Port & Main Magazine Fall 2014

Fall 2014 V. 5 Issue 1

Life’s a

DRAG

A look into local drag queen culture on pg. 9

Pop some tags Where are the hottest thrift shops in town? Find out on pg. 14.

Blown Away Meet a local glass blowing studio that is shattering the competition on pg. 16

pg. 16

pg. 8

pg. 18

table of

CONTENTS

pg. 5

pg. 20

Is MTV the new sex ed? Find out on pg. 23.

We’re looking for photographers for our next issue: interested? contact Stephanie Harris for info: harri2sc@dukes.jmu.edu 2

P&M, Fall 2014

pg. 14

Letter from the Editor

&

Dear reader,

staff

If you recognize my name, it’s probably because I bring JMU the oh-so-fun Opinion section of The Breeze, but more importantly, the Darts & Pats.

While I love column writing, I do have a secret passion for arts journalism; luckily I get to put together this fine publication for all of you, and I couldn’t be happier.

But that’s enough about me. That’s not why we’re here.

I wanted this first issue of the year to introduce students to subcultures and walks of life that they might’ve never encountered otherwise. College is an experience that should extend your mind as well as your comfort zone.

I hope that didn’t sound preachy.

Anyway, I want to thank you for reading this magazine — or at least making it to page three.

“Editor-in-chief” is a title that I never thought I would have. This is a dream come true, and I appreciate you being along for the ride.

port main Editor-in-Chief Corey Tierney Online Editor Amanda Ellison photo editor Stephanie Harris Copy Editor Drew Crane art Director Hassan Hassan

Corey Tierney Editor-in-Chief

Stephanie Harris, photo editor

In the past year I’ve evolved from Port & Main cover girl to Port & Main photo editor. And honestly, photo editor is more my style. I’m a senior media arts and design major with minors in English and British communication and media.

Contributing Editor IJ Chan Contributing Writers Lauren Hunt Sarah Freeze Erin Flynn Rachel Petty Joanna Morelli Allison Michelli Marta Vucci Amanda Ellison, online editor

I am a senior media arts and design and writing, rhetoric and technical communications double major, and currently the art director of The Breeze. I’ve switched it up and become the online editor of this beautiful magazine, so go follow us on Twitter already!

Contributing Photographers Lauren Hunt Hannah Peterson Briana Bui Alexandra DeAngelis Ads Staff Blake Harvey Katrina Delene Mitchell Myers

Hassan Hassan, art director

Drew Crane, copy editor

I’m in love with video, but design is a mistress that I will always come back to; I can’t live without both.

In my spare time you’ll find me playing rugby, editing video footage or working as a photo editor at Duke Hall. My major is media arts and design (with an art minor) and overall I’m just trying make it here at this great university.

I’m a senior English and and writing, rhetoric and technical communication double major who, for some reason, has a passion for grammar. I’ve combined this with my first love: sports. I’m now the sports editor for The Breeze and hope to be the president of communications for a professional sports team in my future. One can dream, can’t they?

WANT TO GET INVOLVED? portandmainmag@gmail.com Interested in advertising?

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P&M, Fall 2014

Fall 2010 V. 1 Issue 1

port main

&

port main

James Madison University’s Student-Run Magazine

James Madison University’s Student Magazine

1ST P&M

restaurant wars

Winter 2011 V. 1 Issue 2 Fall 2013 V. 4 Issue 1

Foreign affairs

portmain

James Madison University’s Student-Run Magazine

Students take on the world with multiple study abroad trips

The editors of P&M find the best Harrisonburg has to offer

Lights, camera ...

ALCOHOLIC ENERGY DRINKS

Former Dukes use their JMU experiences to further their careers in film

STAY STRONG

Harmless fun? Or potential health risk?

Sticking to New Year’s resolutions

Majors at Work

Different styles of academic life

Winter Film Previews

10

MOVIES TO CHECK OUT OVER BREAK

PERSONAL TRAINERS

UREC TRAINERS OFFER WORKOUT TIPS

Thrifty Fashion

A FALL WARDROBE THAT STAYS WITHIN YOUR BUDGET

PumPed uP kicks

Four sneakerheads have a passion for shoes that can’t be rivaled

Rock Religion

A professor explains how he went from a Christian rocker to an atheist blogger

Story | Sarah Freeze Photography | Stephanie Harris Design | Stephanie Harris

“What if?”

Mark Cline talks with an energy that’s hard to miss. His mind jumps from topic to topic so fast that there’s barely enough time for his mouth to catch up. He swaggers across his studio, which is packed full of his fiberglass sculptures and sweltering in the late summer. But the heat doesn’t seem to phase him as he discusses the mechanics of his Dr. Seuss’s Grinch sleigh that he rides annually in the Christmas Parades for both Lexington and Buchanan, Virginia.

“It rocks back and forth when I walk to the front and back,” Cline explains, gesturing with his hands.

“You can see Max down there,” He points at the iconic pup with a reindeer antler tied to his head, “I come down here and do the whole ‘Max! Where are you, boy?!’

— the whole thing,” he says.

He acts it all out in front of the float, which is full of other sculptures to be climbed on, bending down on one knee near the front to talk to the fiberglass sculpture in his stage voice. All that’s missing is the green makeup and a Santa suit.

