The Justice, September 6, 2011 issue

ARTS Page 21

FORUM Are we “Generation Vexed?” 10

THE MAGIC ENDS

SPORTS Men’s soccer wins two blowouts 16 The Independent Student Newspaper

the

of

B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Justice

Volume LXIV, Number 2

www.thejustice.org

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

BATTLE OF THE BRANDEIS DJS

finances

Univ raises $62M during FY ’11

FINANCES

Bill calls for more financial disclosure ■ The University, which is

opposed to the bill, says that it already provides adequate and transparent reporting of its finances to the public, according to Andrew Gully.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

A bill calling for more transparency in financial reporting from Massachusetts higher education institutions was heard before the Joint Revenue Committee on June 9, according to Director of the Division of Higher Education at Local 615 Wayne Langley in an interview with the Justice.

The bill, which would be applied to public charities including colleges and universities such as Brandeis, would require reporting the names of and amount paid to any employees or consultants who earned over $250,000, as well as those of all service providers that were paid $150,000 or more during the preceding fiscal year.

In addition, public charities would be required to include a brief description of the services provided.

Langley, who is a strong advocate for the bill, said that all colleges, whether for-profit, nonprofit, public or private, rely on taxpayer money and that individuals should have access to information about how institutions use their money.

In an email to the Justice, Senior Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully wrote that the University, along with the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, believes that the legislation is unnecessary.

“Like all other colleges and universities, Brandeis provides significant disclosure annually at both the state and federal levels,” wrote Gully. “In fact, last year, this disclosure was expanded by the IRS.” He continued, “There is now a tremendous amount of financial information available to the public, including things like senior administrative compensation levels, conflict of information data and outside vendor contracts, all of which provides a great deal of transparency and safeguards.”

■ Although the endowment

suffered during the economic recession, it has now recovered almost completely to pre-crash levels.

By SARA DEJENE JUSTICE EDITOR

The University received $62 million in fundraising cash for the fiscal year 2011, which is a $10 million dollar decrease in fundraising from the previous year, according to Director of Development Communications David Nathan in an email to the Justice and an August 2010 BrandeisNOW press release.

This is the 12th consecutive year that fundraising has totaled over $60 million, according to Senior

See FUNDRAISING, 5 ☛

EARNINGS: Former University President Reinharz’s compensation and how it compares to that of other university presidents

NEWS 3

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

Winning performance Battle of the Brandeis DJs winner DJ Octokyu (Michael Hwang ’12) performs for a crowd. Five disc jockeys performed during the competition, which took place last Saturday night in the Levin Ballroom. See Arts, p. 19.

OBITUARY

University alumnus dies during attempted rescue ■ Michael Kenwood ’94

served on the swift water rescue team of the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad.

By jONATHAN EPSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Michael Kenwood ’94 died last Sunday during the attempted rescue of a submerged car that may

have contained a trapped driver in Princeton, N.J. When Kenwood was a student at the University, he volunteered for the Brandeis Emergency Kenwood Medical Corps and served as its director for 3 semesters, from spring 1993

through his graduation the following year, according to a BrandeisNOW press release.

Kenwood was part of a group from Princeton Swiftwater Rescue Team that responded to a report of a submerged car that potentially had a person trapped inside at 4 a.m. on Aug. 28. Kenwood entered the water tied to another rescuer on a line that was held by other rescuers farther

See EMT, 5 ☛

See REPORT, 4 ☛

Biking New England

Two for two

Prof wins award

Climate Summer participants rode bikes to promote an environmentally friendly future.

 The women’s soccer team won two games with 2-0 scores to start the season.

 Prof. Turrigiano (BIOL) was recognized for her work in “synaptic scaling.”

FEATURES 7 For tips or info e-mail editor@thejustice.org

Waltham, Mass.

Let your voice be heard!

Submit letters to the editor online at www.thejustice.org

INDEX

SPORTS 16 ARTS SPORTS

17 16

EDITORIAL FEATURES

10 6

OPINION POLICE LOG

10 2

COMMENTARY

11

News 4 COPYRIGHT 2011 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

2

TUESDAY, september 6, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

NEWS AP BRIEF Massachusetts teacher rides bike over 3,000 miles cross-country

STURBRIDGE, Mass—Sturbridge native Jonathan H. Palmer traveled 3,397 miles in his cross-country bicycle trip and it only happened once. One flat tire. And it was nearly 3,000 miles before he punctured the tire.

“When I was riding back and forth from work it was 40 miles round trip, and I would have three flat tires a week, and you’re talking 200 miles a week,” he said.

“Now, I was riding upward to 600 to 700 miles per week and I didn’t get a flat tire until 2,991 into my trip. And that was the only one I got.”

Starting June 25 at Long Wharf in Boston Harbor, he kicked off his trek by anointing the rear tire of his Specialized Allez Elite bicycle in the Atlantic Ocean and ended July 26 outside of San Francisco where he splashed his tired feet in the Pacific.

During the 32-day trip, Palmer suffered one nasty spill, wore out one pair of bike shorts and three rear tires, endured one heat wave and came back with plenty of colorful stories about his travels and this great country.

Palmer, who lives in Waltham and teaches math at Blue Hill Regional Vocational High School in Canton, trekked through 12 states: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. He said he wanted to ride his bike cross-country to see if he could physically push himself to do it.

For his cross-country trek, Palmer traveled very light. He had one change of clothes (which consisted of a T-shirt and hiking shorts), a solo tent, a sleep sack, a Smartphone, debit card, credit card, driver’s license, passport (just in case), a single pair of socks, a pair of flip-flops, hard-sole bike shoes (that clipped to the bicycle pedals), a flashlight, sunglasses, suntan lotion, a few toiletry items and a would-be bike repair kit.

What he didn’t bring was sneakers, underwear or any weapons.

It might have been sheer luck, but Palmer said the people he encountered were, for the most part, good-natured. He said he ran into nothing but great, interested people that were fascinated by what he was doing.

“It got to the point I told my story four times a day,” he said. “The amount of strangers that I met that just wanted to talk, wanted to hear about what I was doing,or wanted to offer a hand, it was pretty amazing—from some random guy at a gas station buying me a Gatorade to another letting me sleep in his garage because it was supposed to rain that night.”

Palmer averaged 112 miles a day, with his best singleday total being 160 miles.

He said the first week or two were the toughest because he was still really close to home and it would have been easy to give up and turn around. In New York, Palmer took a nasty spill and he believes he broke his right hand.

“Bicycle tires and wet steel ridge bridges do not go hand in hand. It had been raining that morning. I was riding 15 to 20 mph. My bike just slipped right out from under me,” Palmer said. “And I ‘supermanned’ over my handlebars and I hit both hands first and I jammed three of my fingers, two on my right hand and one on my left hand, cut both of my palms opens and both of my hands swelled up pretty bad.”

Palmer said he wasn’t a big fan of the Bonneville Salt Flats on Interstate 80 in Utah, where it was 66 miles between towns.

“Once you hit the Salt Flats, it was about 50 miles straight. No scenery, no nothing. It was absolutely boring and flat. No gas stations, no turns. It was probably the most boring stretch of road that I did,” Palmer said.

Palmer said his favorite place was Lake Tahoe, which was like an oasis out of the desert that is Nevada and part of Utah. Quite possibly the strangest place he rode through was Buford, a town in Wyoming with population of one. The sole resident wasn’t home. Palmer was disappointed.

After his cross-country trek, Palmer said he came to two heartfelt conclusions: Massachusetts is home and everything in life seems accomplishable.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS nAn article in News incorrectly stated that Provost Steve Goldstein is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School Of Medicine. Goldstein is no longer a professor there. (Aug. 30, pg. 1) nAn article in News misspelled the given name of an acting editor that had contributed to the article. He is Andrew Wingens, not Angrew Wingens. (Aug. 30, pg. 5) The Justice welcomes submissions for errors that warrant correction or clarification. Email editor@ thejustice.org.

Justice

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The Justice Brandeis University Mailstop 214 P.O. Box 549110 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 Phone: (781) 736-3750

POLICE LOG Medical Emergency

Aug. 29—A party reported a shoulder injury in the Shapiro Campus Center. BEMCo treated the party on-scene and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Aug. 30—A caller reported feeling ill due to possible food poisoning in Shapiro Residence Hall. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Aug. 31—A party reported that a 20-year-old female had a seizure in the Shapiro Campus Center and felt like she may have another seizure. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Aug. 31—A party reported that she cut her foot on a brick near the Shapiro Campus Center. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sep. 2—A party reported an unresponsive male on the second floor of Hassenfeld Resi-

dence Hall. BEMCo treated the party on-scene with a signed refusal for further care.

Sep. 2—A party reported that he had neck irritation and food allergies in Ziv Quad. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Sep. 3—A party reported an intoxicated male in Reitman Residence Hall. BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Sep. 4—A party reported an intoxicated female laying on the ground in front of Usen Castle.

BEMCo responded and the party was transported to the NewtonWellesley Hospital.

Traffic

Sep. 1—A caller reported that a bicyclist was struck by a motor vehicle off Univeristy property at the Brandeis/Roberts train station. University Police advised Waltham Police and Fire Departments and assisted at the scene.

Disturbance

Aug. 30—A Waltham resident complained of loud music emanating from University property. The music was from the Shapiro Campus Center and University Police advised the event staff to lower the music.

Sep. 3—A party reported a large crowd in the Upper Mods with open containers of liquor.

The Community Advisor requested that they be dispersed.

University Police responded and asked the parties to return to their apartments with the open containers of liquor. The crowd complied without incident.

Sep. 4—Univeristy Police on assigned detail requested other University Police units to assist with dispersing an over-capacity crowd at the Levin Ballroom.

The crowd was dispersed without incident.

Larceny

charger, ear buds and two 4 gigabyte memory cards were stolen from the Office of Communications in the Usdan Student Center.

Miscellaneous

Aug. 31—A party reported receiving strange phone calls from a Canadian phone number all afternoon. University Police Detectives were given the pertinent information and will contact the reporting party.

Sep. 1—A caller reported a female being chased by an unknown party wearing a Harvard University T-shirt. University Police investigated and issued the suspect a trespass notice and transported the party off university property without incident.

Sep. 4—A party reported vandalism that occurred during the social event at Levin Ballroom.

A partition on the wall in the men’s restroom was damaged.

Aug. 30—A party reported a Rubbermaid step stool, iPhone

—compiled by Andrew Wingens

AP BRIEFS

Man rescued after jumping off a bridge

Hayerhill—The Haverhill harbormaster has rescued a man from the storm-swollen Merrimack River after he apparently jumped from a bridge.

Police said the 53-year-old Groveland man jumped from the Basiliere Bridge at about 1:50 p.m. on Friday.

Harbormaster Michael Vets tells the Eagle-Tribune that the drop is about 40 feet, but the man was conscious and struggling when Vets reached him a half mile from the bridge.

Vets said he saw the man go under twice before he pulled him on board.

He said the current was fast, and the river was 6-to-8 feet higher than normal because of last weekend’s Tropical Storm Irene.

Vets said the man was incoherent before Vets turned him over to firefighters who took him to a local hospital for observation.

Police did not release the man’s name.

Company drops plans for methadone clinic

Getting active on campus

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

Students browse various stations at the Arts and Activities Fair, which was held yesterday on the Great Lawn outside the Shapiro Campus Center. There are over 200 clubs and organizations at the University.

Salem—Plans to open a methadone clinic in a Salem neighborhood to treat drug addicts have been abandoned.

Community substance abuse centers said they will drop their legal challenge to the Zoning Board of Appeals’ denial of a special permit.

That denial blocked the clinic from opening in a former car dealership on Highland Avenue.

The company said in a statement that the costs of a legal battle contributed to the decision. It said it may try to open a clinic elsewhere in the city.

City officials tell The Salem News that the clinic would have caused traffic problems and was too close to several schools.

The company has clinics in eight other Massachusetts communities.

ANNOUNCEMENTS Social justice leadership forum

Learn how Brandeis alumni and other professionals have pursued careers dedicated to social justice. Follow their journeys from their Brandeis experience—academics, mentorships and student leadership to study abroad, internships and social life—to their current careers in public service.

The event will feature an expert panel presentation followed by round table networking sessions with alumni and other industry professionals. Professional dress is strongly recommended. The event is sponsored by: the Hiatt Career Center; the Office of Professional Development at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management; International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life; Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism; Brandeis faculty; and the Student Union. Today from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Hassenfeld Conference Center.

UN Recognition of Palestinian Statehood

A forum with Leading Analysts David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute, and Ghaith al-Omari, executive director at the American Task Force in Palestine

(ATFP), adviser to then-Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation.

They will be introduced by Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Center; and moderated by Prof. Shai Feldman (POL), director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Hassenfeld Conference Center.

9/11: How It Has Changed Our Thinking

Marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, members of the Brandeis community will reflect on this defining moment in American and world history and its ongoing impact.

Featuring: Prof. Kanan Makiya (NEJS), award-winning author and one of the most influential commentators from the Arab world of the last two decades; Prof. Daniel Kryder (POL), noted professor of politics and Fulbright Scholar; Isabella Jean, MA ’06, international peacebuilding and development consultant; and Michael Perloff ‘12, Economics and Politics major and Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Fellow. The talk will be sponsored by the Ethics Center and moderated by Daniel Terris, Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life

and Vice President of Global Affairs. Tomorrow from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Arts Gallery.

BUCO first-year ice cream social

A night for BUCO first years to get to know each other—and some upperclassmen—in an informal setting. Thursday from 8 to 11 p.m. in Shapiro Residence Hall.

9/11 vigil

A remembrance vigil for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m. on Chapels Field.

Great Lawn barbecue

A barbecue sponsored by the Department of Student Activities. Sunday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on the Great Lawn.

Teach for America interview workshop

Learn how to prepare an effective application and how to interview effectively for the Teach for America program. This session will be hosted by the Director of the Hiatt Career Center Joe Du Pont, who served as the vice president of career services for 5 years at Teach For America. Monday from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Hiatt Career Center.

THE JUSTICE

Base compensation for calendar year 2009

required to take an online assessment prior to beginning the UWS rather than in class.

By MARIELLE TEMKIN JUSTICE editor

Total compensation for calendar year 2009

Design by NAN PANG/the Justice

EARNINGS: The top graph displays the base compensation of various university presidents, while the bottom graph depicts the total compensation of the university presidents. Total compensation includes other reportable compensation, deferred compensation, bonuses and retirement compensation. All numbers are drawn from the respective university’s form 990, a tax form that those universities must file each fiscal year.

Reinharz earned $1.5M in his penultimate year compensation nearly doubled from calendar year 2008 to 2009.

By ANDREW WINGENS JUSTICE EDITOR

Then-University President Jehuda Reinharz made $1,536,401 in salary, benefits and other compensation as University president in calendar year 2009, making him the most highly compensated individual at the University during that calendar year, according to Brandeis’ federal tax filings.

Reinharz’s “base compensation” amounted to $487,352; “other reportable compensation” was $101,457; and “retirement and deferred compensation,” which Reinharz did not receive that year, was $825,790.

Reinharz announced his resignation in 2009 after having served as University president since fall 1995, and he officially stepped down when University President Frederick Lawrence began his term on Jan. 1, 2011. Reinharz now serves as the first president of the Mandel Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded by university benefactors, the Mandel brothers.

No compensation data was available for that role.

In calendar year 2008, Reinharz’s compensation totaled $836,643.

The difference between the 2008 and 2009 numbers was due to an increase in “retirement and deferred compensation” from $196,333 in 2008 to $825,790 a year later.

When asked why Reinharz’s

3

Committee moves UWS test online ■ First-years are now

compensation rose from 2008 to 2009, Senior Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Andrew Gully wrote in an email to the Justice that Reinharz received a new contract in June 2008.

“The Board of Trustees, in approving this package, recognized President Reinharz for his remarkably distinguished 15-year tenure, his strong leadership and the significant milestones he achieved.

He was an extremely attractive candidate to other institutions and foundations and the Board wanted to ensure that he remain at Brandeis,” wrote Gully.

Other reportable compensation “included benefits such as health, dental, life insurance, and household support and a car allowance,” wrote Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Frances Drolette in an email to the Justice.

“It is important to note that Brandeis is required to report $825,790 in ‘retirement and other deferred compensation’ on the Form 990 but he did not receive those funds in 2009,” added Gully.

“Deferred compensation is employee income that is typically earned over many years and is paid after a time the income is earned. It is often based upon the number of years of service,” wrote Drolette. “President Reinharz received $588,109 in calendar year 2009 in base and other reportable compensation–or 42% of his total compensation. The $825,790 in deferred compensation that was reportable on the 990 will be paid at a later date.”

Gully wrote in an email to the Justice that “deferred compensation

TUESDAY, september 6, 2011

academics

PRESIDENTIAL COMPENSATION

■ Reinharz’s overall

●

is a common mechanism in executive compensation packages, including those in higher education, used to defer significant portions of compensation until the executive fulfills his or her term in office.”

“At the time when this agreement was reached, Jehuda had been president for more than 14 years and was 64 years old, thus deferred compensation was considered appropriate as part of an overall package,” added Gully.

Before the Board approved Reinharz’s compensation package, “Brandeis retained Raymond D. Cotton of M.L. Strategies LLC in Washington, a nationally recognized higher education compensation expert, to evaluate the package,” wrote Gully.

The review evaluated several aspects, “including compensation at colleges and universities in greater Boston and nationally, the president’s long tenure at Brandeis and his accomplishments, and the University’s objectives going forward. Taking all those factors into account, the outside expert determined that the compensation package for the president was reasonable,” according to Gully.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 private college presidents earned over $1 million in calendar year 2008. This number was up from 23 on the previous year’s tax filings and The Chronicle has reported a generally upward trend of private college president compensation packages.

For more on calendar year 2009 compensation of key employees visit www.thejustice.org and view the entire form 990.

This past summer, a committee implemented an online writing assessment for the Class of 2015, to replace the in-class assessment that was previously administered on the first day of all University Writing Seminar classes.

The members of the committee that worked to revise the writing assessment were Kim Godsoe, the dean of Academic Services; Mark Hewitt, the registrar; Elaine Wong, senior associate dean of Arts and Sciences; Chrishon Blackwell, interim director of the Gateway scholars program; Kimberly Sizelove, interim director of the English as a Second Language program at Brandeis; and Prof.

