vol104issue04

OPINION Conservatives Cry Foul - Page 5

Manchester Orchestra Interview

SPORTS Broncos Make Rodeo Clowns Out of Devils - Page 7

- Page 7

LIFESTYLES Thirsty for Thursday - Page 14

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Volume 104 No. 4

Miller’s Commitment to Diversity Erin McAuliffe

Staff Writer After the recently printed “Polydong” cartoon was published in the Sept. 12 issue of The Recorder, students and faculty from a variety of minority and women’s groups on campus have begun to question Miller’s commitment to the creation of diversity programs at CCSU. Following the printing of February’s opinion piece that attempted to satirize rape, the university president assembled a task force to “explore a range of issues” concerning journalistic integrity and ethics.

In May 2007, a report was written by the task force that put forth

clear recommendations, such as the creation of a journalism major and diversity training for Recorder staff members and the student body.

“Basically, he should have implemented 90 percent of the recommendations over the summer,” said Professor Serafin Mendez-Mendez, Chair of the Communications Department and also a member of the task force.

In Miller’s formal response to the task force’s report last year, he accepted many of their suggestions about creating a more tolerant campus community, commenting that “the issue of diversity is one that requires constant vigilant attention.”

He agreed with the task force’s

recommendations on training programs for school newspaper staff and said he would work with the Vice President of Student Affairs to incorporate all student organizations to help with “providing both training and experience in dealing with culture.”

However, in recent student protests and meetings where representatives from groups such as the Latin American Student Organization, the Africana Student Organization, PRIDE and the Women’s Center, it has been discussed that President Miller has not followed through on his word.

PRIDE’s President Lillian Brabner, who was also a member of

See Diversity page 3

Colorado State U. Student Editorial Sparks National Uproar Aaron Hedge

Rocky Mountain Collegian (Colorado State U.)

Peter Collin

Sports Editor The CCSU men’s soccer team hasn’t been spending much time at home this season. You may have looked once or twice for a time when you could sneak a peek at those Blue Devils, only to find that if you wanted to see them, you would have to hit the road.

Since their home opener on September 1, Coach Shaun Green and his squad have been hitting the highways and the airports, embarking on a road trip that has spanned five cities over three and a half weeks.

Those in need of a good old fashioned football match have been left unfulfilled and until their eventual homecoming on October 14, they will find little in the ways of

Conrad Akier / The Recorder live men’s Blue Devil soccer.

That is, until now. Blue Devil soccer fans have new hope in the form of Coach Green’s website at www.soccerccsu.com.

Coach Green, who is now in his 23rd year as head coach of the men’s soccer team, has made forays into the online world before, creating one of the world’s first major soccer coaching websites. This new endeavor has been another attempt to satisfy his passion for the Internet and soccer. Green’s website has allowed him to bring game highlights and player interviews to screens across the country with just the click of a mouse.

“It’s just creative thinking to use the media that we have available to maximize the amount of exposure we have,” explained Coach Green.

News Editor In favor of stronger connections between federal and state efforts to aid all injured troops since Sept. 11, 2001, Gov. Jodi Rell submitted a testimony to the Sept. 19 hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“States are strategically positioned to be instrumental in providing timely, appropriate and valuable

contributions to the continuum of care our ‘wounded warriors’ so richly deserve,” she said in her testimony.

Rell also suggested that in addition to state and federal programs, private-sector and community volunteer groups may be available to assist veterans who have unforeseen problems ranging from housing and transportation to short-term financial needs.

The Governor touched upon the memorandum of understanding that

See Better Veteran Care page 3

strongly that its time college students, especially CSU students, start talking about issues,” he said. “We’re zealots for freedom of speech and we felt that after Andrew Meyers on the University of Florida campus was pulled from his mic and abused ... that we started getting people to talk.”

But he added that the board didn’t realize the full consequences of the decision.

See Colorado State U. page 3

Faculty Art Gallery Open Until Early October

See Stirring up the Net page 8

Gov. Rell Testifies for Better Veteran Care Melissa Traynor

(U-WIRE) -- After a Friday editorial on page four in the Collegian that said “Taser this ... F---BUSH” sparked national uproar and controversy regarding free speech, Editorin-Chief J. David McSwane will go before Colorado State University’s

Board of Student Communications (BSC) Tuesday to defend his job.

The expletive was spelled out about twice the size of a headline.

BSC has authority sanctioned by the Board of Governors of the CSU System to fire the editor in chief.

McSwane and the Collegian Editorial Board are standing by the decision.

“The Editorial Board felt very

Edward Gaug / The Recorder Edward Gaug

Entertainment Editor In a school with a miniscule art department, it was odd to see such a large gathering of artists last Thursday afternoon. With works of art on display by full-time faculty and some part-time, the walls of University Galleries in Maloney Hall were blanketed in images.

With works ranging from an experimental sound/video piece entitled “Catastrophe” from Ron Todd, a large scale illustration by professor Mark Strathy and a Japanese kimono designed by Mary Wolff, the http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/

visitors of the gallery were treated with many different kinds of media.

The opening-day visitors to the 2007 Faculty Art Show were not only treated with great art and an a laidback atmosphere, visitors were able to observe the art with a decadent spread of cheese, fruit and wine that is, as always, free to all attendees.

The great thing about having a faculty art show is the fact that you can interact and chat with all the artists on site. I was able to have a nice conversation with Mark Strathy and Mike Alewitz about not only their amazing works of art, but the cur-

rent mood of the campus at the time.

Both professors stand by the rights of all artists and believe that it’s commonplace for art to be dissected and critiqued.

While art gallery openings happen monthly at Central, it’s a shame that not everyone knows about them.

The CCSU Department of Art Faculty Exhibition is open until October 10, so make the short walk over to the second floor of Maloney Hall and culture yourself with some fine art. The only downfall now is that you have to supply your own wine and cheese.

2

News Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Recorder

Student Center 1615 Stanley Street New Britain, CT 06050 T 860.832.3744 F 860.832.3747 ccsurecorder@gmail.com http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/ Editor-in-Chief Mark Rowan Managing Editor Christopher Boulay Art Director/Designer Jamie Paakkonen Associate Layout Editor Conrad Akier Copy Editor Samantha Sullivan Lifestyles Editor Stephanie Bergeron Sports Editor Peter Collin Entertainment Editor Edward Gaug Opinion Editor Justin Kloczko News Editor Melissa Traynor Web Editor John Vignali Staff Gabrielle Byko Jessica Carraro Amanda Ciccatelli Karyn Danforth Jeff Hayden Matthew Jurkiewicz Matt Kiernan Susan Kondracki Erin McAuliffe Rob Messer Brian Morache David Pember Ryan Yeomans Joe Zajac

The Recorder is a student-produced publication of Central Connecticut State University and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of CCSU’s administrators, faculty, or students. The Recorder articles, photographs, and graphics are property of the Recorder and may not be reproduced or published without the written permission from the Editor-in-Chief.

The purpose of the Recorder is to approach and define issues of importance to the students of Central Connecticut State University.

Mysterious Object Found in Muffin, No Resemblance to Virgin Mary John Petroski

Special to The Recorder A mysterious object was found in a blueberry muffin purchased in Memorial Hall last week; initial rumors suggested that the object was a beetle.

Although students confessed faith in Memorial Hall’s food, Bob Hermann, the Director of Dining Services, confirmed what many could not believe.

“There was a foreign matter in the muffin,” said Hermann.

After having heard the rumors, freshman Kyle Ragaglia was quick to dismiss the gossip as false.

“I don’t think that there’d be a beetle in any of the food,” said Ragaglia. “I’ve never had a problem nor would I have any reason to suspect that there would be any insect. It’s not like I’ve seen ants or anything in [Memorial Hall].”

Allie Aresco, a junior, agreed.

“I don’t think there’d be a beetle in the muffin,” she said. “I’ve never found anything in my food that disgusted me other than the occasional bad vegetable.”

The blueberry muffin was a Sysco product purchased by Sodexho campus services.

Muffins on campus are usually made from scratch, but a now-solved problem with the baking oven temporarily required Sodexho to purchase some independent items.

Hermann explained that when notified of the mystery object in one muffin, he took direct action with the muffin’s supplier.

“I immediately called our provider and said, ‘There’s something in this muffin. I don’t

know what it is, but it’s not a blueberry.’”

Though Sysco is a distributor and doesn’t actually make the products they attach their label to, Hermann stated that Sysco’s response was serious and rapid.

“They were on this immediately. I called them, someone came out and got the muffin, and they sent it out.” He added, “They [also] sent a letter of complaint to whomever it was that made the muffins for them.”

Word had not been received back from Sysco describing what exactly the foreign matter was in the muffin, but Sodexho has made the decision not to buy any further muffins from them.

“It’s just not worth it to us,” said Hermann.

Though Donald DeGruttola, the general manager, said that with approximately 250,000 meals being served a semester, it’s “not so bizarre” that there would be incidents such as this from time to time. He did make it clear that Sodexho does everything in its power to minimize the chance.

“We protect [the] line of supply incredibly,” remarked DeGruttola. “We can’t buy from [just] anybody; we are told who we can buy from and who we can’t buy from in order to be a vendor of Sodexho. We have to be inspected yearly by the National Safety Foundation. There are lost of prerequisites because that is so important.”

Hermann agreed, adding that Sodexho randomly sends supervisors to do spot checks of the trucks shipping foodstuffs to ensure that they are up to regulations.

“It’s a very serious business, especially now. Any kind of allergies that so many people

have, whether it’s to nuts, or wheat or whatever, and with cross-contamination and all that, it’s very important to know where we’re getting our products, know how they’re getting shipped and know how they’re being stored,” said Hermann.

Hermann commented that the student was shaken up at the discovery of the foreign object in his muffin.

“He was a little upset and rightfully so.

It’s frustrating for me [too] because I look at it as a consumer and how I would feel if I was that person,” he said.

As compensation, Hermann gave the student a voucher to use at the Student Center to acquire a free meal.

DeGruttola was also upset by the incident.

“You have a trust factor coming in here to eat,” he said. “You’re paying money, you’re coming in and you’re trusting what’s going on.”

Survey: Job Market Favoring Recent, To-Be Grads Tula Batanchiev

The Heights (Boston College) (U-WIRE) -- College seniors, and all undergraduates alike, will be entering the job market at an opportune time. Companies that desire newly hired graduated college students have created a demand, which in turn has led to more compensation, especially in areas such as engineering, computer science, and business.

The National Association of Colleges and Employees (NACE) gives career advice to undergraduates, largely based on its studies studies of the changes in the job market and in the salaries of those newly integrated into the working world. The organization’s “salary survey” found that as hiring has increased, so have starting salaries.

According to a 2007 study, also conducted

by NACE, companies plan on hiring 17.4 percent more recently graduated college students in 2007 than they had hired in 2006. A reported 16 percent more will be hired according to a 2008 “fall preview” survey. And, surprisingly enough, the number of newly graduated students on the job hunt has decreased by 4 percent, making the chances of decent compensation shortly after graduation more than just a hope.

Employers reported that motivation and the ability to shape recent graduates into future leaders, even with little experience, was a deciding factor.

Marie Geary, associate director of the Boston College Career Center, had a different viewpoint. “[Recently graduated students] are the cheapest ones to hire,” she said. She spoke of the times in our economy, such as the ‘90s, when “lots of companies were laying off midmanagement people ... and hiring new people, most often entry level.” Geary, laughing, added that she had once seen a comic in which a son had come home and told his father that he had just been hired that day by a specific company, to which his father replied that he had just been laid off by the same company.

Donald Cox, professor in the economics

department, believes computers to be the reason for this increase in demand. “Computers have become indispensable tools for educated workers, enhancing their productivity and hence marketability and pay,” he said in an e-mail.

Even though, as some have proposed, computers will cost men and women their jobs, Cox said: “But one thing that you can’t teach computers to do is be creative. Hence, creative workers with computers at their disposal can command hefty salaries.”

Regardless of why there has been an increased interest in newly graduated college students, the study reports that salaries are on the rise. Chemical engineering, seeing a reported 5.4 percent increase since last year, topped the chart, with a beginning salary of approximately $59,361. Likewise, computer engineers’ and mechanical engineers’ salaries have risen 4.8 percent and 4.6 percent respectively, averaging at $56,201 for computer and $54,128 for mechanical.

Additionally, computer science, economics -- designated as business and managerial -finance, management, and accounting all made the list; each saw a minimum of 2.3 percent increase and $40,000 starting salary.

Liberal arts majors also joined the rankings, as political science, English, psychology, sociology, and history have all enjoyed increases in starting salaries. Political science saw a 5.9 percent increase at $34,590, the highest of all liberal arts, while history saw the lowest, at a 3.3 percent increase at $33,768.

Geary was uncertain as to whether salary increases would continue. “Generally speaking, they [salaries] have increased, more in some fields than others, but we’re not at the same point where we were in 2000 ... the huge salaries people were getting, we’re nowhere near that now.” She recalled how, in 2000, employees received a salary, a sign-on bonus, and moving expenses -- that simply isn’t the case today.

Therefore, Geary predicted that salaries will be leveling off in the near future.

Noticeably absent from the list of the salary survey, however, is communication, currently the largest major with over a thousand

undergrads at BC. When asked why majors such as communication, nursing, and mathematics -- to name a few -- were missing from the more prominent salary jumps, Geary, said: “It’s a reflection of the culture we live in.” Many students are looking for positions in business, even those who don’t necessarily major in business. Interestingly enough, Geary said, employers often find students in the College of Arts and Sciences, regardless of their majors, were a better fit for business positions than they had originally thought.

Geary, however, was skeptical that the money would coincide with job satisfaction.

“I’m interested in finding out on job satisfaction,” she said. “People taking jobs because of the salary usually find out that they aren’t as satisfied.”

Cox, recognizing the desire of students to get a well-paying job in a highly competitive market, offered some advice.

“Avoid classes that require rote busywork and brute force memorization. Gravitate toward classes that encourage creative thinking and challenge students to do more than just spit back memorized notes on exams,” he said.

The Salary Survey was a great representation of the salaries BC students have received after graduation. Currently, a survey done by the BC Career Center based upon the class of 2006 found that the median salary for A&S was $35,000 and the median for the Carroll School of Management was $51,000.

“Salary offers are made to students from good colleges [like BC], and the offer will be the same regardless of the college whereas that’s not true at a lesser tier ... so our numbers are close to what they are reporting,” Geary said. This has held true thus far.