Cline’s company, Enchanted Castle Studios, has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a Monster Museum at Natural Bridge in 1982, which he had up-and-running by the time he was 21-yearsold.

In the past 29 years, Cline has started a Ghost Tour in Lexington that still runs annually from Memorial Day weekend until October.

He’s been commissioned for projects all over the state, from Virginia Beach to Buena Vista. His other attractions — including “Professor Cline’s Dinosaur Kingdom”

Local man builds quirky art empire and “Hunt Bigfoot with a Redneck” have been temporarily postponed due to a fire at Cline’s Studio back in 2012.

But here at JMU, not a lot of students would know who Cline is at first mention. Perhaps they would know about Foamhenge, which is an exact replica of Stonehenge made of Styrofoam located just an hour and 10 minutes away from campus in Natural Bridge, Virginia.

Foamhenge was built on April Fool’s day in 2004 as a practical joke. Sculpted from donated foam and reinforced on beams of donated wood and steel, each piece is an exact copy of the 4,000-year-old stones in England. The only real difference is that, while the druids took 1,500 years to complete the original Stonehenge, Cline and his friends were able to craft the stones P&M, Fall 2014 5

Mark Cline built “Foamhenge,” a life-size replica of England’s Stonehenge, in Natural Bridge, Virginia. It was featured in The Huffington Post in September.

in just six weeks, and raised them at their location in Natural Bridge in a single afternoon. “[The druids] should have used foam,” Cline says jokingly.

Cline’s company tries to do a sculpture every year for April Fool’s; the most recent was a giant fiberglass ant on a water tower in Goshen, Virginia, in 2013. Another in Glasgow, Virginia, involved several fiberglass dinosaurs that were put up all over the town. Some still remain today, earning the town the title of “The Town that Time Forgot.”

But none of the other sculptures have received the attention that this Styrofoam replica has over the last 10 years, an impressive number, seeing that the sculptures were only supposed to last about 90 days.

Instead, Foamhenge has been featured in a Huffington Post article titled “America’s Quirkiest Roadside Attractions” on Sept. 11, as well as ranking third on National Geographic’s “Top 10 U.S. Roadside Attractions.” The Henge even has its own definition on Urban Dictionary. Cline says that he’s gotten phone calls about his work being featured in tour books overseas.

But Cline was not an overnight success; all of this has come from a

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lifetime of hard work and dedication to a job that he loves. The real start for Enchanted Castle Studios came during a low point in Cline’s life. Fresh out of high school, Cline’s grades weren’t good enough for college and he wasn’t what he calls “military material.” So without school and without a job, he spent that first year living in Staunton on his own.

“I was a bum,” he admits easily.

That all changed when, one day, Cline took out his notebook and wrote down one simple question: “What do I want out of life?” The answer came easy enough: He wanted to be happy. With that written down, his next step was completely logical. He hitchhiked to the unemployment office and took the first job that they had available: working at a resin company.

Resin is commonly used to make small plastic knickknacks, and that’s what Cline did for the company. Then one day the owner of the company pulled Cline aside after work.

“Let me show you how to make a mold of your hand,” the owner said to the 19-year-old Cline, who eagerly consented.

“Man I could make anything out

of this,” Cline said when he held the perfect mold of his hand later.

“Good,” his boss says. “Here’s a five-gallon bucket of resin, go make stuff.”

Now, Cline leans against the door of his studio, looking out over the small lot of his artwork that has been used all over the state of Virginia. He folds his hand in front of him, pretending to write on it as he thinks of that day back on that park bench.

“What if I hadn’t sat on the bench that day?” he asks, the question sounding like he’s asked it several times before. “What if my pen was out of ink? What if I had forgotten my notebook that day?

Or just didn’t want to write ’cause I was feeling lazy or something?”

The “what if” questions go on and on; as all of the possibilities play through Cline’s head as he regards the moderate success he’s built for himself.

Finally, he nods to himself and shakes off the darker thoughts.

He looks over his work again and smiles. “It’s not about the money,” he says, completely unprovoked.

“It’s about the healing, making people feel good. That’s what it’s all about.” n

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Guys & Dolls Rhinestone Productions is bringing drag to Harrisonburg, whether it likes it or not

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Story | Lauren Hunt Photography | Lauren Hunt Design | Lauren Hunt

The headquarters for Rhinestone Productions — Harrisonburg’s very own drag company — is a small, two-car garage tucked into the farmland of Rockingham County. Despite the open doors, the air inside hangs thick with cigarette smoke and hairspray. Shelves of wigs line the walls in every shape, size and color imaginable. The shelves sit above boxes full of any kind of makeup or hair product a girl could need.

In the back of the garage is a table set up in the corner displaying the latest works of art by jeweler Michael Batton; huge rings, earrings and necklaces that sparkle and twinkle in the light.

“The rings have an open back so they can be tightened on your finger,” Batton says.

“If they’re not put on real tight, they’ll fly right off and into the audience.”

Some necklaces take up to 16 hours to make, and the biggest and flashiest matching sets of a necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets can cost up to $400.

