Architecture on the Waterfront
)NSIDE "LOGS (2/ AND THE 7ORLD "ASEBALL #LASSIC
03.12.09 vol. xl, no. 18 The Indy helps you procrastinate.
independent THE HARVARD
President Diana Suen ‘11 Cover art by SONIA COMAN
News 3
News in Brief
Forum
Editor-in-Chief Sam Jack ‘11
Production Manager Faith Zhang ‘11
Publisher Brian Shen ’11
Technology Director Sanjay Gandhi ’10
News Editor Forum Editor Arts Editor Sports Editor Design Editor Graphics Editor Associate Business Manager Associate Graphics Editor
4
Cambridge Protests The Meowel
Arts I C Architecture 5 6-7 A Blog Too Far Fantastic Fantastique 8
Sports 9 10
A Classic "Classic" Foreign Footballers
For exclusive online content, visit www.harvardindependent.com 2
staff@harvardindependent.com
Susan Zhu ‘11 Riva Riley ‘12 Pelin Kivrak ‘11 Hao Meng ‘11 Patricia Florescu ‘11 Candice Smith ‘11 Jenn Chang ‘11 Sonia Coman ‘11
Staff Writers Peter Bacon ‘11 Rachael Becker '11 Andrew Coffman ‘12 Caroline Corbitt ‘09 Truc Doan ‘10 Ray Duer ‘11 Pippa Eccles ‘09 Jessica Estep ‘09 Nicholas Krasney ‘09 Markus Kolic ‘09 Allegra Richards ‘09 Andrew Rist ‘09 Jim Shirey ‘11 Alice Speri ‘09 Graphics, Photography, and Design Staff Ben Huang ‘09 Edward Chen '09 Caitie Kakigi ‘09 Eva Liou ‘11 Sonia Coman '11 Caitlin Marquis ‘10 Lidiya Petrova ‘11 Sally Rinehart ‘09
As Harvard College's weekly undergraduate newsmagazine, the Harvard Independent provides in-depth, critical coverage of issues and events of interest to the Harvard College community. The Independent has no political affiliation, instead offering diverse commentary on news, arts, sports, and student life. For publication information and general inquiries, contact President Diana Suen (president@harvardindependent.com). Letters to the Editor and comments regarding the content of the publication should be addressed to Editor-in-Chief Sam Jack (editor@harvardindependent.com). Yearly mail subscriptions are available for $30, and semester-long subscriptions are available for $15. To purchase a subscription, email subscriptions@harvardindependent.com. The Harvard Independent is published weekly during the academic year, except during vacations, by The Harvard Independent, Inc., P.O. Box 382204, Cambridge, MA 02238-2204. Copyright © 2008 by The Harvard Independent. All rights reserved.
11.09.06 11.02.06 s The Harvard Independent 02.19.09
news-in-brief
indy
Short & Sweet News that you could conceivably use. By SUSAN ZHU This week: contraception, Yardfest artists and George Clooney. The greenest contraceptive? Drumroll please…
than condoms. But copper intra-uterine devices (IUDs) are cheap and effective. They last up to 10 years, contain no hormones, are made from plentiful copper and are actually more effective than the pill and condoms. We’ve got ourselves a winner.
Sexiest Man Alive visits Chad, gets UN security pulled, survives anyway, and heads to White House to talk Darfur. Meanwhile, Sudan president gets indicted by the ICC and counters by expelling aid groups from Sudan. THE IUD! No idea what that means? Well, second place was the condom! Slate’s Green Lantern blog recently rated the most popular contraceptives in terms of environmental impact. Birth control pills, which contain hormones, may seem environmentally friendly, but when girls go to the potty, they actually release lots of those hormones into the water supply. Fish and other sea creatures live in the water, causing male fish to become female-ish and the species to die out. Of course, women naturally excrete estrogen, but the synthetic kind tends to stay around longer. If you want to stay on the pill and minimize your impact on androgynous fish, switch to a progestin-only pill. Condoms do take up space in landfills, but only account for 0.001 percent of the 152 million tons of trash that Americans toss out every year. To be more environmentally friendly, consumers can choose thinner condoms and buy them in bulk. There are also vegan condoms (but they’re not necessarily environmentally friendlier) and some fair-trade brands. But whatever you do, don’t try to flush them down the toilet. For those willing to go further, there are actually greener options (and no, I don’t mean abstinence or following the cycle, which isn’t all that effective a form of contraception). Diaphragms are greener, but also have a higher fail rate The Harvard Independent s 03.12.09
Sexiest Man Alive visits Chad, gets UN security pulled, survives anyway, and heads to White House to talk Darfur. Meanwhile, Sudan president gets indicted by the ICC and counters by expelling aid groups from Sudan. The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof and NBC’s Ann Curry, two journalists who have been covering Darfur from the time word of the genocide first got out, decided to travel to Chad in late February and report on the unfolding situation in the light of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) pending (now confirmed) indictment on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. In addition to camera crews and equipment, they brought along some star power in the form of actor and two-time Sexiest Man Alive winner George Clooney.
