by the gift. I promised myself I’d read it over the summer.
Over said summer, I was rummaging through my Narnia-esque desk drawer and pulled out a crumpled up brown paper bag. Full of junk. Knick-knacks, bobbles, pins, buttons, game cartridges and a folded paper. I opened it up and in Sister Brigid’s handwriting was: Adriana Trigiani- Lucia, Lucia. The very same unread book sitting on my night stand that Mom had given me.
...This wasn’t my first inkling of being tethered to the universe, but it was the first time when its revelation made me emotional. Raw. Scared and excited in the same beat. So much had happened to that girl six years ago. So much had changed. So much remained.

As if this strange occurrence didn’t scream ‘Read Me Now’, I was already drawn to the premise of the novel. Lucia, Lucia is about twenty-five- year- old Lucia Sartori and her Italian- American family living in 1950’s Greenwich Village. It follows her highs and pitfalls with love and loss in a captivating, deep and humorous way. But still, something told me to hold out just a little bit longer.

I didn’t have to wait long. The book called to me after my Uncle Joe’s death. My family from Italy came to the wake, not speaking a world of Italian.(For my thirty- year-old cousin Carmella, it was her first visit to America.) I was excited and pained. With the exception of my Popy’s brother, my Uncle Anthony, I had never seen this part of my family. And they in turn were seeing me for the first time too. I was overwhelmed by their warmth and affection. These people didn’t shake hands. They took my face in both hands, kissed me and hugged me. They looked me in my eyes as they cried and smiled; the family was together and all pain would pass.
I had been waiting for the moment in my life that would call to the book. When I needed a story to embrace me. I knew- trusted- that Lucia, Lucia would be special. The kind of read that you fall in love with. It had to be. After all that, it had to be something meant for me. So when Lucia, Lucia caught my eye on the Friday after the burial, exactly a week after Uncle Joe’s passing, I knew. I opened Lucia, Lucia for the first time, after both our journeys to find each other and it in turn opened me. It restored me, my faith and hope in the earthly and the treasures I could hold on to. And isn’t that true of all magical stories? You can look all your life for the great ones. But they end up finding you. No matter what.

I finished the two hundred and sixty page book that night.

-Kate Conte

Currently Listening

2011-10-31T06:10:00.002-04:00

Rekindling Some Old Flames

The energy at Occupy Wall Street gets into your blood, somehow. At least, it did for me; I started thinking about Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, a band I haven’t listened to in a while, but which was in my top five when I was younger and less disillusioned. Specifically, the title track from their 2004 album Shake the Sheets, a go-getter of a song that could make even the most adamant cynic feel like raising his or her fists. Maybe you’ve been feeling like you’ve been “defeated here by everything,” or have found yourself wondering when you’ll “get an hour to celebrate, find the time to breathe a sigh?” Ted Leo’s prescription is a drum beat made for boot-stomping, some nasty guitar riffs, and an order to “roll out and make your mark, pull on your boots and march, then roll on and meet me where you'll find me doing my own part.” This album may have come out eight years ago, but you couldn’t pick a more perfect time to discover it. Get angry with “The One Who Got Us Out,” discuss healthcare over “Heart Problems,” and remember what you’re fighting for while listening to “Walking to Do.” And just because we can’t be all business all the time, dance around to “Little Dawn” and let Leo tell you (about 40 times by the end of the song) that “it’s alright.” Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have released six full-length studio albums, including Hearts of Oak and Living with the Living, and if you like what you hear on Shake the Sheets, I urge you to listen to them all. There’s a place in my heart for all their work, but Shake the Sheets will always be my favorite. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists pour their hearts into this album, almost choking every song with soulful guitar work and turbulent hooks and choruses. In re-discovering the music I loved when I was passionate about making the world a better place, I re-discovered that same passion. I, for one, will probably always be ready to “pull on my boots and march,” just as long as there’s someone there to remind me that “if you do everything you can…that's more than a start.” And it doesn’t hurt if those words come with a kick-ass marching tune behind ‘em.

By the by, if going out to Amityville, Long Island isn’t too much of a hassle, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will be playing a show there on November 13th. Tickets are $10, which, if they bring half as much energy as they did when I saw them in 2008, is more than a steal.

-Margie Sarsfield

Image Source: http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/08/20/ns-nightlifepick_0500477823.jpg
Video Source: http://youtu.be/ko35ACvQIvM

Currently Watching

2011-10-31T06:05:00.000-04:00

Revolutions via Social Media In Real Time

2011 has been sort of a revolutionary year. Starting in January with the overthrow of the dictatorship of Egypt, a domino effect hit the Middle East (and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter), erupting in significant protests, carnage, and changes in countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Burma, and Syria. Eventually this revolutionary spirit travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in New York City. Three weeks after the historical event began, protesters issued its first copy of “The Occupy Wall Street Journal.” People have taken to the streets of the Financial District of Manhattan and have literally occupied the area.
Just like watching a movie in 3D, theories and ideals came alive for me and happened in real time. This protest is as a result of one percent of select Americans holding the bulk of wealth in a very tight vise. Out of frustration, people from all over the country came to New York City to let their voices be heard. There have been violent clashes and rising tension with law enforcement, and hundreds of people have been arrested.
The protesters are not fazed by this, however. In fact, the movement has gained momentum and has been felt across the globe. In addition to Occupy Wall Street, there has been Occupy Canada, Occupy Boston, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Atlanta, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy the U.K., Occupy Rome; the list goes on. These global communities are sick and tired of bankers, investors, and brokers who are led by avarice.
People have taken to Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media that will be a platform for their causes. I and countless others are living, witnessing history as it occurs in real time. Are you watching it, too?

--Kerri Byam
Image Source: http://bit.ly/vBqX74

Greetings

2011-10-24T06:35:00.005-04:00

Bring out the bags of candy corn, costumes and carved pumpkins because Halloween is right around the corner. Whether you’re taking your little brother trick-or-treating or you’re going to a Halloween party with some friends, make sure you enjoy the holiday. This is one of the few times you can stuff your face with candy, watch endless scary movies and truly feel like a kid again. After your bag of junk food is empty and you run out of horror flicks, grab a cozy chair and enjoy the new Boylan Blog articles.

Also check out the reminders below:

1) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. The deadline isn't until January 2012, but be sure to visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

2) The Poetry Club meets every Tuesday during common hours in 2307 Boylan, so come and share your creativity!

3) Start sending in your submissions to the Junction! Send in your poetry and other creative writing to bczinesubmissions@gmail.com and bring a hard copy to 3416 Boylan.

4) Join us in the Woody Tanger Auditorium (room 150) in the library November 10th 12-2 pm for Open Mic!

5) Creative writing classes will now be offered during the winter session. Come to the office for more details.

~Kerry Gertner

Image source: http://www.womansday.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/wd2/content/family-lifestyle/holidays/carve-the-perfect-halloween-pumpkin/707645-1-eng-US/Carve-the-Perfect-Halloween-Pumpkin_featured_article_628x371.jpg

News Briefs

2011-10-24T06:30:00.001-04:00

Living on a Prayer (and a Good Meal)

You might not like Jon Bon Jovi’s music, but it’s hard to find fault with his newest venture: The Soul Kitchen, a pay-as-you-can restaurant offering first class meals in New Jersey. The Soul Kitchen offers a fine dining, linen and silverware experience for anyone who’s hungry. Patrons can leave a donation (Bon Jovi suggests $20), or work for their meal by washing dishes, waiting tables, or volunteering at a soup kitchen like Lunch Break. "If you come in and say, 'I'm hungry,' we'll feed you, but we're going to need you to do something. It's very important to what we're trying to achieve," says Bon Jovi. What is he trying to achieve, exactly? A sense of community and cooperation. Giving dignity to the disempowered. Allowing people to both reap the benefits and contribute to the success of an establishment.

And the food? It at least sounds darn good: cornmeal crusted catfish, grilled chicken breast with basil mayo, and sweet potato mash are some of the dishes you’ll find on the menu. This is far from typical soup kitchen fare, and the reciprocity of working for a good meal allows impoverished people a sense of self-respect you just can’t get from accepting hand-outs. Not to disparage soup kitchens, which certainly do great work, but The Soul Kitchen’s approach to feeding the hungry is invigorating. People feel more attached to communities that they feel they play an active part in. They are more likely to fight for those communities and invest in them. By making its patrons feel that they are integral parts of its success, The Soul Kitchen creates an environment of pride and mutual support.

The Soul Kitchen also allows families and individuals impacted by the economic downturn to participate in a luxury that is often the first to go when cutting back on expenses. The experience of going to a restaurant can be very special for a family: it’s a chance to relax, enjoy delicious food of your choice, and let someone else worry about preparation and clean-up. In the modern family, where both parents probably work and where cooking dinner can be a source of stress, the act of going to a restaurant can be a true blessing. The Soul Kitchen’s donation-based system allows families to indulge in that blessing without worrying about how much it will set them back at the end of the month. Of course, patrons should give as much as they can to help support the restaurant as a valuable part of the community, but by taking away the pressure of fixed price meals, The Soul Kitchen gives families and individuals under economic strain a much-needed break.

This is not Jon Bon Jovi’s first foray into community building; his Soul Foundation has built over 200 homes for low-income residents since 2006. The rocker might have overshot his estimate when he sang that “we’re halfway there,” but if more people adopt his altruistic spirit, we might very well “make it.” After all, “we’ve got each other, and that’s a lot.”

-Margie Sarsfield

Image source: http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/EsWCUoUlVgxb9InfDAlO9g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTY2MTtjcj0xO2N3PTI0NjY7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQyNTtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/32b1847883110a17fc0e6a7067002844.jpg
Article Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/soul-kitchen-jon-bon-jovi_n_1021600.html

Why Do So Many Members of the 99% oppose the 99% Movement?

The events which have taken place in the past month on the doorstep of our nation's financial capital have been nothing less than extraordinary. Everyday, more and more people turn up at Zuccotti Park in full support of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters. Even with the vast amount of support for the protesters pouring in from all over the country and all around the world, there are still many (particularly members of academic institutions) who either have no comprehension of what is going on, or those who do and simply do not support it. In understanding the genuine causes for the “occupy Wall Street” movement (not the young crowd looking for a place to hang out, or political rhetoricians peddling their own brands of jaded theory) it becomes difficult to come to grips with the fact that a large part of the 99% do not support the “99%” movement. Attempting to grapple with this idea, The Assailed Teacher, on his blog (entitled the same) explains these baffling statistics through the notion of 'group think' and our unquestioning acceptance of it.

The Assailed Teacher begins by asking in a straight-forward manner, “why do so many members of the 99% oppose the 99% movement? He believes that the answer lies in how American history is taught to students. Of this, the Assailed Teacher notes that American history textbooks are fact-heavy “throughout most their march through time” but fail to do the same for relative history. Topics on things such as the internet get “vaporous descriptions” and are accompanied by glossy pictures. What you will not read about, laments the Assailed Teacher, is how “corporations control our political system, how the media has fallen into the grasp of 4 or 5 large corporations, how globalization is built on union building and slave labor, or how Wall Street has managed to take control of 35% of our total economy” (just to list a few). It seems that textbooks on American history promote our current state of affairs as being natural--- there is no question being asked on how we got here or why; no connection being made between the internet and the domination of Wall Street. Textbooks, purports the Assailed Teacher, portray our modern age in dry language. It is a progressive age that “cares not for your admiration or derision. It will march on, indifferent o your desires.” It is not only a problem of what is being taught but also how it is being taught.

Group work in the classroom and the resulting group think become scripture for an academic environment that deludes its students into thinking about a future in the corporate world. Group think, asserts the Assailed Teacher, is the real impact of group work. “Individuals question too much and too many extraordinary individuals have change the course of history. Group think puts a stop to all of that.” Group think is training the next set of consumers, not the next set of executives. The Assailed Teacher concludes by asking, “Is it any wonder that so many members of the 99% still do mot support the 99% movement? Our textbooks train us to think of our corporate age as natural. So when.. Occupy Wall Street call for a reduction of corporate power, it is like calling for the sky to be less blue... [and] While the media, politicians, and Republican sympathizers have all done their parts to bamboozle people about what is really going on around Occupy Wall Street... our education system has also ahd a part in getting the 99% to oppose their own movement.

The Assailed teacher highlights three key things: the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the lax education system, and the role the latter has played (or has not played) in the former. The notion of group think and its effects are important to comprehend and becomes extremely relevant when dealing with consumerism, corporation, and “Occupy Wall Street”. In the end, I think that the Assailed Teacher's inclinations towards the education system playing its role in having many of 99% oppose their own movement, is accurate. But you, the reader, don't have to take my word (nor the word of the Assailed Teacher) for it, all you have to do is become observant. Something as grand and with such vast implications as Occupy Wall Street is occurring, yet here we sit, in history and political science classes, discussing our assigned readings in groups.

---Sarah G.

Article Sources: http://theassailedteacher.com/2011/10/12/why-do-so-many-members-of-the-99-oppose-the-99-movement-teacher’s-edition/
Image Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bnUjf7pc7G4/TprhNIL0_fI/AAAAAAAAAFE/CGfQTYwjyuI/s1600/Occupy-wall-street-story-_99_%255B1%255D.jpg

This is what democracy looks like

Rome. Tokyo. Australia. London. New York. Chicago. Cincinnati- Just some of the places where the Occupy protests have spread like forest fire. Protesters have been met with criticism largely because of their apparent lack of a unified message, but their message couldn’t be clearer: the government is not working.

In Chicago, 130 arrests were made after protesters remained in Grant Park after its closing time. Talks between the police and the demonstrator camp had been reportedly going on since ten o’clock Saturday and ended around one am Sunday. With the mandatory closing at eleven pm, Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided he was done talking. CPD carted off whoever had remained in the park, but managed to do so in a peaceful manner. No violence was reported.