Overall, the news of higher salaries for college students preparing to transition into the working world has put some minds at ease.

Those years of schooling actually do pay off -now in a more concrete way than we originally thought.

3

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Colorado State U. Continued from page 1

“There were some unintended consequences,” he said. “I think we’ve caused a lot of grief to the advisers and we’ve certainly affected our own advertising.”

An undisclosed amount of Collegian advertising money has been lost since the editorial was printed.

McSwane said that the editorial wasn’t about the president, but about freedom of speech.

“I think it’s been blown a little bit out of proportion, it’s been turned into more of a political issue,” he said. “Historically our “Our Views” are not in favor of President Bush.

Very often we slam him on that same section, so the issue wasn’t what we said, it was how we said it. To us, it was a free speech issue.”

The Collegian will not be suspended by the university.

CSU President Larry Penley issued a statement regarding the editorial that said while the university doesn’t have the authority to halt printing of the publication, it expects deeper journalistic integrity from its student journalists and does not support the editorial.

“While student journalists enjoy all the privileges and protections of the First Amendment, they must also accept full responsibility for the choices they make,” Penley said in the statement.

One CSU teacher expressed his support for the Collegian’s choice with a word of caution.

“I would support the paper no matter what it said,” said local attorney and journalism instructor Lee Christian. “But I fear that it is going to lose some integrity among the community.”

Christian applauded the Collegian editorial board for taking the initiative to start such controversy in

Diversity

Better Veteran Care

the task force, commented that she thinks workshops are definitely a possible solution to the problem but that the responsibility should not only fall on clubs.

“I think the administration needs to fund and run workshops.

They need to put their money where their mouth is. They want more diversity on campus, but they fund the new football stadium,” she said.

“Obviously [these] things happen because people are not educated.”

Some have criticized President Miller after pointing out that he has not made a clear statement in response to the controversies, declaring that CCSU does not condone racism, sexism or homophobia.

A representative from the Africana Student Organization, who spoke at the impromptu meeting on Wednesday, said that his club had been working to get Miller to make a formal statement on that issue for almost two years and had received no formal response.

President Miller was called out of his office and, therefore, could not comment.

Mendez-Mendez emphasized that stronger moral leadership on campus from the administration would solve a large part of the issue, adding: “I think the President, who gets paid a quarter of a million dollars, should be in charge of moving ahead and creating change.”

now exists in Connecticut, which allows for information, especially medical, to be shared between the federal government and the home state of a veteran when he or she returns from war.

During the Sept. 19 hearing, Donna E. Shalala, the Co-Chair of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, recognized six recommendations by the Commission, including one which called for a rapid transfer of information between the Department of Defense and Veterans’ Affairs.

Shalala’s Co-Chair, Bob Dole, explained that the recommendation suggests cooperation between the DoD and the VA. “We recommend that DoD retain authority to determine fitness to serve. DoD would provide [service members unfit for duty] a lifetime annuity payment based on their rank and years of military service…

The VA should assume all responsibility for establishing the disability rating based on that physical and for providing all disability compensation,” Dole said.

The Commission’s recommendations are believed to make a new structure “timely, reliable, transparent and accountable.”

Continued from page 1 an industry that he said has become less bold than it should be.

“It shows that he (McSwane) has got guts,” he said. “I don’t know that the mainstream media is doing what’s necessary to promote freedom of speech.”

He said some other publications refuse to spell the f word out because they fear social ramifications. “This shows what power that word has when newspapers are afraid to print it.”

Christian had advocated for free speech in a Collegian article printed the same day as the controversial editorial.

One CSU student called into question the sincerity of the Collegian’s editorial decisions, mentioning a mistake in a news story several weeks ago.

“The first article, when they used “s---” got more attention than it should have and to print something like this makes me wonder if they are really sorry for the first article,” said Jessica Petrisak, a biological science freshman.

But McSwane says that is a completely different issue as a hard news story.

But others students support the editorial board’s actions.

“My opinion is that they should say whatever ... they want to say,” said Matthew Johnson, an open option freshman.

CSU College Republicans issued a written request Saturday for McSwane to resign his position.

“This is not a free speech issue,” the request stated. “(I)t is an issue of journalistic integrity.”

The group will hold a petition signing in the Plaza asking for McSwane’s resignation Monday.

Continued from page 1

Rell had pointed out that the existing system could be more effective.

“The patchwork of programs, rules and regulations affecting injured service members is complicated, uncoordinated and at times, counterproductive,” she said.

“By reprioritizing resources, VA could develop a very comprehensive case management process for each casualty. However, [the Department of Defense] must proactively share information about returning casualties with both the VA and states in order to implement any effective plan of care,” Rell suggested.

Connecticut has budgeted $1.2 million for mental health services for deployed and returning military members and their families, according to a press release and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services manages a program with two dedicated, full-time staff [members] and a 24hour emergency system.

At the close of her testimony, Rell said, “A true partnership of federal and state resources can only improve the opportunities for our returning troops, their families and our nation.”

Are you an impressionable incoming freshman? A sophomore who has recently given up a time consuming bad habit? A junior or senior who has finally decided to stop being lazy?

The Recorder is looking for staff writers, illustrators and comic artists for the fall semester.

Working with The Recorder is a great way to build your resume, hone your skills and network.

If you are interested please e-mail us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com.

No prior experience is necessary.

Editorial/Opinion

4

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Editorial Monday’s visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressing Columbia University was greeted with blistering dissent from people inside and out of the campus. But given over 25 years of absent diplomacy between the United States and Iran--along with escalating tensions--a need for proper dialogue has never been more urgent.

If leaders of the United States can not bring themselves to communicate with the rogue nation directly, then let the citizenry at least recognize free speech and extend the olive branch--no matter how much we may disagree with Ahmadinejad. Criticizing a university, especially a prestigious one like Columbia, for initiating a forum to communicate with someone so key to today’s political spectrum, is a slap in the face to the First Amendment.

Yes, Iran views the West with hostility. Yes, Iran is trying to enrich uranium to develop nuclear power for potential weapons.

Yes, Ahmadinejad said the first thing he would do with nuclear weapons is annihilate Israel, and yes, Ahmadinejad denied the Holocaust ever happened.

However, Columbia President Lee Bollinger stressed the value of academic opportunities and the importance of a civil

dialogue as a precursor to his speech, but berated Ahmadinejad before he or students had a chance to speak. Bollinger superceded the discussion by coming out with question after question and calling Ahmadinejad “a petty and cruel dictator” only a few moments after taking the floor.

His aggressive rhetoric agitated an atmosphere of academic discourse. It should have been incumbent upon the students to ask questions in the first place, as they represent the university.

Students should not have to take a back seat to a helm of onslaught from administrative hierarchy.

Although backed into a corner, Ahmadinejad was sharp with his candor. He did retract his previous statements that the Holocaust never transpired. “Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?” referring to the Nazis. His provoking views on history as something that should be continuously applied to the present were lost in the translation. He felt the Holocaust was not an issue isolated to World War II, but something that should be continuously applied to the present with views from a different perspective. In any event, he avoided a simple yes or no answer.

It is important that if there is something we don’t agree

with, or even despise, that measures be taken to try and understand it, to dissect it and confront it – no matter how erroneous claims may be. The end result doesn’t mean we have to agree.

At least it can be said that a discussion ensued. Our preemptive impulses bleed into aggressive confrontations that detract away from tangible issues.

It should be applauded that Ahmadinejad reached out to the students and invited them to visit Iranian schools, to converse with Iranian students and exchange ideas. Whether this was a man sent on a PR gig from the Ayatollah to clean up Iran’s image is another topic, but he definitely put himself out there to become a little more familiar, and not some distant leader throwing rocks at the West.

President Ahmadinejad voiced some comments that needed to be explained. Before his appearance, he was a mysterious threat to the world. He deserved inquisition on American territory, where Freedom of Speech is held on such a high pedestal.

This does not mean the man is not a threat. Maybe now, with some discrepancies out of the way, we can at least say we took the first step in diplomacy.

Letters to the Editor Danbury 11

Birth Control

Where in the Constitution does it read where illegal invaders have any rights at all in our country? You people are all for human rights. They have human rights in the countries they came from. The invaders want jobs and make a living – stand in line. All this is garbage because first and foremost – it is a voting block for the Socialist Party aka Democrats. Why do you think taxpayers should be paying for their babies and feeding, clothing, housing and medical attention? Why? People of the USA have a hard enough time paying for their own bills and you want to have illegal invaders on the backs of taxpayers?

Kathleen Giles Has The Recorder Tarnished Your Degree?

Recently CCSU has caught the attention of the press. Usually the press’s attention comes from two sources: athletics, or reactions to The Recorder’s latest controversial publication. You may have noticed that all of the reports regarding The Recorder are negative.

What you may not have considered is how the negative publicity affects the reputation and legitimacy of the university and the degrees we are all working hard to receive. Some of the words used in the reports about The Recorder are racist, homophobic, and sexist. These words become synonymous not only to The Recorder but also CCSU. Imagine sitting in a job interview and your possible new employer is thinking CCSU is a university of “racism,” “homophobia” and “sexism.” What are your chances of getting hired over a student from a more reputable school?

As members of the CCSU student body, The Recorder is our paper, which represents us and should be used to help promote a positive reputation of ourselves as intellectuals. The Recorder staff has made attempts at this but it goes unnoticed because the quality journalism is over shadowed by the many blatant incidents where a few members have disregarded proper journalistic ethics and tainted the newspaper’s and university’s reputation. This reputation affects us all as future CCSU graduates.

Shawn Ingraham

Roger Federer Regarding this man. It is ridiculous that he is not given the accolades he deserves. Nike has some great athletes in Woods and Federer, but the press gives in to the likes of Michael Vick.

These two men are the gentlemen of the sports world in conduct, attitude and appearance. Keep Roger in the limelight!

Susan Lansdorp

To Whom It May Concern; I read this article and was astonished! It is just absurd to me that we would blame the government for not providing sufficient birth control programs for sexually active young adults who have unwanted pregnancies. When a man and a woman have sex they already know that there is a possibility that they will get pregnant, even with birth control. They have known this since the forth or fifth grade when they took their first sex education class in the public schools. Why is it anyone else’s responsibility to make sure that these men and women who choose to have sex, KNOWING the risks, have discounted birth control? They are CHOOSING to have sex, so they should have the personal responsibility to pay for that choice. If they can’t afford birth control, perhaps they are not responsible enough to be having sex. Why do people feel entitled to so many different programs and things when they have done nothing to deserve it? There people are in college, so they are obviously intelligent enough to know that there are consequences to their behavior. Why enable them? That’s all I have to say.

Sincerely, Nikki Neal Thank God abortion prices aren’t on the rise.

-Ed

Who is more intellectually corrupt? A student staff writer who draws a moral equivalence between a terrorist leader and the president of the U.S., or the University that indoctrinated him? Answer: It is a tie. The staff writer is driven more by hate than reason---he is a follower, not a critical thinker. The University is teaching liberal activism, not educating its students.

L.B. Samms

Ryan just won first prize for being the biggest idiot in our nation. What a warped perspective of our president. Please consider moving to Iran, Saudi Arabian, Russia, North Korea, China, etc for a year or so. This might help change perception, if you live to tell about it.

God Bless!

Pastor Joe Ferguson New Hope Worship Center My warmest personal thanks to your Mr. Ryan Yeomans for his keen and incisive - and correct - analysis of the administration’s current fiasco in the Middle East. Mr. Yeoman’s considerable powers of ratiocination afford me hope that the world of academe has not, in fact, been co-opted wholly by the forces of darkness, a.k.a., the “neocons.”

Bush or bin Laden?

Usual best from somewhere in The People’s Republic of Oregon, Vern Williford

Mr. Yeoman, The fact that you honestly believe that President Bush and Bin Laden are on morally equal terms tells me that you, my friend, have been drinking too much Kool-Aid. The Patriot Act was designed to curtail the movement of information between those who want to destroy us, not the average American citizen. In an ideal world it would be nice if we could all communicate with no chance of the government eavesdropping. However, I will allow the government to listen in to my mundane conversations if they, by the same measure, can listen in to terrorist cells and destroy them.

Yes, it’s an infringement of my rights to some degree but so is going through my luggage every time I fly. Likewise, I will opt for the government checking my luggage rather than coming out of the sky at 30,000 feet. To my way of thinking, this logic is incontrovertible and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the lesser of two evils and who the good guys are in this case. Sometimes Mr. Yeoman, in times of war the absolute rights of individuals has to be curtailed for the benefit and safety of the populace.

Sincerely, Dr. Robert C. Messner Salado, Texas

In response to your idiotic editorial, I ask this: Who is working harder to undermine this country and secure its defeat: Al Queada or The Recorder?

Frankly, it’s a toss up.

Brian K. Garland How you guys ever got into college is beyond me, your stupidity is beyond measure!

If you needed to ask a question like that, you really need to go back to elementary school.

No doubt, you guys are being heavily indoctrinated by the People’s Republic of Central Connecticut Elementary School. I am so glad that my sons and daughters attended UConn, Go Huskies!

Do me a favor, take a little field trip down to where the towers once stood, and then answer your asinine question. Good-bye bird brains, you disgust me.

William Alston Norwalk, Conn.

I wanted to letter you know I am glad you had to guts to print such a strong opinion. To appear on the Drudge report is a big deal, and not just anyone gets up there.

While I do not agree with everything, your statements are clear and concise. Don’t back down Ryan, that is what the government wants you to do. Good job :) Jaime I weep for this country when I think that characters like this Ryan Yeomans may someday hold a position of political power that may have an impact on me or my children.

This useless piece of sub-human garbage has no more appreciation of freedom or sacrifice than does my schnauzer. He will never spend a day in uniform, putting his life on the line for this country; he will never know the satisfaction of contributing something of himself to benefit others. He is part of the “Gimmee, gimmee” generation, holding out his hand for something that was earned by another. I’m guessing he is a either a journalism or political science major.

I voted for Mr. Bush, twice. Do I like him, -no! Do I think he is a great presidentno! Actually he has been a disappointment to true conservatives almost from day one.

