Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 111 | Friday, November 20, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Years in the making, U. unveils supercomputer Substance use steady, poll shows centers, including the University of Rhode Island and the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., he said. “At this time, computers are like libraries and laboratories,” Hesthaven said. “It’s not about physics or engineering or science, but about research.” Today’s official ribbon-cutting ceremony, featuring speeches by Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, Mayor David Cicilline ’83 and IBM’s Vice President of Technology, Nick Bowen, marks the conclusion of the years-long effort to streamline computational research at the University and bring first-rate equipment to the state, Briant said. “This is a big step forward for us at Brown,” Briant said.
By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer
After months of planning, Brown is set to unveil a new multimilliondollar supercomputer today. The result of a partnership with IBM to boost the University’s research capacity and visibility, the high-performance computing cluster will allow researchers from all disciplines to conduct powerful, complicated data analyses. Researchers and faculty have been seeking an advanced computational system for more than three years, said Professor of Applied Mathematics Jan Hesthaven, who, along with Vice President for Research Clyde Briant and Vice President for Computing and Information Services Michael Pickett, led the initiative to bring the system to the University. The system, which will be the most powerful supercomputer in Rhode Island and is capable of performing 14 trillion operations per second, will be open to educational and research institutions across the state, Hesthaven said. “You can’t have a research insti-
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
A new supercomputer at 180 George St. greatly expands the processing power available to Brown researchers on campus.
tution that would like to be at the top of its class without having this type of facility,” Hesthaven said. “Think of it as a necessity rather than a luxury.”
The supercomputing network, located in the Center for Computation and Visualization at 180 George St., will provide opportunities to collaborate with other research
‘A vision’ Hesthaven, who will direct the computational center, said he first broached the concept of assembling a computing cluster at Brown three years ago, when he saw a dearth of effective computing power. A centrally located, high-performance continued on page 2
Bears claw past Seawolves to second round By Katie Wood Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s soccer team barely slipped by Stony Brook Thursday night with a 1-0 double overtime win in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Stevenson Field. Sean Rosa ’12 hit the game-winning goal in the 103rd minute, his first goal since a two-goal performance against Princeton on Oct. 10. The Bears (11-2-5) reach the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2007 and will face off with
on either attempt. Due to excellent defensive play on both sides of the field, neither the Bears nor the Seawolves could execute any scoring chances. So the game headed into overtime, tied at 0-0 at the end of regulation. After 100 minutes of play, the Bears had one more overtime period to settle the game before it came down to decisive penalty kicks. Jonathan Okafor ’11 beat his defender going down the left sideline and popped the ball over the defense along the goal line. Rosa waited patiently in
No. 5 North Carolina (13-2-3) on Sunday afternoon in Chapel Hill, N.C. Brown entered the contest fresh off a 3-0 win over DartStony Brook 0 1 Brown mouth last Saturday and came out with the same offensive intensity against the Seawolves (6-10-4), tallying a 14-4 shot advantage in the first half. In the 11th and 23rd minutes, Nick Elenz-Martin ’10 received a cross from the left side to the far post, but could not convert
the open at the opposite post and drilled the ball into the back of the net for the golden goal and his fifth goal of the season, tying him with Elenz-Martin, Thomas McNamara ’13 and Austin Mandel ’12 as team scoring leaders. Paul Grandstrand ’11 kept the Seawolves off the scoreboard, tallying five saves on the night, while Anthony Rogic equaled Grandstrand’s performance with five saves of his own for Stony Brook, but could not save the most important shot by Rosa.
PE class instructors sweat it out, part-time and martial arts classes taught by about 40 instructors. But for about 2,700 students “Ditch the workout, join the enrolled in their classes, the douparty!” ble life their instructors lead may This is the mantra of come as a surprise. Zumba, a type of dance The instructors are FEATURE aerobics and one of the an eclectic mix of profesmost popular physical sional trainers, profeseducation classes Brown offers. sors and undergraduates — even The saying could apply to all including experienced coaches the alternatives the Department such as Shay Lynch, who was an of Physical Education and Campus assistant coach for Brown’s men’s Recreation offers to endless miles and women’s squash teams for on a treadmill’s belt — an array of continued on page 4 group workouts and sports, dance By Jenna Steckel Contributing Writer
Kim Perley / Herald
inside
“Body Sculpt,” one of many fitness classes taught by part-time instructors.
News.....1-4 Ar ts.......5 Editorial....6 Opinion.....7 Today.........8
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By Max Godnick Staff Writer
Substance use among students has stayed relatively unchanged from two years ago, according to a recent Herald poll. The data also showed that more males used marijuana than females and that more upperclassmen used alcohol than freshmen.