In Cincinnati, 11 arrests were made after protesters remained in the city’s Fountain Square after Sunday’s three pm closing time. They were charged with criminal trespass, but again without violence. Participants described several ‘paddy wagons’ and jail buses on standby, but the atmosphere was calm and up-beat. The spirit of rebellion echoed as people shouted, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Is this what our country has become? Politicians don’t like what the Protesters are saying, so they sick the Police on them? Criminal Trespass on city property? Really? Who ‘owns’ the city? The Mayor? The Governor? I thought we left feudalism behind in the Dark Ages.

-Kate

Article Source: www.washingtonpost.com/national

Image Source: http://wewantinformation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/OccupyChicago.jpg

Culture Corner

2011-10-24T06:25:00.002-04:00

Battle of the Beards

There are many forms of competition: basketball, rugby, football, swimming, poetry, and much more. But one that causes a hairy eyebrow to rise is the world of competitive bearding. That’s right. Men go hair to hair in the hopes of being crowned as king of whiskers.

There is a large community of men that come together to flaunt their hair. There is even a World Beard Championship. In 1990, it is said that the first serious beard competition was hosted by the First Hofener Beard Club in Hofen/Enz, Germany. Five years later, they also held the second World Beard and Moustache Championship in Pforzhiem. The Superbowl of bearding happens every three years or four years. The competition is broken up into five main categories: Moustache, Partial Beard, Full Beard Groomed, Freestyle, and Full Beard Natural.

The United States didn’t partake in the World Beard Championship until recently. Now there is a Beard Team USA. Whisker Wars, a show scheduled on IFC, follows the US team along their journey to make a name for the US in the World Beard Championship in Norway. Like any other “reality” show (as if television ever accurately depicts reality), tension flares as self-proclaimed team captain Phil Olsen's motives are questioned. I’ve never watched the show; it just seems like one of those shows that I’d really enjoy watching, but know a part of me will die if I do.

You’re probably asking yourself, “Why?” Well, why not. This is just another friendly form of competition. This gives people something to do and brag about. If you have the ability to grow a really awesome beard, then you need an venue that supports it. A community. A family. A large group of hairy grizzly beastly men...Yeah.

-Joel Cruz

Sources: http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/

http://do512blog.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/whisker-wars-enter-the-world-of-competitive-beard-growing/

http://www.americanmustacheinstitute.org/blog/2011/07/ifc-provdes-facial-hair-community-with-whisker-wars/

http://www.ifc.com/whisker-wars/about/

Poem of the Week

2011-10-24T06:20:00.001-04:00

Poetry as Outsider Song: Claude McKay

The Tropics of New York

Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,

Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing trills,
And dewy. And mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.

My eyes drew dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

McKay’s ability to use verse as a soapbox for his political woes is well documented in his corpus of dissident poems. However, there are parts in his work that are stripped of any severe agendas, moments of tender honesty and nostalgia. In “The Tropics of New York,” we are invited to glimpse at the man, utterly and totally submerged, in his loneliness. It almost reads more like journal entry, as if McKay is talking only to himself:

Banana ripe and green, and ginger-root
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
…………………………
Set in the windows, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing hills,
And dewy, and mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills

The naming of the fruits suddenly transcends into the naming of landscapes. The alligator pears bring
forth the low-singing hills and dewy blue skies. The fruit is a symbol of their origins and seeing them
swell a deep sense of nostalgia and wistfulness in the speaker. This is another reminder of the painful paradoxes of America; in its wealth it can offer almost anything and, in this case, fruits of the tropics. Yet, it can never recreate the authenticity of the speaker’s native land. The poem ends with the poet surrendering to his flood of emotions. It is a heartfelt scene of compromise: the heroic verse that rallied the masses to passionate revolution is now the weary and disheartened lament for something as simple as a brief memory of home:

My eyes drew dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

The work is necessary for understanding the plight of the immigrant in America. It humanizes the outsider and makes him more legitimate in his suffering. This poem is McKay at his most sincere; it a poem of pure cathartic means and gives us the clearest glimpse of his despair. It is the rabble rouser taking off his mask only to bow his head and question his efforts, his purpose in a strange and relentless land of racism, unrest, and massive economic differences. It is too often that even the fiercest poet will soon dismiss his agenda and succumb to his vulnerable heart, as evidenced through McKay's lament for his home.

-Ocean Vuong

Image Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/2637413710_ffe4e3bca5.jpg

Currently Reading

2011-10-24T06:15:00.005-04:00

William Saroyan

Four years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm in upstate New York, I sought refuge in a little used bookstore off a small town’s main highway. As I tried to figure out what I could possibly add to my extensive “To Read” bookshelf, the title on a worn, slightly familiar looking book caught my eye. On the slim spine were the words "The Human Comedy by William Saroyan." How many times, I thought, with a homesick wave, had I seen this little book on my father’s overstuffed shelves? I paid $2.50 for the volume and slipped back out into the big storm, the world suddenly feeling a lot warmer and smaller.

And thus began what has been a deeply personal relationship with the 20th century Armenian American writer William Saroyan. Shocked as I was to discover that Saroyan has been largely underappreciated in the history of American letters, there was one benefit to his relative obscurity: I didn’t know him well enough to know everything he had written. And I decided to keep it that way. I didn’t want to know if Saroyan, like Jane Austen, had finished exactly six novels. I didn’t want to know, as I did with Jack Kerouac, that I had bought and read virtually every word he had ever written. Instead I just looked for Saroyan’s name every time I found myself in a used bookstore, and he became a source of exciting surprise. One time it was The Adventures of Wesley Jackson. Another time it was the first edition of an anthology of plays. Another time it was My Name is Saroyan. None of them had existed in my mind before I found them. None of them have left my heart since.

I fell into Saroyan’s tragic but hopeful universe with The Human Comedy, but it was My Name is Saroyan, the posthumous collection of short pieces that had been printed in the publications of the Armenian Hairenik Association of Boston, that made me feel like I had found a father or a brother in this man I’d never met. The beauty of a collection like My Name is Saroyan is that in the busy insanity of everyday life (particularly at the heart of a college semester), you can take five minutes to ground yourself in the earthy beauty of one brief story and then return to the grind feeling a little less hopeless. Try out one of the often-humorous retellings of an Armenian folktale. Or if you’re a writer, go for “The Poet,” a reflection on trying to teach an earnest young man to write poetry (synonymous, to Saroyan, with teaching someone how to live). But if you only have a few minutes to devote to Saroyan, my suggestion is to read “Hate,” a short story about two brothers, Sirak and Krikor, who during World War II witness the horrific bullying of a young German boy by the war-maddened boys in their town because he extends his refusal of hatred to the Kaiser. Later that night, lying in bed, Sirak asks Krikor if he hates the Germans. “They are the same as all of us,” Krikor replies. And suddenly you feel that if the problems of the world are going to be solved, it’s not going to be by men in suits but by two boys talking to each other in the middle of the night when they should be going to sleep.

Maybe William Saroyan is not your cup of tea. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have your own Saroyan—that thing you love but refuse to know everything about, so that when your routines feel monotonous and everything feels like it’s been said, done, heard, and felt a few too many times, you can wander into a bookstore and find a worn down gem that is at once new and familiar. And this is the kind of world I imagine Saroyan would have wanted to live in: one in which we have lived ourselves into histories stuffed with the detail of heritages and everyday experiences but are still able to find delights in unexpected places.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/3f/34/2036225b9da08016a5a7f010.L.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-10-24T06:10:00.005-04:00

Califone – Quicksand / Cradlesnakes

Much to the behest (or relief) of a couple of interns, this edition of Currently Listening isn’t about Fleetwood Mac. I’d like to extend a public apology to Nora Curry and Joel Cruz for playing countless videos of “Rhiannon” and “Gypsy” the past couple of days in the office. I have to play a song to get it out of my head. The vicious cycle continues. I know, and I am sorry.

So.

Califone is an experimental folk rock band from Chicago, founded after the breakup of frontman Tim Rutili’s previous band, Red Red Meat. Their sound is a marriage of the simple and the delicate, and brined in utter weirdness. Quicksand / Cradlesnakes, their 2003 record, is a mesmerizing album that encapsulates autumn to me. Acoustic guitars sweep like dead leaves across fuzzed-out, overdriven soundscapes. Violins swell and swirl about. Rutili and his band smack spoons, bang wastebaskets, and knock wine glasses. His vocals are warming and familiar; traditional harmonies soothe and round out the sonic experimentation.

Likewise, Rutili’s folktale lyrics tell incredibly sharp, beautiful stories of loss, desperation, and life in a small flyover-country town, among others. “Michigan Girls,” an especially hymn-like song, features Rutili whispering about an estranged relationship over minimalist acoustic accompaniment: “Straw bones nails of November clay / The way you kiss your uncle on the mouth.” I grow nostalgic for a time in my life that I have never actually lived through. This music is soft and powerful.

Califone have released 11 albums and one independent film, and play at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall on January 19th.

- Ryan Skrabalak

http://www.califonemusic.com/
Video Sources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBULerKO6A, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51rfl6cc1FA

Currently Watching

2011-10-24T06:03:00.001-04:00

Are You Being Served?

Considered to be the definitive British sitcom, with it's innuendo-laden, penchant for slap-stick comedy, and panto-type characters, Are You Being Served surely has something for everyone. Broadcasted from 1972-1985, Are You Being Served was written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. The idea for the show came from the brief period Lloyd spent working in a department store in the early 1950's. Set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing department of Grace Brothers' Department Store, the ensemble cast often permeated their conversations with sexual innuendo, and acted out misunderstandings and mistaken identity with occasional slap-stick humor. In addition to this, the cast's comedic performances were enhanced by outrageous costumes and frequently malfunctioning displays. Within all the humor, wonderful comedic situations, and brilliant acting, lies a severe critique of the british class system, the defined roles of gender, and the exploration of sexuality.

There is the portrayal of the floorwalker- Captain Peacock (played by Frank Thornton)-- who may only be addressed by the title of 'Captain' , and wears a red carnation to symbolize his position as an executive. There are the sales men and women who constantly make light of their lousy pay- one that sees them often hitch-hiking because they can't afford a ride on the bus. There are the maintenance staff who are not allowed and always leave extra early in his Rolls Royce. The show explores gender roles in a humorous manner as it pits the new world Mrs. Slocombe, head of the ladies' department, against the bitter Mr. Grainger, head of the gents' department, in an eternal battle of the sexes. The character of Mr. Humphries, as played by the flamboyant John Inman, is often seen prancing around the department in sequins and high-heels, leaving both his colleagues and the audience to question his sexuality. The quickness of the wit, the genius of the situations, and the cleverness of the social commentary are all wonderful reasons to watch this remarkable sitcom. But putting all of this aside for one moment, the show is genuinely funny, and it will have you roaring with laughter from start to finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0YW3ixaswQ&feature=related

-Sarah G.

Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/JohnInman.jpg
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0YW3ixaswQ&feature=related

Illuminations

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

Rediscovering William Steig

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about illustrations and childhood.
My heart sank in Astoria upon seeing The Museum of Moving Image closes at 7PM. I had been looking forward to reconnecting with Jim Henson’s Muppets all week! And I had failed my colleagues in the office! After all, I volunteered to write this week’s Illuminations. Walking back to the N at 36th Street, I remembered I had two books with me I’d ordered earlier that week and hadn’t yet read: William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and CDB! The ride back to Brooklyn wasn’t as long as it sounds.
Steig’s whimsical, subtle illustrations immediately bring me back to the carpeted corner nook of my 2nd grade classroom with beanbags strewn along its wall and a bookshelf stuffed with Caldecott Winners. In addition to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, which won the 1970 Caldecott Award and was banned in many libraries around the United States because of Steig’s anthropomorphized pigs as police, Steig wrote the Newberry Award winning Doctor De Soto and Shrek! (the latter being the inspiration for the motion picture). CDB! is a rather experimental picture book where the text is simply letters. One reads the letters aloud—each page is a story of letters, accompanied by a picture. The slight changes in facial expressions and wide range of characters show Steig’s mastery of illustration.
I beg you to revisit the picture books of your youth. I can guarantee you’ll find something you didn’t pick up on as kid—or, if you’ve forgotten that special message in the throes of adolescence and burgeoning adulthood—you’ll be able to relearn it.

---Ryan Skrabalak

Image Sources: http://onthebutton.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/untitled.jpg?w=333&h=512
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Sbj4LAiH1_s/S_rZK11E6oI/AAAAAAAAExs/20J9-MjZ4ac/s1600/CDB_crop4.jpg

Greetings

2011-10-17T06:35:00.001-04:00

Welcome to a new week of the Boylan Blog. We know you're probably busy studying for mid-terms or finishing up your first papers of the term, but do take a break and cozy up with our rich articles, including the newly instated "Illuminations", a space where we feature a small gallery of important and provocative artwork each week. In the spirt of fall, we'd hope this would add a nice splash of color for your reading pleasure. So stay gold....or red, or orange, and remember, feel free to comment on the posts! We'd love to hear from you.

News Briefs

2011-10-17T06:30:00.007-04:00

A Promising Diagnosis

Reading the news these days feels a little bit like going to the doctor and getting diagnosed with bronchitis, pneumonia, and cancer in one fell swoop. So if you feel like you’re being inundated with horrifying news in this grand old nation that coughs all night and won’t let us sleep*, I come bearing a little ray of light in the damning diagnosis of the global climate. The World Health Organization announced on October 11 that there has been a global decrease in new tuberculosis (TB) cases for the first time in more than twenty years, thanks in part to aid from nations like the United States. That’s right: our asthmatic nation reached out and did some good.

TB is the cause of more than a million deaths each year, second only to AIDS among infectious diseases. The 1980s saw a huge rise in TB cases in conjunction with the spread of HIV, but at the time the U.S. did little to help with the spread of either disease. The current decline in TB cases, which has been going on for five years but was just detected, is the first significant decline since the rise of the AIDS crisis. WHO chose to share this announcement in Washington instead of their Geneva headquarters in the hopes of gaining the attention and support of U.S. lawmakers who could potentially cut the funding for global TB control during the current round of budget cuts. The U.S. currently spends approximately $375 million a year to help with tuberculosis treatment and control in developing countries, but disagreements within the budget “supercommittee” could result in significant cuts to Obama’s “Global Health Initiative,” and thus to TB-related funding.