Do we deride him publically- no we respect the position and bear with his liberal transgressions. We he better than either of his two opponents? Without question!! Al Gore, the inventor of the internet is now and has always been a barking moon-bat. His ridiculus Global Warming campaign has been discredited by nearly every true scientist in the world. Remember, Mr. Environment, Al Gore preaches to the rest of us about how evil consumption is while at the same time owns and maintains a 20 room mansion in Tennessee that consumes more energy in one month than does 80% of American households in an average year. John Kerry? What can I say?

The Swift boat veterans exposed him for the joke he was in Vietnam and his gigolo ways speak for themselves. Mr. Yeomans is cut in the same pattern as is either Kerry or Gore.

He will probably do very well in politics.

Heaven help us all!!!

Dennis W. Welch Orlando, Florida It is unfortunate for your paper that Matt Drudge has linked Mr. Yeomans’ article to the Drudge Report. I’m sure you are a fine school and a fine school paper. Now many people will think that bin Laden’s stooge is the voice of middle Connecticut.

It is too bad that Mr. Yeoman was not given the opportunity to make ridiculous arguments in his youth without them being sent all over the world. I thank my lucky stars that I had that pre-Internet opportunity in my youth. I wish you well.

Victor F. Luke

5

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

God Bless America!

Ryan Yeomans

Staff Writer The past week has been quite interesting for me. After my article regarding George Bush and Osama bin Laden was published on the Internet last Wednesday, it was immediately picked up by The Drudge Report via a link on the top of the front page. Within hours, The Recorder received well over 400 emails regarding my opinion piece, most of which consisted of insults and threats. The Recorder office was bombarded with phone calls from angry readers and conservative radio stations that wanted to interview me on their daily programs.

I spent all day absorbing the opinions of people all across the country and discovered one common theme: hate. It was hard to come by an email that didn’t contain profanity or insults, and nearly every message passed judgment on me using the only information about me they had. Apparently, everyone in America knows my life story. The general consensus is that I am a wealthy, stuck-up college kid who goes around day to day whining about how bad America is and how life is so hard, while drinking Starbucks and preparing my next liberal article. While I wish I had the honor of living such a perfect life, none of the assumptions that people have made about me are true. Actually, it’s pretty much the opposite. I am a poor college student trying to make a living for myself. I am paying my way through college and working as many jobs as it takes to get by. I do not consider myself liberal or conservative because I have varying viewpoints on many different issues. Through intelligent reasoning and analysis of facts, I form my own opinions in an attempt to find solutions to the issues we are presented with in our daily lives.

It seems that everyone who disagrees with my opinion either wants to question my journalistic integrity, insult me about my lack of maturity, life experience or pure writing ability, but not one person has made a decent argument. Now, if people were willing to respond with a constructive argument or bring up some interesting counterpoints to my arguments, I would be more than happy to argue my points against them in a civilized debate. It is unfortunate that these people are so self-absorbed with their opinion that they are willing to sink to the maturity level of a second-grade bully. Unable to come up with a decent argument to refute my points, they attack me personally with pure hate speech.

I could go on all day about how ridiculous the insults I have received are, but I would like to acknowledge some of the requests people have made in their emails. In many emails people have called me un-American or a terrorist and suggested that I move to Canada, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. I guess many of you have forgotten that we live in a democracy, where people stand up for what they believe in order to promote positive change. But it would be wrong of me to blame them for wanting me to run from my problems. They’ve learned this strategy from our fearless leader, George W. Bush, who plans to avoid his screw-up by dumping the Iraq War on the next president. God Bless America!

The Iraq War: The Impersonal, Cold War is Replaced by a Very Hot, Very Personal War Brian Morache

Staff Writer Those of us who are old enough to remember the Berlin Wall coming down also remember the celebrations that came with the end of the Cold War. The world would be at peace now that the Russian Bear had been defeated. That was what two new Air Force lieutenants were thinking when we toasted the end of Communism.

My friend even boasted that the end of the Cold War would put us out of a job. On this day of all days, I only wish that proclamation had been true. On Sunday, September 16, 2007, I received a call from Carol Dennis, my friend’s wife, telling me that she had received a letter from the Air Force informing her that Glen had been killed in Iraq. She had lost her husband and I had lost a friend who was more like a brother; but to the world, Major Glen Dennis was just another faceless number; one of more than 3,500 American dead.

It’s easy to tell others that they must sacrifice; that, as one congressman put it, all the dead and wounded are a worthy price for keeping terrorists there instead of here. It’s something else entirely when the dead are people you know, people you’ve been to hell and back with.

Glen Dennis and I served in both Nigeria

and in the first Gulf War together. This was the eighth combat tour of his career and seventh in Iraq. Luck eventually runs out for even the best of us, and it did for him. The letter that the Air Force sent her didn’t even tell his wife how Glen was killed, only the standard line about giving one’s life in the line of duty.

I had to make a few calls to find out that he had been killed by a sniper in a market square while he was buying some gifts to send home to Carol and his kids. Glen Dennis was the best natural pilot I’d ever flown with, and he ended up dying on the ground. Glen would have wanted to die in the air; it’s where he was most at home.

Glen’s wife, Carol, kept asking me not only why, but also if Glen had been wasted. A professional soldier understands that dying is always a part of his job. When a soldier takes their oath, they understand that the ultimate sacrifice may be required. All a soldier asks in return is that their life not be wasted, not be needlessly thrown away.

As I thought of all the reasons we were in Iraq, the ever changing list given by the Bush administration, I couldn’t think of any that were worth Glen’s life. Saddam is gone; there were no WMDs; democracy is a joke; and we are stuck in a civil war. George Bush’s legacy certainly wasn’t worth his life, and to stay just because we don’t

know how to leave doesn’t seem right either. I couldn’t give Carol an answer to that one, though I felt as if I should have. If this war was worth his life, then the reasons for his sacrifice should be clear to anyone.

I’ve flown with many pilots in my Air Force career, but the three I hold most dear are the ones I began career with: Glen Dennis, Tabitha Pullen and Charles Hudson. I served with them in Nigeria, in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. We’ve been through life and death together. Charles, and now Glen, are gone, two of the 3,500 American dead; Tabby is flying in Afghanistan and I am retired.

The problem with this war is that, unless you’re in it or know someone in it, you don’t even realize there is one. American’s are fighting and dying, thousands coming home wounded, and all we are concerned with is Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears and any other celebrity. We protest a comic strip here on campus while people are dying and no one in power can give us a straight answer why. Major Glen Dennis is gone, just one more number to so many in power. But I’ve lost a brother in arms, another wife has lost her husband and three kids a father. When will we start protesting that?

Conservatives Cry Foul CCSU Commuters Require Sufficient Parking Areas Christopher Boulay

Managing Editor

In reading the well thought out, interesting and sometimes enlightening letters to the editor regarding Ryan Yeomans’ article, “Bush or bin Laden: Who is More Evil?” - which caused an incredible amount of controversy thanks to Mr. Matt Drudge – it really made me think: What exactly did the article say that was bad?

It seemed “fit to print” and is a very interesting talking point, at that.

What can and cannot be said about our leader in this wonderful, free nation that we all claim to live in? Mr. Yeomans made a comment about President Bush that many, many people in the United States have been thinking for a very long time, but to call the article “an act of treason,” as I have seen in some letters, is completely unreasonable.

Just because someone does not have the same political views as the person running the nation, it does not mean that he is treasonous. Treason is betraying one’s nation, NOT one’s leader. My nation is not the administration, not the government, not Washington D.C. My nation is the ground I walk on, the people I live with and the ideas that were left by our forefathers in the Constitution.

There are people who support Bush and those who do not support Bush. It is sophomoric for supporters to call dissenters names or to say they are wrong. Just because someone points out something that is explicit to the ears of blind followers does not mean that they are incorrect. If this nation was intended to follow their leaders blindly, we would still live under the Crown and each and every one of you reading this would be hanging a Union Jack outside your homes. I don’t know about you, but that is not a world I can see myself living in.

Political discourse is a two-way street. Left-of-center citizens have their own views and they, in many cases, directly clash with those that are right-of-center. It is rather amusing when one side says something that the other is taken aback by, as if no one on the right (in this case) would ever dream that someone could think in a way that is different from their own. Both sides have this

problem, but with the quagmire that is Iraq, it is the left that is leading the charge to open the eyes of the citizens of the United States and the right that is scrambling to save face and even dropping low enough to send blows upon the opposition.

Another point that many letters hammered home was the thought that they were “independent thinkers” and Mr. Yeomans was not. What makes one an “independent thinker,” anyway? I don’t really believe that one thinks independently if they believe what most believe in a crowd.

You will always find people that will take one side, people that take another side and people that just do not care. Not even the people who do not care are thinking independently.

It pains and disturbs me to think that right-wing America believes that if you do not agree with them, you are not a patriot. This may not be an absolute, but the hotter heads are prevailing. I believe that if you love your country and you attempt to say or do what will make your country a better place for all of us to live, you are a patriot, regardless of political ideology. There may be different methods and different goals that each individual has, but we are all working for the better of our nation. That’s what matters, right?

Whether Mr. Yeomans is right or wrong is not my choice to decide, but the choice of the readers. I took the article as a person who is writing about what is wrong with the American mindset, not an olive branch to one of the most notorious terrorists in the history of the world. We just have to check ourselves and really think about what our nation’s administration is doing, instead of just blindly accepting their decisions as absolute truth. No nation has ever been successful when people bow down to what their leaders say. Leaders are there to serve you, not the other way around. Be your own mind. If you support the President, fine. If you don’t, that is okay too - just don’t be shocked when you have to deal with others who may think differently. Take it as a time to examine your beliefs and have an interesting discussion with someone who has a different viewpoint. Just because you think they are wrong does not, by any means, mean that they are.

Ethan Blau

Staff Writer When planning for an event that will draw an immense number of participants, one must consider the basic needs of those who will be in attendance. For example, at a large-scale music festival such as the Rock the Bells hip-hop extravaganza that opened in New York City this summer, the organizers of the event took into consideration what the people attending would need.

Food and drink were provided, as well as a seemingly endless sea of “port-o-potties” for the tens-ofthousands in attendance. More importantly, e-mails explaining how to take advantage of public transportation to get to the concert were sent to those who had purchased tickets well in advance to the date of the show. Although the chosen venue for the event, New York’s Randall’s Island, does not provide sufficient parking areas for the great number of people expected to attend, the event’s planners ensured that those who had spent their hard-earned money on tickets would be able to get to the concert on time and with relatively no problems.

It is frustrating to realize that such consideration was taken for the planning of a leisurely occasion like Rock the Bells, when those responsible for considering the basic needs of a much more important event, a college education, have overlooked an obvious need: THERE IS NOT ENOUGH PARKING! Although finding a parking spot in the evening can be done with ease, it is ridiculously difficult to complete this task when arriving for morning classes.

For the roughly 12,000 students at this university, most of them commuters, the parking situation has become quite an annoyance.

I can confidently say that most commuters will agree with my personal frustration towards the lack of parking. I leave my house in Durham, located about 30 minutes away from campus, an hour before my scheduled class time. After dodging

manhole covers on the Berlin Turnpike, which the town of Berlin coincidently decided to tear up as soon as school started, I finally make my way to campus, where I must then decide which parking garage I will attempt to park in. Whether I chose Copernicus, Welte or the Student Center, I know the next 20 minutes will destroy my good mood and leave me in the wrong state of mind to attentively participate in class.

Once inside the garages, I must crawl at about two miles per hour to remain aware of other drivers speeding around corners, desperately fighting for their own parking space. After keeping an eye out for people actually leaving their parking spot, I finally park my car and begin trek to class.

When asked about the parking dilemma, fellow commuter Emily Gerrard described her experiences of parking in Welte Garage, where all five levels are usually filled past capacity.

“People were parked all over the place - illegally parked, up against walls. It takes so long to get to the top floor because there are so many people looking for a spot.

Something needs to be done so we have more places to park.”

Gerrard is right. Something needs to be done, and the solution is quite simple. Another commuter, Molly Greco, attends an 11 a.m. class in Vance on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has observed that “the top of Vance is completely empty,” (a lot used only for administration).

When a problem strikes any organization, there are steps taken to solve it. In this case, the only step required is implementation. The Vance garage needs to be open to students. With the wealth of open spots visible from the Vance building everyday, it is clear that once the Vance garage has been made open to students, the volume of traffic in all other parking areas will decrease and in turn these areas will be safer for those students just trying to make it to class on time.

6

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lead Paint Recalls Bring into Suspect Our Global Economy Wesley Strong

Staff Writer Mattel, a company best known for its apparent disregard for American children, will follow their recent recalls of over 21 million toys with even more recalls. The American media, however, failed to report on the influence these poisonous, leadpainted toys are having on the workers that are making them.

This follows a seemingly consistent trend over the past year where Chinese products are continually being recalled, from the pet food scare to tainted seafood. This situation has put American consumers in a state of fear, concerned about any products that they buy that are made in China.

But there are questions to be asked that the mainstream media seems to avoid. For instance, the media focuses entirely on the effects lead paint and other recalls have on Americans, not mentioning the effect that these contaminants may be having on the workers who make these products, especially in regards to those forced to work with lead paint.

This is not to discount the threat quality control poses to Americans, but to ignore the workers is to ignore our economy.

It is no doubt that we live in a global economy today. Of course, mainstream media in the United States continues to hold onto the nationalist ideology around the economy and looks strictly at how an incident like this affects only the American people. We are one of the main driving nations in extending the reach of the global economy, though we rarely are exposed to the effects of this on other people in the world.

Ever since the recalls, the U.S. Congress, along with governments of other nations, has been blaming the Chinese government. This comes

with due cause as the government of the People’s Republic of China actually does less for the people and more against them.

In China, the media is controlled by the government. On Sept. 12, the Chinese media reported that the toys recalled by Mattel actually met standards for release in Europe and China as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP) out of Paris, France. In order to understand how the Chinese government works you must understand its apparent ideology.

Unions in China are owned by the government and are more used to suppress worker uprisings than to actually benefit workers. In October of 2002, American labor leaders made a trip to China to bring up this issue with the government in light of an increase in worker demonstrations.

This trip was attended by SEIU’s Andy Stern and AFSCME’s Paul Booth, as reported in the New York Sun on Oct. 21, 2002.

In the article, the labor leaders would go on to describe the unions as “totalitarian” and referred to them as being undemocratic. China had been marked as a major violator of worker’s rights, according to a State Department Human Rights Report on China, released in 2001. Certainly these government-controlled unions show China’s position - or lack thereof - to defending workers’ rights.