Herald Poll The poll found that 77.9 percent of students used alcohol in the month before the poll — which was administered between Nov. 2 and Nov. 4 — 32.3 percent used marijuana and 18.3 percent used tobacco. Prescription painkillers (3.9 percent), amphetamines (3.8 percent) and cocaine (2.6 percent) were the next-most prevalent substances used in the one-month period. These results were nearly identical to those of the fall 2007 Herald poll. Mischa Steiner ’10, head of Brown’s chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he thought certain drugs are more commonly used at specific points in the academic year. continued on page 2
Experts square off on race issues By Alex Bell Staf f Writer
“How are minority groups best represented?” “Can a member of a group better represent that group’s interests than a non-member?” Those were the key questions that Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier and author Jim Sleeper wrestled with at Thursday afternoon’s Janus Forum lecture, “Does Race Matter?” Guinier, a former civil rights lawyer, called for greater government involvement to ensure representation of minorities, while Sleeper cautioned against policies that might worsen racial tensions. Guinier said most people view representation in government in one of three ways. The “trustee” model stipulates that representatives are elected to consult their own consciences when voting, whereas the “delegate” model recontinued on page 3
Sports, 3
Arts, 5
Opinions, 7
OH MY! No Tigers, but the Columbia Lions match up with the football Bears Saturday
Go Go ‘Gondoliers’ Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan brings Venice to life this weekend
Glad as Hell Jonathan Topaz ’12 is pleasantly surprised with Lou Dobbs’ replacement
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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“It’s not just a toy for the select few.” — Jan Hesthaven, prof. of applied math, on a new campus supercomputer
Herald Poll: 3 in 4 students use alcohol continued from page 1 Amphetamine use “would be much higher around finals, and cocaine use would be much higher around Spring Weekend,” Steiner wrote. “Especially for drugs such as mushrooms and acid, I think the one-month period doesn’t give an accurate use rate, since even a regular user of acid often doesn’t use as often as once a month.” Director of Health Education Frances Mantak ’88 said the figures are consistent with similar polling done by Health Services, but added that certain data might be skewed due to the face-to-face administering of The Herald’s survey. “The importance of what our peers think about us is very real,” Mantak said, adding that students sometime exaggerate their alcohol use. “Students perceive that others drink more than they actually do.” Mantak said she doubted that so many more students used marijuana than tobacco in the last month. “I would be curious about the stigma of admitting to tobacco use as compared to using marijuana,” she said. “Some people believe there are no health effects related to marijuana, while they are clear about the negative repercussions of tobacco.” The Herald poll found that 39.1
percent of males reported using marijuana in the time period, but only 26.4 percent of females did the same. Steiner wrote that the finding “applies to drug use in general: Men are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior than women.” Mantak said these patterns could be tied to other substance abuse disparities between genders. She cited body size, body composition and levels of liver enzymes as possible reasons for the disparity. “College males drink more than females, so it’s not surprising in light of those consistent statistics,” she said. The gender gap in marijuana use was not surprising, said one male student. “Guys get very into the methods behind smoking pot,” said Avery Houser ’12. “The rolling papers, the blunts, the vapes — the whole pervasiveness of the methodology leads to a machismo effect. Which guy owns the vape or who can roll the best joint becomes very important.” According to the survey, a significantly higher number of non-freshmen reported drinking alcohol in the period than first-years, 82.8 percent to 67.8 percent. “Older students are probably drinking more frequently, but not drinking to the point where they would have
Friday, November 20, 2009
any regrets,” Mantak said, adding that there was “a learning process” for freshman drinkers. “With younger students, drinking is more episodic. Students may not drink for a month but then may drink in a way that problems might be experienced.” Both Mantak and Senior Associate Dean for Student Life Allen Ward said they were pleased at the lower level of freshman drinking. “We encourage all students to abide by the laws of Rhode Island,” Ward said. Speaking specifically about first-years, he added, “During orientation, the message we try to deliver is to make wise decisions around alcohol, plan in advance, think about how you will handle and manage alcohol.” The statistics seemed reasonable to some students. “Last year, I drank a lot more in the beginning,” said Bryan Coleman ’12. “I could see how older students drink more. They have a better handle on life and their schedule, so they can find more time to go out and party.” Houser said, “Last year, we would drink to get drunk on the weekends. But this year there’s rarely a night that goes by where I don’t have at least a beer. It becomes much more an upperclassman’s life, but not to the point of drunkenness as much.”
In the past month, which of the following substances — not prescribed to you — have you used? Alcohol
77.9%
Marijuana
32.3%
Tobacco
18.3%
Prescription Painkillers
3.9%
Amphetamines
3.8%
(including prescription stimulants)
Cocaine
2.6%
Ecstasy (MDMA)
1.3%
Psychedelic Mushrooms
1.3%
LSD
1.0%
Opium
0.7%
Nitrous Oxide
0.3%
Phencyclidine (PCP)
0.3%
Heroin
0.0%
Other
0.4% 19.8%
None of the Above Don’t Know / No answer The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. For male-only data and female-only data, the margins of error were 5.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively. For freshmanonly data and non-freshman data, the
0.9%
margins of error were 6.9 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively. A total of 687 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night.
Supercomputer, unveiled today, gives researchers a new tool continued from page 1 cluster would allow researchers to conduct data analysis on-site, rather than analyzing their data remotely at other institutions, Hesthaven said. “This was a plan for basically what
Brown should have, given what we think we should be,” he said. “This became a vision.” Hesthaven said he advocated technological advancements that would inspire statewide collaboration, ultimately securing support for
sudoku
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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