Researchers are currently working on ten potential TB vaccines that could be available as early as 2013, but much research still needs to be done and the U.S. has a responsibility to do its part. Here’s hoping that somewhere in the midst of trying to one-up each other, our politicians can think about the millions of people they have the power to help or kill with their budget decisions. The decline in TB cases is a reminder that we’re perfectly capable of facilitating progress when we put our thoughts (and dollars) in the right place. And if we all do our best to exert whatever influence we have for good, maybe in the not too distant future we’ll be able to read the headlines with (dare I say it?) smiles on our faces.

- Nora Curry

*credit to the one and only Allen Ginsberg

Image Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/tuberculosis-rates-decline/2011/10/11/gIQAmtDgdL_graphic.html

Article Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/number-of-new-tb-cases-worldwide-fall-for-the-first-time-in-decades/2011/10/11/gIQAXoLidL_story.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did Someone Crap On My Phone?

A new study, conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, concluded that one in six phones in Britain may contain fecal matter that can spread E. coli. I wonder what the numbers would look like if they conducted the same experiment in the United States.

The researchers attribute this statistic to the fact that people fail to wash their hands after leaving the pooper. It appears, to me, people are also failing to use toilet tissue or maybe not enough of it. Based on their data, researchers have reason to believe that people are lying about their cleanliness.

After going to 12 cities and acquiring 390 samples from cell phones and hands of their owners, interesting percentages were collected:

95% of the volunteers told researchers they, whenever possible, wash their hands with soap.
92% of the phones contained bacteria
82% of the hands also contained bacteria.
16% percent of the phones and hands contain E. coli bacteria.

Based on high percentage of volunteers who claimed to wash their hands with soap versus the high percentage, researchers deduced that most people lie about their hygiene habit. In regards to 82%, maybe some participants didn’t wash their hands before being surveyed, but actually wash their hands frequently. I think it’s always good to question the methods of retrieving data. Just a thought.

-Joel Cruz

Image Source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/3875218091_cb9c338148.jpg

Article Source: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011-10-14/1-in-6-cellphones-have-traces-of-fecal-E-coli/50774456/1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting Some Fresh Air In New York City, So To Speak

Okay, so.

This article isn't about air quality, pollution, or toxin levels in the atmosphere. Stand on the corner of Bowery and Houston and you'll soon find out via a wallop of exhaust fumes that our city is indeed pretty heavily polluted. But, like I said. This is about a different yet still prominent atmosphere of New York life: the atmosphere of art.

Over the summer, artist Andy Golub was arrested in Times Square for dressing a nude model in body paint. NYPD claimed Golub violated "public exposure and lewdness laws" with his actions. Golub's arrest led to a court case, where a unique "compromise" (if you will) was reached: exposed breasts are okay in the daytime, but any model's nether-regions must be covered until dark. Interestingly enough, New York state laws exempt "any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment" from lewdness and indecent exposure violations. Separate cities typically interpret the exceptions with varying degrees of leniency, supposedly. If Golub complies with the new specifics of the law, and is not arrested in the next six months, his charges will be dropped (along with his model's charges).

Is New York not an art town anymore? James Schuyler, an important longtime figure of the New York school of poetry, once wrote of New Yorkers "[they are] affected by the floods of paint in whose crashing surf we all scramble...in the place where they live; in New York it is painting." The Met! MOMA! The Whitney! The Guggenheim! The list goes on and on, New Yorkers. So you're walking around Midtown (God bless you, brave soul, God bless) and you happen to see--a Human! The Human Form, naked! O, Lord! Perhaps the urgent honesty of the naked body is too much for some people to process. What a shame.

Isn't it hard to paint in the dark, anyway?

Be excellent to one another, and do good work--

Ryan Skrabalak

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-artist-nude-idUSTRE79D2EN20111014
Image source : http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/banana1015.com/files/2011/04/censored_nudity.jpg

Culture Corner

2011-10-17T06:25:00.001-04:00

Glamorizing Obesity

Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest has twenty people battling it out to scarf down as many hot dogs (buns included) as they can in ten minutes. The participants stand behind a thirty foot table at Coney Island’s hotspot, Nathan’s. Whether you are seeing the event directly from Coney Island or watching it on your TV set, the event seems exciting because it’s as if you are taking part in the making of history. However, on closer inspection, this New York tradition can be seen as symbolizing one of America’s biggest social problems—obesity.
For the contest, participants train themselves to eat unhealthy amounts of food. This quasi-Olympic sport suggests behavior that will lead people in the direction of heart problems and diabetes. Although it is recommended to average 2,000 calories a day, Joey Chestnut, a fellow hot dog contender, eats around 20,000 calories during each contest. The audience watching the hot dog eating contest may not realize that the competitors undergo unique eating habits in order to participate in the matches. Chesnut reveals that “his training consist[s] of fasting and stretching his stomach with water and milk.” During the challenge, he uses the method of “shaking and clinching the muscles in [his] abdomen and pushing everything down."
The United States is the ninth most obese country in the world, with 74.1% of its population being overweight or obese. As a result, a drastic change needs to be made to improve these statistics. One baby step may be to bring about educational awareness.

~Kerry Gertner

Article Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/obesity.html
http://nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/getpage.php?pgid=26
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/07/04/thousands-expected-as-nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest-adds-womens-division/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11737363
Image Source: http://southerngaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest.bmp

Poem of the Week

2011-10-17T06:20:00.007-04:00

Mother’s Labor
Late August 1927, still

You said, Sister, come rub my back, and I
could feel it come upon you the way fog
came, froze on the field, the way the womb
abstracted. You recalled the time we had
to help deliver the fall calf, and Father
was shoulder-deep in birth-gore, naming for us
the long spine, the fine rib, the breathless blade
of a shoulder—and what he said, Ah, yes, this one
will be to keep.
You sank into the bed
where I was gotten, into the story
I had again begged you of my own
quickening—of the time you sang and sang
to make the butter come, and I turned in you
instead—into water long broken, into
yourself. There was no cord to cut, only
my hand to cease making its sense of you.

- Claudia Emerson, from Pinion: an elegy

Claudia Emerson’s 2002 book of poetry entitled Pinion: an elegy is presented as the narrative of the fictional Rose, who grew up as the youngest sister in a Southern family in the 1920s and was the only member of her family to break free of the farm on which she was raised. Rose has returned through a dream state to her family’s dilapidated home in order to tell their story, weaving together a polyvocal narrative not unlike a poetic rendering of William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying. She is completing a self-imposed task compelled by the burden of love: to write for a house, and the family that lived and died within its walls, so that they should never cease to exist.

“Mother’s Labor” is from the section of the book spoken through Rose’s sister, who is known to all only as Sister. The language of the poem forges a comparative relationship between the mother’s womb and the land, foreshadowing that the offspring of this tragic maternal figure will ultimately share a fate with the barren fields. The poem demonstrates internal recognition of the family’s reliance on storytelling for its existence as the mother sinks “into the story / I had again begged you of my own / quickening” (11-13), a story whose continuance now depends on Rose and thus on Pinion itself. But perhaps most moving about the poem is the incredible intimacy between mother and daughter, the devastating beauty of a daughter recalling her fetal self turning within her mother’s body, of the baby’s hand making sense of its protector, only to one day inherit the grief of preparing that mother’s body for burial, as she does in the poem immediately following.

In some ways, the structure of Pinion is complex, in that we are being asked to see Emerson as writing for Rose as writing for her siblings. But if it seems in theory that Emerson is trying to dazzle and confuse us with such a narrative structure, these efforts in fact become highly organic and compelling on the page. There’s something incredibly beautiful and logical about writing poetry about or on behalf of our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters—about the people from whom we learn language but from whom our speech ultimately comes to differ. It gets at what poetry is: taking the language that we know, that we are raised with, and that we all can relate to, and then turning it with weathered hands into words that no one else could have preconceived, but that, once heard, create a world in which the listener cannot imagine such images failing to exist.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/975513.Pinion
Poem Source: Emerson, Claudia. “Mother’s Labor.” Pinion: an elegy. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002. 32.

Currently Reading

2011-10-17T06:15:00.000-04:00

What’s an Hour, Then Another?

Michael Cunningham recounts the intersecting lives of three women: Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughn. Virginia Woolf is in the process of writing Mrs. Dalloway while suffering from mental illness in the suburbs of London. Laura Brown, an avid reader of Mrs. Dalloway, is a conventional housewife in the 1950's who is typecast, plays a perfect role, but is nevertheless stifled by space and time. Clarissa Vaughn, also known as Mrs. Dalloway, is the ex-lover and best friend of Richard Brown, the son of Laura Brown. Her purpose in life is askew, and she only has the hours a billow to keep her afloat.

Yet, despite the simple practicality of time, the hours play an overtly significant role in each woman’s life. One woman is constrained by time, another is restrained by it, another is upheld by it. In the end, each woman’s story collectively entangles with plot and time while Cunningham leaves us readers with the following quote: “We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep--it’s as simple and ordinary as that…There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined…we hope, more than anything, for more.”

We all have different destinations, goals, dreams. Yet, if we can count on anything, we cannot deny the fact that the second turns into the minute, and the minute into the hour. Time is ubiquitous; it is everywhere. We cannot bend or conform to it like a malleable spoon or a rubber-band. Time can be a novelty, a scapegoat, a medium for action or even lethargy. Still, as sure as the coming of the next second, another thing is also sure: time is neither our friend nor is it our foe.

- Kerri Byam

Image Source: http://www.michaelcunninghamwriter.com/files/the_hours.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-10-17T06:10:00.003-04:00

True Underdogs

Let’s try something. Play the video located below this paragraph, but do not look at what is being displayed. Just listen to the song first and try to imagine what’s taking place in the music video. Afterwards, play the video again, but watch it the second time around.

Yeah, I didn’t expect that either. When I hear of “saving the world,” it usually involves a damsel in need of her world being saved. When my friend sent me the link to this video, I didn’t think this song would be the exception, considering the title.

My mind was all over the place as I watched Swedish House Mafia’s music video: “Okay, this is just another club song…Damn, this world really does need some saving…Aw, someone left their dog on the street corner…Oh, he’s calling for back up and they’re ’bout the business.” The lyrics of the song are ambiguous; we aren’t told who’s saving the world. I was inclined to believe it dealt with a man and woman saving each other from the callous hands of evildoers.

So when I found a stampede of dogs coming to the rescue, naturally I was taken aback. If you simply listen to the song, as opposed to watching the music video, it takes on a different shape; personally, I prefer the silhouette of a cuddly four-legged creature.

- Joel Cruz

Currently Watching

2011-10-17T06:05:00.000-04:00

Communitychannel

Ever notice how many keys there are on the keyboard that never get used? What does ~ even mean?

How awkward is it when you accidentally graze someone’s hand while trying to press the same elevator button?

Do Infomercial models for tanning products really walk around with one leg tanned and the other leg untanned?

These are all the comical nuances of daily life that 25-year-old Australian vlogger Natalie Tran, better known as communitychannel, talks about on YouTube. She uses the “Dear Diary” format to comment on a wide spectrum of social issues, ranging from gift-giving customs to racism against immigrants. Her satirical skits, where she herself plays most of the characters, narrows in on the passing moments of life and places them in the foreground.

In one of my personal favorites, she talks about how a salesclerk will always put a price tag on your friendship when you go to purchase a gift for someone. The $50 sweater means you’re an “alright buddy,” but the $250 sweater definitely gives you the “best-friend status.” And oddly enough, clever marketing like this does subconsciously persuade us, but how often do we actually sit down and notice it?

She draws a great deal of inspiration from her parents and their observations on the differences in lifestyle in Australia versus Vietnam. The strange details her parents point out to her are not that different from what my parents tell me. As I pay more attention to my parents and their rants about life here in America, it’s beginning to strike me just how darn hilarious they are.

Natalie’s videos always leave me with a smile and make me remember that there’s a whole lot of funny around us, we just need to change our perspectives a little to find it.

If you have a couple of minutes during your next lunch break and are in need of a quick laugh, I highly recommend you give her a visit by going to www.youtube.com/communitychannel.

-Mira

Photo Source: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnwcuwSihk1qi05ik.png
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel#p/search/0/E2RzKNCahRg

Illuminations

2011-10-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

At Least One Good Reason to Go to Long Island City

As a college student in the borough next to the greatest city in the world, you might feel that it behooves you to check out New York’s great art museums. And by all means, you should check out the Met or the Guggenheim. But, if and when you get tired of the bourgeois atmosphere and stuffy white walls, take a 7, G, or M train to Court Square to check out one of Queens’ hidden gems: MoMa’s P.S. 1. P.S. 1 is worth the trip for the architecture alone: set up in a renovated public school, the crumbling brick stairways, creaking wooden floors, and maze-like rows of white doors that either lead you to an exhibit or a janitor’s closet are works of art in and of themselves. But P.S. 1 is also a safe haven for contemporary and experimental art.