This statement represents the ideology of the Chinese government, which acts more like a type of organized crime syndicate rather than a communist nation. They provide an environment for international businesses to come in and use cheap labor, with the wages of the workers negotiated by the government, to produce products for a low price.

This drive comes directly from the Capitalist notion that profit is not just a political circumstance but is essen-

tial to the system. It is this drive that pushes companies like Mattel to subcontract simple projects like painting toys. This, in many cases, allows the companies to not only relay liability unto someone else, but also reduce overhead. This happens because subcontracting creates an invisible barrier of standards where the major companies like Mattel do not have to show liability on the failures of their subcontractors. That lack of liability allows the subcontractors to produce the products with the absolute cheapest materials available, which tend to be the materials that put people at most risk, such as is the case with the recent lead paint recalls.

Here in the United States, most media houses have stuck strictly to the affects that lead paint recalls have had, or will have, on American consumers and businesses. They do not even bring into question the workers in these Chinese factories who have to experience such conditions on a daily basis and have no way to change their situations when their undemocratic unions are controlled by a government that seems only out to control them.

The mainstream media here in the United States is not just ignorant to the issues of the Chinese workers, but rather they are actively ignoring them. Media houses are also driven by the profit motive, which prevents them from running any story that would even slightly connect our economic system with anything negative relating to its base ideology; if they were to do so, they would lose advertising. Since the media, Mattel and the Chinese government have abandoned Chinese workers, who is left to stand up for them? Certainly we must realize that we are in a global economy; it is time to start acting like one and include people in a system that should be theirs.

New Britain Herald Filled with Autistic Reporting and a Gross Delirium for Basic Facts Justin Kloczko

Opinion Editor I could see how one might be confused; picking up a copy of The Herald with a loud picture of a car crash, under the deceiving umbrella of a sunny day’s forecast. You want to start your day on a good note, but can’t decide whether to be happy or sad. That’s a problem.

Last week was a big week for The Herald, publishing a trifecta of articles in three days dedicated to The Recorder. But we have one issue here that needs to be cleared up, and that involves something kind of important to journalism, and that is reporting the facts.

Fran Morales’s turd blossoming piece, “Students Rally Against

Recorder Over Racist Cartoon Strip” was a blatant party foul. There is discrepancy that is totally false, and that is the claim our staffers were soliciting flyers at last Monday’s rally.

“Recorder staff members were passing out fliers for a Hartford demonstration about immigration to be held Saturday.”

I asked Morales why in the hell she would think such a thing. She said she had pictures and that her friends at WFSB could vouch for her.

I almost blew up in her face laughing.

Was she mental? I had no idea what she was talking about. I wrote down my e-mail and told her to show me those pictures and prove it. She hasn’t responded at all. I also e-mailed The Herald to print a retraction, but they obviously don’t care about the truth.

A good reporter doesn’t just assume things, they would check it out.

To make it explicit, the man Morales mistook us for was protester Daniel Piper. He was spearheading the rally last Monday in Hartford on the immigrant raids. He came by campus later on to hand some fliers out. I don’t think anyone on staff looks like Piper, but maybe Morales was delusional. I tried to explain this to her but she didn’t care, and that didn’t surprise me.

It is sad because we here at The Recorder could really use a role model to look up to right now, and they just can’t be it. No one at The Herald cares anymore. They stopped caring once Cheers was taken off the air, and it all went down hill from there.

Lessons from the Jena Six Kari Sledzik

Staff Writer Several events over the past year in the predominantly white community of Jena, Louisiana have lead to a court case over raciallymotivated criminal charges. Six students from Jena High School have been expelled and charged with second-degree attempted murder.

Due to racial inequities within the town, the students have relied on support from the media and activists from outside the town. Despite the thousands of protestors flocking to Jena to express their solidarity for the Jena Six, why is it that news has reached the rest of the nation with such reservations?

The trouble began with the “white tree” on the Jena High School campus. Typically reserved for whites, black students approached the administration to receive permission to sit under the tree. The administration responded in saying they should sit wherever they’d like.

The following school day, they returned to campus to find three nooses hanging from the tree.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the principal of Jena High suggested that the students who hung the nooses from the tree be expelled. The superintendent denied this request, citing the incident as a prank. The students instead received a three-day suspension.

Democracy Now’s Jacquie Soohen approached members of the community about the seriousness of the students’ actions. Robert Bailey, one of the Jena Six, told Soohen, “Nooses hanging there - nooses ain’t no prank.” When approached

by Soohen, the local librarian explained that racism was not a problem in Jena, also citing the nooses as a prank.

In December, a black Jena High student attended an all-white party, where he was confronted and beaten by several whites. The following day, a white man approached several black men standing in front of a convenience store and threatened them with a shotgun. The black men wrestled the shotgun away from him, but they were arrested for theft of a firearm while no charges were filed against the white man.

A few days later on December 4, several black students organized a sit-in under the “white tree.”

When confronted by taunts from a white student, six black students responded by beating him. He was treated in the hospital and released, and he reportedly attended a social function that evening. The six students were subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder.

Mychal Bell, first of the Jena Six, came before an all-white jury.

Supposedly selected by a computer, the jury included two people acquainted with the district attorney, a relative of one of the prosecution witnesses and several friends of other witnesses. Bell was convicted on lesser charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy.

The charge of aggravated second degree battery, according to Louisiana law, requires the attack to be with a deadly weapon. The Prosecutor claimed that Bell’s tennis shoes could be considered the weapon.

Bell could receive up to 22 years in prison.

One of the most notable aspects of this case is how long it took for this to reach the public. CNN, our so-called liberal news media, first reported the trial in early September, while independent media outlets such as IndyMedia, Truthout, National Public Radio and Democracy Now archived reports of the incident in early July.

Conversely, Fox News reported the case on June 26, although diminishing the links between the racial tensions and the actual court case, as well as leaving out the confrontation with the shotgun. In a later article from Fox concerning the charges against the Jena Six, “a motive for the alleged Dec. 4 attack at Jena High School was never established.” The fact that Fox News picked up the story around the same time as the independent news media does not excuse the insensitivity to glaring racial inequalities within Jena.

Reverend Al Sharpton called for support for the Jena Six, encouraging everyone to meet in Jena for a display of solidarity. Sharpton has been vocally critical of the charges against the Jena Six, calling the case the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 21st century. Thousands have descended on Jena in a demonstration of unity for the students facing charges. While many people are aware of this injustice and seek to make it public, why has the mass media diminished the story? If this had been some sort of injustice against a group of white students, would the response have been any different?

It is possible that our actions produce the impression of racism, whether or not our thoughts coincide. Our nonchalance to serious issues, like tasteless racial humor, undermines the importance of civil rights and support for individuals like those of the Jena Six. Perhaps our lack of attention to racist actions indicates less of an importance to publicize true inequity. Rather than making light of hurtful situations and social inequities, we should be focusing our energy on combating them. Not everyone is racist, but we forget that seemingly benign actions portray such characteristics. The push to end inequality is crippled when people ignore the emotional consequences of these actions.

The events in Jena magnify racial inequities rampant in our society. We must be mindful that our actions have the potential to demoralize sectors of society. The events in Jena speak volumes about our society as a whole. Should we continue to ignore the underlying messages of our actions, we will never overcome the injustice explicitly displayed in Louisiana.

Sports

7

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Broncos Make Rodeo Clowns Out of Blue Devils CCSU Drops the Ball at Western Michigan University with 51-14 Loss Peter Collin

Sports Editor Freshman Kevin Woolfolk scored his first career touchdown and sophomore Adrian Hull added his second of the season as CCSU fell to Western Michigan University 51-14 in front of 15,718 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Central fell to 0-2 on the road this season and 2-2 overall as the Blue Devils stumbled in their first ever match-up with a Division 1-A team. For Western Michigan, it was their first win of the season as they bettered their record to 1-3.

Turnovers hurt the Blue Devils as they totaled six on the day, including their first interception allowed this season. WMU translated those mistakes into 24 points off turnovers.

“We had too many unforced

errors,” explained Coach Jeff McInerney. “It was just one of those nights.”

That first interception by the Blue Devils proved costly. Central junior quarterback Aubrey Norris attempted to loft a short screen pass but Broncos junior linebacker Boston McCornell anticipated the pass, pulling it from the air and returning it 32 yards for the Broncos second touchdown of the game.

The Broncos opened the scoring, capitalizing on a Blue Devil mistake. Central quickly halted Western Michigan’s first drive of the game on three plays. Blue Devil junior Richard Amchir was set to receive the punt but let the ball slip through his hands. Before he could fall on it, the Broncos swarmed him and the ball, recovering it on the CCSU 24-yard line. The Broncos wasted no time, marching the ball in for the first score

Conrad Akier / The Recorder CCSU football head coach Jeff McInerney tries to rally his team despite an overwhelming Bronco lead in the second half.

of the game.

The Blue Devils finally managed to get on the board at the start of the second quarter. Central drove down the field on the strength of junior Ralph McKenley’s 27-yard run that put the Blue Devils within striking distance. Eleven plays later Hull finished the drive, running up the middle for three yards and the touchdown.

But the Broncos responded quickly, halting the next Blue Devil drive. Central senior punter Chris Rose ripped a 50-yard punt to the WMU 36 yard line only to see WMU junior Julian Schneider make several quick moves freeing himself for a 32yard return. Schneider would have scored if not for sophomore Kyle Van Ness, who managed to make a shoestring tackle at the Blue Devil 32.

The Broncos made short work of the Blue Devil defense, completing the drive in four plays. WMU sophomore quarterback Tim Hiller finished the drive by working a perfect fake handoff to sophomore Brandon West who ran the ball down the sideline and in for the touchdown from 10 yards out.

Woolfolk entered the game in the fourth quarter. Sophomore James Mallory put the Blue Devils in scoring position, breaking off a 27-yard run to the Bronco six-yard line.

Woolfolk got the call and pounded the ball up the middle for the touchdown.

Central had trouble generating offense, often attempting to use the half-back option play to little or no effect. Many of their turnovers were a result of failed pitch attempts that WMU was able to take advantage of.

“We have to be able to execute

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Blue Devil sophomore running back James Mallory is brought down by a herd of Broncos. it (the option) to win the conference,” said Coach McInerney. “We’re not going to win the league unless we can run the option.”

Blue Devil sophomore Lamont Hillery intercepted his first pass of the season, stealing a potential Bronco touchdown pass on the CCSU one-yard line. It was also Central’s

seventh interception of the season.

Each interception has come from a different player.

The Blue Devils will have a week off before beginning their Northeast Conference title run.

Their first conference match-up will be against St. Francis on October 6 in Pennsylvania.

Bulldogs Take a Bite Out of Devils Peter Collin

Sports Editor Sophomore goalie Caity Casey pulled in seven saves as the Blue Devils (2-5-1) fell to the Yale Bulldogs (3-4-0) 1-0 Sunday afternoon in New Britain.

Central failed to capitalize on several key opportunities while the Bulldogs made the most of a key Blue Devil mistake. Central did manage to control the tempo of the game for the remaining 15 minutes but couldn’t convert any of their chances into goals.

“In a perfect circumstance we would have got a reward for the way we continued to go and how intelligent we were playing. It just didn’t fall for us,” explained Coach Mick D’Arcy.

With just over 10 minutes left in the game, sophomore Rachel Caneen managed to break free of her defender and slide into the box for a one-on-one opportunity versus Yale freshman Ayana Sumiyasu. Caneen’s shot went high, hitting the crossbar and ricocheting back out onto the field. Sophomore Leah Blayney controlled the rebound but her shot also went high and outside, ending the Blue Devil threat.

“We’re getting the chances,” said Caneen. “We work to get the chances; we just couldn’t put them away.”

Yale got on the board first after a miscommunication by the Central defense left Bulldog junior Maggie Westfal free at the top of the box.

Midfielder Natalia Mann lofted a pass over the Blue Devil defense to Westfal who controlled the pass and beat Casey in a one-on-one break away.

Yale also failed to capitalize on several chances when they came face to face with Casey. Early on Bulldog freshman Becky Brown slipped through the Central defense only to find Casey waiting for her. Casey challenged Brown with a sliding tackle, removing any threat.

But the Blue Devils also failed to convert on early opportunities.

Five minutes into the game Yale senior Susan Starr saved a shot from freshman Clio Tregear. Minutes later Caneen was able to rip a shot from inside the 18 only to see it sail high over the crossbar.

“We’re in much better shape now,” said Coach D’Arcy. “I was really proud of the girls with 15 minutes to go. We didn’t resort to just playing the ball into their box. We

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Natalie Romine (left) of Yale pushes aside Blue Devil midfielder Jill Kusek (center) and Hannah Bromley (right).

Romine was charged with a foul for the action. continued to try and play. We try to open them up rather than just pounding it in.”

The Blue Devils also fell on

Friday to the Harvard Crimson 4-0.

Casey saved four goals for the Blue Devils who mustered 11 shots to the Crimson’s 16. Central will travel to

West Hartford for their next game.

They will be taking on the Hartford Hawks at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 30.

8

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Blue Devils Stirring up the Net Continued from page 1

The soccer website contains immense stores of information. From The Trophy Room to Pro’s and National Team sections, Green has included within his site a synopsis of all his seasons with the Blue Devils and of all the players who have gone beyond Central soccer to the world or national stage.

Green’s site isn’t just a historical reference either. It also features game highlights along with weekly updates on the team’s “Soccer Show,” that consists of interviews with coaches and players.

The website was born out of the idea that not every parent or prospective student could come to Central or a Blue Devil game. This limited Coach Green’s ability to recruit nationally or internationally.

“For parents who can’t come to the games or kids were recruiting,

Upcoming Events Here are all of the scheduled Blue Devil home and local games until our next issue on September 26.

Friday, September 29

Women’s Golf vs Hartford, 8 a.m.

Sunday, September 30

Women’s Soccer at Hartford, 2 p.m.

Tuesday, October 2

Volleyball vs Harvard, 7 p.m.

it’s a great visual tool for them to see,” said Green. “Their folks can’t come to every game but the can see the highlights of the game.”

Now not only can parents or recruits view the Blue Devil program from afar, but so can fans.

All of the work is done by Green and his coaching staff on whatever free time they can find. It hasn’t cost his program any extra money either as Green has found help in a variety of local and national sponsors who have negated any costs.