“That’ll make them break — and then you have one pissed off drag queen,” Batton said.

The sound of laughter explodes from a group sitting together on the other side of the garage. It’s a room full of big personalities and even bigger wigs.

“Hey, Taylor! Got it in the butt lately?” A group of men sitting at two tables pushed together in the middle of the garage giggle as they wait for fellow drag queen Taylor Morgan’s response.

Taylor stops drawing in her eyebrows to laugh. “Yeah, last night!”

inine gay man. This is the most widely used term, but some performers prefer the term “female impersonator” or “illusionist.”

Underground drag cultures have existed for most of the 20th century and began appearing visibly along with other LGBT communities in the 1960s, despite the fact that all homosexual acts, including performing in drag, were illegal in every state but Illinois during that time. Many communities began to organize and create chapters. They formed “houses,” where older and more experienced “house mothers” would take in new queens and teach them the art of drag.

“When it’s obviously

a man and you make them look not like a man, it’s a work of art.

Drag? In the ’burg?

Walking around downtown Harrisonburg, it’s hard to imagine the thriving dragqueen culture right at the heart of it. With a population of about 50,000, it’s not a huge city by any means. Nestled right under the Appalachian Mountains and surrounded on all sides by farmland, it’s not necessarily the poster city for drag.

“We’ve never had a problem with the community,” Jayda Knight, founder Rhinestone Productions, says. “Sometimes we get called bad names, but that’s pretty rare.”

The origins of the art of drag can be traced back to as far as 16th century Shakespearean and classical Chinese theater, in which men would have to dress and perform as women since women weren’t allowed on stage. Over the centuries it’s transformed into an art form of its own.

The term “drag queen” comes from a combination of the words “drag,” an acronym for “dress resembling a girl,” and “queen,” an anti-slang term used for a fem-

”

Chad, Jayda Knight’s partner

Where the magic happens

There are a few makeup stations set up around the garage with a queen settled at each one. The transformations the queens are about to undergo include glitter and some magic, but it’s nowhere near as quick or smooth as Cinderella’s.

“It’s a work of art,” Chad, the resident makeup artist and Jayda Knight’s partner, says. “When it’s obviously a man and you make them look not like a man, it’s a work of art.”

The first step is gluing down the eyebrows.

“You have to glue them down and then you cover them up so you can draw them on later,” Lana Knight says, who was competing for the Miss Harrisonburg Newcomer at the show on April 19.

She coats her eyebrows with an Elmer’s glue stick and dries them with a blow

drier. After several layers of glue, she puts on a generous layer of foundation so she can begin contouring. Her partner, Larry, watches as she puckers her lips to find her cheekbones and holds up a piece of paper as a stencil for her highlight and helps her match it on the other side. She spends about ten minutes on her cheeks and eyes, making sure they’re even.

“I never thought I’d be a drag queen,” Lana Knight says as she swirls her eye shadow brush in a white pallet and brushes it in the inside corners of her eyes to brighten them. She mentions that she’s spent all day at the office practicing walking around in her heels for the next night.

“When I’m Lana, I’m someone different and I can express a different side of myself.

It’s like a bug. Once I got my face on and began performing, I knew I could do it and I liked it.”

Dressing in drag is truly a labor of love and passion. The transformation these girls make is neither quick nor painless.

“You’ll want to see this.” Jayda Knight says as she heads over to Taylor Morgan’s station in the garage. “She’s about to put her bump on. This is the most painful part of drag. It’ll bring tears to my eyes.”

The bump is a wig that’s turned inside out and molded into a ball and used to give volume to a hairpiece. Taylor positions the bump to where she wants it on the crown of her head and balances it there while she grabs a roll of duct tape and begins wrapping tape around her head until it doesn’t budge. She proceeds to pull a blond, curly wig off of the rack and pulled it over the bump.

“You need something else there. It’s just so — ” Chad says, making a grabbing motion in the air, as if grasping for the word he was looking for. He’s been keeping a careful eye on everyone all evening.

“So what? That don’t tell me nothing,” Taylor raises an eyebrow at him in the mirror as she mimics his grabbing motion.

“You can see your dark hair in the front.”

Chad says.

“So what? I need to add a pompadour or something?” Chad nods and Taylor reaches down and grabs a bag full of hair. She pulls out a small patch of blonde hair and positions it in front of the bump.

“The duct tape doesn’t bother me as much,” Taylor Morgan says. “The most painful part is the bobby pin. It’s gotta go between my head and the tape or else it’s all gonna fall off.”

She makes a face as she works a bobby pin into place to cover her hair.

“We have to use Goo Gone to get it off.

If you tried to just pull it off you’d pull my whole damn head off,” she says.

P&M, Fall 2014

9

eyelashes out of her face. “I get to be the person I want to be sometimes. When I’m Jessica I say a lot of things I wouldn’t normally say.”

For her, it’s all about the audience reactions.

“I just love to see smiles on their faces,” she says.

Kayla Kelly, a drag queen with Rhinestone Productions and one of the judges for the upcoming competition, walks over to the group in her new pantsuit, which had just been sewn together about an hour before.

“Your thighs are too low,” Chad says as he walks over to Kayla Kelly and reaches down into her jumper to adjust her thighs.