the high-powered cluster from Briant and other administrators. As part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Pickett — who built a similar system at Duke University before he came to Brown in 2007 — drafted an information technology strategic plan last January, which offered recommendations for advancing technology at the University. Pickett said CIS partnered with the Center for Computation and Visualization to address the logistics behind building a high-powered computing system to promote more effective research collaboration. “Researchers can’t share resources if they have to take all the responsibility themselves,” he said, emphasizing the University’s need to adapt to modern technological and research models. Despite widespread support for the network, questions remained over how the University would obtain the necessary machinery to construct the supercomputer. But the problem was solved last May, when Brown signed a memorandum of understanding with IBM, which offered affordable equipment and free consulting to jumpstart the creation of the supercomputer, Briant said. Over the summer, the University began updating the existing data center to prepare for the cluster, which occupies an entire room in the center. Since early this fall, the cluster has been in a trial phase, operating at 90 percent capacity with researchers volunteering to test the new system before its official launch. So far, the supercomputer has generated widespread interest from researchers across many disciplines — Hesthaven said there are about 75
users, including undergraduate and graduate students. “This is all about the institution,” he said. “It’s not just a toy for the select few.” Branching out Though many similar supercomputers are reserved for only more advanced research, Hesthaven said the facility will also be used by middle- and high-school students across the state. “This is an opportunity for highschool students to get their feet wet on equipment,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to explore the potential for collaborative efforts.” Hesthaven said the University plans to offer courses and seminars to undergraduates that would involve use of the computing cluster. The opportunity to share resources with other institutions is also more energy-efficient, Hesthaven said, because the network of machines uses an enormous amount of power to prevent the motors from overheating. The cluster is “more environmentally friendly,” he said. “It’s a much greener way of doing things.” The promise of future collaborative statewide efforts will also help stimulate the knowledge-based economy throughout the state, Briant said, adding that the central cluster will attract new faculty and larger-scale projects. Having a high-performance computational system at Brown may also attract future donors, though the University is not using the supercomputer as a “money-maker,” he said. Because data analysis can now occur at Brown instead of at other
institutions with their own networks, Briant said, the University plans to apply for state and national research grants that it previously would not have considered. A statewide team of researchers led by Professor of Pediatrics James Padbury submitted a grant proposal last month for a clinical and translational sciences award, which would bring in $20 million over a five-year period if the National Institutes of Health awards Brown and its partners the grant next spring. The supercomputer was a key component of the proposal, Padbury said. “The supercomputer cluster will fund high-dimension analysis,” he said, adding that high-performance computing is especially important for biological research. He said collaborative projects that would use the cluster are already in the works, including “genome-wide association studies” and a study on sudden cardiac death. “Bringing these kinds of tools in-house opens up all kinds of possibilities,” said Assistant Professor of Biology Casey Dunn, who conducts research in developmental and evolutionary biology. “My work is absolutely dependent upon highperformance computing.” Dunn said he started using the supercomputer in October to analyze data sets, adding that the undergraduates in his lab have used the cluster. The computing cluster will also benefit researchers in the humanities, who can use its power to study demographics and analyze elections. “It’s exciting,” Dunn said. “It’s all very ethereal.”
Friday, November 20, 2009
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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Bears to face Lions in season’s final game By Dan Alexander Senior Staf f Writer
When Brown defeated Columbia in a preseason scrimmage in August, the Bears didn’t even know who their star ting quarterback would be. Now, Kyle Newhall-Caballero ’11 is at the top of nearly ever y statistical passing categor y in the league. And when the Bears meet the Lions for the final regular season game on Saturday, the game may rest on his throwing arm. Newhall-Caballero leads the Ivy League in completions, yards and touchdowns. But he is also second-worst in the Ancient Eight in interceptions, with 12 on the season. This Saturday, he will face Columbia, whose defense has a league-leading 18 interceptions on the season. Columbia is “a dangerous football team that has had opportunities to explode on both sides of the football,” said Brown Head Coach Phil Estes. “The one thing I look at that stands out is their pass defense. It’s ver y good. … They really do a good job of putting pressure on the quar terback and making him sometimes throw into some bad coverage.” Columbia Head Coach Norries Wilson knows the challenge his team will face in stopping Brown’s offense this weekend. “The quar terback is a good player,” Wilson said. “And then you’ve got wideouts that you probably couldn’t triple-cover to keep them from getting the ball. So we’ve got our work cut out for us.” Wilson said his team has had trouble defending the deep ball on defense this year. And he knows Brown has had big plays all year. “They’ve got experienced wideouts who are used to catching deep balls and taking them the distance,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to do a better job of playing
the ball in the air. And our pass rush has to get home.” The Lions will likely blitz Newhall-Caballero often this weekend, and it will be up to the Brown quarterback and offensive line in front of him to keep the Bears’ passing attack alive. But Brown r unning back Spiro Theodhosi ’12 — who has 305 r ushing yards in the last two games — will probably get plenty of touches, too. Against a Columbia defense that is secondto-last in the league against the rush, the Bears may keep it on the ground. The Lions’ attack — which will be directed by quarterback M.A. Olawale — is typically run-focused. After missing two games to injur y, Olawale stepped in during the third quarter for Columbia last week and eventually scored the winning touchdown over Cornell. Olawale is a threat through the air and on the ground, having passed 157 times and rushed 111 times this season. “Olawale is tough to tackle,” Wilson said. “When you turn him loose and let him run the ball and he protects the football, he’s tough to get down.” Against a Brown defense that held Dar tmouth’s scrambling quarterback Greg Patton to just 35 yards on 19 carries last week and that gives up — on average — just 86.8 yards per game, the Lions will probably look to the air more often this weekend. The Bears are last in the Ivy League in passing defense, having given up 246.8 passing yards per game. Then again, the Brown defense is second in the league in interceptions — behind only Columbia. Brown “is a lot like Har vard, where they don’t have any kinks in their armor in any phase,” Wilson said. His Lions are “really going to have to play their butts off to have a chance in this one.”
Head-to-Head Brown 6-3 (4-2 Ivy)
v. Records
Columbia 3-6 (2-4 Ivy)
25.2 pts/game
Scoring Offense
21.9 pts/game
18.8 pts/game
Scoring Defense
22.9 pts/game
130.4 yds/game
Rushing Offense
144.2 yds/game
269.9 yds/game
Passing Offense
172.4 yds/game
35.2%
3rd-down conversions
34.3%
Versus Common Opponents L, 21-24 W, 34-17 W, 34-14 L, 7-14 OT W, 35-21 W, 14-7 OT
Harvard Princeton Cornell Penn Yale Dartmouth
L, 14-34 W, 38-0 W, 30-20 L, 13-27 L, 22-23 L, 6-28
Alex Bell / Herald
Author Jim Sleeper (left) and Harvard law professor Lani Guinier discussed race representation Thursday.
