vol105issue16

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Volume 105 No. 16

Exploring Songs Not Heard Gallery opening of interactive performance AVIARY seeks to explore the world of extinct birds, while examining what they would sound like today.

Beyond Music, Movies and Podcasts Connecticut Schools Invited to Sign On with iTunes U

Page 1

Professor Speaks About America’s Changing Landscape MATT kiERNAN News Editor

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

CTDLC’s George Claffey spearheaded the partnership with Apple to allow greater access to iTunes U. MELiSSA TRAyNOR Editor-in-Chief

iTunes is easily recognizable as the method for downloading all kinds of music, podcasts, online series, movies and TV shows all in one place.

When professors gain the ability to compete with the diversions

available to students on iTunes, using their own original content to supplement classes, iTunes U reaches its full potential.

In order to garner attention from Connecticut colleges and universities, a presentation was delivered to representatives from many schools on Monday.

The presentation, held by the Connecticut Digital Learning

AAUP Discusses Budget Cuts MATT kiERNAN News Editor

Connecticut State UniversityAmerican Association of University Professors, President Dave Walsh, held a meeting to discuss the governor’s budget and how it will affect students, professors and the economy during his tour of the Connecticut State University schools.

“Emphasize this isn’t a budget crisis. It’s an economic crisis,” said Walsh in front of an audience of faculty and members of the community.

With help from the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, Walsh said that he’s willing to work with the Governor Rell administration to create a stimulus package.

“You need to build a large coalition in something like this to be successful,” said Walsh. Walsh found it amazing, that a stimulus package, which could essentially help improve healthcare, retirement and pensions for the citizens of Connecticut, is moving so slowly.

Tuition increases for Central Connecticut State University are almost unavoidable as a direct result of the costs of faculty salaries and campus expenditures. An increase in tuition is most likely going to force some students to withdraw from the university.

“We will lose students, there’s no question,” said Walsh.

Walsh advocates that tuition increases will see students suffer, as they will have to pay more each year.

Even if there is not an increase in tuition fees, students may withdraw their enrollment due to a lack of available courses and teachers as a direct result of lack of funding. “The problem with not increasing tuition is the loss of people teaching,” said Walsh.

Walsh believes that the essential requirements, such as members of the faculty would be the last group to be lost. “The last group (to be let go) would be faculty because enrollment is at an all-time high.”

During this economic crisis, people are worried for their jobs and See AAUP Page 3

Consortium, was intended to inform professors and representatives from schools around the state of the opportunities provided by iTunes U. It is a product of Apple that is now made available to schools through a joint contract with CTDLC. iTunes U is technology that will allow professors to provide extra content for their students on-

News Page 2

Who are the IVAW?

line – including podcasts, videocasts, PDFs, videos and photos in order to supplement their in-class learning.

Material such as lectures that are recorded into audio or video, translated into slideshows and accompanied by photos are believed to offer further insight to a topic studied in class.

This ancillary content is then available for download on the school’s site.

Passion Pit Plays the Iron horse Music Hall on 2/7 Photos on Page 15

See Professor Speaks Page 3

See Beyond Music Page 2

This Issue

Sports

Men’s Basketball Splits Weekend Matchups

Page 16

A group of Connecticut vets assemble to form one of the newest chapters of Iraq Veterans Against the War to focus on life after combat.

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Dr. Peniel Joseph spoke before a crowd at Torp Theater last Tuesday, discussing the changes in American politics and culture after the historic election of President Barack Obama.

Joseph, a professor of the African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University and a presidential analyst who has been featured on PBS, focused on the changes Obama will bring to the politics, his place in world history and the changes in the world of social equality.

“Obama’s candidacy gave a united vision of American democracy,” said Joseph in his lecture entitled, “The Price and Promise of American Citizenship.”

Obama’s presidency is viewed

by Americans, as well as the people of other nations, as a chance to bring about a change in the world of democracy.

“This is going to be an administration pragmatic about its distribution of power,” said Joseph. The Obama administration has been sending a message that it will make attempts to be bipartisan on many issues, such as the plan to create an estimated $875 billion stimulus package while asking support from Republicans in order to revive the American economy.

Obama has created a revitalization of the belief of democracy throughout the nation by running a campaign that wasn’t focused on people of specific races, but about people across America.

Blue Devils Hunt Down Foxes

Devils Sweep Their Way to Post Season

News

2 THE RECORDER Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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Iraq Veterans Against the War Focus on Adapting

T 860.832.3744 F 860.832.3747 ccsurecorder@gmail.com therecorder.tumblr.com twitter.com/therecorder Editor-in-Chief Melissa Traynor Managing Editor Peter Collin Art Director Geoffrey Lewis Associate Layout Editor Crystal Maher Photo Editor Edward Gaug Copy Editor Colette Gallacher News Editor Matt Kiernan Asst. News Ariana Valentin Entertainment Editor Jason Cunningham Asst. Entertainment Michael Walsh Nick Viccione Lifestyles Editor Karyn Danforth Sports Editor Kyle Dorau

Marissa Blaszko Opinion Editor

A former medic in the Fourth Infantry, Sgt. Jeff Bartos enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after graduating high school.

“I didn’t want to go to college and really wanted to jump out of planes and kill people,” he said,

shrugging slightly. “I was their perfect candidate.”

Now, less than two years after his release, Bartos, 24, went from serving the state to serving as the secretary-treasurer for Connecticut’s first Iraqi Veterans Against the War chapter. The IVAW, which was founded in 2004 at a Veterans For Peace convention, is a national organization now made up of almost 14,000 members in 48 states.

The Connecticut IVAW has begun mobilizing. Bartos, who spoke at the Dec. 7 anti war rally in Hartford, is scheduled to be speaking at Central on both Feb. 26 as part of a forum on post-traumatic stress disorder and with the IVAW on March 5.

Both of these events are set in small part to build for the March 21 national protest in D.C., for which an expected 5-7 busses will be leaving Connecticut alone.

The new branch, like the 54 other active branches, plans on using local, mass and direct action to continue the group’s fight. Its first demand calls for an immediate withdrawal of all troops – not just those labeled “combative” – from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The second calls for the American government to fund “reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered,” as well as

pulling out all corporations from the region.

But Bartos’ opposition to the war took hold far before he had heard of the organization. While serving in Baghdad, Bartos’ convoy rolled through an area it was patrolling, an improvised explosive device hit the unit.

In retaliation, the troops blew up a near by orchard, setting it on fire and sending several men running out – men who were believed to have set off the explosion.

After several minutes of searching the men at gunpoint to verify their innocence, the army allowed them to return to their field. “Their livelihood, their orchard, [was] burning in the background,” Bartos said.

But it wasn’t until over a year after his release that Bartos woke up to find a Facebook message addressed to him from Chris Grohs, 26, who served as an army specialist for several years and was part of the Iraq invasion. Grohs, who had been part of the IVAW for several years, discovered, like Bartos, his feelings about the war while still in the service.

“I had just gotten back from Afghanistan and [already] realized there was no connection between 9/11 and Iraq,” Grohs said. “As the initial invasion was going on, I was in awe.”

The message waiting in Bartos’s inbox in early August was, indeed, an invitation to join Grohs and his comrades in forming a new IVAW branch.

After being released in 2004, Grohs waited several years before finally becoming the initiator in form-

ing the Connecticut branch. His connections, he said, were helpful.

“I went to high school with Jeff,” he said.

The third demand of the organization, according to IVAW.org, is one that for many veterans includes a daily struggle.

“Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women.”

The demand, Bartos said, is an important one. Bartos, as well as several veterans he knew, was hit with shell shock not in combat, but when he first moved into his own house and realized he had never learned how to pay bills.

“The Army never teaches you how to adjust,” he said.

Because of this, the CT-IVAW has begun working with the Boston branch in forming a coalition of physicians and specialists in order to help returning veterans.

It is their hope that by working with psychologically and physically injured vets, as well as active-duty soldiers, that they will not build a broader antiwar movement, but come closer to ending the war.

“Their country’s victory has nothing to do with them anymore,” said Bartos. “Their mission is to recover.”

The CT-IVAW is planning on holding a talk on campus March 5, as well as working with other Connecticut anti war groups in mobilizing buses for a national march to the Pentagon on May 21.

Beyond Music, Movies and Podcasts

Asst. Sports Christopher Boulay Opinion Editor Marissa Blaszko Asst. Opinion Shauna Simeone Web Editor John Vignali

Staff Steve Packnick P.J. Decoteau Sean Fenwick Mike D’Avino Hale Yalincak Kareem Mohamed Dan Dinunzio Tonya Malinowski Chuck Desrochers Mike Theodore

About

The Recorder is a studentproduced 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.

Meetings for The Recorder are held on Mondays at 12:30 p.m. in The Recorder office.

Continued from page 1 CCSU is expected to sign on to implement its own iTunes U page according to George Claffey, the CTDLC’s Chief Information Officer.

Fairfield University’s representative Jay Rozgonyi said that Shakespeare professors, for example, welcomed the idea of iTunes U and providing something extra for students who found the history plays difficult.

One professor was able to post videos of performances of William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” on Fairfield’s iTunes U site.

“He reported higher test grades once he started posting things to iTunes U,” Rozgonyi said.

Though the intention of iTunes U material is to give students more ways to learn, content is free and available to anyone via the Internet.

Claffey had worked on this partnership with Apple for over a year in order to bring education into

the forefront of technology that the company had to offer.

While the iTunes U framework itself is free, the college or university must create the original content on their iTunes U Web site as well as maintain and update it.

Claffey said that there is certainly a price involved on the school’s part, including training staff to operate their iTunes U Web site.

Broome Community College’s Director of Public Affairs Richard David said that the school had to internally reorganize to support their iTunes U web page. He said that the effort required out-of-the-box thinking and understanding by BCC’s administration. David explained that the president and his administrative support “got it,” in that they understood the need to reach out to students. “The goal has always been to connect with students, but the medium has changed,” David said.

The technology also provides for marketing and recruiting purpos-

es for the school, as well as a way to connect the school’s greater community.

He said the school needed to create a Web presence suitable to the demographic with content that fully represented the BCC’s academics, athletic and campus life activities in order to supplement classroom learning while marketing themselves to future students. BCC, which boasts 350,000 subscribers to their content and millions of hits a day on their iTunes U site, has used the framework to create a TV-like reality series “vodcast” – a video podcast – called “On the Quad” to document the lives of several students and their successes and failures.

BCC’s Director of Electronic Communications Jesse Wells said that the series was able to captivate and involve local high schools from which they draw in students, called “feeder schools.”

Connecticut’s public universities that are interested in using

the framework have access to contracts approved by the attorney general and private universities have the same opportunities as well.

Each iTunes U site added to higher education institution’s Web site has the potential to become fully integrated with the university’s academics, as well as branding and promotional opportunities.

The Web sites created by colleges and universities are accompanied by those on the iTunes store’s Web site containing similar material by cultural institutions such as museums and PBS stations. The iTunes U section of the iTunes store contains listings of the schools and divides up the topics of courses or other research material by category.

Schools that sign on with iTunes U will receive 500 gigabytes of free space with Apple.

3

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / NEWS

Psychology Team to Study Alcohol’s Effects on 18-22 Age Group hALE yALiNCAk Staff Writer

CCSU’s psychology department hopes to recruit freshman for BARCS, the Brain and Alcohol Research with College Students study, to establish if the functioning patterns of the human brain are related to persistent alcohol and drug abuse.

The researchers hope to learn if early evidence of alcohol and drug abuse predicts cognitive difficulties an individual might face in the future, such as someone having trouble remembering information.

Participants in the study must be freshmen, ranging from people who drink to people who do not drink.

The researchers said it is important to have people who fall into both categories so that the data can be compared.

Although participants will be revealing some private information, the results are completely confidential because each of the researchers are tied to a code of ethics.