As you walk through the galleries (without much sense of direction, because they don’t seem big on maps here), you are followed by the echoes of music from one exhibit and the voices from a film in another. The current exhibit, 9 11, explores pre- and post- 9/11 art and thought in America. Walk into one room and immerse yourself in part of America’s violent history in Bruce Connor’s Film “Report”, which juxtaposes segments of film and audio from the Kennedy assassination with flashes of violent and neutral images; walk up a flight of cathedral-esque stairs, and find yourself in James Turell’s space-and-light focused exhibit, “Meeting”, where you can sit on a long wooden bench and bask in artificial sunlight. Just down the hall you’ll find Janet Cardiff’s “The Forty Part Motet”, forty speakers set up in a circle, each projecting a single voice in a choir. Take a seat in the middle and let the harmonies wash over you. Or, walk down to the boiler room and listen to Stephen Vitiello’s recordings made from the top of the World Trade Center after Hurricane Floyd. The sound of creaking steel and whining wind, coupled with the dank, unfinished, you-just-got-kidnapped feel of the basement will creep you out in a beautiful way. For the more traditional art enthusiast, John Pilson’s photographs, taken at the World Financial Center in the late evening and early morning, of objects left behind by employees who have left for the day, are beautiful in craft and haunting in potential meaning. Explore the work of lesser-known artists next to big names like Christo, Barbara Kruger, John Lennon, and John Williams. 9 11 will be on exhibit until January 9th, but if you don’t make it before it ends, don’t sweat it. There is always something fascinating going on at P.S. 1, and with free admission for Brooklyn College students (oh yeah!) you’ve got nothing to lose (except your preconceptions about art.)

---Margie Sarsfield

Image Source: http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/images/ps1-art-long-island-14.jpg

Greetings

2011-10-10T06:35:00.000-04:00

Shake off that sticky summer sweat! Autumn is the perfect season for an urban safari. Have a picnic in Prospect Park, then check out what all the cute, fuzzy, scaly, feathery animals at the zoo are up to. Or, hop across the street and stroll through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (free for BC students!) and see what fall has in store for nature's finest. Go jogging through Cobble Hill, or don your skinniest skinny jeans and check out the Williamsburg Waterfront. They might have pumpkins at your local Key Food or Met Supermarket, so pick out the ugliest one and give it a make-over. Once you've had all the outdoorsy fun you can handle, grab a burrito and explore this week's Boylan Blog, loaded as usual with food for thought from Brooklyn College's most interesting interns. First and foremost, some stimulating announcements:

1) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. The deadline isn't until January 2012, but be sure to visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

2) The Poetry Club. The Poetry Club will have its first meeting on October 11th during common hours in 2307 Boylan.

Now, go get 'em, tiger!

- Margie Sarsfield

Image source: http://www.prospectparkzoo.com/plan-your-trip/events-calendar/~/media/Images/prospectparkzoo/events/headline/_julie%20larsen%20maher%205776%20%20Hamadryas%20Baboons%20PPZ%2010%2014%2010.jpg

News Briefs

2011-10-10T06:30:00.016-04:00

The Simpsons Are Back!

On Friday October 7, Twentieth Century Fox announced that it renewed The Simpsons for its twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth seasons.

According to CNN, The Simpsons, known as television’s longest-running scripted show, has been on the air since the 1980s. It began its origins as an animated segment on the “Tracey Ullman Show“ and graduated to an individual series in 1989. The renowned Time magazine named The Simpsons the best show of the 20th century. The show, created by Matt Groening, has gone on to win 27 Emmys in its 22 years on the air.

The unforgettable Simpson characters have been household names (and maybe members of your household) for many years. The show has simultaneously been an active participant and observant of American culture and life. It has also been the precursor to the current animated sensation Family Guy and countless “cartoons“ that have followed in its footsteps. To hear that The Simpsons was coming to its final season would have been a sad piece of news to receive. Yet all good things must eventually come to an end.

Fortunately, this is not the case. Loyal fans, let us rejoice!

- Kerri Byam

Image Source: http://assets.huluim.com/shows/key_art_the_simpsons.jpg
Article Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/07/showbiz/simpsons-renewed/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A New Target Audience: The Canine Consumer

When you turn on the television, you probably see advertisements for sugary cereals that are geared towards children or the latest medicines that are geared towards older adults. However, there is a new consumer that is now being taken into account.

In Switzerland, Nestle, a popular pet food company, recently launched the first television commercial that uses dogs as the target audience. The commercial utilizes a high-frequency tone to capture the animal’s interest, since a dog’s hearing is more acute than that of a human. It is proven that dogs can perceive frequencies that go beyond the reach of the human ear.

In the United States, experts in pet behavior completed research concerning what engages dogs’ attention. Nestle used this information to make a commercial for one of its products—Beneful dog food.

The commercial was shown on Austrian television a few weeks ago. It uses noises that appeal to dogs. These include a tone akin to a dog whistle, a “squeak” similar to the sound of a dog’s toy, and a high-pitched “ping.”

Nestle states that this commercial was produced after a highly successful campaign in Germany that introduced “sniffable” posters to draw in dogs’ interest.

Check out the commercial below:

- Kerry Gertner

Image Source: http://www.nestle.com/Common/NestleImages/PublishingImages/Media/News-Features/2011-September/headline_ad_for_dogs.jpg
Article Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44737296/ns/business-us_business/#.TosRa34cuX8
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTF3Gc22va4&feature=related

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Leaning Tower of London

The impressive Big Ben that keeps all of London on time has been slowly tilting to the side for many years, but the tilt has only now become visible to the naked eye. Engineers have concluded that decades of work done around the base of the structure, such as a sewer system built in the 1860s and an underground parking lot built for the Members of Parliament in the 1970s, have all had a detrimental effect on Big Ben’s foundation. The top of the tower is 1ft 5in away from the vertical and will continue to keep tilting by 0.04in every year.

It is estimated that in another 4,000 years, Big Ben will reach the same dramatic slope as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. If the architectural integrity is not restored in the years to come, the tower will eventually topple over and come crashing down on the MPs’ offices. However, the tilting tower has already caused cracks in the walls of the House of Commons and homes of other elected officials who live within the immediate area.

As we stand on the precipice of global political change, one of the world’s most well recognized structures has begun to lose its footing, literally “sinking” if you will. Even more ironic is the impending sense of doom it presents for the government officials whose offices rest along its marked trajectory should it ultimately fall. Times are changing, we can feel it, and maybe so can the largest clock in the world.

Do you feel the rush?

- Mira

Article Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8815238/Bong-Big-Ben-becoming-leaning-tower-of-London-say-engineers.html
Image Source: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/09/article-0-0C622596000005DC-189_233x423.jpg

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are You For Real?

One of memory’s big jobs is to keep straight what actually happened versus what we imagined: whether we said something out loud or to ourselves, whether we locked the door behind us or just thought about locking the door. That ability, a new study found, is linked to the presence of a small fold in the front of the brain, which some people have and others don’t—a finding that could help researchers better understand not only healthy memory, but also disorders like schizophrenia in which the line between the real and the imagined is blurred.

The researchers looked at MRI brain scans of a large group of healthy adults. In particular, they were looking for the paracingulate sulcus or PCS, a fold near the front of the brain. There’s a lot of variability in the PCS: some people have quite distinctive folds, others have barely any. It’s in a part of the brain known to be important in keeping track of reality, which is why the researchers chose to study it. Of the 53 people selected for the study, some had this fold on both sides of their brain, some had it on one side, and some had no fold.

The participants saw some full well-known word pairs (“Jekyll and Hyde”) and some half pairs (“Jekyll and ?”). If they only saw half of a pair, they were asked to imagine the other half (“Hyde”). After each pair or half pair, either the participant or the experimenter said the whole pair aloud.

Once they’d seen all the pairs, the participants were asked two questions about each phrase: Did you see both words of the pair, or just one? And who said the phrase aloud, you or the experimenter? People who didn’t have the fold on either side of their brains did worse on both questions—remembering if something was real or imagined, and remembering who’d done something—than people whose brains had the fold. But they felt as confident in their answers, meaning they didn’t realize they’d been mixing up internal and external events.

Well, I guess there is a fine line between reality and un-reality after all, or shall we say a fine “fold.”

- Ocean Vuong

Image Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/files/2011/10/pcs.jpg
Article Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com

Culture Corner

2011-10-10T06:25:00.001-04:00

The Angry Brick

I used to think that the reason American politicians and business men got away with whatever they wanted was because they just knew how to work the system in their favor, not intentionally trying to mess with other people’s lives. Now I understand that the high brows in suits aren’t naively pursuing their monetary dreams, ignorant of their choices’ consequences. They know. They just aren’t scared of anything. They are perfectly fearless leeches. I’m talking to you, 1%.

The United States as a whole has become a docile, cage-kept zombie, spoon fed on apathy and soothed slyly by sleight-of-hand diversions and an onslaught of electronic binkies (unemployment rates are higher than ever, but everyone and their mother has the new tablet and iPhone?). Those at the tip of the financial food chain have lost sight of what other countries fear under their breath, in the back of their minds, beneath layers and layers of calculated political plays: Revolution.

In other countries, legislators and business men alike understand (but do not always acknowledge) the fact that at any given moment, an angry brick could come sailing through their nine pane window and land in their laps with a death threat. Lately, the ‘angry brick’ comes in many forms, be it the riots in London, the coup d’ etat in Libya, the Occupy Wall Street Protests or even crazed, sick individuals who open fire on students. The United States has had its share of angry bricks thrown, but as a whole, treat these warning shots as completely isolated, insignificant hiccups designed to be absorbed into a societal infrastructure destined to fail.

The leash holders (not lease) of the United States do not fear the people. They laugh at us. They toast the middle and low class sweat-breakers for all their hard work. They don’t even deign to watch us struggle as they lobby for their next tax cut. I do not condone any violent act by any individual or group through any means, however sympathetic or reasonable their intentions may appear. The fact is, the ‘angry brick’ does not work. Performing acts intentionally designed to make other people afraid of walking out their front door isn’t the way to go. Violence never changes people’s minds. It only hardens peoples’ hearts and deafens their ears. But so far, the only people talking about policy are the politicians. People need to speak out through the appropriate channels.

The sad thing is, true change takes time. Nothing substantial is going to happen to the political and cultural climate tomorrow morning that makes you smile. You want to change the world? Don’t throw bricks. Write to your local congressman and get on their ass about issues close to you. Get a degree and become a city official. Become a lawyer. Organize peaceful protests. Become a congressman or woman. Become the President of the United States. Be proactive, not reactive. Because there is a frightening sense of discontent and outrage bubbling under this country’s flesh. As the temperature rises unanswered and unappeased, what else can these issues do, but burst?

-Kate Conte

Image Source: http://sfappeal.com/alley/images/protest-crap.jpg

Poem of the Week

2011-10-10T06:20:00.002-04:00

Whales Deliver their Song to You

The Whale in the Blue Washing Machine
By John Haines

There are depths even in a household
where a whale can live. . . .

His warm bulk swims from room
to room, floating by on the stairway,
searching the drafts, the cold
currents of water and liberation

He comes to the surface hungry,
sniffs at the table,
and sinks, his wake rocking the chairs.

His pulsebeat sounds at night
when the washer spins and the dryer
clanks on stray buttons. . . .

Alone in the kitchen darkness,
looking through steamy windows
at the streets draining away in fog;

watching and listening
for the wail of an unchained buoy,
the steep fall of his wave

Have you ever heard a whale song? It’s a long, low, moaning; strange and alien, melancholy and beautiful. For me, this poem is a whale song. It’s a song of soft pauses (like the enjambment of “from room/to room”) and quiet consonants (warm, water, wake, washer, windows, watching, wail, wave). It’s a whale song of the still loneliness of nighttime, and the tautness you can feel even when the whole house is asleep. It’s a whale song about the way things might feel strange and surreal at those late hours, the way you might feel like you are swimming underwater, the strange significance of ordinary things when the routine of the day falls apart and you are alone exploring familiar spaces. There is an aching and yearning in this poem for something unnamed, for a release of the tension built by the drafts, stray buttons, chairs, and fogged streets. But we aren’t released; we, and the whale, are left waiting. We feel like the whale that has completed his song and is waiting: for a response, for an interaction, for a result. We are trapped at the crest of the wave, waiting forever for the “steep fall.”

-Margie Sarsfield

Image source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Amr6dOq3pIc/TXCiCM-r5ZI/AAAAAAAABtU/37QEjQCXZU4/s400/john_haines.jpg

Currently Reading

2011-10-10T06:15:00.003-04:00

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Today it appears that the character of the vampire has largely infiltrated our culture. With such popular shows as True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, millions of viewers allow vampires to enter their homes on a weekly basis. This new culture of vehemently accepting, and even adoring, the Un-Dead may be traced back to the astonishing (I say 'astonishing' because I have many unresolved issues with the books themselves and the interest they've garnered) popularity of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight saga. However, to those with a solid literary background, the character of the vampire has always harkened back to Count Dracula of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Unlike the current crop of vampires who grace both our screens and our pages, Count Dracula does not sparkle like diamonds in a sun-lit field. Rather, he is a clever, well-educated, intriguing individual, who, for all the havoc he wreaks, always manages to maintain his perfect manners and his characteristic sense of decorum.

In an attempt not to ruin the content of the novel for future readers, I shall leave with a few interesting bits. The novel itself tells the story of Count Dracula's attempt to relocate himself from Transylvania to England. Within the structure of this journey, there is an on-going and ever present battle between Dracula and the other protagonists of the novel (one of whom is Dr. Abraham van Helsing). It is interesting to note that Bram Stoker took his inspiration for the character of Dracula from Sir Henry Irving, who was the manager of the Lyceum Theatre where Stoker worked. The original title of the novel was slated to be The Dead Un-Dead until Stoker came across the histories of Wallachia and Moldovia upon which the mention of one Vlad 'The Impaler' was featured quite heavily. Dracula was published to critical acclaim and had many critics ranking Stoker's novel above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.

Bram Stoker's Dracula can take its place among the titans of literature because, among other things, it is simply a well-crafted novel. Stoker's use of epistolary, his penchant for wit, and his mastery of the English language make Dracula an easy read. Yet, it is not a pretentious novel. It is a novel that reminds us of how truly effective good writing can be. It is a novel well worth the read and one that will make you regret having previously read those Twilight books.

- Sarah Gonsalves

Image Source: http://www.draculas.info/_img/gallery/dracula_book_cover_1902_doubleday_89.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-10-10T06:10:00.001-04:00

"Crystalline"

Bjork catches the abstract and translates it into something tangible. “Crystalline” off her seventh album, Biophilia, is a psychedelic experience into the inner crevices of the mind. The image of crystals growing from inside the earth and lighting up with brilliance is both impossible and beautiful. The flying shapes and alternating scopes from inside a pipe organ to faraway galaxies give the song a dream-like quality; nothing makes sense on its own, it's up to you to put the chaos to order.