Forum explores race’s role in representation continued from page 1 quires representatives to “carr y forward their mandates” from their constituents. A third “descriptive” view of representation follows the thinking that members of a certain ethnic group can trust a representative whose background is similar and who can understand their needs. But the flaw in all of these models of representation, she said, is that “our commitment to representation in this country is a commitment to a winner-take-all system.” She said certain members of ethnic groups that do not have majorities in their districts do not feel represented because they cannot elect leaders sympathetic to them. “It is by focusing on the way in which blacks and other people of color are represented that we can begin to see the flaws in the system itself,” Guinier said. She compared the plight of minorities in America to the proverbial warning of the canary in a coal mine. “The experience of those who have been left out is often a diagnostic tool to help us all to see what’s wrong with the atmosphere more generally,” she said. Sleeper, author of the 1997 book “Liberal Racism,” called Guinier’s analogy of the canary in the coal mine “an apt one,” but warned that by implementing policies based on race “we’re beginning to experience
diminishing returns ... in ways that recapitulate the problems we’re trying to solve.” “There are reasons why that makes sense in a transitional way, but there are reasons why we should move beyond it,” he said. To get beyond racism, Sleeper advocated taking into account race only temporarily so as not to permanently “freeze-frame people into racial identities.” Sleeper said President Obama sets a positive example by taking pride in being from the heavily African-American South Side of Chicago without expecting special treatment for his race. “I do think he walked us through what ... we should be going through in terms of graduating from the kind of racial color-coding,” he said. Sleeper said he spent time formulating his position while living in Brooklyn, where he originally saw districts subdivided to block blacks from gaining political majorities. In that extreme case, he said, redistricting with regard to race was a “necessary step.” But now, he argues, the government has gone too far with re-drawing districts to include more blacks, citing one New York district shaped like Bullwinkle to include the poorest households in the area. “If people in this neighborhood wanted to get together to discuss what was happening with federal funding for their school board, the
Hispanics in the room would have one congressman, the Orthodox Jews would have another congressman — it doesn’t make sense,” Sleeper said. He also expressed concern that some policies pressure people to identify with specific ethnic backgrounds when they might not otherwise do so. “I am not saying that a person should not choose to spend their life enriching and affirming an ethnoracial identity,” Sleeper said, noting that people should commit to an identity freely. “No one should feel incentivized, corralled or coerced by wellmeaning, redress-oriented methods into making an identification” that does not come from deep and true reflection, he added. Both speakers said a proportional system of representation, in which there are no districts, is one potential way to improve minority representation. “But once you have proportional representation, you have to understand what that means,” Sleeper said in response to an audience member’s question. “I may go the polls and vote as a white man, but I also may go to the polls and vote as a homeowner rather than as a tenant. Or I may go to the polls and vote as a professor rather than as a working guy. What you decide to vote on the basis of is totally up to you under proportional representation.”
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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“You’re having a blast, but you walk out burning 600 calories.” — Sadie Kurzban ’12, who teaches Zumba classes on campus
Out of the classroom, into the gym continued from page 1
20 years. After retiring at the end of last year, Lynch did anything but give up the game and instead continues to teach squash and tennis to beginners and intermediate-level players in Brown’s PE classes. During varsity practices, Lynch said, the emphasis is on “getting ready to beat Har vard and win matches” and on improving mental preparedness to supplement the skill varsity athletes already have. But in his PE classes? There’s “a lot more laughter,” he said. From brains to bikes Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience John Stein connects his workout to his other passion — human physiology. Stein, who has biked seriously for 17 years, teaches both spinning classes and BIOL 0800: “Principles of Physiology.” For someone who “enjoys teaching in general,” as Stein does, leading a PE class is a chance to try a “different type of teaching” — one that replaces lectures and slides with “music and exercise,” he said. Still, his seemingly different interests intersect. When teaching physiology, professors always “use exercise as the extreme example,” he said. “Exercise puts stress on the body, but not the negative type.” In his spinning class, Stein does the reverse too: He goes into the physiology behind the workout, explaining topics such as the body’s switch from using aerobic to anaerobic energy during a workout. He also creates custom playlists to accompany his classes, drawing on his experience working as a disc jockey in college. While seeing their neuro professor on a bike instead of at a podium may be a shock for some students, Stein thinks most don’t even realize it’s him at first. In time, Stein said he dreams of bringing together the two types of classes he teaches, perhaps developing a first-year seminar that would combine the study of
exercise with actual participation in fitness programs. Exercising ‘another part of themselves’ An assistant professor of art and visual culture at Rutgers University, Tanya Sheehan PhD ’05 spends half her week in New Jersey. But when she comes home to Providence, she exchanges Degas’ “The Dance Class” for the real thing, teaching hip-hop and jazz funk at Brown. While Sheehan was a graduate student here, the University only offered ballet for those interested in dance, she said. She proposed a hip-hop class in 2000 — it was “what students really wanted to take,” especially those without prior experience in dance, she had found.
