TUFTS OBSERVER
OCTOBER 21, 2013
VOLUME CXXVII, ISSUE 3
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REDESIGNING BIG CITIES ( PAG E 2 )
A CASE FOR YELP ( PAG E 1 8 )
ART FROM THE STREETS ( PAG E 2 2 )
WILL VAUGHAN
ENGENDERING PROGRESS by Moira Lavelle
EVA STRAUSS
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MASS MIGRATION: CHINA AND THE URBAN ERA by Brett Fouss
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PERSEID METEOR SHOWER, AUGUST 2012 by Anika Ades
17 CREATIVE COMMONS
PAINTING THE TOWN by Anastasiya Lobacheva
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PIANO SQUARE by Sophia Grogan The Observer has been Tufts’ student publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to in-depth reporting, journalistic innovation, and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing, and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.
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EDITORS editor-in-chief Molly Mirhashem managing editor Nicola Pardy production director Ben Kurland asst. production director Bernita Ling section editors Anika Ades Justin Kim Aaron Langerman Moira Lavelle Gracie McKenzie Alison Pinkerton Kumar Ramanathan Nader Salass Evan Tarantino Flo Wen publicity director Stephen Wright photography director Knar Bedian photography editor Alison Graham art director Robert Collins lead artists Griffin Quasebarth Eva Strauss lead copy editors Liana Abbott Sarah Perlman copy editors George Esselstyn Eve Feldberg Brett Mele Katharine Pong MT Snyder Nate Williams staff writers Ellen Mayer
CONTRIBUTORS Dira Djaya Veronica Foster Lily Herzan Rachel Ison Becca Leibowitz Annie Lye Alexis O’Connel Vishakha Ramakrishnan Charlotte Rea COVER BY: Ethan Chan
October 21st, 2013 Volume CXXVII, Issue 3 Tufts Observer, since 1895 Tufts’ Student Magazine
TABLE OF CONTENTS Engendering Progress by Moira Lavelle 2 feature Alcohol & Amnesty by Claire Selvin 5 campus City Roots by Tyler Green 6 news Mass Migration: China and the Urban Era by Brett Fouss 8 news Sound of Boston by Jenn Oetter 10 campus & prose Fantasize About You Please, Anything by Emma Turner 12 poetry inset Cities 13 photo & prose Perseid Meteor Shower, August 2012 by Anika Ades 17 poetry Yelp & the City by Jamie Moore 18 opinion No Country for the Voiceless by Shobhita Narain 20 opinion & culture Painting the Town by Anastasiya Lobacheva 22 arts & culture The Stakes of Space by Eric Shaw 24 arts campus Piano Square by Sophia Grogan 26 off blotter By Moira Lavelle and Aaron Langerman 28 police
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Engendering Progress
Moira Lavelle
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urban planning to promote equality
n 1999, the City of Vienna, Austria conducted a massive survey of its populace. The survey asked residents how they interacted with the city. How did they use public transportation? Where did they walk? At which times were they out and about? What the survey revealed is that men and women use cities in drastically different ways. Men took public transportation largely for commuting to work. Women used public transportation for a myriad of reasons: to take children to the doctor or daycare, to visit relatives, to go to work, to go grocery shopping, and so forth. Women were more likely to have a stroller or wheelchair with them when walking on public sidewalks. Women and men visited cemeteries at different times of day. For women, many of these activities were difficult to accomplish— for a variety of reasons, including the layout of transportation, the accessibility of healthcare, and the location of cemeteries. What Vienna learned was that its city was structurally sexist; it was built in ways that facilitated men’s lifestyles more than women’s. Thus the Austrian government decided to change the very design of Vienna. The public transportation network was ameliorated, enabling smooth transit between the neighborhoods on the outside of the city. The city oversaw the widening of sidewalks and the addition of ramps near important intersections. The overhaul also included the installation of benches and better lighting in cemeteries. A new apartment complex built specifically for women implemented on-site doctors, and improved public transportation increased the commu-
nity’s accessibility to kindergartens. The city also rebuilt playgrounds to include small pockets of play space, instead of one large park, because boys had been bullying girls off the playground. Today, Vienna is lauded for its adjustments: it won the United Nations Public Service Award for its structural improvements and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme listed Vienna’s city planning as one of the best in the world. This process, in which public administrators create laws and regulations to enact changes that will benefit men and women equally, is called “gender mainstreaming.” Vienna is an oftpraised example of gender mainstreaming, but the practice is implemented in countries around the world. The European Equality Policy introduced gender mainstreaming as a procedural strategy to all European Union states in the early 2000s. Since then, a number of programs have put the concept into effect. For example Germany has worked on providing more equal welfare housing for male and female children, and Italy has created more women’s shelters, endeavored to make internet access easier for all citizens, and mandated longer, more accessible pharmacy hours. Similarly, the UN has been consistently working on gender mainstreaming since 1997—it has paired with organizations like the World Health Organization and the World Bank to bring about a multitude of changes in both policies and structures worldwide. For instance, in India and Bangladesh, women often worry about their personal safety when traveling without men and will forgo a trip to the doctor or school in favor of
immediate safety. To combat this, the UN is working to make public transportation more secure and to bring healthcare closer to people’s homes. The government recently introduced women-only train carriages to Mumbai to help female travelers feel safer. The UN argues in its report on Gender and Urban Planning that most cities were built under the western assumption that each household consists of a nuclear family with one breadwinner and one homemaker—assuming the woman primarily stays home. Yet this paradigm is not applicable today in most societies from the western world to anywhere else. Gender mainstreaming focuses on incorporating what women actually need into the structure of how society works. By structuring cities to cater to women as well as men, every demographic can reap the benefits. Men, children, and the elderly gain from improved welfare or public transportation. The theory, as Hilary Clinton said in 1995, is that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.” A focus on gender and gender mainstreaming is not the only way to improve equality in urban planning. Julian Agyeman is a professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) at Tufts. One of Agyeman’s specialties, is in as he puts it: “concepts of interculturalism, cultural competency, culturally inclusive practice and culturally inclusive spaces in urban planning.” Essentially, he looks at how the design of cities can be more culturally inclusive. He looks specifically at the intersection of sustainability and justice or equity, asking how we can create
BERNITA LING
OCTOBER 21, 2013