The trio had been denied access to Darfur itself and so reported from a nearby refugee camp in eastern Chad, where a new school had recently been re-named The Obama School. After the first day, Clooney, a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, had his UN security pulled because, according to Kristof, the UN was worried that he would criticize Bashir, who would then blame the UN and lead some sort of revolt or attack on UN camps. The aid provided at such refugee camps are mostly from the UN and NGOs, with military backing from EUFOR, troops from the European Union. Even without the UN escorts, the trio managed to to deliver journalism at its best, Curry reporting with NBC, Clooney with weblogs on NBC.com, and Kristof with The Times (I highly encourage you to check out their reporting – nothing I can say in this blurb could do it any justice). The Sudanese embassy in Washington even responded to one of Kristof’s columns on Darfur, calling his work nothing more than propaganda (a compliment, I presume). Clooney noted that while there was “a lot to fear,” in the region, there was also a “tremendous amount of hope.” Once back in the United States, Clooney headed off to the White House to talk to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden about providing aid to Darfur. According to the White House Blog, President Obama and Vice President Biden told Clooney that “bringing relief to the battered region of Darfur is a top priority for the administration.” We’ll see if that’s true. Since the ICC’s indictment of President Bashir on March 4, international aid groups including the International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders have been kicked out of Darfur and other parts of Sudan. Nicholas Kristof reported via his blog last Thursday that Sudan has also closed domestic aid groups and NGOs, including SUDO, the Sudan Development Organization.
Yardfest 2009: Sara Bareilles and Ratatat!
The College Events Board announced on Tuesday this year’s artists: pop singer and Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles (best known for “Love Song” – which is actually not a love song) and electronic instrumentalist duo Ratatat (“Mirando”), which consists of guitarist Mike Stroud and synthesizer driver Evan Mast. Bareilles, a UCLA grad, is a selftaught pianist and self-trained vocalist who has toured with such artists as Mika, Aqualung, and Maroon 5. She is currently on her second headlining tour, promoting her CD Little Voice. Ratatat (NOT to be confused with Rattata, the purple mouse pokemon) writes instrumental pop songs and have toured with The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, and Daft Punk. Their latest album is LP3. Yardfest, the annual free spring concert, will be on April 19, 2009 in Tercentenary Theatre. CEB said that Yardfest will again feature two musical artists to try to appeal to as many students as possible. They had conducted a student poll to generate ideas, then found artists based on price and availability constraints.
news@harvardindependent.com
3
indy forum
Hate Visits Harvard Westboro Baptist Church visits Cambridge — not once, but twice — and the second time it’s all about protesting Harvard. By SUSAN ZHU
W
BAPTIST CHURCH really doesn’t deserve to have words used up on it, so I won’t use many. There are also lots of question marks in this article because the logic of Westboro Baptist escapes me and every person not in the church. The church, based in Topeka, Kansas, is responsible for sites such as godhatesfags.com, which is actually a pretty impressive website, if you hate people and like to use religion to back up that hate. Essentially, they believe America is doomed because we allow gays and
4
ESTBORO
forum@harvardindependent.com
lesbians to … I don’t know, exist? They protest at military funerals as well as funerals of gays (such as Matthew Shepard’s – one of their favorite signs is “Matt is in Hell”), they thank God for 9/11, AIDS and IEDs (because they’re signs that we’re going to hell?), they hate gays, Jews, Catholics, President Obama, and probably everyone who isn’t in their group. I’m not sure what their actual goals are, but they’re just universally offensive. And they’re unfortunately going to be at Cambridge Rindge and Latin
High School this Friday, March 13, and then at Harvard next Friday, March 20. They’re also going to hit up the State House in Boston and four different consulates for fun (?). Here’s what they have to say about Harvard: “Harvard University - Where is the wise, the scribe, etc?! 12 Quincy St We will picket this place of ‘higher learning’ because they are a bunch of perverted FOOLS!” There’s more. I would be amused if these people weren’t serious. (People can be so strange.)
NB: If you counter-protest with the Dems or other groups, good for you, but do not in any case provoke, spit at, injure, etc., the group, because they apparently enjoy taking people to court. Freedom of speech is also a right for complete wackos and hate groups (within certain contexts). So do your thing, and disregard them for the most part – they feed on attention (and the money from lawsuits). Susan Zhu '11 (szhu@fas) does not approve.