The study, which is sponsored by The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is led by Dr. Carol Austad as chief investigator, Dr. Carol Fallahi and Dr. Rebecca Wood, both co- investigators, along with five graduate level students including research coordinator William Davis, a graduate student in psychology.

The study is only open to freshmen because the brains of 18-22-year-olds are still developing.

The study lasts about two years, but none of the participants are required to remain in the study for the entire two years.

Data-gathering consists of numerous tasks that include both computerized and pencil-and-paper tests. These test the participants’ memory and ability to pay attention.

They will be required to answer some questions about your alcohol and drug abuse, but the results are confidential.

The researchers will also be collecting genetic material from the students, including saliva samples.

Professor Speaks

Continued from page 1

Austad said that the research team is more than willing to accommodate each participant’s needs.

“We have research assistants working morning, noon and night. We can work around your schedule,” she said.

Through the series of tests there will be two sessions and each session takes about an hour and a half. The student will be paid $30 in total for these three hours.

In order to be a part of this study the student must register on www.barcs-study.com.

After a registration process one of the researchers from the study will get in touch with the potential participant.

After registering for the study, the student will be asked to take a short online assessment once a month.

The participant receives $5 for each online assessment he/she does. The student is not required to do these assessments for the full two years and can drop out of the study at any time.

Of the subjects, a few are randomly selected to visit Hartford’s Olin Neuropsychiatric

Vanderbilt Students Create Web site Aimed at Collegian Trip Planning RuTh kiNSEy

vanderbilt hustler | vanderbilt university

“If Obama used racial policies, he would have been labeled an African-American candidate,” said Joseph. “Racial policies don’t have universal effects to speak to everyone.”

Joseph said that in 2007 there was a question if African-Americans would embrace Obama and an idea that whites wouldn’t vote for him. In 2008 people started to see a change in racism for the candidacy, where racism would become less of an issue in the election.

Joseph related Obama to President Roosevelt, Kennedy and Lincoln, in that he’s able to speak well to Americans and can relate to their struggles, especially Lincoln.

“Too often in the world of democracy words don’t matter,” said Joseph.

He discussed Obama’s reaction to his former pastor Reverend Wright, who created controversy by declaring the government created the AIDS virus among other things. He felt that Obama’s reaction to Reverend Wright was the best it could be because it wasn’t harsh.

“When we think of American history, we really can choose our better history,” said Joseph. He explained that choosing our better history is to look back on events such as slavery, the struggles of women to gain suffrage and to not make the same mistakes.

Research Center to get an MRI. Transportation is provided, and the entire test is paid for. The students who participate in the MRI will receive $10 per hour.

Austad and her fellow researchers believe this study to be an important way to learn the truth about the effect of drinking on the cognitive ability of college students.

“We would like every person in the freshman class to participate, because this is a groundbreaking study, said Austad.

“The aim is to study normal development, as well as alcohol development. I’m a clinical psychologist and the developing brain is extremely interesting to me and it’s an area we don’t know much about.”

She believes the results can be a useful discovery and can be applied to read life.

“The mental health community would be highly interested in these results,” Austad said.

About 60 people at CCSU have already signed up for this study, but 2000 participants are required to sign up between CCSU and Trinity College.

(UWIRE) - A Web site designed by students at the Owen Graduate School of Vanderbilt University hopes to help students plan spring break and other road trips.

According to the graduate students who created it, My College Road Trip offers a unique perspective because college students write the material with other college students in mind.

“The best thing is that it narrows down the mass amount of information about cities or things to do in a particular destination to the things that college students care the most about,” said Virginia Francis, Owen graduate student and vice president of brand management at MCRT. Andrew Bouldin, founder and CEO of MCRT, said he came up with the idea of the Web site while he was driving home from a weekend road trip.

“I realized that there was no way to find out the coolest things for college students to do around my college on any given weekend,” Bouldin said. Once he got home, he said he began to search the Internet for quality travel information aimed at college students and could find nothing. All information on potential vacation destinations was written by parents and businessmen, he said. Bouldin found a group of fellow students who shared his irritation and MCRT was born.

Many Vanderbilt students contribute to the running of this online business. Involved are not only the Owen graduate students who launched the Web site, but also undergraduate

students in Associate Professor of Managerial Studies Cherrie Clark’s Advanced Marketing class.

“They are implementing a viral marketing project to promote the site,” Francis said. “They are using online tools such as Facebook and blogs to promote the site to college students around the country.”

Owen graduate students involved in the project will be able to use their experience in forming an online business toward their business degrees. This spring the students will all be doing independent study for the business so they can receive school credit for the work they put in.

MCRT is just one of the many businesses founded by Owen students while they are still enrolled in graduate school.

“The culture of the program at Owen is just wonderful,” said Jim Bradford, dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management. “So many students run their own businesses while here at Owen. Just yesterday, I went to the screening of one of our student’s films, which will premiere in New York in the next few weeks.”

Bradford credits Owen’s significant jump in the Financial Times’ Business School rankings to the students’ eagerness to start their own businesses.

The Owen Graduate School of Management jumped 20 places in the world rankings of the Financial Times and is now ranked the 56th best business school in the world. It also jumped 15 spots in the U.S. business school rankings of the Financial Times’ and is now ranked as the 28th-best business school in the U.S.

AAUP Holds Budget Talks Continued from page 1

the benefits they rely on for themselves and their families. Presently benefits have never been taken from the away from the people, but during these times anything is possible as a worst-case scenario, “As of now, if you’re retired, whatever you’ve opted for is yours.”

“We don’t know who’s speaking for the Rell administration,” said Walsh and that most of the stalling to make any changes have been for political reasons. There have been issues surrounding discussions between the American Association of University Professors and the Rell administration, where the two have yet to make an agreement in improving the economic condition.

Walsh says he personally sent a letter to the Chancellor of the Connecticut State

University system, suggesting that the structure of the relationship between the state and the faculty was at stake.

The Obama administration has led to a change in the outlook of politics and gives suggestions for a way of rebuilding the political culture Walsh said. “People have had enough of the anti-government rhetoric.”

The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition is formed from all Connecticut State employee unions. The coalition works to improve union workers health benefits and pensions.

Connecticut will have an alleged deficit of $7 billion and a budget of $18.5 billion for the 2009 year. Walsh says the deficit is only an estimate because the dollar amounts for it seem to change every hour.

Life is pretty dull without comic artists.

Contact us at ccsurecorder@gmail.com and make life good again.

4 THE RECORDER Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Editorial

Editorial/Opinion

There has always been a fine line when it comes to free speech involving students at public schools. With new modes of communication such as the internet, the line is becoming even thinner. Recently, Avery Doninger, a Lewis H. Mills High School student, lost a lawsuit against the school board after accusing them of wrongfully barring her from running for student government after she posted negative comments about school faculty on her blog.

In the spring of 2007, the school’s principal, Karissa Niehoff, cancelled the annual music festival, Jamfest. Doninger then posted an entry in her Livejournal blog calling the school officials “douchebags”, and urged fellow students to call the superintendent to complain in order to “piss [her] off more”.

The school then prevented Doninger from running for school elections, which prompted a lawsuit from Doninger and her mother. U.S.

Letter to the Editor EMPLOYER WANTED Employee seeking employment within the institution where I obtained my Undergraduate and Master’s degree!

I am a bright, well-rounded, dedicated, efficient worker. (Si me dan un minuto te enseňo.)

I have been employed in several different departments here at Central. I have experience in Academic Advising, Pre-Collegiate Access Services, Financial Aid, School of Business, and Upward Bound Programs. (Saltado de departamento a departamento como un sapo!)

I am seeking a full time position in any capacity helping students and families.

135,000 Soles starting salary would be sufficient. (Tengo que pagar los biles y mandar dinero a mi abuela en Peru!)

I have a Masters degree in Student Development in Higher Education. (Pero tambien puedo limpiar baňos) I am a very healthy person, I never call out sick. (Yo como muy bien, arroz con gandules, tostones y ensalada) I came to Central to “Start with a dream and finish with a future” (Empeze con un sueňo y termine soňando de un trabajo seguro!)

You don’t have to look very far for a dedicated employee.

I know that the hiring freeze has your hands tied but I was here before the big freeze, there is always ways to melt the ice. (Que se derrite el hielo con el calor de este aňo nuevo y el espiritu de Obama!)

District Court Judge Mark Kravitz sided with the school board stating that the administrators did not violate her free speech rights. Even though her blog was posted off school grounds Kravitz said, “off-campus speech can become on-campus speech with the click of a mouse”.

After the ruling on the case state lawmakers are proposing a bill that could help to guarantee the free speech rights of students. The law would prohibit schools from taking disciplinary action against students who post nonthreatening posts on electronic equipment outside of school grounds, and do not use school equipment to do so.

This legislation will be a great success in the struggle for student rights. The Internet may have expanded the means of communication, but that does not mean that more restrictions and censorship should be put in place by administrators.

Student free speech is important in ensuring that students are being treated fairly. If administrators were to penalize students that criticize them, an inequitable relationship would arise where administrators could abuse their authority. The right for students to openly and freely criticize their superiors is essential in maintaining the fair treatment of students on school grounds. Avery Doninger was expressing this right and she should be protected under the law.

As university students we are lucky because we have the privilege of more expansive free speech rights. It’s definitely important that students act responsibly when expressing these rights, but criticism should absolutely be protected under the law.

For example, ratemyproffesor.com is a constructive website where students are able to honestly write their feelings about a specific

professor. For the most part students don’t use it to spread hateful comments that they have bottled up. This is a great example of the benefits of free speech protection for students under the law. We would like to see this type of protection expanded to high school students at public institutions.

Free speech is arguably one of the most fundamental and essential rights that we have as Americans. Most importantly, this right protects dissent, which is essential in preventing tyranny within all levels of authority. Expanding this right to high school students will be beneficial and essential to maintaining justice.

Say What? Guantánamo Bay Gina Dinoia Staff Writer

In the past few weeks, it has been impossible to pick up a newspaper or turn on the news with out hearing about President Obama’s decision to close the much controversial Guantánamo Bay. Citizens in Washington and all over the world have mixed feelings as to whether it is a good thing that the facility is being shut down because of the rumored torture, but on the other hand, U.S. citizens are concerned that the detainees will then be put into facilities here at home.

To get an idea about what students were feeling on the decision, we posed the following question to the students: “How do you feel about the closing of Guantánamo Bay?”

Justin Thomas “I would be interested to know if it has been taken into consideration that the detainees are dangerous and if any are let free, they could create more problems.”

Adeline Yllanes University Assistant CCSU

I am a student here at CCSU, I don’t get to make it to many of the game because of a busy schedule but would if I could. I love hockey and think its silly that our team isn’t actually a “team” but a club here. From what I’ve seen and the records the hockey team is really good and should only be rewarded with more funding!

Go CCSU Hockey!

Kate Naramore “I think it’s a good move to close Guantánamo Bay, but I am concerned that the prisoners will be let into U.S. facilities or if they are let free, they could attack us.”

Katherine Galezowski “I’m not a big fan of politics because I haven’t always agreed with America’s “over involvement” in our world’s issues. So I don’t think anyone can say whether it is a good or bad idea yet. No one can tell the future, we will just have to wait and see what happens when

-Fan Jenny Nosal

Got something to say?

Write us a 200-300-word signed letter to the editor at

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Ben Joyce “I disagree with the closing of Guantánamo Bay. We need a base there [in Cuba] to interrogate suspected terrorists.”

Marcus Griffin “I see the closing of Guantánamo Bay as a good thing because of the harsh treatment that is said to be going on there.”

Kevin Munro “I feel that the closing is a good idea because the facility violates the Geneva Convention and human rights.”

5

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / OPINION

Riding Out The Ship Dan Dinunzio Staff Writer

This coming May many Central Connecticut State University students will graduate with degrees in a variety of different areas. Conventional wisdom says that many of these people will go on and pursue further education or more importantly look for a job in their respected fields. That’s how it works right?