After some jerking and yanking, her thighs were up where they needed to be. “There you go.”

“We act like we hate each other, but we don’t. We really all love each other. We’re all one big family,” Max Dean, a drag veteran for nearly 40 years, says. She watches as Lana Knight nervously poses for the camera. Max was the first to jump up and help.

“Here, put your hands behind your back and show us some tits,” she says as she adjusts Lana Knight’s feet and shoulders, tipping her chin up toward the camera. It’s clear that Max has been performing in drag for years. “Beautiful.”

Showtime

Lana Knight performs in the Miss Gay Harrisonburg Newcomer Pageant.

The transformation Arguably the most important part of the two-hour long preparation is creating a woman’s figure on a man’s body.

It starts with two layers of panty hose and old couch cushions that have been cut and shaped to look like a woman’s curves. The cushions are put between the two layers of panty hose and adjusted to give the queen a woman’s figure. Then, at least two more layers of panty hose are added over the cushions, a padded bra is placed over the chest and in most cases, a girdle to cinch the waist.

“People think that female impersonators just want to be women or change themselves, but it’s not that,” Jessica Taylor says as she sits in Jayda Knight’s kitchen, taking a break from the garage.

She’s wearing a Jessica Rabbit-esque red dress and her crown was pinned in a short, bob-like wig. “It’s a lot to try to transform into curves with such a straight figure. It’s an art.”

During the day, Jessica Taylor is a construction worker. It’s only on every third Saturday of the month that she dons her makeup and wigs.

“I had always been in theater in high school, and it was more of an extension of the theatrical part of my life,” she says as she brushes some hair that had gotten caught in her two-inch long

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The Artful Dodger, where the pageant is being held, is ironically enough, less than a half-a-minute walk down the sidewalk from a church with a towering steeple and stained-glass windows. On this particular night, the Dodger is packed to the brim with people. An older woman sits near the stage with her oxygen tank and tubes. She’s there, even with all of the cigarette smoke blowing into the café from its open doors. A little girl about six or seven years old sits with her mother in the front row.

“Hello b------, we’re about to get this show on the road,” Taylor Morgan, the emcee for the night, says as she sits on the left side of the stage, shielding her eyes from the spotlight with her hand.

“Oh, are there children in here? S--- … F--- ... Damn ... I mean, gosh darn.”

Once their song begins, each performer stays behind the curtain for anywhere between 10 to 30 seconds — just enough time for the audience to hear the song and imagine what kind of costume the girl will be in. They’re usually in heels and gowns that would make even a seasoned model nervous.

Each girl is judged based on performance quality, crowd interaction and how much money in tips she brings in. The theatrics of the art are apparent; the girls know how to put on a show. Despite the place being too packed to breathe, the girls somehow find a way to move in and out of the crowd to grab the dollar bills that audience members wave in the air.

The crowd members hold their drinks in the air and dance along, sometimes offering a sip or a chug along with their tip. Pink baskets are passed around to collect the dollars that the queens can’t reach. Everyone is having a good time and it shows.

Lana is contestant No. 4. She comes out onto the stage in a black gown, draped in strands of silver and gold rhinestones. Her smile is tight and she shakes a little as she walks down to the end of the platform, but she is steady on her heels. The practice paid off.

As she makes her way down the stairs and into the crowd, her smile becomes more genuine as she is met with several dollars, folded longways to be more visible. She smiles and winks as she grabs tip after tip before moving deeper into the crowd.

The spotlight follows her as she weaves in and out of the audience, grabbing dollar after dollar until she holds a bouquet of green in her hands. She finds an open spot in the floor and begins

The contestants for the Miss Harrisonburg Newcomer lined up on stage at the Artful Dodger in Harisonburg awaiting the results. Lana Knight came in first with $475 raised.

to jump to the music and the crowd follows suit. Lana takes a bow as the song ends and the crowd erupts into applause and cheers.

She’s all smiles.

“Great job, baby,” Jayda Knight says as Lana Knight drops her tips on the table to be counted. It’s a pretty big pile.

The little girl sitting in the front row watches with a twinkle in her eye as each queen approaches her to take the dollar she’s holding out.

“Thank you, baby,” they say and give her a kiss on the cheek. Her smile splits her face from ear to ear.

When one performer throws the dollars in the air for flare, she’s the first to begin picking them up once the performance is over.

She makes a basket out of her shirt and carries them over to Jayda Knight, who thanks her and wraps her in a big hug before planting a smooch on her cheek.

No matter your age, gender, sexual orientation, skin color or religion, everyone is welcomed with open arms into the big family.

“Jayda is all about love. If you can’t love yourself, how can you make anyone happy? My family and friends are very supportive of what I do,” Jayda Knight says. But not everyone is so lucky. That’s where Rhinestone Productions steps in to help those who want to perform but don’t have the means to or the support they need

from the people around them.

“Everyone’s entitled to try it once,” Jayda, who is considered the mother of the family, says. “We want to encourage girls and help them develop their persona. We help find their inner diva and bring it out. It’s theater. It’s art.”