03.12.09 s The Harvard Independent
arts
indy
Contemporary Serenity Understanding the architecture of the Institute of Contemporary Art. By LEVI DUDTE
D
IRECTLY SOUTHWEST OF THE CENTER OF
the city of Boston, situated on the south shore of the Inner Harbor, sits the Institute of Contemporary Art. Designed by the international firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro with construction completed in late 2006, the Institute’s building is one of Greater Boston’s newest architectural gems, a sharplycut pair of prisms that shimmers with the light of Boston’s Inner Harbor (For further architectural excitement from these guys, Google the phase “blur building.”). The building offers, in concert with its contents and alone, a refreshing experience for both the obtuse and the sensitive spectator of contemporary art and architecture. I’ll lead you on a written tour of the building, exploring the structure from the outside, inward, in order to discover anything in our wandering path that may stimulate or deaden, enhance or obscure our understanding of architecture’s power to sculpt light and space. Let’s start on the outside. As we approach from the parking on the south side we encounter the building’s first facade, nothing more than a square divided into horizontal halves by different materials. At the bottom left corner, glass doors serve as the building’s main entrance, a crucial functional feature that is not at all suggested by the organization of the facade or the building’s structure. So our curious minds lead us past the facade and around the building, failing even to even notice a fundamental function of the building’s design, marginalized as a detail. As we encircle, we gain new perspectives and come closer to a complete understanding of the ICA’s exterior. Its incredibly simple external form conveys unabashedly the architects’ primary concern for shaping its surrounding space. Standing outside the building and looking up at its stark linear and angular form cast against the sky or, depending on our position relative to building, the Boston skyline, we grasp immediately its entire composition: two rectangular boxes of glass and metal, stacked and laced with a wraparound external walkway. The two boxes are explicitly discrete entities, differentiated by dimensions and surface treatment. The Harvard Independent s 03.12.09
The top box is certainly the sexier of the two, clean, slim, sharp and set precisely, like a gem, atop the spotted bottom box. It is longer and thinner than the bottom box and its extra length is directed toward the harbor as a cantilever. This jutting edge asserts the building’s unique identity with an extreme simplicity that surely stands out among such a high-profile commissions. (Art museums are often considered the architectural profession’s most prized opportunities.) It defines the building’s structure and carves the outdoor space around the building into an area of shelter underneath the cantilever and an area of exposure without. As participants in this public space, we are free to meander in and out of the building’s shelter, engaging at will either its protective or expressive capacities. The outdoor café, complete with both free-standing tables and chairs and a stepped concrete form snuggled beneath the cantilevered recess, welcomes our need for shade and relaxation while pointing our gaze away from the building, over the harbor and into the horizon. We can chat about art and space with young Boston families, plaided and neoned hipsters, students, travelers, teachers and photographers, our movement, thoughts and words unimpeded, even stimulated. Spatial serenity at its simplest, at its best.
Of course, this serenity could never constitute our entire experience at an Institute of Contemporary Art. How could our happiness withstand all of the heady art that has been produced over the last several decades, stuff often bereft of technical talent and heavily charged with “agency” or “concept”? We should expect, having taken in as much serenity as possible at the beginning of our journey to and through the ICA, to enter the museum as peaceful spectators of contemporary art, tranquil subjects led unsuspectingly inside to be questioned, challenged, perturbed, provoked, problematized, popcultured, conceptualized, contextualized, decontextualized, analyzed, stabilized, aestheticized, and cantilevered all over again. Oh, the humanity. It might help if we weren’t so bourgeois. And so we enter. To say that the innards of the ICA are more complicated than the exterior is to say almost nothing. In fact, it is a compliment to the incredible economy of space implemented by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro inside the ICA. The lobby is airy and welcoming with an acute clarity of sound and precision of structure, refreshing. Window details and our own sense of height preserve our awareness of the building’s external structure even when inside. Our intuition is correct,
SHORELANDER/Wikimedia Commons
as the lobby accounts for about half (the southern portion) of what we called the bottom box from the outside. A bookstore and theater (equipped with a special type of glass adjustable from opaque to transparent depending on performance requirements) fill the remainder, completing the bottom box like the final pieces in our perceptual puzzle. Tightly-packed, yet more than spacious, the spaces of the bottom box welcome and entertain like a warm smile and an interesting conversation. It is when we walk upstairs to the top box that our experience transcends the social and engages the intimate and cerebral. Three architectural components come together to offer unprecedented spatial experiences on the waterfront. The first is the long gallery spanning the tip of the top box, a thin corridor placed at the edge of the cantilever and physically shielded from sweeping views of the harbor’s horizon only by thin panes of glass stretched from floor to ceiling. The second is a digital media center that dangles from the bottom of the cantilever, sloping downward and directing our gaze towards a framed view of nothing but harbor water, perhaps an architectural play on the frame’s now archaic role in art. The third is the gallery itself. This large open space can be divided and rearranged by movable walls that glide along a ceiling grid system, in effect sculpting the space to fit the requirements of its contents. Natural light filters in through the roof, mingling with museum lighting and permeating the gallery with a uniform vibrancy ideal for contemplating its contents. Here we find the sculptural beasts of contemporary art, creatures and creations that contort our understanding of shape and space, even art itself. I’ll not even attempt to address these tantalizing objects today, as we’ve extracted enough metaphor and convolution already from nothing more than our two stacked boxes. So go visit! Explore, chat, play, gaze, meditate, whatever. The sleek, smart design of Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art begs and beckons your serenity and stimulation. Levi Dudte ‘11 (ldudte@fas) wishes he weren’t so bourgeois. arts@harvardindependent.com