Wrong.

Today, finding a job right after college is becoming increasingly difficult. It’s a prevalent example of how the average American on Main Street is suffering from this massive financial fallout on Wall Street.

The unemployment rate in the State of Connecticut is currently at a staggering 8 percent and is seemingly continually rising. The dramatic lines at unemployment agencies all across the country are like nothing seen before.

The more people that are out of work, the more our state economy will suffer.

With Governor Jodi Rell planning to cut 400 jobs in her budget proposal, it seems as time goes on the consumer is feeling an even greater burden on their own shoulders. There’s no doubt about it—it’s not a good time to be looking for a job for anybody, let alone for a 21- or 22-year-old fresh out of college.

The talk around campus seems to suggest that a lot of students aren’t worried about the current economic conditions.

A common response among students was that they haven’t really felt or seen the pinch.

Students think that the economy will start to turn around by the summer, but what if it

doesn’t? After all we are in one of the deepest recessions in history, and it’s going to take a lot of money to rejuvenate the stalling economy.

No matter what happens, the cost of attending this university is going to increase considerably and there’s nothing more that can be done to help that matter. While there are people graduating that are under the belief that “it doesn’t affect me.” They might want to rephrase their words when they’re searching for a job.

Right now, competition to fill the positions that are vacant is also going to be at an alltime high, because of the numerous applicants that are looking for work.

Even at a local level, towns are looking at the most effective ways to cut costs. Education is considered to be one of the most essential parts that government provides to the people, yet Governor Rell is planning to cut higher education by 5 percent which equates to a roughly 13.6 percent tuition increase at University of Connecticut, if not higher at the four CSU schools The state budget is an integral part of how CCSU pays its costs. The cold harsh reality is students are going to be paying more to go to school and at the same time college graduates are going to have a tough time finding well paid jobs in the workforce.

Times ahead may be difficult and challenging but President Obama once said, “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself... Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

Workers Need to Organize to Find Jobs, Keep the Ones They Have Marissa Blaszko Opinion Editor

Last week, national labor coalition, Jobs with Justice, ended an almost month-long tour of the striking Republic Windows and Doors workers throughout the country. With two events in Connecticut alone, the month was billed as a victory tour for one of the largest victories for laid off workers of the past several years.

As Central students are, in large part, the first generation of their family to attend college - and even more importantly, probably attending Central Connecticut State University for the low price tag - it’s not hard to understand why such a tour should matter to us. An increasing amount of conversation on campus seems to be about money. Whether the tuition increase will be 15 or 30 percent, whether we’ll find jobs upon graduation, and whether or not we will be losing the jobs we have.

For students that have had their cable cut after not being able to pay the bills, nearly 300 Chicago workers took their factory in an occupation just before the end of last semester.

Refusing to move from the site, the workers along side of hundreds of other sympathizers captured the nation’s attention.

Their demands were simply to get what they were legally entitled too. As part of their contract, the workers (who were in large part parents and grandparents) were guaranteed 30 days notice before being laid off. Instead, they were given two days notice. In addition, they were then informed that they were not going to be given the money that the company owed them for the week’s worth, and that their insurance was going to be evoked almost immediately.

Although they were not alone in this situation - millions of jobs around the country, from state bureaucrats to factory workers, have also been cut in the past year - the Republic workers, as part of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Union, barricaded themselves in until their bosses gave what was owed to them.

The strike was a major victory. Much of the reason their checks were not coming in was due to Bank of America, who would not grant the closing factory a new loan, just weeks after receiving a massive bailout from Washington. It should also be noted that another, larger bailout for even more banks and factories is currently in the works over on Capitol Hill.

Unfortunately, although the entire country seemed to know about the struggle, it seemed near impossible to find anyone that

knew of the workers’ tour. At the first Connecticut event—a small speak-out in Hartford—the only attendants were a couple dozen union bureaucrats and a handful of activists. The second event, that night in New Haven, saw about a hundred people, but was again attended mostly by professionals and local activists.

What’s more, CT AFL-CIO Director John Olsen, who is in charge of about 220,000 people in this state alone, seemed to have made little attempt to get any workers out to the event, although the early time (9-10am) was presumed to have been scheduled so second or third shift workers could attend.

“This is the first shot in the war,” said Olsen, in a speech that served as a pat on the back to the other organizers in the room.

Although his talk seemed more militant than would be expected from a middle aged man in a suit who makes most of his public appearances around the legislative building (“I don’t want to hear about sharing pain—we’ve bared enough pain”), it’s hard to understand why, in the face of millions more layoffs, none of the major Connecticut unions made any attempt to bring the workforce out to the event.

The need for organization is obvious.

Governor Jodi Rell’s solution to the budget crisis is to strip social services that working families and students need. Raising tuition and pushing off universal healthcare promises is going to continue to shrink the middle class - the point is almost undisputable. Olsen himself made this point at another legislative meeting just days after the Chicago worker’s tour.

But our real power doesn’t lie in the Legislative Office Building, or with any number of union bureaucrats. The fact that no real effort was made to promote the meeting with Republic Windows and Doors workers shows the disconnect that representatives and politicians feel with us; sure, they ask for our votes once every few years, but do they ask for our political involvement outside of that?

The entire event was nothing more than an indicator of the lack of participation in actual democracy. Most of the laws and regulations that affect our daily lives are made on campus and in the workplace. Going out to vote for Obama may look like democracy, but real democracy should be taking place everyday, in ever aspect of our lives. Without recognizing that, and without taking our future into our own hands, all solutions to the capital crisis, that is shaking the world down to the bone, will be left completely beyond our control.

Give Entire $875 Billion to Students for Quick Economic Fix

Jason Staggs

The Battalion | Texas A&M

(UWIRE) - To the leaders of the illustrious 111th Congress of the United States: In view of their somewhat-less-than-profitable efforts, I humbly submit a suggestion for stimulating the national economy. In the immortal words of failed presidential candidate John F. Kerry, “I have a plan.” (Only this time people get to see what the plan is before they choose whether or not to support it.)

Step One: Do not shrink the size of the house stimulus bill. Something around a trillion dollars in new spending is desperately needed, and in fact, $875 billion is undershooting it a little.

If the federal government has been able to give out hundreds of billions of dollars in loans from foreign dictators and megabanks over the past few decades to pay for useless things like the Department of Defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, surely there’s still credit out there somewhere for us to feed on.

I don’t care if it’s our great-grandchildren’s grandchildren’s great-grandchildren’s credit, we need it now. Obviously, the federal government hasn’t been spending enough over the past eight years, or we wouldn’t be in the jam that our silly free market economy got us into.

Step Two: U.S. Senate Republicans need to send a bill to the House of Representatives to replace the omnibus pork bus President Obama sent in January. This bill should have these allocations: $875 billion (at least) in stimulus checks to every college undergrad. One line item in the bill and they’re done. You laugh, but I have done the math on this. It works.

There are about 14.2 million students pursuing an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in the United States this year. If you take a calculator and divide 14.2 million people into $875

billion, you reach the whopping number of $61,619.72 per student. Imagine what would happen if every college student in America received a check for $60,000. For those of you with limited imaginations, allow me to enlighten you on why this plan is flawless.

College students spend money. It’s what we do. If we are not spending money, it is because we don’t have it to spend. Obviously, not a problem with $60,000 in cash burning a hole in your checking account. None of that waiting around for a project to be studied, commissioned, designed, discussed and voted on. No waiting around in committee for us. Problem solved, for us and for the economy.

What kinds of industries does undergrad spending support? Local businesses, small businesses, American businesses; the ones in need of support.

The food and beverage industries, which are taking just as much of a hit these days, need help the most. One can only imagine how much of an impact money spent at grocery stores would have on the national economy. Think of all the jobs.

Speaking of jobs, I think the U.S. auto industry might be saved by this. Speaking as a carless-American, the first thing I would buy would be a vehicle. With all that money, GM might even restart the Hummer line. Maybe that’s only a dream, but there is more in my line of reasoning.

Recognizing that the laundry, landlord and liquor industries might move in on most of the profit from this stimulus bill, one should note that college students are not all stingy people. I’m sure some of the money would make its way to our parents, who would spend it on responsible stuff. So, in the end, everyone benefits.

Now try to disagree with me $875 billion is undershooting our potential just a bit.

6

THE RECORDER / February 11, 2009 / OPINION

Hartford Courant Skewing Doom and Gloom Administration Portrayal of Troops Shauna Simone Opinion Editor

The current economic crisis is affecting most Central Connecticut State University students in one way or another. Whether it involves trying to find a job or get student loans, the need for money has been at the forefront of most people’s minds. As tough as the financial situation is right now, we are not facing the doomsday scenarios that have been portrayed all over the media.

The gloomy forecasts for the future of our country are widespread. President Obama, undoubtedly disappointing all those who voted for hope, recently said, “This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.” Of course, the President stated that permanent damage would only occur if congress doesn’t spend nearly a trillion dollars on “stimulus,” right now.

Whether it be top government officials or the media, it is common to hear that America is facing “the worst economic times since the Great Depression”, but this statement is factually inaccurate. The big economic indicators that are continually mentioned are the unemployment rate and GDP. As of now the unemployment rate has reached 7.6 percent. This is a far cry from the 25 percent unemployment rate that occurred during the Great Depression.

People also forget to mention that in 1975 the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent and in 1982 it soared to 9.7 percent.

As for GDP, the fourth quarter change in GDP was down 3.8 percent from the previous quarter. This means that output declined, but in 1982 GDP decreased by 6.4 percent from the previous quarter. The statistics that face America right now are not particularly pleasing, but Americans must remember that we

Shauna Simone Opinion Editor

Anyone who actually still reads the Hartford Courant may have noticed that a recent theme has begun to appear involving the paper’s coverage of United States soldiers. It insinuates that if you are a soldier, you are much more likely to have a mental illness.

In the past month the Courant has printed three articles, including a front-page article on January 30, about record suicide rates committed by soldiers. They also had an article about the immense number of violent crimes committed by soldiers who have returned home from battle. This was a follow up on the New York Times article series about the same topic.

The Courant’s articles were lacking hard facts to support their conclusions, and their investigative work did not merit front-page news.

The January 30 article entitled, “Army Suicide Rates in 2008 Hit Highest Level Ever Recorded”, mentioned the rate of suicide per 100,000 army soldiers but failed to mention the rate for the general population. The article simply stated that the army suicide rate was greater than that of the general population. After uncovering some facts it turns out that Army’s suicide rate was 0.7 per 100,000 people greater than the national average. This comparison uses a 2005 statistic for the national suicide rate since that is the most recent number to be released.

The Courant did not have enough justification to make this a front-page article. The demographics for the military and the nation as a

whole differ so much that the comparison is invalid. The statistics comparing the Army suicide rate versus the national rate are not even from the same year, and the rates are nearly equal. The honest thing to do would to be to have put the suicide rate for the nation as a whole instead of just stating that the army rate was higher.

In a January 16 article entitled “Screen, Counsel Shaken Troops”, the article starts off with the line, “In a tragic sense, the Army may be reaping what it has sown”. This article, with even less factual evidence, does not begin to attempt to compare the percentage of violent crimes committed by soldiers to the entire population. In actuality, when comparing the same demographics, soldiers are actually much less likely to commit violent crimes.

The recurrence of these articles is mystifying. The Courant is clearly skewing statistics in their articles to suggest that the Army is breeding unstable criminals. This is completely disrespectful when this description does not apply to the vast majority of our soldiers. If one couples these articles with the January 31 article about our soldiers mistakenly killing innocent Iraqi policemen, it is hard to believe that the Courant is fully backing our troops. What kind of picture are they trying to paint?

These soldiers are national heroes. It is time for the Hartford Courant to recognize this fact and stop portraying our soldiers as suicidal or violent.

have seen statistics worse then these more recently than the great depression, and our parents made it through those times. To compare the present situation to the times of the Great Depression is a far reach.