“We don’t have a marketing department here in the athletic department, so everything is pretty much what you can do on your own,” said Green. “We went out and got more corporate sponsors than we’ve ever had.”

For Coach Green the results have been noticeable to say the least.

The Blue Devil’s home opener featured one of the best crowds that Green has ever seen at a home soccer game. With the help of several other Central teams and clubs, including the football team, the women’s soccer team, the cheerleading squad and a section of the Central Band, the Blue Devils drew over 400 people to their first game. This all before students were settled in on campus.

The game also carried with it what Green saw as a much more professional atmosphere, something he had not seen in his years at Central and that he hopes will grow along with his website and Blue Devil soc-

Blue Devil Shorts

Bayer’s Second NEC Rookie of the Week

Central Connecticut freshman setter Amanda Bayer earned her second Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week honor following an alltournament performance at the Brown Invitational. Bayer helped lead the Blue Devils in the 2-1 weekend, setting a career-high in assists in a 3-2 win over the host Bears.

Bayer posted 184 assists, 25 digs and seven service aces at Brown.

The Allen, TX native began the week with 56 assists and eight digs in a five-game win over Portland and then recorded a career-high 66 assists in a 3-2 victory against the host school. Bayer closed out the three-match weekend with her second straight 60-plus assist performance. She tallied 62 assists in a five-game loss against Stony Brook. (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Conrad Akier / The Recorder Freshman midfielder Ryan Gannon (left) attempts to control the ball during the Blue Devils’ home opener on September 1st. The game drew in one of the largest crowds at a CCSU home soccer game that Coach Green has ever seen. cer.

The big picture for Green also includes hopes of putting his soccer show and highlight reels on CCSU TV and to get his show out to the general public on Nutmeg TV.

There are hopes of having a special event planned for the team’s return home against Quinnipiac on October 14, though Coach Green doesn’t want to reveal what it might be just yet.

“Our goal is to use that first game as a spring board,” said Green.

“We really want people to come out and see us.”

The Recorder’s Blue Devil of the Week: Yan Klukowski Sport: Soccer Position: Midfield / Captain Year: Junior Age: 20 Major: Exercise Science

Men’s Golf Finish Second at Dartmouth Tim Buczak followed his opening round 71 with a final round 76, maintaining second place at the Dartmouth Invitational. The junior’s second place effort paced the Blue Devils to a second place team finish.

After posting a 297 on Saturday, Central Connecticut shot 314 on Sunday. In addition to Buczak’s second place finish, senior Matt McClure, sophomore Justin Hughes and freshman Tom Ursa all placed in the top-20.

McClure shot 84 on Sunday, finishing in 12th with a two-day 155.

Hughes, who tied for 15th, was two strokes behind McClure with an 8077-157. Ursa was 20th after carding 82-77-159. Sophomore Sean Lally rounded out the Blue Devil field with a tied for 29th. He shot 75-88-163. (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Men’s Soccer Loses to Marist Freshman Johan Rundquist continued his scoring streak, recording his second goal in as many games, to lead Central Connecticut (2-4) in a 2-1 loss to Marist (2-3-1). Goalkeeper Chris Jones, a sophomore, saw his first action of the season, compiling one save in 45 minutes.

The Blue Devils were the first team to make its mark when Rundquist scored in the 25th minute off a pass from junior captain Yan Klukowski.

At the close of the first half Central Connecticut held a steady 1-0 lead.

After recording two saves, starting goalkeeper Paul Armstrong handed off his duties in the second half to Jones.

Marist set up their equalizer early in the second half. Freshman Jason Nacca crossed a ball off a corner kick to his freshman running mate Desmond Foley, who headed the ball to score in the 49th minute. In the 75th minute freshman Eric Chaves cleaned up a shot by redshirt sophomore Jamison Allegra to score the game-winner. (credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)

Player He Would Like to Be: Steven Gerrard of Liverpool FC

Favorites: TV Show: Family Guy Car: Lamborghini Diablo Junk Food: Taco Bell Movie: Men of Honor

Most Embarrassing Sports Moment: “Probably getting hit in the face with a ball and blood going everywhere.”

Best Talent Besides Soccer: “Keen badminton player.”

Conrad Akier / The Recorder

9

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Pick Your Poison

NFL Predictions for Week 4

Only seven out of the 24 picks actually managed to hit double-digits in the correct column this week, and why? There were no real upsets. Unless you want to count Green Bay beating an abysmal San Diego team or Tennessee rolling over the winless New Orleans Saints. We have to remember that while the idea of the Texans beating the Colts (and calling it) is pretty sweet, Peyton Manning is not going to lose to Matt Schaub. Even if he does, you won’t be the only person who got that one wrong.

Don’t think it’s too late to jump in now. It is Week 4, but look at Chris Boulay. He only has 24 correct! You could make that up in two weeks (Sorry, Chris). Send in your picks to ccsurecorder@gmail.com before the start of the games. The leader board, as always, will be updated every issue and the leader at the end of the semester goes off to winter break with all the bragging rights and a sports DVD package. Best of luck.

Mark rowan

Peter Collin

edward GauG

CHriStoPHer Boulay

editor-in-Chief

Sports editor

entertainment editor

Managing editor

Green Bay

Green Bay

Green Bay

Green Bay

Houston

Houston

Houston

Houston

New York Jets

New York Jets

Buffalo

New York Jets

Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore

Green Bay at Minnesota Houston at Atlanta New York Jets at Buffalo Baltimore at Cleveland St. Louis at Dallas

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas

Chicago at Detroit

Detroit

Chicago

Detroit

Detroit

Oakland at Miami

Oakland

Miami

Oakland

Oakland

Seattle at San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco

Tampa Bay at Carolina

Carolina

Carolina

Carolina

Carolina

Pittsburgh at Arizona

Pittsburgh

Arizona

Pittsburgh

Arizona

Kansas City at San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

San Diego

Denver at Indianapolis Philadelphia at New York Giants New England at Cincinnati Pick of the Week Why

12/5/05 The last time Kerry Collins had a QB rating over 89.6, which he had on Monday.

13 15

The number of people who picked the Saints to win.

The number of yards Reggie Bush ran for.

1

The number of people who e-mailed us saying Mark’s Pick of the Week of the 49ers over the Steelers was the most offensive thing ever printed in the newspaper.

5

The number of times Milton Bradley said “This is ridiculous” in his ESPN interview after the scuffle in which he tore his ACL.

Denver

Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

New England

New England

New England

New England

Denver def. Indianapolis

Philadelphia def. New York Giants

Philadelphia def. New York Giants

Detroit def. Chicago

I realize Houston is finally a legit team in this league, but if Matt Schaub and the miscellaneous chump running backs (Ahman Green included) can put up a fight against the Colts, I have every reason to believe Travis Henry and Jay Cutler can get the job done in Week 4. Look for Cutler to flirt with 300 yards as he attempts to outgun Manning—he may not, but he won’t have to be the best quarterback on the field to get the W.

Don’t get Donovan angry, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Coming off a monster week, it seems that McNabb has found a rhythm with new wide receiver Kevin Curtis.

That’s bad news for the Giants who have been giving up an average of over 250 yards through the air during their first three contests.

After a tremendous showing against the Lions, Donovan McNabb will continue his aerial attack on the G-Men. This is partially due to the fact that the best the Giants have to defend his passing in Sam Madison. I rather have a ‘roided up Barry Bonds, with two bad knees covering Kevin Curtis.

The Lions, coming off a terrible loss against the Eagles, will come back with a vengeance against the hated Chicago Bears. Rex’s days are numbered and the Bears are flirting with mediocrity. This will be a showdown to see who is, in fact, for real in the NFC North.

This Week’s NFL Prediction Leader Board Total Points

Current Week (of 16)

Rank

Name

1

Kevin Petruzielo

35

12

2

Alyssa Smollen

32

10

3

Jason Beaumier

31

12

3

Jon Lundie

31

9

5

Steve Hart

30

13

5

Matthew Jurkiewicz

30

11

5

Chase Proctor

30

10

5

Mark Rowan

30

9

5

Kyle Dorau

30

8

10

Mike Luchene

29

9

10

Kyle Robbin

29

6

12

Nick Viccione

28

11

12

Charlie Sorenson

28

9

14

Rob Messer

27

9

14

Peter Collin

27

8

14

Edward Gaug

27

7

14

Mike McDonald

27

8

18

Joel Weisel

26

8

18

Marc Chouinard

26

7

20

Christopher Boulay

24

8

21

Brian Nocera

20

0

22

Eric Sanford

15

0

23

Jerry Lombardo

12

0

24

Chris Culmone

9

0

24

Andy Arnesen

9

0

Entertainment

10

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Kanye West

First he dropped out, then he reenrolled, Graduation now he’s walking the stage as valedictorian. This time with no skits, gimmicks or antics, you can just put in Kanye’s latest masterpiece, Graduation, hit play, sit back and enjoy.

Graduation dubbed “people music” by the Louis Vuitton Don himself, “cos all people go through hardships, not just rappers. And most of us do that without killing people!” Kind of ironic since he killed 50 on sound scan, as well as Kenny Chesney, to my surprise, since country sells more records than any other genre of music.

Kanye’s newest release is certainly a step up, for the sped-up soul-sample kid from the Chi. On Graduation, he starts to pull away from his modern soul movement and into the realm of progressive keyboards and synthesizers filled with sample-heavy tracks by Daft Punk, Michael Jackson and Steely Dan. The hottest track on this album by far is “The Glory.” I would have bet any amount of money that the sample on it was Jackson Five, but it’s actually two samples: one from the group Mountain and the other by Laura Nyro. This track is your typical Kanye West repeating soul sample, with a touch of a church choir, or so you would think. This background chorus is actually John Legend, Mos Def and the Williams brothers.

My personal favorite track is “Everything I Am,” easily the most simplistic song on the album. The song is moved by a piano melody sampled from Prince Phillip Mitchell’s “If We Can’t Be Lovers.” The track is the most down to earth, honest and sincere song on the album, as Kanye spits “I know that people wouldn’t usually rap this / but I got the facts to back this / just last year, Chicago had over 600 caskets / man, killin’s some wack shit / oh, I forgot, ‘cept for when niggas is rappin’ / do you know what it feel like when people is passin’?”

This song is a nice change of pace, taking you back to a time before hip-hop became more about designer clothing and jewelry. A few more songs like this, instead of “Drunk And Hot Girls” featuring Mos Def, could have put Graduation up against The College Dropout. With all the garbage hip-hop has been dropping, Graduation is easily the best to come out this year.

- Justin Biske / Staff Writer The fan-base that Between the Buried and Me has is one that has Colors their heads so far up this band’s collective ass to notice, even after four albums, that they still have not found a formula to writing a cohesive song. And their lame attempt to fool everyone by making all of the tracks on Colors flow together just results in making them look even more hapless.

The North Carolinian quintet displays immense technical prowess on each of the members’ respective instruments; this is an obvious fact that no one can deny. Colors, much like BTBAM’s other albums, spends most of it’s time chugging along the experimental metalcore railroad, making stops at sweep picking, flashy solo and southern rock and roll stations. (That train analogy is almost as ridiculous as the 20-second new-wave polka jingle in the song “Prequel to the Sequel” that would make Mike Patton roll around in his grave…..if he was dead.)

Despite the diversity and talent that Between the Buried and Me showcases, they still need to improve on writing fluent songs. One would probably argue, “If BTBAM had better song writing, the music would not be as interesting or fun.” I would respond respectively with,

Between the Buried and Me

“Attention: dude who looks like he should have spent his money on shirts that fit him properly. There are still cases where bands can show great technical prowess and exceptional song writing at the same time.” With that being said, it is a shame that BTBAM’s best, most well-written song is stuck at the tail end of this record. “White Walls,” the final track on Colors, is the one bright spot on an album full of trite, narcissistic garbage.

Colors is not a complete throwaway, but I sure wouldn’t waste 10 bucks on it.

- Nick Viccione / Staff Writer

Black Lips

Black Lips prolongs this Good Bad Not Evil week’s continuance of bizarre bands that are difficult to describe in any amount of words. If you can manage to imagine 50’s blues, noise rock and all sorts of crazy, then you a better person than me and will love what Black Lips has to offer.

With a soulful style that is almost reminiscent of the White Stripes, Black Lips has succeeded in making the best album of the year with a style all of their own. From the first 20 seconds of lead track “I Saw a Ghost (Lean),” the listener will have a mind full of ideas of what they just heard with no chance of singling out where they have heard it before.

I think of this album mostly in the same way as the latest Animal Collective (see last issue); you can’t try to comprehend, just sit back and let the music take over your being.

The less you think about what you’re hearing, the better-off you will be. It is easy to overthink Good Bad Not Evil and then not remember what you just listened to.

Black Lips continues the newest streak of Vice Records, bringing amazing bands to almost mainstream popularity with fun-tolisten-to music that shows more of an artistic style than a typical musical style. That being said, check out Panthers while you are listening to Black Lips songs online.

Black Lips, the perfect companion to your weekend high.

- Edward Gaug / Entertainment Editor

Starting off their band as high school seSo Wrong, It’s Right niors, All Time Low has made quite a name for themselves at such a young age and in a short period of time. Creating their band name from a line in the New Found Glory song “Head on Collision” and heavily influenced by Blink 182 and Green Day, the band was formed in Baltimore in 2003.

After releasing their first album Put Up or Shut Up in 2006, All Time Low became a band you needed to know; but my question is, what makes them so great? As an extreme Fall Out Boy and Cartel (and by extreme I mean liking them before they hit major pop radio stations), I think All Time Low is just an imitator.

Not only do their titles resemble the playon-words of Fall Out Boy, but their sound is also almost identical. Their new album, So Wrong, It’s Right, is no exception. If I listened to a Fall Out Boy record and an All Time Low record and did not know who either band was, I would think both records were from the same band.

The only thing I give the band credit for is their lyrics. Although they strongly resemble Fall Out Boy’s witty phrases, I am a sucker for metaphors and addictive rhyming sequences.

That is the one thing I must warn you about with this album - you may be very disappoint-

All Time Low

ed by their “copy-cat” style, but you will get hooked on the songs.

For example, All Time Low’s song The Beach sounds strikingly similar to numerous Fall Out Boy songs with the lyrics, “Well, they can take, take, take the kids from the summer / But they’ll never, never, never take the summer from me / It was the very first time that I lost my mind for a week.”