5
indy arts Photography BAGnewsNotes (bagnewsnotes.com):
submissions from all the people who encounter such notes. The content is hilarious and sometimes tragic. What you’ll see: “If you want to keep eating you better replace the toilet paper.” “Your mother doesn’t work here.” “Enough with the fruit juices & diet sodas! I am a full grown adult! I accept responsibility for my choices! I want a REAL Coke!” Who it’s for: The frustrated, lovers of schadenfreude. Mute (mute.rigent.com)
What it is: BAGnewsNotes is like “Media Matters” for visual media. It’s not traditional to think of photographers as we do of reporters, as observers of politics and culture who can be either biased or objective, but BAGnewsNotes makes a strong case that there isn’t any such thing as an objective photograph. What you’ll see: Rush Limbaugh, homeless veterans, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, magazine covers, misleading captions, boarded up houses, extensive commentary and criticism. Who it’s for: Political wonks, visual media wonks, budding photojournalists. Passport Photo: Thumb on the World (passportphoto.name)
What it is: It’s 800 odd photos of passports and of people’s passport photos. Why? Who knows. But it’s at least a little interesting to see what different countries passports look like. What’s more interesting is to see how people arrange themselves to take these photos. In many countries, you aren’t allowed to smile. Some people look confused, some dazed, many look annoyed. For my passport photo, I was asked to tilt my glasses way forward on my face so that they wouldn’t glare. So I look ridiculous. I’m not on the site, fortunately. What you’ll see: Passport photos and photos of passports. Am I not making this clear? Who it’s for: Err, the interested, I guess. PassiveAggressiveNotes (http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com): What it is: Have you ever left a note on the microwave saying, “Please be considerate to those who will use the microwave after you, and clean the inside if your food explodes?” Have you ever left a long note in the basement of Harvard Hall saying, “Please explain to me why this door is locked”? Passive-aggressive note leaving seems to be on the rise, as we grow more and more accustomed to conducting social interactions at arms length. PassiveAggressiveNotes.com accepts
6
arts@harvardindependent.com
Twelve Blog Che
...and four you
By SAM JACK and
Human Stupidity and Self-Pity Fail Blog (failblog.org)
What it is: It’s a photo blog by a guy named Miles who lives in Toronto. Miles says, “I design stuff for a living and take photos for fun.” Looking at the photos on MUTE could almost trick you into wanting to live in the cold wasteland that is Toronto. The photos, which Miles admits are intermittently Photoshop enhanced often seem to glow with a soft internal light. What you’ll see: Streetcars driving through snowstorms, gleaming shopping carts, harbours, sunrises, sunsets, hockey players, pool halls, the space needle, fog, ice cracking. Who it’s for: Lovers of cold weather, budding art photographers, people searching for pretty desktop wallpaper.
Food and Drink Cake Wrecks (cakewrecks.blogspot.com) What it is: Cake Wrecks is a compendium of cakes for all occasions--birthdays, holidays, retirement, funerals, and an alarming number of cakes that it’s impossible to guess what the occasion could have been. Roughly a third of the cakes pictured on the site are funny because of the errors (sometimes, we suspect, deliberate) that underpaid grocery store workers have made while writing out whatever’s been requested. (I.e., “Good Buy Amy”). The other two-thirds document people who have put way to much effort into making their cakes into rocket ships or smurfs, or the bellies of pregnant women, or human torsos. What you’ll see: An amazing Fraggle Rock diorama cake, complete with Doozers. Space Invaders cupcakes. A Pacman maze cake. A Playboy themed birthday cake for a 12 year old. A DeLorean! Who it’s for: The kind of people who slow down their cars to look at wrecks, “just to make sure no one is hurt.”
What it is: Evidence of human failure and stupidity, captured in photographs, videos, and audio recordings. A reminder of how dumb people can be. What you’ll see: People falling down, objects falling down, inadvertent sexual innuendoes. Who it’s for: Those who seek confirmation of their own intelligence. F*** My Life (fmylife.com) What it is: A list of unfortunate incidents that have convinced the poster that his or her life is fucked. The posts are separated into seven categories – love, money, kids, work, health, sex, and miscellaneous – and readers can vote on whether the victim “deserved that one” or whether the poor sucker’s life is actually fucked. What you’ll see: Descriptions of bad dates, failed sexual encounters, text messages gone awry, nasty parents, failed courses, and layoffs. Irony abounds. Who it’s for: Unattractive undergraduate losers looking for company. Engrish Funny (engrishfunny.com) What it is: Evidence of extremely flawed English translations. What you’ll see: Broken English phrases that either make no sense at all or sound oddly sexual. Who it’s for: Racists. 03.12.09 s The Harvard Independent
arts
gs You Should eck Out
indy
Blogs to Avoid 4chan.com
u should avoid.
d SALLY RINEHART
What you’ll see: Piles of every single kind of meat, pizzas with obscene toppings, cheeseburgers containing upwards of 10 patties, and other dripping platters that really shouldn’t exist. Most posts will trigger your gag reflex … but about one in ten look pretty damn appetizing. Who it’s for: Fatties, bulimics.