Just examine the lifestyles of most CCSU students. We are all enrolled in college, which is a great opportunity in itself. The majority of students have their own computers, and maybe even their own cars. Although we may be cutting back on luxuries we are still able to afford lots of electronics, video games, and clothes.

The Obama administration, along with the media and the rest of the government, is trying to instill a feeling of fear and pessimism into the American people. This is not a fair thing to do and could unnecessarily be hurting consumer confidence.

It’s ironic that Obama and other Democrats criticized George W. Bush for fearmongering about the urgency of the war on terror, when the current administration is undoubtedly exaggerating the negative effects of this recession in order to pass their agenda in the form of the stimulus bill.

The stimulus bill, which is only a stimulus in name, includes billions of dollars of spending that may be for good causes, but do not aid in job creation. The bill includes things such as spending $600 million dollars to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees, $6 billion dollars to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings, and $248 million for furniture at the Homeland Security headquarters.

It is dishonest to say that our country will fall apart without the passage of this bill. In fact, the amount of debt that will accumulate from this bill could seriously create long-term problems that our generation will be forced to deal with in the future.

The American people have been through much worse. We can, and we will recover from this recession. It is time for President Obama to

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Quit Complaining, Take a Stand for Something Colette Gallacher Copy Editor

Central Connecticut State University is a school, which prides itself on community, yet students seem to find it extremely difficult to unite in order to have their voices heard.

Throughout last semester students continued to complain and moan about the lack of food choices at the cafeteria, the early weekend closures of the library and the proposed increased student activity fees – but do students do anything other than moan?

It is aggravating to constantly bear witness to small groups of unhappy students who are, in essence, irritated by the same issues.

CCSU is, for many students, home, therefore it is the students’ obligation to make a stance when their campus is not seemingly satisfactory.

Taking a walk around campus, it is obvious to see divides between various groups of students, yet they all share a commonality – for one reason or another they have issues with the CCSU campus.

So why are students not uniting and making a difference?

Every student essentially pays a small fortune to the university; this in itself gives students the right to stand up for what they believe in. If, in the eyes of the students, the university funding is not being spent effectively, they need to stand up and make some noise. Students – you pay a significant amount of money to the university, it is your money, therefore students you should have a say as to how the money is distributed!

Students, you need to unite and stand up for what you want. This is your university and your education. Improvements, in any way,

shape or form cannot be made, if productive criticisms are not lodged in vast numbers.

The Recorder is a great way for students to voice their opinions and make themselves heard. Faculty members, campus staff and students read the weekly student paper and take stock of the articles published. What may seemingly be one student’s complaint may prove to be several students grievance.

Students have in the past made themselves heard and have had much success – guest meals have now been added to the Blue Chip cards and the total number of times a student can enter the cafeteria per day has increased.

Alongside this, students now receive $10 free printing credit and 20 percent off in certain places when presenting a Blue Chip card. If previous students hadn’t make their voices heard,

the present students of CCSU would not have these student-orientated benefits.

As the present generation of CCSU, we, as students need to make ourselves heard in order to make the future of CCSU students an improved experience, such as past students did for us.

CCSU, as an environment, is an enjoyable place to be, but as with any place of business, improvements can be made, through united, constructive criticism.

As the majority, students are the ones who can really make the most impact and difference and therefore should not be afraid to make their voices heard and stand up for what they believe in.

Sports

Another Prick Uncovered in Baseball’s Past Peter Collin Managing Editor

A lot can change in one week’s time. This time last week the baseball world was gearing up for the World Baseball Classic, major league teams were packing trucks full of equipment to make the long trip down to the Grapefruit or Cactus league and Alex Rodriguez was still respected for his natural baseball ability.

While the first two have remained the same, the world of Alex Rodriguez has drastically altered.

Sure A-Rod was far from being loved by the rest of baseball or even Yankee fans for that matter, but he still garnered respect around the game for being the all-around best player in baseball. He had remained untouched by steroids throughout the ongoing BALCO scandal and the Jose Conseco exposés.

Selena Roberts and David Epstein of Sports Illustrated forever altered A-Rod’s legacy when they broke the news that the Yankee third baseman failed a drug test during his 2003 MVP campaign for the Texas Rangers.

Since then Rodriguez has admitted to using steroids during his entire time with the Texas Rangers.

In his words, it was merely a misguided attempt to live up to his historically large contract. How much of that we can believe is up for debate.

It’s just another story in a long line of embarrassing moments for Major League Baseball over the past five years. Their gross negligence for almost a quarter century worth of baseball is finally coming back to bite them and the sports community has little sympathy for them or the players that have been making millions of dollars while living a lie.

Whatever Rodriguez does from here on out doesn’t really matter. He has put himself before the mercy of public opinion and being that he is such a polarizing figure, his legacy has already been decided. Those who like him will accept his apology and will move on because they love the game. Those who hated him before will just use this to fuel the flames of their dislike for him and maybe even the Yankees.

It may get overlooked in the here-and-now, but there are winners thanks to this new unveiling. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, along with all the others paraded before Congress and named in the Mitchell Report, will find that the public may not be so harsh towards the anymore.

Though Rodriguez is the person at the forefront of this most recent scandal it really is Major League Baseball’s fans that suffer through the most. Baseball has let the fans down on so many different levels that this is turning into an abusive relationship.

Fans need to start looking at baseball as a part of the sports world and compare it to the sports it competes with. There is a huge doublestandard in that football players are caught and suspended for steroid use on a regular basis and quickly forgiven for their transgressions. Baseball players, on the other hand, are held over the coals for any use of performance enhancers and are quickly labeled cheaters for the rest of their days.

Activity Fees Should Answer Hockey’s Problems Colette Gallacher Copy Editor

“Start with a dream. Finish with a future.” This is the well-known motto of Central Connecticut State University, yet it appears it only applies to certain aspects of the school life, primarily education - but what about students who are talented not only in academics, but other aspects of school life, specifically sports.

University life is, for a lot of students, is a period of transition and opportunity. The club members are no exception. Having approached members of the Ice Hockey Club, and the Lacrosse Club, amongst others, it is the realistic view that the students’ decision to attend CCSU was based not solely on academics, but the success and the potential future that these sports clubs can provide.

But these clubs are being threatened due to a significant lack of funding from the Student Government Association. In the case of the Ice Hockey Club and the Lacrosse Club, members are dropping like flies, as they cannot afford the funding required to support themselves nor the club.

For numerous seasons, the Ice Hockey boys have tried and succeeded in keeping the club alive through fundraising and other means, but now it’s crunch time.

The last edition of The Recorder unearthed evidence that the Ice Hockey Club had been targeted with letters by the Student Activities/ Leadership Development, suggesting that if players wanted to remain on the ice they should transfer to other schools and colleges.

“I share this with you in case students wish to make alternate plans, including transferring to another college/university,” wrote Dr. Laura Tordenti, the interim vicepresident of Student Affairs.

Has the hard work and constant fundraising of the Hockey Club been to no avail?

In the case of the Lacrosse Club which consists of roughly 35 club members, each student has to pay over $500 a year in order to participate in club activities – drastically the club can’t even afford a coach.

These two particular clubs are thriving in various different ways – last year saw the Lacrosse Club win their league in the PCLL and the Ice Hockey Club – well, they speak for themselves.

Following their continued success, the Ice Hockey Club has a significant fan base, consisting of students and parents. Those who regularly attend the Blue Devils Ice Hockey games, filling the stands of the Newington arena, the idea of losing the Ice Hockey Club should inspire a united front, supporting the safe keeping of the club.

Attending Friday’s victorious game against Marist, it was clear that both on the ice and in the stands, passion for the club was high.

In an attempt to resolve club funding issues President of the SGA Alexander Estrom has proposed a Club Sports Board and a slight increase in activity fees which would essentially provide extra financial support for all sports clubs, no matter how big or small, but these ideas are being met with strong opposition from many full and part time students.

Estrom believes that increasing the activity funding will allow students to focus primarily on their studies and club pursuits as oppose to constantly juggling fundraising, a part time job, a good academic standing and their club activities.

“I personally feel that it is unreasonable to ask club members to be part of a team, fundraise for the club, as well as peruse an education and hold down a job. It is unfortunate that these students have had to struggle so much to achieve their goals.”

Many students are disgusted that the university wanted to charge more for activities they essentially appear to have no use for. However, having looked deep into the reasons behind the increased fees and the idea of a Sports Board, students will be surprised to see that they that the increased fees aren’t being raised just for the fun of it. In actual fact the fees are being increased so as students can continue to participate in club sports and pursue their sporting careers, whilst other students can continue to

enjoy simply supporting the Blue Devil Clubs.

Last semester saw the Newington Ice Rink packed with students, chanting, cheering and generally enjoying the atmosphere in support of the Blue Devils. It would prove interesting to see how many of these students would be willing to pay a slight increase in activity funding if it meant that they could continue to don their blue and white colours and enjoy the banter of college student support, on an otherwise dismal Friday and Saturday night.

The Lacrosse Club may have a smaller following of fans but they are equally as distinctive.

As college students, finding our way in life, it is our goal to petition for what we feel is right and to unite to save those things, which we believe, are so important to student life. The Ice Hockey Club and the Lacrosse Club has a significant following of students and numerous parents who turn out to support the Blue Devils, but now comes the time for students to support the clubs not only in the stands and on the field, but also in front of the University Senate.

Now is the time for students to rally support and really take a stand for what they believe in – take stock of what the increased activity funds can achieve for both the players and the club supporters. For those who have never attended the Blue Devils Club sports game, don the school colours, join in the banter and rally support for clubs who really do have dreams of their sports clubs having a future.

Securing both the Ice Hockey Club and the Lacrosse Club is a step in the right direction. If students can rally support and work together to help secure the future of these two particular teams, who knows what else the students of CCSU can achieve.

It is a dream of the current Lacrosse and Ice Hockey players to safeguard their clubs; let’s hope that both students, dedicated supporters and hopeful club members are willing to unite and make these dreams a future for the all clubs and upcoming players.

7 THE RECORDER Wednesday, February 11, 2009

8

THE RECORDER / February 11, 2009 / SPORTS

Blue Devils Split Weekend Matchups Continued from page 16

said. “There’s more in the tank for us.

Everyone has gotta give more.”

The second game of the weekend homestand didn’t go as well as planned as Robert Morris continued to flex their muscle over NEC opponents by dropping the Blue Devils (11-12, 7-6) 64-44 on Saturday.

CCSU went almost 10 minutes of the game without a field goal, a drought that leaked into the second half. Robert Morris (17-8, 11-1) ended the half on an 11-1 run. CCSU attempts to get back into the game with a full court press only had temporary success as the Colonials controlled

the clock and dominated field goal percentage, hitting 52 percent of their shots, and the Blue Devils only hitting 32.1 percent.

CCSU resumes NEC play Thursday home against Fairleigh Dickinson at 7 p.m. and travels to Bryant on Saturday for a 3 p.m. start.

Right: David Simmons fights for two of his eight points.

Bottom: Shemik Thompson lead the Blue Devils with 13 points.

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Blue Devils Playoff-Bound

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Continued from page 16 70-67 in overtime on Monday night.

Five different Blue Devils scored in double figures. With the victory, it clinched a berth in the Northeast Conference tournament for the first time since the 2005-06 season, when CCSU snuck into the tourney as the eighth and final seed.

Despite falling behind 5-0 early, Central led by seven at the half.

They did surrender a staggering three pointer to St. Francis center Janie Killian near the end of the half.

Her potentially momentum-building shot cut Central’s lead from double to single digits. It could have been a much more significant spark to jumpstart the Red Flash, but both teams came out sloppy at the start of the second half, exchanging turnovers and missed shots. Central led by as many as 14 at one point, but saw the lead slip away.