FEATURE Sheehan, who had run a summer dance program, brought her knowledge to the classes she began teaching at Brown. Her hip-hop classes were extremely popular, she said, drawing multiple sections with 40 people each. Now she only teaches one section of about 20 people on the weekends, she said. Sheehan thinks the class is so popular because it’s a fun workout with direct results: Students learn moves in class, then show them off later that evening, she said. “People surprise themselves,” she said, with how much they improve. It’s good for students to “challenge themselves outside of their comfort zone,” Sheehan said, especially when they are so focused on their work. “Grad students especially don’t do a lot of extracurricular activities,” she said. Dance classes give them the chance to “exercise another part of themselves — the mind in relationship to body and emotion.” Learning Latin rhythms A typical Zumba class, as taught by Sadie Kurzban ’12, is also all
Friday, November 20, 2009
about body and emotion — it’s more like a full-on dance party than the average aerobics class. Kurzban keeps the room lively and lighthearted, cracking jokes and making the 50-minute class “fly by,” said Sam Karshenboym ’12, a Zumba devotee. Kurzban grew up in Miami, surrounded by Latin dance, and has been going to the gym regularly since the age of 10. Zumba, with its dual emphasis on fitness and Latin-inspired moves, fit naturally into her interests. Kurzban first discovered Zumba in 10th grade and was immediately hooked, she said. By her senior year of high school, she was substitute-teaching her class, and earned her certifications as a personal trainer and Zumba instructor the summer before college. When Kurzban came to college, she also brought Zumba to Brown — and when she taught the class her freshman year, it was immediately over-enrolled, she said. Zumba “should feel like dancing with friends,” she said. “You’re having a blast, but you walk out burning 600 calories.” “It helps your heart and muscles,” Kurzban said, adding that she thinks that “not enough kids at Brown get enough exercise.” Students started approaching Kurzban for advice on how to best tone different muscle groups, and in response, she created a second class to help students build their muscle strength. The class, “Brazilian Sculpt,” Kurzban said, works on students’ “muscular endurance and flexibility” to Brazilian music — with a focus on the “stereotypically Brazilian areas: sexy abs and super strong legs and glutes.” As Brown’s only Zumba instructor, Kurzban teaches four sessions of the dance class and two sections of Brazilian sculpt. “For one hour each day, I don’t have to worr y about anything else,” she said. “I leave whatever else is going on and go in with super high energy.” Kurzban said she plans to expand Zumba beyond Brown’s campus by combining her “love for working out” with her “passion for helping people who don’t have a lot.” Next semester, she will begin teaching Zumba to students in local public high schools. “Rising obesity strongly correlates with lower incomes,” Kurzban said, and by encouraging kids to work out, she hopes to help them with weight loss and with developing “motivation and confidence in general.”
Two ‘ultimate’ Bears earn trip to world championship By Zung Nguyen Vu Contributing Writer
Two players with Brown ties have earned an invitation to ultimate frisbee’s biggest stage — the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships. Hana Kawai’s ’10.5 and Josh Ziperstein’s ’05 teams both earned spots in the tournament after success at this year’s Ultimate Players Association Club Championship, where Ziperstein’s team won the tournament’s open division and Kawai’s finished second in the women’s division. Kawai’s Boston-based club Brute Squad lost to a team from San Francisco in the finals of the tournament, which took place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. Chain Lightning, Ziperstein’s Atlanta-based team, beat a team from the San Francisco Bay Area to win its first national championship. “It’s a pretty huge deal to win the national championship,” Ziperstein said. The world championships will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, in July. Ultimate frisbee, a limited-contact team sport invented in the late 1960s by a high school student from Maplewood, N.J., has grown in popularity in recent years, especially on college campuses. The sport, played seven-a-side at the club level, combines features of frisbee, football and soccer. Kawai’s interest in ultimate frisbee star ted in high school, and she played for the U.S. junior national team before coming to Brown. Kawai, who is also a member of Brown’s women’s club frisbee team, “Disco Inferno,” played for Brute Squad this fall and will compete for Brown in the spring, she said. Ziperstein, who played soccer in high school, decided to switch to frisbee after he was admitted to Brown and heard it had a good ultimate team. “Most people chose colleges based on the sport,” he said, “but I ended up choosing the sport based on the college.” Besides playing for the Brown team, Ziperstein star ted playing with a club team in Boston his sophomore year. Now living in Atlanta, he has played with Chain Lightning for the last three years. Because there is no professional ultimate frisbee league, the club championship is where the best
players meet each year. “It’s the best frisbee there is — much more competitive and fast than college frisbee,” Kawai said. Ziperstein, who plays as a downfield cutter, said on-field positions are much more specialized in club ultimate. “Socially, it’s ver y different,” Ziperstein said. “With the Brown team you’re playing with your best friends. You play, then go to the Ratty together — it’s the best thing imaginable.” At the club level, “most players are people with real jobs with time commitments, and this is their way of having fun,” Kawai said. “People always recognize each other at tournaments, and the fact that many people don’t consider it a real sport adds on to its cult-ish image.” Since graduating from Brown in 2005, Ziperstein has kept in close touch with many friends from the Brown team, he said. Playing club frisbee even brought him his first post-college job at Massachusetts General Hospital — a doctor with whom Ziperstein played offered him a position. Because club teams do not usually have a coach, team members have to take care of the logistics on their own, including fundraising, publicity, practices and transportation. Practices take place every weekend, and Brown students playing for Boston teams must learn to work out their academic and social responsibilities accordingly. Kawai travels to Boston ever y Friday, staying at a friend’s for the night, and then returns to Brown, where she is double-concentrating in education and ethnic studies and currently working on a thesis. Ziperstein graduated from Brown with a degree in bio-engineering and now attends medical school at Emor y University. “Sports is a microcosm of life,” he said. “All the skills you need to play at this level are useful time and again for life, medical school and friends.” Though Kawai and Ziperstein are excited about qualifying for the world championship, both are unsure whether they will attend. The time of the tournament may clash with medical research Ziperstein will be performing abroad, while Kawai’s team will need to raise a substantial amount of money and take care of other logistics in order to travel to the tournament.
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Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, November 20, 2009 | Page 5
Lyricist Yeston explores the chemistry of song By Sarah Mancone Contributing Writer
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
The cast of Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Gondoliers,” which is playing this weekend.
In ‘Gondoliers,’ a Venice in vibrant color By Amy Chen Contributing Writer
For its fall production this weekend, Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan is offering up a dynamic array of dancing and singing in “The Gondoliers.” A two-act comic operetta, “The Gondoliers” is set in Venice and revolves around the stor y of two gondoliers who believe themselves to be brothers. It is revealed that one of the pair is the sur viving heir to the fantastical kingdom of Barataria, lost during infancy, and has been engaged since birth to a beautiful Spanish lady — but no one knows which gondolier is the prince and which is the pauper. The production benefits from a carefully constructed and wonderfully painted stage. Characterized by a tranquil combination of light-hearted periwinkle blue and sand color in Act I, it recalls the beauty of Venice. The set is appropriately transformed to a royal look in Act II as the two gondoliers move to Barataria to reign.