Her “Internal Nebula” is the tumultuous sea of emotions swaying inside all of us. The light she demands at the end is her determination to overcome her fears. When she finally becomes the sparkle, she has found peace and happiness within her self. The tinkling music in the beginning slowly builds up in tempo and beat to the climactic breakcore at the end, a perfect musical representation as she changes her physical form to ultimately become the bright sparkling lights.

Biophilia introduces a new form of interactive music where the listeners will have to play an app in order for the song to keep playing. The songs on the album are presented as constellations in a galaxy. When you come near a star, you can start the app to play the song. In her song “Virus,” the song starts with a virus infecting a single cell and ends with the cell eventually dying. The listener can play with the virus' life cycle and change the pitch and tone of the song, effectively adding new music to the song and personalizing the experience. Bjork lets the music change and reshape itself, making it a living entity the listener can connect to, just like her album title promises:

bi·o·phil·i·a

[bahy-oh-fil-ee-uh, ‐feel-yuh]

noun

a love of life and the living world; the affinity of human beings for other life forms.

--Mira

“Crystalline”

Underneath our feet

Crystals grow like plants

(listen how they grow)

I’m blinded by the lights

(listen how they grow)

In the core of the earth

(listen how they grow)

Crystalline

Internal Nebula

(Crystalline)

Rocks growing slow-mo

(Crystalline)

I conquer claustrophobia

(Crystalline)

And demand the light

We mimic the openness

Of the warmth we love

Doth till our generosity equalizes the flow

With our hearts

We chisel quartz

To reach love

Crystalline

Internal Nebula

(crystalline)

Rocks growing slow-mo

(crystalline)

I conquer claustrophobia

(crystalline)

And demand the light

Octagon, polygon

Pipes up an organ

Sonic branches

Murmuring drone

Crystallizing galaxies

Spread out like my fingers

Crystalline

Internal Nebula

(crystalline)

Rocks growing slow-mo

(crystalline)

I conquer claustrophobia

(crystalline)

And demand the light

Internal Nebula

(crystalline)

Rocks growing slow-mo

(crystalline)

I conquer claustrophobia

(crystalline)

And demand the light

It’s the sparkle you become

Conquer anxiety

Sparkle you become

Conquer anxiety

Sparkle you become

When you conquer anxiety

It’s the sparkle you become
When you conquer anxiety

Image Source: http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2011/07/bjork-crystalline.jpg

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZhkfwrxNOc

Lyric Source: http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bjork-lyrics/crystalline-lyrics.html

News Source: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/bjork-s-biophilia-virus-lets-you-kill-a-1005309462.story

Currently Watching

2011-10-10T06:05:00.008-04:00

The Open Heart

When I was younger I loved going to the theatre. Everything moved me; everything made me cry. To a heart that had never been in love, every touch of hands was a breathtaking thrill. To eyes that had never seen death, every body strewn above trap doors was a stone plummeting through the gut. The world of the stage was an expansion of experience—a safe arena in which all elements of human life and feeling might play out and let my insides leap accordingly. But in time, I stopped going to shows and told myself I didn’t have enough money or leisure time to devote to them. In truth, I had become indifferent; I didn’t need to watch people say goodbye on stage when I had done it so many times in my own life. No one could accurately play out the trembling of first infatuations or the subtle aches of loss after I had known them myself. I, who had shed so many vicarious tears, had none left to spare on stories and enactments—had become tired, numb, and removed.

So the stage is set for an evening this past summer, when I was given a ticket to a revival of Larry Kramer’s 1985 play The Normal Heart. The play traces Kramer’s life from 1981 to 1984 when he was right in the middle of the AIDS crisis as it ravaged the gay community and was ignored by the government and all major news and media outlets. By all accounts I should have been excited as I took my seat; I had heard from a number of people that this was the kind of play that changes lives and that Joe Mantello, in the starring role of Ned Weeks, gives a performance that brutally overworks the tear ducts. Instead, I was ready to hand back my playbill and walk back out the theatre door. I was terrified of spending three hours trying to make my eyes well up and wondering why I didn’t feel as much as I was supposed to. Then Joe Mantello walked out on stage. He ranted. He spewed facts and statistics. He was annoying. He argued with everyone. And for all of these flaws, the character he portrayed was profoundly human, a lonely man voicing an unstoppered scream against the establishment that cared so little for the deteriorated bodies and broken hearts of a minority population. As Ned Weeks tried frantically to figure out how an aching heart navigates discrimination, death, unexpected love, and unending frustration, Mantello’s performance cracked me open. It undid the slapstick plaster job I had performed on the fractures of my heart. And this is what art does in skilled hands: it takes the hurt and love we know and finds a way to make it writhe anew within us.

Maybe it’s no use for me to tell you all the merits of a show that has seen the end of its limited run in New York, but I’m pretty confident in saying that The Normal Heart will show its face on stage again. Because it matters. Because the AIDS crisis isn’t over. Because we can’t forget history. But mostly because like so many people before us, we live in a time when the people with money and power neglect the problems of the people without it. And after we find ourselves broken open in the confines of a too-small theatre seat, the curtain goes down, and we walk out into the night. And we do something about it.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://media40.wnyc.net/media/photologue/photos/cache/1_The_Normal_Heart_01_storyslide_image.jpg
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheNormalHeartBway#p/u/9/xCr3oTGBW10

Illuminations

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

“Art” is in Heart for a Reason

Keith Haring created a language through his art. He consistently used certain images, like the crawling baby and the dog, which resonated with different messages. Haring handled many, if not all, canvases with an improvisational approach. Each design and image took shape instantaneously; the artist was able to create a multitude of drawings in the span of his brief career.

Keith Haring’s art became popularized during the 1980s. He moved from Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and attended the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburg. Soon after, he dropped out and took residence in New York City. He began using black boards located in the subways to produce his form of graffiti. In the process, Haring befriended writers and artists; he participated in exhibitions and performance, which catalyzed his career.

Quickly gaining popularity, Haring traveled around the world leaving his artistic mark. He became a sort of celebrity, a commercial artist. In 1986, he even opened up a store in Soho called the Pop Shop, which sold a wide assortment of merchandise bearing his artwork. Haring’s main reason for opening such a shop was to give the public access to his work. He didn’t agree with art being reserved for the high-class or the artists; he wanted everyone to take pleasure in, not just his art but, art.

Haring’s art wasn’t just aesthetically pleasing, but it also contained messages. As a homosexual, Haring put sexuality in the forefront of many paintings. After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Haring drew pieces that intended to spread public awareness about the disease. He also addressed issues of black oppression, drug epidemics, propaganda, and much more. He shared his masterpieces with everyone and anyone with an interest in art.

-Joel Cruz

Image Sources: http://www.leninimports.com/keith_haring_gallery_new_18.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SavOMS6JsLM/TKNWsE98qyI/AAAAAAAAAAY/O3xOJZ-fgog/s1600/keith-haring-south-africa.jpgv

http://www.pop-shop.com/drupal/sites/all/themes/popshop/images/keith_popshop.jpg

http://www.haring.com/art_haring/images/crackiswack.jpg

Greetings

2011-10-03T06:35:00.001-04:00

With the temperatures plummeting to the cool 50's throughout this week, and with Starbucks unleashing its famous 'Pumpkin Spice Latte', we here at the English Majors' Counseling Office feel confident in wishing you all a happy beginning to both Fall and the month of October. We hope you've had a wonderfully relaxing few days off and are ready to endeavor into this week with us--- so get your knitted scarves out and let's get started.

Right. The first order of business is to finish reading this week's cracking Boylan Blog. And in continuum with last's week blog, some clerical stuff:

1) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. The deadline isn't until January 2012, but be sure to visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

2) The Poetry Club. The Poetry Club will have its first meeting on October 11th during common hours in 2307 Boylan.

3) The BC Slam Team. The BC Slam Team will be having an interest meeting on October 6th during common hours in the Grog Room on the 5th floor of SUBO.

As per usual, feel free to stop by 3416 Boylan Hall for all things English Majors' related and for some lively banter with our resident interns.

Have an exceptional week and don't forget to catch the season premiere of television's craziest doctor tonight at 9pm on Fox.

---Sarah Gonsalves.

Image source: http://www.yourdailyvegan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte.jpg

News Brief

2011-10-03T06:30:00.001-04:00

A Modern-day 'Romeo and Juliet'

This is not the duplicate of Shakespeare's famous tragedy about love. It does not contain a story about two star-crossed lovers who were caught in the middle of a bitter family feud. It is a story, however, with the same tragic outcome--- that of death. Where the story deviates is n the involvement of the government--- the Iranian government to be exact--- and the extraordinary lengths through which this government will go to always prevail.

The story of Nahal Sahabi,28, and her boyfriend Behnam Ganji, 22, was reported as one in which both victims were driven to commit suicide four weeks apart by their country's regime. Both Sahabi and Ganji were imprisoned for being friends with a human rights activist. Ganji and Sahabi were imprisoned eight and three days, respectively, at Evin prison, Tehran. The activist in question of mutual acquaintance was one Koohyar Goudarzi, 26. Mr, Goudarzi was a member of the committee for Huma Rights, and had registered on the government's radar when he was arrested for protesting the re-election of President Ahmadinejad in 2009. Goudarzi spent a year in prison, and upon release, continued his activism. This led him to sought after once more by the authorities. In their hunt for Goudarzi, the authorities entered his apartment and arrested both him and his roommate Mr. Ganji. Ms. Sahabi (along with Goudarzi's mother) was arrested shortly after.

When Ganji was released from Evin prison, he was said to have come out a broken man. Friends of Ganji told The Times that he was beaten by interrogators and forced to falsely condemn his roommate as member of the MKE (a criminal opposition group). Another friend of Ganji goes so far as to suggest that he and Mr. Goudarzi were raped in front of each other by prison guards. After the horrific encounters at Evin prison, Mr, Ganji became severely depressed. On September 1^st, Ganji committed suicide with an overdose of prescription drugs.

Unlike her boyfriend, Ms. Sahabi was said to not be as traumatized after her arrest and release. It is noted, however, that she lived in the constant fear of rape after threats by the guards. When she found out about her boyfriend's death, Sahabi was devastated and blogged, “Hey Behnam. Damn you, what am I supposed to do in your absence?” On Thursday, she was found dead in her room, having overdosed on prescription drugs as well.

It would appear that tyrannical governments with the ideals of a 'Big Brother Is Watching You' slogan are not sole figments of George Orwell's imagination. When the story of Ganji and Sahabi broke, bloggers across Iran wrote of their sympathies and sent out their heart-felt condolences. Perhaps what was most notable and widely alarming about the response to these deaths was the shared feeling that something like this could happen to anyone in Iran. It is easy for us to go about our day, consuming massive amounts of Starbucks and savoring our slices of apple pie, forgetting just how fortunate we are to be living in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'. It is imperative that we take into consideration that there are those who do not have these privileges and there are those who live their lives in constant fear of tyrannical governments with absolute power. With this in mind, Ganji and Sahabi stood as defiant pillars in a rigid regime, where their inseparability and love for each other, coupled with their acquaintance of an activist, saw their lives come to an unfortunate end. For those standing strong and fighting for change in Iran, their modern-day 'Romeo and Juliet' will never be forgotten.

---Sarah Gonsalves.

Article Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044057/Tragedy-modern-day-Romeo-Juliet-The-lovers-driven-suicide-Iranian-regime.html

Image Source: http://a1.l3-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/97/8ee606f9935e4eb1bd64926fec87d011/l.jpg

A Truly Terrifying Halloween Costume

A portly friend of mine once had a shirt that said “I beat anorexia.” I wasn’t sure if it was a confident, funny statement of self-love and acceptance or a self-deprecating, offensive trivialization of eating disorders. I have no such doubts about a Halloween costume marketed online by the popular costume store Ricky’s. The outfit, called “Anna Rexia”, is a literal interpretation of anorexia nervosa. According to the National Eating Disorders Associated, an estimated 10 million women and 1 million men in America suffer from anorexia or bulimia. And these numbers are surely low, as many individuals with eating disorders will not report them or seek help. The scariest part? Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness: 20% of anorexics will die within 20 years of contracting the illness, and anorexia kills 12 times as many females between 15 and 24 as any other cause of death. I have trouble finding a spot in all this troubling data for good-humored Halloween fun.

The costume, which has apparently been around for a while but only recently found its way to Ricky’s, is a tight black dress picturing a skeletal frame. It includes a heart-shaped name tag with “Anna Rexia” written on it, an adorable bow in the shape of a bone, and a length of measuring tape meant to be looped around the waist and neck. Yes, you can loop the measuring tape around your neck like a noose. The lady in the picture certainly seems happy and comfortable in her outfit, although individuals with eating disorders are known to have depression and be uncomfortable in their own bodies. Plus, this woman is sexy: healthy hair, good skin, breasts pushed so far up and together that it almost looks painful, full hips. Looking at an actual anorexic will show you a different story: hair falling out, yellowing skin, brittle nails, and no sex appeal to speak of. This woman in the picture is what anorexics want to look like, except that if they did look like her they’d still think they were obese and disgusting. It’s horrible to even create an outfit that mocks a fatal illness; to market that illness as sexy adds insult to injury.

But, of course, companies have been marketing anorexia to us for years. Fashion magazines sell us stick-thin female models, movies and TV shows sell us sexy leading men and women, and car commercials sell us beautiful, skinny people who drive BMWs. The argument that our apparent cultural obsession with weight and weight-loss goes hand-in-hand with the media’s portrayal of the ideal human figure has been explored ad nauseam and needs no further support from me. But this costume makes it obvious that, despite the many resources and information available out there, eating disorders are still gravely disregarded, their consequences ignored, and their significance underestimated. Ricky’s pulled the outfit from their website after major backlash from organizations like the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders, but it’s still being sold elsewhere on the internet.