CCSU trailed with just 3:08 remaining in the game, but got big shots down the stretch by Shontice Simmons, who had a team-high 14 points, and Gabrielle Oglesby, who drilled a key three-pointer. Central largely controlled overtime, carried by the sharp shooting of Simmons and Crockett.

St. Francis came into Detrick Gymnasium as one of the hottest teams in the conference, winning six straight games. They had not lost since the last time they played Central, a 71-64 Blue Devil victory on January 17 in Pennsylvania.

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Leanne Crockett was one of five Blue Devils’ to score 11 points or more.

The victories signaled that the Blue Devils are indeed for real, as Central cemented their place near the top of the Northeast Conference by dispatching the teams in second and fourth place at the time of each game. CCSU maintained sole possession of second place in the NEC, improving their record in the confer-

ence to 10-3, and an overall record of 15-8.

The women are in action on the road for a pair of games, beginning with a game against future NEC foe Bryant. Gametime is 1pm on Saturday in Rhode Island.

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Wade scored 11 points on Monday, giving her 38 for the weekend.

THE RECORDER / February 11, 2009 / SPORTS

9

Blue Devils Hunt Down Foxes

Continued from page 16

able to pull away from the Red Foxes and hang on in the final minute to earn the victory. Eric Blewett’s goal with less than eight minutes to play would prove to be the eventual gamewinner, as Central defeated Marist for the third consecutive game.

Blewett, a sophomore from West Haven, was a second semester addition to the team, whose arrival paid dividends for CCSU on this night.

“This is the type of team that we’re going to be fighting with for playoffs,” he said. “We had to come out and want it more than them. We all pulled together.”

Central took a 4-3 lead halfway through the third period on a Jeff Pease goal.“The puck was behind the net, and [Matt Williams] threw it out front,” said Pease. “Dane Anderson put it on net, and I was able to stuff in the rebound.”

The insurance goal that proved to be the game-winner came just over two minutes later. “Ryan [Paglinco] had the puck, and shot it,” said Blewett. “I just crashed the net and hit it in.” His second goal of the season made it 5-3 in favor of Central.

Coming into the game, Marist was ranked sixth in the Northeast, one slot behind fifth ranked Central Connecticut. “It was a huge game.

We knew it was a must-win,” said head coach Jim Mallia. “Marist came in very confident. They played [second ranked] William Patterson very well.” Despite the tough opposition, CCSU beat the Red Foxes 6-2 in Poughkeepsie on December 5 and earned a hard-fought victory at home on Friday.

For forty minutes, Marist kept beating the Blue Devils to loose pucks. Central struggled to break it out early and when they were able to

set up their offensive attack, Red Foxes goalie Justin Frei was equal to the task. “It came down to twenty minutes,” said Mallia. “We had Jeff Pease, a true freshman come out and have a big goal for us. Then we had the new addition Eric Blewett who had the other goal,” he continued.

Battling a team-wide flu bug, CCSU was able to overcome both office as well as physical adversity, which made it essential for all four lines to contribute. “We were very shorthanded tonight,” added Mallia. “That was a big win for us.” Central got goals from five different players in the winning effort.

Central trailed 1-0 after the first eriod and tied it up in the second frame on a Ryan Paglinco goal. Mike DiClemente would make it a 2-1 lead for the Blue Devils four minutes later.

The Blue Devils would never trail the rest of the game. CCSU surrendered a pair of leads, 2-1 and 3-2, each in the second period, but salvaged a onegoal victory.

Carmine Vetrano got the start in net and earned a team-high ninth win of the season. “We picked up Carmine who was struggling a little bit, sickness-wise,” said Mallia.

“There were a couple goals that he knows he could have had and should have had.”

With the victory, CCSU improves to 13-8-1 on the season.

Central has finished the toughest portion of their schedule and takes on a pair of Super East cellar-dwellers this weekend.

The Blue Devils play host to Holy Cross at the bottom end of a home-and-home on Friday at 8:30 p.m. and take on NYU on Saturday at 8:30. Admission is free for students, and both games will take place at Newington Arena on Alumni Road in Newington.

Carmine Vetrano bends down to stop a shot.

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Blue Devils Finish Tune-up at Yale www.ccsubluedevils.com

The Central Connecticut women’s track and field team finished competition at the Yale Giegengack Invitational on Saturday.

Three freshmen competed for the Blue Devils in their second to last meet before the Northeast Conference Championships.

Amanda Prescott competed in the triple jump, while Katrina Ainsworth and Kate McGuire participated in the 60 meter hurdles and 500 meter run, respectively.

Prescott recorded a distance of 10.26 meters to place 11th in the triple. Ainsworth placed 18th in the hurdles with a time of 10.22 seconds, while McGuire took home 13th in the 500 with a time of 1:22.31. CCSU will compete in the Indoor Track Winter Games in Long Island, NY on Friday February 13.

Six Blue Devils put forth individual performances, while a relay

team competed in the distance medley on day one of competition on Friday evening. Freshman Amanda Kelley placed fourth in the weight throw (15.0 meters), while junior Samantha Binette performed to a season-best in the long jump, distancing 4.6 meters.

The other four Blue Devils in individual competition were freshmen Shamone Allien, Aneta Pytel and Meghann Cocca, as well as sophomore Renee Archer in the 200 meters. Allien led the group with a time of 27.62 seconds, with Pytel finishing next in 27.89. Cocca and Archer were the third and fourth finishers for CCSU crossing the line in 28.05 and 28.26 seconds, respectively.

The Blue Devils’ distance medley team of senior captains Megan Jaswell and Kathleen Lima, as well as junior Kim Savino and sophomore Kathrerine Bossardet was third out of five squads, recording a time of 12 minutes and 44.74 seconds.

Men’s Track Wins Eight Events, Finish 2nd at Maine Open www.ccsubluedevils.com

R.J. Simeone took home the 500 meter on Saturday with a time of 1:05:57.

The Central Connecticut men’s track and field team won eight events, including both relays, but finished eight points shy of the host Black Bears at the Maine Open on Saturday.

The Blue Devils put up 116 points to UMaine’s 124, while the Crusaders of Holy Cross placed third with 103 points.

Six different Blue Devils won individual events to propel CCSU to their second place finish in Orono.

Freshman Matt Berube won the high jump, recording a height of 1.87 me-

ters. He also placed second in the long and triple jumps with distances of 6.43 and 13.41 meters, respectively. Senior Sean Smith placed first in the 200 meters, crossing the line in 22.85 seconds. Smith also was third in the 55 meters, recording a time of 6.61 seconds, and was a member of the victorious Blue Devil 4 x 400 relay team.

Joining Smith on the 4 x 400 team were junior R.J. Simeone, sophomore Shawn Buchanan and freshman Dionis White who finished in 3:28.03. Simeone also won the 500 meters in a time of 1:05.87. Freshman

Dan Watson took home the crown in the 800, crossing the line in 1:59.41, while sophomore Robert Weston won the 1,000 meters in 2:35.69.

Watson and Weston teamed up with senior Matthew Whalen and sophomore Anthony Marceau to place first in the 4 x 800 meter relay, timing in at 8:13.51. To round out the Blue Devil victories, junior Ry Sanderson won the 3,000 meters in 8:45.74.

CCSU has a week off from competition and will gear up for the Northeast Conference Championships on February 21-22 in Landover, MD.

10 THE RECORDER Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Upgrade

AVIARY Presents Songs by Birds Never Heard

Photo: Danielle Papallo

A row of typewriters awaits the interactive performance AVIARY. Jason Cunningham Entertainment Editor

Marissa Blaszko Opinion Editor

AVIARY, the latest show at the art department’s Chen Gallery, seemed to have been surrounded by an air of mystery. No one from students to faculty could give a concrete answer as to what exactly they should have expected at last Thursday’s opening night.

What was toted as an interactive performance, mixed with instillation and noise art (or music, depending on who you asked) turned out to be just that. Although that explanation had very little to do with what AVIARY actually is, explaining artist Michael Pestel’s performance still remains a daunting task.

When people first enter the Chen gallery, they’re greeted with nothing that looks like the usual sculpture-and-painting set up.

Instead, the left side of the space is lined with slates, each with an individual letter spelling out “peels foe not a set animal laminates a tune of sleep”.

The right row is a line of typewriters, speakers, and music stands that sit waiting for the first interested body to plunk themselves down and play around.

By the entrance, a pair of binoculars hangs over three slate boards welcoming viewers or maybe more aptly, participants, to interact.

Participation in general is key to this exhibit, since its climax on March 4 is a concert will mostly be performed by volunteer students and faculty.

Projections on the walls looped videos of men, including Pestel, playing various musical instruments alongside birds. Although that sounds weird on its own right, Pestel’s performance opening night made the giant ice block sitting on a disassembled piano look perfectly normal.

“I’ve been doing this work since the early nineties, I was excited because I got to use all of these installations from home. The opportunity to use this room was the perfect time to put them to use,” Pestel said.

AVIARY deals with birds, in keeping with CCSU’s theme of the semester – sustainability. According to the artist, more than 180 birds (that we know of) have gone extinct since humans began making their mark on the world in the mid 1500s.

In addition, half of all life is expected to be extinct, with even more of it endangered, by the end of this century – or, in most CCSU student’s lifetimes.

“We’re gaining knowledgewe’re classifying more of nature, [but] the more we know the less we con-

nect,” Pestel said during a talk that prefaced the opening. “It’s an irony.”

That said, the show did not once try to guilt students into changing their wasteful habits—something that is, frankly, refreshing in a ecological period where most self-proclaimed tree-huggers are too busy pointing their fingers at the common person to realize that they’re actually blaming the victim.

AVIARY deals with our lack of collective memory for life before urban industrialization.

“It’s a lapse in memory in one hand, and a lapse of belief of the great religion of the 20th century –science,” Pestel said, explaining that almost no serious scientists deny global climate change.

The point of the show was not to persuade, it didn’t seem, but to offer something new. The performance aspect of the show included, among other things, watching Pestel play various Franken-instruments (from fake church organ pipes to modified flutes) in order to make noises to substitute for the noise once made by an extinct bird. Like “rubbings taken off memorial stones,” the viewers are asked to participate by focusing on retaining the memory of the only thing left of any of the birds—the names.

“When someone is at an art exhibit they usually only get to see

things, but people like to both touch and see things,” Pestel said. “This exhibit allows people to be immersed in a very visual atmosphere while getting to be interactive to a certain degree at the same time, I want people to be involved.”

During the rest of the opening, the walls showed a caged crow that was trained by a third grader to repeat the words “who, what, where, why” – something Pestel called “macabre,” as they are the very questions of the bird’s imprisonment. Pestel’s job, he claimed, when he goes into an aviary to play for the birds, is to be their Johnny Cash.

“I think of myself as a guy that goes into the avian prisons and sings to them and hope they smile,” he said.

Going into the Chen Gallery to see the instillation (or, what the artist called his “statement”) doesn’t do AVIARY justice in the slightest.

Possibly the best opening since Penny Arcade’s performance last semester (and definitely the most interesting), visitors that missed the opening night should consider coming out to the closing on Wednesday, March 4, to watch everyone from students to professors participate in what hopes to be an even more impressive performance.

“I wanted this to be a challenging show; the performance in March

will help people understand the message even further,” Pestel said. “This is a piece meant to be abstract. I didn’t want anything to be too obvious. The exhibit is conceptual, with layers, many layers.”

Just how the performance will work remains a little foggy, but if opening night was any indicator, Pestel’s performance probably shouldn’t be missed by any art students, musicians, biology majors, politically aware voters, budding philosophers, sociologists, or anyone that has any vested interest in the state of the planet.

“This exhibit does a good job of combining art and science to bring people closer to nature. It achieves creating an awareness that most people wouldn’t discover to how connected we are with this planet. That’s why it does such a good job of relating back to global warming,” said Dr. Charles E. Button, professor of geography and Founder and Co-Chair of the university’s Climate Action Coalition.