The chorus — portraying flirty farm-girls, twirling in a profusion of colors from the flutters of their skirts, and jubilant gondoliers — is featured throughout the show. Also entertaining are the beautiful lady of Spain and her family, characters who produce gushes of laughter from the audience. According to musical director Matthew Jaroszewicz ’12, composer Ar thur Sullivan tried to write music that would evoke the sounds of the countries in which his operettas were set. The score imitates characteristically Italian music, and Jaroszewicz described it as “exuberant, well-composed, ver y beautiful and happy and uplifting all the time.” “I’ve been studying Italian for seven or eight years and this show caught my attention,” said director Michael Hogan ’11, who described the music as “exuberant and shining.” “I never thought I would be doing this before,” said Hogan, who is directing a musical for the first time. “It taught me more than any class I’ve (taken) at Brown, with all the acting, building the
sets, ever ything.” “It’s a challenge for whoever directs,” said stage manager Peter Hatch ’11. “It’s great material but was written a hundred years ago. To bring out the humor is a great challenge.” Another challenge, Hatch said, was the dif ficulty of removing and putting the set back up in Alumnae Hall when other events were being held there. “If we had our own space, it would’ve been easier,” he said. The cast includes both newcomers and BUGS veterans in an environment that is “ver y welcoming,” Hogan said. “We’ve had a lot of fun,” Hogan added. With ever y rehearsal of the show, “we find it more funny,” he said. “We get big laughs, watching each other on stage.” Hogan said he hopes that the audience will find the play “hilarious” as well. “The Gondoliers” runs this weekend in Alumnae Hall with per formances tonight at 8 p.m., tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. Admission is free.
Musical theater writing and performance were combined in a talk by American composer and lyricist Maur y Yeston in Leeds Theater Thursday evening. In a discussion that wove back and forth from speech to singing, with Yeston at the piano, the composer stressed that the music and lyrics of a song have to lead to something that moves the audience. Yeston performed multiple musical pieces, primarily his own. Some songs provoked laughter, while others clearly moved some members of the audience nearly to tears. Yeston is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals such as “Nine” in 1982 and “Titanic” in 1997, both of which won the Tony Awards for best musical and best score. Yeston’s current projects include the film adaptation of “Nine” with a cast that includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren. Yeston began the talk with an analysis of what song is. “You have to forget every theoretical construct you may have in your head about song,” Yeston said. “Song is not a chemical mixture, it is a compound. It is its own category.” “What is the first question you have to ask when you hear a song?” Yeston asked the audience. “What is it for? What is its function?” Of all the different parts that make up a piece of music, it’s the “premise,” according to Yeston — the narrative context of the song — that is most important.
The most moving premise comes when a character faces adversity with confidence, he said. “Since the character won’t feel his own self-pity, it is thrown into our laps and we feel it for him.” Fur thermore, according to Yeston, music and lyrics should work together so that the story can be visualized without needing to be physically seen. “Musical theater has to work as a radio play,” Yeston said. “If it doesn’t work with nothing, it’ll never work.” As he played a few lines from the opening of “Titanic,” he verbalized what the music was telling listeners — “And once there was a ship ... that sank ... but not yet,” he said — as the music began, grew graver and then became lighter again. Yeston hailed the moments in theater when the audience feels it knows a secret not shared with the characters on stage. The fact that the audience already knew the story of the Titanic added to the emotional impact of the musical, he said. Most of those present at the event were Brown students. When Yeston asked the audience members if they had a strong interest in pursuing vocal performance, composition or lyrics writing, a majority of students raised their hands. During the question-and-answer section of the talk, Yeston was asked about the frequently pronounced death of the musical. Yeston responded, “The musical is more alive than ever.” “More people are learning to create it and learning the craft of it than ever before,” said Yeston. “I have very good feelings about it.”