John Burt (ENG).

According to an email from Burt, Assistant Registrar Shohreh Harris also “did a lot of the work and ironed out a lot of the problems.” Director of University Writing Dawn Skorczewski was on sabbatical for the 2010-11 academic year and was therefore not officially on the committee.

Skorczewski said in an interview with the Justice that the writing department wanted to change the timeline of evaluating firstyears’ writing ability so that the new students could be “accurately placed, for the most part,” before the beginning of the fall semester.

She said “It seemed like we could do it sooner—we were doing it their first day of the UWS class and so we had a lot of moving back and forth [between the UWS and composition classes].”

Burt, who was the interim director of University Writing while Skorczewski was on sabbatical, said in an interview with the Justice that the online assessment “gave us a snapshot of the incoming class … [that was] a little more reliable than the [firstday-of-class assessment].”

Burt said that the assessment consisted of “a few demographic questions” in addition to a short and long question. He said the short question asked what the incoming first-year was looking forward to at Brandeis, and Skorczewski said the long question tested their capacity to “interpret a text and make an argument about it.” All students received the same passage for the long passage.

The placement tests were judged in accordance with a rubric, and Burt graded the assessments with

a group of about 12 experienced UWS and composition instructors.

“We graded them in panels of three and regularly compared notes to make sure that we were applying the rubrics in the same way,” Burt wrote in an email to the Justice.

According to Skorczewski, there are 11 sections of composition classes and three instructors. Like the UWS classes, the topics for each class are different while the syllabus remains the same in terms of how many papers are assigned and how long the papers are. She described the composition classes as “a course that focuses on critical thinking, style and grammar and techniques of writing in different rhetorical styles.”

According to the University writing program website, “Composition is intended to be an entry to college-level writing for those who need more time to build their writing skills. As part of the writing progression at Brandeis, composition courses are built around the same three essay assignments which exist in the University Writing Seminar.”

Burt wrote, “Under the old system, typically a very small number (maybe a dozen) students had their assignments changed on the basis of the first-day assessment.

So the old ... assessment system was less systematic but it didn’t produce terribly flawed results.

The new system is much more labor intensive, but it also makes sure to dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s.”

The registrar’s office was “very cooperative, very creative and very efficient,” said Burt. He also mentioned that the “administration had pushed for [the change].”

In a Facebook message to the Justice, Kiera Sarril ’15 said, “I think it was a good idea to hold the assessment online because we were allowed to take the test in a comfortable, familiar environment. … It also seems convenient to write the essay and have it be assessed before we go to class.”

Skorczewski said that she “feel[s] like the system is a success. … I’m very happy with it so far, although it is too early to evaluate the assessment program before we collect more evidence.” Burt also said, “It’s likely we’re going to keep using [this new system].”

Skorczewski added her approval of the availability of both composition and UWS classes for the first-years: “To my mind, it is of great value for students to have the opportunity to take two writing classes in order to prepare for the rigorous demands of writing in the disciplines at Brandeis.”

—Sara Dejene contributed reporting.

MOVE-IN BARGAINS

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

Hunting for treasure Students attended the move-in market on Chapels Field on Thursday and were able to buy various items such as lamps, chairs and hangers at discounted prices.

4

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

PANEL

Experts discuss unrest in Arab world ■ The panel organized by

the Crown Center included the former ambassador to Bahrain, Tunisia and Egypt.

By JONATHAN EPSTEIN JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Crown Center for Middle East Studies hosted “Beyond the Arab Spring: A Discussion of Recent Developments,” to discuss the ramifications of and prognosis for the series of uprisings enveloping the Middle East; the forum took place last Thursday in the Rapaporte Treasure Hall.

The highlight of the event came when the moderator, Prof. Shai Feldman (POL), announced a surprise speaker: “Sometimes we get the privilege of going into a jazz club in New York and there’s a great band playing and all of a sudden one of the great musicians walks into the club and sits in the bar and sometimes the players even ask him to take the sax and join them for a set or two. We’re actually quite fortunate because we have that jazz player with us tonight.”

The jazz player in question was Robert Pelletreau, the former assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and former ambassador to Bahrain, Tunisia and Egypt.

The featured panelists were Prof.

Kanan Makiya (IMES), Sylvia K.

Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies; Dr. Abdel Monem Said Aly, president of the Al–Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and senior fellow at the Crown Center; and Prof. Naghmeh Sohrabi (HIST), associate director for research at the Crown Center.

Feldman asked each a series of pointed questions about the catalysts and subtleties of the uprisings, focusing on each panelist’s country of expertise.

There are two key factors that explain why the 2009 Iranian uprising failed and the current uprisings have succeeded, according to Sohrabi, the resident Iranian expert. Momentum and resiliency characterize the current crop of uprisings, she said.

“You have in Tunisia and Egypt and Syria a swelling of the number of people who go out into the streets as the event goes on and in Iran you had the exact opposite: you had the biggest number right after the [2009] election and every event after that got smaller,” said Sohrabi.

She also explained that the difference in the diction of the slogans epitomized what the end goals of the uprisings were. “The most famous slogan that came out of Iran in 2009 was a slogan, ‘Where is my vote?’” she said. “And the most famous Egyptian slogan was ‘The people want the fall of the regime.’” She credited the Egyptian uprising for possessing a “more communitarian” character.

Sohrabi cautioned that if the situation in Egypt deteriorates, then other authoritarian states could limit reforms by pointing to Egypt as a “boogeyman.”

In discussing potential implications of the Egyptian uprising, Said Aly, an authority on Egyptian politics, stated that the player with the most to lose in the overthrow of the Egyptian government is Israel. “I can tell you, and I know I’m at Brandeis, that Israel is the loser in this,” he said.

“The issue of peace could have been accomplished in the 1990s, or in the last decade, … but I don’t think that the coming generation to rule our country [Egypt] will accept more concessions.” He added that “one of the things that we take at issue with [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak is that [he was] too weak” in accepting concessions.

In an interview with the Justice after the event, Said Aly stated that the Egyptians would not accept anything less than exact 1967 borders, including control of East Jerusalem, in a peace agreement. Hitting on a frequent theme of his, Said Aly predicted that efforts by the Saudi government to increase government services and salaries would not work because the current uprisings are “about dignity.”

Pelletreau asked, “Should the American embassies in these countries have foreseen what was coming? ... What should we have done

differently?”

“Some things are readily measurable,” he stated. “You can measure unemployment … other things are a little more elusive, and they escaped us.”

Pelletreau said that the use of technology among Arabs, including five million Egyptians on Facebook, was growing “much faster than I think any of us realized.”

“We also underestimated that this global recession was hitting, perhaps, a different class, a different group, of youth in these different countries, because in Tunisia, for example, where education is virtually universal, the people who came into the streets were university graduates,” continued Pelletreau, who had aspirations “the way a fella in the [Egyptian] Delta might not.”

Pelletreau additionally pointed to the role of WikiLeaks in arousing public anger by turning rumors of government corruption into fact. He further blamed Tunisian President Ben Ali’s prostate cancer for preventing him from seeing many people and causing him to have “his fingers less on the pulse” of his country, and saw similar effects of ill-health on Mubarak’s abilities to govern.

In response to a question about what element of the current uprisings surprised him the most, Makiya answered, “the tenacity of young people.”

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

TUMULTUOUS TIMES: Prof. Naghmeh Sohrabi (HIST), on left, and Prof. Kanan Makiya (IMES) spoke about the recent uprising in Egypt and the Arab Spring in general.

FACULTY

Prof Turrigiano wins Nakasone Award

■ The Human Frontier Science

Program Nakasone Award recognizes breakthroughs in the field of life sciences.

By ANDREW WINGENS JUSTICE EDITOR

The Human Frontier Science Program Organization granted the 2012 HFSP Nakasone Award to Prof. Gina Turrigiano (BIOL) “for introducing the concept of ‘synaptic scaling,’” according to a HFSP press release.

Turrigiano will travel to the Republic of Korea in July 2012 to give the Nakasone Lecture at the annual meeting of HFSP awardees, according to the press release.

The HFSP, founded in 1989, supports international research and training in the life sciences.

The Nakasone Award, which is named after former Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan who created the HFSP, was “established to [hon-

or] scientists who have made key breakthroughs in fields at the forefront of the life sciences,” according to the press release.

Turrigiano’s research was focused around a process called “synaptic scaling.”

“Your brain is the most complex machine in the universe. Amazingly, unlike, say, your car, it is capable of tuning itself up so that most of the time it will continue to work reliably,” explained Turrigiano in an email to the Justice. “A number of years ago we discovered an important mechanism that allows our brains to do this, dubbed ‘synaptic scaling.’”

“We found that individual neurons can sense whether their activity is appropriate, and if not can ‘scale’ their synaptic inputs up or down to bring their activity back into the correct range. Synaptic scaling works to keep the activity in our brains from becoming imbalanced, which otherwise would lead to states like epilepsy or catatonia,” wrote Turrigiano.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Birren, who served on the Life Sciences faculty with Turrigiano, wrote in an email to the Justice that Turrigiano’s research is Turrigiano “outstanding.”

“Turrigiano’s research has provided groundbreaking new insight into a fundamental problem in neurobiology the question of how the brain can maintain appropriate activity levels in the face of dramatic changes in nerve cell growth that take place during development and during learning,” wrote Birren in an email to the Justice.

Birren also acknowledged the international aspect of the award.

“The award is given by the Human Frontier Science Program, an organization that facilitates research

between scientists from different nations. … Thus, in many ways, the award highlights our role as a global liberal arts research university,” wrote Birren.

Turrigiano said that her research is important because “synaptic scaling” and other forms of plasticity are “turning out to be critical for the function of many kinds of brain circuits, and many many labs are now working on synaptic scaling and other so-called ‘homeostatic’ mechanisms to generate insight into disorders as diverse as autism and Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Turrigiano.

Turrigiano wrote that she would like to share the credit for her work with her collaborator, Prof. Sacha Nelson (BIOL) and all the members of her lab. “This kind of recognition is always really nice, but mostly we do our work because we just want to understand how the brain works, and because we know this understanding will be important down the road for understanding many brain disorders,” concluded Turrigiano.

REPORT: Langley says the bill will be heard this fall CONTINUED FROM 1 Third-party payments to employees would also have to be reported, as well as who the third parties were, how much money they paid and the reasons for each payment.

The bill also states that public charities that owe more than $10 million in investments or property must report what the investments are and how much they are each worth.

The financial report must also include any local, state and federal taxes paid by the charity if it was not tax exempt.

A report would also be filed with any directors or trustees of the public charities, detailing any transactions between the institution and the trustee or his or her family members, anything controlled by the trustee or any employment of the trustee or family members.

Langley said that the bill was one of several that was heard before the committee.

According to Langley, about 15 people testified in favor of the bill while lobbyists on behalf of Massachusetts colleges and universities argued against it.

According to Langley, taxpayers would feel better if they had more access to information about university finances.

“Colleges, as public charities, need to set a standard of openness that’s higher than the general society, but they don’t,” said Langley. “They have a very low standard. We think that’s inappropriate.”

Langley said that increased disclosure from universities would be beneficial for both taxpayers and the universities themselves.

“Secrecy actually harmed all of these colleges and these investments. As a basic market principle, you want disclosure ... to make a rational judgment,” said Langley.

He also stated that hidden financial decisions were harmful to institutions.

“The contention of the bill’s sponsors that all universities suffered from poor endowment investment decisions does not apply to [the University],” wrote Gully.

Gully continued to write, “We have followed a conservative investment policy that protected the University during the worst of the economic crisis; today, the endowment is virtually back to the pre-crash high of $712 million in Jun., 2008.”

According to Langley, universities are generally opposed to the legislation.

AICUM President Richard Doherty said in an April 23 Boston Globe article that it was “unclear” what problems the bill would solve and would actually harm the universities.

Doherty continued to say that if schools were to disclose more financial information to the public, they would lose their “competitive advantage.”

Langley said that the bill is scheduled for another hearing this fall, this time in front of the Judiciary Committee and that he will work on putting forth more disclosures about university finances this month and generating more public interest in the bill.

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EMT: Alum praised for brave service CONTINUED FROM 1

away. When either Kenwood or his partner fell, the line snapped.

The car was later found to be empty, according to The Times of Trenton.

Kenwood’s mother, Sheila Kenwood Lobel, told The New York Times that her son “was doing what he was trained to do, and what he loved.”

One of the primary sources of Kenwood’s enthusiasm for rescue work was a May 1990 car crash just before his first year of college. According to a BrandeisNOW press release, when he ran for BEMCo director, Kenwood wrote a letter to the organization’s members about the crash: “I will never forget the feeling of fear and helplessness that swept over me as I looked from my two friends, one of whom was unconscious, to the hysterical driver of the other car, to my right wrist, which was deeply lacerated and bleeding heavily,” he recalled. “I swore to myself that if I lived, I would learn the skills to care for myself and others should another medical emergency ever confront me again.”

Kenwood also wrote about his time as a member of BEMCo. “Being a member of BEMCo has been highly significant for me,” he noted. “From the most basic medical perspective, it’s given me the chance to apply and to share my skills as an EMT. Beyond that, I’ve met some wonderfully talented and dedicated people. Finally, it’s given me countless opportunities to grow as an individual.”

Paul Schneider ’12, the current director of BEMCo, said in an interview with the Justice, “It was just really shocking, to be honest.

It’s always a tragedy when somebody dies in the line of duty.”

In an interview with the Justice, Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan praised Kenwood as a “a very dedicated student and BEMCo person.”

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FUNDRAISING: Winship says the University is optimistic about increasing the endowment CONTINUED FROM 1 Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship in an interview with the Justice.

As of June 30, the University endowment totaled $703.7 million, according to Nathan.

In his fall letter to the Brandeis community, University President Frederick Lawrence said that fundraising has been “strong” and that the endowment is now almost up to its “pre-crash level,” referring to the economic recession in 2008.

“We made up almost all of what was lost,” said Winship.

Winship attributed the earlier decrease in the endowment to both the economic recession and the presidential transition.

According to Winship, donors were hesitant to give money because of the new president and uncertainty surrounding his direction of the University.

“Donors were hesitant to give as much, because [Lawrence] was new and they didn’t know where, or in what direction, he would be taking the University,” said Winship.

Despite uncertainty from donors, Winship said that Lawrence was an

excellent “natural” fundraiser.

“We were able to counter [the economic recession and presidential transition] because of Fred’s energy and his work with the development team,” said Winship.

“In just eight months on the job, [Lawrence] has made strong connections with alumni and friends around the world,” according to Nathan in his email.

Nathan continued to write that Lawrence has hosted large events with alumni in locations such as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Israel, Rome and Vienna, all during his first six months in office.

According to Winship, Lawrence places an emphasis on financial aid for students during fundraising, and she said that his constant interaction with students allows him to effectively advocate for them.

“The University’s top fundraising goal continues to be securing funds to meet the growing financial aid needs of Brandeis students,” wrote Nathan in his email.

Winship said that about 60 per-

cent of donations come from friends of the University—donors who do not have any direct connection with Brandeis but choose to give to the school.

This is because Brandeis is a relatively young institution, so the majority of alumni are young compared to alumni of similar schools, and not necessarily capable of giving much money to the University, according to Winship.

Winship and Nathan both said that they plan to continue to establish and maintain connections with alumni and wait until they are financially able to give back to the University.

Nathan wrote that alumni donations totaled $14.4 million, a 26 percent increase from the previous year.

In addition, the University remains in the top 10 percent of colleges and universities in the country with alumni participation, according to Nathan.

“Alumni support is a key indicator of the health of a university because it shows how graduates feel about their educational experience,” wrote Nathan.

Another indicator is student participation in the senior class gift, wrote Nathan.

Last year a record 71 percent of the Class of 2011 contributed to the senior class gift, according to his email.

Last year, Lawrence matched the senior class gift, which totaled $11,748.35. Lawrence has agreed to match the senior class gift again, said Winship.

Nathan also wrote that more donors are going online to give back to the University.

According to Nathan, 2,169 donors online gave a total of $698,573.

Nathan and Winship said that they are optimistic about fundraising efforts under Lawrence and that they have a long-term goal to build the endowment.

According to the Office of Development in an October interview with the Justice, the Board of Trustees put forward a goal to raise the endowment to over $1 billion by 2013 or 2014.

Winship said that the University is still on track to meet that goal despite recent obstacles and the threat of another economic recession.

SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM

DIANA WANG/the Justice

Strengthening skills Graduate students discuss research during the poster session of the Genetics Training Grant Symposium, held last Friday in the Shapiro Science Center Atrium, which teaches students to evaluate research and scientific literature.

Write for the News section of

Justice!

the

Join the News team and cover Brandeis events and breaking news.

For more information, contact Sara Dejene and Andrew Wingens at news@thejustice.org.

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VERBATIM | EDMUND BURKE There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings, but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

ON THIS DAY…

FUN FACT

In 1997, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, took place in London.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years of age or older.

A NEWLY INDEPENDENT COUNTRY: Crowds of people come together for a speech following the announcement of South Sudan’s independence from the Republic of Sudan.

Revolutionizing

South Sudan

STREET FESTIVITIES: The Sudanese people gather in the streets to celebrate their country’s new independence.

Majok MA ’12 developed South Sudan’s new financial system By tali smookler justice editor

The country of South Sudan is filled with celebration. Jubilant Sudanese people crowd the streets, waving flags of red, green and black.

Women dance in animal-print garb, while the young and elderly celebrate the victory they fought for for years. Swarms of people rejoice in their newfound independence. The festivities are loud and visible, and the country’s triumph is palpable.

Returning to South Sudan in the midst of a historical revolution, Chiengkuach Majok MA ’12 arrived home just 11 days before his country became an independent nation this summer. In his first year as a graduate student at the Brandeis International Business School studying International Economics and Finance with a focus on macro policy and central banking, Majok searched for a summer internship that would give him hands-on experience that would be useful in his field.

Majok worked with the International Business School’s career center to network with alumni and find a suitable summer internship. He ultimately applied to the United States Agency for International Development, a government agency providing “U.S. economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide,” according to its website.