“With a little promotion and word of mouth advertising I expect a decent response from the students on this campus.”

Anyone interested in participating in the show’s closing performance on March 4 is encouraged to go to the open workshop on Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. in the Chen Gallery.

11

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / UPGRADE

Penn Shines as Harvey Milk Sean Fenwick Staff Writer

Harvey Milk helped gain equal rights for homosexuals in the 1970s, as the first openly gay man to be voted into a public office in American history. Gus Van Sant’s latest film, Milk, which chronicles his life and death, does his fight for equality justice. Sean Penn stars as Milk, unleashing a great performance.

Milk was a closet homosexual that moved out to San Francisco with his lover Scott (James Franco) to live an openly gay life. They open up a camera shop together that lies right in the middle of Castro Street, a gay community in San Francisco.

Milk’s shop soon becomes a safe haven for all those who need it.

Milk decides to run for a position on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors after he sees how poorly the conservatives and authorities in the area treat gays.

The character of Harvey Milk will no doubt be viewed as one of Penn’s best performances. Penn went beyond the prosthetics of a nose and

peered into Milk’s soul to deliver true emotion and charm, that almost mirrors his spirit and charisma.

Milk was famous for his unique personality and devotion to his cause.

There are scenes in this film where it becomes difficult to see a difference between Penn and Milk. Towards the end of Milk we almost see the character use Penn as a vessel. One of the most remarkable things about Penn’s performance was capturing Milk’s love for life, making his inevitable death at the end of the film so much more unbearable to watch.

Gus Van Sant delivers a truly moving story of a man changing the world for the better. After doing a film like Elephant it’s hard for me to ever see Van Sant making a bad movie. Milk is going to go down as his best film and that’s saying a lot.

One cool aspect was Van Sant’s merger of archival footage into the film, showing the audience San Francisco as it was during the 1970s.

Cisco Street is shown as a glowing paradise that few can truly despise.

Van Sant also does a great job showing us the love between Milk and

Scott, with scenic and often romantic, archival shots of the San Francisco area.

Perhaps the reason why this film was so remarkable was because of the cast. Every actor in this film gave a great performance. Franco doesn’t disappoint and Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones is sensational as a supporter of Milk, a character who sticks with him through the toughest of times.

The only performance that is as sensational as Penn’s is Josh Brolin’s.

Brolin plays Dan White, the man responsible for Milk’s death. Brolin does a terrific job of showing the inner torment that White goes through as his mind breaks. It is never certain weather White hates or loves Harvey Milk. Most of the time White is shown, as a man who looks likes he is about to explode.

Milk is a very engaging film.

Penn’s performance paired with VanSant’s directing equals a match made in heaven. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys taking something special away from a movie.

Focus Features

Claymation Coraline Delivers Charles Dersochers Staff Writer

Coraline follows in the footsteps of the previous Henry Selick films.

It’s not a children’s movie, despite the fact it appears to be directly aimed at children, yet it’s not a horror. It seems a bit lazy to label it a fantasy since it has a genre that spans from Lord of the Rings to Groundhog Day. In an attempt to describe this latest romp in the claymation world, it is a mature story of a teenage girl who simply doesn’t feel the need to be too grown up.

In the same fashion as Selick’s two previous full-length animated films, Selick manages to tell a story that appeals to adults and children alike. It is the contrasting tones in Coraline that make it hard to categorize. This could be from the superb soundtrack, by They Might Be Giants and Bruno Coulais, that swings from a happy chopsticks type parlor song to eerie gypsy music. It could also come from the seamless mix of clay and CG that show Coraline’s world deteriorate around her.

The characters are all whimsically unique, sometimes to the point of embarrassment. The comedic timing and the fluidity of which the animation was executed is first-class. It is however, not a stretch to expect this from the only name in claymation.

On a humorous note, the latter half of the second act plays out like a video game, complete with a few gathering missions spanning three levels and a boss battle.

Focus Features

The story isn’t anything to write home about. The usual “grass is greener on the other side,” plot is implemented but then again it’s not the plot that has people interested in this movie. It’s the claymation we all want to see and for a certain group of people it’s the claymation in 3-D that appeals.

There aren’t many things wrong about this movie, except the 3-D aspect - not from its production but from the shameful excuse to charge customers two dollars more per ticket.

What exactly are the two extra dollars for? Maybe it’s for the Ray Ban-looking glasses provided, but this is not the case. Is it for the headache of constantly trying to adjust your eyes to the blurry screen? Yes. Congratulations, you bought a $2 headache. Now give back the glasses.

With a movie as beautiful as Coraline, it is such a waste to distract

the audience with 3-D. However, certain scenes such as when Coraline is swinging from a trapeze in front of an audience of Scottish Terriers, the 3-D seems to pay off. I would have preferred to see this movie in its regular format, so I could gaze at the splendor that the filmmakers put together. We, the audience, are tired of 3-D. Life is in 3-D. That’s why we’re seeing an animated movie. Plus, it’s not right to make an entire theater of people go cross-eyed.

Like most Pixar films, Coraline can be enjoyed by just about everyone. And the worst thing about Coraline is also one of the best things.

You can save your two dollars and see a better version of the film and not leave the cinema feeling like you’ve been staring at a magic eye all day trying to see the sailboat.

Smith Strays with Seven Pounds

Sony Pictures

Mike Theodore Staff Writer

Let’s face it, all of our favorite actors have pulled bad movies. Do you remember Mark Wahlberg’s The Happening, Eddie Murphy’s The Adventures of Pluto Nash and basically all of Jennifer Lopez’s movies? Will Smith is not an actor you would expect a bad movie from. After all, he is last year’s highest banking actor with his movies grossing about $298,000,000 in the United States.

However, this was not the case with his latest film, Seven Pounds.

Fair warning: do not watch this film. If you want Will Smith to remain as one of your favorite actors, remembering Ali, Men in Black and Bad Boys, then don’t watch this movie, as Smith strives and struggles to win a third Academy Award. His career seems to be going downhill at the moment. From I Am Legend, to Hancock, to producing Lakeview Terrace and finally to his worst blunder, Seven Pounds. Let’s face it, this happens to all of our favorite actors.

Even Pacino needed Scarface to pull him out of the hole.

Seven Pounds is a story about Tim Thomas (Smith), a man who accidentally kills his wife and six other people in a fatal car crash in Los Angeles. Unable to forgive himself, Thomas decides to give back by helping seven strangers. Upon doing his good deeds he falls in love with a

woman Emily (Rosario Dawson), who is in need of a heart transplant.

Sounds like a great love story, right?

Wrong. Try watching two hours of one of the sappiest and most boring love stories ever to hit the big screen.

Don’t get me wrong though, Will Smith is a phenomenal actor and one of the best of our time. However, the film was simply way too long and many scenes were over exaggerated.

There is way too much emphasis on the relationship between Emily and Thomas, which honestly just made you wonder “When is he gonna hit that! Damn!” All of the other people Thomas helps in the movie are almost forgotten in the screenplay, while Thomas either stands there with a goofy smile or just starts crying again.

You will find yourself extremely confused and un-captivated by the storyline as it reaches no climax. It was almost like listening to a 12-yearold kid tell a story about his day at school. The best part was the bus ride home.

This movie is by far the worst Will Smith movie I have ever seen.

Absolute garbage; watching oncoming traffic would be more entertaining. Smith should definitely stick to doing intense action and science fiction films and maybe start working on a third installment of Bad Boys – hopefully this way his career might just survive.

12

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / UPGRADE

Repo! The Unique Opera Mike Walsh Staff Writer

“Blade Runner meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” That’s the self-proclaimed description Repo! The Genetic Opera yields from co-creators Terrance Zdunich and Darren Smith when asked about their 21st century rock opera turned feature film. They aren’t lying.

In the year 2056 a worldwide epidemic of organ failures leads to a biotech company, ran

by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), known as Geneco to begin an organ-financing program.

As long as the customer can pay his or her debts, their organs are safe. Otherwise, the Repo Man (Anthony Head) takes back what belongs to Geneco. Repo! focuses specifically on the daughter of the Repo Man, Shilo (Alexa Vega), and her search for the truth about her past.

Repo! The Genetic Opera, which was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, best known for his work on Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV, is unlike any other film I’ve seen. Consisting of actors with varying amounts of talent, a unique

stylistic approach and catchy tunes set to a resonating industrial rock soundtrack that lingers in your head for days, Repo! is an instant cult classic.

The film’s cast is a motley collection of names that range from classically trained singer Sarah Brightman to tabloid favorite Paris Hilton to industrial rocker Nivek Ogre of the influential band Skinny Puppy. These names in addition to the likes of Bill Moseley, Alexa Vega, Anthony Head and Paul Sorvino is just one of the reasons as to why Repo! lights up the big screen.

The effort of hardworking co-creators and composers Smith and Zdunich absolutely shows off. With any musical or opera on film comes the judgment of the songs. This film passes with flying colors as far as I’m concerned.

The tunes are as catchy, clever and fun as they need to be. It’s definitely not the average operagoer’s cup of tea.

For a budget of only $8.5 million, small by today’s standards, Repo! has great production value. The sets are simply lavish and are the true visions of Smith and Zdunich. The film is a visual feast partly comparable in style to Blade

Runner. Costumes such as the leather-clad Repo Man complete with mask are immediately synonymous icons of the film.

Admittedly, Repo! isn’t a film for everyone. It’s violent, grisly, off beat, strange and just plain different. Apparently distributor Lionsgate thought the same. The film was very limited in release as it was given a short road tour.

While business will always be business and Lionsgate will keep pushing sequel after sequel of the tired Saw series into theaters, it would have been nice to see this film on a wide market. This is a film with blood, sweat and tears poured into it. Then again, Lionsgate has been a joke of a company for years now. It’s unfortunate that the executives at Lionsgate were unable to see the brilliance and absolute creativity that is erupting from Repo! that the fans have fallen in love with.

I suppose Repo! was meant to stay in the cult arena. Mainstream critics with large soapboxes such as Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz on the television show “At the Movies” presented absolute disgust with the film. Now, everyone deserves an opinion, but this doesn’t entitle

anyone to baseless ones. In fact, Mankiewicz called it the worst film of 2008 without ever presenting the audience reasons as to why other than thinking the film took itself far too seriously. Pity the ignorant.

Normally I would never let such critical drivel seep into my reviews but when Lyons says that, and I quote, “I don’t know if words can describe just how awful, disgusting and insulting this movie was to watch, to make.”, I can’t help but use my significantly smaller soapbox to set things straight. Really? To make? Not to digress but I can’t even understand how one can deduce that from simply seeing a film. Either way, Lyons never gave one hint of cohesive argumentation in his video review of the film, throwing the small amount of credibility his E! Entertainment celebrity coddling ass had out the window.

You’ve never seen a film like Repo! The Genetic Opera. This is a special film that I urge you to give a look at. Watch the trailer. If you like even part of what you see, give this film a shot. If you love the film go buy the DVD. With Lionsgate looking merely at dollar signs and the opinions of goof mainstream critics, the fan support of this film must be substantial in order to produce more films in this vein.

Repo! is the sort of film that gives me hope.

It signifies that there are still brilliant minds out there creating niche genre films from the heart for the fans. Maybe this will be the start of something new.

A Constant Blue Devil Charles Dersochers Staff Writer

Lionsgate Entertainment

St. Valentine’s Day Don’ts For Women

For Men

Stuffed Animals: Unless your girlfriend is under the age of 12 (in which case you have bigger problems then picking out a Valentine’s Day gift), stay away from the teddy bear. It not only says, “I just bought this 15 minutes ago and it was the only thing left,” but it also can give the vague impression you might be questioning your sexuality.