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RE FE AT U greener cities that simultaneously promote equality. Lately, Agyeman has focused on the green and organic food movement. There has been a burst of enthusiasm for local organic food in recent years, and many cities have started creating green roofs and rooftop gardens. Yet this local food movement assumes that urban dwellers are white and privileged. The foods are expensive and usually offer only western options such as potatoes or lettuce, preventing many immigrants preparefrom preparing their familiar cultural foods. Agyeman explains that locallygrown does not mean that the food has to be sourced locally—if a Brazilian cook wants manioc root in Boston he should use it and be able to grow it locally. Additionally, these locally-grown foods need to be more accessible to those of lower incomes who cannot afford to shop at Whole Foods. The best urban planning would be intersectional, mainstreaming these cultural needs and environmental needs at the same time and thus promoting equality across the board. A number of intersectional projects of this sort have recently been adopted in the U.S. Peter Furth, a civil engineering professor at Northeastern University, and Jeffrey Rosenblum, the transportation planner for the city of Cambridge. Furth and Rosenblum are working with Northeastern students to make bicycling a preferred mode of transportation in Boston. The two are looking to the street design of the Netherlands to try and understand what makes cycling so easy in Amsterdam and so difficult here in Boston. The project has intersectional interests, as the planners hope to use cycling as a means to make Boston both healthy for the environment, and safer for families. Many Bostonians have expressed an interest in bike lanes and additional bike-centered structures but are fearful of the infamous Boston traf-
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fic. In an interview with the Boston Globe last month, Furth stated, “For the first time, there are a lot of normal people who are showing an interest in cycling. It’s not that they’ve changed their minds so much, but now they see it’s possible and they want to be protected from cars.” A Boston that biked like Amsterdam or Houten would use a fraction of the gasoline currently consumed and have hundreds fewer car crashes per year. Bicycling is the primary mode of transportation in Holland and with fewer cars on the street, there are fewer car crashes. Moreover, bikes are so common that they easily gain the right of way; families even bike around Dutch cities without any helmets. Mainstreaming projects of this sort have popped up around the country, but the U.S. has yet to adopt this sort of equality-based planning as public policy for urban planning. The slow integration into public policy may be partially because there are some detractors of gender-mainstreaming and cultural mainstreaming. NGOs have criticized the European Equality Policy for a lack of sustainability and many have cited the UN for poor implementation of gender mainstreaming initiatives. Both of these plans have been cited for having little structure for monitoring and follow-up. Additionally, many argue that officials run the risk of reinforcing gendered or cultural stereotypes when looking to integrate mainstreaming into public policy, and that many of these structural changes have not placed women into positions of power. Yet the UN argues that gender mainstreaming is an important tool for promoting equal-
ity in a world that is often structured in a western, gendered way. Bureaucratic inertia may be another reason that mainstreaming has not become a legally-backed part of U.S. policy. In a democracy, getting a majority of the populace to agree on a large-scale shift can be a slow and fraught process. In a public meeting about potential bike lanes on West Broadway Street, the Boston public fought back, arguing bike lanes would be much too dangerous and
Gender mainstreaming focuses on incorporating what women actually need into the structure of how society works. do not belong in Boston. Similar outrage was seen in New York City when the new Citi bike share system was put in place this past summer. Politicians must think about their constituencies, and pushing for a change of this sort can be an exceedingly unpopular choice. It is easy to look at a city like Vienna or Boston and see that there is room for improvement. These big hub cities have been around for centuries and often the very structure favors certain types of privileged persons—the transportation is created for men commuting to work, and the food sources are centered around the middle and upper class. Not every city can overhaul its urban design and re-plan like Vienna did. But what the Vienna example illustrates best is how small changes can create a large difference, promoting equality for a city’s entire population. O
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ALCOHOL & AMNESTY Claire Selvin
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wo new provisions to Tufts’ drug and alcohol policy in the 2013-2014 Student Handbook make calling for help in alcohol-related medical incidents a more viable option than in years past. The previous policy did not formally include the “Good Samaritan Policy” or the “Amnesty Approach.” Dean of Campus Life and Leadership and acting Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman explained that a task force of students and leaders in various departments “tweaked” the old policy in May and June of last year. The task force’s recommendations were considered, and some of them added to the official policy by a committee that Reitman chaired. “We’ve formalized [the Good Samaritan Policy], even though in the past the RAs and the police wouldn’t write up anybody who happened to be present when someone called for help,” he said. The Good Samaritan Policy states that “No one who seeks medical assistance for themselves or for others will be subject to disciplinary action specifically for their own use of alcohol or small amounts of marijuana.” The Amnesty Approach protects students who need medical assistance from “judicial sanctions.” Students who receive medical treatment must meet with a professional in the Alcohol and Health Education division of Health Services for “screening and substance use counseling.” A second incident resulting in medical treatment will warrant another meeting with a Health Services professional, as well as a meeting with a family member or guardian. A third episode will result in a medical leave for the student to “address the substance use.” Essentially, students who call for medical assistance, or require
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it themselves, due to over-intoxication will not face probation or punishment as long as their actions do not violate the Code of Conduct. Such violations would include: public consumption of alcohol, and dealing or trafficking illegal drugs. Reitman said that this new nonjudicial “medical model” is kept separate from the Code of Conduct; that is, a student can receive medical treatment and face no punishments as a result, but there may be disciplinary action taken for his or her violations to the Code of Conduct. “This community will always have between 90 and 150 cases each year, no matter the policy, because we are a caring community. If you’re a friend of somebody that you know is in trouble, people call to get help for that student. Is that a good thing? Yes, that’s a good thing. Is it ideal? I think no. Ideally, people would recognize that friendship includes stopping people from getting to the point of needing that hospitalization,” Reitman said. Reitman explained that most people who need medical intervention once due to intoxication do not repeat their actions. “It seems that most people—once they have one of these embarrassing encounters and need medical intervention and have to explain to families—figure out that it’s not worth it because there’s not much glory in it and it’s dangerous,” he said. Student reaction to the new policies has been generally positive. Sophomore Allie Wainer thinks that the new rules will increase the number of people calling for help. “I learned from high school health class to call the police or someone when there’s a problem, when someone’s feeling sick, so it just makes sense that there’s no academic punishment or probation,” she said.