Cats and Other Cute Animals Cats In Sinks (catsinsinks.com) What it is: Pictures of cats sitting sinks. Sometimes there are multiple cats in the same sink. What you’ll see: When you first visit the site, you will be presented with a single randomly-selected photograph of a cat in a sink. Then, you click the “Show me another cat in a sink!” button and get another cat in a sink. I’ve never seen the same photograph twice. Who it’s for: Hardcore procrastinators. Rate My Kitten (ratemykitten.com) What it is: A forum for cat owners to post pictures of their feline companions. Then, users rate the cats on a 1-10 scale. Over time, each cat accumulates a statistical average. What you’ll see: Pictures of cats. With ratings. Who it’s for: People who feel the need to pass judgment on absolutely everything. Or, people with no friends. Take your pick. Stuff On My Cat (stuffonmycat.com) What it is: A collection of photographs of cats … with stuff on them. What you’ll see: Passive felines with objects on top of them. Posts are split into multiple categories, among them “Clothes On My Cat,” “Food On My Cat,” “Naughty Stuff On My Cat,” and “Toys On My Cat.” It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Who it’s for: I honestly have no idea. Cute Overload (cuteoverload.com)
What it is: Ah, what is it? That’s a question that is difficult to answer. It claims, innocuously on the homepage, to be an “imageboard.” People find or make pictures they think are interesting or funny and them post them to the website for others to enjoy! But go past the homepage (and I don’t advise anyone to go past the homepage), and you’ll find a cesspit of nonsense, mindless repetition, and wanton misogyny. Whenever you find someone in a comments section who is deliberately provocative, with deliberately poor spelling, speaking a language of euphemism and abbreviation, chances are that person was spawned in /b/, which is the wildest board. What you’ll see: Weird anime, Rick Rolling, threats of violence, people suffering bodily harm, etcetera etcetera. Who it’s for: Cretins, as far as I’m concerned. Cretins and people who want to know what the cretins are getting up to. Group Hug (grouphug.us) What it is: A forum for anonymous confessions that users can click to “hug.” What you’ll see: A list of the saddest scenarios you could possibly imagine. Unrequited love, attempted suicide, and general lack of self-esteem. A jackpot of despondence and self-loathing. Who it’s for: Emotional masochists, people who listen to Dashboard Confessional.
What it is: A gigantic database of the most adorable photographs of the most adorable animals ever seen. The focus is on puppies, kittens, and bunnies, but pretty much every potentially cute baby animal is accounted for. What you’ll see: Snuggling puppies, newborn kittens, bunnies in flowers, yellow chicks, and a lot of baby pandas. Who it’s for: Anyone seeking deep catharsis. The Harvard Independent s 03.12.09
I Can Haz Cheezburger (icanhazcheezburger.com)
What it is: More colloquially known as Lolcats, this website features an everexpanding collection of cat photographs with nonsensical text superimposed as a weak attempt at clever captioning. What you’ll see: Funny cats and misspelled words. Who it’s for: No one. Everyone has already seen every post on this website. It’s already destroyed the integrity of the English language. Everyone please go find a new blog.
This Is Why You’re Fat (thisiswhyyourefat.com) What it is: Pictures and descriptions of the most caloric foods ever prepared. The focus is on meat, with some occasional dessert items. Most things are fried and involve melted cheese.
arts@harvardindependent.com
7
indy arts
Un Concert Fantastique A glorious performance of classic masterpieces. By EZGI BEREKETLI
S
I WISH I WERE A CHAIR in Sanders Theatre, or maybe one of the statues on the sides of the stage. Not only would I have had the opportunity to witness the lectures and talks by many of the most venerable academic, political and literary figures of the nineteenth and twentieth century who have taken the podium at Sanders Theatre, but also I would have had the invaluable chance to hear and watch the phenomenal concerts of the outstanding choirs and orchestral groups. Although this “I wish” can’t go farther than the tip of a magician’s wand, I can still travel back to the night of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concert and remind myself of how lucky I am to have witnessed an undoubtedly phenomenal event from the Sanders Theater’s jealousyinducing repertoire. The concert opened with one of my favorite classical masterpieces: Romanian Rhapsody in A major, No. 1. Enescu, a supremely gifted musician and composer, creates an atmosphere in which the folk-music of his rural Romania dominantly tunes over the German and French traditions he acquired during his conservatory years. Announcing the theme in solo winds before the orchestra takes it up, the Rhapsody then sets before us a succession of superbly orchestrated festive scenes from rural life. Eastern characteristics embroider the orchestral tapestry with great richness. The piece that followed was from half a century later, and conveyed a very different atmosphere. The concerto was composed specifically for the jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, and for this reason incorporated many jazz elements into the music. Copland himself acknowledged that his signature “bittersweet lyricism,” which was in evidence in the first movement of the Clarinet Concerto may have been influenced by his
8
OMETIMES
arts@harvardindependent.com
CONCERT REVIEW The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Sanders Theatre
March with Berlioz to the guillotine and behold the “ugliest instrument,” the E-flat clarinet, transforming Berlioz’s leading lady into a wretched demon before the bells sound the call for judgment day. feelings of loneliness and social alienation over his homosexuality, which at the time was not socially accepted. The piece everyone was waiting impatiently for arrived after the intermission and HRO’s rendition made it worth for the wait. The Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz might be one of the most appropriately named masterpieces of the classical music canon; the grandeur of the word “fantastique” captures the musical transcendence achieved by the symphony. This piece is special not only because of its musical harmony but also because of its rich story. The orchestra described in the