And it’s one big family.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to crown the new Miss Harrisonburg Newcomer.” All of the contestants were lined up waiting for the results, all visibly nervous. One of the other newcomers, Venom Vain, grabbed Lana Knight’s hand and holds it to her wrist so that Lana could feel her pulse.

My heart is racing!” Venom Vain says as she fans her face with her other hand. Taylor Morgan opens the envelope.

“In first place, with a total of $475 raised, is Lana Knight.”

Everyone cheers as Lana Knight was crowned and her sash pinned before spilling out onto the patio of the Dodger, ready for some fresh air and relief from the heat of the 100-plus bodies that had been packed in the tiny café.

“It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off,” Larry says, watching as Lana Knight snaps picture after picture. She’s wears her crown and sash with confidence. “I’m glad to say that I was at least a little part of that. I’m really proud of her.” n P&M, Fall 2014

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Throwback Frugal shoppers and hipsters have the right idea when it comes to raiding the racks at consignment shops.

Shopping at thrift stores is an adventure into a treasure trove of bargain deals on everything from grandma sweaters and quirky coffee mugs to first edition Twilight books and your favorite movies on VHS tape. Harrisonburg is home to a selection of thrift stores that would make even Macklemore turn green with jealousy.

Gift & Thrift 731 Mt. Clinton Pike

Located downtown, Gift and Thrift is a short walk from Eastern Mennonite University’s campus and offers a wide selection of clothing that’s color-coded to perfection, household items and furniture. Most notable is their book selection, chock full of best-sellers, young adult paperbacks and nonfiction on a variety of subjects. Be sure to check out the vintage clothing section, a gold mine for unique costume pieces, poodle skirts from the ’50s and hippie garb from the ’60s and ’70s.

The Salvation Army

425 E. Washington St. This large warehouse offers a classic thrift shopping experience. Every nook and cranny is packed with trinkets and knickknacks looking for their new forever home. Don’t forget to explore the back section of the warehouse, home to a collection of furniture, bicycles, wheelchairs and the occasional out-of-tune piano.

Goodwill 2025 E. Market St. / 2475 S. Main St. Goodwill is so good that there are two locations in Harrisonburg. Seasoned thrift shoppers know that Goodwill is the place to find all that retired spirit-wear for sporting events on the cheap. Where else in town can you get a JMU sweatshirt for $3?

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Thrifting

Story | Allison Michelli Photography | Briana Bui Design | Hassan Hassan

Plato’s Closet 1790 E. Market St. Looking for that last season Michael Kors bag, or a pair of practically new Ugg boots? Plato’s Closet is the destination for fashion forward shoppers on a budget. Along with a rotating stock of trendy, seasonal pieces, Plato’s Closet will also offer you cash for gently used, brand name clothing and accessories.

Mercy House 1005 S. High St. The great thing about Mercy House is that along with providing a wide selection of consigned items like clothes, books and furniture, they also help fight homelessness in Harrisonburg.

Tried and True 600 University Blvd.

Tried and True is conveniently located next to east campus in the same shopping plaza as Cinnamon Bear Café. The store offers weekly color tag sales that give 50 percent off any item’s original price.

P&M, Fall 2014 15

BLINDED

BY THE LIGHT Sunspots Studios makes glassware that’s out of this world From the outside, it doesn’t seem like much: a crusty, three-story brick building angled to the corner it stands on.

A peek inside, however, reveals much more, with the dusty windows seen from outside provide just the correct amount of light to hit the multitude of glass creations — confections of what seems to be nothing more than sun and technicolor; this is Sunspots Studios.

“It’s a complicated thing,” Caroline Sheridan, co-owner of Sunspots Studios, says. “It wasn’t like we just said – ‘OK, let’s just open this really cool gallery/glassblowing studio and call it Sunspots.’”

Once inside, the glass work seems to have no bounds.

For this particular season, there are at least 60 glass-blown pumpkins in all varieties of oranges and whites. Each pumpkin’s small stem has perfectly curled emerald leaves that sit atop it.

Doug Sheridan, one of the three experienced glassblowers at the studio and co-owner of Sunspots, originally only did work with metals as a single artisan. Some time after Caroline and Doug met in Charlottesville and married thereafter, Doug’s work expanded to include glass in response to consumer demand.

The couple sold their products to about 6,000 different wholesale stores, such as gift shops and gardening stores, and did well for quite some time.

“Eventually, the wholesale business was kind of killed by cheaply manufactured knockoffs, so we kind of lost that business,” Caroline says. “But, at the same time, we had been growing this little retail — so that’s what’s been happening for the past eight or nine years.”

But the turn of fate appeared to favor the couple.

People in town wanted to be able to buy some of the things that we were making,” Caroline says.

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Story | Joanna Morelli Photography | Alexandra DeAngelis Design | Stephanie Harris The couple moved to its location in Staunton, Virginia, in 2000, while expanding the studio in size slightly every few years, until it reached the size that it is today in 2007. Visitors have come from as far as New York, Wisconsin, Venezuela and Chile to see the Sheridans’ studio. The name seemed to come as naturally as the creation of the studio did.

“That [the name] came along with the suncatcher line that we had at one point,” Caroline says. “We started calling the suncatchers “sunspots” and that kind of stuck. So, because glass is hot and it looks like the sun when you look in a furnace, it seemed to fit in a lot of different ways.”