Ladies and gentlemen, have fun this Halloween. Be goofy. Wear a funny outfit. Be sexy if you want to be. But let’s not forget what Halloween is really about: stuffing your face with chocolate. You too, Anna.

-Margie Sarsfield

Article Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/online-store-pulls-controversial-anorexia-costume/story?id=14580589

Image Source: http://www.boingboing.net/filesroot/200710081256.jpg

It’s a bird! It’s a plane, it’s- Venus?

As the days draw closer to the supposed end of the world declared by centuries dead cultures, clinically disturbed religious leaders incapable of doing math, small internet shops that want to capitalize on apocalypse merc because they have no original ideas of their own and yes, that one guy in Times Square that cries, “the end is coming!”, it turns out they might be right.

But not how you think. The rare phenomenon is called Venus In Transit. The planet Venus orbits around the sun until it is visible on Earth. As it passes in front of the sun, it will unleash a powerful tidal wave of energy upon the surface of the Earth. Some theories suggest the wave will end the world as we know it: it will knock out and fry any and all electronics. From your toaster to your Mac, kiss them goodbye. We’ll be fine. And hey, at least you’ll have your health, right?
-Kate

Image Source: http://superk.physics.sunysb.edu/~chiaki/AstroPhotos/VenusTransit.jpg
Article Source: http://magnificent50.com/index.php/entertainment/mayan-apocalypse-island-revealed-on-history-channel/

Poem of the Week

2011-10-03T06:20:00.003-04:00

Is Paradise actually paradisaical?

Come Slowly, Eden!
by Emily Dickinson

Come slowly, Eden!
lips unused to thee,
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,

Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars --enters,
And is lost in balms!

The last time I read Emily Dickinson’s work was in my sophomore year of high school. She hardly capitalized her words. Each word in her poetry meant more than what was apparent to the naked eye. I was a bit overwhelmed by her writing. I put down her poems and decided to take it up in a distant time in the future.
Dickinson did not mind. She was patient. She waited for me.
I came across “Come Slowly, Eden!“ last week. As I was reading the poem, I compared the feelings I had before with the feelings I currently had; I appreciated my growth. The overwhelming feelings were gone, and pure amazement set in.
What I admired most about Dickinson’s work was her brevity coupled with her ability to take the reader’s breath away in spite of it.
In this selection, the speaker bravely asks Paradise (known as Eden in the poem) to take its time in materializing. On a general note, Paradise is the peak of living, of mortality, and is perceived as the ultimate state of being to reach. This concept is acknowledged by the speaker as Eden lives through his or her words. The poem is rampant with active and present-tense verbs. It is to the point that the reader can almost feel the contours of the speaker’s lips, taste/smell the jasmine, hear the buzzing of the bee.
Eden is vibrant, but subtly ominous. The speaker spans from being unused to Eden and ultimately lost. This indicates that Eden (or Paradise) was not what the speaker expected or hoped it would be.
In the period in which this poem was written, Dickinson’s poems are brave, sharp, and acute. She challenges the notions of Paradise and all that it is dreamed up to be. A person either wakes up from a dream or becomes lost in it, as the speaker did in Dickinson’s poem. Is Paradise really the goal? Is Paradise really paradisaical?

~Kerri Byam

Poem Source: http://www.poetry-archive.com/d/come_slowly_eden.html
Image Source: http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/images/GardenOfEden3.jpg

Currently Reading

2011-10-03T06:15:00.002-04:00

Hanging Loose, So To Speak

I've recently been engrossed with the Brooklyn literary magazine Hanging Loose, a staple of the Brooklyn literary galaxy since 1966. Hanging Loose was born into the bohemian and underground circles of 1960's New York City "inspired by a very low budget...the format was also meant to get across a point of view: that poetry is for now, not for the Ages. If you liked a poem, you could pin it to the wall. If you
didn’t like a poem, you could use it as a napkin." I've got some magazines from both the 70's and 00's--I can attest to their DIY aesthetic and eccentric incarnations of prose and poetry. Here's an example from poet Ann Guido:

"The Farm"

morning after morning
came the big sun

burning thru fields
like babies with the

same clothes on or off
and each night a cool

moon over us like a queen
but it was not the world

Guido's verse is only a small example of Hanging Loose's "preamble"," so to speak: they've published poems by the great Native American poet Sherman Alexie as well as Harley Elliot and Robert Herson. Also notable is their "Writers of High School Age" section, where they afford young writers the opportunity to show their work to new
eyes--making the vast and often confusing world of literary publications a little smaller and manageable.

You can visit www.hangingloosepress.com to check out current and back issues (they catalog each one, starting form the inception of the magazine) and to find a place in New York where you can pick up a copy yourself. Of course, there are guidelines to submit if you like what you read (I suggest scanning a few issues to get a sense of what they're after).

Happy reading! Stay weird, and as always...be excellent to one another, and do good work.

--Ryan Skrabalak

Image Source:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vKaCQRo7E0Q/TRB0j7BPFGI/AAAAAAAAEHg/jTobrvZ55LI/s320/HLP97L.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-10-03T06:10:00.011-04:00

The Quiet Tragedies of “Peter Pan”

“Hey Peter Pan, I’m going home now,” begins the final track on Patty Griffin’s 1998 album Flaming Red. The bare words, stripped of their simple but compelling musical accompaniment, might sound casual, but when uttered in the soft melancholy of Griffin’s voice they are the breathtaking overture to a bittersweet farewell. In a post-iTunes age when we can download single tracks and listen to everything on shuffle, we don’t tend to think of albums as holistic and conceptual entities with consciously ordered tracks. But it’s no mistake that “Peter Pan” closes out Flaming Red; it is the denouement of an emotional journey, the slow descent of tears down a cheek after they’ve spent twelve songs collecting in the eyes. It is a song for the end of the day, when you’re as tired and sweetly sad as Griffin’s lamenting vocals.

The first line of the song sets the stage for the four-minute long goodbye, in which the singer tells Peter Pan, “I’m all grown up / You’re on your own now.” Griffin tries to ease the double-sided ache by explaining, “I wrote a note to tell you how you matter,” a line that evokes the sincerity of a child’s love—the ability to convey to someone with simplicity how much he or she is valued without the same hesitations and difficulties of an adult tongue. Yet Griffin’s voice then makes a delicate turn to grapple with the lines: “When the rain came down all the letters scattered / And washed away, drifted off to never / Where you’ll be safe from me now forever,” implying a mature cognizance of the harm one might cause to another. Children, thankfully, do not tend to conceive of themselves as forces from which to be protected, but the “all grown up” singer is painfully aware of her ability to inflict and absorb pain. For all the benefits of maturing and coming into one’s own, there is a distinct tragedy, too, at the heart of growing up. What the longing ache of the instrumentation reveals is that this tragedy is the most quietly simple one we endure. That this simultaneous growth and devastation is universal makes it all the more poignant.

But then, what if Griffin’s “Peter Pan” isn’t really about growing up at all? As a symbolic figure that resists the natural progression of age and celebrates eternal youthfulness, J.M. Barrie’s legendary character has lent himself easily to adaptation and co-optation. Maybe I’d do Griffin a disservice to say that she enters into this dialogue only to speak of the end of childhood. What if the song is about realizing the need to move on from loves, from places, from dreams? What if it’s the painful realization we might sometimes have that our lives as we’re currently living them are in some way incompatible with who we’ve become?

Patty Griffin is not just a singer. She is a poet and a storyteller with a subtle but deep ability to make us learn more about ourselves without needing to do more than push the play button. She doesn’t need to tell us she’s sad, she doesn’t need to use the word tears, she doesn’t need to utter goodbye. It’s implicit in her words and embedded here in the fragility of her usually strong voice. So I won’t hold you up any longer. Go ahead and push play.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/p/patty-griffin/album-flaming-red.jpg
Audio Source: http://www.4shared.com/audio/nATzFTUx/Patty_Griffin_-_13_-_Peter_Pan.html

Currently Watching

2011-10-03T06:05:00.000-04:00

You So Silly

It’s easy to become famous now a days. All you need is a camera, a good idea, and a Youtube account. It’s even easier to become famous if you’re a child or animal.

Babies, toddlers, and children are usually big hits because they are cute and innocent. They do things out of trial and error and say things without putting much thought into it. Watching a screaming two-year-old run out of a room with his diaper on his head can be hilarious. But watching a grunting twenty-one-year-old charge his way out of his apartment with a diaper on his head can be a bit disturbing. Children make us laugh because 'They don’t know any better.' So when they say something funny, we can’t get enough of it. It’s comedy in its purest form.

Videos of dogs, cats, pandas, and anything else with fur and a cute face quickly spread from computer screen to computer screen. There are thousands upon thousands of videos showing puppy-kitten love, own-reflection-freak-outs, and amazing talent on four legs. Just like kids, animals are cute and innocent; 'They don’t know any better.' And thanks to the advancement of voice over technology, animals now have the ability to talk! Youtuber Klaatu42 specializes and revolves his channel on this gold mine of cuteness. The view count of the video below says it all: 63,000,000+.

-Joel

Image source: http://brescher.net/fark/Cats/BabyHoldingKittenTail.jpg

Illuminations

2011-10-03T06:00:00.002-04:00

Taking Realism to Another Level

Street art isn’t just for the streets anymore. You could argue it hasn’t been for some time. There are very few cities with strict laws on graffiti and street art, and most of them are in Texas. But who cares? Everything fun is outlawed in Texas. Even the often conservative city of Atlanta has shown love to street art with its recent Living Walls Conference, which brought together over 40 artists to create art on walls across the entire city.

Also, Street Art isn’t just for the graffiti artist to “tag” names anymore. Artists, designers, painters, and photographers have got into the act and begun creating awesome murals, both large-scale and those modest in size. Think of them as artistic architects. These designs breathe new life into a bland cityscape, all the while enriching the culture of the area around them. Take a closer look at some awesome examples of street art in the samples below. The vibrancy of the colors and the verisimilitude evoked within each piece has an arresting effect that can alter any landscape, or in this case, any pavement.

So if you’re out running errands and happen to fall into a huge ice crevasse, relax, it's only art—but let's admit it: art can take you places.

-Ocean Vuong

Image source: http://www.an-mag.com/wp-content/gallery/street-art-montage/street4.jpg

Greetings

2011-09-26T06:35:00.003-04:00

I Know What You Might Be Doing This Not Quite Indian Summer

Although it isn't technically an Indian summer until the first frost, it has been unseasonably warm these past few days. So get out! Bike to the Rockaways or hike those Catskills you put off doing all summer long (you protagonist, you).

WAIT, DON'T GO BIKING OR HIKING YET. Finish up reading the rest of this week's Boylan Blog which is spectacular, I promise. Okay, I know. Try listening to this:

There, relax. Isn't that nice? So, now some clerical stuff. But clerical stuff that could very easily benefit you. Clerical stuff that could prove to be very profitable for you this semester--mentally, academically, even fiscally (Pay your cable bill! Buy an Unlimited Metrocard! Treat your dog to brand name kibble! etc.):

1) Cuny Ethics & Morality Essay Contest. Deadline is Friday, September 30th. For more information, visit www.aaari.info

2) Making Work Visible writing contest. Open to all CUNY undergrads. Deadline isn't until January 2012, but visit http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/AHlaboressay.php for more details.

As always, swing by 3416 Boylan Hall for even more related contests, information on literary journal submissions, and general counseling. It's going to be in the mid-eighties and humid all week. We have air conditioning. Just saying.

For those interested in finding where the video and picture at the top of the page come from, look no more.

Be excellent to one another, and do good work.

--Ryan Skrabalak

Image source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1Uez6rdyeqs/TLG8V_c6xbI/AAAAAAAAABo/sbzkj-de7LQ/s1600/101007+KOYAANISQATSI+6.jpg

News Briefs

2011-09-26T06:30:00.003-04:00

When the Truth Became Illegal

When horrifying videos and photographs from inside thirty factory farms in Finland hit the nation’s media outlets in December 2009, there was public outrage. Not only were the pigs shown in heavily confined and dirty conditions but many of them were also in serious states of injury, the neglect of which, according to Finnish animal rights group Justice for Animals, constituted the violation of animal welfare laws. In a country where factory farmers openly pride themselves on humane practices, the undeniable evidence documented by Karry Hedberg and Saila Kivelä seemed like a personal betrayal to many people. It only makes sense, then, that the two Justice for Animals activists who took the footage finally came to court with the case this year, right?

Except that Hedberg and Kivelä aren’t in court to see the farmers indicted for their careless animal cruelty. The activists are instead in court because they are being prosecuted for their revelatory actions by Finnish authorities. More shocking still, the charges have nothing to do with trespassing on private property but are rooted entirely in the supposed defamation resulting from the videos, which the prosecution claims constitutes “disturbing the peace.” The case will come before the Finland Proper District Court in October and Hedberg and Kivelä face prison time and a fine of up to 180,000 euros if found guilty. Unfortunately, Finnish courts have a fairly disturbing track record in cases dealing with animal rights activists. What they need to do now is ask themselves some basic but serious questions: Since when is showing people the necessary truth considered defamation? And how do you disturb the peace when the peace was only a façade to begin with?

But before we start condemning the backwards justice taking place in Finland, consider this: In the last year, four states in the U.S. (New York included) have tried to pass bills banning any kind of film and photography from taking place on factory farms, which would essentially allow the farmers to perform any manner of inhumane practices without risk of exposure. So what happens in the factory farms stays in the factory farms, and we’re left to wonder when our legislation started sounding more like Vegas logic than morally guided law. If sticking our noses and cameras into arenas of injustice constitutes “disturbing the peace,” then maybe we ought to celebrate a little disturbance.

-- Nora Curry

Article Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mikko-alanne/pig-animal-justice_b_972672.html

Image Source: http://whole.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Factory-Farm-Pigs.jpg
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ice Cream has never sounded so good…um…yeah.