She added that some of her friends “felt almost ashamed” last year when they needed TEMS assistance. “I don’t think the shame will completely go away but if your friend’s not going to get in trouble then people will definitely be more likely to call. I’ve heard about situations in which people were hesitant to call,” Wainer said. Junior Dylan Pond was surprised when, as a freshman, he learned that the university did not have a formal, codified Good Samaritan Policy. “I believe that Tufts students always look out for each other, whether in the classroom, on a team, or in a club. Both policies make sure we can look out for our fellow Jumbos without the fear of repercussions,” Pond said. Pond believes that now, Jumbos will bemore comfortable when seeking help. He said, “I have never witnessed a student hesitating to call. I have discussed the old policy a lot with friends and we all felt that it fostered a dangerous culture. I am proud that Tufts has written a new policy that prioritizes safety.” The goal is for these new provisions to stop any hesitation students may have experienced previously in calling for help in emergency situations. Students seem to agree that the changes are a step in the right direction for students’ safety on campus. Reitman does not feel that the policy is “indicative of success” because bystanders on campus still allow their peers and friends to reach a dangerous level of drunkenness. He said, “The most important message that I can get out is that it’s great to be a good friend and call for medical help, but you’d be a much better friend to avoid them needing that medical intervention. Medical intervention works, but part of it is luck, and I never want to lose a student from this campus.” O
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city roots CREATIVE COMMONS
by tyler green
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y the end of year, Central Park One, the world’s tallest vertical garden, will be completed. It will be the first of 11 buildings of the most ambitious urban development projects in history in downtown Sydney, Australia. Peter Nouvel’s revolutionary design calls for over half of the 1,800-unit apartment building to be covered with vines and plants. All of the rooftops are designed to capture rainwater, which can be converted into safe drinking water. Sewage output will also be sanitized and recycled into usable water on site. En-
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ergy needs will be handled via a “precinct” approach: the development will have the capacity to focus energy supply to particular regions of the complex during times of high demand in order to increase energy efficiency. The complex will also utilize a generator that heats and cools at the same site, decreasing waste and allowing the site to disperse excess energy to surrounding neighborhoods. Although an urban structure covered in bushy foliage and seemingly devoid of any human maintenance may appear post-apocalyptic, the fusion
of natural and industrial materials carried out by botanist Patrick Blanc’s design is an indication of much needed progress in the 21st century challenge of environmental preservation. In 1800, barely three percent of the world’s population lived in cities, and only three cities in the world boasted one million residents. Today, however, the human population has exploded to seven billion in about 200 years, and over half of the world’s population has settled in urban areas. The UN estimates that the global
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urban population will continue to grow by 1.5 percent annually, or at a rate of 60 million new urban residents per year. More than 439 cities have already joined London, Beijing, and Tokyo at the once rare mark of one million inhabitants. By 2050, the share of people living in urban areas worldwide is expected to reach an astonishing 75 percent, which means 6.75 billion people will be living on less than five percent of the earth’s surface. As people continue to migrate to cities, urban areas will become the most crucial battleground in the fight against environmental destruction, climate change, and depletion of the ecosystem. The demand for resources such as food, clean water, energy, healthcare, employment, transportation, and housing will inevitably skyrocket as the population grows. Yet cities may be the solution to many of these pressures, with the ability to mitigate potentially harmful effects on the environment. Cities provide opportunities and potential environmental benefits that are not possible outside of urban centers. In fact, cities are arguably the “greenest” invention in the history of mankind. Their very nature enables and promotes the widespread use of public transportation, which decreases emission outputs. The close proximity of residents and businesses in urban areas decreases the energy needed to conduct commercial movement of goods and services, thus reducing both the environmental impact and monetary cost of products. The prevalence of apartment buildings and skyscrapers found in cities minimizes both the overall human footprint and use of energy. As more people move into cities in search of employment, acts of financial desperation commonly found in developing countries (poaching of threatened and endangered animals, illegal logging, and forest clearing for charcoal production) will become less prevalent. Now, city planners are consciously building with environmental intentions. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification originated as an American barometer of a building’s green cred, but is growing more popular across the world. The famed Taipei 101 skyscraper and the Seoul Finance Center in South Korea were recently granted LEED certification. China, United Arab Emirates, Brazil,
Canada, India, Mexico, and Germany are the leading countries outside the US in terms of LEED certifications and registrations. Analogous certifications have been created worldwide with the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) in England, which now covers over 50 countries worldwide, the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) in Germany, and the Comprehensive Asessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) in Japan, which focuses specifically on earthquake resistance. However, the most important factor in creating a green city is money. Many cities cannot afford the initial payments to make green changes. Cities in Asia are facing dif-
of residents use a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) car that runs on a zero-emission electric motor. The buildings of Masdar City are organized so that a constant, cooling breeze is channeled into the city. The same organization pattern allows enough natural light to illuminate the streets, but not so much that the city overheats. All of these measures aimed to decrease the environmental impact of Masdar City can only be implemented in a large-scale setting. Other planned cities such as the SinoSingapore collaborative venture in China, Tianjin City, are also attempting to use organization as a means of minimizing environmental impact. Tianjin aims to be the most efficient of China’s eco-cities. The