story in the program: “Feel the young artist’s heart pound with the theme of his beloved; lose yourself in the glamour of the festive ball; hear the shepherd calls of the oboe and english horn in the countryside; march with Berlioz to the guillotine; and behold the supposed “ugliest instrument,” the E-flat clarinet, transforming Berlioz’s leading lady into a wretched demon unworthy of his love before the bells of Dies Irae sound the ominous call for judgment day.” After the concert, the audience was unified in appreciation. Everybody seemed deeply moved by the music, and more importantly the display of professionalism and talent by
the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra members. One of the orchestra members admitted that every time she performs with the whole orchestra she wis even more amazed by what magic the instruments are capable of when they are all played and orchestrated well. My friend, as moved as I was, said (perhaps with some hyperbole) “The HRO was definitely comparable to Boston Symphony Orchestra, only if not better.” Another friend expressed her approval by saying ”If only Berlioz, Copland and Enescu were to watch the concert; they would be proud of what they have composed and of how well they were performed.” The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra had an exceptionally exciting and musically challenging program for this concert, and they played for an audience full of the proud and curious eyes of the visiting junior parents. It was simply inspiring to observe the pride beaming from the eyes of the parents who had just had the unparalleled chance to see their children and grandchildren perform three classical masterpieces in a fittingly professional manner worthy of endless plaudits. Berlioz prefaces his notes for the Symphonie Fantastique with “the spoken text of an opera” which opens with the sentence: “The composer’s intention has been to develop various episodes in the life of an artist, in so far as they lend themselves to musical treatment.” Insofar as the mention of “intention” is appropriate for an orchestra concert, the HRO transcendentally echoed the intention of Berlioz and developed various episodes in the lives of the three composers, and presented them in musical festivity. Et c’etait simplement fantastique! Ezgi Berektli ‘11 (ezgiberektli@gmail) is a hopeless romantic. 03.12.09 s The Harvard Independent
sports
indy
Starting the Season Off Right The World Baseball Classic provides ample enjoyment during the March baseball doldrums. By JIM SHIREY
T
TOM Boswell, “Baseball means ‘spring’s here.’” For me, it works the other way, too: warm, wet air, more sun, and longer days mean “baseball’s here.” Though I haven’t played in an organized game since my junior year of high school, I still get tryout jitters every March, and I still expect, somewhere in my heart of hearts, to spend my warm afternoons on a dirt infield with a mitt on my right hand. It’s enough to drive a guy crazy, especially since there’s almost no televised pro baseball for another month. Even if ESPN did bother showing a game or two, they would hardly be worth watching: trying to keep track of the goings-on in an MLB spring-training game is like trying to play Whack-A-Mole with a toothpick. Thank God for the World Baseball Classic. Brainchild of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, the WBC, now in the second week of its second iteration, pits sixteen national teams against one another in World Cupstyle double-elimination pool format. Those who escape the first round play another double elimination round, the winners of which square off in a four-team playoff. The teams – from the US, Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Taipei, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Panama, Italy, and the Dominican Republic – are composed mostly of current pros. The stakes are simple: bragging rights for the next three years. It’s amazing what the lure of bragging rights can do, in terms of drawing marquee players to the tournament. The US team, by no means the most talented in the WBC, faces a telling conundrum at shortstop. Skipper Davey Johnson, himself an icon, has 2007 National O BOTCH A QUOTE FROM
The Harvard Independent s 03.12.09
League Most Valuable Player Jimmy Rollins, a switch-hitting leadoff man with power, speed, and remarkable defensive ability, for that spot. But Rollins hasn’t been playing nearly as much as his resumé might warrant: he’s splitting time with a kid named
Jeter. Pride, apparently, has inspired something else as well: a preponderance of the relaxed intensity that the best pro players mete out so dearly during the regular season and bring to full bear only in October. It hasn’t always
I still expect, somewhere in my heart of hearts, to spend my warm afternoons on a dirt infield with a mitt on my right hand.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Jimmy Rollins
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Bud Selig
been that way — three years ago, a lackluster Team USA dropped its first game to Canada on the way to a quick exit — but this time, energy seems to be the norm. The other day, ESPN’s camera found Rollins after he had been lifted for Jeter in a first-round game — the shortstop was sitting on the bench, raising a ruckus for the man at the plate. “See that?” said commentator Rick Sutcliffe. “There’s Jimmy Rollins, out of the game, clapping his hands for [teammate Mark] DeRosa. Where are you going to see something like that?” Where indeed: “At an AllStar Game?” his partner in the booth suggested, prompting both to chuckle at the thought. While we’re on the subject: the WBC should be all the evidence MLB needs to cut the “This One Counts” crap with its All-Star Game. No amount of logistical consequence — no, Mr. Selig, not even giving the winning league home field advantage in the World Series — can outdo pride in motivating athletes. National pride, admittedly, is a lot easier to arouse than league pride, but attaching real costs to exhibition games makes them a lot more stressful for those involved and a lot less fun for them and for us. And fun, after all, is what all this is really about. But I will refrain from any more dumping on Bud Selig, at least for today. The guy might have presided over one of the most dubious eras in the history of professional sports, but his career as commissioner has not been completely without highlights. He was, after all, the mastermind of the Classic, and the man who pushed it through despite the objections of American and international clubs alike. For that, at least, he deserves praise: he’s the reason I even get to
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 sports@harvardindependent.com
9
indy sports