Stuffed Animals: Not only are they not cute, they are a bit emasculating. Girls, it’s like getting a power saw for Valentine’s Day. It’s a nice thought, but what the hell are you going to do with it? They’re annoying and useless, especially those outrageously expensive Build-ABears that you can record your own little message on. Your voice coming out of a teddy bear wearing heart-print boxers is creepy. Save your $35 and cook him a steak instead.

The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Oral Sex: Unless you intend to make it a box set with the Idiot’s Guide to Dumping Your Boyfriend, there’s probably a better way to approach the subject.

Tonya Malinowski Staff Writer

Ah, it’s that time of year again: forced romance, obligatory gifts, nauseating amounts of pink and red. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spend $16.9 billion a year on Valentine’s Day. This marketing power bomb has Hallmark and Russell Stover executives wetting themselves every February, but for the rest of us, it can get a little overwhelming.

Valentine’s Day as we know it is a Catholic twist on an ancient Roman fertility festival, Lupercalia, which was celebrated by lashing women with strips of skin scalped from sacrificed goats. So even if you find yourself home alone with a Lean Cuisine this Saturday night, just be thankful you aren’t being beaten with a bloody chunk of goat hide.

Despite the sheer ridiculousness of the holiday, gift giving can still be stressful for those of us who get suckered into it. In order to avoid a table-for-one after being stood up, here is a heads-up on the worst V-Day gifts on the market.

Gym Membership: The racks of bikinis being put up are reminder enough that it’s time to shed our winter insulation. We don’t need something that says “Happy Valentine’s Day, Chunk-o.” Let us enjoy a day of chocolate, and unless we start a friction fire from our thighs rubbing together when we walk, get off our back.

Heart-Shaped Potato: Nothing says “I Love You” like starch. There’s only about 15 or so of these gems left on Ebay, and they are going fast. They even come with baking instructions on how to serve them on the big day. Though I don’t recommend hiding jewelry in it before cooking; precious metal in the microwave might set your spud heart on fire.

Origami Kit: Yes, I once received an Origami Kit for Valentine’s Day. I have no specific interest in paper cranes, Asian tradition or really anything that requires that much meticulous attention. I have decided it was either the worst re-gift attempt ever, or this guy knew absolutely nothing about me and thought I was really into symmetry.

ManDelay Climax Control Gel: Again, there’s probably a better way to approach the subject.

Razorba Back Shaver: Unless you are Mrs. Robin Williams, there is no need to ever give this gift. If he’s got a little shoulder shrubbery and has taken no corrective action, maybe he kind of likes it. Valentine’s Day is probably not the time to coerce him into better manscaping habits.

Love Coupons: Sometimes, if homemade and actually creative, these can be cute and fun. But if you buy them readymade, they are outrageous lies. “Good for a one-hour massage”? I know I could not knead a man’s back for a full hour without giving up and turning on Cops, so why give the false illusion?

Novelty Thong: The male body is purely utilitarian. It has weird angles and awkward hair and makes sounds that are questionably not human. Less than 1% of the population could actually look anything better than ridiculous in these. If you are dating a male stripper, then it’s truly the perfect gift. If not, then I doubt you really want to see your boyfriend flopping around in this tiny scrap of fabric.

Andrew McCunn was already a Blue Devil at the State University of New York in Fredonia, but after moving to Connecticut it’s the same mascot, different school.

McCunn, a 22-year-old commuter from New Hartford, is in his first semester at Central Connecticut State University. Although he’s new to the school, he definitely isn’t afraid of meeting new people.

With a smile on his face he casually walked by a women sitting down, playing her Nintendo DS, and asked her “Whatcha playing?” After a quick exchange of words he said goodbye and sat down to read his Stephen King novel.

McCunn, a graphic design major, prefers open games like “Oblivion” and “World of Warcraft”. But much of his time is spent either commuting from New Hartford in his Volvo station wagon or working at the local Panera Bread.

“It’s hard to meet people when you’re a commuter,” McCunn said. “If someone goes, ‘Oh, lets hang out.’ You go, ‘I can’t, I’ve got to (drive) home.”

He isn’t a stranger to commuting though.

After attending SUNY Fredonia, McCunn received his associates’ degree in Liberal Arts from Northwestern Community College. He made the transfer from SUNYF to NCC when his family moved to New Hartford from Honeoye Falls, New York. McCunn couldn’t stand the nearly 8-hour drive from outside Buffalo to Central Connecticut every time he wanted to come home.

There’s more to McCunn than how much he drives. He has an interest in gadgets as well.

“My dad came home with this big camera and I was like, ‘Why do you need a camera that big?” McCunn put up his arm as if he’s holding a cinder block at eye level. “Then he told me that he could take a photo of a humming bird with its wings in mid flap. So I was like, ‘Aw, now I want that.”

McCunn said he’s no good at programming original content on his PC but does like to tinker with mods to make them more his own.

He’s not like the other cool kids in the graphic design program, as in he doesn’t like Macs. McCunn doesn’t think that the Mac is any different from any other computer except in the fact that it’s shiny and white. “I’ve got a PC and guess what? It has Photoshop on it too,” he joked.

It’s not the actual computer he has a problem with, as much as its bias.

“Anyone who refuses to look at a PC because of branding should be shot. It would help the world progress,” he said.

Now that he’s at CCSU McCunn doesn’t want to make plans for after graduation, he feels he might be disappointed if they don’t come to fruition. Just utilizing what he’s learning at CCSU would be enough.

13

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / UPGRADE

Podcast of the Week: TED Talks Charles Desrochers Staff Writer

Despite what your initial reaction to the name maybe, this isn’t some guy named Theodore talking into a web cam once every week.

TED Talks are a collection of lectures and speeches given by experts at the TED Conference.

The conference takes place every year in Long Beach, California.

It’s open to a select few who are either watching or speaking at the event.

The goals of TED, as stated on their Web site, is to spread “good ideas” throughout the world.

Speakers range from Bill Clinton, to Jane Goodall and J.J. Abrams, to name some of the more popular people. They shed light on

CALENDAR Week of 2/11/09 MUSIC

2.11 Backseat Goodbye and The Ready Set, Floral Terrace Fate Kills the Hero @ The Space Hamden, Conn. $10 / 7 p.m.

2.11 Goblin Cock w/ Warship @ Cafe Nine New Haven, Conn. $10 / 9 p.m.

2.13 KaiserCartel w/ Winterpills Dylan Conor Second Beatdown @ The Space Hamden, Conn. $10 / 7 p.m.

KaiserCartel are the dynamic duo of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel. Each previously leaders of their own indie bands, they met on March 4th four years ago and formed KaiserCartel when they joined forces to tour the country that summer. They self-released an EP (Double Standard) and toured throughout the US and UK on their own before signing to bluhammock music late last year. March Forth, their debut album – was produced by Matt Hales (aka aqualung) and mixed by Matt and Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros) - and is full of low-fi, harmony-heavy, bittersweet songs full of charm.

and discuss issues pertaining to the theme of that particular year. Some talks also showcase performances by artists and activists.

An emphasis is usually on creativity, poverty or green energy.

Most of the speakers use the conference as a way to gain awareness or funding for their cause, since the audience is littered with philanthropists and entrepreneurs.

After watching just one of the talks you will know that these people have a pure passion for what they are talking about.

Due to the closed nature of the talks, though, it’s easy to claim that the organization is elitist - this is where the podcasting comes in.

For what ever reason, the conference had the foresight to re-

cord most of their lectures and about two years ago started a website that streams content for free without sign up. Earlier this year TED set up a podcast on the iTunes store, also for free. The podcast comes in video or audio but I recommend subscribing to the video feed to get the entire experience.

The video resolution and audio clarity is crisp, which comes in handy when Richard Preston shows pictures of the ecosystems in redwood trees.

The podcast is free so there’s nothing to loose from signing up. Sitting through the talks will give you a sense of being worldly so you can show off to someone and make them feel inferior.

2.14 Doublethink @ The Space Hamden, Conn. $10 / 7 p.m.

2.13, 2.14 Quantum of Solace @ Cinstudio Harford, Conn.

9:30 p.m.

2.15 Deer Tick w/ Bottle Up and Go @ Cafe Nine New Haven, Conn $8 / 7 p.m.

Deer Tick is the band name of guitarist and singer-songwriter John McCauley’s rock Super Group. It began as McCauley’s solo project in December 2004. Within a few years he had acquired a strong following through constant touring in parts of the Northeast and self-released CD-Rs.

Daniel Craig no longer has to prove himself as the next Bond – Casino Royale began the new era of a brooding, charismatic agent who is really ok with using his infamous license to kill.

The film opens with a super-frenetic car chase down the coast of Italy that induces a rush of adrenaline. In the mood for revenge after the death of his lover, Bond teams up with a geologist played (as is only possible in the Bond universe) by Ukrainian supermodel Olga Kurylenko. The baddies this time around are especially fun, including a pseudo-ecologist played by a sneering Mathieu Amalric, star of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

2.18 M. Ward @ The Somerville Theatre Somerville, Mass.

8 p.m.

2.13-18 How About You @ Real Art Ways Hartford, Conn.

7 p.m.

FILM

Starring Vanessa Redgrave as Georgia, a retired musical star. Over the Christmas holidays, Ellie is left in charge of the residential home run by her older sister. Most of the residents have left to be with family, but the four most difficult residents, known as “the Hard Core,” remain.

Fed up with being the “Hard Core’s” 24-hour on-call maid, Ellie decides to bring them together for a Christmas dinner.

2.11-14 Casablanca @ Cinstudio Harford, Conn.

7:30 p.m.

This year Cinestudio dedicates its annual screening of Casablanca to a new generation of politically engaged students. After all, Casablanca celebrates social activism over personal gain like few films before or since. In a North African city occupied by Nazis, an apolitical American (Humphrey Bogart) runs Rick’s Café. Although he is unfazed by his customers (partisans, fascists, emigrés, swindlers and more), Rick’s cool is shaken when the woman who walked out on him in Paris (a luminous Ingrid Bergman) appears in his cafe. Bogart’s brilliant performance of a man torn between cynicism and idealism is one for the ages!

2.15-17 I’ve Loved You so Long @ Cinstudio Harford, Conn.

7:30 p.m.

In any language, Kristin Scott Thomas’ performance is unforgettable, as a forty something woman named Juliette who mysteriously shows up at her sister’s home after fifteen years. While her nervous family would like to lock up whatever dark secret or crime lies in her past, Juliette’s tentative path to redemption is impossible without understanding. This haunting mystery is the first film directed by award-winning author Philippe Claudel (Grey Souls).

ART Through 3.22 Taiga Ermansons @ Real Art Ways Hartford, Conn.

Taiga Ermansons creates “contemporary samplers” on Kleenex tissues that contain traces of fractured traditions anchored on fragile, disposable ground. Taiga Ermansons, a Brooklyn native, moved to Massachussets in 1998. She has a BA in studio art from Smith College and studied art at the School of Visual Arts and the New School in NYC. Her work was shown most recently at the Fitchburg Art Museum and Springfield College in Massachusetts.

Through 3.22 Hirokazu Fukawa @ Real Art Ways Hartford, Conn.

A Thought at the Edge of the Continent, a sculptural installation with a companion video piece, is the culmination of Fukawa’s four-year journey. The exhibition as a whole stays true to Fukawa’s original intention: to create a riddle for the viewer to solve. But the riddle’s answer has changed since Fukawa began his journey, and there may not be an answer at all.

CCSU EVENTS: Through 3.5 AVIARY @ Chen Gallery Maloney Hall FREE / 1- 4 p.m.

2.11 Student Affairs Lecture: Judy Shepherd @ Alumni Hall Student Center FREE / 7:30 p.m.

2.18 Central Authors David Kideckel @ CCSU Bookstore Student Center 12 p.m.

14

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / UPGRADE

Jaguar Love Take Me to the Sea Matador Records August 18, 2008 Johnny Whitney might have one of the most distinct voices in music. His chilling shrieks and piercing screams have helped along his obscure and often times poetic lyrics.