I never thought I’d like ice cream for its sense of humor; Ben & Jerry’s has just added a new flavor to their massive list: Schweddy Balls. It consists of vanilla ice cream, a hint of rum, fudge covered rum balls, and milk chocolate rum balls. Its name pays tribute to Alec Baldwin’s renowned skit on Saturday Night Live, which is provided below this posting for your viewing pleasure.

Now, who wouldn’t want a big spoon of Schweddy Balls? Apparently, One Million Moms – an organization, in association with the American Family Association, made up of mostly (as the name implies) mothers who target negative influences throughout the media, society, etc. – has raised a finger at Ben & Jerry’s for the ill sense of humor. It has decided to boycott the new flavor. Some members of One Million Moms don’t want their children asking for Schweddy Balls as they run down the aisle with it in their hand.

This isn’t the first Ben & Jerry’s flavor to gain a lot of attention. In 2009, they released Hubby Hubby, a flavor made to show support to Vermont and other states that legalized same sex marriage. Clearly, this ice cream company is very clever at making and marketing good ice cream with good intentions.

Ain’t nothing wrong with Schweddy Balls. It happens.

-- Joel Cruz

Article Source: http://bites.today.com/_news/2011/09/21/7876625-parents-call-for-boycott-of-ben-jerrys-schweddy-balls-flavor

Image Source: http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2011/09/Schweddy-Balls-ice-cream.jpg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About That Last Meal...

In addition to the gross act of injustice perpetrated by the State of Georgia last week, inmates on America's death row now have even more cards stacked against them. On Thursday, September 22nd, the State of Texas abolished the "time-honored" tradition of affording death row inmates a "fancy" last meal. Now inmates will be served your regular old prison fare. Texas Senator John Whitmire commented "enough is enough" in response to inmate Lawrence Brewer's last meal request, which included (among other things) a triple bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, a "big bowl of okra with ketchup," two chicken-fried steaks, a pint of ice cream, and a pound of barbecue. Brewer promptly dismissed the feast when it arrived at his cell (he "wasn't hungry"), and the food was trashed. He was sentenced to death after allegedly killing a black man, James Byrd, Jr., by dragging him from the back of his truck for eight miles.

Now, Brewer's last words before he was executed on September 21st were (in response to a local news anchor's question) "As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets. No, I'd do it all over again, to tell you the truth." Does that make my brain ache, my heart ache? Should these sort of people be given the right to the grand feast and spectacle of a "Last Meal"? Isn't it a bit antiquated, the whole idea? But they are human, aren't they? Shouldn't they be offered food and drink, even when all of society has cast them away, quarantined them?

Well. Why are we killing humans, anyway? Maybe we need to answer that question first. Then we can do away with the chicken-fried steaks and fajitas.

-Ryan Skrabalak

Image Source: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGC/StaticFiles/Images/Show/40xx/408x/4082_Explorer_Inside_Death_Row-01_05320299.JPG

Article Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/us-execution-lastmeal-idUSTRE78M2U020110923

Poem of the Week

2011-09-26T06:20:00.001-04:00

Scheherazade
by Richard Siken

Tell me about the dream where we pull the bodies out of the lake
and dress them in warm clothes again.
How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running
until they forget that they are horses.
It's not like a tree where the roots have to end somewhere,
it's more like a song on a policeman's radio,
how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days
were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple
to slice into pieces.
Look at the light through the windowpane. That means it's noon, that means
we're inconsolable.
Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.
These, our bodies, possessed by light.
Tell me we'll never get used to it.

Like bones littered across the page, Richard Siken's poems possess the fractured emotions of the modern era. There is uneasiness at every line break, the enjambments are abrupt and the narrative stutters in its white space. However, this is also the poetry of panic. Each line rushes to dive off the left margin's fatal cliff, only to swoop back and regain its fierce momentum. Its drive to loosen itself from its own syntax: “how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days / were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple / to slice into pieces.” The images stream in a masterful fluidity, but they have no time to explain themselves and no time to resonate; like the hectic lives we lead in the 21st century; each image surges towards a destination.

What makes the unconventional form in this poem so effective is the desperation in the speaker's voice. It is a speaker writing and praying at the same time. The commands of “tell me” begin to unravel into a sort of plea: “Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.” What I admire about Siken's work is his relentless need to remain human. This poem, like others in his first collection Crush, is an attempt at facing the guilt and the failure as flawed partakers of society. And in the violence of its language and in its inconsolable traumas, there is a desire for healing, and, like the often muted animals inside us, the cry for help and resurrection.

-Ocean Vuong

Image Source: http://fishousepoems.org/archives/images/covers/crush-web.jpg

2011-09-26T06:15:00.005-04:00

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

When I was eight, I remember standing in front of the fan in my room wrapped in a long scarf, pretending to be Storm from the X-Men. It seems silly in retrospect, but this memory of me acting like a superhero evokes the feelings of strength and power that filled me as a child at that moment. I really did think I was Storm. In my mind, I really could save the world.

As I'm growing up, I'm starting to realize that moments like that are getting harder to come by. Watching old reruns of the X-Men cartoons don't make me feel that way anymore, but Stieg Larsson's The Millenium Trilogy definitely does. Lisbeth Salander, a doll-like creature, barely five-foot tall, covered in tattoos and piercings, with a crooked smile and the ability to hack anything under the sun, makes me feel strong and powerful in a way I had almost forgotten.

Larsson uses the unlikely protagonist of Lisbeth to make a wide range of social commentary. He holds back nothing, and to be honest, there are scenes in the books that are difficult to digest. He questions society's treatment of the mentally ill and brings to the foreground a young woman who has been abused and abandoned. Even more so, he hones in on the brutalities committed against women and gives inspiration as to how they can fight back. What Lisbeth lacks in stature, she more than makes up for with her intellect and inventiveness. Her unwavering resilience in times when I would have gone down in a great Victorian decline draws the difference between being a survivor and a victim. No matter what wrongs are done to her, she comes out kicking and punching, quite literally in many cases.

As one of the characters jokingly says, Lisbeth is no shrinking violet, she will happily return violence with violence. Her heroic actions might seem questionable to some, but for me, she did the things we only wish we could do. Lisbeth becomes a means of releasing the anger, hurt, and passion we all experience but try to keep tamed. She abides by her own moral code and has no qualms meting out justice where she feels it is deserved; her fire and spirit seem to leak out of the pages and pour freely into the reader's veins. Unlike the traditional superhero, Lisbeth does not always take the high road and she does not always strive for the betterment of others, but in her own unique way she made me feel like that girl in front of that fan more than a decade ago.

--Mira

Image Source: http://www.msoe.edu/visitors/graphics/june.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-09-26T06:10:00.005-04:00

“UnTold Stories”

To play a Buju Banton song in a crowd of West Indians is to put on the gospel. Born in 1973 and raised in the tough environment of Denham Town, Jamaica, Buju Banton was always recognized for his exceptional lyrical ability, his constant confrontation of the socio-economic and political goings-on of Jamaica (and to a larger extent, the greater West Indies), and for his empathy towards the impoverished and disenchanted masses. His breakthrough album 'Til Shiloh, featuring the song “Untold Stories”, put him on the map within the Reggae music industry and even garnered him comparisons to the late and great Bob Marley.

In “Untold Stories,” Buju Banton becomes the voice of the people as he laments the struggle of everyday life. He speaks about the constant struggle of the poor to exist with the astute observation that they have to steal and rob to survive. He distresses over the state of the youth, who have education but still manage to get out of control. He observes that those who cannot afford to escape this squalid state of affairs will have to stay and face the lack of opportunities in a place where the future seems bleak. Out of all of this, the most haunting part of the song appears in the chorus where Buju croons, “With all the hike in the price/ Arm and leg we have to pay/ While our leaders play.” It is here that Buju addresses the issue of a government whose laxity and utter incompetence sees its people suffer.

The tagline of the entire piece is when Buju states heartbreakingly, “My cup is full to the brim/ I could go on and on the full has never been told.” This is the crux of the song—after all the lamenting and distressing, the full story of the impoverished masses has still not been told. Buju Banton is considered a musical icon in the West Indies not only because he is musically gifted, but because he has the sole ability to bring to the forefront the struggle of the masses while other artists choose to focus their energies on the promulgation of badmanism and general depravity. Buju Banton is an artist that is for the people and duly loved by the people for his deep empathy towards their everyday struggles. Though 'Til Shiloh was released almost sixteen years ago, its dancehall/roots reggae vibes coupled with its hard-hitting messages still prove relevant. If you don't believe me, find a group of West Indians and play any track, then observe the reactions.

- Sarah Gonsalves

'Til Shiloh
"UnTold Stories"
Buju Banton

While I'm Living
Thanks I'll Be Giving
To the Most High You know,

[Chorus: ]
I am living while I am living to the father I will pray
Only he knows how we get through everyday
With all the hike in the price
Arm and leg we have to pay
While our leaders play

[Verse 1:]
All I see people a rip and a rob and a grab
Tief never love fe see tief wid long bag
No love for the people who a suffer real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from get out of control
Full up of education yet no own no payroll
The clothes on my back have countless eyehole.
I could go on and on the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 2:]
Who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can't...they will have to stay
Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity
In these times I say... When mama spend her last and send you go class
Never you ever play
It's a competitive world for low budget people,
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim
I could go on and on the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 3:]
All I see people a rip and a rob and a grab
Tief never love fe see tief wid long bag
No love for the people who a suffer real bad
Another toll to the poll may God help we soul
What is to stop the youths from get out of control
Full up of education yet no own no payroll
The clothes on my back have countless eyehole
Could go on and on and the full has never been told
(On and On)
Though this life keep getting me down
Don't give up now
Got to survive somehow
Could go on and on and the full has never been told

[Repeat Chorus]

[Verse 4:]
Who can afford to run will run
But what about those who can't...they will have to stay
Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity
In these times I say... When mama spend her last and send you go class
Never you ever play
It's a competitive world for low budget people,
Spending a dime while earning a nickel
With no regards to who it may tickle
My cup is full to the brim
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on the full has never been told
I could go on and on....
The full has never....

Been.....
Toooooold.

Image Source: http://d.yimg.com/ec/image/v1/release/23066941;encoding=jpg;size=300;fallback=defaultImage
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yymONwzP7o

Currently Watching

2011-09-26T06:05:00.000-04:00

Man vs. Food

Imagine trying to eat a 4.5 pound steak, a twelve egg omelet or five 24-oz. milkshakes in one sitting. Well that’s what food adventurer Adam Richman (born and raised in Brooklyn) does on a daily basis. The Travel Channel TV show, Man vs. Food, captures Richman touring the country to compete in food challenges that would be expected to stump the majority of participants.

While the cuisines vary, the food that Richman must eat is typically in portions that could feed about four to five people or spicy to the extent that one’s mouth feels as though it were on fire. Whether facing the Great Steak Challenge in Baltimore or the Suicide 6 Wings Challenge in Brooklyn, he tackles each challenge with determination and a big appetite.

On the show, Richman not only partakes in food contests, but he also visits locally known eateries and samples their signature dishes. In one episode, which takes place in Springfield, Illinois, he tastes a city favorite known as The Horseshoe, goes to the location where corndogs originated and participates in the Firebrand Chili Challenge. So, while the host travels throughout the nation, the viewer gets the chance to be a tourist at the same time (with the added comfort of sitting on his own couch or bed).

Check out the video below of Adam Richman taking on the Ultimate Philly Cheesesteak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vws16IsnW_g&feature=relmfu

~Kerry Gertner

Article Source: http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Man_V_Food
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vws16IsnW_g&feature=relmfu
Image Source: http://www.tvdvdset.com/userfiles/man%20vs%20food%20poster.jpg

News Briefs

2011-09-19T06:30:00.028-04:00

Preschoolers' Stolen Lunch Money

This week in our news, a couple from Staten Island was arrested for stealing money from a nonprofit preschool chain called Red Apple Child Development Center. The couple, Joanna Fan and Ziming Shen, has reportedly stolen as much as $2.5 million from the accounts of the preschool chain. Since 2006, Fan and Shen have been pilfering from a program that has provided healthy meals for preschoolers across the city for the past nine years.

Shen and his wife Fan, the executive director of the chain, used the money to profit from their own private business called Preschool of America Inc. They have also made payments on various condominiums in Manhattan. On Friday morning, the partners-in-crime (pun intended) gave themselves in to the United States Agriculture Department. They pleaded not guilty at Brooklyn’s United States District Court. They posted bail at $750,000 for each spouse. Fan and Shen were also required to relinquish their passports.

According to the New York Times, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York called this incident a historic one. It was one of the largest thefts of lunch money with which the courts have had to deal. In this day and age, stealing money from a preschoolers’ lunch program is deplorable. What will they do next?

- Kerri Byam

Article Source: http://mobile.nytimes.com/articles;jsessionid=149
Image Source: http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/09/17/420x316-alg_lunch_kids.jpg

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bacteria as Advertisement

When you think of creative advertisements, you probably think of bright colors and catchy slogans. However, Warner Brothers Canada took their imagination a step further for their publicity of the newly released film Contagion. In Toronto, the company created two storefront movie billboards that were entirely made out of live bacteria, fungi, and mold.

With the help of twenty-five microbiologists and immunologists, the “medium” was chosen. Soon after, the bacteria was placed on stenciled drawings of the film’s title. However, when the billboards were displayed, it took time before the bacteria, which spelled out the title, Contagion, was perceptible. Just as a cold slowly creeps up on you, so did this advertisement.

Vivid images of the bacterial growth on the billboard are grotesque to the point of making you want to cringe. On the other hand, this media attention given to the movie only adds upon the audience’s desire to take part in the film’s phenomenon. One might consider the question: is this purely repulsive or a solely ingenious marketing ploy?