Around the world, cities are beginning to capitalize on their ability to promote efficiency by serving large numbers of people and drastically reducing the environmental impact of urban residents. ficulties living up to green standards due to a lack of funds. New York started saving $6 million a year after switching to energy-efficient traffic lights and pedestrian signals in 2005, but the city had to put down $28 million up front to create the changes. For the cities that can afford it, there is incredible potential for the implementation of large-scale green initiatives, such as Sydney’s Central Park development. The execution of these projects is only possible in cities with technologies that are reliant on the proximity that a city like Sydney provides. Suburban and rural regions are simply not capable of supporting programs of such magnitude and inclusion. Around the world, cities are beginning to capitalize on their ability to promote efficiency by serving large numbers of people and drastically reducing the environmental impact of urban residents. In 2007, the government of Abu Dhabi announced its plans to build “the most sustainable city in the world.” Masdar City, built entirely from scratch, functions only on renewable energy and emits nearly zero waste. The city draws its power from a photovoltaic solar farm and the vast majority
streets are lit with solar photovoltaic lights and wind turbines line the city. The government asserts that by 2020, 90 percent of Tianjin’s residents will exclusively travel by public transportation, foot, or bicycle. However, there has been criticism that the city is not as environmentally friendly as Chinese officials claim it is. Currently the streets are paved with thin bike lanes, the wind turbines do not supply power to the city, and critics cite the recycling system— with five different categories—as too complicated. It seems Tianjin faces the same problem that many Asian cities are facing in becoming green—a lack of money. In the 21st century, as the proportion of people residing in cities increases exponentially, harnessing the potential of urban centers will become crucial. Cities are built to implement large-scale solutions, and key projects such as Masdar City will serve as innovative role models for ambitious problem-solvers across the world. Projects that can fulfill these strict environmental standards and fit under cities’ tight budgets will soon be the true eco-cities. O OCTOBER 21, 2013
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Mass Migration China and the Urban Era
by Brett Fouss
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ithin the next 12 to 15 years, the Chinese government plans to relocate 250 million people from the countryside into urban areas. Within the next 30 years, 70 percent of China’s 1.3 billion citizens may reside in cities. This ambitious relocation of people, if successful, will be the largest migration in human history. Premier Li Keqiang, who was elected earlier this year largely based on his expertise in economics, has spearheaded this massive urbanization project. Although Li has expressed that it is pivotal to China’s economic growth, the scale of the task raises many complicated questions. While large cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou naturally attract migrant workers with hopes of greater success in an urban environment, the urbanization plan does not necessarily incorporate these places. Rather, the Chinese government, working on a local level with provincial governments, is striving to increase the number of moderatelysized cities across the vast country. Previously rural areas such as Qiyan, a small town in Shaanxi Province, have been outfitted with scores of concrete apartment buildings, along with roads and other forms of urban infrastructure. Currently, the Chinese economy is largely based on of export and credit to foreign nations. While domestic businesses are on the rise, much of China’s economy is still dependent on the United States, EU, and Japan among other nations. The purpose of this urbanization project is to foster and develop China’s already burgeoning consumer culture. Tuned in and plugged in, the markets and products that city folk are exposed to are much more numerous than those that villagers are exposed to. China hopes that its new urban population will stimulate local economies by purchasing electronics, appliances and utilities. Residents will naturally fill their modern apartments with modern items. Furthermore, the government believes that concentrated urban populations will attract businesses to these areas. Already, both domestic and foreign firms flock to cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, looking to capitalize both on China’s work-
force and market. Dispersing firms across the country, according to Li, will create boundless new job opportunities. Farmers in these transformed areas are moved to apartment living; the government offers them a subsidy for their new home, as well as a loan to help cover other costs. But this subsidy is rarely enough as many residents are left unemployed and without benefits following the move. It is clear that the government must put more effort into ensuring the quality of life of the new urban dwellers post-relocation. Many people have also reported difficulty finding jobs; while these urban areas have the potential to attract jobs, it is clear that it may take a while. Many critics have also expressed fiscal concerns; many prefecture level governments may fall into debt as a result of these ambitious building projects. In order for the plan to be successful, it is clear that Li and those involved
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ideological movement centered around the relocation of the population to the countryside. The growth of a rural population, Mao believed, would help bolster China’s agricultural and industrial output, thereby making China more self-sufficient and centralized. The induction of more moderate policy into the government let China become deeply integrated into the globalized economy. Largely thanks to its massive population, China has experienced GDP growth of 7–15% per year since the 1980’s. Since 1990, the urban population has doubled; Shanghai’s population has increased from 7 to 19 million, while Beijing’s has increased from 6 to 17 million. Since Mao’s time, development and progress has clearly shifted away from the countryside and into urban areas. I grew up in China: between the northern Beijing and the southern Guangzhou. Throughout my time there, I witnessed much change and in a way, China was growing up as I was. When I arrived, the Chinese renminbi stood at 13 to the dollar; when I left, it hovered around 6.5. I saw the entire population of Beijing mobilize for the Olympics, and likewise, the population of Guangzhou for the Asian Games. Modern, urban, Chinese culture is an astounding phenomenon; the lives of urban Chinese middle class are centered around the city. Every night, the vast shopping streets, underground malls, and nightclubs explode into life as public trains and buses ferry passengers to and fro. Public parks fill with street vendors, roller-skaters, and crowds of senior citizens performing coordinated dance workouts. On the surface, cities like Beijing and Guangzhou exude positivity and progress. Modern urban China consists of an incredibly intimate relationship between citizens and their city. Together they work towards an even better future. Given the economic success of China’s established cities, it is clear why Li and the current administration value urbanization so much. Time will reveal whether or not the government will make it valuable to those who are supposed to benefit in the first place. O
This ambitious relocation of people, if successful, will be the largest migration in human history.