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Friday, November 20, 2009
J ulia streuli
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e d i to r i a l
Fighting words Dear Columbia, We’re better than you. Yup, we said it — better. Better at sports, better at academics, better at life. We square off in football this weekend and, to be 100 percent honest, nobody really thinks you have a chance. Let’s take a look at your record: 2 and 4 Ivy on the season with awe-inspiring wins over Cornell and Princeton (last and third-to-last place, respectively). And since Head Coach Norries Wilson took over your program three years ago, you’ve managed to win a whopping eight games. Wow. Brown, on the other hand, has won three Ivy titles in the last 10 years and currently boasts the number one rated offense in the league. (Not to mention defensive lineman Mike Lemmons ’10, who eats Manhattan pseudo-socialites like you for breakfast). So yeah, you might want to tell mom to leave the camcorder at home for this one. But Brown’s quarrel with you goes beyond the field. It started a year ago, when one of your former senior class presidents, Kwame Spearman, wrote a charming little article outlining the ways in which Columbians trump Brunonians. The article is supremely witty and chock-full of tasteful sarcasm. Here’s a highlight: “The plumes of smoke coming from most (Brown) dorm rooms are actually a result of productivity (computers overloading and such) and not the other stuff.” (By “other stuff” here, we think he means “marijuana.”) “I mean, BROWN’S! impeccable list of alumni include that weird guy that was fired from
your finance job because he painted his office teal or that friend of yours who wasted his private school education because he now wants to play the banjo.” Gosh, Kwame, the banjo? That’s HILARIOUS! You sure got us good. Your plaintive begging for a rivalry is really moving, Kwame. But quite frankly, Columbia’s not worth it. Columbians have dreamed up some parallel-universe Brown full of useless hipsters but have been looking in the mirror the whole time. After graduation, you’ll move on to unemployment and the renovated tenement building your grandma owns on the Lower East Side. You study the core curriculum to sound interesting at the cocktail parties you probably won’t get invited to. You live in the greatest city in the world but are afraid to go south of 110th or north of 125th. You have one bar for every point you got on the SAT but refuse to go anywhere other than 1020. Your idea of diversity is tacking a “Wu” onto “Nussbaum’s bakery.” Your idea of a hate crime is being mistaken for a Barnard student. But all those things aside, you’re just kind of tacky. Good luck out there this weekend. Sincerely Yours, Brown Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, November 20, 2009 | Page 7
Killing the boredom-killing business JONATHAN TOPAZ Opinions Columnist In the satirical movie “Network,” Howard Beale, an established and respected nightly news anchor, is fired for his newscast’s poor ratings. In his farewell address, Beale goes on a shocking tirade and consequently earns the name “mad prophet.” Beale starts a new show, which quickly becomes the most popular show on television. During one of his telecasts, which merely consists of Beale’s ranting and proselytizing, he states, “Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamn amusement park.” Newscasters, Beale says, are “in the boredom-killing business.” It is not just Beale, but this entire movie that seems almost downright prophetic about the trajectory of news media. Glenn Beck, who at times has likened himself to a modern-day Howard Beale (the irony is apparently lost on Beck), has achieved a massive viewership and garnered much attention from the media. Beck, who is prone to on-air diatribes and emotional meltdowns, and has repeatedly called President Obama a “racist” and a “Marxist,” has on many occasions achieved nearly three million nightly viewers. The White House appears to be on the losing side of an absurd feud with Fox News. Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly, who appear in primetime on the nation’s top news stations, represent ideological polarities and often attack each other directly. And comedian Jon Stewart, whose show airs on Comedy Central and appears directly after cartoons such as
South Park and Futurama, was recently voted “America’s Most Trustworthy Newscaster” in a Time Magazine Poll. It is a disturbing political climate in which established op-ed columnists such as Frank Rich feud with entertainers like Beck, and MSNBC and Fox News precipitously move to the poles of political opinion for ratings’ sake. So it was surprising when Lou Dobbs, who appeared nightly on CNN at 7 p.m., quit his show after growing animosity between him and the network. Dobbs, who openly expressed his passionate anti-immigration opinions and gave credibility to the conspiracy
minimal celebrity status during the 2008 presidential and congressional elections, during which he travelled the country covering the races from a non-partisan perspective. During his years with the Associated Press and then CNN, King established himself the oldfashioned way — reporting from campaign trails and war zones. In other words, King is the ultimate straight man. Routinely delivering political commentary during the 2008 election for hours at a time, King intimated barely any ideological stance. He called it “troubling” that evening newscasters often “start the conversation with
In an astonishing and refreshing decision, CNN went with the decidedly unsexy John King to fill Lou Dobbs’ shoes. “birther” movement that questioned Obama’s citizenship, may possibly join the Fox Business network. So, with the unexpected loss of Dobbs, one of the network’s most controversial and recognizable personalities, how would CNN respond? Would it replace him with someone with a similarly bold anti-immigration platform? Perhaps a left-wing ideologue to attract a new audience to the 7 p.m. hour? Would it use this opportunity to elevate one of its political commentators — possibly the conservative Bill Bennett or the liberal Paul Begala — to his own nightly show? In an astonishing and refreshing decision, CNN went with the decidedly unsexy John King to fill Dobbs’ shoes. King developed
a bias,” and instead of preaching from his perch at CNN headquarters in Washington D.C., he plans to travel the country to take the pulse of ordinary American citizens. Cynics may attempt to attribute this move to business considerations. Dobbs’ ratings were not particularly impressive, and with MSNBC and Fox News extremely popular with their respective ideological bases, CNN might find it economically sensible to brand itself as the non-ideological network. But this argument does not quite hold up. With an evening lineup of John King, Campbell Brown (whose show is entitled “No Bias, No Bull”) and Anderson Cooper, CNN has taken an audacious and praiseworthy step away from primetime opinion. Journalist Sam Donaldson
asserts a commonly held notion that Network taught the public over 30 years ago: “The trend — and is it going to reverse, I don’t know — is toward opinion.” Evening news — beginning at 5 p.m. with ideologues such as Beck and Chris Matthews, and ending at midnight with O’Reilly and the liberal Rachel Maddow — has solidified itself as entertainment. And high ratings ensure that increasingly partisan coverage is here to stay. CNN must understand that this migration back to straight news is a death wish ratings-wise, and its decision to do so is downright admirable and heartening for the sake of journalism. On the other hand, maybe CNN can thrive. Perhaps it is the idealist in this columnist that prays that legitimate coverage can reemerge, that CNN can make a strong stance for responsible, intelligent and nuanced scrutiny of important issues and policy. Olbermann, in a statement that identifies a man astoundingly out-of-touch with his craft, asserts that “People now watch news on TV for elucidation and context and analysis. They have brought the facts with them.” As debates about health care and Afghanistan progress, and myths about socialism and nation-building and death panels pervade mainstream discourses, it is apparent that ideological fringes are deeply affecting individuals’ ability to bring “the facts with them.” Perhaps CNN can finally prove to the Howard Beales and the Keith Olbermanns of the world that news reporting can exist outside the boredom-killing business.
Jonathan Topaz ’12 thinks that Bill O’Reilly needs to go back to covering our nation’s most pressing issues, like SexPowerGod.