A South Sudan native who moved to America in 2003 when he was 21 years old because his country was in the midst of a war, Majok attended the University of Vermont to study

SUDAN NATIVE: Chiengkuach Majok MA ’12 worked as an economic government specialist in South Sudan this past summer.

Economics as an undergraduate.

Hoping for a chance to return to his family and parents who still live there, Majok requested that the USAID place him in his homeland—to which he feels a strong native connection—for the summer.

“I thought I would go to South Sudan and help in any way I could, given the time limit,” Majok said of his choice to work so far away over the summer.

USAID chose Majok, with his strong finance background and specialization in central banking, to develop a financial system for the newly independent South Sudan, which split from the Republic of Sudan in July after a lengthy peace agreement process.

Traveling 6,000 miles to work as an economic government specialist,

Majok’s goal was to help form a central bank for the country and assist in the transition to a new currency system.

He worked as a representative for USAID with Deloitte, a large U.S.based consulting firm, and split his day between meetings with USAID and experts from Deloitte, discussing issues regarding exchange rates, the nation’s new currency and the financial system as a whole.

“There’s no way you can just take the model we have in the U.S., … but you need to start from somewhere,” Majok said of beginning the development of nation’s the financial system. “And to start from somewhere, you need experts who have been in these situations. So I was working with those who have been in Iraq, those who worked in Bosnia and Af-

ghanistan,” Majok said, who worked alongside some of the world’s leading financial experts.

And despite his student status, Majok found no trouble fitting in with his colleagues given his strong educational background in finance.

“The courses I took at IBS in Financial Theory, International macroeconomics and Corporate Finance helped me a big deal,” Majok said.

“There was nothing I didn’t know or [hadn’t] heard about while working for the USAID at the Central Bank of South Sudan. It was a true reflection of how great our [master’s] program is,” he said of IBS. Known to his colleagues as the “little guy with big answers,” Majok earned their respect due to his financial expertise and innovative ideas.

“I was the youngest by age among

our banking experts at the Central Bank, and I think my superiors wanted to refer to me being junior by age and not in terms of what I know,” he said.

And while the summer was busy, filled with meetings and intensive work to get a large job done in a short amount of time, Majok witnessed the first days of independence in South Sudan and the spirit that engulfed the country throughout the summer.

“Being there and seeing it independent was a really great thing.

Seeing all the emotions pouring out of people who have suffered, … that stood out the most,” he said of watching the long-sought-after victory of South Sudan.

Although Majok is back in Waltham to complete his master’s this year, his plan is to return to South Sudan soon after graduation to continue the work he started this summer.

“Even though I am a U.S. citizen, I feel that is where I can make impacts, and that the U.S. would want me to contribute in that way. … I can help South Sudan come up with solutions. I think it is in the interest of the U.S. to see South Sudan succeed, given how much work they have done,” he said.

“It was what I wanted,” Majok explained of the summer which was enriching both for his field of work and in strengthening his South Sudan national ties.

“You could see, going to work today, it might not be easy. But at the end of the day, you feel like you have done what you are supposed to.”

♦ Photos courtesy of Chiengkuach Majok

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Pedaling for a purpose GEARING UP: The various teams of Climate Summer bikers meet up during their final week of their bike trips across New England, which were aimed at educating communities about a future free of burning fossil fuels.

Climate Summer participants promote a future of clean energy By dafna fine justice editor

They covered close to 1,000 miles in just 9 weeks, often wearing the same sunscreenstained matching T-shirts. They rode 60 miles in 1 day in the hot summer sun, carrying all their belongings on their backs. They impacted towns across New England from southern Connecticut to northern Maine and many in between. They did it all on their bikes as part of an effort to make an environmental difference as Climate Summer participants.

Climate Summer, a selective summer program in its third year, is part of the Better Future Project, an organization which aims to build a future free from the burning of fossil fuels, according to the Climate Summer website.

With close to 80 applicants this year, Climate Summer chose 31 students for summer 2011 to bike New England in order to make an environmental change. Hoping to “help lay the groundwork for a social movement for climate change,” according to Carrie Watkins ’12, who is minoring in Environmental Studies and a member of Students for Environmental Action. Their mission was to raise environmental awareness in as many towns as possible without getting in any fossil-fuel powered vehicles over the 9 weeks.

Beginning together at a weeklong training camp in New Hampshire and then biking almost 90 miles to their second training site, the Climate Summer members spent their first 2 weeks learning about community organizing and climate change issues, as well as how to successfully promote their cause in the different communities they visited to make an impact over the summer. The bikers split into groups of four to six members, and each group took on a different region of New England to conquer, ranging from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

With sleeping bags, a few outfits, laptops, and various other belongings on their bikes, each group rode from town to town in their assigned area and spent about a week in each place trying to promote their idea of a future without fossil fuels.

“The problem with climate change is huge, and the only solution that anyone can conceive of [is] to get our country onto clean energy,” Watkins said.

“The way the program sees it is that the only way to create that kind of change, is if the people demand it and stand up and say we need this,” she explained.

“We were trying to get the communities that we were in to get themselves involved, to get people in communities to realize that they could be part of something bigger,” Watkins said, who served as a team leader for her group.

First riding to New Bedford, Mass., Watkins and her team covered 100 miles in 2 days, a record distance for many who had never biked anything nearly that far. “I was not a biker at all before [this summer]. I had never gone more than 10 miles, and all of a sudden I was going 90 in 2 days. Most people never had,” she said. In 1 day alone, the group rode 60 miles across Massachusetts from town to town.

Leaving at 5 a.m. to avoid the heat, Lisa Purdy ’14, a member of Students for Environmental Action, and her group of five women biked two trips over 100 miles during the summer, one from Holyoke to Chelsea and then from Chelsea to Falmouth. Over the 9 weeks, they outlined the state of Massachusetts, biking east to west and then down to the Cape and back up to Boston. In each town, the group stopped for nearly a week to talk to the community about climate change issues.

While the groups arrived in some towns welcomed by a full agenda for the week, they showed up in others not knowing anyone and needing

IN THE NEWS: Climate Summer members including Carrie Watkins ’12 (second from left) and Amira MintzMorgenthau ’12 (fourth from left) talk about their experience as part of an online movie about the program.

to set everything up themselves. “The general theme was community organizing and building relationships in whatever way we could possibly help. So sometimes that meant just meeting with the mayor, … sometimes it was visiting a community garden or farm and talking to people about different [environmental issues],” Purdy said of their day-to-day activities in each town.

“Some of the towns were really amazing, and we got 40 people to show up to a meeting that usually had 10 people. … We saw people exchanging business cards, which was exactly what we were trying to do: connect people,” Watkins said.

In Watkins’ team alone, the group covered seven different towns across Massachusetts.

They went from New Bedford, an economically depressed city, to Medford and Arlington, more “suburban Boston,” as Watkins called them.

They stopped in Westport Point on the water and also in Lawrence, where they encountered a language barrier with the largely Hispanic community while trying to promote their cause.

Despite the drastically different communities, the Climate Summer mission was always the same. “We were trying to tell them that this problem is bigger than one person. … It needs to be a community thing and then a national thing, and that’s the only way to create any significant change,” Watkins said.

While some of the people they met with were already environmentally active, the range of people varied from town to town. “We come in there with our bicycles looking like we should know what we’re talking about and what we’re doing, but it was humbling to just be learning all the time,” Purdy said of the people she met that knew more than her.

“One problem that we faced is that a lot of people [say], ‘Well, I’m not an environmentalist.’

We’re trying to say, ‘You’re people. You don’t have to be an environmentalist, you just have to do something,’” Watkins said.

The Climate Summer members spent their nights in sleeping bags on the floors of churches and ate on a small food stipend of $5 per person per day. Encountering generosity wherever they went, the group was welcomed into community homes everywhere for a chance to shower and do laundry. Hearing how far they biked and their tiny food budget, community members brought them meals, and one town even donated $100 worth of groceries to a team. In Westport Point, the community donated the money they collected in church to the Climate Summer group that was visiting.

“I’ve experienced that sort of open generosity from near strangers, … but I’ve never had that [with] someone who isn’t really part of your community and doesn’t really have any connection to you,” Watkins said.

While it was sometimes hard to see immediate results with their work this summer, Watkins and Purdy are nevertheless confident that their work was the start of something bigger.

“You make a connection, see business cards exchanged, you see 40 people at a meeting. You can quantify things like that, but a lot of it is just the feedback you get,” Watkins said.

The group exchanged contact information in communities throughout New England with the hope that the Climate Summer participants will continue the dialogue with the people they met throughout their summer. Though this summer has just ended, there are already talks to plan a more extensive bike trip this year from the Gulf to the Exxon-Mobil headquarters in Texas “to make a statement and talk about transitioning from oil to investing in green energy,” according to Purdy.

Until then, the two members of Students for Environmental Action plan to throw the momentum they’ve gained on Climate Summer into environmental activism on campus this semester.

BROCKTON HOSPITALITY: Mintz-Morgenthau (left) and Watkins (third from left) made one of their stops in Brockton, Mass., where they were hosted by Rev. Abraham Waya at the local Pearl Street Methodist Church.

♦ Photos courtesy of Lauren Clapp

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ORIENTATION 2011

Class o sprint t TALI SMOOKLER/Justice File Photo

WELCOMING 2015: University President Frederick Lawrence addresses the Class of 2015 for the first time at last Monday’s Brandeis Beginnings in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center.

After a somewhat rainy start, the Class of 2015 makes its way through Orientation

By Hillel buechler JUSTICE editor

Irene. A name that the newest Brandeisians are unlikely to soon forget.

Orientation 2011 may not have had the most standard of beginnings—Sunday’s move-in day was rather suddenly turned into a Saturday and Monday affair—but from its wet and windy start came a most illustrious week of transition for the Class of 2015.

Once everyone was at least partially settled in on Monday, the new class brought in a new academic year with remarks from a largely new administration at Brandeis Beginnings.

Then, with barbecue food fresh in stom-

ach and sans those last remaining parental units, the throngs of bewildered first-years waddled along cautiously behind their yellow-shirted authority figures toward their first major evening of activities: a casino night at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center and a makeshift country club in Levin Ballroom.

Tuesday’s Academic Fair may have seemed slightly overwhelming (but only until yesterday’s activities fair, of course).

And those ever-perky Orientation Leaders made their AIDE groups laugh out loud for the sake of Rights and Responsibilities at the Values Program. And for every type of student—from those mathletes to them athletes—Tuesday night’s party was quite

a success.

The title said it all at Wednesday’s Sexy Land, put on by Student Sexuality Information Services, and after tours galore for those still lost, a Fun Home discussion and block party were certainly adored.

By Thursday, classes had begun, but the introductory fun wasn’t over quite yet. Saturday night’s Battle of the Brandeis DJs presented some loud and boisterous fun.

Sunday’s afternoon boat cruise wrapped it all up—a week that began with the Class of 2015 practically swimming onto our Waltham campus ended with them cruising coolly atop the waters of Boston Harbor, now finally prepared for college, ready for whatever comes next.

DJ GOT US FALLIN’ IN LOVE: Students wave their hands to the bea

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/Justice File Photo

MOVE-IN: Ariel Hopes ’15 begins the process of unpacking.

DANCING TO THE BEAT: Members of the Class of 2015 snag the opportunity to dance alongside their Orientation Leaders as part of Friday night’s popular Sna

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ORIENTATION 2011

of 2015 begins toward success TALI SMOOKLER/Justice File Photo

CORE ADDRESS: Rachel Nelson ’13 speaks as head of the Core Committee.

TALI SMOOKLER/the Justice

at at Saturday night’s Battle of the Brandeis DJs, in which numerous DJs had the opportunity to make the room dance in their own style.

ack Attack event on the Great Lawn.

HILARY HEYISON/the Justice

TALI SMOOKLER/Justice File Photo

ACADEMICS EVERYWHERE: Students explore options at the Academic Fair.

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

EASY SHOPPING: Students check out last-minute items at the Move-in Market.

LYDIA EMMANOUILIDOU/Justice File Photo

JUST ARRIVING: One of the newest Brandeisians prepares for her move-in.

Background Photo BY TALI SMOOKLER/Justice File Photo

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Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Emily Kraus, Editor in Chief Nashrah Rahman, Managing Editor Brian N. Blumenthal, Production Editor Hillel Buechler, Deputy Editor Alana Abramson, Rebecca Blady, Rebecca Klein, Asher Krell, Tess Raser and Robyn Spector, Associate Editors Sara Dejene, News Editor Andrew Wingens, Acting News Editor Dafna Fine, Features Editor Eitan Cooper, Forum Editor Jeffrey Boxer, Sports Editor Wei-Huan Chen, Arts Editor Ariel Kay, Acting Arts Editor Yosef Schaffel and Tali Smookler, Photography Editors Nan Pang, Acting Layout Editor Marielle Temkin, Copy Editor Cody Yudkoff, Advertising Editor

Release Drug and Alcohol report In an Oct. 25, 2010 email to the student body, then-President Jehuda Reinharz described the hospitalizations and arrests that took place on the night of that fall’s Pachanga dance as of “great concern.” Days later, Mr. Reinharz organized the Drug and Alcohol Committee to “examine alcohol and drug use and misuse at Brandeis and recommend policies to ensure the health and safety” of students.

By the end of the 2010 fall semester, the committee had completed its work;

by February, University President Frederick Lawrence had the resulting report on his desk. However, months later, the committee’s findings and recommendations have yet to be released, let alone acted upon. We are frustrated by this continued delay and hope that Mr. Lawrence makes the report’s release an immediate priority.

We have repeatedly requested access to the report but to no avail. In an email to the Justice last week, Senior Vice President of Communications Andrew Gully stated that Mr. Lawrence was planning on meeting with the committee’s chair, Prof. Leonard Saxe (Heller), later this month to discuss the report; however, there seems to have been ample time since Mr. Lawrence took office in January to have such a meeting, and the fact that the issues discussed in the report have gone unaddressed could be detrimental to student life.

Student safety should be of even

Student safety is a priority greater concern with the arrival of a new class at the start of the academic year. When the administration postponed the next Pachanga until spring 2012, Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams said in an interview with the Justice that one reason for doing so was to make sure that the first-years acclimated safely into the student body and did not misuse alcohol in their first weeks on campus.

However, the fact that the Drug and Alcohol Committee’s recommendations have not been considered as yet runs counter to that goal: It would have made sense for new policies to be in place for the start of the year, when first-years first participate in college culture and encounter the risks that come with it.

When the committee was formed, it was clear that its work was important to the University. It was composed of people from within the Brandeis community, as well as off-campus professionals, that Mr. Reinharz assembled just 2 weeks after Pachanga took place. Despite the fanfare surrounding the committee’s additional formation, though, it seems that the interest in it has decreased. We hope that Mr. Lawrence demonstrates his commitment to improving student life and campus safety by releasing the Drug and Alcohol Committee’s report as soon as possible.

A broken voting system Following last semester’s Student Union elections, a number of important positions were left unfilled. The vacancies were largely a consequence of a clause in the Union constitution that states, “If abstain receives the greatest number of votes during a final election, than [sic] there will be a vacancy in the office until the next election.” While it is sensible to provide an abstain option in Union elections, it is clear that abstain is currently being used in a less then ideal manner. We encourage the Student Union to make changes to the election process in order to prevent the current situation from repeating itself.

The vacancies on the Student Judiciary highlight the most problematic issues with the current voting process: Elections with more than one candidate, instant runoff voting, and the abstain option—all variables that Union elections require on various ballots— cannot be handled fairly or efficiently under the current, frustrating computerized voting system. It’s clear that when the instant runoff system was added to the constitution in spring 2010, this scenario was overlooked.

Most likely, many students choose to abstain solely because they intend to skip to the next ballot. Many probably did not intend for the position to be unfilled when they voted. This presents a significant problem for the current Student Judiciary, as the body currently only has one member.

One solution may be to add a “skip” option to the election system. If stu-

Abstain option misused dents were provided with a “skip” option, they would be able to demonstrate that they do not feel a need to vote in a particular election. “Abstain” can still remain an option for when a student does not prefer any of the candidates running for a position.

More importantly, we urge the Student Union to address the more pressing matter at hand: If not enough students vote, or if those who do vote do not care to vote for a candidate, something must be done to spark more interest in the electoral process.

It would be helpful if the Student Union used their website as a means for communicating more information about candidates and their desired positions. Currently, the website merely informs students of the names of every student running and who has endorsed them.

This information is obviously useful, but leaves much to be desired. It may be useful for students to receive an email in which candidates introduced themselves and wrote about their plans for the Union.

In an email to students at the conclusion of last semester, Student Union Secretary Todd Kirkland said, “We understand this [abstain winning] is frustrating, but we will work to fill these positions next semester.” We hope that the Union works to keep this promise to solve its logistical issues in order to better serve the student body.

NASHRAH RAHMAN/the Justice

“Generation Vexed,” but still with dreams Leah

Smith In a Word

When I was a kid, I had a lot of crazy ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sometimes it was a ballerina, other times a rabbi and more often than not, the first female president of the United States. When I got a little bit older, dreams of being the president changed into dreams of being an actor, a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Today, when people ask me what I am going to do when I get my degree in Anthropology, I usually change the subject because, frankly, I have no idea. Ideally, I would love to find a way to get paid to travel the world, but realistically, I know that’s not likely to happen.

But does looking at the situation mean that I am giving up on my dreams? According to Dr. Gregory Jantz, it does. In his August 2011 op-ed in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jantz argues that our generation, “Generation Vexed,” has given up on its dreams because of the stalled economy. He further compares us to the generation of young adults in the 1940s, who he believes were able to accomplish their dreams in spite of the Great Depression and World War II. Why can’t we be more like them?

Well, there are a lot of reasons. The 1940s were a different time, to say the least. Statistically speaking, it was a lot easier to go out and accomplish one’s dreams in the 1940s than it is today.

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people over 16 who are participating in the labor force has increased by about 17 percent.

That may not sound like a lot, but if past trends are any indication, that number is going to keep growing. And though the number of people participating in the labor force and actively seeking jobs is growing, the number of available jobs is not. Our counterparts of the 1940s were able to delve into jobs and careers much more easily than we are today because there was simply less competition in the job market.

Then there’s the problem of education. In the 1940s, the cost of college was generally under $100 (or $1,305.91 when adjusted for inflation in 2011), and the G.I. Bill meant that veterans returning from World War II could go to college for free.

Today, the cost of college averages between $20,000 and $40,000 a year. In the 1940s, many jobs did not even require one to have a bachelor’s degree, let alone a graduate degree. Today, getting a job with even a bachelor’s degree is difficult at best because more and more employers are requiring a master’s degree and higher.

Everyone is reading about our stalled economy in the news, but the fact is that it’s our generation that bears a disproportional amount of these difficulties. Just ask someone from the Class of 2011. There are some lucky students who were able to land good jobs after graduation, yet about 45 percent of recent college graduates are either not working at all or working at a job that doesn’t require a college degree. Everyone else has delayed the search and rushed straight into grad school.

So back to this dreams business. Just because I don’t go to Juilliard does not mean that I gave up on my childhood dream of being a ballerina. Rather, as I grew up, I adjusted my dreams to better fit my interests and life circumstances. I do not have the physical ability and years of training to be a ballerina. Once I got to college, I realized that I hate politics, and at this point someone else will probably beat me to the punch in becoming the first female president. My dream of getting paid to travel the world needs to be adjusted as well. I’ll never stop searching for a job that would allow me to do that, but if I can’t find one, I will have to settle for something less. When I graduate I have to make a living and unfortunately, dreams alone cannot sustain me.

So are we “Generation Vexed”? Absolutely. I am sure that even Dr. Jantz would be just as vexed if he faced as many barriers to achieving his dreams as we do today. We have every right to be vexed when we come to the realization that maybe achieving our dreams isn’t possible because all the cards are stacked against us. Dr. Jantz achieves nothing in comparing us to a generation of a different time, except to make us even more vexed because they had it a lot easier than we do.

And have we given up on our dreams? No way. Even when we realize they might not be possible, we do keep dreaming. Young people today are coming up with some of the best ideas for how to fix this broken world that the young people of the 1940s left us. Will we be able to? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, we’ll keep trying.

OP-BOX Quote of the Week “All of God’s creatures are beautiful. Like, have you ever looked closely at a walnut?”

—Johnny Geetar, member of Lawrence Welks, the opening band at the first Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club show of the semester (See Arts, page 19.)

Brandeis Talks Back What was the best part of the Fall Arts and Activities fair this year?

Jacob Chatinover ’12 “The WBRS shirts this year are sick nasty.”

Justy Kosek ’14 “The multitudes of people and the diversity of clubs was great.”

Jenny Lau ’14 “Seeing how many diverse and awesome clubs there are.”

Sara Brande ’15 “I really liked the performances.”

—Compiled by Eitan Cooper Photos by Tali Smookler/ the Justice

THE JUSTICE

READER COMMENTARY Belief in exceptionalism isn’t blind

In response to your article “Republicans restore spirit of American Dream” (Forum, Aug. 30): To the Editor: There are assumptions in your recent piece that need to be addressed and debunked with facts. The first is the article’s premise that when a Republican candidate talks about renewing the American Dream, it insinuates an unrealistic, cult-like fantasy that America can escape any recession or depression no matter what.

There is no Republican who hasn’t been utterly dismal about the current $14.5 trillion national debt, the credit rating downgrade and the $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities in Medicare, Medicaid and social security that plagues every single person in this country.

American exceptionalism is not purely about its superior economics—actually, it’s a term that makes a greater reference to America’s unique principles of liberty, free speech and opportunity, all of which are principles that admittedly support free market capitalism by their own terms. This is something that President Barack Obama has discredited in his “apology” tour all across the world, dismissing America’s story as a nation born on liberty, free markets and limited government in favor of a disillusioned narrative about the original sin of slavery and inequality.

Now that unemployment is at about 9 percent and, when considering underemployment, the number is closer to 20 percent, people are sick and tired of the president and liberals continuing to spend frivolously rather than ease up regulations/lower taxes and allow business owners to grow their business, hire more people and create permanent jobs.

The fervor that Michele Bachmann draws from her speeches on American exceptionalism is not some blind, hick “religious” awe from the American people, but their acknowledgment of the basic economic principles that made our country prosper in the past, making us the strongest free economic power in only the 200-some years it’s existed.

Considering that Obama’s Keynesian economics have dragged the country to historically unprecedented debt, with the first 19 months of his office seeing debt rise by more than all the American money ever spent from George Washington to Ronald Reagan (which is money that was earned by everyday people and then squandered by incompetent politicians) abyssmal GDP growth of less than 1 percent, and an astounding loss/lack of job gains, it’s no wonder that most people, unemployed or underemployed, would be emboldened by the truth and wisdom of Bachmann’s words.

Believing in American exceptionalism is not blind faith, but intellectually honest admissions of the lessons of history and economics, an understanding that most Republicans know will determine whether our country recovers.

—Mary-Alice Perdichizzi ’12 Editor’s note: The writer is the founder of the Brandeis Tea Party

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TUESDAY, September 6, 2011

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Hookahs don’t need legislation Diego

Medrano Missing Link

Any student who experiences any semblance of a typical college life has been around hookah.

Whether it be at a party, small get-together, hookah bar, lost in the woods or a baby shower, college students can’t seem to avoid it, and it’s only getting more popular. Meanwhile, cigarette smoking gets the brunt of the liberal undergraduate backlash. Regular smokers are relegated to confined outdoor areas like foul-smelling animals in a petting zoo; hookah makes tobacco sexy again. With its fruity flavors and pipes that look straight out of a Middle Eastern adventure, smoking hookah with friends instantly makes you both social and cultured.

Unfortunately, people don’t realize that hookah is just as bad as cigarettes, and in most cases worse because smoking sessions typically last a few hours and not a few minutes.

Hookah smoking has been linked to the same cancers prevalent in cigarette smokers such as lung, bladder and oral cancers. Combine that with the added risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from the charcoal and herpes and other oral diseases carried in saliva, both the passing of the tube and smoking hookah can clearly impact one’s health.

Due to the lack of awareness and ever-increasing popularity, universities, cities and states are starting to limit the availability of hookah. Lawmakers in Boston, California, Connecticut, Maine, New York and Oregon are trying to ban hookah bars altogether, and an increasing number of universities are banning the use on campus. However, these lawmakers and universities are tackling the wrong problem.

Cigarettes used to be the cool thing to do. As the years passed, people found themselves unable to ignore the mounds of evidence showing their harmfulness. Now, smokers are demonized much more than they used to be.

The issue with hookah is that people are simply uninformed on just how harmful it is. The way to get people to stop isn’t through legislation. Legislation will only increase the allure of hookah.

If speakeasies and marijuana have taught us anything, it’s that once a substance becomes illegal, it joins the ranks of rebellion and only becomes cooler—especially when that substance has such a small, immediate downside as opposed to harder drugs. Instead, people need to be presented with enough information to demonize it themselves. Legislation only stands to make this seem like another case of “us against them” and “the old and out of touch

ARIELLE SHORR/the Justice

versus the youth.”

The state legislation would only oppose hookah bars and not the actual sale of hookah. But this should be different from cigarette regulations. In a restaurant that allows smokers and non smokers, there is the issue of secondhand smoke. Anyone who goes to a hookah bar knows there is no other purpose for being there.

This sort of regulation would be meaningless and not protect anyone outside of the group of people who have already chosen to harm themselves with the substance. The only difference is that the substance will be consumed in private without the benefit of commerce for the state.

My argument isn’t akin to a libertarian believing that an individual should be allowed to do whatever they want to themselves regardless of the harm. I don’t believe in that extreme.

However, in this case, the government and universities do not have the right to tell people that they cannot use hookah.

Bringing hookah into a neighborhood or a campus doesn’t have the ability to tear that campus apart. It doesn’t destroy families or relationships. It has no black market value. And the physical harm is contained to the self. Secondhand smoke is dangerous, but if you don’t

want to be around hookah, you can leave. No one is forced to go into a hookah bar or to a party with hookah. Is hookah a stupid choice? Unless you’re Middle Eastern or of Middle Eastern decent and smoking it out of cultural tradition, sure. But college can be as much about stupid choices as it is intelligent ones. These are the “get it out of your system” years for a reason.

Except for countries or cultures in which hookah is a valued tradition, hookah is most popular amongst undergraduates from the ages of late teens to early 20s. Unlike cigarettes, hookah is a fad. Sure it’s worse than cigarettes, but chances are you’ll only smoke it for this small portion of your life. Cigarettes tend to be more of a lifelong endeavor. In the interest of full disclosure, I neither smoke nor enjoy cigarettes or hookah, but I would strongly oppose banning one and not the other. It’s one thing to oppose tobacco altogether, it’s another to nitpick.

Rules banning hookah in dorms and public places on campus make sense, but as long as people adhere to those rules, they should be allowed to use hookah. Governments and universities should have more important issues to deal with. If they really want to make a difference, they’ll inform the people, not oppose them.

Increase the number of 4-year BA/MA programs

By Philip Gallagher JUSTICE Contributing WRITER

According to a July 22 article in The New York Times, the master’s degree is quickly moving to replace the bachelor’s as the expected degree for entry-level jobs. Bachelor’s degrees are now considered standard by employers and do not suffice as a method of distinguishing the most qualified job applicants from a pool. Brandeis is in a unique position to meet these rising employment standards by maintaining and expanding its 4-year BA/MA academic programs.

This shift is financially detrimental to students enrolled in standard master’s degree programs, as they are now expected to complete and pay for 5 or 6 years of higher education to obtain a full-time job instead of 4 years.

At a public university, such as the University of Connecticut, the fees are lower but can still be significant. The 2010-2011 full-time graduate tuition for Connecticut residents was $4,986, while full-time tuition for out-of-state students was $12,942. At both Brandeis and the University of Connecticut, students must also pay for their own room and board and other mandatory fees from the school. These costs can make obtaining a master’s degree a finan-

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cial obstacle for many.

Some master’s programs are overly focused on their students’ careers. As a result, they may compromise their quality of education, in order to cater directly to professionals interested in building their résumés. For instance, The College of Brockport: State University of New York has a masters program in Recreation and Leisure Studies; while the University of Florida offers an MICM, which stands for Master’s of International Construction Management; and an MAB, a Master’s in Agribusiness. The MICM degree at the University of Florida is advertised on the school’s website as a program that “eliminates the need to attend any structured classes,” which suggests a very limited and artificial interaction with faculty and classmates.

Other universities, noticing the sharp increase in graduate enrollment, are beginning to shape their master’s degree programs toward the needs of the marketplace. The New Jersey Institute of Technology even introduced an entirely new group of graduate degree programs, including an M.S. in Emergency Management and Business Continuity and an M.S. in Critical Infrastructure Systems.

It is questionable whether these types of degree programs encourage thoughtful and criti-

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cal analysis, as they appear to be vocational and mainly geared towards producing marketable employees. A graduate program should allow students to think more deeply about material learned as an undergraduate and use this knowledge to become a more informed and educated global citizen. However, degrees similar to those at the universities mentioned above will not succeed in both of those tasks.

The programs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, for example, may allow students to think creatively about engineering and design theories that they learned as undergraduates, but it is unlikely that these programs will encourage students to find ways to apply their new skills to thinking about society at large.

Brandeis has the potential to offer a good solution that would rectify the problems associated with this trend toward master’s degrees: the 4-year BA/MA programs. These programs allow students to obtain both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in 4 years in a concentration of their choice. Students are able to obtain the master’s degree without taking on an additional financial burden from additional years of study, and they are ensured a high-quality graduate education because of the curriculum’s foundation in the liberal arts.

The structure of the programs ensure that stu-

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For information on joining the Justice, write to editor@ thejustice.org.

dents build directly on material learned in undergraduate classes and use the skills developed through coursework to become more global citizens and find solutions to society’s problems.

However, Brandeis has been phasing out these programs over the past couple of years, claiming that the work completed in these programs is closer to an undergraduate honors degree rather than a graduate degree, according to a report from the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering Committee.

Brandeis should focus on expanding these programs instead of discontinuing them to give students the option of obtaining a high-quality graduate education without the burdening costs of graduate tuition. Those students who prefer the combined degree program will be prepared for a competitive job market because of their specialized and advanced skills. Obviously, combined degree programs are not for everyone; many students may prefer to get the full liberal arts experience out of their undergraduate years and have the option of pursuing graduate studies at a later time. However, for those students who want to find a more specialized job right after college or would have trouble affording graduate school costs, the BA/MA program appears to be a good solution.

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TUESDAY, September 6, 2011

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THE JUSTICE

FORUM

First-year orientation quells confusion

By Nora Anderson JUSTICE contributing WRITER

I gave my last poignant goodbyes. My dogs were in the window, looking confused. I shut the passenger side door on the past 12 years of my daily existence. The last box was jammed into the back, but there was an uninvited stowaway—my nausea.

This pit had grown in my stomach for the past 7 days, ever since the weekly countdown started: 6 days till move in, 4, 1 … it’s here.

When we pulled onto campus, this void in my gut called forward every doubt and question and hesitation, all the reoccurring panics that wade into existence the few days before any new school year. What if everyone is a jerk?

Will anyone even like me? I’m going to be a naïve, wide-eyed freshman again—awesome.

Every fear feeds the garbage disposal in my gut, and the cycle continues. I should have packed some Pepto-Bismol—I’d be chugging it at this point.

Right off the bat, we made our way to the wrong side of campus—great start. And they were waving at me, all those people in the yellow shirts. It’s weird, going into a new place full of people I don’t know who are all being so nice to me, a nameless new face. Recently a high school graduate, I used my smarts to figure out the people in yellow were there for Orientation, but I couldn’t figure out how a few people could help me assuage my cruel queasiness. But they did.

I take the last few seconds to breathe whatever “life before college” air was left in the cab of the truck, and I open the door. “Hi, how are you? What hall are you in?” Ummm.

“Yeah, we can bring all your boxes straight to your door!” I get directions to my dorm, and I meet my roommate.

My Community Advisor meets us at the door. She’s crazy and animated, and she got my roomie and me to laugh together. For the first time, I noticed my stomach wasn’t so unsettled anymore.

I had to ask the same person four times for directions to get my dorm key. That was awkward. I finally headed out to get my ID card.

Only when it started to rain did I realize that Tropical Storm Irene was coming in.

A perfect metaphor for the spiral my nerves were still in. But, the picture came out amazing: move-in hair, wet from the rain, and a smile with a slight deer-in-the-headlights motif.

There’s a note on the door from my Orientation Leader. She left me some free candy, so I knew right away that I would like her. The

MARA SASSOON/the Justice

AIDE group met later for dinner, where more clumsy greetings were exchanged and I heard names which, honestly, I still don’t remember. Several hours of monotonous, embarrassing ice breakers and a barrage of names and faces later, it was time to finally go to sleep. I slept straight through the storm.

I wake up in the morning with a dead phone. Oh, I didn’t mention that I forgot my phone charger, so I can’t contact my OL. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on for Orientation. I tag along with my roommate’s group for the day.

There are more names and handshakes,

and these I remember a little more than last night’s. I swear, I could have joined any AIDE group, and I would’ve fit right in. Every one of the OLs seemed to rock highlighter yellow to the same degree; I have to give them due credit for that alone. My theory is that the color was used as a distraction from being anxious those first days.

From then on, our schedules were packed.

Breakfast started way too bright and early so that all the programs would be able to fit into the day.

From the Academic Fair, an overwhelming maze of professors and pamphlets, to Student

Sexuality Information Service’s Candy Landinspired “Sexy Land,” an informative-yetbawdy sex talk, Orientation never seemed to quit. I don’t remember half of the resources thrown at me, but I think I put most of the numbers in my phone. I’m quite sure all the OLs took a cue from the Energizer Bunny, or whatever he’s on, because they really kept us going. There never was a time to be homesick or to let your nerves get in the way.

I was worried I would need a home remedy or some Pepto pink to get rid of my nausea; turns out, all I needed was Brandeis’ bright yellow fix-all.

NCAA and colleges require a regulatory agency Naomi

Volk Et Cetera

College athletics: the source of pride, and money, for some schools across the country and the focus of community spirit. Yet nothing is without its hint of scandal. Although some schools rake in the big bucks with their athletic teams, college athletes should not get paid or get “improper” benefits because of their participation on a team, wrote C. Thomas McMillen, a former professional basketball player who was once a Democratic representative from Maryland, in a recent op-ed for The New York Times.

McMillen argued that schools should keep a closer watch on the benefits and incentives their scholar athletes receive lest the school be involved in a scandal related to such incentives within the athletic program.

He blames both the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the schools themselves for letting the situation get to the place it is today. If both the NCAA and the colleges are to blame, then the only possible way to regulate college athletics is through an impartial third party.

College is, first and foremost, a place to learn. College isn’t one big gym where people sit around trying to get buff and bring in money for those that sponsor them. Though college athletics feed into the field of professional athletics, the truth is that scholar athletes, or students involved in athletics at their schools, should primarily be scholars.

In a March article in The Huffington Post, Dexter Rogers wrote that college athletes should get paid in order to reflect the amount of money going to universities, the NCAA and television stations. However, doing so would only prioritize the “athlete” part of scholar athletes. There’s nothing wrong with being a

JSNELL/Flickr Creative Commons

SCANDAL: Many college athletes, including Reggie Bush (above), have recently been involved in scandals. scholar athlete.

But it does become a problem when the entire purpose of one’s education is to perpetuate the athletics that are supposed to be on the side. Paying the college athletes is turning an education into a job.

What he says is compelling. It is impossible to expect the NCAA to police the schools and the athletes, considering the amount of time

and effort it would extract. But beyond that, the NCAA is getting millions of dollars based on the performance of its scholar athletes. Can they really be expected to regulate the conduct of their own money makers? It’s like saying that the CEO of a Fortune 500 company should be entrusted to regulate the safety of the company’s product. Human nature obstructs fair self-regulation, choosing instead to take

the money, and time and time again we have learned that we cannot expect money-making groups to regulate themselves.

So who should do the regulating? McMillen suggests the boards of the schools should do so. This makes sense, considering he is a regent at the University of Maryland. According to him, the boards should want to regulate to a degree necessary in order to avoid the scandal involved with public recognition of improper benefits.

I don’t think this is enough. While the boards do have some self-interest in staying free of scandal, they also have self-interest in bringing the best athletes to their schools.

After all, their first priority should be the well-being of their school, and certain schools across the country live and breathe college athletics.

Many of these types of colleges make tremendous amounts of money off of college athletics. I’m not as optimistic as McMillen in thinking these school boards will value the potential of scandal over the benefit of making money and fame off of the scholar athlete.

So what needs to be done? College athletics needs what every industry in America needs: an outside observer, an objective third party to be the watchdog, ensuring that everything within the field of college athletics goes as it should. What college athletics needs is a regulatory agency.

I don’t have a clear answer for how this should be set up. If the NCAA sponsors this third party, then the NCAA might as well be the one watching. If only some colleges or school boards sponsor the outside observer, then the party may be biased in favor of those that sponsor it.

Perhaps if we think of college athletics as an industry, pumping out money-making products, then it would make sense to create a governmental agency, a bureaucratic group dedicated to watching out for “improper” behavior and fining those colleges and universities that allow such behavior to exist. You’d better believe that it would motivate the schools to prioritize correct behavior from its athletes.

THE JUSTICE

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TUESDAY, September 6, 2011

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SPORTS

Team MSOCCER: Squad opens the season with back-to-back blowout victories races at first meet Cross COUNTRY

■ The women’s cross

country team had a successful first meet of the season, placing two runners in the top three against Southern Maine.

By jacob lurie JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Though the meet was non-scoring, the women’s cross country team ran hard last Friday against the University of Southern Maine, finishing with two of the top three runners in the race.

In total, the Judges entered six runners in the meet. Miriam Stulin ’15 paced Brandeis in her first collegiate meet, covering the 4K course in 15 minutes, 42 seconds. Brandeis’ top returning runner, Kate Warwick ’12, grabbed third with a time of 15:52.

Warwick was pleased with the way that the team ran.

“We went out in tempo, and we all had paces that our coach gave us beforehand, ... and we all tried to stick to that,” she said.

However, while running the meet, Warwick said that she ran ahead of the set pace, which threw off her timing.

“I was supposed to be with another girl, Miriam [Stulin], but we kind of split off,” she said. “And we both went faster than we were supposed to, but we both kept the pace that we went at.”

The next two Brandeis runners to finish were both sophomores. Amelia Lundkvist ’14 and Victoria Sanford ’14 finished the race in a near tie, coming in seventh and eighth, respectively. Lundkvist finished in 16:55, while Sanford ran the course in 16:56. Right behind the two sophomores were Brandeis’ final two runners, Monique Gerard ’12 and Kristi Pisarik ’15, who placed in ninth and 10th with times of 17:02 and 17:03, respectively.

As the women’s squad enters a new season, the team is excited about its first-year runners. However, the team also lost several of its top runners, including three of its top four athletes from regional championships, meaning that the team must work early on to redefine its identity.

“Missing Grayce [Selig] ’11 and Marie [Lemay] ’11 will be a step back. But we gained freshmen and, hopefully, they can just get stronger as they go,” said Warwick. “At this point, everyone’s strong at running, and that’s all we could have hoped for. But we’ll see. It’s hard to tell right now.”

Warwick is now a senior, and she said that she still is adjusting to more of a leadership role.

“It feels different [being a senior] because all the freshmen are asking questions now,” she said. “But I like being a senior. I’ll be sad to leave it, and I’ll make the most of my senior year. Training is the same as it’s ever been, and I just go out and do the best I can.”

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams have their next meet on September 24 at the University of Massachusetts Shriner’s Invitational. Last season, Warwick excelled at the event, placing third.

JOSHUA LINTON/Justice File Photo

ONE-ON-ONE: Midfielder Theo Terris ’12 makes a move against an Emory University defender during a game last year. Terris had a goal and an assist during action last week.

CONTINUED FROM 16 keeper Malcom Cheney to make it 3-0. The goal capped a sterling opening weekend for Ocel, who missed all of last season due to injury.

“It’s nice to have him back after a year,” Coven said. “When you have a major knee surgery like he did, you never know how you’re going to come back. [Ocel], he’s never missed a beat. He’s playing exceptionally well. You’d never know he had major surgery last year.” “[On the goal], Keuchkarian

made it,” Coven added “He took his man on, lifted the ball in the air over his defender, and Sam took it and made it a side-netting finish.”

In the 66th minute, Feather doubled his tally by finishing a cross from Luke Teece ’12. Teece dribbled past one player and then played Feather at the near post, who finished easily to make it 4-0. Eisenbies added a fifth goal in the 74th minute, hitting a first-time shot off a corner kick by Tyler Savonen ’15.

On Saturday, the Judges beat Fitchburg by the same score but

were even more dominant in their play. The Falcons were missing some key players including starting goalkeeper Evan DeAmicis, who has severe injuries to his spleen, liver and kidney that he sustained in a pre-season scrimmage.

Midfielder Lee Russo ’13, Keuchkarian, midfielder Theo Terris ’13 and Savonen scored in addition to Ocel against Fitchburg. Brandeis nearly conceded a goal in the 20th minute after sophomore Falcons forward Carmen Bordonaro drew a penalty. But Minchoff stopped the

ensuing kick, parrying away an effort from junior forward George Sullivan.

The Judges’ next game is away at Colby Sawyer College on Wednesday night. The home opener will be Wednesday, Sept. 14 against Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

“We’re going to take them one at a time,” finished Coven. “We have very difficult schedules. The boys played well over the weekend, but the weekend is over. We have a game on Wednesday that we have to focus on.”

VBALL: Team picks up two shutout wins before losing to Western Connecticut St. CONTINUED FROM 16 less at middle blocker, nailing seven kills without committing an error while also adding three blocks. Yael Einhorn ’14, in her first game as primary setter, had an impressive 28 assists.

Last Saturday, Brandeis made a statement by sweeping Kean University in the first half of a doubleheader, winning 25-14, 25-12 and 25-20. The team was incredibly efficient on the offensive side and made

few mistakes, making just eight unforced errors.

Hood followed up her debut with another terrific game, nailing 12 kills with only one error. Anchoring the defense once again, Bernaiche led the team with 12 digs. Einhorn put in another solid effort, racking up 38 assists and six digs. Hensley contributed 11 kills and four digs, while defensive specialist Susan Sun ’13 added seven kills and seven digs.

The Judges ended the weekend

on a sour note as they were swept

by Western Connecticut State by scores of 26-24, 25-19 and 28-26.

Brandeis had the chance to close out the Colonials in the first and third sets, but could not finish them off as they went into overtime and ultimately lost. At 2-1, the Judges are off to a good start but Kim noted that some improvements were necessary before heading into next week’s action.

“Our main problem is we need to be more consistent—especially with

ball control and passing,” she said.

“We need to get into a rhythm and the players need to be more comfortable with each other. That will hopefully be resolved as we head deeper into the season.”

Brandeis will take on Wellesley College tonight at 7 p.m. The team will then host the annual Brandeis Invitational this weekend, facing Babson College and Bates College on Friday, followed by a match against Rhode Island College on Saturday afternoon.

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THE JUSTICE

jUDGES BY THE NUMBERS Men’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS Points

Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference Overall

W L D W L D Pct. JUDGES 0 0 0 2 0 0 1.000 Case 0 0 0 2 0 0 1.000 Rochester 0 0 0 2 0 0 1.000 WashU 0 0 0 2 0 0 1.000 Carnegie 0 0 0 1 0 1 .750 Chicago 0 0 0 1 1 0 .500 NYU 0 0 0 0 1 1 .250 Emory 0 0 0 0 2 0 .000

Three players are tied for the team lead in points with four.

Player Pts Kyle Feather 4 Steve Keuchkarian 4 Sam Ocel 4 Three tied with 3

Shots

●

TUESDAY, September 6, 2011

15

NEWCOMER TO WATCH

Edalati finds the net in collegiate debut

Alexander Farr ’12 leads the team in shots taken with eight.

Player Shots Alexander Farr 8 Joe Eisenbies 7 Lee Russo 6 Luke Teece 5

UPCOMING GAMES Wednesday, Sept. 7 at ColbySawyer College; Saturday, Sept.

10 at Clark University

WOMen’s Soccer UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS

Not including Monday’s games

Points

UAA Conference

W L D W L WashU 0 0 0 3 0 JUDGES 0 0 0 2 0 Chicago 0 0 0 2 0 NYU 0 0 0 2 0 Rochester 0 0 0 2 0 Case 0 0 0 1 0 Emory 0 0 0 1 0 Carnegie 0 0 0 0 2

Mary Shimko ’14 leads the team in points with four.

Player AVG Mary Shimko 4 Mimi Theodore 3 Sapir Edalati 2 Hilary Andrews 1

Overall D Pct. 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 .000

UPCOMING GAMES Wednesday, Sept. 7 at Lasell College; Saturday, Sept. 10 at Springfield College

Shots Alanna Torre ’12 leads the team in shots taken with five.

Player Shots Alanna Torre 5 Hilary Andrews 4 Sapir Edalati 4 Mimi Theodore 4

VOLLEYBALL UAA STANDINGS

TEAM STATS (through the first two games) Kills

Not including Monday’s games UAA Conference

W L W WashU 5 1 6 Chicago 4 2 4 NYU 3 3 4 Case 2 4 3 Emory 1 5 3 Rochester 0 0 3 JUDGES 0 0 2 Carnegie 0 0 0

Overall L Pct. 0 1.000 0 1.000 0 1.000 1 .750 1 .750 1 .750 1 .667 2 .000

UPCOMING GAMES Wednesday, Sept. 7 at Wellesley College; Brandeis Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

Liz Hood ’15 leads the team in digs so far this year with 21.

Player Pts Liz Hood 21 Si-Si Hensley 19 Becca Fischer 12 two tied with 11

Digs Elsie Bernaiche ’15 leads the team in digs this year with 31.

Player AVG Elsie Bernaiche 31 Susan Sun 13 Liz Hood 9 two tied with 8

cross cOuntry UPCOMING EVENTS Saturday, Sept. 24 at the UMass Dartmouth Shriner’s Invitational Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Open New England Championships at Franklin Park

ALEX MARGOLIS/the Justice

FENDING OFF DEFENDERS: Midfielder Sapir Edalati ’15 boots the ball up the field during the team’s game against MIT.

■ Women’s soccer

midfielder Sapir Edalati ’15 scored in her collegiate debut against Clark.

By natalie shushan

TOP FINISHERS (WOMEN’S)

RUNNER TIME Miriam Stulin 15:42 Kate Warwick 15:52 Amelia Lundkvist 16:55 Victoria Sanford 16:56 Monique Gerard 17:02 Kristi Pisarik 17:03

JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

It didn’t take Sapir Edalati ’15 long to adjust to playing at the college level.

The rookie midfielder scored her first collegiate goal in the women’s soccer team’s first game of the season, adding an insurance goal during the team’s 2-0 defeat of Clark University last Thursday afternoon.

Edalati immediately acknowledged the fact that the stakes are higher at Brandeis than they were

in high school, where players have a wide range of skills.

“College is more competitive,” she said. “It’s fun, but it’s also more serious than high school.

High school players have a range of skills, from people who have played their whole lives to people who are just picking up the sport. In college, everyone plays at a top level, so you have to play every game as hard as you can from start to finish.”

Although being a rookie can be difficult, Edalati says that the squad has been welcoming for the firstyear players.

“You have to really prove yourself to gain position on the team,” she said. “It can be very intimidating. Most of the rookies are used to being the veterans on their high school and club teams, and now ev-

eryone is older than you. Usually, everyone looks up to you, but now you’re looking up to everyone else.

However, the team is like a family and everyone really tries to bond with everyone else. It isn’t segregated. The coach doesn’t want it that way. Everyone is together.”

During the upcoming season, Edalati said that her goal is to improve her decision-making. She wants to learn as much as she can from the veterans because, as she put it, “they’ve had the experiences and I’m new at it.”

She may still have plenty to learn, but Edalati has already proven that she’ll be an asset to the team in the years to come.

—Jonathan Steinberg contributed reporting.

SOCCER brief U.S. men’s national soccer team falls 1-0 to the Costa Rica Ticos in a well-fought friendly match In Jürgen Klinsmann’s second game as head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, the U.S. showed glimpses of brilliance reminiscent of a world soccer powerhouse. But the U.S. couldn’t sustain the effort and fell 1-0 to Costa Rica in an international friendly played at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. last Saturday night.

Costa Rica has given the U.S. trouble in the past and came into the match with a six-game unbeaten streak against the Yanks. But the U.S. looked like they had the Costa Ricans locked down early, controlling the ball and making crisp, decisive passes. But the “Ticos” weathered the storm and regrouped at halftime. Costa Rica came out with more confidence at the start of the second half and scored in the 65th minute off a diving header from Portland Timbers midfielder Rodney

Wallace.

“We knew Costa Rica was hoping to break on counters,” Klinsmann said in a press conference after the game. “That’s the way they play their game, and we have to respect and say congratulations to them. We tried everything to get back into the game and score our goal, and unfortunately we weren’t able to.”

Klinsmann, who was a star German national team player in the 1980s and 1990s, has started to implement a playing style similar to his native country’s. Germany is known for its attacking play and gave birth to the mantra.

“If we always attack, we will never have to defend.” The style has suited Germany, as they have led scoring in the last two World Cups. So Klinsmann used an offensive 4-3-3 formation against the Costa Ricans, which the

U.S. used to control most of the game.

The U.S. was most effective in the first half hour, fighting hard to win back the ball each time they lost it and creating their best chances of the game. In the sixth minute, winger Brek Shea combined with central midfielder Jose Torres to play Landon Donovan in behind the defense. But Donovan finished wide of the near post with his shot. One minute later, Shea fed unmarked forward Jozy Altidore the ball in the thick of the penalty area, but Altidore shot wide.

The U.S. continued to press, but Costa Rica began finding a rhythm late in the first half. U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard made two saves in quick succession in first-half stoppage time, both off of Alvaro Sanchez. At the start of the second half, U.S. cohesion on the field was replaced with disarray as

Costa Rica struck.

In the 65th minute, midfielder Alvaro Saborio found himself in behind the defense and one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Saborio played the ball to the middle of the penalty area for Michael Barrantes, whose first time shot was beaten away by Howard. But the rebound bounced towards Wallace, who finished the play with a diving header for his first international goal in his first international game.

“There was confidence there, there was technical ability there, yet it’s difficult once a team like Costa Rica or any team in general goes one goal up,” added Klinsmann. “They put nine men in the box and make it very difficult.”

Torres had a long-range shot saved

by Costa Rica’s Keylor Navas in the 71st minute, the U.S.’s best bid to level the score. Klinsmann substituted Juan

Agudelo and Sacha Kljestan late in the second half, and though both looked dangerous at times, neither could spark the U.S. to a late comeback.

“It can be hard at times,” midfielder Maurice Edu told reporters after the match. “You have to stay mentally strong and just keep believing. Today was just one of those days where it just wasn’t meant to be, I guess, and they capitalized on one of the few chances they did have. That’s soccer sometimes. Obviously, we’re disappointed with the result, but I think we can be somewhat proud of our performance, especially in the first half.”

The U.S. plays another international friendly against Belgium tomorrow.

Fulham midfielder Clint Dempsey is expected to join the team in Brussels.

—Julian Cardillo

just

Sports

Page 16

GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION Midfielder Sapir Edalti ’15 netted a goal in her first collegiate game, helping the women’s soccer team defeat Clark, p. 15.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Men’s soccer

Men start the season off with blowout wins ■ The men’s soccer team

defeated both Fitchburg and Keene State with 5-0 scores last week.

By JULIAN CARDILLO JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team played away for its first two matches of the season, but the squad clearly felt right at home on the field. Brandeis blanked both Fitchburg State University and Keene State College with identical 5-0 scores over the weekend at the Keene State Xara Soccer Classic.

Goalkeeper Blake Minchoff ’13 helped lead the Judges, playing 90 minutes in both games and saving a penalty kick against Fitchburg last Saturday. Minchoff was named

to the All-Tournament Team along with teammates Joe Eisenbies ’13, Sam Ocel ’13 and Alex Farr ’12.

“It was a very good weekend,” said coach Michael Coven. “Realistically, Fitchburg was an average team, and you expect to do as well as we did against them. But traditionally, Keene, especially on their home field, are tougher. We beat them 5-0; it says a lot about our team.”

Keene boasted a 14-4-2 record last season, losing just twice at home and outscoring their opponents 37-25. But the Judges caught the Owls in disarray from the opening whistle and wasted little time capitalizing. In just the fourth minute, Brandeis midfielder Kyle Feather ’14 took hold of possession in Keene’s end of the field and dribbled past two defenders before firing into the back of the net for the

1-0 advantage.

Keene registered just one shot on goal in the first half and looked content to head into the break down just a goal. But with seconds left in the first half, Farr’s shot from a tight angle found the back of the net to double Brandeis’ lead and take the Owls further out of the game.

“Farr had the ball in the corner at no angle,” Coven explained. “[He] hit a cracker, and it went into the upper corner of the net. It broke their back.”

Brandeis kept up the offense in the second half, converting three goals in a 16-minute span. Ocel, who scored once against Fitchburg the previous day, netted Brandeis’ third. He chipped a feed from Steve Keuchkarian ’12 into the back of the net past Keene sophomore goal-

See MSOCCER, 13 ☛

Waltham, Mass.

volleyball

Judges win two of three in first tourney ■ The Judges started the

season off on the right track, taking two of three at Western Connecticut State.

By ADAM RABINOWITZ JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

After struggling down the stretch last season, the volleyball team kicked off the year on a high note, winning its first two games of the season before losing to host Western Connecticut State University. The Judges made a statement in their first two games, sweeping both Johnson and Wales University and Kean University. However, the team ended the tournament with a 3-0 loss to host Western Connecticut State and finished in second. Coach Michelle Kim was proud of the team’s play over the weekend.

“We definitely got [off] to a good start—the team got used to playing with each other and that resulted

in some great victories,” she said.

Brandeis started off the season with a bang by sweeping Johnson and Wales by scores of 25-21, 2517 and 25-22. From the first play, the Judges took control and never looked back. Several rookies led the way to victory, displaying the new talent that this year’s firstyears have to offer. Outside hitter Elizabeth Hood ’15 shone in her collegiate debut, leading the team with nine kills and also contributing six digs and two blocks. On the defensive end, Elsie Bernaiche ’15 set the tone with 19 digs.

Kim was impressed by her rookies’ play in the invitational.

“Given it was their first collegiate match, they played well— they’ve been practicing a lot in the preseason, and they’re getting used to playing with the team,” she said.

Outside hitter Si-Si Hensley ’14 was second on the team with eight kills. Becca Fischer ’13 was flaw-

See VBALL, 13 ☛

women’s soccer

Team kicks off campaign with two 2-0 wins ■ The women’s soccer team picked up where it left off last season, earning two shutout victories at home.

By MAX GOLDSTEIN JUSTICE SENIOR WRITER

The women’s soccer team hit the ground running last week with victories over Clark University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The squad shut out their opponents by a combined score of 4-0 in an impressive display of cohesion for so early in the season.

“I think that we connected really well on the field,” midfielder Mary Shimko ’12 explained. “We were putting together some great passes, our defense was great at stopping the attacks, and they were swinging the ball around, which created space for our offense.”

Last Saturday, the Judges defeated MIT 2-0 at home. The team got off to a shaky start, allowing the Engineers several chances in the 11th minute. MIT junior forward Emily Kuo rifled a shot that hit the crossbar, and her shot rebounded right to teammate Casandra Ceri, a junior midfielder. Ceri’s follow-up, however, was pushed over the net

by Brandeis goalie Francine Kofinas ’13.

Kofinas stopped Ceri on another chance in the 15th minute.

The Judges quickly regrouped and took advantage of MIT’s missed opportunity. In the 20th minute, Brandeis was awarded a free kick 25 yards out to the right of the box. Defender Kelly Peterson ’14 placed the free kick to the head of midfielder Mimi Theodore ’12, who then directed it towards the opposite side of the net, away from the goalkeeper. Midfielder Mary Shimko ’14 finished, putting it in the back of the net for her second goal of the season, and fourth of her young career.

The Judges from that point on seized control of the game, outshooting their opponents 9-3 in the second half. Theodore finally doubled the lead in the 72nd minute, finding the net on a cross from midfielder Francesca Shin ’12. Shin

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

MOVING UP THE PITCH: Midfielder Alanna Torre ’12 weaves between two Massachusetts Institute of Technology defenders during the team’s 2-0 victory over the Engineers. made a nice move to get free with the ball in the box, where she sent it to Theodore. It was Theodore’s first goal of the season and the 19th of her career. The Judges did not look back and cruised to a well-earned 2-0 victory.

Brandeis opened its season last Thursday, defeating Clark 2-0 at home. The Judges outshot the Cougars 5-3 in the first half, with Clark registering only two shots on goal.

Kofinas stopped both attempts, including an impressive diving save in the 21st minute on a shot by Clark junior Hana Chamoun. The Judges did not register any significant chances in the first half.

Brandeis started the second half

on a much better note. In the second minute of the half, midfielder Alanna Torre ’12 and Clark senior goalie Audrey Eisemann became entangled in a challenge for the ball near the box. Torre was able to nudge the ball forward to Shimko, who put it in for the goal.

“I was very impressed with Mary Shimko,” Theodore said of the sophomore. “I have a lot of confidence in her. Before the Clark game, I told the women’s head basketball coach, Carol Simon, that Mary was going to score the first goal, and sure enough she did. She is a strong player who is always working hard.”

The Judges found their second goal on a cross from the end line to

rookie midfielder Sapir Edalti ’15.

Edalti struck the cross into the net for her first goal of her Brandeis career in the 74th minute of the game.

The Judges stifled Clark for the remainder of the game to wrap up the 2-0 victory. Brandeis outshot Clark 12-4 for the game and 7-1 in an impressive second-half performance.

Theodore said that she was happy with the way that the offense performed against Clark.

“We did a very good job of moving the ball around, especially against Clark,” she said. “We seemed to not force play as much but maintain possession until finding the open person.”

The Judges are coming off losing

the winningest senior class in program history. However, this past week the team seemed to have the pieces in place to continue the program’s recent success.

“Last year we got to experience the feeling of being in an NCAA tournament,” Shimko said. “The excitement of last year’s season is motivational. We want to keep the same goals we did last year and improve upon them. We still have a lot of starters from last year and our leadership is huge. The seniors this year really push us and expect a lot out of us.”

The Judges are next in action tomorrow at Lassell College. They take on the Lasers at 4:30 p.m.

just

September 6, 2011

ARTS

Miniature Tigers are giant hit at Chumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s p. 19

Photos: Nathaniel Freedman and David Yun/the Justice. Design: Robyn Spector/the Justice.

18

TUESDAY, September 6, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

POP CULTURE

INSIDE ON CAMPUS

19

■ Miniature Tigers at Chum’s

19

■ Battle of the DJs

19

MIniature Tigers headlined a fiery concert at Cholmondeley’s last Saturday night with opening act Lawrence Welks.

See who rose to the top in the first DJ battle of the semester, which took place last Saturday in the Levin Ballroom.

OFF CAMPUS

20

■ ‘Our Idiot Brother’

20

■ ‘Bastion’ XBLA review

20

Paul Rudd’s latest comedy entry has its charms but ultimately falls flat due to a clichéd storyline and unconvincing performances.

During the usual midsummer video game lull, a gem of an Xbox Live Arcade title showed gamers why narrative and presentation matters.

■ ‘Harry Potter’ retrospective 21

J. K. Rowling’s tale of the boy who lived defined an entire generation and changed fantasy and pop culture. With the end of the Potter film franchise, justArts looks at how much Harry and his friends mattered.

■ Best albums of the summer 23 Bon Iver expanded upon its sparse, low-key sounds, Fleet Foxes gave lush, rich harmonies and Death Cab for Cutie matures from emo to pop.

CALENDAR

Interview

Making laughs from Chicago to the C-Store

by Shelly Shore

The voting on Dancing with the Stars often has little to do with the actual dancing of the stars (and I use that word lightly) involved.

When Bristol Palin took the stage last season and made it to the finals, it’s a pretty fair guess that most of the people voting for her weren’t doing so for her dancing chops.

This week, however, with the announcement of this season’s upcoming cast, conflict and competition have come up before the dancing has even started. Chaz Bono, the son of Cher and Sonny Bono, is the first transgendered contestant on the show—and his inclusion is making serious waves.

According to Mediaite, a news and media website, angry viewers flooded the show’s page with comments after the announcement. “This will not be a family show any longer,” wrote one commenter. Another wrote, “Anyone that obese and physically grotesque is no picnic to watch trying to dance,” while another wrote, “I just don’t want that lifestyle choice flaunted in the media.”

While other commenters spoke up defending Bono, the angry comments on ABC’s message board have revealed a much darker side of voting-based reality television. Tim Molloy, an editor for The Wrap, wrote, “Gay American Idol contestants have opted [not] to announce their sexuality, perhaps out of concern about alienating intolerant viewers. And Bristol Palin’s Dancing casting two seasons ago led many to vote for or against her based on her mother’s politics. If Americans quickly vote Bono off the show—or keep him on despite a middling performance as they did with Palin—it could reveal plenty about attitudes toward transgendered people.”

An audience’s preconceived notions of a contestant’s background, sexuality or even body type affects the way they watch TV shows— and the way they vote. But despite the threats of conservative viewers to go so far as to boycott the show, Dancing with the Stars producer

 JustArts checks in with funnyman and Boris’ Kitchen VP Paul Gale ’12 about film, comedy, the Web and advice for first-years.

JAYMI HEIMBUCH/Flickr Creative Commons

PRO BONO: Chaz Bono’s inclusion in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ has stirred controversy.

Conrad Green told E! Online that they’re proud to have Bono on the show. “He’s a remarkably strong character,” Green says. “I think once the show’s underway, people will either root for Chaz because of his dancing, or not. I think one of the joys of our show is … you see a different side of people. You see them struggling to try and achieve something positive. You get to know them differently.”

In an official statement, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation suggested that the inclusion of Bono, along with former Queer Eye guru Carson Kressley, has “created prime-time firsts that reflect the growing acceptance of gay and transgendered people in America today.”

What’s happening in Arts on and off campus

ON-CAMPUS EVENTS Lydian String Quartet concert

The Lydian String Quartet was formed in 1980 and consists of Prof. Daniel Stepner (MUS) and Prof. Judith Eissenberg (MUS) on violin, Prof.

Mary Ruth Ray (MUS) on viola and Prof. Joshua Gordon (MUS) on cello. In a concert titled “Music for 2, 3, 4,” the Lydians will perform pieces from a variety of classical eras with guest pianist Ya-Fei Chuang.

There will be a lecture at 7 p.m. for those who wish to gain some background on the music. The Lydians will play Irving Fine’s “Fantasia for String Trio,” Ravel’s sublime duo sonata written in memory of Claude Debussy and Faure’s fiery and powerful “Piano Quartet in G minor.”

Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall. $20 for the public, $15 for Brandeis community and seniors and $5 for students. Free with SCA pass.

Student Activities presents Kevin Hurley

Brandeis’ Department of Student Activities is bringing a comedian, magician and hypnotist to campus in an outrageous show to welcome the incoming class.

Kevin Hurley performs his comedy hypnosis show and sleight of hand magic across the country. With over 1,100 performances under his belt, Kevin has entertained celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Bill Clinton, Tom Petty, Snoop Dogg, Pink and Jewel. Hurley has also performed for companies such as Apple, AT&T, McDonald’s, PNC Bank and Pepsi .

Saturday from 9 to 11:30 p.m. in the Levin Ballroom. Admission is free and open to the public. Contact (781) 736-5065 for questions and comments.

Hootenanny with Pesky J. Nixon

Pesky J. Nixon and Brandeis a cappella groups perform a collage of classical, folk and bluegrass tunes in this special one-time collaboration. The brothers from New England exude a musical authenticity and mirth on stages up and down the East Coast.

Drawing influences from contemporary urban balladeers, southern bluegrass and New England’s local folk scene, Pesky J. Nixon, also known as “PJN,” creates an atmosphere both inviting and challenging for audiences. Compelling harmonies and narratives rein in disparate instrumentation including zydeco-style accordion, virtuosic mandolin, a variety of tribal percussion and myriad string instrumentation.

With rich harmonies and musical versatility, PJN brings infectious energy and stage banter to the stage.

Sept. 17 from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Slosberg Recital Hall. $20 for the public, $15 for Brandeis community and seniors and $5 for students. Free with SCA pass.

OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS ‘Quidam’ by Cirque du Soleil

Wild gymnastics and stunning costumes are hallmarks of Cirque du Soleil, the world-famous French acrobatics company. Quidam, an ephemeral and dream-like piece, tells the story of Zoé, a young girl who finds freedom and companionship in an imaginary world.

JENNY CHENG/Justice File Photo

ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR: The Lydian String Quartet will play Ravel’s duo sonata written in memory of

Claude Debussy, Irving Fine’s “Fantasia for String Trio” and Faure’s “Piano Quartet in G minor.”

Running Wednesday, Sept. 7 through Sunday, Sept. 11 at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, located at 925 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. Tickets start at $35.

Dropkick Murphys and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert

The two bands, both native to the Boston area, unite for a night of ska punk music. MMB first formed nearly 30 years ago and have produced eight full-length albums. Dropkick Murphys originally rose to fame for their annual St. Patrick’s Day performances. Since gaining mainstream popularity in 2007, their music has been featured in the Academy Award-winning, Boston-based film The Departed.

Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. at Fenway Park, located at 4 Yawkey Way, Boston. Tickets start at $37.

Chris Tucker stand-up performance

The actor-comedian Chris Tucker, known primarily for his roles in the Rush Hour and Friday film series, performs his newest comedy routine.

Saturday, Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wang Theater, located at 270 Tremont St., Boston. Tickets start at $90.

‘Fighting Over Beverly’

This show tells an unconventional love story, featuring a cast of septuagenarians caught in a love triangle. Broadway veteran Sandra Shipley stars as the titular Beverly.

Running until Sunday, Sept. 11 at Gloucester Stage, located at 267 East Main St., Gloucester, Mass. Tickets start at $27.

New England Comic Con 2011 Wizard World Convention

Thousands of pop culture nerds gather togeth-

er to learn about the latest in movies, television, video games, comics and more at the New England Comic Con 2011.

Saturday, Sept. 17 to Sunday, Sept. 18 at the Hynes Convention Center, located at 900 Boylston St., Boston. Tickets are $25 for 1 day and $40 for both days.

Enrique Iglesias concert

The chart-topping Latino singer will kick off his 20-city tour in Boston in late September. Iglesias will be joined by collaborators Pitbull and Prince Royce and will perform such hits as “I Like It” and “Tonight.”

Thursday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at TD Garden, located at 100 Legends Way, Boston. Tickets are $35 to $100.

James Van Praagh talk

Praagh, a noted medium, or communicator with the dead, presents his skills to a live audience in this spiritual performance. Praagh asserts that he can “feel the emotions and personalities of the deceased,” and he provides access to the thoughts and feelings of the dead to those still on Earth.

Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Wilbur Theater, located at 246 Tremont St., Boston. Tickets are $40 to $50.

‘Big River’

Big River is a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The show confronts the racist notions of the late 19th-century South through a friendship between two runaways: one a young boy, the other an escaped slave. Country-pop musician Roger Miller composed folky, bluesy music for the production.

Running until Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Lyric Stage Company, located at 140 Clarendon St., Boston. Tickets are $25 to $53.

Paul Gale is a busy man. Since coming to Brandeis, he’s worked with Boris’ Kitchen, made about one funny video a month, spent a semester at Chicago’s legendary Second City and become the Village Provisions on Demand Market’s first customer (just look up “Village C-Store Grand Opening” on YouTube; it’s not hard to find). Now in his senior year, he’s busier than ever, working as the vice president of Boris’ Kitchen while also working on a webseries. Fortunately, he found the time to sit down with the Justice to talk about what drew him to comedy, his time at Second City and why having 2,000 kids might not be the life for him.

JustArts: You’ve been involved in comedy for a while here at Brandeis. Did you get your start here, or have you always been interested in it?

Paul Gale: I actually wanted to be a doctor until I was about 13; I realized I’d have to tell people they were going to die, and I just couldn’t do that. So then I wanted to be a filmmaker, then a musician, then a comedian, and now I kind of want to be a filmmaker and comedian. Still, I’ve been into comedy forever; I love making people laugh. I took an improv class in eighth grade, but forgot about it until I got here. When I got to Brandeis, I tried out for Boris’ Kitchen and it was great; it was a really fun audition. It felt really nice to be accepted so soon into the community. It’s sort of like a frat; … they’re a family, and it’s really nice to have something like that.

JA: Since then you’ve been doing a lot.

You spent the first half of your junior year at Second City. What was that like?

PG: Well, I spent 3 months there; the program’s called Second City Comedy Studies.

I took classes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 4 days a week, more than I took at Brandeis. There was classroom stuff like Acting 3, which was a regular acting class. I took a writing course, and every day we’d bring in a sketch we wrote and review it. Second City’s been around for 45 years, so we did sketches by Dan Aykroyd, Neal Simon and SCTV. At the end, we had this 45-minute show where we put on sketches we’d all written.

JA: You’ve also been putting out a lot of videos since then, like the “Opening of the Village C-Store.” Did that also start when you got to Brandeis?

PG: I’d been making movies since around seventh grade. Between then and 10th grade, I made a lot of short, awful films with my friends but stopped after that. During my first year of college, I started making them again and have been ever since. I’ve made about one video a month, and this year I’m actually working with Prof. Alice Kelikian (FILM) to write a webseries, but we’re not sure what the title is. I hope it’s something that people on campus can connect to. It won’t be Brandeisspecific, but it’ll have references to the school.

JA: Do you think the Internet’s affected how you see comedy other than as a place to put your material?

PG: I think I’m growing up in a great age.

What I love is that with podcasts and blogs, you really get to the struggles and humanity of these people. Being able to read conversations that people are having with their friends, stuff like that, there’s so much I can read about these people and their lives, how they came up. I realize that everyone had their own way to success, there’s no one set path and that I’m going to have to find my own success.

JA: Other than making people laugh, is there anything about comedy that draws you to it?

PG: Well, I’m a pretty anxious person, but it’s all very internal. On a very basic level, I do comedy mostly because I want people to relate to me, and I want to relate to others. I mean, I don’t really want to be famous. I don’t want a big house or 2,000 kids. I just want to understand people and to be understood.

Plus, comedy’s just fun.

JA: Any words of advice for anyone trying to get into comedy?

PG: Audition for any group doing tryouts, try writing for The Blowfish; you just need to write and shoot. You need to do things. It’s important to just do the work because if you don’t, you’ll never get any better. You won’t get as good as the people you admire unless you put out awful things; God knows I’ve put out awful things and will continue to put out awful things for years to come. As long as you put something out every once in a while that people like, and most importantly, that you like, you should be fine.

—Alex DeSilva

THE JUSTICE

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ON CAMPUS music

First guest bands of the fall rock Chum’s ■ New and returning students

flocked to Cholmondeley’s to hear Miniature Tigers and Lawrence Welks perform.

By ariel kay JUSTICE editor

Brandeis’ Punk, Rock n’ Roll Club knew how to start the year off right.

The first show of the semester on Saturday featured performances by upand-coming indie-pop band Miniature Tigers and bizarre faux-Christian rock duo Lawrence Welks.

Headliner Miniature Tigers were very well received by the audience at Cholmondeley’s on Saturday night.

The Brooklyn-based quartet, originally from Phoenix has only two albums to its name—2008’s Tell it to the Volcano and 2010’s F O R T R E S S— but their star is rising fast. They have been touring throughout the country and will play at several upcoming music festivals in the next few months, including Austin City Limits, POPPED! and South by Southwest.

The band started off its set with a few of their slower, more thoughtful tunes. Singer Charlie Brand’s lyrics mixed obscure pop culture references to TV shows like Lost with more relatable sentaments about coming out of a bad breakup. Brand’s falsetto on the choruses of several songs combined with drummer Rickie Schaier’s and bassist Alex Gerber’s thumping beats along with keyboardist Algernon Quashie’s flitting melodies created a light, fast sound perfect for a summer party.

Miniature Tigers’ newest song,

“Boomerang,” was the track most well known by the audience despite the fact that it has not yet been released on a CD. This is a testament to the band’s presence online. Most of the showgoers that I spoke to had listened to Miniature Tigers’ songs on the Internet rather than paying for their album.

It was clear that the band was having fun on stage. The show, despite having started with slower tunes, quickly evolved into a fun and highpowered dance party. Brand excitedly remarked several times that the Chum’s crowd was a great audience.

He expressed this physically by jumping off stage and singing directly to one student who happened to be celebrating his birthday on Saturday night.

The crowd responded with cheers and even more vigorous dance moves.

Saturday’s opening act, Lawrence Welks, had as opposite a musical feel to Miniature Tigers as any band you could find. The duo, originally from Burlington, Vt., opened their set by asking the audience if they believed in God and then placing a small picture of Jesus on one of their amps, proclaiming, “He is our God.” Then the music started.

Both guitarist AndreWelks and keyboardist Jonny Geetar performed their screeching, out-of-tune vocals on the first several songs–or psalms, if you will. For their entire 40-minute set, Lawrence Welks sang Christian psalms accompanied by guitar, keyboard and synthesizer, though no discernable tune could be made out.

In between numbers, the band asked the audience if they “knew God” and commented on His glory. At one point, Geeter preached, “All of God’s crea-

tures are beautiful. Like, have you ever looked closely at a walnut?”

The act was meant to be taken ironically, and both band members were about as hipster as they come. AndreWelks sported a Freddy Mercurystyle mustache and wore only jeans and a leather vest, while Geeter wore glasses big enough to have been ordered from the 1980s and a sleeveless Bob Marley T-shirt. Incredibly, the band didn’t break character for the entire show. They didn’t even crack a smile while hawking their posters, which proclaim “Obama sin Laden,” a reference to the fact that if you switch the “b” and the “s” in the name Osama bin Laden, a message appears describing the moral character of our president.

The act was funny in a bizarre, “What is going on?” sort of way, but it got old pretty quickly. A fair portion of the audience exited after each break in the music until only about 15 or 20 people were left for the final psalm, only returning when Miniature Tigers took the stage. It was easy to understand why many chose not to stick around.

The Deli, a blog about local indie music, wrote that Lawrence Welks has “enough cynicism and who-gives-ashit attitude to alienate or flat-out terrify most from their sound,” and that the band sounds like “broken vocal chords and choked keyboards dying in a fire.”

I don’t know if I would go that far.

I do agree that Lawrence Welks has little discernable musical talent, but I think, for certain people, that’s part of their appeal. They’re bad, and that’s what makes them funny—that and spreading the Good Word, of course.

DAVID YUN/the Justice

HEAR ME ROAR: Miniature Tigers’ Charlie Brand performs new single “Boomerang.”

Event

DJs battle as first-years kick off the semester ■ The second-annual Battle featured five DJs competing for the love and applause of the audience and the title of Brandeis’ best disc jockey.

By louis polisson JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

The Numark turntables and MacBook Pros sat buzzing quietly on the stage in Levin Ballroom at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday. At the end of the night, the talented DJ Octokyu (Michael Hwang ’12) would emerge victorious in a wellfought battle also featuring Flaky & the Bail (JP Wiegand ’11 and Aarish Sheikh ’11), DJ Marcos (Marcos Kriger ’10), DJ CKD (Carl Decoteau ’13) and DJ Vicious (JV Souffrant ’12).

The Battle of the Brandeis DJs was sponsored by Student Events with support from Orientation. The battle, in typical Brandeis fashion, was a fierce but good-spirited one. It was a bumping good time for all who attended.

Using popular digital audio workstations and vinyl emulation software programs such as Ableton, Serato and Traktor, the DJs mixed and spun to the best of their abilities. From Michael Jackson to Martin Solveig to Skrillex, the wide variety of music selected by the DJs was always danceable.

The worldwide electronic dance music craze infiltrated the Brandeis campus long ago, as the emergence of Brandeis’ own small horde of DJs has demonstrated. This battle showcased some of the less-established DJ talents here at Brandeis. While there was certainly some overlap in the song choices made by the artists, each DJ at the battle had a unique style and identity.

DJ Sensation (Johnny Wilson ’13), a versatile DJ who plays genres from techno to bhangra to pop, started off the night as last year’s winner. After Sensation, each DJ performed for 5 minutes in two slots, back-to-back against one other DJ. Emcees Herbie Rosen ’12, the Student Union president, and Marc Eder ’12 judged the competition based on the applause and cheering of the energetic audience.

YOSEF SCHAFFEL/the Justice

TEACH ME HOW TO DJ: Michael Hwang ’12 aka DJ Octokyu was the runner-up at last year’s Battle of the Brandeis DJs. On Saturday, he performed again and took first place.

The battle kicked off as Flaky & the Bail faced off against DJ Vicious.

Flaky & the Bail, an older DJ duo, had an especially unique style, playing a computerized set mixed with live music and instruments. The pair also has a penchant for Game Boy and other video game music, sampling bits that hearkened back to the days of the Pokémon craze.

DJ Vicious, from Orlando, Fla., said about himself, “I’m a DJ. I do everything [in terms of music].” Hailing from New York, the younger, less-ex-

perienced DJ Venti, who specializes in playing house and Top 40 music, was the second to be eliminated, after a dynamic but rather sloppy performance.

Venti might have made it farther if his transitions between songs were smoother and his mixes were in key with one another. DJ CKD, from Boston by way of Toronto, said that he is a “cue-in DJ” who specializes in mixing such fan favorites as “Get Low” with pop or house à la Duck Sauce’s “Barbra Streisand.”

After CKD was eliminated, the final

two competitors were DJ Vicious and DJ Octokyu, another young DJ who originally hails from Hong Kong. Octokyu said that he “incorporates dubstep and house with hip-hop” and that he was excited for his second-round introduction, featuring a song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

After an intense final showdown between Vicious and Octokyu, the crowd decided that Octokyu’s talent and skill came out on top. While Octokyu was certainly the best DJ of the night, there is an incredible pool of tal-

ented DJs on campus, as each competitor demonstrated at the event.

Executive Director of Student Events Shanny Shmuel ’12 said that the event “was a really big success last year” and that it was “a great way to showcase student talent.” Fina Amarilio ’12, Student Events’ director of finance, hopes that the event will “become a Brandeis classic, … a fun new Brandeis tradition.” The event was surely a success the second time around and will hopefully continue to be in the future.

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THE JUSTICE

OFF CAMPUS film

Plot of ‘Our Idiot Brother’ tries too hard ■ ‘Our Idiot Brother,’ about

the black sheep in a family of women, does not use its great cast to the film’s advantage.

By ariel kay JUSTICE editor

Is there anything not to like about Paul Rudd? The guy is cute (in an approachable way), witty and hilarious, but he rarely crosses the line into bathroom humor the way some of his frequent collaborators do—I’m looking at you, Will Ferrell and Seth Rogen. His charm and deadpan delivery have made many of his characters, who would be otherwise unmemorable, the scene stealers and highlights of several of the best comedies of the last decade.

It is this charm and wit that carries Our Idiot Brother, Rudd’s latest movie and one of the few in which he plays the main character. Rudd plays Ned, an organic farmer with a penchant for classic country music and a desire to see the best in everyone. This desire often overrules common sense, as in the first scene when Ned sells marijuana to a uniformed police officer because the cop complains he is having a “bad week.” Ned sympathizes and is thrown into jail for 9 months for his trouble.

This is just one example of the way that Ned’s chosen outlook on life backfires. His never-ending supply of good faith toward his fellow man makes him appear clueless and almost childlike. Even after he sees the negative consequences of his complete honesty, it never sinks in that it is sometimes more important to stay quiet than to share his thoughts with the world, particularly when those thoughts concern the lives of other people.

Upon his release from prison, Ned returns to his farm, only to find that his girlfriend of 3 years, Janet (Katherine Hahn), has moved on with Billy (the hilarious T.J. Miller), a similarly crunchy and dim-witted guy. Adding insult to injury, Janet is keeping

Woodie Nelson, Ned’s beloved golden retriever. With no job, dog or place to go, Ned calls on his family for support.

Enter his three sisters: Miranda (Emily Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (Emily Mortimer).

These women represent three basic female archetypes: the ball-busting career woman with no time for romance, the free-loving artist and the exhausted housewife, respectively.

None of these characters is ever fleshed out enough to make the audience actually care about them in their own right.

This is a shame, as each of the sisters, if given more screen time, could add a lot to the plotline, which focuses too much on Ned’s overwhelming honesty and general niceness. The audience can only empathize with a completely amiable guy for so long before it gets a little boring.

Natalie, in particular, is an interesting subject: one half of a lesbian couple with partner Cindy (the entirely underused Rashida Jones), Natalie would seem like Ned’s perfect ally against the rest of their more normative family. Instead, Deschanel plays out the tired cliché of a woman in a committed queer relationship who is seduced by a man. (Don’t worry, this isn’t much of a spoiler as Natalie only appears in three or four scenes in the movie. She is the least present of the three sisters.)

Natalie, as the more feminine woman in her relationship, is written as bisexual rather than gay and therefore, of course, is more likely to be in need of a man at some point during the film. Audiences have seen this scenario on screen more than once, even in “queer” films and television shows such as The Kids Are All Right, Chasing Amy, The L Word and Queer as Folk. These storylines suggest that many filmmakers view lesbian relationships as less valid and less stable than straight ones, particularly if one woman in the relationship is bisexual or even “straight-acting.” Other than this plot device, the rest of Our Idiot Brother is actually quite progressive, considering that the protagonist is an organic farmer who values honesty

FILMOFILIA/Flickr Creative Commons

NO RAZOR, NO PROBLEM: Ned (Paul Rudd) reads up on a new organic craze while guarding his brother-in-law’s (Steve Coogan) car. and the comfort of others above his own needs. The inclusion of Natalie’s dalliance with a man, as opposed to just having her cheat with another woman, adds an unnecessary bias into the film.

Sisters Liz and Miranda aren’t portrayed much better. Miranda is a self-centered journalist who finds Ned annoying and tiresome, and Liz

is a mom who is so worried about the health and safety of her children that she won’t let her son eat a piece of cake 2 days in a row. Each sister ends up blaming Ned and his good intentions for the problems that arise in their own lives, though it is their brother who ultimately causes them to think more deeply about their attitudes and actions.

In the end, Our Idiot Brother pretends to be a quirkier and more alternative film than it really is. Despite several life-changing events, none of the characters evolves, including Ned, who remains a socially awkward child until the credits roll. Hopefully, in the future, Rudd will take center stage in films that are both funnier and more original than this.

gaming

‘Bastion’ proves both beautiful and engaging ■ The first offering from Xbox’s

Summer of Arcade promotion takes place in a fantastical postapocalyptic world.

By dan willey JUSTICE contributing WRITER

As some of you may have experienced, summer can be a pretty rough time of the year for gamers. Most major publishers save their big-budget titles for the holiday season, when younger demographics have more purchasing power. Just like in Hollywood, titles released later in the year tend to have a better chance of receiving end-of-year awards than those released in the summer, further discouraging publishers from releasing anything of quality until the leaves begin to turn. It is with this in mind that Xbox launched its Summer of Arcade promotion: Starting in late July, a new downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game has been released each week, and those who buy the first five games in the series receive the sixth game free. The promotion keeps gamers busy and happy while also giving some attention to smaller, independent studios with bold and creative concepts that might otherwise be lost in the frenzy of blockbuster holiday games. The Summer of Arcade started off strong this year with freshman studio Supergiant Games’ first title, Bastion.

Bastion places players in the role of a character only known as the “Kid.” Players explore the remains of the Kid’s captivating fantasy world after a mysterious event simply referred to as “The Great Calamity” seems to have wiped out civilization. The story

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUPERGIANT GAMES

STATE OF PLAY: As players travel through the game, the highly colorful ‘Bastion’ landscape slowly unfolds before their eyes. develops slowly over the course of the game as the Kid attempts to rebuild the world he once knew, starting from an unmarred safe haven: the titular bastion. This shadowy story unfolds with absolutely beautiful, crisp, watercolor-inspired visuals, which may not push any boundaries technically but do much to further the distinctive personality of this intriguing game.

What really makes Bastion special, however, is the way the game responds to your play. As you set about

exploring the environment, your actions are described by an ever-present narrator who actually responds to the specific things you choose to do in the game. If you decide to spend time destroying parts of the environment looking for hidden items instead of advancing toward your objective (we’ve all done it), the narrator responds, “Kid just raged for a while.” If you decide to move forward, you never hear this bit of dialogue. This continues to occur throughout the game as

you hear different bits of narration depending on the choices you make and your success in certain areas. In a similar vein, as you move around throughout the game, the world literally materializes before you as blocks of terrain fall from the sky, creating new paths as you move toward them.

All of this makes for a very memorable and singular experience.

That being said, Bastion is not without its faults. The gameplay is very standard action role playing game

fare and is nothing you haven’t seen several times over if you’re familiar with the genre and its staples, such as the Diablo and Gauntlet franchises.

You’ll hack and slash through enemies while upgrading and discovering weapons, all the while unlocking new areas to explore. This all plays well, the mechanics are solid and responsive, and the action is undoubtedly fun, but it’s far from revolutionary.

The developers attempt to enhance the experience by giving the players the ability to unlock and equip different idols,­which are statues found in the game world that enhance the difficulty of various facets of the game.

These can be combined in interesting ways that add a lot to the replay value of the game. Despite this, the gameplay is simply as groundbreaking as the rest of the game.

Fortunately for Bastion, the rest of the game provides an experience that is more than enough to compensate for the average gameplay. The story requires a complete playthrough to make any sense, but those who take the time to finish the game will be rewarded as the vague strands of plot come together to form a magnificent conclusion with four unique endings depending on the choices players make toward the end. This choice mechanic may seem a little jarring as it is not employed consistently through the game, only making an appearance within the last 5 or 10 minutes. However, its limited use is effective and makes for a great cap to an excellent experience.

For only $15 on the Xbox Live Marketplace, gamers can’t go wrong with Bastion. I had a lot of fun with this standout title and can’t wait to see what else Supergiant Games has in store. I give this game an 8/10.

THE JUSTICE

End of an era

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TUESDAY, september 6, 2011

21

After eight films and 10 years, the Harry Potter movies are laid to rest

By AARON BERKE JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

A History of Magic

“Neither can live while the other survives.”

With this pronouncement, the fates of the Wizarding and Muggle worlds alike are finally decided when Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort meet their destinies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The film is a triumph, capping off a 15-year history of Harry Potter films and books in a grand finale of epic proportions. For millions of fans, the arrival of the final film in the Potter series was a bittersweet moment. For those of us who have clung to the wondrous world of Harry Potter since the final book was published in 2007, our attempt to hold onto our childhood is finally at an end. The movie series, which began 10 years ago with the magical first installment, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, has grown over the years both in scale and emotional content.

The first two film adaptations (Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets), helmed by determinedto-be-faithful director Chris Columbus, were the most literal adaptations of the books, sacrificing a real filmic feel in order to preserve the integrity of the novels. While this approach worked for the first couple of movies, the more freewheeling director Alfonso Cuarón cleverly refocused the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, on Harry himself, trimming away the subplots and bringing a much more visually creative and interesting approach to the narrative.

The rest of the films followed in suit. Director Mike Newell’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire acted as a brooding, suspenseful thriller and successfully transformed the series into a darker, more adult-centric saga. David Yates took over direction for the last four films in the series, beginning with the somewhat dull Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but improving with increased heart and soul in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Each film grew bolder in scope and direction.

The film series overall has garnered much criticism for cutting out so many of the books’ fascinating characters and subplots and for trimming some of the story’s subtler, yet still integral, moments. But when all is said and done, the films succeed far more than they disappoint—and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is no exception. In this final installment, Warner Bros. craftily decided to split the book into two films, both to satisfy the legion of perfectionist fans, and, of course, to make a mint in box office returns. It may have been a slightly money-driven decision, but it was the right one to make­­— certainly a fitting way to end 10 years of magical history.

‘The Deathly Hallows’

Hallows: Part 2 opens right where Part 1 left off—with the insidious Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) robbing the grave of the recently deceased former headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). The item Voldemort steals is the famed Elder Wand, said to be the most powerful wand on earth, and one of the three Deathly Hallows—items which Lord Voldemort covets. All three Hallows combined are said

to make their owner the Master of Death, and with the Elder Wand in tow, Voldemort is set to bring about his ultimate goal: the murder of Harry Potter.

We are then reintroduced to the young man himself, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) plots along with his best friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) to hunt down Lord Voldemort’s last remaining Horcruxes—objects to which his soul is tied. When the Horcruxes are destroyed, the Dark Lord himself will finally be killed.

This quest provides the backbone of the film’s story, a narrative that leads the daring trio into the depths of Gringotts bank (a thrilling scene, complete with a breathtakingly shot dragon flight) and eventually back to Hogwarts itself.

The castle has been completely transformed from the warm and inviting castle that Harry called home to a dark and impregnable fortress, watched over by ever-ambiguous Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), whose motives are finally revealed in the film’s most heart-wrenching scene.

It is in Hogwarts where the battle for control of the Wizarding world takes place, and more than

ter is firmly grounded in the fighting, serving to give audiences an emotional anchor in the battle sequences. There is always the sense that someone could die at any moment, and no character is safe from the onslaught of Death Eaters, trolls, spiders, Dementors and giants that storm the castle. Each character is given his moment to shine in battle, particularly Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), who over the course of the series has transformed from a timid, bullied youngster into a full-fledged hero. But Harry Potter has never been about wand duels, and always at the center of the story is Harry himself. The transformations he goes through are what truly represent the emotional underpinnings of the film.