Battle Royale In the European Champions League, the legendary soccer teams of Europe go head to head. By NICK NEHAMAS
S
OCCER’S GREATEST TOURNAMENT IS
heating up to its annual climax. No, not the World Cup, but the European Champions League. The Champions League allows the best teams from every European nation (except Liechtenstein, which has no professional league) to play against each other during the regular season and ends in a one-game final, to be held this year in Rome on May 27. 76 teams are entered into the competition. 32 of these teams progress to the groupstage where they are divided into eight groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group then progress into the Knockout Rounds, which brings us into the present. This year’s First Knockout Round matches read like a Who’s Who of European soccer: Chelsea F.C. vs Juventus, Sporting Lisboa vs Bayern Munich, Olympique Lyonnais vs F.C. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid vs Porto, Real Madrid vs Liverpool, Arsenal vs Roma, Villareal vs Panathinaikos, and Manchester United vs Internazionale Milan. The great story-line of this year’s Champions League is the clash between the Italian and English squads, who, until yesterday, had three and four teams still participating in the tournament. Soccer (football, futebol, foot, calcio, podosfairo, futbol, whatever one chooses to call it) has one advantage over American sports: the passion of outright jingoism. Our own athletic rivalries--including the heated clashes between the Yankees and the Red Sox or the Giants and the Eagles-are tame in comparison. European soccer fans despise their opponents so passionately on the grounds of ethnic, socio-economic, political and religious differences. For example, in England, Liverpool have always represented the workingclass, Catholic element of the city, while their cross-town rivals Everton are supported by the more prosperous Protestant neighborhoods. Everyone
10
sports@harvardindependent.com
hates Tottenham Hotspur of London because they have traditionally been run by Jews. In Italy, Internazionale Milan stands for a fierce commitment to leftist politics, while A.C. Milan is aligned with the right, and Lazio of Rome have strong Fascist elements
among their hardcore fans. Every club has its own identity and a fan-base that groups together much like a political party or religion. Moreover, each football-playing country is considered to express its national character in the way that they approach the game
English teams have been able to invest in skillful and thus e x p e n s i v e f o re i g n t a l e n t t o supplement their less subtle but more physical home-grown players. For this innovation, they have been rewarded in European play.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Zinedine Zidane
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Wayne Rooney
tactically. The English rightfully consider themselves the inventors of football. However, the continental nations heap scorn upon the English style, which is caricatured as relying on strength, stamina, and brutality to the exclusion of skill, passing, and vision. The basic strategy of English teams, according to this view, is to boot long-balls from deep inside one’s own half over the top of the opposing team’s defense in the hope that your attackers will retrieve the ball and score. Perhaps this was once true of English clubs, as it still is of England’s desperately under-performing national team. But, because of an influx of wealthy, foreign owners into England’s Premier League (now the world’s most popular and closely followed), English teams have been able to invest in skillful and thus expensive foreign talent to supplement their less subtle but more physical home-grown players. For this innovation, they have been rewarded in European play: at least one English team has made it to the Champion’s League Final in each of the last four seasons. The highlight was last year’s final, an all-English affair in which Manchester United defeated London-side Chelsea on penalties. This year, four English teams are still in the running: United, Liverpool, and the London-based duo of Chelsea and Arsenal. If they are to fail this year, it will be because of the superiority of the Italian sides: Inter Milan, Roma, and Juventus. The Italians are as widely caricatured as the English for their style of play, particularly for the ultra-defensive strategy known as catenaccio (“door-bolt”). The idea is to keep as many men behind the ball as possible, soaking up pressure from the other team and drawing them onto your side of the field, before winning the ball and quickly surging forward
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 03.12.09 s The Harvard Independent
sports
indy
EUROPEAN SOCCER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
on the counter-attack. But Italy, too, is now awash with foreign imports. In this knockout round, the three Italian teams fielded only 17 Italian players. Meanwhile, the four English teams were even worse, putting a grand total of 14 English players onto the pitch (including, though they might howl at being defined as “English,” an Irishman, a Scot, and two Welshmen). The clear center-piece of this week’s games was between Manchester United (last year’s European champions) and Serie A-winners Inter, who have always disappointed in European competition despite consistent domestic success. The teams are coached by two old rivals: the blustering 67 year-old Scot, Sir Alex Ferguson, a true legend of the game, and the young and handsome Jose Mourinho, who coached Chelsea to two Premier League titles before moving onto Italy. Ferguson had only ever beaten Mourinho in one match before Wednesday’s encounter and, obviously, was looking to get one over on his former foe. Mourinho, meanwhile, was brought to Milan for one simple reason: to win the Champions League. Unfortunately, his team was simply outclassed this time, drawing 0-0 at home in the first game, largely thanks to the heroic wonder-saves of Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar, before going down tamely 2-0 at Old Trafford in Manchester. Inter boasted a strong-lineup but luck was not on their side. An injury crisis (one victim was Marco “Il Monstro” Materazzi, who was so infamously headbutted in the 2006 World Cup Final by Zinedine Zidane) meant that the defense in front of Cesar was patchwork and it showed: Nemanja Vidic, United’s aggressive Serbian defender, and Cristiano Ronaldo, the flamboyant Portuguese winger, were both allowed to head home, their goals unmarked. Cesar had no chance on either.