The studio currently employs five glassblowers – three of them, including Doug, are experienced, and two are apprentices.

“We typically have found glassblowers who have already been glassblowers for awhile,” Caroline says. “Some people have a knack for it, and some people don’t. Some people can learn it, but it just takes longer for them to understand and do it. It does take several years to really be an independent glassblower.”

All of the experienced glassblowers can create a few of their

s

own designs, in addition to the designs that Doug thinks up and creates for the store. For many, it would seem an exhausting and daunting to task to think up so many products to create. However, Doug, who has been doing artisan work for years, is unabashed about the matter.

“For me, being creative is kind of a muscle,” Doug says as he stands before some of the creations of the studio that glimmer on the window pane, such as an emerald green frog as well as an icy-blue seahorse dangling in the light. “The more you exercise it [creativity], the better it works. I’m not afraid to make mistakes – that’s a big part, too … I’d rather have one victory than three failures and quit.”

Doug describes glassblowing as a “linear process.”

If you mess up in one step, you must repeat the entire process. To blow glass, the basic ingredients that make up glass are needed: silica, soda and lime are usually in typical glass.

“We melt glass from those materials in our furnaces, then we take a hot blow pipe and gather the hot glass at the end, blow it into a shape, and put it into an oven to cool it over night,” Doug says. “Everything we make during the day we put in and hold at 900 degrees during the day, and then when we’re done it comes down slowly overnight.”

The process involves precision and a good work ethic; burns are bound to happen, as are mistakes while making a piece. It’s this way that Doug introduces another of Sunspots Studio’s experienced glassblower — Charles Hall.

“Where are your eyebrows, Charles Hall?” Doug asks as Hall as he fills a large water bottle with apple cider.

Hall, who has been glassblowing for 28 years after doing metal work for a brief period, shows various other burns and scratches as proof of his labor. Hall switched from metal work to glassblowing while he was at the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology.

“It was the first really nice day of spring and I was sitting and doing my metal stuff,” Hall says. “And, I hear this door open and I hear this music and I saw this guy wheeling a keg of beer into a door – and I had to go down there, I didn’t know what was down there – and it was a glass shop! And, literally, that was it.”

After schooling, Hall had an apprenticeship for threeand-a-half years, after which he did his own independent studio work. Eventually, Hall ended up at Sunspots.

Hall describes his progress as an artist and glassblower as always having room for improvement.

“There’s this lovely story I heard a little while ago Charles Hall, an experienced glassblower with Sunspots, uses a torch for his projects. that’s a really good way to describe where I’m at,” Hall says.

“A person is interviewing an elderly member of the philhartakingly look up the exact anatomy of a bird,” Hall says. “It’s monic orchestra and said to him – ‘I hear you still practice. more about the perception of it; it doesn’t have to be exactly Why?’ The guy thinks for a second and looks at him and says, identical to what it is, although there is some beauty to that.

‘Because I think I’m making progress.’ It’s one of those things It’s just more comfortable.”

– you’re always finding new ways to look at things.”

To prove his point further, Hall puts his hand on the table Hall focuses on the artistic side of glassblowing, especially to point to a metal ring with a small hole in the middle. when describing his current project – a bird skull atop of a “See that little thing?” Hall says, pointing to the ring. “That totem that he hopes to make wings for. little thing is so precious, because it could be anything.”

“I’m not uber literate. I know a lot of people who painsAnd that, indeed, is true with glass. n P&M, Fall 2014 17

It was a sunny autumn Saturday — or at least it started that way — and my friends and I were deciding what we should do. None of us had homework, the football team wasn’t playing on campus and we were looking for a place to cool down. We had seen a few pictures and videos of people jumping off a tower in what looked like a lake, and after some research we found out that it was Union Springs Tower located in nearby Dayton.

We wanted to check the tower out for ourselves. With bathing suits on and towels in hand, we left Harrisonburg and started toward our destination. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into our drive, it began to downpour. We knew there was a chance of rain, though it was only about 30 percent, but it was coming down hard and pummeling the windshield. We continued driving on the winding roads in hopes that it would clear up by the time we got there.

The drive was about 30 minutes as we passed through extremely rural areas and it began to clear up as we got closer. We passed some residential areas, small houses and many farms. We turned on Woodcock Lane just a short distance off Route 33 West in Rockingham County, and eagerly arrived at our destination of Hollow Lake.

We stepped out into the humid air and the 33foot tower lay ahead of us.

To our surprise, there were a ton of other people at the spot. Cars were everywhere, people were barbecuing and we heard screaming and laughing off in the distance. It was a hot day (now that the sky cleared up) and one of the first weekends back at school, so people were catching rays and jumping off the tower. It’s a pretty secluded spot in the mountains with a very earthy vibe. We parked the car and investigated how to get down the hill to where the lake is. After a muddy and slippery walk down to the lake, we waded into the water and observed the scene. Some people swam around while others hung out at the top of the tower and jumped off.

“That looks awesome,” one of my more adventurous friends said. “Let’s go.”

Those jumping from the tower made it look as though they did it in their sleep and told us that the water was extremely deep.