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in this effort must address the concerns of their critics. According to the China Daily, Li has met with 10 of his closest advisors and experts regarding smoothing out the urbanization effort. Li has stated that he intends to be “active and orderly in pushing the process forward.” The National Development and Reform Commission is due to present a fleshed out urbanization plan later this year. China has seen much change since the twentieth century, perhaps more change than any other country in the world. During the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Mao instigated a massive
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SOUND OF BOSTON By Jenn Oetter
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n most weekends, there is a group of Tufts students sporting their press passes at intimate music venues around Boston to photograph and review shows. They focus on concerts in smaller venues that are likely to add some variety to your idea of a typical night out. The blog Sound of Boston, started by Jonah Ollman and Knar Bedian, covers local artists and performances with witty descriptions and in-your-face photos from the live shows. Although it only launched earlier this semester, Sounds of Boston is taking off and giving Tufts a lesson in what not to miss in the Boston music scene. Jonah Ollman, a senior, was already writing about music and interviewing upand-coming artists when he received an email from a man in Denmark, the creator of the website “Sounds of Aarhus.” He encouraged Ollman to take the idea of profiling a city and the authentic aspects of its musical culture and apply it to Boston. After Ollman posted on TuftsLife to recruit writers and teamed up with Knar Bedian, Sound of Boston was launched. Already on mailing lists for several bands, Ollman knew how to score a press pass for a free show and urged the new writers to contact bands they liked to see what would happen. While this blog is great for its readers, the writers also have major incentive to put in the legwork. Ollman says, “I haven’t paid for a show in a year and a half. If you email these people, they are usually into what you have to say.” What goes into this blog is a genuine appreciation for music and an interest in discovering something new, whether it’s a cool new band or a venue that keeps drawing you back. As for the future, Ollman hopes to move from Tumblr to a dot-com set up by the end of the semester. The blog is meant to appeal to a wide audience, which makes it more crucial that
they draw in a wider base of support. The overarching goal is to “try to find Boston’s sounds,” so bias and personal preferences must be secondary. Ollman elaborated on the idea of Boston’s own sound, saying: “There are so many cities that do have a sound. Boston is no smaller than Nashville with country music, or Atlanta with a strong hip-hop culture. Why isn’t Boston music more well-known? The more attention it gets, the better it’s going to be.” Artists seem to agree, showing their thanks by sharing the Sound of Boston’s articles and acknowledging the efforts of the writers. Ollman, who has been writing about music on his personal blog Write to the Beat for four years, thinks this exposure is the best reward for the new writers. Even with the initial success the blog has achieved, there is much more in store. They plan on putting a couple of themed features in place including one focusing on collegiate bands or campus venues at the many Boston-area schools, and one that highlights worthwhile records stores in the city. Their aim is to attract a wider range of music lovers and to give a more solid foundation to the blog. In the meantime, Ollman is proud of the initiative the writers are taking and the shows they’ve been able to attend. He says, “It’s satisfying to think that I’m at that level. I still kind of feel like I shouldn’t be there next to writers for Rolling Stone.” After perusing Sound of Boston, the article I was most curious about profiled a modern living room concert series called “Sofar Sounds.” Ollman mentioned it in our conversation, and since he was the one who attended the concert, I had a ton of questions about his experience. Ollman explained the concept as a network of concerts in cities all over the world that put four acoustic sets together
for a “pop up show.” You have to sign up if you are willing to hand over your living room for a night and welcome fifty strangers into your home. If you are on the mailing list, you will get an email a couple of days before the show letting you know where it is. Ollman attended the very first Sofar Boston, hosted at an apartment in Allston. He said, “It is surprisingly put together and some small bands have grown from this.” The next show in November is exactly the type of new experience Sound of Boston works to support—unique, engaging, and a lot of fun. With so many students attending Tufts from out of state, the information on Sound of Boston gives everyone creative ways to explore Boston and get to know the city’s sound even better. Ollman said, “I’m curious as to why a sound, like Seattle and its indie scene, happens in one place. Boston has everything it needs: venues, young people, culture, history. Why isn’t Boston a Seattle or a Nashville?” Sound of Boston is chipping away at this question with every show it reviews and every band it uncovers for its audience. Maybe Boston doesn’t have a singular musical identity like many other cities across the country, but Sound of Boston is looking to find its own Boston music scene that is equally as satisfying. I urge you to check out Sound of Boston on Tumblr and like their Facebook page. It’s no surprise that our fellow Jumbos are at it again, expressing their creativity and sharing something they are passionate about with the people around them. This project is something new that deserves the attention it’s getting. Whether you are looking for something fun to do in the city or you’re interested in getting involved in Sound of Boston’s mission, it truly is something worth looking into. O
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Fantasize about you please, anything By Emma Turner
You brushed the sleeve of my sweater in the poultry section of the supermarket. I tried to catch your pupils, but they were dark holes absent of my gravity. The north wind didn’t want the traveler’s coat, he wanted the sun’s attention. They say when you trip acid, you need a spiritual guide, but that spiritual guide’s usually high too, a balloon guiding another balloon. I found a social psychology book misplaced in the poetry section of borders and sweated when reading that cherub faces cultivate trust. Your cheekbones scare me. You left aisle four and I saw those fruit loops in your basket. It made me wonder if your sperm are strong, but you look normal enough and I still have that egg in the fridge. Maybe we can’t be anything but a stagnant thought pool. We’d keep swimming laps probing for a secret drain that would release us, dripping boredom and naked. Exhausted by our attempts to touch.
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ROBERT COLLINS
DIRA DJAYA
the big, windy, emerald, holy
CITY of the kings, of wine, of brotherly love
ALISON GRAHAM
OCTOBER 7, 2013
TUFTS OBSERVER 13 VISHAKHA RAMAKRISHNAN
Left to Right, TOP: VERONICA FOSTER, BECCA LEIBOWITZ, ANNIE LYE
MIDDLE: BECCA LEIBOWITZ< VERONICA FOSTER Left to Right, BOTTOM: ALEXIS O’CONNEL,RACHEL ISON, CHARLOTTE REA
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Clockwise: LILY HERZAN, Vishakha Ramakrishnan, BECCA LEIBOWITZ BACKGROUND: DIRA DJAYA
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Perseid Meteor Shower, August 2012 By Anika Ades
That night was something. I took off my glasses and the yellow lines blurred and ran. NPR was on as it usually was, and the gibbous moon was centered where I crested the hill. Foreshadowing autumn. An uncommon quiet nestled amongst the trees by the road. The oaks seemed impossibly lush. I knew better. But in that instant I was an animal heaving from the sea. I was clean and good, strange and free. And then the stop sign the brake was right there, by the clutch, and things stood as they had before.