Overall, the album is great if you need a Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco fix and you’ve played out their CDs, but if your looking for new and unique talent, All Time Low’s new album So Wrong, It’s Right is not the best choice.

- Susan Kondracki / Staff Writer You might think its Robert Stage Names Smith from The Cure, or Coner Oberst from Bright Eyes, or The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy or that weird guy from Arcade Fire. But you’d be wrong.

It’s Will Sheff from the Texas-based band Okkervil River - the latest band to have the indierock kids simultaneously nodding their heads while burning effigies at the feet of shrines dedicated to ex-girlfriends.

While Sheff’s uneven warble and hyper-literate lyrics may recall these other front men, the group as a whole lacks the gloomy melody of The Cure, the drunken sentimentality of Bright Eyes, the oddly intriguing folklore of The Decemberists, and the orchestral chaos of Arcade Fire. What they do supply is an acceptable, if somewhat mundane, mash-up of smarts and sound.

Much has been made of Sheff’s novel-like approach to lyrics. Like the aforementioned Meloy, but without the pomp, he weaves together tales of disparate people with very different stories, and almost never falls back on the typical whiny indie-rock cries of “woe is me.” Unfortunately, the stories and lyrics sometimes come off a bit cliché, and many of the melodies are rehashed versions of songs we’ve already heard.

This is not to say that the groups’ fourth album, The Stage Names, is without its high points. The first track (and first single), entitled “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe,” is rich with insightful lyrics on the nature of reality in our media-obsessed culture and features the best melodies on the entire album.

“Plus Ones” moves along steady and smooth like, coincidentally, the flow of a river; and the final track, an ominous look at the causes and types of suicide, goes from soft pondering to a loud crest of noise within seconds.

The main problem with the disc lies in consistency. While it remains an okay album with a few great songs, a more consistent outing, full of the type of tracks these guys have proven they can create, would result in a great CD full of great songs. So while I wait for their next album to drop in anticipation of a steadier release, I think I’ll just go get drunk and listen to Bright Eyes again.

- peter decoteau / Staff Writer

Okkervil River

Headbangingly heavy and peacefully meEchoes, Silence, lodic, the sixth Patience and Grace Foo Fighters album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, captures the two polar opposites in a perfect utopia of musical brilliance. The Foo Fighters are continually proving their growing creativity and gifted musical ears in every album they release. This particular one is the icing on the cake of the past five unique albums.

The single released this past summer and first track on the album, “The Pretender,” is

Foo Fighters

a well-written upbeat rock song that has the band’s signature sounds written all over it.

Another track, “The Ballad of Beaconsville,” has a folk and somewhat bluegrass feel to it, using finger-picking banjos as the instrument of choice, which completes the variety of sounds coming from this album.

This song was inspired by two Tasmanian miners trapped underground for two weeks and, while awaiting rescue, requested an iPod with Foo Fighters’ music on it to help lift their spirits.

The slow ballad, “Statues,” showcases a jazzy feel to the piano melody. Another softer-rock track, and my favorite song on the album, is “Home.” With the heartfelt melody of the piano accenting Grohl’s rough-aroundthe-edges vocals, this song sets a melancholy mood for any soul searcher or someone looking for something they are missing.

On the other end, “Let it Die” is a track that has many musical ups and downs to remind loyal fans that they will always live up to their hard rock reputation. Just when you think the song has slowed down, the drums and Grohl’s grungy vocals burst into a heavy rock-and-roll chorus, right up the alley of any fan of the hard stuff written by the Foo Fighters.

Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace is a definite success by the Foo Fighters yet again. The band continues to keep rock and roll alive through the mess of every other kind of “music” played on the radio.

- amanda Ciccatelli / Staff Writer

Throwback Review of the Week: Conor Oberst wasn’t always Read Music - the whiny, long haired crooner Speak Spanish that he is known as today. Way back in 2002, Oberst was an angsty 22-year-old with a passion to play some punk rock. This anger flew out of the Desaparecidos only album, Read MusicSpeak Spanish.

With his typical soft, spoken-word vocals replaced by a deeper yelling and screeching-screaming, Oberst was able to make a solid indie punk album that almost no one has heard of.

Covering politics (“The Happiest Place on Earth”) and the downfall of local development (“Greater Omaha”), Oberst and crew play speedy, noisy rock that is a better listen than any rock album that was released this year (outside of maybe The Good Life’s newest, Help Wanted Nights).

Lyrics, as with any Oberst project, are the strongest aspect of the album, followed directly by the guitars and drumming. The lack of emotional/relationship-driven songs is an appreciated departure that you can’t find with a Bright Eyes album, and it’s actually nice to hear politics discussed outside of bands like NOFX or Anti-Flag.

With lyrics like, “I want to pledge allegiance to the country where I live / I don’t want to be ashamed to be American / But opportunity, no, it don’t exist / It’s the opiate of the populace,” Oberst rips apart his country without the typical Bush-bashing that people come to expect. This is what happens when a guy is compared to Bob Dylan for so long - he has to make “protest” songs.

While this might not be the easiest album to find, it is definitely worth the time taken to find it. Your ears and mind will thank you for giving a mature, intelligent album some playtime.

Desaparecidos

- Edward Gaug / Entertainment Editor

11

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Watchmen by Alan Moore David Pember

Staff Writer In 1986, a British writer named Alan Moore wrote a 12-issue mini-series for DC Comics that changed the industry forever.

The series was called Watchmen, and it ushered in an era of real super heroes.

Characters with real problems, believable personalities and put them in believable real world situations. The series still retained the classic super hero hallmarks, such as ridiculous super hero monikers and costumes, but deviated very far from others such as the never-ending battles between good and evil. Watchmen had no good, no evil, only the gray in between. All of the characters are forced to deal with how to save lives in their own ways, but all ways are morally flawed, some more than others.

The characters and story structure were unparalleled for their time, and still stand up very well to many of the more recent super hero epics. Watchmen contains

all of the mystery and intrigue that you would usually expect out of a good psychological thriller, and it is very easy to forget that it’s just a story about a group of people in tights and capes.

Just as the story blew all competition out of the water, so did the artwork.

Dave Gibbons truly brought the characters to life on page with his brilliantly lifelike illustrations, with incredible amounts of minute details, but never so much that the frames seemed cluttered. The words and art complemented each other in a manner that is rarely seen even in some of the more famous series.

Watchmen was a true milestone, and is highly recommended to anyone who has an interest in getting into comic books, or even long time fans of the medium, because without it, we may never have had The Death of Superman, the darker Batman and the overall divergence from comics where characters call their allies and their enemies “chum.”

Nation-Building Reality Show Kid Nation Rental Essentials: Brings Back Awful Childhood Memories Separate But Equal John Felps

Brian Morache

Staff Writer Kid Nation is a new reality show that airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS. The show is about 40 kids, ages 8-15, who are put into an empty Midwestern town and forced to make it operate. They must create a government and keep the town clean and run businesses, among other things, and it all has to be done with “minimal” adult help.

Many people have said that the show would develop into a scenario similar to the classic novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I’ll take it a step further and say that I hope it turns into something more like the movie Battle Royale. For those of you who don’t know Japanese cinema, Battle Royale is set in the near future, where each year the government abducts a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to fight to the death until there is only one left standing.

Now THAT would keep me watching every week.

Personal hopes aside, I think we all know how this should work out. If there really were minimal adult interference, the older kids would enslave the younger kids and force them to do all the work while the older kids just sit around, relaxing. I think we can all remember back to our pre-teen years; the dreaded older siblings, or the school playground with the evil older kids. For those of us who have had the chance to be the evil older kid, though, who hasn’t enjoyed forcing those who are younger and smaller than us to do our bidding?

After watching the show, I was slightly disappointed; CBS’s idea of “Minimal Adult Interference” is somewhat of a let-down. The kids’ actions were essentially dictated by the adult host - they had no decisions on their form of government; they were told that certain kids would be on a Town Council, which would basically be their representatives. Then they were forced to separate into groups, or “districts.” Each district had a color, and of course, the older and younger kids were separated by groups. Also as expected, there were

Staff Writer

mandatory melodramatic moments.

Several scenes featured younger kids crying and saying they wanted to go home, which was followed by the other kids in their group trying to cheer them up, saying how they were so strong and doing such a good job - you know, the usual stuff you say to small children to get them to stop wailing.

The kids were told they would be forced into a caste system. This consisted of four levels, each one with its own type of work and paycheck.

Laborers get 10 cents, cooks get 25, merchants get 50 and the upper class, which does basically whatever the hell it wants, gets a dollar. They were told they would be assigned according to who wins a showdown. At the word “Showdown,” I immediately think, “Alright! Battle Royale time!”

Unfortunately, I was, again, sorely disappointed. The showdown was essentially a complicated method of gathering water from pumps in the ground. When the oldest kids actually came in second, it became apparent to me that they were trying to send a message to younger children. “You can be better than the big kids if you work together!” it said. I’d like to see how long they keep that belief when they get back to school.

At the end of every episode, they have a town meeting, where they all come together to discuss any problems they may have and do the two most

important things of each episode. The first is awarding the incentive of participating: giving the gold star. The town council discusses among themselves and then awards one of the kids with the gold star, which represents $20,000 dollars given to that child. In this episode, the council gave the star to the girl who earlier complained about their performance as leaders (anyone else thinking payoff?).

The second big thing is when they ask the kids if any of them want to leave the show and go home, which is when one kid took up the offer. It struck me as funny because I’m sure CBS made it part of the show just to keep everyone guessing, kind of like adding a Survivor aspect to it to get people to watch just to see if their favorite kid stays or leaves. This is entirely necessary because the show lacks any form of suspense.

In fact, the show is rather dull; having some random guy lead the kids along to making a town strikes me as incredibly boring. It’s not even on late enough to make a good sleep-aid.

I lost interest in the social interaction of little kids when I left elementary school. If I wanted to see little kids being bossed around by older kids, I’d visit my friends while they baby-sit, and if I wanted to see people get money for basically nothing, I’d pay more attention to the lottery or Publishers Clearing House.

While movies such as American Graffiti and TV shows like Happy Days portrayed an idyllic image of the 1950s, the film Separate But Equal paints a picture of what life was like for both whites and blacks in the 1950’s South.

The film, produced in 1991 and a winner of two Emmys, stars Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshal, a then-lawyer for the NAACP legal defense fund. The story deals with the fight to end segregation in schools, a centerpiece of the fight for civil rights throughout the 50s and 60s. Given the most recent decision by the Supreme Court led by Justice John Roberts that virtually overturned this landmark decision, the film certainly has relevance today.

In viewing this film, which not only stars Poitier, but also the likes of Ed Hall as the Reverend J.A. Delaine, Richard Kiley as Chief Justice Earl Warren and Burt Lancaster as John W. Davis, “the lawyer’s lawyer,” it is easy to get lost in the great performances of these stars. However, one cannot escape the strong images of what passed for everyday life in the South. The dangers of segregation are clear to see in this film just as clearly as the strength and bravery of those who fought to end it.

Also evident is the attitude of the time that considered racism to be a normal way of life. The reasons for segregation came down to one thing, as Marshal states before the Supreme Court: “It can be but one thing, the intent that those who were once in slavery should be kept as near that condition as is possible.”

Because of their fight, society now looks upon segregation as an evil that must be eradicated rather than the status quo.

Another strong image in the film finds Chief Justice Earl War-

ren, played by Kiley, touring Gettysburg. Early in the morning, he walks out to his car to find his driver, an African American man who had served in Italy during World War II, sleeping in the back seat.

When Warren asks him why he was sleeping there, the man looks down, ashamed and says, “Sir, there’s no place within 20 miles where a man like me…” So ashamed he was that the man couldn’t finish his sentence.

It is this incident that convinces Earl Warren to return to Washington and vote to in favor of desegregation.

Our history classes teach us about this time period and may even teach us about the Brown vs. Board of Education case of 1954, but Separate But Equal puts some genuine flesh upon the bones of that history.

It provides a window into a period that other films have glamorized, reminding us that even “the fabulous fifties” had a much darker underside. For anyone who longs for the good old days, Separate But Equal stands as a stark reminder that they weren’t always so good for everybody. Separate But Equal stands as a must see for all Americans, if for no other reason than as a reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go.

12

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

edward GauG

entertainment editor I had the great opportunity to sit down and have a quick chat with Robert McDowell, the guitarist for the Atlanta-based indie rock band Manchester Orchestra. In the few minutes before his transatlantic flight to Scotland, he let me in how he keeps his sanity while on tour and what it’s like having the freedom of releasing a record without a label.

Edward Gaug: I’ll keep this short and sweet cause you have a flight to catch tonight.

Robert McDowell: Yeah, I just lost my debit card too; I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to work with that. I think I have it all figured out though.

EG: That’s good. Right now you’re in the middle of a huge tour and a big year for you guys.

RM: Yeah definitely, we are getting to do a lot of things we never thought would happen, you know, we had offers to do things and it’s really been overwhelming. We’ll get worn out tired, but we still just have to remember that we busted our asses playing in high school bands and this was always our dream. So it has just been great so far.

EG: So everything has been really rewarding for you guys starting out, you are definitely becoming

more popular.

RM: I wouldn’t say were really big or popular or whatever, but going to shows having 50 or 150 kids there, it’s just crazy because we’ve played the same cities like even in January and we’d only have like five or six people who knew who we were. It’s good.

EG: Yeah, and right now you are kind of living the dream for any band to expand and get to play for people overseas, and you seem to have a pretty decent UK following.

RM: It’s kind of crazy, that were going to draw more in Birmingham, England than Birmingham, Alabama, which is just crazy, people over than can grab onto a band and start rolling. Kings of Leon are huge over there and they’re about half the size back in the United States, so I would love it over there.

EG: It gives you the opportunity to expand your horizons both for the band and for the fans. So you are going to be over there for the next week or two playing and them coming back to the States?

RM: Yeah, were doing Scotland, Ireland and three England dates which is great cause we’ve done two festivals in Redding and Leeds and it’s going to be nice to see other parts of the country. It’s going to be a super quick trip, like five shows in six days, so a lot of flying and driving, but I

guess that’s what being on tour is.

EG: So what do you do to keep yourself relaxed while you’re traveling from stop to stop?

RM: I haven’t quite figured that our yet completely. I’ve been listening to a lot of music and then the key is to figure out how to be away from someone, but still go into your own place and have some alone time. A lot of music and for me I love driving when were back home. I’ll drive from city to city and it passes the time that way. Other than that, it’s whatever you can get your hands on. The new video iPod has probably helped a ton because I have gone through so many TV shows and that, but I still go into my own little zone.