“We come here all the time,” a male student said. Some people hesitated at the top, while others had no problem doing spins and gainers off the tower. Everyone appeared to be having a great time, whether they were jumping from the top or relaxing at the bottom.

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Off the

deep

end

Story | Rachel Petty Photography | Hannah Peterson Design | Amanda Ellison

We shakily climbed the ladder (avoid the bottom rung — it’s rusted off), which was easily the scariest part, and admired the view from atop the tower. The mountains in the distance looked gorgeous from that high up, and we glanced down to see our friends who now looked like ants admiring us from the bottom.

We breathed in the fresh air and took our last look around before jumping. After counting down from three, we took the jump, and the rush was incredible. Adrenaline took over and we felt as if we were flying. I jumped off a second time and my friend decided to try out the rope swing that was attached lower down on the tower.

“I wouldn’t step on that wood piece if I were you,” someone shouted from the bottom, “It’s been there for a while and isn’t very sturdy.” She carefully grabbed the rope and swung off into the warm water.

The tower gives people something to do in nature that isn’t the usual hiking or fishing. “We should definitely come back,” another one of my friends said. “But only if there’s no chance of rain.”

We decided that we’d undoubtedly return with more people (and in better weather). n

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Back to basics Local residents maintain a self-sustaining lifestyle

Story | Erin Flynn Photography | Stephanie Harris Design | Stephanie Harris

Five houses of various sizes and styles sit snugly in the something so ugly turn into something beautiful.” shape of a square at 715 North Main Street.

Like the other village workers, Amorest is also mindful of It’s the quad version of downtown Harrisonburg. But his impact on the world and attempts to reduce his negaunlike the JMU’s familiar hot spot, the Spring Village — as tive influence on it. According to Amorest, doing little things its residents fondly call it — aims to reduce any harmful like watering the gardens with the leftover dishwater, being environmental effect it could have on the world. mindful of the electricity he uses and occasionally going “We kind of ask ourselves what are our personal and coldumpster diving helps to prevent food from being wasted as lective actions are and how do they affect the world around well as provides for the house’s needs. us,” Tom Benevento, one of the community’s representatives The projects going on at the village emphasize their goal says. “How does, you know, what we buy, use and consume, of nonviolence and healthy living. how does that affect someone who’s in a war zone? Or someOn such project is a subterranean greenhouse that colone that’s in a sledge shop? Or how does that cause climate lects the earth’s heat, which helps cut down on electric heat change?” used during the winter months.

The Spring Village oasis was created about a year ago Their living fuel fence, which is made up of Black Locust when the director of the New Community Project brought trees, has multiple uses by providing fuel for their gas stove, the idea of creating an eco-friendly, violence-free commuheating their house and. The tree leaves are also edible and nity to Benevento’s attention. The New Community Project provide mulch for the village’s various gardens. is a small, non-profit organization that hopes to change the According to Amorest, most of the Spring Village employworld by providing opportunities that connect with their ees are volunteers, with the money they earn going toward a passions, resources that challenge them, experiences that “common cause” fund that covers the workers’ basic needs, impact them and a community that provides them with including food, toilet trees and gas money, for those who hope. have family members that live far away.

And the village’s 12 to 15 workers and volunteers are The living fuel fence isn’t the only way they try to remain drawn to this kind of lifestyle. eco-friendly.

“I just thought that community life is what I needed for The “Edible Gray Water System,” another Spring Village my life,” Preston Amorest, a prospective partner who lives in project, collects the bicycle powered washing machine’s one of the on-site houses, says.

Amorest is on the protoculture team, which is charge of the site’s upkeep and works on the house coordinating team, which does house-related tasks, such as collecting firewood and building shelves. He also assists with the refugee houses that are located in the Spring Village.

But personally, his favorite project so far has been helping his friend rebuild the run-down house that he had bought in the village.

“It was just a really cool experience to go in there and just start working and see that you can make something out of nothing, really,” Amorest says.

JMU volunteers are frequent at the Spring Village downtown. Many of them are seniors working on capstone projects.

“It was just really cool to see

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greywater — or wastewater. Plants from their garden not only take in the gray water, but clean the water and produce food.

Some of the village members aren’t just reducing the amount electricity they use but are attempting to go completely without it.

Rachel Sarah and Nick Melaf, a married couple and two JMU alumni, live in the nonelectric house in the village and use homemade candles and a wood stove to cook and heat the house.

“It’s kind of experimental to see ‘Can we live without electricity and be happy?’” Benevento says. “You know, ultimately, it’s about the quality of our lives and are we really feeling fulfilled and energized and coming alive? Right? And is electricity an ingredient necessary for that? Because we know electricity is very damaging [to] the world around us the way it’s produced right now with coal.”

These projects aren’t just for the Spring Village, but for the Harrisonburg community as well.

“We’re in a noisy street, we’re in a flooded plain, so it’s kind of a broken place and we’re about transforming that,” Benevento says.

However, this community isn’t just focused on work. They also hope to build each other up through their weekly potluck dinners, which they call “Chabot.”

Several JMU students have gotten involved as volunteers.

While others, including senior integrated science and technology major Jonathan Vaughan, have done their capstone projects with the Spring Village.

