THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014
FASHION GUIDE INSIDE
‘Breaking Bad’ creator talks path to success BY SIOBHAN ROONEY Contributing Writer
Luke Chen/Weekly Pennsylvanian Editor
Vince Gilligan, creator of award-winning television show “Breaking Bad,” was hosted at Irvine Auditorium yesterday by SPEC’s Film and SPEC Connaissance. Gilligan claimed to be a “boring” guy in his real life.
“Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan is a “boring” guy in real life. Or so he says. “When I’m writing is when I get to be exciting,” he said. Gilligan — the director, writer and creator of award-winning show “Breaking Bad” — spoke at Irvine Auditorium in front of hundreds of students on Tuesday. He was hosted by the Social Planning and Events Committee’s Film and Connaissance committees. Gilligan graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1989. “I always knew what I wanted to do, I had direction,” he said. “I got very lucky out of college, I was very fortunate.” Following his early success as a filmmaker, Gilligan made the transition to television writing for the science fiction series “The X-Files” in the mid-1990s. “I’ve never looked back,” he said. “Working in television ... it’s a lot more hard work, but it’s a lot more satisfying.”
His interest in science fiction was the spark that originally drew him to the industry. “Star Wars changed my life,” he said. Despite his love of the genre, Gilligan was initially hesitant about his move to Los Angeles to write for “The X-Files.” “I wasn’t sure if I was capable of rising to the challenge,” he said, referencing the difficulty of meeting deadlines. Gilligan noted that his film past was mainly in comedy. The comed ic nature of “Breaking Bad” is a theme that resonates among the show’s countless fans. Treading the line between the grim, morally questionable and downright hilarious, one of the lessons Gilligan took away from his early days on the LA television scene was the importance of honest humor. When writing “intense, dramatic ... [comedy] makes it a little more palatable,” he said. Throughout the question and answer portion of the event, Gilligan credited his earliest mentors, as well as the cinematographers, directors, writers, experts and actors of “Breaking Bad.”
“Another one of the things about TV I love is it’s a collaborative effort,” he said. “It’s wonderful to work on something so much bigger than yourself that you had a hand in.” “I love, love, love Stanley Kubrick,” Gilligan said. Other film favorites include “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” because “it doesn’t get any better than that. ... Man, how [you] I compete?” he said. “You don’t, you use them as inspiration.” With “Breaking Bad,” Gilligan tried to portray a good character’s transition into “the bad guy.” But he didn’t set out to tell a moral tale. “It was not necessarily a desire to define or relate to a sort of morality,” he said. A member of the audience asked Gilligan if he ever played any role in making meth himself. “I didn’t have an understanding of how to make it ... when I started writing the pilot [of ‘Breaking Bad’] I just Googled ‘meth,’” he laughed. “I don’t say it with any pride, but I hear blue meth is a real thing now,” he added. SEE GILLIGAN PAGE 3
Faculty, students Twelve years later, the architect of Huntsman Hall reflects back Jackson as new SP2 dean
Jackson is one of Penn’s first African American deans and the only current Penn professor of the recent hires BY JILL GOLUB Staff Writer John L. Jackson Jr., the next dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice, is already “through Penn 101.” At least, according to
his predecessor. But current SP2 Dean Richard Gelles’ statement is perhaps an understatement, considering Jack-
SEE DEAN PAGE 9
SENIOR DESIGNS
SEAS seniors seek to reduce side effects of chemotherapy
Yolanda Chen/News Photo Editor
Four senior bioengineering students created a device to administer cancer drugs to a targeted area. of the body This reduces damage and side effects caused by chemotherapy. BY BOOKYUNG JO Staff Writer Four Bioengineering seniors are designing a device to reduce chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients.
The yet unnamed device provides targeted cancer drug delivery. Only the cancer cells receive the drug and other healthy or-
SEE BIOENGINEERING PAGE 2
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Katie Wu/Staff Photographer
A. Eugene Kohn is a nationally successful architect and chairman of the largest achitecture firm in the country. A 1953 and 1957 alumnus he is the architect behind Huntsman Hall and the Children’s Hopsital of Philadelphia. He spoke at Penn last week.
Q&A | The DP sat down with A. Eugene Kohn, who designed the Wharton hub BY YUEQI YANG Staff Writer A. Eugene Kohn, the architect of Huntsman Hall, visited Penn last Thursday to give a speech on his career in architecture. The founder and chairman of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the architecture firm behind the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the renovated Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Kohn received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Penn in 1953 and 1957, respectively. He served in the United States Navy for three years before returning to Penn for his master’s degree. The Daily Pennsylvanian had the opportunity to talk to him about stories behind Huntsman Hall. The Daily Pennsylvanian: Why does Huntsman Hall look like this? A. Eugene Kohn: You’d like to think that it is the architect’s vision, but in reality there are many forces. One is the University itself and their view of themselves at the time — the administrations and trustees. The building was designed to represent Penn’s history. The building was to be stable, and parts of the materials are traditional. But it is still a modern building, using
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those materials. From the energy point of view, this works pretty well as well. So it was about stability. It was about being part of the campus, yet moving the campus up. Wharton is [an] undergraduate and graduate school. You want a place where they come together. It was intended primarily for graduates and undergrads and professors to have a place to be and to talk casually and exchange information. That was the main purpose. If we would use pink or green, things that aren’t really part of the campus but would really stand out, it may not relate to the school. So consistency is good. There is a sense of order. DP: I’ve noticed that the color of Huntsman Hall is very similar to that of Fisher Fine Arts Library. AEK: That’s one of my favorite buildings. ... If you look at that building, that’s old Penn. It says something about [permanence] and something about stability. [Huntsman Hall] is about confidence. It’s about power. In a way, it represents a strong point about what business is about — strength, leadership and something that’s going to run for a long long time. The other thing is the shape of the building is round. It really provides equality for all the professors. The
offices are the same. Views are different depending where you are, but the whole idea was [that] there were no corners. If somebody has a corner office, that’s more important. Everybody has a similar office. So that was a democratic gesture to the professors. DP: Before you came to Penn, did you know that you wanted to study architecture? AEK: I was not sure about being an architect. I painted as a boy and I drew. Liked buildings and models. I played the piano. So it was artistic. My mother is a great designer — clothes. Actually in her 100s, she had a show at the Guggenheim. My background was a lot about art and creativity. So falling into architecture is kind of natural. But I wanted to be a sportscaster ... I like sports. My father was from the medical [field]. He is a researcher and a doctor, so he would preferred [I] go into medicine. But my mom loves the arts, so I chose [the arts]. I also thought about law ... I wasn’t sure. When I came to Penn, the dean back then told me ‘you should study architecture. Even if you don’t become one, the education here is outstanding. You can still do a lot of things. You still study physics, math, language, history and English.’ I listened to him. I came here to the architecture school. Then I discovered that I liked it. ■
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