Meanwhile, Inter’s star strikers, the sublimely skilled Bosno-Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Brazilian Adriano, who has done well to come back from a nasty bout of alcoholism, both managed to beat United’s ‘keeper, Edwin van der Saar but saw their shots come flying back off the framework of the goal. It was a rough day for Mourinho, who was nowhere near as stylish as usual, due to a severe case of flu, and for Inter, who stuck true to the Italian style of catenaccio, largely staying in their own half. They did carve out some fine chances through Ibrahimovic (who had two, if not three, United defenders on him the entire game), the attacks of the 18 year-old Mario Balotelli down the left (he was born to black Ghanaian immigrants but adopted by an Italian family), and late runs into the box by Serbian playmaker Dejan Stankovic. United, meanwhile, were a joy to behold. Anchored in defense by van der Saar and Vidic, Ferguson’s side controlled the midfield and was led up front by the speed and physical force of England-international Wayne Rooney. Their neat passing in midfield and general tactical awareness showed that the criticisms of rough and direct English-style football are dated. United, which essentially has two players capable of starting at every position, now looks the favorites to claim the Champions League for a second time. While Mourinho will not win this year, his old team Chelsea is still in with a shot, having knocked out Juventus of Turin 3-2 on aggregate. Admittedly, they do play a long-ball style but it is hard to blame them given the size and skill of their star forward Didier Drogba. The more time the 6’2, 200-pound Ivorian spends on the ball, the greater their chances of winning. The most un-English of the English teams is Arsenal. At
home, they are viewed (unfavorably) as an outpost of overly-fancy continental football (largely of the French school) who play beautifully but do not possess the guts to win big matches, perhaps because they so rarely field English players (or so says the English press). Their cerebral coach, the Frenchman Arsène Wenger, who is nick-named “the Professor,” has a knack for taking talented younger players (Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas and Dennis Bergkamp among many others) and making them into world-class stars. On Wednesday, they barely sneaked past Roma, who played a surprisingly open game centered around the skill of captain Francesco Totti, drawing 1-1 before clinching a 7-6 victory on the nerve-racking lottery of penalties. By that count, then, the final score reads: England 3 - Italy 0. Meanwhile, Liverpool, who has also developed an attacking style under the tutelage of the Spaniard Rafael Benitez and the goals of his compatriot Fernando Torres, secured their passage onto the next round by spanking Real Madrid 5-0, making a consecutive all-England Champions League Final a strong possibility. Also, progressing were Villareal, Porto, Bayern, and Barcelona. Surely, these three matches won’t permanently settle the debate between Italy and England. For the moment, however, the future does look brighter across the Channel, with its wealthy foreign sugar-daddies and their rosters of global super-stars who have made the “Kick it and run, mate!”-style largely a thing of the past. To catch up, the Italian clubs, whose fans routinely boo and make monkey-noises at black players, will have to close the door on the “door-bolt” and look to modernize their game.
Sunday’s game against Venezuela with three former MVPs — Jimmy Rollins, Dustin Pedroia, and Chipper Jones — but managed to go 1-2-3 in the top of the first, thanks partly to strikeouts of Pedroia and Jones by Venezuelan starter Victor Zambrano. There have also been blowouts: the US wound up winning that game 15-6. The puny Netherlands team’s upset of the powerhouse Dominican Republic aside, the results of pool play have been unsurprising. But in a competition like the Classic, the final scores ultimately aren’t as important as the moments behind them, moments of baseball at its best. The WBC has seen an abundance of these moments, and they are the biggest reason to watch. Two such moments in particular stand out in my mind. The first comes in the middle innings of China’s loss to Japan, the game that opened the Classic. With Japan at the plate, one out and a runner on third, Chinese shortstop Ray Chang spears a hard grounder to his left. Ninety-five percent of the time from now through September,
any shortstop in the major leagues would simply throw to first, trading a run for an out. But Chang fakes the throw to first, spins two hundred and seventy degrees and fires the ball home, just in time to nab the Japanese runner on his way to the plate. The next day, Korea kicks off its Classic with a first-inning rally against Taipei. With the bases loaded, two out, and a 3-1 count, Lee Jin-Yung of Korea gets a fastball up and in and unleashes a cut Babe Ruth would have been proud of. The swing starts at Lee’s toes and works its way to the tip of his helmet, spinning him nearly out of the batter’s box. The ball goes five hundred feet into the right-centerfield bleachers for a grand slam. It’s moments like these that make baseball always worth watching. Thanks, Bud, for sending some along a few weeks ahead of schedule.
Nick Nehamas ( nnehamas@gmail.com ) ’11 is pretty sure he’s a sugar-daddy.
BASEBALL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 write this, so I’ll let him off the hook for now. Initial fears about the WBC at its 2006 inception had mostly to do with injury: playing games so early in the season, many argued, would result in players getting hurt. A few did, some seriously: reliever Luis Ayala was one of the premier setup men in the majors in 2005 but lost the entire 2006 season to an injury sustained pitching for Mexico in the inaugural Classic and has never regained his form. Many have blamed the rapid degeneration of Dontrelle Willis on his workload in the 2006 Classic. But the tournament has instituted new rules to protect pitchers from overextending themselves, and so far this year, no major injuries have been reported. It might be redundant to say that the best part about the World Baseball Classic so far has been the baseball, but it’s not nearly as self-evident as it sounds: seeing the game of baseball played the right way is always a treat, and it’s even more of a treat in March. There have been moments of surprisingly stiff competition: the US led off
The Harvard Independent s 03.12.09
Jim Shirey ( shirey.jim@gmail ) ’11 secretly created the idea of the WBC and sold it to Bud Selig for an undisclosed amount.
sports@harvardindependent.com
11
Captured and Shot PATRICIA FLORESCU/Independent