EG: You were saying you listen to a lot of music, is there anything that’s standing out as a favorite album this year?

RM: No, not really because I go through so many albums, like weeks and months where I’ll listen to an album every day or every other day. I know the other guys have gotten into a solo folk artist, Ray LaMontagne.

And finally it just kind of sunk in and that album has been great for me and it’s awesome because it puts me to sleep, so I can take some naps on the plane. Other than that, it’s been all over the place, I started listening to a band from Europe called Gogol Bordello, which is kind of like gypsy rock.

EG: I hear their name tossed around by so many people, they seem to becoming really big and popular between people inside of bands, more so than regular everyday type of people.

RM: It’s really nice for me listening to them because it’s a complete escape from every other genre because it’s so crazy and so weird. At the same time I listen to it for its intelligent musicianship and great lyrics, so that’s definitely something I’ll put on my headphones and listen to.

EG: Some similar things have been said about you guys, that your lyrics are extremely intelligent and mature and supports the style of instrumentals that are played.

RM: It is really Andy [Hull] that is doing all of that and that’s why I really love being in a band with him because some of the things he thinks about is like where the hell did that come from? It makes sense, but how did he come to that conclusion or how did you get to that topic? Even listening to demos he did, every song is a story or a description of something that makes me stay on my toes.

EG: Do you think that you have that kind of song writing freedom because you’re putting out your own records and not having to fall back on a record label?

RM: I feel like if we jump right at a major label, we wouldn’t have that much freedom, but the people were working with now are amazing people to work with. I feel like if we work with them, it wouldn’t be an issue. I definitely stand by the decision to put out the album ourselves first.

This one really builds the platform for the next album where we can say, “This is what we want and this is what is going to happen.”

EG: That’s probably to best way of going about doing an album. The big thing for this paper’s audience is the fact you are going to be up in our area [Toads Place, New Haven] on October 1 with Kings of Leon and I really can’t wait to get out and see you guys live after listening to your album all week. I also, personally, want to thank you for not actually being an orchestra because that kind of threw me off when I first heard the name.

RM: [laughs] It’s really weird for us when we show up at a hotel and they find out were in a band and that our name is Manchester Orchestra and we are just five dirty guys, and they think were playing cello and violin.

There is a lot of explaining to do with the name. I’m still wondering what is going to be like when we are actually in Manchester [England] and start playing.

13

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 = recommended

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 26 MUSIC 9/26

Regina Spektor

Jorgenson Center UConn 8 p.m. / $20 A veteran of New York’s anti-folk scene, Russian-born, Bronx-bred Regina Spektor has many remarkable gifts, from her unique and provocative vocal style - which can change in the blink of an eye - to prodigious piano skills garnered through years of classical training Opening Band: Only Son

9/26

Grand Buffet

Trinity on Main, New Britain 7 p.m. / $10 / all ages Grand Buffet consists of two members: Jarrod Weeks (a.k.a. Lord Grunge) and Jackson O’Connell-Barlow (a.k.a. Grape-A-Don). Lord Grunge, the self proclaimed “Don of alternative hip-hop,” and Grape-a-Don, “the King of the campground,” weave clever pop-culture laden lyrics with pop sensible, hip-hop approved beats.

9/29

moe.

Chevrolet Theater / 7 p.m. $29.50 / all ages In 2001, the solid, catchy song writing skill behind moe.’s crisp musical attack was rewarded with a four-star review in Rolling Stone for their album Dither. The risk of combining live tracks with studio manipulation paid off, earning Wormwood four stars in Blender Magazine. Now, with the new release The Conch moe. takes it yet further with the next logical step in exploring this unorthodox, albeit successful, approach.

9/30

Boys Like Girls

Toad’s Place / 7 p.m. / $15 / all ages

“I like to listen to music that makes me feel a certain way--either it reminds me of something important that happened or a certain time in my life,” says Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson. “If kids are feeling that way about our songs, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The Boston-area band is paying that feeling forward by focusing on making lasting connections with its fans.

Opening: All Time Low, The Audition

10/1

Kings of Leon

Toad’s Place / 8 p.m. $30 / all ages Where Kings of Leon’s last release, 2005’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, was “a fuzz-encrusted rocket of controlled violence,” as Rolling Stone put it, packed with emphatic two-minute bursts of raunchy guitars, brawny drums, and growled vocals, Because Of The Times finds the Followills (brothers Nathan, Caleb, and Jared, and their first cousin Matthew) opening up, relaxing the rules, and reveling in the joys of their newfound musical freedom.

Opening: Manchester Orchestra

FILM

Until 10/21

9/26 and 9/30

Ocean’s Thirteen

Torp Theatre / 8 p.m. / FREE The third installment of Steven Soderbergh’s slick, star-studded heist series just might be the best, as Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and company pull off another elaborate caper, this time in the name of revenge. Vegas is effectively captured through seamless editing and beautiful photography, with the trappings of uber-wealth making the fantasy even more fantastical.

9/28 - 9/29

Manhattan Short Film Festival

Real Art Ways / 9:30 p.m. / $9 The best short film and winner of the 2007 Manhattan Short Film Festival will be determined by the global theater-going public.

After each screening, audience members will vote for the one film that is their favorite. The votes will be tallied and sent through to the Manhattan Short headquarters in NYC, where the winner will be announced in Union Square Park at 10 p.m. on Sunday, September 30.

9/28 - 10/4

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

Real Art Ways / 7:30 p.m.

The Media Education Foundation in Northampton, Mass. has had continual success exposing the nation’s viewers to important subjects on social and political issues. Now, it has made a beautiful primer on war. Co-directors Jeremy Earp and Loretta Alper worked with writer Norman Solomon to adapt his book by the same name. The result is a sampling of astute opinions by Solomon and others mixed with unique clips and sound bites from an avalanche of irresponsible U.S. Presidents and politicians.

For the Love of the Game, Race and Sport in America

Until 12/30

again: serial practices in contemporary art

Wadsworth Atheneum / $5 w/ Student ID again: serial practices in contemporary art features work by 15 artists drawn from a gift of 125 photographs to the Atheneum from collector Mickey Cartin, together with works from The Cartin Collection. Works from On Kawara, Ed Ruscha, Hans-Peter Feldman and Jonathan Monk anchor the central premise of again by looking at serial processes as they are articulated across media, culture and the last 35 years of contemporary art.

THEATRE Until 9/30

Whistle Down the Wind

The Bushnell / $22 - $70 From the award-winning composer who thrilled audiences around the world with Evita, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind comes to the states for the very first time on national tour! An extraordinary tale about the transforming power of love and faith, Whistle Down the Wind is an uplifting musical about a young girl named Swallow who finds a mysterious stranger in her barn.

Now until 10/14

Until 10/4

Driving Miss Daisy

Wadsworth Atheneum / 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

In part due to size, light sensitivity and appropriate gallery space, the Wadsworth Atheneum has many paintings and drawings that are seldom seen. Among them are works by Picasso, Fernand Léger and Georges Rouault; outstanding watercolors

by Paul Klee, Erich Heckel, and Otto Dix; and major examples by the Neo-Romantics. The Atheneum is famous for its holdings of the Surrealists, many of whom fled Europe during World War II for the United States, where they exerted a profound influence on a generation of young American artists, including Joseph Cornell, the inventive master of collage.

Until 10/11

Art Faculty Exhibition 2007 Chen Gallery, Maloney Hall 1-4 p.m. Mon-Fri

Until 10/14

Contemporary Combustion: Chinese Artists in America New Britain Museum of American Art The NBMAA’s next major special exhibition, Contemporary Combustion: Chinese Artists in America, includes painting, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, photography, installation and video by 10 contemporary artists. The works range in date from 2678 to 2007, and explore the themes and techniques of traditional Chinese art and how they have been retained and transformed in the 20th-21st century.

Gogol Bordello

Toad’s Place / 8 p.m. / $18

Wadsworth Atheneum / 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

“For the Love of the Game” juxtaposes The Amistad Center’s collection with the work of more than twenty artists who have addressed sport as medium and metaphor. The joy of athletic endeavors and their mass appeal as spectacles is acknowledged along with the turbulent and emotional elements of race, class and identity. Stop for some brief gallery talk with exhibition curator Franklin Sirmans on September 21 at 12 p.m.

ART Picasso to Pop: Aspects of Modern Art

10/7

Theater Works / $35-$45 TheaterWorks celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic that was adapted into the beloved Academy Awardwinning film. After she crashes her car, Daisy Werthan’s son gets her a new Oldsmobile...and a driver. Resolutely opposed to the idea, the strong-willed Daisy refuses to warm up to the affable Hoke, her new chauffeur. Over the course of 25 years, a surprising kinship develops between the Jewish schoolteacher and the African-American man hired to drive Miss Daisy.

“Gogol Bordello is going to conquer the world,” boasts Eugene Hutz, Gogol bandleader and agent provocateur. “Everything on the album is taken to the next level. It’s more direct, more abstract, more focused, with more dark humor. The dub parts are deeper; the fast parts are faster, its pure orgasmo hysteria.”

Opening Band: Dub Trio 10/8

Municipal Waste

Trinity on Main / 7 p.m. / $10 Born in the sewers of Richmond, Virginia during 2000, with the aim of spreading the shred, Municipal Waste played their first gig at a Richmond New Year’s Eve Keg party in 2000/2001. Blamed for inciting a small riot, Brendan Trache, Andy Harris, Tony Foresta and Ryan Waste went down a storm. As a result, the four swiftly started touring in small clubs; their blazing fast, raw thrash drew from the tradition of DRI, Suicidal Tendencies, ‘Animosity’-era Corrosion Of Conformity, Nuclear Assault and Attitude Adjustment.

Opening Bands: Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust

FILM 10/3 and 10/7

Ratatouille

Davidson Hall / 8 p.m. / FREE In Ratatouille, a rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the city of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unwanted visitor in the kitchen at one of Paris’ most exclusive restaurants, Remy forms an unlikely partnership with Linguini, the garbage boy, who inadvertently discovers Remy’s amazing talents.

10/4

Exposure

MUSIC

Cinestudio / 7:30 p.m. / $6 Cinestudio presents a special, one-night screening of a new film by local filmmaker Patrice Hamilton. It is a portrait of an American neighborhood where people struggle with the idea that life is movement. When a tragedy occurs in the neighborhood, the characters in this ensemble film are forced to acknowledge what challenges they are trying to escape or overcome. Come out and support local filmmaking, now on the rise in Connecticut.

10/4

10/5

WEEK OF OCTOBER 4 Cartel

Webster Theater / 7 p.m. / $16.50 Cartel sees themselves as minstrels of their day, offering songs about life and love that have always captured the human soul. Issuing a challenge to their cohorts, Will Pugh calls out “pop punk today isn’t going anywhere--let’s make some moves.” With their new album Chroma, Cartel definitely makes some big moves in the right direction.

Opening Bands: Weatherbox, The Honorary Title

Strange Culture

Real Art Ways / $6.25 The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and Professor Steve Kurtz began when his wife, Hope, died in her sleep of heart failure. Medics arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz’s art, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected “bioterrorist,” as dozens of agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, cat and even his wife’s body.

Did we miss something?

Know of an event we should list here?

Contact us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com.

Lifestyles

14

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Guerilla Journalism at the Front Lines Justin Kloczko

Opinion Editor And he said, “Hey kid, you think that’s oil?

Man, that ain’t oil that’s blood.”

I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm Or was he just lost in the flood?

- Bruce Springsteen, “Lost in the Flood”

Stephanie Bergeron

Lifestyles Editor Is studying making you thirsty? Are you short on cash and wish you knew where to go for the best drink specials? Look no further, my fellow thirst-quencher… Have I got the thing for you.

Tomorrow is Thursday and you want to wet your whistle. You decide on Hartford because it’s close, convenient and chances are you may even run into the cutie you’ve been checking out during class.

Suddenly, you cringe at the thought of having to decide which bar to go to. You wish someone, anyone would just make up their freaking mind.

When in doubt, seek the drink specials out.

Below is a list of the six best Hartford drink specials on Thursday nights. Get your scissors out. Cut along the perforated lines. Fill out your name and stick it into your wallet or purse. You’ll want to have it on you in case you forget after your first three Irish car bombs, or in case you find yourself wanting to relocate during the evening.

_______________________’s Thirsty.

Hartford Area: 1. Pour House - 103 Allyn Street No cover, $1 Bud and Bud Light bottles 2. The New Airport Road Café - 330 Ledyard Rd $2 Flavored requilas, $1.50 Coronitas 3. Sidewalk Café - 236 South St $2 Jagermeister, $2 Miller Light bottles 4. Pig’s Eye Pub - 385 Asylum St $3 All domestic beers, bottle or draft 5. Coach’s Sports Bar & Grille - 187 Allyn St After 9, $3 Martini’s and mixed drinks 6. Sully’s Pub - 2071 Park St $2 Coors Light bottles, $2 PBR cans $3 Flavored vodka

Have fun. Drink responsibly. And don’t ever think you are too cool for school - hand over your keys.

Two Thursdays ago I witnessed an appetite like no other from the people on this campus. My friends and I were about to exit the apartments after a night of drinking in the forgiveness. The halls were chaotic with thirsty people wandering around the from door to door, slipping into parties and looking for more drink. What happened next was odd, intriguing and incredibly entertaining.

The elevator doors swung open to take us down to the lobby, but before we got in something caught our attention. The rowdy crowd suddenly became silent. Stumbling down from the hallway opposite of the elevator was a kid in a neon green polo shirt. He slammed into the wall vomiting; his head left streaks of blood on the walls that showed us his trail. He looked up, both he and the crowd equally puzzled as to what was going on. His right eye was painfully latched shut, his nose busted to a swollen mess, and a stream of blood ran down his face into his mouth. He was drinking his own blood, and wasn’t aware of it. His shirt was spackled with fresh blood as he stood there wobbling in front of us like some strange encounter.

A bunch of us asked what happened.

Some were clearly afraid to approach him. I asked him what the deal was with his horrible state.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled, saying something about chicken wire, fists and gasoline.

Others asked for his name. “I don’t know,” he said.

“Where were you?” one said. No answer.

A random girl walked up and gave him some paper towels to absorb the blood.