A story with a spin JULIANNE FENN Guest Columnist My name is Julianne Fenn ’11. I have to start with that because next year, when I am applying for jobs, that is what will be Googled. And I would hate for The Herald’s article (“Taking dance to the next level,” Nov. 16) to stand as the sole representation of my college career in The Brown Daily Herald online. So my name is Julianne Fenn, and as the article said, yes, I am president of the Poler Bears, the Ivy League’s first pole dancing group. And yes, “it is a great conversation starter.” Unfortunately, it isn’t so great when it is the fourth item that comes up when you search me on Google. It is great here at Brown, but it isn’t so great in the real world. Part of the reason that Brown students are the number-one happiest according to the Princeton Review is because here in Providence, on College Hill, we live in the Brown bubble. We pride ourselves on our lack of requirements, lax rules and, above all, our freedom of expression. The Poler Bears’ Herald debut focused on the sexual aspect of what we do. Yes, we can be sexy, but what the article fails to highlight is that we are multi-dimensional. Pole dancing, at least for us, is not about sexy, racy stereotypes. Despite quotes to the
contrary, we have never seriously considered going to a strip club, and while some costumes come from Victoria’s Secret, the majority are spandex shorts and tank tops. We do gymnastics and, more than anything else, acrobatics. Pole dancing has become the latest workout craze for a reason. We have fun and we joke about dollar bills, but there are no lap dances. This is exercise and skill, and it’s fun. Most, if apparently not all, of the Brown campus understands that.
Brown bubble, even here, things get twisted around, misunderstood and misconstrued. And that’s okay sometimes — I laugh when my friends ask if I got those one dollar bills pole dancing. But the joke doesn’t translate in print, and especially not online. When real life and professional and personal relations outside of College Hill come into play, the joke gets lost. It is a shame that I have to hide something from the real world that has been so much fun here at Brown.
Google doesn’t forget, and unfortunately, there is nothing to protect the freedom of expression that Brown espouses.
Unfortunately, though I’m really proud of what the Poler Bears have accomplished during my time here at Brown — breaking a lot of negative stereotypes associated with pole dancing, getting a workout and having a lot of fun — this is one club that can’t have a place on my resume. It doesn’t translate well outside of the Brown bubble. It is hard to explain how it’s different here. Yet, the sad truth of the matter is, as much as we want to idealize the
But Google doesn’t forget, and, unfortunately, there is nothing to protect the freedom of expression that Brown espouses. As a Brown student, I certainly appreciate The Herald’s freedom of the press and aspirations of journalistic integrity. But I had hoped that good taste would be shown in reporting sensitive subjects, and privacy rights would be taken into account when reporting information, particularly when this is in no way
investigative, hard-hitting journalism. In this age of technology, we should consider more than ever the implications of reporting with a spin, without the easy opportunity for correction or rebuttal. The Internet, relatively speaking, retains news forever in an unsecured, easily retrievable repository, and in fact, offers information that is not necessarily being sought. This changes the game of journalism, and perhaps it should change the rules as well. So I understand, or at least accept, that Julianne Fenn, pole dancer, will be there to read on Google when my name is searched. But while to The Herald this is just another article, to me this is far more than that. I have much more to show for my time at Brown. I’m also a Meiklejohn Peer Adviser. I work for Brown Dining Services. I file applications at the Brown Admissions Office. I am an undergraduate teaching assistant for an Intermediate French class. But potential employers might not ever get the chance to find that out, because Julianne Fenn, pole dancer, is what comes up first, and that could be enough to end the search. And so, as long as I’m given the chance, I’d like to say that there’s more to the story than that.
Julianne Fenn ’11 is a literary arts concentrator from Connecticut. She can be reached at julianne_fenn@brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
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Two ultimate Bears head to championship
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to day
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‘Titanic’ composer talks song
Friday, November 20, 2009
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
Page 8
d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l A diamond to Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp, who received a “Leadership for Change through Education Award” from Brown on Wednesday. It’s a pretty sweet deal, apparently — the award comes with a lovely plaque, an honorarium and the resumes of 500 Brown seniors who got turned down for consulting jobs. Coal to the suspects in this week’s crime log who stole two of those fancy chairs from the Rock. But an even bigger coal to the snoozing library guard who was probably too busy telling us we can’t bring our coffee inside to notice the thieves rolling out the exit.
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A diamond for effort to the D’Abate elementary schooler enrolled in a Brown-sponsored afterschool program who identified her favorite grain as “pizza.” This lesson was brought to you the letter 6 and the number potato.
c a l e n da r Today, november 20
saturday, november 21
5:30 pm — Explaining Disease Through Witchcraft: The Example of HIV/AIDS In Zimbabwe, Haffenreffer Museum at Manning Hall
8 PM — The Brown Jabberwocks Present The BAM! Benefit Concert, List 120
8 pm — Gilbert and Sullivan Presents: “The Gondoliers,” Alumnae Hall
8 pm — Body and Sole’s Fall Dance Concert, Ashamu Dance Studio
A “low-hanging fruit” coal to those lovable parliamentarians on UCS, which this week didn’t pass a motion to let motions pass by a simple majority because the motion received only a simple majority. We can’t make this stuff up. A cubic zirconium to the 38.1 percent of students who told The Herald they were concerned about their ability to fund their education. We’d really love to give you all diamonds, but print journalism ain’t exactly lucrative right now either. Last but not least, a diamond to the men’s soccer team, which stormed into the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 103rd-minute goal that gave the Bears a 1-0, double-overtime victory against Stony Brook last night. You may have barely eked out the victory, but that’s the great thing about the playoffs — postseason games are always S/NC. Good luck in the next round!
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — BLT Sandwich, Rosemary Portobello Sub Sandwich, Herb Roasted Potatoes
Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Vegetarian Grinder, Enchilada Bar
Dinner — Teriyaki Salmon, Vegetable Stuffed Peppers, Basmati Rice Pilaf
comics Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Dinner — Salmon Quiche, Cheese Raviolis with Sauce, Grilled Chicken
crossword
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker