OCTOBER 27, 2011 • THE CAMPUS NEWSPAPER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE SINCE 1881 • VOLUME 134, ISSUE 9
THE
PHOENIX
Inside: Rotaract holds fundraiser to battle polio Theater troupe performs ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ Women’s soccer scores nine goals against CCNY
Painting the Picture:
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The Phoenix
Thursday, October 27, 2011 Volume 134, Issue 9
The independent campus newspaper of Swarthmore College since 1881. EDITORIAL BOARD Amelia Possanza Editor in Chief Menghan Jin Managing Editor Marcus Mello Managing Editor Adam Schlegel News Editor Patrick Ammerman Assistant News Editor Parker Murray Living & Arts Editor Preston Cooper Assistant Living & Arts Editor Reem Abdou Opinions Editor Tim Bernstein Sports Editor Allegra Pocinki Photo Editor Peter Akkies Webmaster Eric Sherman Webmaster
Simone Forrester The Phoenix
Members of Friends of Taiwan Swarthmore prepare dumplings in the lounge of Alice Paul for the Dumpling Factory held on Saturday, October 22.
News
can Horror Story,” more terrifying than others (i.e., “Dexter” and “True Blood”). PAGE 7
PAGE 12
Swarthmore’s Rotaract group strives to raise awareness of polio worldwide, bringing the mission of its international counterpart to Swat. PAGE 3
advancing (or not) in other nations, including Brazil, Japan and China. PAGE 7
a significant environmental impact. PAGE 12
Combating climate change a carbon tax Digital publishing, eBooks with In the dialogue on climate change, Olivia Rotaract brings polio aware- arrive in foreign markets Natan offers an explanation for why a carIn her last digital publishing installment, bon tax would put the onus on developed ness to Swat Susana Medeiros discusses how the field is countries to reduce consumption and make Campaign desperation Celebrating German heri- in Obama’s embrace of Swatties head to Georgia to tage with beer, Oktoberfest The German Club and German Depart- Occupy protest at U.S. military base ment hosted Oktoberfest this past Saturday Tyler Becker explains why the President’s Swarthmore students are planning on protesting alongside thousands of others in an annual protest at the Western Hemisphere Institute for National Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, a U.S. military base in Georgia. PAGE 5
Living & Arts Traverse to Philly’s Old City for fine arts, sweet treats
At the hub of Philly’s historical district, Old City is much more than just Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Jen Johnson highlights the various dining options and avenues of art available in the area, including First Fridays and shows at the Ritz Cinema. PAGE 6
‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ hits the stage in the ville
Until November 5, the Players’ Club of Swarthmore will be staging “Arsenic and Old Lace,” a play about two spinsters who have taken to murdering lonely old men via arsenic-laced concoctions in their own apartment. PAGE 6
evening, attracting many student, family, alumni and friends with the promise of bratwurst, sauerkraut and German-style beers. PAGE 9
Topping off the weekend with Orchestra 2001, choral group
Orchestra 2001, founded by a Swat alum, performed alongside the Mendelssohn Club, one of the oldest choral groups in the U.S., on Sunday night to close Garnet Weekend festivities. PAGE 9
Opinions
Sports Men’s soccer loses to Hopkins, drops a third straight
The tough times continue for the Swarthmore men’s soccer team, as a 2-0 loss to Johs Hopkins gives them three straight losses for the first time since 2004. PAGE 14
Women’s soccer demolCCNY, eyes playoffs Analyzing the social media ishes With their most lopsided win of the season, the Garnet remain in contention for a playrecord of Qaddafi’s fail In response to the recent execution of Libya’s ruthless tyrant, The Phoenix examines the unseemly accessibility of its documentation and explores the sorts of far-reaching implications it has on our culture. PAGE 11
Shedding labels at Swat on the shoulders of Pink GiThe advent of Halloween ants In a tribute to the “Pink Narcissist,” a 2009 Daily Gazette sex columnist, Sam Zhang sees horror TV outdo film In the spirit of all things creepy, Johnny Taeschler dissects what makes some television shows, such as the new series “Ameri-
recent support for the Occupy Wall Street movement is just a superficial political strategy, employed in order to secure votes for his re-election. PAGE 13
writes about the prevelance of identity politics and its marginalizing effect on students who would do better to reject labels.
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off spot with two games to go in the season. PAGE 15
Corrections
FROM THE OCTOBER 20, 2011 ISSUE In the article “Alumni panel reflects on Quaker ties to activism,” Mark Kharas’s (’08) name was incorrectly spelled ‘Mark Harris.’
October 27, 2011
STAFF Koby Levin News Writer Chris Nam News Writer Sera Jeong Living & Arts Writer Steven Hazel Living & Arts Writer Chi Zhang Living & Arts Writer Brad Lenox Living & Arts Writer Nolan Gear Living & Arts Columnist Jen Johnson Living & Arts Columnist Lauren Kim Living & Arts Columnist Vianca Masucci Living & Arts Columnist Susana Medeiros Living & Arts Columnist Johnny Taeschler Living & Arts Columnist Naia Poyer Living & Arts Artist Tyler Becker Opinions Columnist Danielle Charette Opinions Columnist Olivia Natan Opinions Columnist Peter Gross Opinions Columnist Shimian Zhang Opinions Columnist Harshil Shai Opinions Columnist Sam Sussman Opinions Columnist Sam Zhang Opinions Columnist Emma Waitzman Political Cartoonist Ana Apostoleris Sports Writer Paul Chung Photographer Simone Forrester Photographer Cristina Matamoros Photographer Elèna Ruyter Photographer Holly Smith Photographer Julia Carleton Photographer Justin Toran-Burrell Photographer Renee Flores Chief Copy Editor Sophie Diamond Copy Editor Conor Heins Copy Editor Taylor Hodges Copy Editor Margaret Lawlace Copy Editor Brian Lee Copy Editor Vija Lietuvninkas Copy Editor Shashwati Rao Copy Editor BUSINESS STAFF Business Manager Ian Anderson Advertising Manager Paul Chung COVER DESIGN Amelia Kucic Photos by Koby Levin CONTRIBUTORS Victor Brady, Amanda Epstein and Yi-Wei Liu OPINIONS BOARD Reem Abdou, Menghan Jin, Marcus Mello and Amelia Possanza EDITOR’S PICKS PHOTOS COURTESY OF: (clockwise from top left) uselectionatlas.org eastchapelhillobserver.com milesfranklinmusic.org mkmiku.wordpress.com TO ADVERTISE: E-mail: advertising@swarthmorephoenix.com Advertising phone: (610) 328-7362 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Direct advertising requests to Amelia Possanza. The Phoenix reserves the right to refuse any advertising. Advertising rates subject to change. CONTACT INFORMATION Offices: Parrish Hall 470-472 E-mail: editor@swarthmorephoenix.com Newsroom phone: (610) 328-8172 Address: The Phoenix, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA 19081 Web site: www.swarthmorephoenix.com Mail subscriptions are available for $60 a year or $35 a semester. Direct subscription requests to Amelia Possanza. The Phoenix is printed at Bartash Printing, Inc. The Phoenix is a member of the Associated College Press and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. All contents copyright © 2011 The Phoenix. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission.
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News
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Events Menu Today How Ma Zhiyuan Found His Way Onto a Yuan Dynasty Tomb Head over to Kohlberg’s Scheuer room at 4:30 p.m. to hear Nancy Steinhardt, professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, give a lecture investigating the 14th century Chinese perspective of the afterlife through the examination of art in Yuan dynasty tombs.
Rotaract brings polio awareness to Swat
Obama in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan: How a Decade of War and Technology Changed American Strategy The Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, David Sanger, will be speaking about the current policies and strategy of the Obama administration in managing the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan at 4:30 p.m. in Sci 183. Occupy Wall Street Student Discussion Forum Have questions or opinions about the Occupy Wall Street protests? There will be an open student discussion forum at 8 p.m. in the Scheuer room in which any comments and questions you may have on Occupy Wall Street or the Occupy movement in general are welcome. Tomorrow ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show Screening Join the Queer-Straight Alliance (QSA) for a screening of the cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at 8 p.m. in Sci 101. Costumes are optional and props will be provided. Saturday, October 29 Captive Gender: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex A panel of current and former prisoners, activists and academics, headed by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith, will be on campus to discuss the issues facing trans, queer and gender non-conforming individuals in a prison environment at 2 p.m. in Sci 199. Halloween Party Don your scariest (or Swattiest) costume and make your way over to the Halloween Party to do your part in joining hundreds of your fellow Tri-co peers in a thoroughly sweatladen mob scene beginning at 10 p.m. in Sharples. Monday, October 31 2011 Academic Technology Fair The ITS Academic Technology Team, the LRC and members of McCabe library will gather to discuss as well as showcase emerging technologies for teaching and research (e.g. eBooks, 3D printing, mobile devices in the classroom, etc.) in Kohlberg’s Scheuer room at 8 p.m. E-mail submissions for the events menu at news@swarthmorephoenix. com.
Justin Torran-Burrell The Phoenix
Members of Swarthmore’s Rotaract were stationed at the entrance to Sharples on Monday as part of a campus-wide initiative to raise awareness and funds for polio eradication. By Patrick Ammerman pammerm1@swarthmore.edu
Last Monday, Swarthmore’s Rotaract group brought the issue of polio awareness to Swarthmore. The “purple pinky project,” was a fundraising and awareness raising day of tabling at Swarthmore about the ongoing issue of polio worldwide. In just two meals, Rotaract was able to collect $156 in one dollar donations at Sharples. In exchange for a dollar, the donator could have his or her pinky finger painted purple with nail polish. This is based off of actual practices during international vaccination days in countries such as India, where medical workers will mark the pinkies of vaccinated children with iodine in order to prevent double vaccinations. “This purple pinky becomes a symbol of being free from polio,” Eleanor Pratt ’14, co-president of Rotaract, said. Rotaract is a campus group with both national and international affiliations, whose activities largely consist of carrying out service projects on weekends. “This isn’t something we would typically do, but we wanted to try something different,” Pratt said. The sum of money raised surprised Pratt. “We didn’t think that we’d raise very much money because it’s just a dollar a person and we know people don’t bring money with them to lunch. But we really wanted to raise awareness,” Pratt said.
THE PHOENIX
However, Pratt was surprised by the number of students that approached Rotaract’s table who were unaware that polio was still an issue in global health. “We should know, and we should care about it because it can spread,” she said. Currently, the places where the risk of contracting polio is highest are India and, to a lesser extent, West and Central Africa. Numbers of cases has been drastically shrinking since the campaign for eradication began in the 1980’s. The number of reported cases have dropped from 350,000 in 1988 to fewer than 2000 in 2008, according to rotary6150.org. However, the stated goal of Rotary International remains the complete eradication of the disease worldwide. Rotaract’s other projects that members participate in are generally serviceoriented. In the “Books Through Bars” project they participated in earlier this year, for example, members of the group sorted books to send to prisoners. In the past, they have also been involved with Cradles to Crayons, which provides clothing, books, school supplies and other necessary goods to children living in homeless and low income situations, as well as volunteering at local food banks and at the local Ronald McDonald House. The group decided to focus on polio awareness in addition to their other projects because of their affiliation to the International Rotary, an organization that unites thousands of Rotary clubs in high schools, colleges and communities around the world. “The global
October 27, 2011
eradication of polio has historically been one of Rotary International’s main projects,” Jen Hu ‘14, co-president of Rotaract along with Pratt, said. The group also has connections with the Rotary group within the Borough of Swarthmore, which held their own purple pinky project outside the Co-op grocery store on Monday. The Borough’s group also holds other fundraisers to fight polio, including a silent auction that will take place this coming weekend. Lisa Lee, Director of Alumni Relations, also acts as liaison between the bourough’s group and the college’s club. Lee mentioned to the student group that National Polio Day may be a good opportunity for the group to do awareness raising on campus, and was pleased with the students’ organizing of the fundraiser. “I think it’s important that they’re involved in the things that are really important to Rotary International, and I think they think that too,” Lee said. This particular event was done without any sort of coordination with the event in the Borough. “[The Borough’s Rotary group] interacts with them in informal ways … in terms of this particular project, they carried it out pretty much on their own,” Lee said. The school’s Rotaract group will give all donated money to the Rotary group in the Borough, which will, in turn, be making a donation to Rotary International after their annual silent auction this weekend.
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Swat’s 2011 Garnet Weekend builds on last year’s success
Week in pictures
Rebecca Chopp as well as other faculty and administrators to answer questions about the Swarthmore experiIn April 2010, the Swarthmore ad- ence. ministration decided to replace the Moreover, the college held provocaFamily and Friends Weekend, up tive faculty talks such as Assistant until that point held annually in the Professor of Economics David Huffspring, with the Garnet Homecom- man’s “Measurements on Economic ing and Family Weekend held in the Preferences,” as well as a McCabe fall. This new event fused a revival of Lecture by Assistant Surgeon General the Homecoming weekend featuring Anne Schuchat ’80 on public health athletic events on campus, which the and immunization. college discontinued in 1997, with the This year also featured some new Family and Friends weekend, allowing events, including a student-alumni parents to visit students earlier in the baseball game, a business networking year. reception, tours of the Science Center The initial student response was and a Sixteen Feet Reunion Concert, all moderately skeptical, as the Student of which were heavily attended. To the Council was not informed beforehand surprise and wonder of many visitors and many students did not understand and students, there was even a Quidthe rationale beditch game held hind the change. on Mertz field Nonetheless, a during Sunday Garnet Weekend morning. Since our first Garnet Planning CommitDirector of Weekend was such a C o m m u n i c a tee was formed weeks after the Susan ... success last year, it tions decision was Clarey noted made, gathering was an easy decision to that some students, faculty events were so bring it back. and staff as well as popular that input from the ParMelissa Pizarro, advance regisent’s and Alumni’s tration had to Director of Councils to plan be closed off, for the weekend including the Donor Relations in October. After Crum Woods months of organizand Science ing faculty talks Center tours. and finding the best schedule for athThe weather cooperated with the letic match-ups, the planning commit- organizers’ efforts to attract as many tee unveiled a Garnet Weekend itin- visitors as possible, providing unerary that received positive feedback disturbed days of sunshine and light from students, families and alumni breeze. alike. The administration viewed the Like last year, some students were event this year as a success, deciding disappointed that the weekend was to make the weekend a future Swarth- held so soon after fall break, as famimore tradition. lies wanted to space out the times dur“Since our first Garnet Weekend ing which they could meet their chilwas such a wonderful success last dren. year, it was an easy decision to bring it Nevertheless, many students, espeback in 2011,” said cially those who Melissa Pizarro, did not go home Director of Dofor fall break, apWe hope to continue nor Relations. preciated fami“We have heard lies coming to a tradition of hosting from many firstvisit and bringGarnet Weekend year families that ing them to eat they are grateful somewhere off Rebecca Chopp, for the opportucampus. College President nity to visit their “I didn’t go to sons and daughas many events ters earlier in the as I would’ve school year.” Mrs. Pizarro headed this liked to, but it was wonderful to see and last year’s Garnet Weekend Plan- my family and go out to eat without ning Committee. having to pay for it. They don’t live too This past weekend, Swarthmore far away but these moments are rare,” College held the second annual Gar- Taylor Hodges ’15 said. net Weekend. With a total of just over Based on the success of the last two 1,100 visiting alumni and families, at- years, the college will likely continue tendance was even higher than last the Garnet Weekend tradition for year’s event. As with the year before, years to come. “The Garnet Weekend families and alumni descended upon requires a great deal of planning and campus to cheer on the college’s sports work by our staff, students and facteams as the women’s volleyball team, ulty,” President Rebecca Chopp said. the field hockey team, the women’s “But with all the positive feedback, we soccer team and the men’s soccer team hope to continue the tradition of hostall competed in matches. Guests also ing Garnet Weekend in the Fall and had the opportunity to get President Arts Weekend in the Spring.”
By Yi-Wei Liu yliu2@swarthmore.edu
Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix
Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service Anne Schuchat lectures on immunization controversies over Garnet Weekend.
Allegra Pocinki The Phoenix
Customers look for bargain-priced goods at the annual jumble sale in the Friends Meeting House on Saturday.
Julia Carleton The Phoenix
Alicia Rodriguez Velez, a Puerto Rican activist, speaks with students about experience in Puerto Rico’s anti-colonial struggle in Swat’s Intercultural Center.
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October 27, 2011
THE PHOENIX
News Swatties head to Georgia to protest at U.S. military base swarthmorephoenix.com
BY AMANDA EPSTEIN aepstei1@swarthmore.edu Swarthmore students will be driving down to Fort Benning, Georgia on November 18 to protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for National Security Cooperation (WHINSC), formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA), a United States Department of Defense training facility. According to History Professor Marjorie Murphy, in 1989 there was a struggle in the Central American country of El Salvador between the Catholic church and the government, during which priests were protecting peasants who were being disenfranchised by the state. After a brutal assassination of six Jesuit priests and consequent reports in which the murderers were revealed to be SOA graduates, protests against this government-funded training facility began to develop. Protests have been held every year in November, around the same time the murders unfolded. Included in the reports was also evidence that suggested that the school had been giving courses on torture to its students. “The idea that we were paying taxes to this secret place that was training these Latin American leaders to abuse their own people was not popular,” Murphy said. “Out of that kind of revulsion grew a movement against the school and a kind of way of overseeing the school to point out the abuses.” There are people in the United States who believe that as signatories to the Declaration of Human Rights, the country is “hardly in a position to go around torturing people,” Murphy said. According to the professor, in light of the Iraq War and the compounded sensitivity of the torture issue, the school built several fences topped with razor wires to surround its facilities. “They don’t like to raise the torture issue ... so they don’t like people going to demonstrate,” Murphy said. However, thousands of people all across the country show up to protest every year. According to the SOA Watch, a grassroots organization that hosts the protests every year, approximately 5,000 people attended the 2010 “vigil.” In 2006, the year with the highest attendance, 22,000 people showed up throughout the November weekend. Jusselia Molina ’13 attended the protest her freshman year and plans to go this coming November for the second time. According to Molina, Latin American people who have endured torture and witnessed violence as a result of the groups trained at the SOA spoke about their experiences to all the protesters. “There are marches ... They do a lot of street theater to educate people about the issues,” Molina said. “[Protesters] have been trying to close [the school] for 30 years, without being able to. But these people still come and organize in hopes of making
Courtesy of imaginaction.org
Protesters outside the SOA demonstrate against its role in international conflicts.
the change happen.” “[The event] can be seen as a protest against the uses of torture and the abuses of power within regimes over others, a protest against the secrecy in the uses of torture and other methods that the United States uses, or as a protest against US domination of Central and Latin America...Does this protest make a difference? … I think it keeps the issue alive,” Murphy said. The mix of both victims and human rights activists that gather at the protests make for “a place of learning and a place of healing” according to Molina. The college has reserved a 10-person van for the drive down to Georgia but is still waiting for more responses. If students are interested, they should contact Kathryn McCafferty ’12.
Judith Butler Judith Butler November 7, 14 and 21 Bryn Mawr College
Judith ButlEr, philOsOphEr and gEndEr thEOrist, will dElivEr thrEE lEcturEs at Bryn Mawr cOllEgE On nOv. 7, 14 and 21, at 7:30 p.M. Judith Butler. European graduate school, www.egs.edu/, photograph by hendrik speck, www.hendrikspeck.com/, source: www.flickr.com/photos/hendrikspeck/
Seating is available in thomas Great hall for live simulcasts of Judith Butler’s Flexner lectures. thomas Great hall accommodates 300 guests and seating will be available on a first-come, first served basis.
Nov. 7
Examines how the right to appear challenges certain conceptions of the public sphere, and why gender and sexuality are crucial for thinking about what counts as public, and whose actions are considered political.
Nov. 14 “Bodies in Alliance & the Politics of the Street” Offers a way to think about political mobilization that does not stay restricted to the specific interests of a given identity.
Seating in Goodhart hall for the Judith Butler Flexner lectures has been reserved. Stand-by seating may be available on lecture nights. Seating in Goodhart Hall: Will-Call and doors open at 6:30 p.m. Ticket holders will be seated until 7:20 p.m. Open seating in Goodhart Hall will begin at 7:20 p.m. for reserved seats that are unclaimed. Unclaimed seats will be filled at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Gender Politics and the right to Appear”
Nov. 21
“toward an ethics of Co-habitation” Butler argues that without the right to appear in public, populations become precarious, deprived of legal recognition and enfranchisement, but also subject to social and psychic forms of injury.
www.brynmawr.edu/flexner 11165_BRMA_Butler_SwarthmorePhoenixAd_v1.indd 1
THE PHOENIX
10/18/11 1:59 PM
October 27, 2011
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Living & Arts
swarthmorephoenix.com
Traverse to Philly’s Old City for fine arts, sweet treats Visitors to Philadelphia can spend a whole day exploring the historical attractions of the urban core between 6th Street and Penn’s landing — Jen Johnson the ConIn-town, Off-Campus stitution Center, the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross House, etc. Today, the neighborhood these national historical treasures call home is a thriving commercial district and a hub of activity for Philadelphia’s arts, dining and nightlife. The Old City district is full of cultural opportunities (of the high culture variety). Below are some suggestions for whiling away a fall evening in Old City. Arts Beyond the local and national historical content of the neighborhood, the two most obvious reasons to visit Old City are the Ritz Cinema at the Bourse and First Fridays. Friday and Saturday nights, the Philly Shuttle drops off and picks students up here between 7:15 and 7:30, and every two hours after that until 1:30 a.m. The Ritz at the Bourse and the nearby Ritz East show major contemporary films that don’t make the 12-plex circuit: Ritz at the Bourse is currently showing “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” and Helena Bonham Carter’s new film “Toast,” among others, while its 2nd Street sister is hosting the 20th Philadelphia Film Festival through November 3rd.
Many cities and towns have adopted the First Preferred-Day-of-the-Week format to draw locals out into highlighted commercial districts once a month. On the first Friday of every month in Philadelphia, Old City galleries throw open their doors and occasionally put out crackers and seltzer water for the throngs of patrons and casual consumers who flood the neighborhood. Most of what’s in the galleries is out of a typical student’s price range, but the local pop artists who set up camp along the stoops and across the alleyways offer their eclectic work for a fraction of the price of anything being sold indoors. On a whole, the exhibits can be hit or miss, but the atmosphere and the experience are worth it. The festivities run until 9 p.m., after the regular closing time of most galleries. If you visit Old City on a Friday night, whether or not you intend to partake in the First Friday activities, make sure you have reservations if you want a nice sit-down meal. Regular listeners to WXPN (88.5 FM) have likely heard of Tin Angel, the “acoustic café” associated with Serrano Restaurant (20 S. 2nd St., between Market and Chestnut). The Tin Angel hosts critically acclaimed musical acts throughout the year, offering one or two acts each night, Wednesday through Sunday. This is not a large venue, so don’t expect a rock concert, but the acts are nevertheless varied and of quality. Most tickets run between $10-$25; you can order dinner from Serrano, which will set you back $15-$25 per entrée, or order a large mezze platter to graze on with a group of friends for $28. Dining Old City has a surprising number of casual pizza and cheesesteak joints, an unsurprising number of dimly lit whitetablecloth establishments and something of a void in the middle of the spectrum. This is a trendy area; the rule of thumb
with trendy restaurants is, unfailingly, “You don’t always get what you pay for.” That said, some of the city’s culinary standouts call Old City or adjacent Society Hill home: Catalan tapas restaurant Amada (217-219 Chestnut Street) is one of Iron Chef Jose Garces’ best local establishments. All those small plates can add up, however — book early and try this one for Restaurant Week in January to keep the bill under control. Michael Solomonov’s Israeli restaurant Zahav (237 Saint James Place), across from the Ritz East, serves Mediterranean cuisine from farther east at a more modest price point ($18-$30 for entrees). The fresh laffah bread and hummus that the open kitchen continually produces are not complimentary, but they are worth the expense. To find Zahav, walk south from Market Street on 2nd until you hit the Ritz East, cobblestones and a very old, angular intersection — you should have arrived at St. James Place. Focus on the second story of the east side of the road, and you should see Zahav’s glowing sign in the window and a staircase adjacent. For ADA accessible directions, call the restaurant. For a cheap meal before catching a show, SOHO Pizza (218 Market St.) and Gianfranco’s Pizza Rustica (6 N. 3rd St., between Market and Arch) are both reliable, inexpensive and quick. In keeping with the area standard, both offer prepared slices. Fork: etc. (308 Market St.), the small deli and grocery associated with Fork Restaurant, offers soups, sandwiches, salads and other assorted prepared foods made with local and artisanal ingredients for takeout or to eat in their casual, quiet dining area. If you skipped dessert, or need a second one, there are two places in Old City you’ll want to consider: Tartes Bakery (212 Arch St.) and the Franklin Fountain (116 Market St.). Housed in a small, anom-
alously free-standing building just off of 2nd Street, Tartes is the area’s source for grain-based desserts: cookies, cakes, cupcakes, pies and, of course, tarts. You can’t go wrong, but the red velvet cupcakes are particularly noteworthy. Expect to eat outside, standing up: Tartes is nothing but a walk-up window filled with the delicacies prepared on the counters behind it. On a warm evening, the line out the door at old-school ice cream parlor the Franklin Fountain can easily be 30 minutes long, but the winter chill tends to dampen the resolve of most patrons. Share a giant sundae (around $10) with a couple of friends, or enjoy a College Ice ($6 for a generously portioned “small,” plus one topping, hot fudge recommended) all to yourself at the marble counter. Temperatures are dropping, but it’s never too cold for dessert à la mode. For more information about train tickets, maps and directions, as well as more recommendations of places to eat, shop and explore, please visit In-Town, Offcampus on The Phoenix website at swarthmorephoenix.com.
Check out the first installment of:
Swat[Pop]Rocks Cindy Luu ’12 writes about the constantly changing world of pop culture. swarthmorephoenix.com
‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ hits the stage in the Ville
BY CHI ZHANG czhang1@swarthmore.edu
In a cozy Brooklyn apartment, there live two kindhearted and charitable old ladies. They are caring towards their family and community and try their best to help others. However, when a series of old men come to the house and express their feelings of loneliness, these two ladies murder them by tricking them into drinking poisonous home-made wine. They feel innocent as they believe that they are killing with good intentions. “Arsenic and Old Lace,” written by the American playwright Joseph Kesselringast, is now being shown at the Players’ Club of Swarthmore. The show lasts approximately three hours and will run for a total of ten performances. Tickets are still available for performances from October 27 to October 30 and from November 3 to November 5. Most people know “Arsenic and Old Lace” from the 1944 film adaptation directed by Frank Capra that stars Cary Grant. However, delicately decorated stage props, profound and interesting dialogues and vivid and emotional actors and actresses aren’t just in the movie. Though most of the performers are unpaid amateurs, they delivered a high-level performance. In a video interview on the club’s website, the three main performers shared their understanding of their roles. For instance, Ruth K. Brown, who plays the elder sister, Martha Brewster, explained Martha’s personality: “She’s historically played as a very silly sister. But what intrigues me was during auditions, we presented
the role to be a planner, a bit more of the person who saw the big picture and understood what is going on. That gives the character a little bit more than just silly behavior and not understanding the fact of dealing with the men in her life.” Delores Alfe, a regular audience member of the Players’ Company’s shows, commented on the performance on the Sunday afternoon show. “The set [was] very professional. They’ve done a wonderful job.” Alfe noted the difference between watching a movie and appreciating a live performance. “You are able to interact with the actors and actresses and you are a part of the show,” she said. Audience members for whom “Arsenic and Old Lace” was their first Players’ Club show had similar feelings. Kelly Miller from New Jersey also considered this performance interesting. “The set was incredible,” she said. “Especially the two ladies, they are fantastic.” She added, “The live performance makes everything a little bit more involved and enthusiastic.” Every play tells a story. It can be a reflection of a past time period and it can recall the memory of people nowadays. Director Bridget Dougherty wrote in her director’s note, “[The play] also displays a time long forgotten and an innocence lost in a Brooklyn neighbourhood, a time when you knew the name of the cop that walked the beat on your street, a time when you left your door unlocked, a time you actually checked in on your neighbors.” According to Paul Kerrigam, the producing director in the Club, and George Ainslie, one of the several
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people who directs the plays in the theater, there are several different shows spanning over a hundred performances in the theater every year. To satisfy audiences of different ages, the theater produces different types of shows that tackle different themes and take place during different time periods. There are a total of seven Main Stage shows this year, including “Over the River and Through the Woods,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Crazy for You,” “The Beaux’ Stratagem,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” “Our Town” and “Children of Eden.” “Crazy for You,” for instance, is a musical with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and a book by Ken Ludwig. It is about a banker’s son looking for a new career and a new fiancée. This musical won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Musical. It will run from November 25 to December 17. Besides these Main Stage performances, audiences can also appreciate the Second Stage shows and others in the Children’s Theatre. The Players’ Club welcomes Swarthmore students to come and be a part of the production process. As Ainslie mentioned, there are a lot of Swarthmore students who are interested in the plays. Once, a group of students watched “Arcadia,” a play by Tom Stoppard in 1993. After watching the play, they brought it to the Scott Amphitheater later on. “Therefore, this is a source of ideas, a source of resources and we like students to come here,” he said. “We would like to help if possible and we would like them to help us too if possible, like a natural cooperation.” THE PHOENIX
Living & Arts
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Advent of Halloween sees horror TV outdo film As Halloween looms less than a week away, this time of year would usually be a period of celebration for the quintessential horror fan. Unfortunately, the month of October has been severely deficient in its output of quality horror movies. Or horror movies in general for that matter. Since the first week of Octhe major studios Johnny Taeschler tober, have only released three Viewer Discretion Advised movies that can reside comfortably within the horror genre. While the critically savaged “Dream House” was ultimately disowned by its director as well as by stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, “The Thing” turned out to be a CGI-heavy retread of the terrifying 1982 John Carpenter film, minus the scares or any semblance of character development. Sure, “Paranormal Activity 3” managed to provide a few reliable jumps, but the freshness of this hand-held camera franchise has long since disappeared. With only one more Friday to go before pumpkins give way to turkeys (or more realistically, Christmas decorations), it seems that horror fans will have to place their hopes on a more productive 2012. So why am I writing about such a depressing topic? And isn’t this supposed to be a television column? Well, in contrast to the sad state of affairs that has characterized the film industry’s treatment of the horror genre, television has thankfully stepped in to fill this void. This trend, however, has changed dramatically in recent years. Ever since “The X-Files” ended its nine-season run in 2002, television executives have proved reluctant to green-light pilots that legitimately qualify as horror shows. Granted, there has been some logic behind these decisions. Has anyone ever heard of “Harper’s Island” (essentially an update of Agatha Christie’s murder mys-
tery “And Then There Were None”) or “Happy Town” (think “Twin Peaks” without David Lynch’s talent)? Didn’t think so; they were both cancelled after one season. Some people may claim that other modern shows, such as “Dexter” or “True Blood,” fit the horror mold. I would concede that they do (after all, serial killers and vampires have been staples of the genre for decades), but only loosely. To me, these shows lack the defining quality of any horror-based entertainment medium and the reason why I personally find the genre so appealing. While experiencing a truly great moment of horror, you have absolutely no idea what will happen next and that uncertainty, the sense that anything could happen, is what fills you with fear. This intense dread becomes such a visceral sensation that you physically feel different than you would while watching any other genre. Jason Zinoman, the author of the wonderful book “Shock Value,” also explained the appeal of the horror experience in terms of a unique sensation during an interview on NPR: “I’m often on my Blackberry worried about three things I have to do the next day, [but] I never feel more in the present than when I’m scared in a horror film. And I think that is a very addictive feeling.” I remember experiencing this feeling last year while watching the first season of AMC’s zombie series “The Walking Dead.” Although the first few episodes draw on many of the familiar tropes of classic zombie movies, such as a man waking up from a coma in a deserted hospital (à la “28 Days Later”) or using an isolated farmhouse as refuge (à la “Night of the Living Dead”), the epic scope of the show is entirely new for a horror television series. The massive budget allocated by AMC genuinely makes viewers feel as if the world has indeed succumbed to a zombie apocalypse. Just try to watch the scene from the pilot episode, in which protagonist Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) rides through a deserted Atlanta on horseback, without getting chills. Not only do the sets and zombie special effects look fantastic, but “The Walking Dead” also fosters an emotional attachment to its characters that transcends the relatively
lightweight bonds typically forged over the course of a two-hour movie. As a result, you actually care about whether or not these characters become food for the undead, a fate that has already trimmed down about half of the original cast members. The renaissance of television horror that began with “The Walking Dead” has continued this year with the premiere of “American Horror Story” on FX. The bluntness of the show’s title should serve as a no-nonsense warning for those viewers who are faint of heart (i.e. Hilary Hamilton). After only three episodes, I can maintain that this is the most bizarrely terrifying show that I’ve had the pleasure to watch. Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, two of the showrunners behind “Glee,” and starring Connie Britton of “Friday Night Lights,” “American Horror Story” centers on an emotionally and physically scarred family (psychiatrist Dad had an affair with one of his students, Mom recently suffered a brutal miscarriage and the teenage daughter cuts herself) who move to Los Angeles to begin the healing process. The only problem is that their new house is haunted with more disturbing baggage than they are. Yes, the show is outrageously over-the-top, with scenes of dead fetuses floating in formaldehyde, kinky sex in a full-body leather suit and an archly sinister Jessica Lange making grave pronouncements like, “My womb is cursed.” On Fox, the after-school special morality that characterizes “Glee” routinely keeps the wilder instincts of Mr. Murphy and Mr. Falchuk in check. Working under the free reign afforded by the horror genre, however, excess soon becomes the norm in “American Horror Story.” For this reason, it quickly establishes itself as the most frightening show on television. The viewer remains keenly aware that anything can (and probably will) happen to these unfortunate characters, and that possibility is utterly horrifying. Thus, while the film industry is currently in need of some fresh blood (pun very much intended), fans of the genre have the opportunity to alleviate their withdrawal symptoms with free weekly doses of “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story.”
Digital publishing arrives in foreign markets My recent trips to The Netherlands and Brazil surprised me by revealing just how globalized (read: Americanthe Susana Medeiros ized) world is: Four Eyed Literati most people listen to Top 40, read U.S. books in translation and covet pricey, imported digital technology. An iPad in Amsterdam is envied; a copy of “Twilight” in Rio de Janiero overshadows Clarice Lispector or even Paolo Coehlo. And yet, it would be naïve to presume that the publishing apparatus rooted in the capital of the world could or should translate to the entire world. This column marks the third installment on digitalization in the publishing industry, this one with a focus on foreign markets — what they’re about and what they can teach us. E-books have not been as successful in penetrating foreign markets as their U.S. counterparts — according to Publishing Perspectives, an online journal, market penetration of e-books is almost 20% in the US compared to about 10% in non-English markets. This is because most of the world lacks three things: available digital content, affordable
eReaders and digital providers. Some readers, Pi and Wink; China is littered countries have weak or unconven- with faux Apple stores filled with nottional publishing systems to build on; too-shabby knockoff iPhones. Fairly for example, 17% of Brazil’s books are basic cellphones, however, might be the sold through door-to-door sales primar- perfect platform. Cellphones have long ily via, I kid you not, the international substituted for landlines in developing cosmetics company Avon. In a country countries and are often the only means where there are only three thousand to access the internet across the develbookstores (the U.S. has over 30,000), oping world. These countries could look and those largely centered in urban to Japan, which has pioneered “the cell areas, significant measures have to be phone novel,” as a model for e-books. taken to sell print books. We should not (Cell phone novels are like bite-size noexpect anything less of digital. vellas — chapters run around 100 words Argentinian Octavio Kulesz has and are perfect to read on the go!) teamed with Egyptian and South AfriAlthough Japan has its own problems can consultants concerning eto form the books — its maDigital Minds publishers Publishers are expanding jor Network, a prodon’t want anygram promoting thing to cut into outside the limitations of digital publishtheir premium English-language books. ing projects. He print sales — imagines that where there’s a the developing buyer there’s a world — which lacks extensive Internet seller, and I expect Japan to find a way access, much less an eBook publishing to do e-books better within a few years. infrastructure — must skip the “Guten- Weren’t they, after all, the ones with berg Stage” and work hard to digitize smartphones while we were in middle with the technology available. While ef- school being mystified by our Motorola forts are being made by Amazon, Barnes Razrs and LG Chocolates? & Noble and others to expand to the deIn discussing foreign publishing veloping world, digitization, I believe, markets, we’ve left out one important won’t rely on iPhones or Kindles. The thing: language. Sales in English-lanestablished eReader technology is too guage e-books are up, but what is more expensive, no matter how low the dollar intriguing is increased interest among likes to go. international players such as Amazon, It’s fortunate, then, that the devel- Google, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo oping world isn’t waiting for largely and Yudu, among others “to enhance Western tech companies to swoop in. their platforms with content in SpanIndia has produced two low-cost e- ish from Spain and Latin America,”
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October 27, 2011
reports Publishing Perspectives. Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world; if publishers play their cards right, recognizing that Spanishlanguage books must be cognizant of the various cultural differences of the Spanish speaking world, then they can make some serious bank. In a broader sense, it is significant that publishers are expanding outside the limitations of English-language books. In the U.S. there is an evident dearth of books in translation, with the inverse true outside the states. It has been routinely easy to get (unbanned) English or English-in-translation books outside the U.S. and difficult to obtain books in translation within American borders. People may know of Borges or Dostoevsky, but these are easy, archaic examples — where are the Chinese J.K. Rowlings, the Turkish Steven Kings or the Spanish Jonathan Franzens? I.e., what literature is being published now, and what does it have to say? My hope is that as international publishers begin to target foreign markets, they will have more familiar access to these titles, and will thus be more inclined to translate and advertise them in the U.S. The fact that these titles are being developed as e-books is all the better for accessing them. e-book technology may be found wanting outside the U.S., but it’s found wanting inside the U.S. too, and I’m open to some new innovations. After all, publishing ain’t dead yet. Digitalization holds the promise for rebirth. Susana is a sophomore. You can reach her at smedeir1@swarthmore.edu.
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CAMPUS PANACHE Photos by Elèna Ruyter
Ethnic Prints
T:9.2”
T:7”
A ROLAND EMMERICH FILM
COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH RELATIVITY MEDIA A CENTROPOLIS ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION “ANONYMOUS” RHYS IFANSMUSICVANESSA REDGRAVE JOELY RICHARDSON DAVID THEWLI S XAVIER SAMUEL SEBASTIAN ARMESTO RAFEWRITTEN SPALL EDWARD HOGGPRODUCEDJAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER AND DEREK JACOBI BY THOMASDIRECTEDWANDER AND HARALD KLOSER EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS VOLKER ENGEL MARC WEI GERT JOHN ORLOFF BY JOHN ORLOFF BY ROLAND EMMERICH LARRY FRANCO ROBERT LEGER BY ROLAND EMMERICH
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Living & Arts Celebrating German heritage with beer, Oktoberfest
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by brad LENOX blenox1@swarthmore.edu This past Saturday evening, the Swarthmore German Club and German Department hosted their annual Oktoberfest celebration. The event, which was open to the entire campus community, provided traditional German food and music in Bond Memorial Hall. More than 200 people attended, including Swarthmore and Trico students, alumni, family and many faculty members, including Professor Hansjakob Werlen, Coordinator of the German Department. The Swarthmore German Club and Department took great pains to reproduce the spirit of an authentic Oktoberfest thousands of miles away from Germany. Planned by both faculty and students, this is the second year that the German Club has been involved with the process, which was previously done entirely by the German Department before the club’s formation. The recent campus Oktoberfest is one local example of a long and globally popular event that originally began in the German region of Bavaria in 1810. The city of Munich, capital of the state, has held the official 16 to 18 day beer and cultural fest every year since, which has now become one of the world’s largest festivals — attracting around five million people. Professor Werlen explained that the festival’s founding had great historical and cultural significance. He explained
that Oktoberfest originated as “a celebra- Terminal Market in Philadelphia and tion of the wedding of Bavarian Crown salads provided by the Co-op. Naturally, Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of sauerkraut made an appearance as well. Saxony-Hildburghausen,” which took In addition to non-alcoholic options, place on October 12th, 1810. Prince Lud- German-style beers brewed and bottled wig later became King Ludwig I of Bavar- by local Pennsylvania brewers were also ia, the southern German state of which available, retaining the spirit of Munich Munich is the capital. Proffesor Werlen laws and tradition. The two beers — Vicadded, “local citizens were invited to the tory Brewing’s Festbier and Stoudt’s meadows outside Munich for the cel- Weizen — reflect styles that are both exebration, renamed Theresienwiese (The- tremely important to the beer-drinking resa’s Meadow), culture of Southfor the new Prinern Germany. cess Theresa. In Moreover, AmerAuthentic Oktoberfest Bavaria, this is ican and German shortened to simlaboration events range from horse cino l beer ply, D’Wiesn.” making Celebrating lorepresents the races to agricultural cal community, trans-cultural apshows, but focus mainly preciation to be authentic Oktoberfest events found in Oktoberon music and cuisine. range from horse fest celebrations races to agriculanywhere in the tural shows, but focus mainly on music world. and cuisine. The government of Munich Both Professor Werlen and German allows only beer brewed within the city Club President Ben Goossen ’13 noted walls to be consumed in its own festival, that the timing of the Oktoberfest, while which highlights the primacy placed on later than the traditional ending of its celebrating the local. In keeping with Bavarian counterpart, was both intenthat ethos, food and drinks provided Sat- tional and important. Goossen remarked, urday evening came from a variety of lo- “We hold it on Family Weekend so that cal and regional producers. we can get to know students’ families The Swarthmore Co-op made the and friends and also to have some time event three kinds of sausage — or Brat- for the faculty and students to socialize wurst in German — including lamb and outside of the classroom.” spicy Italian. Non-meat options were Professor Werlen echoed similar senplentiful, including fresh German-style timents. “What I like about this event is pretzels from Miller’s Bakery of Reading that it is not a specific German Program
event but rather a college-wide celebration that fits in with many other activities going on during parents weekend.” Goossen added that in addition to Oktoberfest, the Club hosts a variety of seasonal and well-attended events. Last year, the student group also put on a spring festival (Fruehlingsfest) during Ride the Tide, and in other seasons trips to Brauhaus Schmitz, a traditional German restaurant and the annual Philly German Christmas Village (Weihnachtsmarkt), in Philadelphia. Though the German Club began small, its total membership has now expanded to over eighty students. In addition to festivals and cuisine, club trips to places such as the Ephrata Cloisters last semester — the historic site of an early German enclave in what is now Lancaster County — enrich the historical and academic aspects of German culture. Goossen stressed that while speaking or taking German is not required for membership, the club does get together to host a weekly language table in Sharples at lunch on Fridays. The president listed many benefits available to nonmembers. “The club is also a great way to spread information about scholarships and opportunities to study abroad in Germany or take classes over the summer.” Students interested in learning more about joining German Club or upcoming events should consult the group’s webpage on the Swarthmore German Studies Departmental site or contact Ben Goossen directly at bgoosse1@swarthmore.edu.
Topping off weekend with Orchestra 2001, choral group
By STEVEN HAZEL shazel1@swarthmore.edu
This weekend, hundreds of parents descended upon campus to attend dozens of events for Garnet Weekend, including sporting events, workshops, faculty lectures and tours of the campus and Crum. Students and their parents got to sample many of the activities available on campus throughout the year. However, one event that certainly doesn’t happen every day at Swarthmore was also one of the final events of the weekend. Students and their parents, as well as music aficionados from across the Philadelphia area, filled the Lang Concert Hall to listen to Orchestra 2001 and the Mendelssohn Club perform. For two hours, the two groups performed “Northern Lights and Mystical Masterpieces,” a series presented only at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Center City Philadelphia as well as at Swarthmore, where all of Orchestra 2001’s concerts are held. Orchestra 2001 has been performing since 1988, when it was founded by artistic director and conductor James Freeman, who is also the Daniel Underhill Professor Emeritus of Music at Swarthmore. “I thought there was a great need in the Philadelphia area for world-class performances of contemporary music,” said Freeman. “As far as I know there are only two other orchestras in America that focus on exclusively or almost excusively on contemporary music. Other orchestras sometimes perform contemporary music -- we always do.” The Mendelssohn Club, founded in 1874, is one of the oldest choral groups in the United States, consisting of 130 voices and performs frequently in the Philadelphia area. Orchestra 2001, in particular, has
strong connections to the Swarthmore community. Founded by a Swarthmore professor more than two decades ago, the Orchestra is also joined by Swarthmore Associate in Performance Marcantonio Barone, who performs with Orchestra 2001 as well as other groups, as well as by Visiting Associate Professor of Music Janice Hamer, whose compositions have been performed by Orchestra 2001 and other groups. The orchestra has won the “Award for Adventurous Programming” from the League of American Orchestras for three years in a row and has done extensive international tours in various countries including Russia, England and Austria. Additionally, the orchestra has premiered the work of Pulitzer-prize winner George Crum. “[Orchestra 2001] occupies a place of such importance that a classical music community without it seems unimaginable,” said Peter Dobrin, a critic in the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about a concert in April 2002. The Mendelssohn Club has grown from an eight-person male choral group born more than a century ago into an incredible 130-person chorus that focuses on performing new or rare works in combination with more traditional compositions, a tendency that has won the group the Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming. Since 1988, the group has been directed by Alan Harler, a former Professor at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music and a winner of the 2009 Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Musical Life of Philadelphia from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. In the Lang Concert Hall, the two groups performed four compositions: two presented by Orchestra 2001 alone, one presented by the Mendelssohn Club
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alone and one joint performance. “Lang Concert Hall in my view is really one of the great halls in the world (let alone America), both acoustically and visually for the performance of music,” said Freeman. “It allows us musicians to hear others and at the same time to hear the whole effect in a way that is very rare.” The opening choral work was“Totus Tuus,” (“Wholly Yours”) Op. 60 by Henryk Gorecki, a 20th century Polish composer. The work was composed in 1987 for Polish Pope John Paul II and features repetition that both calms and moves the audience. Orchestra 2001 then performed “Shaker Loops,” a composition by John Adams, a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, that employs patterns of music in loops designed to emulate tapes that repeat music indefinitely. After intermission, Orchestra 2001 took to the stage in the surprisingly intimate setting of Lang Concert Hall to perform two Philadelphia premieres, including “Messagesquisse,” a composition by Pierre Boulez whose title means “message sketch” in French. Then the Mendelssohn Club joined the Orchestra to perform “Adam’s Lament,” a piece by Arvo Part, a contemporary Estonian composer. The title refers to the Biblical Adam, and the music is meant to express his sorrows over the sins and trials of his progeny. “I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener,” Part said in a discussion on Orchestra 2001. For those who missed the Sunday performance, there are many concerts and performances to look forward to in the coming six weeks. Swarthmore student groups and various music classes will be performing recitals in November. This
October 27, 2011
Holly Smith The Phoenix
coming Saturday, October 29, Student and Alumni Composers will recite their music in the Lang Concert Hall. Next month, the Swarthmore College Wind Ensemble, the Swarthmore College Chorus, the Chamber Wind Ensemble, and the College Orchestra will all have performances at Lang. Outside performers will also visit to showcase their talents for the Swarthmore community at Lang. On November 7, Auricolae, a group that combines storytelling and music, will perform, while in December, an a capella ensemble called Lionheart will present Medieval English Christmas music. “As a [Swarthmore student],” said Danielle Sullivan ’14 after the performance, “I feel lucky to have the opportunity to experience the amazing quality and the variety of music that comes [to Lang].”
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Ruling Suburbia: John McClure and the Republican Machine in Delaware County, PA Sunday, Oct. 30 at 5:30 p.m.
Scheuer Room
Halloween Party
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. Sharples
editor’s picks
By Allegra Pocinki
Swarthmore Student and Alumni Composers Concert Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. Lang Concert Hall
Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. Science Center 101 10
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Opinions
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Staff Editorial
Analyzing the social media record of Qaddafi’s fall After four decades of brutal dictatorship, Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi was executed by rebel fighters who were the product of an uprising conceived at the beginning of this year. Now, with access to the Internet and the latest version of Adobe Flash plug-in, anyone can see more or less just how that assassination transpired. In a viral cellphone video, originally shown by Qatar’s Al Jazeera network with nearly five million Youtube views and now posted on sites from Facebook to The New York Times, the ousted Libyan despot is seen being dragged and struck amidst a fervent crowd. As they shout “God is Great!” and fire their weapons into the air in celebration, they grab at his bloodied and matted hair whilst kicking his limp body. Other heavily-circulated images show stills of the video of Qaddafi being sodomized with a knife by a fighter at the 16-second mark. And yet even more harrowing footage has been disseminated: Qaddafi’s bullet-wounded and half-naked body on display in a market freezer in the Libyan port city Misurata. Videos taken inside the cooler show dozens of jubilant Libyans documenting his (apparently washed) corpse with their mobile phones. But perhaps this degree of documentation is unsurprising. Perhaps it is a product of a generation that operates in a global digital age. Perhaps it is practically expected that such a pivotal event in this series of Arab revolts is so graphically recorded. It seems almost silly to be appalled at the instant ferrying of these very visceral videos and photographs. Yet our consumption of these images raises a question that is rife with ethical evocations: should we have such unfettered access to visual records of war and trauma? Photographs of dismembered bodies, videos of massacre and execution and artistic renditions of combat are pervasive in a culture that thrives on immediacy and interactivity. But it is this insatiability that we should maybe be concerned with — the fact that we have become desensitized to images that should shock instead of fascinate. And we don’t seek just any images, but images produced in the “antiart” style. That is to say, photographs that don’t look artistic, videos that have the essence of authenticity (a shaky hand, a foggy lens, etc.). This inclination towards what seems to be born by chance, and not by craft, is due to our desire to feel ethically comfortable with gawking at images of misery. We’re uncomfortable with anything perfectly composed because it exposes our perverse impulse to gawk in the first place. There is also issue with our hunt for what American literary theorist Susan Sontag articulates as, “more dramatic (as they’re often described) images, which drives the photographic enterprise, and is part of the normality of a culture in which shock has become a leading stimulus of consumption and source of value.” Sontag is right — headline news is riddled with stories of war and death in the Middle East that still manage to entertain a substantially large audience. And this idea of “entertainment” is an important one to grapple with. If Sontag is accurate in her assertions, then we seem to derive some sort of pleasure from observing that which is gruesome. We are, in a sense, entertained by images of revolutionaries violently taking back their country from an equally
letter to the editor The article on the Town Center West (the inn) Project presented a decidedly one-sided picture of the issue. (“Inn Project Begins, Debate Continues”, The Phoenix, October 6, 2011.) In choosing to focus almost exclusively on comments by those who are opposed to the project, the paper neglects to include the views of the majority of residents who support the development. In addition, many of the statements made in the article are, at best speculative and some are clearly misleading. Currently, the parcel on which the inn is planned to be built is completely nontaxable property. Once the inn is built, it will provide much-needed tax revenues to both the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District and the Borough of Swarthmore. In addition, in our many conversations with local merchants on the inn project, we have yet to speak with one who feels that bringing additional foot traffic into our downtown is likely to decrease business. In fact, the consensus among them seems to be that the inn would have a positive impact on local businesses. Quantifying the financial benefit to our merchants from the Town Center West project would certainly call for speculation, but one fact that seems inarguable is that not bringing people into our downtown provides absolutely no opportunity for any financial benefit. No matter how thorough a professional
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Emma Waitzman The Phoenix
violent totalitarian. Of course we should be aware of those traumatic events that occur beyond our borders. To do otherwise would be to narrow our breadth of knowledge and understanding about the world around us. But to fully immerse ourselves in every tweet, text, news feed, photo and video that comes our way is to numb all of our senses in the face of information that can’t ever be fully tweeted, texted, reported, photographed or videotaped — no matter how steady the hand is that holds the device.
Letter, op-ed and comment policy
traffic study might be, there will be those who will feel it was not done objectively or was not thorough enough. Currently, the underpass remains one of the most confusing and challenging traffic intersections in the area. Any redesign that makes it less of a challenge can only be an improvement. Adequate parking has always been a major component of the project, so the supposition that current patrons of our downtown will suddenly abandon it for alternative shopping venues cannot be supported. If people wish to get the merchants’ perspective on the project, ask the merchants. This project has been on the table for over a decade and has been the subject of numerous public meetings as well as a liquor referendum. As the Board of Directors of Swarthmore Town Center, Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes the economic well-being of Swarthmore’s business district, we believe it is time to address the reasonable concerns of our residents and then move forward.
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October 27, 2011
quest that their group affiliation be included. While The Phoenix does not accept anonymous submissions, letters and op-eds may be published without the writer’s name in exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of the Editorial Board. An editorial represents the opinions of the members of the Opinions Board: Amelia Possanza, Marcus Mello and Menghan Jin. Please submit letters to: letters@swarthmorephoenix.com or The Phoenix Swarthmore College 500 College Avenue Swarthmore, PA 19081 Please report corrections to: corrections@swarthmorephoenix. com Letters, corrections and news tips may also be submitted online to the paper by clicking “Contact” on the Phoenix website.
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Shedding labels at Swat on the shoulders of Pink Giants I recently came upon the 2009 Daily Gazette sex columnist called “The Pink Narcissist.” It was everything I ever wished to write, so I decided to dedicate this week’s article as a tribute. The column was published the year before I arrived at Swarthmore, and I am surprised that the campus hadn’t fallen over Sam Zhang itself to accommodate its message. The Narcissist Sticks and Stones was to be a sex columnist writing about his homosexual experiences, but the inaugural issue, “Gay for Pay,” was a reflection on being forced into labeling his identity on campus. He wrote, “From the moment that I stepped onto Swarthmore’s campus, I felt pressured to label myself.” “Believe it or not, the so called ‘straight community’ and the so called ‘queer community’ have much more in common than not. Sexual feelings and love play an important part in most people’s lives, no matter how they identify or don’t identify. This is why I personally reject sexual labels. Because I’m not ‘gay,’ or ‘queer,’ I’m human.” An unspoken taboo was smashed, and the commenters wrote with rare candor. “SB” wrote, “Thank fucking god. Finally. This is the column I’ve been waiting for […] I’ve never felt the least bit comfortable with so-called ‘queer friendly’ organizations on campus because every time someone is ‘queer’ or ‘straight’ or ‘bi’ or ‘trans’ or ‘genderqueer’ or whatever term is in this week, it becomes a little harder to
identify them as human.” es” and make others “feel little and small” are disguisLikewise, “D” wrote, “You articulate how I (as one ing their cruelty as frankness. They fly the banner of of those people on the margins of the queer communi- community over their personal battles, infusing their ty) have felt pressured to join different queer groups causes with a bitter selfishness. on campus … But I realize that I’m just human like Jonathan Rauch, an essayist who also happens to you, and that I don’t belong with those who would be gay, wrote to the gay community on the occasion of proclaim a war on other sexualities, or struggle for gay rights passing 50% public acceptance in America visibility and acceptance.” about the need to tone down political absolutism. He The agreement was short-lived. A commenter wrote, “Pushing on every front at once is no longer named “Fits of Rage” insinuated that the author suf- cost-free. Far from it: to the public, a shrill, aggressive fered from “self-hatred” and “internalized homopho- majority appears bullying and menacing, not plucky bia”. Then Fits wrote, “Your challenge of labels, and righteous. Worst of all, it looks oppressive.” dogmatic pursuit to stake out your place in the comThe Pink Narcissist struck a nerve, but he nevmunity, and desire to shape the conversation about er wrote a second article. It is a shame, because he LGBTQIAGNC … are absolutely, 100% QUEER. Get wasn’t, and still isn’t, alone. He was intellectual kin over it.” of Cynthia Ozick, who also refused to be identified by Performing unrequested psychoanalysis and forc- labels such as “woman writer.” I think that he would ing identities upon others agree with her when she — aren’t these the exact writes, “A writer with an traumas that gay support ambitious imagination When people shed their labels, groups try to heal? This needs an appetite beyond hypocrisy is common to the self.” they give others the freedom of this day, with activists When people shed often belittling others in imagination. Whatever happened their labels, they give their quest to do good. the freedom of to “If you want to be me, be me”? others For example, in a recent imagination. Whatever Daily Gazette comment, happened to “If you want I read a queer activist to be me, be me”? Identiexplain, “If I’m making fun of Christians who think ty politics has no response to Cat Stevens, nor to Walt Jesus is super forreal [sic] coming back in October, Whitman when he cries with The Pink Narcissist and I’m not oppressing them. I’m making them feel little myself and anyone else marginalized by the politiciand small and being a douche, perhaps, but that’s not zation of identity: “I am large, I contain multitudes.” systematic oppression. It’s called not being able to put We owe The Pink Narcissist for this possibility: any the damn filter on.” one of us might be him, wearing a pink cape at night Reminds me of Tennessee Williams, who wrote, and having sex (but not anal — he didn’t like anal) “All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of like a superhero. frankness.” In reading these Daily Gazette threads, I Sam is a sophomore. You can reach him at szhang1@ can’t help but feel that activists who act like “douch- swarthmore.edu.
Combating climate change with a carbon tax I don’t want to be apocalyptic, but perhaps there is no other way to make my point. M a n y Swatties may be aware of Olivia Natan 350.org, an organizaThe World At Large tion aiming to fix the climate crisis through grassroots action. 350. org is named for a target for safe CO2 concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere at 350 parts per million (ppm). This target is good, if conservative, compared to the concentration level determined by NGOs, international and intergovernmental oraganizations and governments: 450 ppm. There is some internal debate among climate scientists as to what is the safe concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, however, the lower the level, the “safer” the planet. At 450 ppm, there is a 50 percent chance we will surpass the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) ‘tipping point’ — an increase of 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. This tipping point is just that, according to the IPCC scientist: an irreversible trend towards continually rising temperatures, the melting of the sun-deflecting polar ice caps, thawing of methane containing perma-
frost areas and reaching the sea’s CO2 holding capacity. Numerous plans for combating climate change have been voiced (along with the voices that do not acknowledge climate change, but for the sake of this discussion, we must move past them). I do believe that technology holds promises for helping slow humanity’s impact on the environment, but relying on technological fixes comprises the first, easy steps in reducing both our carbon footprint and our overall ecological footprint. Technological fixes do not usually lead to a decrease in total resources used or total emissions, as aptly observed by William Jevons, a nineteenth century British economist whose book “The Coal Question” concluded that gains in efficiency did not lead to an overall decrease in consumption of resources. In Jevons’s time period, this meant producing iron while using less coal, but the growth of iron production was so great that efficiency gains were not enough to reduce the resources used. Current focus on relative decoupling is better than nothing, but much more needs to be done. The more difficult — and more important — step to make is the absolute decoupling of well-being and resources. Or, in other words, reduced consumption. Do you think about every consumption choice you make in terms of its environmental impact? I can’t say I always do, and I do not believe it is reasonable to expect individuals to calculate the cost of the externalities from their consumption. Whether it is taxes on cigarettes or pollution from the production of your
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computer, taxing to correct for externalities is the government’s responsibility and duty. The U.S. — and every other country — should tax goods and services on the basis of their environmental impact. If simplified, this would take the form of a comprehensive carbon tax implemented on the consumer directly. Now, many advocates of a carbon tax point towards taxing producers for their emission. As per textbook economics, this would have the same effect on total emissions as taxing consumption directly. However, either option implies a normative choice as to the responsibility for emissions — when clearly both consumers and producers should be conscientious. In the American and Western European contexts, consumers should be the targets of a carbon tax. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this means that the whole planet would have to consider tax emissions on a consumption basis so as not to double-count emissions. The choice to count emissions by consumption puts the burden on developed countries, or, rather, consumers in developed countries. This is the normatively correct choice given world history since the beginning of industrialization: developed nations have produced the most emissions and have exploited the most resources. Thus a carbon tax should target western consumption patterns. This is not to say that developing countries should not consider their environmental impact, but rather that, as established by the Kyoto Protocol, some allowances for growth must be made. There is the huge issue of feasibility,
October 27, 2011
especially with regards to international implementation. Though Australia passed a bill for taxing carbon through its lower house last week, this may not even make it past their senate, much less on to the rest of the world. The Australian bill is a weak model for carbon taxation in that it is focused on the production side and that it has generous exceptions. I have no illusions that the world’s largest economies will have huge qualms as to potentially hindering their competitiveness and to moving away from a traditional, goods-based economy. Furthermore, there are additional barriers — technical barriers — to an effective carbon tax on goods and services and questions of equity. Should the tax be solely on greenhouse gas emissions, or should the tax be based on some calculation of total resources used? The former would be far easier to implement, so, given other hurdles to implementation, greenhouse gas emissions a better option. Within nations, should governments adjust other forms of taxation to alleviate any undue burden on lowerincome groups? This would need to be answered on a country-by-country basis, where countries with already progressive schemes of taxation would likely implement some mechanism for maintaining existing systems of redistribution. These concerns aside, any dialogue on climate change should be centered on changing consumption patterns, a project best addressed through taxation. Olivia is a junior. She can be reached at onatan1@swarthmore.edu. THE PHOENIX
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Campaign desperation in Obama’s embrace of Occupy
Anxious for any issue to jump start his bid for reelection, President Obama has chosen to position himself as a raving Tyler Becker populist The Swarthmore and promote the Conservative Occupy movement. Liberals view the movement as their own Tea Party, while the White House sees it as a possible boon to Obama’s reelection campaign. Seeking to capture the spirit of the movement, the president has come out in full support of Occupy Wall Street. This hypocritical move is not surprising from a president trying to make himself appear as a “man of the people” and decry the excess of Wall Street. Obama told reporters that the movement reflects the “frustrations the American people feel.” With the housing market’s slow recovery, unemployment statistics showing no sign of receding and the European debt crisis, the economy looks like it’s headed for a double-dip recession. There is no way the president wants to talk about these grim facts on the campaign trail. He lacks the ability to discuss how his own policies have helped the economy, resorting to talking about how the 2009 stimulus package has “saved” jobs
when pressed by reporters and voters. Obama proposed another stimulus in September that has failed to pass Congress, and used the word “support” to describe how the legislation would impact jobs. President Obama is now going after Wall Street. The same president who supported the bailouts of the banks at the end of the Bush administration is now going after those same institutions. The same president who orchestrated the government’s restructuring of the auto industry and supported the auto bailout is now attacking big business. The hypocrisy continues. President Obama received more money from Wall Street in 2008 than any other candidate has in the past. He chose Timothy Geithner, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a creature of Wall Street, as his Treasury Secretary. Geithner was head of the New York Fed while financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers collapsed. MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan and others have accused Geithner of covering up the Wall Street excesses that led to the financial turmoil of the last few years. Then there was Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act). By mandating that all Americans purchase health insurance, providers are set to record even higher profits than in the past. The companies can raise premiums to cover the other new mandates, such as no longer being able to deny insurance based on pre-existing conditions, in addition to gaining millions of new subscribers. This does not benefit
the 99 percent. as one of the 99 percent, angry at Wall The recent Solyndra scandal further Street for the problems the people on shows President Obama’s willingness Main Street are facing due to the proto prop up the very same corporations longed economic downturn. that the Occupy Wall Street movement He will try to paint probable Republidecries. The Obama administration can nominee Mitt Romney as being part gave a $535 billion loan from the govern- of the Wall Street crowd due to Romment to the solar company, only for the ney’s past association with Bain Capicompany to file for bankruptcy. Obama tal, a private equity investment firm. visited the company and used it to proAll of this is an attempt to distract mote green jobs. the American people from the real isThe scandal brought to light the sues going on in the country. existence of the President Federal FinancObama wants to ing Bank, a bank Wall Street The problem for Obama blame operated by the for the lack of ecogovernment to is that his public rhetoric nomic recovery provide loans to to shield himself companies that about Wall Street does not from criticisms Congress and the measure up to his record. of his economic president would policies. like to see sucThe problem ceed. The bank uses unlimited taxpayer for Obama is that his public rhetoric dollars to engage in this loan practice, about Wall Street does not measure up and the Obama administration has been to his record. more than willing to lend out the tax The rhetoric is desperation by the dollars collected from the 99 percent to campaign to change Obama into the prop up corporations such as Solyndra. underdog in the race, fighting against President Obama is emerging as a the one percent. This insincere political crony populist for the purpose of get- strategy aims to take advantage of the ting reelected. Occupy Wall Street movement and the He knows he cannot completely millions of Americans still looking for disavow Wall Street, as shown by his jobs. campaign’s recent hire of former Wall All of this will not get past the Street lobbyist Broderick Johnson as American people. We know that Presian adviser. Obama also needs a lot of dent Obama has pursued government the Wall Street moneymen he raised policies that are not getting Americans from in 2008 to donate again in 2012 in back to work, but blaming Wall Street order to meet his campaign’s fundrais- may be the only political move the presing goals. ident has left. But in the cornfields of Iowa and the Tyler is a sophomore. He can be small towns of Ohio, Obama will act reached at tbecker1@swarthmore.edu.
The state and future of Quakerism at Swarthmore
BY BEN GOOSSEN bgoosse@swarthmore.edu
I would like to copy the campus community to the following letter, sent to President Rebecca Chopp, regarding the state and future of Quakerism at the college. I invite comments, discussion and debate: I am a founding member of Quakers on Campus, the new Young Friends group at Swarthmore. I actually do not self-identify as Quaker—I am Mennonite, another historic peace faith— but Swarthmore’s Quaker past played a significant role in my college decision. For someone who cares about peace witness, progressive social values and historic religious roots, Swarthmore’s Quaker affiliation set it apart from other top tier liberal arts schools. The teachings and beliefs of our Hicksite founders are the direct roots of Swarthmore’s wonderful blend of individualism, liberal arts and social activism. However, as much as I like the vestiges of Quakerism still floating around the campus, I believe that in recent years,
OP-ED
Swarthmore has far under- ues. It should oppose violence sold its ties to the Society of in all forms, whether from inFriends. Whether because of ternational conflict or strucexternal pressures to conform tural oppression. It should take to rising secularism in the col- a strong vocal stance on issues legiate world or because of in- of immigration, the environternal needs to diversify the ment and war. The college comstudent body, Swarthmore has mands influence and respect in reduced much of its rich past the national academic sphere, to token references on campus and it should throw its weight tours. behind peace witness. Change Adminiswill never trators and occur if trateachers ofditionally Swarthmore College activist colten pay little more than should be unabashed leges like lip service— Swarthmore in its Quaker values. remain siif mentioned at all—to lent. Quaker valRecent ues and traspeakers on ditions. I believe that this must Quaker activism and the newly change. Understanding and launched Global Nonviolent even embracing Quakerism is Action Database are certainly neither at odds with maintain- steps in the right direction. The ing Swarthmore’s academic establishment of the Young prestige, nor a threat to the Friends Group also plays diversity of Swarthmore’s stu- an important role in raising dent body. Recognizing over- awareness about Quakerism laps between the vision of at Swarthmore and deepening Swarthmore’s founders and the the link between Swarthmore’s compassionate world-outlook early years and the present. But of many current students and more needs to be done. Future faculty should be a cause for action should of course include celebration, not separation. student and faculty activism, Swarthmore College should but the college administration be unabashed in its Quaker val- should also make a bold public
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October 27, 2011
commitment. The college should begin holding campus-wide debates and forums on issues of peace and conflict, as well as times of silent worship and reflection. The Swarthmore College Peace Collection, internationally renowned among scholars and activists, should be moved from its undignified location in McCabe basement. Further, I would suggest the establishment of a Quaker Affairs Advisor at Swarthmore, modeled on a similar existing position at Haverford. Such a person could be in charge of developing, sponsoring and promoting events at Swarthmore relating to peace activism and Quakerism. The Quaker Advisor could also be in charge of several student workers who would deal with literature production, event coordination and alumni and public relations. A larger role for Quakerism at Swarthmore is important for two reasons. First, it will continue to set Swarthmore apart from other liberal arts schools around the country, giving it a strong ethical mission grounded in historic Quaker values. Second, it will more conscious-
ly attract students whose values are aligned with this mission. Swarthmore can build a community of students from all backgrounds who strongly identify with peace, individual activism and the liberal arts. I believe that to a large degree, the student body already reflects these values. However, I also believe that the administration and most students consider the role of the college to be primarily academic, while values and activism are only secondarily important. This dynamic should be reversed. Finally, I would like to thank you for your interest and role in supporting Quaker events and community at Swarthmore. I personally appreciate your presence and sentiments at the 9/11 service in the Friends Meeting House as well as your introduction of the speakers at the recent panel on Quaker Activism. I believe that you have a compassion for and understanding of Quaker tradition and practice, and that you also have a unique ability to re-privilege Swarthmore’s Quaker past and ongoing peace values. May you use your talents to these ends.
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Men’s soccer loses to Hopkins, drops a third straight by victor brady vbrady1@swarthmore.edu Under the Clothier Field lights and in front of over 600 fans in the Garnet Homecoming Weekend night game, the Swarthmore men’s soccer team fell to Centennial rival Johns Hopkins for the team’s third consecutive defeat. Swarthmore had not lost three consecutive games since 2004. Swarthmore surrendered a goal early in each half and the Blue Jay’s freshman Nick Cerrone preserved the shutout as Hopkins closed out the 2-0 victory, handing the Garnet their first multiple-goal loss since 2008, also 2-0 to Hopkins. The loss also marked the first time that the Garnet had lost a home Centennial match since October 24, 2007 to Muhlenberg. Having dropped consecutive matches to Ursinus and Richard Stockton, Swarthmore needed a strong result against Hopkins to jump back into the race for the regular season Centennial Conference championship. Prior to the match, the team had recognized the members of the 1991 Garnet side that had reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Yet with those veterans on hand and the crowd enthusiastic, it was instead Johns Hopkins who jumped on the board in just the sixth minute when Taylor Woodrum scored off a corner kick that lay in traffic in the box before he finished inside the near post. The Garnet looked dangerous for much of the remainder of the first half. Senior Fabian Castro’s strike towards target was blocked by a Hopkins’ defender, and Jake Weiner ’14, in his first appearance of the season, put a shot from inside
the box just over the crossbar in the 37th minute. “We played pretty well especially after they scored the opening goal,” head coach Eric Wagner said. “We dominated most of the first half, and later in the second half, we were dominating as well. Overall, I’d say it was a fairly even game.” With the score just 1-0 at halftime, the Blue Jays quickly put the match out of reach after the break. Sean Coleman, who transferred to Johns Hopkins last year from the University of New Hampshire, broke free down the left side of the field and fired a well-placed shot from the top corner of the box to the far post and out of the reach of a sailing David D’Annunzio ’12 for the 2-0 lead. Midway through the second half, Swarthmore had its best opportunity of the evening when Castro found a loose ball in the box and volleyed on target. A diving Cerrone was there again to parry the shot aside and preserve the shutout. “I don’t think that it is necessarily the timing of the goals or the way that we come out. I think that it comes down to one thing and that is Pontillo,” Wagner said. “He organizes the team and steadies the team. Before he got injured we were 10-2 and on a four game shutout streak. After he got injured we are 0-3.” Only a handful of the Garnet’s 13 goals against have come during the run of play. Instead, set pieces and the counter-attack have plagued Swarthmore throughout the season. “We have to work on our defensive shape and discipline,” said D’Annunzio, who is 3-0 with a .44 goalsagainst average in his career against Haverford. “We just need to stay switched-on throughout the entire match.” The 11-5 Garnet dropped out of the latest D3soccer.com Top 25 and fell to No. 9 in the NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region
rankings. However, Swarthmore only lost one spot in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region rankings, the rankings used to determine the Pool C at-large bids for the NCAA tournament. Swarthmore sits fourth in the Region, behind Messiah, DeSales, and Manhattanville. The biggest takeaway from the three losses, captain Micah Rose ’12 said, was the lesson that “the details are important. You can’t just play 70 or 80 minutes of a game, you have to play the whole 90 ... there were stretches of the games where we played quite well, but we didn’t do enough and weren’t consistent enough and didn’t put in a whole 90 minutes in any of those matches.” On Wednesday, Rose put the Garnet on the board early off a header from a corner kick, Michael Stewart ’15 finished a perfect feed from Kieran Reichert ’13 before the break, and Fabian Castro ’12 capped the match with his seventh goal of the season in a convincing 3-0 victory over Washington to improve to 5-3 in Centennial Conference play. The Garnet will conclude regular-season play at Haverford on Saturday at 3:00 PM in a match that will have significant playoff and seeding implications. “We know our backs are against the wall now,” Wagner said. “We are going to be fierce. I don’t think that it is going to take anything special to get us fired up. We know that we have to get it done.” D’Annunzio added, “We want to establish ourselves physically. They aren’t going to get any 50-50 balls. They are not going to be able to make any pass that is uncontested. We are going to work harder off the ball and make their lives difficult on the field.”
SPORTS IN PHOTO
Garnet athlete of the week
Allie Coleman
JUNIOR, VOLLEYBALL, PALO ALTO, CA. WHAT SHE’S DONE: Coleman tallied 111 assists total in Swarthmore’s Quad Match sweep. FAVORITE CAREER MOMENT: “When we beat Gettysburg for the first time in program history. We played a great match and ended up beating them in 3 [sets].” WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO: “We want to win out [in] conference play and win the championship.”
Paul Chung The Phoenix
Aarti Rao (10), Anne Rosenblatt (14) and Allison Ranshous played valiantly, but Swarthmore fell 2-1 to Elizabethtown.
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October 27, 2011
Simone Forrester The Phoenix
A MOVIE SHE NEEDS TO SEE: “I haven’t seen most of the Harry Potter movies, and I am told that I need to since I don’t understand the Harry Potter-related references that people make.”
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Women’s soccer demolishes CCNY, eyes playoffs BY ANA APOSTOLERIS aaposto1@swarthmore.edu
With the season winding down to its final week and a playoff spot up for grabs in the last game of the year, the Swarthmore women’s soccer team took a moment last Saturday to look back even as it was taking a step toward the postseason. During a 9-1 non-conference beatdown of the CCNY Beavers, the Garnet recognized the five members of the Class of 2012 who were playing their last match on Clothier Field, Swarthmore’s home turf. Goalie Marie Mutryn, forward Hannah Deming, defender Sam Song and midfielders Alyssa Bowie and Emily Coleman were together in the starting lineup for the first time this season. After the rout, the five seniors were honored in a Senior Day ceremony in front of a Homecoming Weekend crowd of over 300. “It was definitely a feel-good win,” Coleman said. “I think the last home game was bittersweet for the seniors. We’ve had a great time over the four years playing together, so it was sad to play together for the last time at home, but it was nice honoring the careers we’ve had.” “Our teammates made it very special for us,” Deming
said, who scored the first goal of the game. “It was nice to end on a win.” The on-field domination was about as thorough as it could have been, giving the Garnet a margin of victory unlike any other this season. Swarthmore scored five times in the first half and four in the second, outshooting CCNY by a 46-2 margin. Deming’s opening goal came in just the second minute of play, and Swarthmore already had a two-goal advantage before the Beavers managed to take their first shot. Emma Sindelar ’15 scored twice, running her teamleading goals tally to nine, and Bowie, Megan Brock ’14, Ari Spiegel ’13, Amy DiPierro ’15, Rehanna Omardeen ’15 and Amber Famigletti ’14 also found the back of the net. Mutryn was barely tested in her 45 minutes in goal, and Beth Martin ’13 took over at the half, finishing out the win for Swarthmore. On Wednesday, the Garnet bested Bryn Mawr by a 2-0 score. The win featured yet another goal by Sindelar, a second-half goal by Aly Passanante ‘14, and a four-save first start of the year in the net from Katie Sipiora ‘14, who is returning from a hand injury that sidelined her for much of the season.
The victory was the Garnet’s fourth in a row and eleventh of the year. The team has already surpassed its win total from last season, and the win against Bryn Mawr tied the 2010 team’s Centennial Conference win total. Swarthmore is battling with Franklin & Marshall and Haverford for a spot in the playoffs, setting up maximum stakes for the season-ending showdown with the Fords. “Our past few wins have proven that we have the ability to possess the ball throughout the field and finish on our opportunities in front of the goal,” Song said, who hopes to experience the playoffs for the third time in her career at Swarthmore. “It’s important that we continue our focus throughout the last two conference games of the regular season.” “We are definitely confident about the way we’ve been playing not only in games, but in practices as well,” Coleman agreed. “Hopefully, we’ll keep up the good work, because at the level we’re playing, we should be very successful in the tournament.” The Garnet will travel for the final game of the season on Saturday to take on Haverford. Play is set to begin at noon.
Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix
Emily Coleman (13) and Megan Brock (16) helped Swarthmore to their most lopsided win of the year, with Brock scoring a goal; The Garnet seniors were honored prior to the game.
GARNET IN ACTION SATURDAY, OCT. 29
SATURDAY, OCT. 29 (cont.)
Cross-country, Centennial Conference Championship, 11:00 a.m.
Volleyball at Haverford, 2:30 p.m.
Field Hockey at Haverford, 12:00 p.m.
Men’s soccer at Haverford, 3:00 p.m.
Women’s soccer at Haverford, 12:00 p.m.
20 THE PHOENIX
Volleyball vs. Elizabethtown at Haverford, 4:30 p.m. September 29, 2011 October 27, 2011
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Sports
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Volleyball sweeps, defeats first ranked opponent of Swarthmore on Saturday. Extended scoring runs in each of the first two sets, including a 10-point run in the first, gave the Garnet a quick two-set lead. Susquehanna built up a large lead at one point in the third set — the only set of the match in which they posted more kills than Swarthmore — and pulled it out despite the Garnet tying it up late in the set. Swarthmore nearly lost a big lead of its own in set number four, but held on behind sophomore Maggie Duszyk’s seven kills to clinch the match with a 25-22 set victory. Seniors Hillary Santana and Lisa Shang combined for 40 digs (Santana put up 22, Shang 18) while Genny Pezzola ’12 had 21 digs of her own to go along with 12 kills for her tenth double-double match of the season. Team captain Allison Coleman ’13 added 48 assists; she would go on to record 111 for all three matches. For the rest of the day, the Crusaders would go on to sweep Scranton but get swept by Richard Stockton (22-8). The Richard Stockton match, which came next for Swarthmore, was arguably one of the team’s finest efforts this season. Committing only 11 errors over the course of three sets while their opponent had 26, the Garnet won every set by at least five points, winning all three 2519, 25-16, 25-20 to record the sweep. Once again, the Garnet was able to go on long scoring runs that paced its set victories, including a 6-0 run to pull away in the first set and a 10-2 run in the second that erased an Osprey lead. For the Garnet, this was validation that the team can compete with anyone. “At this point, we’ve played top teams in the conference and didn’t get the results we wanted against Hopkins, Gettysburg and F&M,” Shang said. “[This win] shows to our conference how much we’ve improved as a team and that we
by timothy bernstein tbernst1@swarthmore.edu
At the risk of inadvertently summarizing much of this season, it is hard to imagine things going better for the Swarthmore volleyball team than how they went this Saturday. Celebrating Homecoming Weekend and Senior Day on their home court in the Swarthmore Quad Match, the Garnet swept all three matches it played, losing just one set along the way to close out this season’s slate of home games in style. A 3-1 victory over Susquehanna College and 3-0 shutouts of Richard Stockton College and Scranton University moved the team’s overall record to 21-6 and its home record to 10-2. The Garnet has now won seven straight on the season, its last loss a five-set match against Gettysburg on October 8. “It was awesome,” Brone Lobichusky ’14 said of the dominant performance. “It was great to have a big crowd and great to show everybody that we’re a good team, and we can go all the way.” The convincing defeat of Richard Stockton, from the standpoint of the program, was the undisputed highlight of the weekend. The Ospreys came into Saturday’s match ranked fifth in the New York region, marking the first time Swarthmore volleyball has defeated a ranked opponent. Richard Stockton managed a total of fifty-five points in the three-set loss. Head coach Harleigh Chwastyk highlighted a renewed emphasis on being able to hold leads and close out matches. “Something we have worked on in practice is finishing our matches and playing our best with every point we step on the court for,” Chwastyk said. The Susquehanna Crusaders (1515) was the only team to take a set off
It was the first defeat of a ranked opponent in program history.
Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix
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Justin Toran-Burrell The Phoenix
The Garnet’s three victories include a win over Richard Stockton, the fifth-ranked team in the New York Conference.
are a strong contender for the conference championship.” The standout of the landmark victory was Lobichusky, whose .818 hitting percentage — a team-leading 18 kills in just 22 attempts — was a career high. Lobichusky closed out the match in style with the winning kill in the third set that gave Swarthmore its first-ever victory over a ranked opponent. Santana added a match-high 16 digs. “The win was truly a team effort with everyone pushing themselves at practice and during the game,” Katie Amodei ’15 said in an email, “so it made the victory that much more enjoyable.” Richard Stockton defeated Scranton in four sets and Susquehanna in three in their other two matches. Completing the sweep of the day against the Scranton University Royals (14-14) proved harder than the first set — a 25-12 Garnet victory — indicated it would be. The second set went into extra points before Swarthmore came away with the 26-24 win, and only a late run by Swarthmore in the third set allowed the team to pull away, 25-21, without dropping a set. Once more, Pezzola was a leader on offense with 14 kills and seven digs, while Coleman added 21 more assists. On Senior Day, if it truly was their last time playing in Tarble Pavillion, Santana, Pezzola and Shang went out in style. The three combined for 33 kills, 4 aces and 129 digs. However, should the Garnet, currently in fourth place in the conference, maintain that position, it would be able to host the “play-in” game between the fourth and fifth-place conference teams. At the moment, the team in fifth place is Haverford (11-12, 5-3). On Tuesday, Swarthmore traveled
October 27, 2011
to Bryn Mawr, where they defeated the Owls 3-0. Coleman once again led the way with 34 assists, while Danielle Sullivan ‘14 and Danielle Delpeche ‘15 paced the team with seven kills each. With the playoffs on the line, and the Garnet playing some of its best volleyball of the season, the highest priority is to keep up a high level of focus into the postseason, as well as learn to develop a short memory for past mistakes. “When we step on the court to train or play, you’re doing it with a purpose, and not just going through the motions,” Chwastyk said. “We have team goals, but every individual has their own goals, different things they’re looking to improve on. “Another important thing is playing with confidence. As an athlete you tend to fail more than you succeed, so the question is: where do you get your confidence and how do you show that?” One particular strategy to maintain focus has been to break the game down into smaller pieces and to take it one piece at a time. “In games, we want to focus on being the first team to five points, ten points, fifteen points, et cetera,” Shang said. “It is all about increasing the intensity, trying to push each other in practice, playing the game with intensity, not letting any balls drop and holding each other accountable for all of that. The great thing about our team is that we don’t take constructive criticism like that personally.” The Garnet will play on the road against Haverford and Elizabethtown at Haverford on Saturday, October 29 for the final games of the regular season. The match against Haverford is slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. The match against Elizabethtown is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
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