Inspir Inspired by Ra e d by y m o n Raym d Carv ond C er arver
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YELP & THE CITY CREATIVE COMMONS
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he author Douglas Adams once jokingly broke down the development of civilization into three distinct phases: Survival, Inquiry, and Sophistication, or the How, Why, and Where phases. Each phase could be summed up in the form of a question. In his words, “the first phase is characterized by the question, ‘How can we eat?’ The second by the question, ‘Why do we eat?’ And the third by the question, ‘Where shall we do lunch?’” Luckily, we live in a civilization advanced enough that when we ask that crucial third question, the answer can be found in our pockets. Mobile applications like Yelp, Urban Spoon, and TripAdvisor can tell us which restaurants or attractions are nearby, give a star rating based on other users’ feedback, and then direct us via GPS to whichever ones we choose. That social aspect to Yelp and Yelp-alikes is part of their key appeal: the entire process of restaurant reviewing is democratized. With apologies to Douglas Adams, these applications may usher in a fourth age, characterized by the question, “Where is everyone else doing lunch?” That fundamental issue of food and where to get it has always been central to city life. The very first cities were founded when agriculture advanced to the point at which surpluses were regularly available. This meant that a population could reli-
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ably produce more food than rural citizens needed to survive, and that extra food could be brought into cities in exchange for trade goods produced by the city-dwellers. The city grows large and powerful, the artists and traders flourish, and, if all goes as planned, the city becomes one that every middle-schooler now learns about in history class. Unlike in Babylonia, today’s questions surrounding food aren’t so much about eating or not eating. The modern city-dweller is more concerned with what type of food they will be eating, how good it is, and the environment in which it’s consumed—the “where shall we do lunch”-type questions. Do you want Mexican food? Well then, do you want a burrito, served hot through the window of a food truck, a veritable food baby, delicious in that particular way of all street food? If food on a plate is more your speed, how about the casual Mexican place down the street, or perhaps even the high-end establishment a few blocks over? This process is, of course, repeatable for any style of cuisine you could possible desire, and, in a large city, the array of options grows truly staggering. This is where the apps come in. Because I use Yelp most often, that’s what I’ll refer to, but the differences between Yelp and Yelp-alikes are negligible enough to make most of what
I’m saying translatable to other similar apps. Yelp is designed to sort out the problem of the availability of eating options getting in the way of actually eating. This is related to “choice paralysis,” a phenomenon that may affect your life, for example, when an everyday grocery trip is interrupted by a decision between fifteen available varieties of milk. Choice paralysis refers to how the taxing effect of your over-analysis in what you expect to be a simple choice can lead to you make an irrational decision—say, choosing 2% with extra calcium before realizing, as you leave the store, that non-fat really would have been the better choice. Swap the grocery store for the city, the 2% for disappointing pizza, the forsaken nonfat for tantalizing Indian food, and you can see how choice paralysis comes into play when deciding on lunch. Yelp sidesteps this experience in two ways: first, it only displays restaurants near you or within a pre-determined search area on a map, with star ratings based on the impressions of other Yelp users. Second, you can set specific search criteria; searching “Mexican” will bring up every establishment in the search area that serves Mexican food or some variation thereof. This initial map screen allows you to quickly rule out options based on distance and the
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The Quintessential Search for Lunch in the Modern Age BY JAMIE MOORE
all-important star rating. Yelp even has a color-coding system, with higher-rated restaurants displaying fiery red stars, and disappointing eateries displaying pale, tepid yellow stars. Prominent critics or official dining guides do not assign these star ratings—the rating you see on the map is the average of user reviews for the restaurant. Clicking on a potential restaurant takes you to more detailed information: price range, opening hours, other miscellaneous data, and, below that, the individual reviews. Even these little islands of individuality are summed up in a nice bar graph, rendering the results more quantitative. That’s the hitch, though, at least for me: that idea that Yelp makes the urban experience more quantitative. Going out to lunch doesn’t necessarily have to be some great adventure, and in fact, I’d prefer lunch not to be, most of the time. However, having statistics attached to my eating experience doesn’t quite mesh with the weird and wonderful hunter-gatherer notion of going out into the city and tracking down the ideal meal. There is something romantic about the idea of that meal being out there somewhere, waiting for me to find it. With the perfect combination of luck and tenacity, I can sniff it out—perhaps literally—and achieve that perfect metropolitan food experience. Getting lunch probably won’t
be an adventure. But as much as the city is about food and where to get it, it’s also about the unexpected possibilities we encounter on the way to food. Of course, I have to reconcile this resistance with the fact that Yelp can be amazingly helpful. Quantification of the urban experience isn’t pleasant for me, but being able to find what I want is. Most importantly, there’s a promise with Yelp that one day, a restaurant will make me mad enough to want to write a scathing review, and I will be able to show that review to the world. As more people start writing Yelp reviews, the amazing potential of the site will be realized. Now that every diner has the capacity to be an incognito reviewer, the sitcom cliché of the food critic visiting a restaurant in disguise while the hapless owner struts and frets may take on a ring of truth. This renders restaurants fully accountable at all times for the dining experience they provide for their customers. Of course, there are issues with this kind of anonymity: in September, CNN Money reported that many Yelp reviews masquerading as honest opinions have later turned out to be fabricated by writers for pay. Despite the obstacle of false reviews, the fact remains that the fate of many restaurants can rest in the hands of the ordinary customer. Every slow kitchen, rude manager, or dirty plate can and will
be forced to undergo public scrutiny. Or, at least, the scrutiny of Yelp users. I happily admit that I’m one of those Yelpers. And I’m not going to pretend I’ve struck a perfect balance of Yelp-like technology and trusting my own luck to find quality food in big cities. There have been times when I’ve just wandered until my lunch dilemma was solved without a need to consult my phone, and at other times, Yelp is my crutch. Yelp has proven most valuable when it categorizes my dining options based on price, or the availability of table service, or even other users’ feedback. Yelp keeps reeling me back in because of the way it simplifies the chaos of the city just enough for me to step in and make my own choices. It averts choice paralysis without averting choice itself. It resolves an unappetizing mess into an inviting mystery. Yelp is useful in its empowerment of diners, demanding greater accountability on the part of eateries. Yelp is worthwhile when it allows me to see the unseen, by telling me: “Hey, there’s another pretty good place around the corner.” Yelp is essential when it gives me information that is vague enough to be full of promise, but specific enough to get me back out into the city, back into that hunter-gatherer mindset, back out answering that final, critical essential question of where exactly we shall do lunch. O OCTOBER 21, 2013
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NO COUNTRY FOR THE VOICELESS
NO COUNTRY FOR THE VOICELESS
BY SHOBHITA NARAIN
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t the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.” The words of India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on the dawn of India’s birth and her triumphant independence from the tyrannous British rule, now drift through the sands of time as feeble reminders of the country India once strived to be. Today, it seems as if the dream of a democratic India has been sleeping all this while. The powerless in this nation are suppressed by a regime more debilitating than the British Empire—one of extreme corruption, misogyny, and crippling apathy. Above all, this oppression comes not by the hands of a colonial establishment, but rather from the very people that India has elected as representatives. Because these elected officials are not standing up for their constituencies’ interests, Indian democracy has grown increasingly dissonant from its people. The public’s discontentment with its governing class has spilled over as protests over two main issues: economic inequity and gender inequality. In both these cases there are pervasive cultural problems a culture of corruption and a rape culture. To begin solving these seemingly hopeless problems, India will have to reach deep into its roots and retrieve the promise of democracy. 20
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At the core of popular discontent is the drastic slowing of India’s economic growth in the past few years, which is at a decade-low of 5 percent partially due to futile government policies. The debt-to-GDP ratio has been increasing at a frightening rate and India’s fiscal policy has been ineffectively managed, leading to exponentially accelerating inflation rates. The people who represent the people, however, have distanced themselves from the economic drama playing onstage—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spent the last two years publicly underplaying the gravity of the situation, while the Parliament has only sought stopgap solutions instead of addressing the roots of economic crises. For example, amidst the crisis, the government passed an ordinance approving a National Food Security Bill. The bill organizes an ambitious food aid program that will benefit two-thirds of the Indian population; once ratified by the Parliament, it will entitle 800 million Indians to food grain subsidies. The opposition has denounced its high cost ($22 billion per year), while others have criticized its lack of ambition in addressing the root causes of hunger, and the ineffectiveness of and extensive corruption linked to most social redistribution in India. Several economists stressed that the distribution of grain food
nation-wide could threaten farmers’ income in the long run. Politically, it seems evident that the food bill is a short-term attempt to shore up votes from the poorer classes ahead of in the 2014 national elections. As he left his position, former Reserve Bank of India head Duvvuri Subbarao captured the government’s failure to address the problem: “Does history repeat itself,” he asked, “as if we learn nothing from one crisis to another?” The roots of this economic crisis among India’s other past issues lie in a culture of corruption that has not only endured, but has even thrived throughout Indian democracy. Paying bribes for the most basic services is commonplace in daily life in India—recent studies show that more than 47 percent of Indians have resorted to bribes and under-the-table influence to get through public offices. But while petty bribes have been routine throughout India’s history, corruption seems to have recently reached unprecedented levels. Mega scams involving billions of dollars are becoming mundane news headlines— the biggest of which,a scandal surrounding allocation of coal mining rights in 2012, involved top government officials, including cabinet members and even the Prime Minister himself.
THEN: INTERNATIONAL RIVERS, CC NOW: RAMESH_LALWANI, CC
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Middle-class anger has periodically erupted against this obscenely venal political class that guards its privileges and bonuses. In recent years, it has sometimes even appeared to solidify briefly into mass political rebellions. First, Baba Ramdev, a yoga practitioner, enlisted tens of thousands to his anti-corruption movement. He was followed by Anna Hazare, a quasiGandhian activist, who managed to attract an eclectic crowd of celebrities, industrialists, students, and urban yuppies to the cause. Both of these mass demonstrations were widely greeted as the herald of a politically awakened and empowered middle class, but came to little fruition. In these cases and others, the government tried to suppress the voice of the people, even unleashing the police on Ramdev and his followers’ rallies in New Delhi. It was similarly ruthless with Hazare, exploiting the divisions between the middle and lower classes that are affected by its corruption. For example, a study from the Center for Media Studies showed that the poorest in India face the most acute consequences of corruption as they are forced to pay exorbitant sums for basic amenities such as electricity and clean water, but many in the middle class failed to recognize that corruption affects all but those at the very top. With the middle and lower classes unable to stand united, the protests fell apart. Despite the initial promise of these mass anti-corruption protests, it seems the populace has little to look forward to, apart from the periodic rise and fall of ineffectual agitators such as Hazare and Ramdev. In addition to growing discontent over economic inequity, mass protests have also mobilized against rape culture in India. A week after the nation’s Independence Day celebrations on August 15 this year, the country was slapped in the face with the news of yet another brutal gang rape of a female photojournalist in Mumbai, India’s financial hub. After the death of the Delhi gang rape victim on December 29, 2012, the people of India, or rather masses of middle and lower class citizens, spent long days protesting the ineffective judicial system, fighting for legal reforms in hopes of deterring sexual predators from repeating such heinous crimes. This time around, the rape almost appeared as
a perverse irony of the state of India’s powerlessness, in the country’s most powerful cities. It happened in an abandoned mill in Mahalaxmi—an upscale area lined with skyscrapers and glittering malls, where the richest of India’s rich reside, juxtaposed with Mumbai’s infamous, squalid slums. In an extra dose of irony, Mahalaxmi is the name of the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. Against this setting, a middle class woman, chasing her aspirations and finding her place in a city and democracy that were supposed to foster the dreams of a diligent working class, was brutally victimized. The very people who drive the growth of the Indian economy, the determined working class, are being targeted
To begin solving these seemingly hopeless problems, India will have to reach deep into its roots and retrieve the promise of democracy. again and again, right under the noses of the affluent and privileged. It is truly lamentable that the head of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, has not personally taken up the cause of acute gender disparity and rape culture in India. For almost 18 years, moves to give women greater power at the national and state level through the Women’s Reservation Bill, which would guarantee 33 percent of seats to women at those levels, have been blocked by legislators, who are typically elderly men who rely on the support of rural communities where deeprooted patriarchal attitudes continue to persist. Some political parties have even allowed male legislators who themselves have faced rape charges and other crimes against women to represent them, as gender rights activists have consistently