Vaughan came to the Spring Village after Benevento made a visit to ISAT looking for volunteers.

He now leads the three-member aeroponics team, which consists of his twin brother, along with senior integrated science and technology (ISAT) major Christopher and fellow senior ISAT classmate Sarah Guthrie.

Aeroponics is a technique where a plant’s roots are hung mid-air while they are sprayed with nutrient filled mist.

One idea Vaughan supports is the bike trail the new community project is creating. The multi-use trail would connect the JMU campus to downtown Harrisonburg and, according to Benevento, would encourage healthy living.

Besides trying to better the community, Vaughan was also attracted to the Village’s welcoming atmosphere.

“It’s just a great community of people,” he says. “You can really engage with the local community that way … They have lunch at 12 everyday … they have a lot of decent franchise members from the public, and it’s just a great way to give back to the community, really.”

But while many JMU students and Harrisonburg residents show their support, they can never have too many helpers.

“They’re always looking for volunteers, they always need people to come out and help,” Vaughan says.

As they continue their efforts to have a positive impact on the community, members of the Spring Village aren’t afraid to expand their influence throughout the rest of the world.

“We’re really about joining hands for efforts of people around the world who really want to transform themselves and the world around them,” Benevento says. “Really to create a platform for each of us to become vessels of love ... and hope, to become fully alive.”

To get involved as a worker or volunteer, Tom Benevento can be contacted at (540) 432-3696 or through email at beneventoncp@gmail.com. n

Jacob (above) both lives and works at the Spring Village property.

Rachel Sarah Melaf (above) and her son live in an electiricity-free home.

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Let’s talk about sex Shows like ‘Guy Code’ and ‘Virgin Territory’ shouldn’t be young adults’ main source for sexual education

Column | Marta Vucci

Graphic | Hassan Hassan

Remember the first time you had sex? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Maybe you loved the person, maybe you didn’t. Maybe I’m way ahead and you haven’t “done it” yet. Moral of the story is, everyone is on a different sexual journey.

Regardless of whether or not you’re sexually active, you can’t ignore sex as a young adult. You are now capable of sifting through information and forming your own opinions about it instead of sweeping it under the rug.

But where do you get your information? I can tell you where not to get it from: MTV. Today various representations of sexual expectations are plastered all over MTV’s show listings, making it hard not to notice the messages they communicate to us while navigating through this crucial developmental period.

In the shows “Girl Code” and “Guy Code,” various comedians of both genders offer commentary on topics specified for girls and guys.

The good news is, these comedians aren’t afraid to talk about sex. They may not be certified health professionals, but they use a relaxed and comfortable tone, implying that sex is a topic that can be addressed freely.

But, they have also drawn very clear lines between topics for guys and topics for girls.

In one weekend, “Guy Code” explored the sexual themes of “Girls With Boyfriends,” “Having Sex,” “Male Bonding” and “Sexting.” While “Girl Code” covered “Being Needy,” “Lesbians,” “Crying,” “Breaking Up,” “Girls Night Out” and finally, “Sexting.”

What I’m getting out of this information is that guys only need to worry about “Having Sex” and “Girls With Boyfriends” in the sexual landscape. Meanwhile, girls have got a lot of extra material to cover.

Just how accurate is that representation, ladies? Have you never had to worry about “Guys With Girlfriends” or “Having Sex?” Are the worst of your issues really “Being Needy” and “Breaking Up?” But let’s not forget about virgins: those who aren’t having sex, be it by choice or circumstance. If you’re someone who has yet to “give it up” in this vast sexual spectrum, is it something that should really matter?

According to MTV’s “Virgin Territory,” yes, it should. The series follows the lives of 15 young adults, ages 18 to 23, who have yet to lose their virginities.

MTV has done what it does best and exploited a personal milestone by undermining the value of virginity. 18-year-old Abby has decided that she’s ready to “lose it” to her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day, which is a very nice sentiment, but is it really that special if it’s also documented for a reality TV series?

20-year-old Kyle is desperate to lose his virginity after keeping it a secret from his friends to maintain respect. 19-year-old Mikaela is rushing to find someone to have sex with so she is no longer singled out as the virgin of the group. Why are these personal journeys so significant that they must be broadcast for millions of viewers every Wednesday at 11 p.m.?

This may not seem like much when you’re lounging around your TV. “It’s just entertainment, it doesn’t actually affect me,” you might argue. But think about the fact that this information reaches many other people your age, seeping into billions of brains that can afford cable TV. Sex is a prominent theme in our society and MTV has put it on our radar, but that’s not the issue here.

We should be aware of sexual topics and how they affect us because many of us are in the process of exploring sex as we go through our early adult years. The way we treat other people based on their sexual choices is something that could very well be affected by the way stories are framed in “Virgin Territory,” or the different expectations for guys and girls defined by MTV comedians.

Giving attention to these messages is entirely up to you, but there is something to be said about their portrayal on MTV, reaching millions of people in the process of shaping their views on the world.

Maybe the shows are still playing on your TV because you are genuinely entertained by them. Fine. All I’m asking is that you remain an aware, informed citizen about sex in our culture. Read a news article or anatomical journal; don’t rely on the likes of MTV to form your opinions. n

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