We asked him what room he was in, and he was able to spit it out. I looked over at the hallway where his blood was smeared on the walls and tried to figure out which door he came out of. It was hard to tell, the random streaks of blood gave no clues.

The six of us took him downstairs to his

room. We knocked on the door and a big dude opened up, a booming party behind him.

“We found this guy upstairs and don’t know what happened to him. He needs to go to bed, man,” I said. Another friend with curly hair came up and thanked us for retrieving him.

“Where did you find him?” the big guy said. We told him the floor upstairs. Him and the other kid came outside and told us to show him. We headed upstairs back to the scene, just two friends and me with the other kid’s two friends. We exited the elevator and walked down the hall. A bunch of kids in white shirts, seven or eight, headed towards us.

The big kid ensued, “Hey any of you kids just beat someone’s ass? Hell yea!” he said playing the part of the bait.

A kid came forward. “I did. I fucked him up,” said a slightly short kid looking for props, with pierced studs and a backwards hat.

“Hell yea,” said the big kid as they stood face to face. He extended out a handshake showing praise. “That was my best friend,” he said in a changed tone, backing the other kid up against the wall. He immediately started mauling him. One of the shorter kid’s friends blasted around the corner and started beating on the big dude’s head. The little kid somehow slipped out, unscathed for the most part.

Now the real brawling was beginning. All you could hear was the two breathing hard and the punches being laid as hard smacks to the face.

More kids joined in. My friend Pete and I were next to each other, the end of the hall behind us, and the group of kids fighting in front. Four kids now were in the cluster-fuck, and it was getting violent. Heads were being smashed against the wall leaving bloody imprints, arms were flung blindly and holes were being put into the walls. The fighting was rapidly zeroing in on us with every punch. I was about to accept that I might have to defend myself. It was looking like we would have no choice.

“Hey, guys take it easy,” I yelled. They couldn’t stop. The bodies disappeared into a tornado of fists. Peter tried getting their attention, but it was useless. They got closer. I looked back and the end of the hall was coming nearer.

Then the fighting stopped.

The big kid had a gash on his forehead;

the other looked like he took a shower in blood, his white shirt soaked.

Peter told the big kid to relax. “Those kids hit like bitches,” he confessed. “Seriously though, I’m winded,” he added, panting like a dog.

I shuffled through the crowd; one kid confronted me aggressively and asked what I was doing with the others. I told him I didn’t know anyone.

Just as people were trying to catch some air, the fighting surged again. It was starting to get really ugly, and I was beginning to think the only thing that could stop this was the cops or someone getting knocked the fuck out. The big dude was really holding his own, fending off three people at a time like they were just compies.

This time I was really worried I would catch a fist to the face. Nothing was going to stop these guys. A black guy down the hall came out, took one look at the scene and shut his door. No one wanted a part of this mess.

There wasn’t even any talking, just people getting the living shit beaten out of them. You got the occasional, “Fuck off, asshole!” when someone would come up for air, but that was it. People were getting down to business and you couldn’t recognize faces, everyone was mashed up.

The fighting abruptly stopped again.

We tried talking to people. The little kid started berating Pete, yelling at him about “mah boy.” I told him to relax and asked him what happened. Originally, the kid in the green shirt, while in his drunken stooper, apparently antagonized the shorter kid earlier in the night.

I found out later that he did the same to another friend of mine for no reason at all. So green shirt kid took a swing and missed, and then the short kid socked him in the face.

Eventually, people cooled off and the halls were empty again, but if some random person were to walk in on it, they would have thought someone died a horrible death. There were three holes in the wall and an empty 40ounce on the ground and amazingly no security or cops showed up. It was like a scene out of Animal House, but with lots of blood.

As the three of us walked home, we were sure those kids wouldn’t remember a thing in the morning. Who says partying at Central is lame?

Nostalgic TV Shows Give This Generation Something to Talk About Peter Decoteau

Staff Writer Alright, I get it. You hold Camp Anawanna in your heart and, for some reason, it makes you wanna fart. It was funny then, and it’s slightly amusing now, but Salute Your Shorts ended a long time ago. Zack Morris’ charm only garnered him a few STDs. Doug probably married Patty and, after a long and brutal divorce, ditched his addiction to beets for an addiction to cocaine. Clarissa could apparently explain everything but her failing acting career.

Our generation, forever enamored in the television programs of our collective youth, has a strong propensity to fall back on nostalgic conversations about the subject whenever it seems there is nothing left to talk about. And while off-handed remarks revolving around or coming directly from inane TV shows from the 1990s can bring some color into a mundane conversation, in-depth back-and-forths regarding whether Hey Dude was a better show than Family Matters just seems a bit sad. Besides, we all know Hey Dude sucked and Karl Winslow was the man.

This obsession points to a theme much larger than simple entertainment derived from watching a Full House rerun. For the most part, the shows weren’t incredibly amusing then and, objectively, have aged worse than Kimmy Gibbler. It’s a disarming thing to know, then,

that instead of trips to the beach or the travails of building a tree house, the memories of our childhoods are dominated by Danny Tanner’s smarmy face and his completely unrealistic advice to his sheltered, pompous daughters (advice that apparently went unheeded by the actresses as the real “D.J. Tanner” allegedly became addicted to crack, and the disgustingly emaciated Olsen twins appear to put more shit up their noses than they do in their stomachs).

While it can be argued that the repeated latching onto these programs of the past fill a simple nostalgic void in our lives, this can only be said about the actual viewing of the episodes and not the inevitable 30-minute conversation about it the next day as if it were a world premiere. As Tony Soprano said, “Remember, ‘when’ is the lowest form of conversation.”

And regardless of whether or not I can sing the Step By Step song word for word (which I can), or the fact that Patrick Duffy is my hero (which he is), frequent references to the admittedly awesome show do nothing other than point to the possibility that I had nothing else to do on a Friday night other than sit down and watch a two-hour block of healthy family entertainment on ABC. So, while I may hold Camp Anawanna dearly in my heart – at least much more so than the bible camp my parents made me go to one summer (something I still consider to be the most devious practical joke ever played on me) - I did not actually attend Camp Anawanna.

“Budnick” and “Donkeylips” were not friends of mine, and my boyhood crush on “Dina” sadly went nowhere. This was not my life, just simple images and stories that seem to have forced away real experiences and people from my past.

And if you think that this was all just an excuse to talk about the favorite TV shows of my childhood, you might be right. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some reminiscing to do about that crazy time in high school when some guy sold me fake class rings. Man, those were the days.

15

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Name: Tom Pereira Year: Senior Now Playing: Black Sabbath Likes: Rock metal If someone wanted to start getting into rock metal, what would you recommend? “Linkin Park. They’re soft, hard‌kind of all around.â€?

Name: Sarah Parr Year: Junior Now Playing: Led Zeppelin Likes: Classic rock and country If someone wanted to start getting into classic fock, what would you recommend? “Lynyrd Skynyrd. That’s what I first listened to.�

Name: Rob Brown Year: “Junior? I just transferred here from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.�

Now Playing: Comeback Kid Likes: Hardcore If someone wanted to start getting into hardcore, what would you recommend? “Oh man, that’s a hard one. Maybe‌Have Heart.â€?

Button up on Southwest Drew Hendrickson

The Daily Aztec (San Diego State U.) (U-WIRE) -- Now I’ve heard and seen some ridiculous things in my time: the Florida Marlins winning two World Series, PBS prematurely canceling “Fraggle Rock� and, if you fold a piece of paper in half 44 times, it will reach the moon (turns out this is theoretically true).

But hearing about Southwest Airlines threatening to kick a girl off a plane because of what she was wearing is definitely cracking my all-time top three.

For those who missed the story: After receiving a complaint, Southwest asked Kyla Ebbert to cover up her “revealing� attire or depart the plane. Ebbert was only allowed to fly after she complied with the request.

This is wrong on so many levels that I’m having trouble figuring out where to begin. I guess I’ll start with the complainer. I’ve seen what this woman was wearing and if it offended someone, I would whole-heartedly suggest he or she never set foot on a college campus -- especially our campus. Just stick around the bingo halls to be safe.

Even if she was wearing a bikini bottom with glitter-covered shells covering her nipples, nobody should be saying anything. It’s not as if she smells like rotten seafood and is inducing passengers to vomit all over

the plane. That, my friends, would be a legitimate concern. A miniskirt and tight shirt -- not so much.

Besides, when everyone is seated, only two, maybe three people can see you. And even if these three individuals are bothered, they can just flip through “Sky Mall� and buy a hot dog toaster or water-dumbbell set.

It’s funny that Southwest, which once flaunted booty-short wearing flight attendants, would have the gall to tell this girl to cover up.

In the end, all the girl wanted from Southwest was an apology for the way they embarrassed her and the Orwellian-style treatment.

Which is amazing because I would have demanded two free years of flying and a reserved chair fashioned like a throne.

What’d she get? A formal letter response basically saying they had nothing to apologize for and it’s up to the attendants to decide what is OK. I thought that at the very least she would get a free flight or a lifetime of “A� boarding passes, not Joe-Lawyer empowering flight attendants as fashion police while bashing her character.

Do the flight attendants meet every month in some clandestine hotel ballroom to discuss secret dress codes and what items to look out for next month? Just what is the level of organization? Is this where they practice the stupid songs they sing each flight? And why do I keep imagin-

ing a frail old man and woman from the first commercial flights presiding over the group?

I want these questions answered.

Where is our whistle-blower?

Until the truth is revealed, be cautious while planning what to wear when you enter the realm of Southwest Airlines -- you never know what clothing agenda they’ll push next.

Better just wear a turtleneck to be safe.

:WTS Wa ^`Sbbg RcZZ eWbV]cb Q][WQ O`bWaba 1]\bOQb ca Ob QQac`SQ]`RS`.U[OWZ Q][ O\R [OYS ZWTS U]]R OUOW\

16

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Forget Elmer’s,

I’m Going To Eli’s Karyn Danforth

Staff Writer

“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.” -Dave Barry

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ce cream parlors love to gloat about carrying 32 flavors of the sweetest, creamiest, best-loved concoction of the junk food world. In the beer lovers’ world, what about a bar with a selection of 32 of the most satisfying ales and lagers on tap, rotating constantly? Is it revolutionary? Unrealistic? Of course not; this beer euphoria exists within the walls of Eli Cannon’s Tap Room in Middletown, Connecticut.

Snugly nestled on 695 Main Street, many would be flabbergasted to know that the Eli’s building was once Middletown’s city morgue in the 1800s. The morgue was renovated into a bar later that century, but it wasn’t ‘til 14 years ago that the building got the treatment it so desperately needed to become a success. Proudly stating “Saving the Ales,” Eli Cannon’s is dedicated to customer satisfaction, hot food, nostalgic atmosphere and above all, cold frosty beer.

Before entering Eli Cannon’s, one stops to marvel at its interesting outward appearance. The “it’s not just any bar” feeling is evident in the multi-colored lights that shine brilliantly on the tap room’s banner. An over abundance of neon fluorescent beer signs are displayed in every nook and cranny of the windows, and big boisterous flags fly above the entrance.

Stepping inside, people are introduced to not only its friendly bartenders and servers, but also to the Irish/English pub/American trailer park fusion of décor. The term “too much of a good thing” does not apply here, as that is the theme of Eli Cannon’s. People can sit in antique barber chairs, theater seats and leather couches, or just take a traditional seat at the bar.

Hundreds of mugs hang from the ceiling as you catch glimpses of the randomly-placed TV screens with everything on from old Japanese films to concerts and sports.

Classic and alternative rock fills the building and keeps everyone’s toes tapping. If the weather is permitting, one can visit the Beer Garden of Eden, aka their beautiful, large and spacious back deck/patio, surrounded by tall shrubs, trees and flowers. Got the beer munchies? Help yourself to some popcorn from the old-fashioned popper as you drink your beer and enjoy the fresh air.

But what about the beer, right? How does Eli Cannon’s carry 32+ beers on tap?

“It’s definitely expensive,” said Carrie Roberts, Eli Cannon’s general manager. “They aren’t too hard to acquire; microbreweries have grown in popularity and we are widely known for featuring them.”

What about the macro brews, like Coors, Budweiser or Miller?

“We do not carry macros,” Roberts proudly replied. It’s understandable, too. For a place that cherishes individuality, normality would be a sin.

Eli Cannon’s is so well-known and treasured by microbreweries that they seek out Eli’s continually for their support. On Tuesdays and select Thursdays, Eli’s holds beer tastings featuring a different brewery every week. People get to enjoy two of the brewery’s featured beers on tap as they collect free beer gear, such as t-shirts and key chains.

Special events are a major part of Eli’s constant effort to keep the public involved and informed of their favorite brews. Every year, Eli’s holds a Mardi Gras party on Fat Tuesday.

“It’s huge, and totally wild,” Roberts said with a big grin.

Other events include St. Patrick’s Day, the night before Thanksgiving and pig roasts, and people can even book the bar for special parties. What could possibly be better than having a bar to yourself and your friends?

Beer aside, for a bar to have a good rep, it must serve excellent food; Eli’s dinners and finger foods are downright exceptional.

“Everything is made fresh here,” said Roberts. Eli’s boasts the tastiest nachos and has an eclectic menu that is constantly growing. Dishes have unique names like the Zukonions - a plate of the most deliciously fried onions and zucchini that one will ever have the pleasure of experiencing.

Eli’s features their own products as well. Displayed near the dining room section is a wall of over 50 different kinds of hot sauces, all of which they bottle on the premises. Microbreweries also collaborate with Eli’s to make their own trademarked beers. Brooklyn Brewery helped create Eli’s Bug Spray Ale, and Harpoon helped with Apache Attack Ale. This isn’t an overexaggeration. Eli Cannon’s is one of the best bars to experience in Connecticut - perhaps it’s number one. It’s obvious in Connecticut magazines; Eli Cannon’s Tap Room has won 10 Hartford Advocate Reader’s Choice Awards, three Connecticut Magazine’s “Best Of” Awards and The Malt Advocate Magazine’s “Best Beer Menu (National)” Award.

The public does not lie; once you arrive, you simply do not want to leave.

Eli Cannon’s is only about a 20-minute drive from CCSU’s campus, and the prices won’t empty your pockets. So, instead of drinking a disgusting red cup of cheap beer on Thursday nights, go somewhere actually worth enjoying.

Photos by Conrad Akier / The Recorder