Check out the video below which displays the process of creating the signs, the bacteria growth on these ads, as well as the feedback from the passers-by:

- Kerry Gertner

Article Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44486897/ns/today-entertainment/#.Tm6rRH7kmk8
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LppK4ZtsDdM&feature=player_embedded
Image Source: http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/943maxfm.com/files/2011/09/Contagion1.jpgw=400&h=300&zc=1&s=0&a=t&q=89

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good For More Than Steak

After a storm destroyed his home and forced his parents to leave the country in search of jobs, 18-month-old Tha Sophat of Cambodia started suckling milk from a cow to get his daily nourishment. No, what you just read was not a typo. Boy. Suckling. Milk. Cow. Yes.

Little Tha fell sick when he could no longer breast-feed from his mother due to her leaving. As his 46-year-old grandfather recounts the story, Tha picked up his unorthodox practice by watching a nearby calf nursing from its mother. Making a connection between the nursing process of the calf and himself, he soon followed in the calf’s footsteps. Despite the grandfather’s efforts to tear the boy away, Tha has been suckling away for one month now. Although his health seems to be perfectly fine, his grandfather is trying to limit his suckling because of stigma cast by other villagers.

As we try to process this eccentric bit of news, there are a plethora of underlying social concerns that Tha’s story brings to mind. What kind of parents would abandon such a young child? But even more so, how can a government leave its citizens in such dire financial straits? Are the parents then justified in their attempts to provide for their son?

The one thing that stands out above all else is Tha’s instinct to survive. Having lived in America for most of my life, it’s hard to remind myself that there are children out there whose lives are so at odds with my own childhood. It’s easy to cringe at the images, but what resonates is Tha’s ability to adapt. At 18 months, he’s proven himself to be far more ingenious than myself at 20 years. But how will this mantle of forced adulthood affect his identity of the self in years to come? What innocence gets lost along the way?

Just some questions to think about over that next glass of milk.

- Mira

video platform video management video solutions video player

Article Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036201/Child-suckles-cows-milk-mother-leaves-home-search-work.html?ITO=1490

Video Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/cambodian-boy-suckles-cow-for-milk-14499657

Image Source: http://in.reuters.com/resources/r/m=02&d=20110911&t=2&i=498866098&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=img-2011-09-11T163556Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-592752-1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, Earth Day is Everyday

If you think the smog and smoke of New York needs some anti-pollution legislation, there is an entire nation that would concur. That nation is unfortunately as far away as South America, and it appears they want to take it a step further by giving rights to mother nature. Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed upon by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right to not be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.

"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all," said Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said Bolivia's traditional indigenous respect for the Pachamama was vital to prevent climate change. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values," he said.

Bolivia is struggling to cope with rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more extreme weather events including more frequent floods, droughts, frosts and mudslides. Research by glaciologist Edson Ramirez of San Andres University in the capital city, La Paz, suggests temperatures have been rising steadily for 60 years and started to accelerate in 1979. They are now on course to rise a further 3.5-4C over the next 100 years. This would turn much of Bolivia into a desert.

Most glaciers below 5,000m are expected to disappear completely within 20 years, leaving Bolivia with a much smaller ice cap. Scientists say this will lead to a crisis in farming and water shortages in cities such as La Paz and El Alto.

Well, it looks like Mother Earth is finally getting the R-E-S-P-E-C-T she deserves. Here's to hoping it catches on.

- Ocean

Article Source: http://thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/south-america-mainmenu-37/7095-bolivia-pushes-for-equal-rights-for-mother-earth
Image Source: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs36/f/2008/253/2/5/mother_earth_by_novembro.jpg

Culture Corner

2011-09-19T06:25:00.002-04:00

Believing in Magic

Excited as I was to spend a few weeks of this past summer in London, my desire to see the English countryside quickly drew me out of the city and into Glastonbury, a small town on the Isle of Avalon. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard of the world-famous rock festival held there nearly every summer, but there’s a lot more to be seen the other 362 days of the year. With a past heavily entrenched in paganism, Christendom, and Arthurian legend, Glastonbury beautifully balances the complexity of history with the simplicity of nature.

Looking down the Main Street, you would probably think, as I did, that Glastonbury is the perfect small town. Just the right amount of people are bustling around and each storefront is a different vibrant color. But look a little closer and you’ll realize that that ideal small town bookstore isn’t exactly selling English novels; instead the shelves are lined with books about legends and spells. And as you meander the shops, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything to purchase that isn’t related in some way to the art of magic, whether you’re checking out the wares at The Goddess and the Green Man, Cat and Cauldron, or The Speaking Tree. Maybe it’s a little pouch with spell ingredients that will catch your eye, or perhaps it’s that handwritten book on the elements. And if you’re lucky, you’ll walk into Café Galatea during the evening when a middle-aged guitarist draws from his instrument the kind of simple and resonant melodies that could break your heart right in the middle of the little vegetarian café.

The connection to spirituality that is ever present in the shops stems from the searing beauty and mysticism of the landscape itself. The distinct landmark of the town is the Glastonbury Tor, a hill clearly marked by the remains of a church destroyed in the 13th century. Nearby the Tor is the Chalice Well Garden, where you can walk barefoot through a healing pool and drink from the sacred Lion’s Head Fountain.

I was just about ready to declare Glastonbury my favorite place in the world when someone abruptly suggested to me that wherever the mystical inclinations of the town were born, their upkeep is almost exclusively an economic ploy to draw tourists. Maybe it would be too idealistic of me to say that such a statement is pure cynicism and that all the townspeople are wholly and authentically immersed in the mystical Arthurian aura that they’ve draped emphatically across their streets. But once you’ve walked through the town, interacted with the shopkeepers, laid your tired body on top of the Tor, and dipped your feet in the Healing Pool, it might be a bit harder to stir up that kind of skepticism. Maybe it’s all for fun. Maybe it’s all for money. Or maybe if a group of people immerse themselves enough in the nature and history of their land and the beliefs that come with it, we have no right or need to ask questions of authenticity. We’re left only with the imperative to explore with the kind of wonder warranted by both magic and travel alike.

- Nora Curry

Image Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--qwBtSOqC0Q/TgH4alUnTCI/AAAAAAAAAVk/Fo5eap7Tpb4/s1600/glastonbury+tor.jpg

Poem of the Week

2011-09-19T06:20:00.002-04:00

Good Ol' Frank

MY HEART
by Frank O’Hara

I'm not going to cry all the time
nor shall I laugh all the time,
I don't prefer one "strain" to another.
I'd have the immediacy of a bad movie,
not just a sleeper, but also the big,
overproduced first-run kind. I want to be
at least as alive as the vulgar. And if
some aficionado of my mess says "That's
not like Frank!”, all to the good! I
don't wear brown and grey suits all the time,
do I? No. I wear workshirts to the opera,
often. I want my feet to be bare,
I want my face to be shaven, and my heart—
you can't plan on the heart, but
the better part of it, my poetry, is open.

1955

O’Hara’s work has been on my mind lately. He’s sort of the residing-ghost-officer of a group/collective/event, which includes many talented writers and artists (of all kinds), that I’m very fortunate to be a part of. He’s also one of my favorite poets; a poet who is a special branch in the family tree of my poetics.

“My Heart” carries with it, by merely its name, a long history of poems ranging from Shakespeare and on to more modern interpretations. O’Hara’s declaration with the opening three lines almost suggest a conclusion before anything actually begins. Jackson Pollock, a friend of O’Hara’s, spoke of the decision to switch from titling his paintings to numbering them, declaring his audience to “receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for.” O’Hara’s title suggests love, but is unconventional in his approach and in the type of love he illustrates. This isn't a sugary love ode or a brooding reflective history. Likewise, O’Hara discusses Pollock’s idea of the preconceived notion with the second half of the poem. His enjambment is oddly spectacular and vivacious, like New York City traffic.

There is an exuberance and personal touch to O’Hara’s verse, which I just cannot get enough of. It is distilled half-Whitman, half-Great Depression-era radio show; undoubtedly some old New York added to the mixture. The poem shakes within itself. The declarative confidence of the first half, the nonchalant affability of the middle lines “No. I wear workshirts to the opera, / often,” and the sagacious, honest, and peaceful landing of “you can’t plan on the heart, but / the better part of it, my poetry, is open” come together to form a cell-for-cell textual representation of himself. As I read each line, it becomes both less and more obvious to me.

Be excellent to one another, and do good work-

-Ryan Skrabalak

Currently Reading

2011-09-19T06:15:00.001-04:00

Men Become Women

If men could give birth, without the assistance of women, the byproduct would be Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. And if mankind were to be its parent, this child would have some serious mental issues…

The popularized classic Frankenstein begins with the letters of Robert Walton, who is writing to his sister Margaret, detailing his experiences in the poles. Months into his adventure, he starts to yearn for companionship. A few weeks later (voilà), Robert stumbles upon Victor Frankenstein in the poles. They quickly form a bond (oh, how lovely); Victor decides to account his entire story as Robert records it for his sister (['s] reading pleasure).

To sum up the 156 pages (spoiler alert, folks), Dr. Frankenstein rejects and flees from his creation the second he first draws breath (see, men beget hideous babies). He goes back home, but later discovers his creation seeks revenge. The creature will stop his quest for vengeance if Frankenstein makes him a wife (he just wants a little monster love). The creator starts then stops the process (he must have crossed his fingers). The monster becomes mad and does some bad boy things (but you would have to read the book to find out. Teehee).

Shelley’s plot is dynamic; she addresses the negative tendency of superficial judgment, the issue of playing God, the intensity of nature, and much more. But most of this leaves room for interpretation (don’t you just love literature?). This classic is well worth the read (so don’t bother with the movie). But read the 1818 Norton Critical Edition; she made, so called, “minor revisions” in 1830 (for reasons I can’t quite explain. Excuse me for not knowing Shelley personally. Sorry). You won’t be disappointed (unless you hate reading. Then you’ll have a problem).

--Joel Cruz

Image Source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Dtb66HujL.jpg

Currently Listening

2011-09-19T06:10:00.009-04:00

Coldplay's "Speed of Sound"

I remember the first I discovered Coldplay’s music. It was the summer of 2005, and I was in my living room, mindlessly flipping through channels on TV. All of a sudden, there was a burst of color on the television screen, and I hurriedly turned back to the channel that caught my eye. Coldplay was performing in their new music video, “Speed of Sound.“

I was amazed. I hadn’t come across music like this before. At first, I sat still, staring at the television. Then I found myself on the ledge of the armchair. Eventually, I was jumping up and down in my living room with Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin.

I cannot fully explain my wild reaction to the song, but I can try. In the second verse of the song, the lead singer croons, “Ideas that you’ll never find, all the inventors could never design.“ For me, the song spoke of the threshold of potential. It is believed that we only use ten percent of our brains. All of our talent, all of our capacity, all of our potential as human beings has yet to be untapped and truly explored. The volume of what we have achieved as a species is quite vast, and yet there are still latent gems and treasures in the deep recesses of our mind. How amazingly frightening.

As the last piece of a puzzle fits to give a full picture of something, in this way Coldplay’s music clicked for me. I searched for their music, starting from the beginning, and I have been an avid listener ever since.

What can I say? Coldplay does it for me.

- Kerri Byam

Image Source: http://www.vibe.com/sites/default/files/coldplay-2011.jpeg
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TahH7B_aUZc&ob=av2e

Currently Watching

2011-09-19T06:05:00.004-04:00

“Funny, Fresh, Feminism: Sarah Haskins with Target Women”

For most of us, commercials are 30-second nuisances that keep us from enjoying our favorite shows. We half watch them, letting our minds wander off until Mad Men or Hoarders comes back on. But you’d have to be pretty unobservant not to notice that the people behind the ads have some antiquated tricks up their sleeves: think about how cleaning product commercials always feature women, either cleaning up after their bumbling husbands and kids or having a romantic relationship with a Swiffer. Enter my personal hero, Sarah Haskins, host of Infomania’s “Target Women”. “Target Women” is a 3-5 minute shot of cold, hard, feminist power.

Okay, maybe it’s not so much cold and hard as it is hilarious. Nonetheless, Sarah Haskins manages to get her point across while making you laugh. Taking clips from national commercials, Haskins exposes the ways that advertisers manipulate female stereotypes to sell their products. Each episode focuses on a different product typically targeted towards females. In “Target Women: Chocolate”, we’re treated to a mash-up of commercials emphasizing just how much women crave candy. Some clips showed women having incredibly sensual relationships with their chocolate while another featured women screaming and running after a chocolate truck like it was taking their children away. Other episodes satirize hair products, birth control, jewelry, diet foods, and, perhaps my favorite, yogurt. It’s not the products themselves that are the problem; it’s the way they are sold to us. For example, in “Target Women: Ladyfriends”, Haskins mocks the portrayal of one-dimensional female friendships in commercials. Because what else is there in female relationships except discussions about fancy smelling candles, what kind of broth to use in soups, and the benefits of shopping at T.J. Maxx? Aren’t we all a part of the “sisterhood of shoes”? And Haskins doesn’t stop at commercials: Lifetime movies, dating books, the Twilight series, and T.V. shows about crazy brides-to-be are all subject to her sarcastic analysis. “Target Women” was a segment featured on Infomania. Sadly, the segment has been cut, but you can still watch all the episodes on Youtube or on current.com. Just make sure you wash that oh-so-sexy chocolate off your fingers beforehand so your keyboard doesn’t get all sloppy, ladies.

Target Women: Jewelry // Current - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

-Margie Sarsfield

Image Source: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2008/10/TargetWomen_Poop2.jpg

Greetings!

2011-09-12T06:35:00.006-04:00

After getting through the first two weeks of school, we deserve to treat ourselves to a big banana sundae, or some cookie dough ice cream, or that last Boston creme...but I digress. Amidst our hectic classes and endless to-do lists, it's important to schedule in some downtime, and what better way to do that than sitting down with a cup o' joe and the Boylan Blog! As always, feel free to comment and let us know your take on any of the pieces.

Eat fruit and stay inspired,

Mira