It took a decade in the Blood Brothers to develop his musical personality, taking time in between to front the band Soiled Doves and to launch his side project with Blood Brothers’ drummer Mark Gajadahr called Neon Blonde.

He built a catalog of vastly different songs, all glued together by his captivating lyrics, catchy melodies, and unique voice.

After the demise of the Blood Brothers, Whitney and Guitarist Cody Votolato got together with Jay Clark, a former member of Pretty Girls Make Graves, and birthed the band Jaguar Love. For Whitney and Votolato, their abilities gained after the intensity of years of playing live shows for the art-punk and thrash crowds has mixed perfectly with Clark’s jazzygarage rock sensibility.

Various Artists Dark Was the Night 4AD February 17, 2009 Consistency on a compilation album is as rare as student attendance to an 8 a.m. class.

With various artists and b-side material, it’s easy to see how one good song can be followed by three or four bad ones, making the releases a generally uneven listen from front to back.

To make things worse, the format by nature means that for every band the listener actually likes, there’s bound to be a few that they either don’t like or haven’t heard of. By these low standards alone, the new compilation album

The results, their first effort Take Me to the Sea, leaves us a little unsatisfied because of how predictable it is. First of all, I want to make it clear that this isn’t a bad album, just a misguided one. Whitney, the main songwriter and driving force of the band succeeds in what he wants to accomplish. He sends a message without being too preachy, he tells a story with energy and soul and he writes extremely poppy and remember-able choruses. The album sort of fails in every other aspect. Their approach is easy to swallow for any fan of Whitney’s former bands and you can’t deny Jaguar Love’s ability to make you want to hear more. The problem is that it’s very easy to get bored with Take Me to the Sea. At first I was instantly sucked in. The first four opening tracks really get your blood going.

The album’s opening song “Highways of Gold” plows into your brain, making you want to dance and freak out simultaneously.

The following song, “Bats Over the Pacific Ocean” is more like a magic carpet ride of music, flying you through a surreal world of Whitney’s family history. The sing along people’s anthem “Jaguar Pirates” comes next followed by the spine-chilling song “Georgia”,

which cries out for a more left-wing thinking in society. After the fourth track the rest of the album takes some time to get into.

The biggest issue I have with Take Me to the Sea is that as soon as you start to appreciate the album as a whole it starts to grate on your nerves. It stops being fun and just becomes annoying. This is because this album just isn’t very creative, if anything, it’s just what we would’ve expected from Whitney, which is the biggest disappointment of all.

That being said, it would be unfair for me not to recommend this album to you. Take Me to the Sea will certainly appeal to the trash-art scene and socialist punk-rock circles, and if you’ve liked anything that Whitney has been involved in then you certainly will enjoy this album.

If you’re searching past predictability and longing to hear something that you’ll want to listen to over and over again, this is not the album for you.

Dark Was the Night, featuring today’s indierock heroes, is a success.

With all profits going towards the Red Hot Charity Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS – it’s hard to really lament the fact that there are a few duds on the track list. The truth is that the album presents more winners than losers despite its hindering format, and the line-up of bands, artists, and unconventional pairings is enough to arouse any red-blooded indie-rocker.

Most of the songs fall somewhere in the line of “this is obviously a b-side but it’s actually pretty good”, such as Beirut’s “Mimizan” and My Morning Jacket’s “El Caporal”, while some of the album’s biggest names fall flat (I’m looking at you, Arcade Fire).

Stand outs, including Grizzly Bear’s “Deep Blue Sea”, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings’ “Inspiration Information” and the National’s “So Far Around the Bend” get the job done and prove that a band doesn’t necessarily have to provide b-side material for something as b-side as a charity, and remakes of “Feelin’ Good” and Bright Eyes’ ballad “Lua” present familiar songs that sound completely renovated.

For those of you willing to shell out some dough for a good cause and some good music, get ready to skip a few tracks, but far less than you might on a typical compilation album.

Dark Was the Night may not be perfect, but it’s got enough meat on its bones to satisfy discriminating listeners.

Lamb of God Wrath Sony February 24, 2009 There comes a time in a bands career when listeners can tell that they have packed it in and called it a day. This occurs when they just start getting lazier and lazier when it comes to songwriting. With Lamb of God, I was almost positive that their last full-length album Sacrament was their proverbial resignation. I must say, I am happy to be proved otherwise with the release of Wrath.

Zombi Spirit Animal Relapse Records February 3, 2009 The city of Pittsburgh is at an all-time high right now. The Steelers just won the Super Bowl, the Penguins have The Kid, and the Pirates, well, maybe in a few decades they’ll be able to cheer about the Pirates. Either way,

Jason Cunningham

Entertainment Editor

P.J. Decoteau / Staff Writer

Wrath is an adequate name for an album that showcases some of the fastest Lamb of God material to date. But they do not just blaze through this record aimlessly; there are well constructed, melodic guitar interludes to keep the listener diversified. Some Lamb of God fans, that may be less familiar with their earlier work such as, Burn the Priest, New American Gospel and As the Palaces Burn, may think that Wrath is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It is a good effort, but like most records, it is not without it’s flaws. Randy Blythe’s vocals for instance are once again over produced.

There is also a lot less soloing on Wrath than on previous albums, which could be a problem for some listeners.

Like all Lamb of God records, the strength of Wrath lies in the interchangeable rhythm and lead guitar work of Mark Morton and Willie Adler. While most of the record streams along with the signature triplets, chugs and riffs, there seems to be a little more straightforward approach to a handful of the riffs on Wrath.

If you hated Sacrament, I promise this album is better. If you thought Lamb of God was heading down a road of mediocrity, well, we are in the same boat, but I will cherish the last couple of albums they release before they reach the end.

Nick Viccione / Asst. Entertainment

Pittsburgh knows how to produce stuff that actually matters in the world, and synth-rockers Zombi are no exception to the rule.

Every minute of Spirit Animal’s hour-long span is a tasty treat for listeners. Whether it is the efflorescent opener and title track “Spirit Animal” or the bass heavy “Cosmic Powers”, Spirit Animal‘s songs work well effortlessly.

For Zombi fans, this record may seem a little bit slower and even possibly weaker than previous works, but I assure you, it is a record that grows on you. There is much less “spacey synth” work on Spirit Animal compared to previous records.

Instead, the duo seemed to have approached this record with more of a traditional “rock” mindset. The bass lines are much more driving and rhythmic. The drumming still compliments the music perfectly and never feels unnecessary.

Spirit Animal is the perfect record to add to an already amazing Zombi discography. It seems like a natural progression for the band, and I hope they continue to mesmerize fans with many more releases.

Nick Viccione / Asst. Entertainment

THE RECORDER / Wednesday, February 11, 2009 / UPGRADE

15

Passion Pit Plays the Iron Horse

Clockwise from top left: One-mand-band Cale Parks opened the show. Hailing from Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, Parks is a multi-faceted fummer/solo artist and is also the live drummer for White Williams.

Cambridge, Mass.’ Passion Pit headlined the Saturday, Feb. 7 performance at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. Fittingly, their last EP, Chunk of Change, was originally formed as an indie-rock/pop ode to lead singer Michael Angelakos’ girlfirend as a late Valentine’s Day gift.

The floor of Iron Horse was packed as the crowd rushed back into the main area from their cigarette breaks and bathroom trips to hear Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead” - one of the band’s breakout tracks from Chunk of Change.

The indie band Paper Route performed after Cale Parks for a small set before Passion Pit. For multimedia content, including slideshows, visit The Recorder’s tumblog at therecorder.tumblr.com.

Melissa Traynor / The Recorder

Sports 2.11

THE RECORDER Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Devils Sweep Their Blue Devils Split Way to Post Season Weekend Matchups

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

P.J. Wade scored a career-high 27 points against the Pioneers.

Kyle Dorau Sports Editor

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

Marcus Palmer drives the baseline against the Pioneer Defense.

Saturday

52 - 65 Christopher Boulay Asst. Sports

Ken Horton’s 21 points combined with the Blue Devils’ tough defense was enough for CCSU to outlast St. Francis (PA) Red Flash 65-52 Thursday at Detrick Gymnasium.

CCSU was able to control the pace of the game despite only going 1-15 from three-point range for the duration of the game. With the lack of help from the three point line, the Blue Devils were able to compensate by hitting 80 percent from the free throw line and only trailed early in the first half.

Coach Howie Dickenman was happy about the win at home, despite the fact that his Blue Devils played far from perfect.

“I don’t know if we are capable of playing a pretty game, but we are capable of playing an ugly game,” he

Sunday

See Playoff Bound Page 8

Blue Devils Hunt Down Foxes

44 - 66

said. “I give credit to St. Francis, they improved since we last played them.”

Devin Sweetney was the leading scorer for St. Francis, scoring 20 points in a losing effort. Kyle Jackson added 12 points for the Red Flash.

CCSU played a very fast game throughout against St. Francis, and there seemed to be a positive consensus from the team regarding the speed of the play.

“I don’t think they were ready for how fast we were playing,” Horton said.

Shemik Thompson, who finished with 17 points, was thankful for the support of the bench players that helped wear down the Red Flash and put the game out of reach.

“Anytime you get extra help, it is a big help to the team. It is good to see people stepping up,” Thompson said.

After a 4-25 season last year, the Central Connecticut State University women’s basketball team is playoffbound. In one of the most dramatic turnarounds in women’s college basketball history, CCSU went from perennial cellar-dweller to playoff contender in the blink of an eye.

Junior P.J. Wade scored a career-high 27 points as the Blue Devils ripped down 48 rebounds in a 76-63 win over Robert Morris on Saturday.

Central never trailed by more than one point, and led by as many as 16 over the course of the game.

Wade eclipsed her previous high of 18 points last season against Quinnipiac, while adding seven rebounds and two steals. Her four three-pointers were a game-high.

The Blue Devils’ rebounding once again came up big, as they had a season-high 48 as a team, beating the

previous plateau of 43, done against both Harvard and Wagner. In the past two games, Central has grabbed 91 boards. The low post duo of Leanne Crockett and Kerrianne Dugan each had 10 rebounds to lead CCSU. Shontice Simmons once again struggled shooting, going just 3 for 20 from the field. Despite having more turnovers than assists for the third consecutive contest, she managed to accumulate 13 points and six rebounds while playing all 40 minutes of the game.

Sade Logan and Kendra Williams carried the load for Robert Morris, combining for 45 of the Colonials’ 63 points. Monet Johnson contributed a double-double in a losing effort with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Central survived a furious comeback by the Red Flash to top the visiting St. Francis (PA) Red Flash

CCSU controlled most of the stat categories throughout the game, including, outscoring them 20-4 off of turnovers and dominating them in fast break points 16-0.

Horton was positive about the home play this season, including the win against the Red Flash.

“Any win is a good win. We didn’t play as well as we liked, but we did it at home and we have a lot left,” Horton said.

The win improved CCSU’s home record to 7-1 on the season.

“We enjoyed the home cooking tonight, but we have to play a lot crisper on Saturday,” Dickenman said.

Regarding the team’s chances for a high seed in the NEC tournament, Dickenman was optimistic.

“We have a chance. We need to take advantage. We can’t slip up,” he See Split Weekend Page 8

Senior Rob Diclemente fires a shot on the net.

Kyle Dorau Sports Editor

Central Connecticut Ice Hockey swept the regular season series with the Marist College Red Foxes with a 5-4 victory at Newington Arena on Friday.

The Blue Devils recovered from a tough stretch the previous week-

Edward Gaug / The Recorder

end, getting routed by Siena College at home and losing a heartbreaker on the road to UNH. With Marist being the last quality opponent CCSU would face until Regionals, this was a crucial game within the Super East and the Northeast rankings.

Tied at three heading into the third period, the Blue Devils were See Blue Devils Hunt Page 9