Hallows is an emotional roller coaster, helped along in no small part by the acting. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson have truly grown into their roles. They began as 10-year-olds with no real acting skills, assisted by the far more experienced adults around them, and have grown to the point where they completely carry the movies. Grint has always seemed the most comfortable of the three, so it’s a shame that his role is a bit downplayed in this film. His relationship with Harry

hammy and over-the-top performance as Voldemort is a bit grating sometimes, but it works for the character. But by far, the standout performance is Rickman’s, who brings a touching beneficence and emotional vulnerability to Snape that has never been seen before. Rickman has always played Snape with an air of malevolence and mystery, so to see him here with his impenetrable exterior cast aside and his tumultuous inner pain revealed truly is a startling and resonating experience. Indeed, Snape’s past gives this film its emotional core, and many fans will be happy to know that the “Snape’s Memory” scene is lifted from the book with delicate precision and near-perfect accuracy.

In fact, almost every scene from the novel is to be found in the film. There were only a few changes that were made, most involving setting, and the only disappointing omission was the explanation of Dumbledore’s sullied past, which in the film is only given a vague mention. But overall, the story is thankfully intact, something that a few of the series’ other entries (Order of the Phoenix in particular) can’t really lay claim to.

There are only a couple of problems to be found in this film, and they largely have to do with pacing. The final battle between Voldemort and Harry feels peculiarly rushed and doesn’t quite end in the same satisfying manner that the book’s finale does. That being said, the battle is dramatically conclusive and certainly feels earned after eight movies’ anticipation.

For the fans, the most dreaded sequence was the infamous “19 Years Later” scene—a snapshot of the characters as adults with children of their own, which is basically translated word-for-word from the book (a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask). Despite the somewhat cheesy nature of the scene, it wraps up the series perfectly, and it brought tears to my eyes as the film came to a close.

Nineteen Years Later

UNITED AGAINST EVIL: Hogwarts, once a haven for witches and wizards, has transformed into a battlefield. a few secrets are revealed about Harry and his destiny.

The film is successful on numerous levels, starting with the action. Hallows Part 2, more so than any of the other Potter films, is a true action/adventure film. Hogwarts serves as a war ground for many of the movie’s suspenseful battle sequences. These pieces are all phenomenally well-directed by Yates, and the action is never chaotic and doesn’t overwhelm the viewer.

Sweeping camera angles along with the depth-enhancing 3D imagery serves to give a truly grand scale to Hogwarts. It is highly recommended that the film be seen in 3D; unlike so many other films that have been converted to 3D purely as a marketing scheme, Hallows makes glorious usage of the 3D effects. The audience is virtually plunged into Hogwarts, creating a visceral magnitude that simply could not be equaled by a 2D experience.

Among the spectacular visuals, each charac-

doesn’t really have the proper resonance that it should after spending so many years by his side.

Watson, however, really has shined in both parts of Deathly Hallows and is a standout among the three.

Watson and Grint also play off each other well, and as someone who never quite bought the chemistry between the two of them, I’m pleased to see that Ron and Hermione’s romance blossoms quite effectively in this installment. Radcliffe is still the most wooden of the three, but he has nevertheless grown into his role, and the emotional burden he has to carry throughout this film comes across despite his relative stiffness. Granted, it’s more the story itself and the actors around him that make his character’s transformations most believable, but Radcliffe still manages to hold his own and gives his best performance to date.

The rest of the acting is up to par, with no real sore spot to be found. Ralph Fiennes’ predictably

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a triumph that is among the best the film series has to offer, and it successfully wraps up the franchise. It is truly a bittersweet day now that the Harry Potter series has finally drawn to a close.

Since both the film and book series have ended, there seems to be frightfully little left to look forward to in the Potterverse. But fret not, Potter fans, for there is more magic yet to come.

Potter author J.K. Rowling has recently unveiled plans to launch an interactive website called Pottermore, a virtual encyclopedia featuring information about every single character in the Potter series and where they ended up after the events of the final book. The site will also include interactive and enhanced e-books, will be managed by Rowling herself and receive frequent updates. There are also the ever-persistent rumors that Rowling has a future series in the works that will take place 20-some odd years after the end of Hallows. These remain rumors for now, but Rowling herself has admitted that she would not be opposed to returning to write more Potter novels in the future. I’m sure fans will be keeping their fingers crossed—I know I will. Because one thing is certain: Fans around the world can live, as long as Harry Potter survives.

♦ Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

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THE JUSTICE

●

TUESDAY, september 6, 2011

23

music

A summer of love for indie rock stars ■ Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and

Death Cab for Cutie were highlights of this summer’s album releases.

By leah igdalsky JUSTICE STAFF WRITER

Although tours and festivals tend to dominate summer music news, this summer also brought several great albums, specifically in the indie genre. Death Cab For Cutie’s seventh studio album and Bon Iver’s and Fleet Foxes’ sophomore releases are just two of the records that will remain staples throughout the year.

Fleet Foxes released Helplessness Blues on May 3. Over 2 years in the making, the band’s followup to 2008’s Fleet Foxes showcases lush, rich harmonies and intricate instrumentation. The sunny, folkie arrangement on opener “Grown Ocean” supports colorful lyrics about a utopian landscape. The track closes with the dropping of those beautiful descriptions and full instrumentation, ending up with a vocal harmony outlining a fear of waking up from such a dream-like state.

The rest of the album vacillates between the sunshiny, rich style that Pitchfork.com compared to Crosby, Stills & Nash and a darker undertone, touching on themes of aging and loss of innocence. Simple but stunning “Blue Spotted Tail” showcases vocalist Robin Pecknold’s impeccable but unassuming voice backed by only an acoustic guitar, moving from a bright Eden to a night skyline.

Overall, the album expands on Fleet Foxes, continuing a style of folk-pop full of complex harmonies and instrumentation coming together to create a simple feel.

Bon Iver released its eponymous sophomore album June 21. Singer Justin Vernon and company expanded upon the sparse, low-key sound of debut album For Emma, Forever Ago, famously recorded after a breakup in a lonely Wisconsin cabin. Bon Iver, while still emotive, feels more hopeful than the last album. Furthermore, where For Emma sounded like a solo record with a backing band, Bon Iver truly sounds like a full-band album.

Every song but the final track is named for a place, fictional or real, that inspired or influenced the song’s lyrical content. The fictional place and song “Minnesota, WI” begins with a winding acoustic guitar before horns and an array of instrumentation join Vernon’s vocals, autotuned and deep, not the sweet and lonely tones previously associated with the singer.

The album’s single, “Calgary,” begins with Vernon’s voice in lush harmony, while slowly adding the sound of other instruments, build-

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLEET FOXES

DREAM-LIKE ALBUM: On May 3, Fleet Foxes released ‘Helplessness Blues,’ the band’s follow-up to 2008’s ‘Fleet Foxes,’ showcasing lush, rich harmonies. ing to a crescendo before coming back down again.

Bon Iver itself has evolved tremendously since For Emma’s 2008 release. Vernon has collaborated with Kanye West, been featured in countless magazine profiles and become a darling of the indie music world. Still, Bon Iver reflects this growth in a positive direction, creating a more expansive and diverse sound without losing its roots.

Another band that has progressed over the years while remaining tied to the musical principles upon which it was founded is Death Cab for Cutie. The Washington-based quartet released Codes and Keys on May 31. Known for its emotional lyrics and moody tones, their music has been labeled by many as mopey or even whiny in the past.

While their lyrics and melodies are certainly still full of emotion

and sentimentality, the band members are now in their mid-30s and have been well-known musicians since 1997.

This maturity is reflected on Codes and Keys, which has moved more toward the pop rather than emo end of the indie spectrum.

Opener “Home is a Fire” touches upon the heavy topic of losing touch with one’s home and roots, but the song’s tone is more ethereal and at-

mospheric than heavy or dark.

The album’s single, “You Are a Tourist,” is even more pop sounding and is actually quite upbeat. Jason McGerr’s drums drive singer Ben Gibbard’s lilting vocals, warning those who find themselves a tourist in their own mind: “Don’t be alarmed.”

This summer brought quite a few fantastic indie releases. Stay tuned to hear what lies ahead for the fall!

FOOD

Pita wraps and saganaki spice things up at Steve’s ■ Steve’s Greek Cuisine

on Newbury Street serves Mediterranean delights on a college-friendly budget.

By WEI-HUAN CHEN JUSTICE EDITOR

“Cheap” and “ethnic” are key words for any college restaurantgoer, and Steve’s Greek Cuisine on Newbury Street, just a 10-minute walk from Beacon Street and Mass Avenue, qualifies as both. It’s a casual coffee shop-style joint with the best Greek wraps in town, not to mention a variety of Mediterranean appetizers you won’t find anywhere else, such as tzatziki ($7)—yogurt served with cucumbers and garnishes—and saganaki ($8)—fried cheese—which I ordered to begin my light dinner there.

The saganaki, which is a panseared Greek goat cheese, is a treat.

Our waitress brought it out flaming with brandy, then doused the fire scuttling around the cheese with lemon juice. The red burnt edges of the dish had the slightest crunch to them, giving it great texture. The

cheese itself is light yet salty enough to offset the brandy and lemon juice flavors. The brandy proves overwhelming at times, so I’m glad our waitress was generous with the lemon. The bitter alcohol aftertaste finishes strongly in the throat, a sensation that may surprise some but one that I enjoyed thoroughly.

Like burgers in American cuisine, wraps are an affordable and hefty staple of Greek food. First-timers who don’t know what else to order should opt for the wraps as a default choice. The shish kebab wrap ($9) is classic and meaty but perhaps too rich for that light lunch to break up your Newbury shopping spree.

Instead, it’s a well-portioned dinner with bigger-than-bite-size pieces of lamb or beef. The lamb I ordered could defeat even the hungriest of students. Wrapped in hot pita bread with tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, onions and lots of lettuce, it’s the healthier Mediterranean equivalent of the double bacon cheeseburger.

The souvlaki wrap ($8) is similar to the shish kebab wrap, though with smaller chunks of meat and spicier seasonings. The menu refers to these flavorings as “Steve’s spe-

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE’S GREEK CUISINE

GOING GREEK: Steve’s authentic and affordable Greek fare is perfect for students. cial spices,” and they give the beef a nice peppery taste. Both wraps are recommended. One caveat for the unskilled: Beware of intense dripping of the sauce. It’ll take me a trip or two more to really get that wrap-

handling down, so in the meantime, I’m bringing hand sanitizer.

I had a meaty meal, but vegetarians also have just as much to drool over at Steve’s, including the veggie grape leaves wrap ($7), tabbouleh

wrap ($7) and falafel wrap ($8). The vegetarian mousaka is worth checking out—it’s eggplant, potato and zucchini topped with béchamel (also known as “white”) sauce.

The restaurant also serves burgers, though the only two I would recommend are the salmon burger ($10)—stuffed with feta cheese and spinach—and Steve’s Special Burger ($9.45), which is a pita wrap with hamburger meat, sautéed onions, mushrooms, peppers and feta cheese inside.

Steve’s Greek Cuisine is in a cozy red-brick street corner of Newbury Street that’s hard to miss. The food and service is quick, which means more time dedicated to browsing the name-brand clothing stores or frozen yogurt spots you’ve been eyeing all day. Ask any local and they can instantly point you in the right direction to the restaurant, a testament to its great track record over the years.

Steve’s Greek Cuisine is located on 316 Newbury Street in Boston. It is open 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m from Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. Call (617) 267-1817 for more information.

24

TUESday, september 6, 2011 ● THE JUSTICE

TOP of the

ARTS ON VIEW

TRIVIA TIME 1. Most of the Sierra Madre mountains are located in what country?

2. What term is used to describe an irrational number such as pi?

3. Before the start of the Civil War, in what city was the Confederacy’s provisional constitution adopted?

4. What was artist Picasso’s first name?

5. What was the Bionic Woman’s name?

6. Who composed the opera The Magic Flute?

7. What is the most abundant element in the known universe?

8. What does the acronym GOP stand for?

9. Who wrote the book The Naked and the Dead?

10. What does the musical term “allegro” mean?

1. Mexico 2. Transcendental 3. Montgomery, Ala. 4. Pablo 5. Jaime Sommers 6. Mozart 7. Hydrogen 8. Grand Old Party 9. Norman Mailer 10. Lively and fast

SHOWTIMES 9/6 – 9/8 Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2:10, 4:50, 7:40 Midnight in Paris 2:30, 5:00, 8:00 One Day 2:00, 4:50, 7:30 Our Idiot Brother 2:40, 5:10, 8:10 The Guard 2:20, 5:00, 7:50 The Help 2:50, 7:20

CHARTS Top 10s for the week ending September 4 BOX OFFICE

1. The Help 2. The Debt 3. Apollo 18 4. Shark Night 3D 5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes 6. Colombiana 7. Our Idiot Brother 8. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark 9. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 10. The Smurfs

NYT BESTSELLERS

NATHANIEL FREEDMAN/the Justice

COMMON CAUSE: Justice photographer Nathaniel Freedman (GRAD) snapped this beautiful shot of Boston Common this summer, showcasing Boston’s skyline landmarks, such as the John Hancock Tower.

CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1. Cage component 4. More, to Manuel 7. Actress Spelling 8. Island south of Sicily 10. November birthstone 11. Under the weather 13. Binary array 16. Marry 17. Poet James Whitcomb — 18. Pensioned (Abbr.)

19. Bohemian 20. Simple 21. Guys 23. Penniless 25. Coffee shop vessels 26. Satyrlike figure 27. Standard 28. Wrinkly fruits 30. Bando of baseball lore 33. Romantic whisperings 36. Computer style 37. Motorola smartphone 38. Considers 39. Springsteen’s “— Fire” 40. Before 41. Chow down

Fiction 1. Flash and Bones — Kathy Reichs 2. A Dance With Dragons — George R. R. Martin 3. The Measure of the Magic — Terry Brooks 4. The Omen Machine — Terry Goodkind 5. Cold Vengeance — Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child Nonfiction 1. A Stolen Life — Jaycee Dugard 2. Unbroken — Laura Hillenbrand 3. In the Garden of Beasts — Erik Larson 4. After America — Mark Steyn 5. The Greater Journey — David McCullough

iTUNES

1. Adele — “Someone Like You” 2. Foster the People — “Pumped Up Kicks” 3. Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera — “Moves like Jagger (Studio Recording from The Voice)” 4. Lady Gaga — “Yoü and I” 5. Cobra Starship feat. Sabi — “You Make Me Feel...”

6. Rihanna — “Cheers (Drink to That)” 7. Gym Class Heroes feat. Adam Levine — “Stereo Hearts” 8. Beyoncé — “Love on Top” 9. LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock — “Party Rock Anthem” 10. Adele — “Rolling in the Deep”

BILLBOARD

DOWN 1. Lassoed 2. Alternatives to 401(k)s 3. More than just odd 4. Corn 5 Cats’ bailiwick 6. Commotion 7. Color quality 8. With fervor 9. Parka 10. AAA job 12. Silliness symbols 14. Little lice 15. Pigpen 19. Commercials 20. A billion years 21. Elongate vowels, maybe 22. Illiterate 23. Worms, often 24. The Satanic Verses author

1. Game — The R.E.D. Album 2. Jay Z and Kanye West — Watch the Throne 3. Adele — 21 4. Barbra Streisand — What Matters Most 5. Pistol Annies — Hell on Heels 6. Various Artists — Now 39 7. Luke Bryan­— Tailgates and Tanlines 8. Various Artists — Muppets: the Green Album 9. Jason Aldean — My Kinda Party 10. Eric Church — Chief

25. Boom times 26. Disasters 28. Say 29. Travelocity mascot 30. Beezer 31. Not “fer” 32. 1960s hallucinogen 34. Duel tool 35. My Friend —

Album information provided by Billboard Magazine. Box office information provided by Fandango. iTunes top sellers provided by Apple.com.

Bestellers list provided by The New York Times.

Solution to last week’s crossword

King Crossword Copyright 2011 King Features Synd, Inc.

STAFF PLAYLIST

“Mashed Up”

By SARA DEJENE Justice editor

Coming Soon: Contagion 9/9 Restless 9/30

For additional showtimes, call (781) 893-2500 or check online.

The Embassy is located at 18 Pine Street in Waltham

STRANGE BUT TRUE  It was Hungarian psychiatrist Thomas Stephen Szasz who made the following sage observation: “If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”

the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. However, the Mongol riders often covered 125 miles in a single day, which was faster than the best record held by a Pony Express rider.

 The world’s most popular fruit is the banana. In the United States, people consume more bananas than apples and oranges put together.

 In Nazi Germany, it was illegal to name a horse “Adolf.”

 Thomas Jefferson was an inventor as well as a statesman, but he refused to take out patents on any of his ideas. He believed that inventions should benefit all of humanity, not just himself.  According to those who study such things, the average American believes the ideal age—that is, the best year of his or her life—is 32. And when 30-somethings are asked when old age begins, the majority of men say it’s in the late 60s, while more women believe old age begins in the 70s.  That iconic symbol of the Old West, the Pony Express, was based on the mail system used throughout

 Unless you’re from Central Florida, you’ve probably never heard of the small town of Ocoee. So you might be surprised to learn that during World War II, Ocoee earned the distinction of sending more men, per capita, to serve in the military than any other town in the United States.  There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, and only some 20 million people.

Thought for the Day: “It ought to be plain / how little you gain / by getting excited / and vexed. / You’ll always be late / for the previous train, / and always in time / for the next.”

—Piet Hein

I’m always amazed by artists who blend genres or step outside their usual style. Here are mashups that I think are noteworthy as well as a couple of song remakes.

1. “What Starry Eyes Know (Neon Hitch Mix)” – Ellie Goulding vs.

Two Door Cinema Club 2. “Falling Star (R3K remix)” – Kid Cudi and Florence and the Machine 3. “99 Secrets (Devcam mashup)” – Jay-Z vs. Passion Pit 4. “Strawberry Swing” – Frank Ocean (originally by Coldplay) 5. “I Gotcha Floatin’” – Lupe Fiasco vs. Modest Mouse 6. “The Jackson Pit (Xaphoon Jones Mix)” – Jackson 5 vs. Passion Pit 7. “Lisztomania (feat. Jane Hanley)” –Edwin Van Cleef (originally by Phoenix)