pointed out. Time and time again, India’s politicians are turning a deaf ear to the voices of their people. “I thought we lived in the world’s biggest democracy where our voices counted and meant something. Politicians need to see that we need more than bijli, sadak, paani (power, roads, water),” Preeti Joshi, a 21-year-old social sciences student in Delhi, told Reuters reporters in January 2013. As the country drowns in a turbulent sea of hopelessness and resentment, the only way to bounce back is to rebuild the democratic ideals from India’s founding, and to empower the urban middle and lower classes of Indian society. In order to incentivize politicians to deliver on their promises to their electorate, the country needs an independent agency that will keep track of the positions, campaign pledges, and eventual delivery during officials’ terms in power. At the deeper core of India’s disillusionment is its class of elected representatives, who act as a hostile, selfinterested elite. To combat this political elitism, India needs to change both its political culture and who its politicians are. If India’s youth are more involved longterm in political movements, as they already have been in the anti-corruption and anti-rape campaigns, we can instill a sense of responsibility and activism in future generations. Large-scale education programs must promote democratic engagement among the youth and dispel the traditional notion of the political class being open only to a gang of apathetic, conservative fogies out-of-touch with India’s modern needs as a nation. Women must also be encouraged to enter politics and become instrumental voices in the process of shaping the future of the young girls who are slowly navigating through a male-dominated workforce and education system, and realize their true role in sparking change within their own communities. The only way for the marginalized to hold the government accountable to them is to themselves become a new and more democratic government. In the same speech that Nehru gave at the dawn of India’s independence, he added, “A moment comes… when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” That time has come. O OCTOBER 21, 2013
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Painting the Town The Controversy Over Street Art
By Anastasiya Lobacheva
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JULES ANTONIO, CC
rt in the Streets,” an exhibit recently featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, was one of the first major artistic surveys of graffiti and murals in the United States. Art lovers praised the bright, colorful, and obscure work from the streets. However, some critics, such as those who opposed the exhibit traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, felt that the display encouraged vandalism. While the community that visits high-end art museums (and thus would be exposed to the exhibit’s message) is unlikely to overlap much with the community most likely to commit acts of vandalism, the issue is still important to consider. Ultimately, the “Art in the Streets” exhibit did not end up traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, and the cancellation was explained by financial hardships on the museum’s end. Despite this, in the world of graffiti, political pressures must always be taken into account. Property makes for a very controversial canvas. A street artist rarely produces commissioned work, so the resulting artwork is bound to affect the property owner’s life, whether she likes the piece or not. There’s a reason why graffiti is illegal; taxpayers have the right to keeping their property free of defacement. However, one could argue that street art is not defacement, but in fact an aesthetic enhancement of property. Street artists emphasize the difference between graffiti and street art, pointing out the stark contrast between gang members tagging to mark territory, and actual artwork on the street. While there may be a definitive way to tell the difference between careless tagging and a meaningful mural that makes a poignant socio-political statement, there is a point where the viewer of the work must determine the distinction between “good” graffiti and “bad” graffiti. Graffiti opponents argue that because aesthetic tastes vary, the property owner and the public should have a say in which art is posted on its walls. So is street art a form of vandalism or does its value as a progressive art movement hold precedence over its illegality? In order to answer this question, it’s key to consider whether or not the valuable aspects of street art can be expressed through any other form of art. Concerns about street art’s effect on property owners are justified, but more formal exhibits and com-
Street art is not valuable in spite of its illegality, but rather because of it. Street artists can play with space much more than other artists are able to. Murals and graffiti are in constant artistic conversation with their physical locations. For example, an underground exhibition that opened this past summer in New York drew from over 100 street artists in an abandoned subway tunnel. This exhibition explored the idea of art in its own right, hidden from the rest of the art world. Famous street artists such as Bansky, Shepard Fairey, and JR have shown that the implications of space in street art lend themselves well to socio-political commentary. These spaces are frequented every day by a wide variety of people, helping to spread the political message, and reminding the people of their own power to initiate change. However the question of infringement of community rights still lingers, regardless of the important value of street art as a form of expression. There are ways to reconcile this problem. More formal exhibitions of street art, like “Art in the Streets,” could educate the community about the value of street art as an artistic medium,
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munity outreach efforts could hold the key to compromise. Street art’s uniqueness earns it a legitimate place in the art world, controversy and all. Street art’s distinction comes in its connection with the audience. Through this connection, it establishes a constant public dialogue. The “gallery” of street art is the setting of everyday life. Street art is especially powerful in poorer communities that may not have the time or financial resources to visit a galleries or art exhibitions. The form also enables a diversity of artists: a street artist does not need to attend art school or exercise networking skills in order to showcase her work. In this way, street art expands the audience for all art.
while inspiring artists to create pieces that are more significant than territory markers. That being said, while street art exhibitions may help to alleviate the problem of property rights violations, they take away some of the valuable aspects of art. Namely, the accessibility of artwork, and the location in an open, public space. Community outreach efforts, such as the annual Living Walls conference in Atlanta, designed to positively change the urban landscape of Atlanta while engaging the community in positive dialogue, seem to exemplify a healthy symbiotic relationship between the community and the street artist. Though community outreach efforts could be the start of a healthy compromise between street artists and the public, these efforts also detract from the original message of street art. Street art is not valuable in spite of its illegality, but rather because of it. The fact that street art is illegal highlights the elements of it that remind us what art is in its fundamental form. In movements stemming from impressionism to surrealism, the principal driving force of art has always been rebellion and departure from social convention. There is no better way to depart from the formal social constraint of law than to break it. The illegality of street art also reminds its audience that the purpose of art is not simply decorative. More often than not, art is meant to make people feel uncomfortable and question their surroundings. Street art shouts at you, jeers at you, and makes you look at it without consent. It is this state of generative uneasiness that street art produces that reminds us that what we feel, and not the aesthetic nature of what we look at, is most important in appreciating artwork. The value of street art and the right of street artists to encroach on others’ property will always be hotly contested. However, street art occupies a certain niche in the art world that would be difficult to fill with any other form of expression. If we question the value of street art we must also question the value of art in general— an issue that cannot be settled with a property dispute. Controversy and street art go hand in hand because of this perpetual reassessment of the value of art. This controversy may hinder art’s proliferation, but at the same time, it will always drive its progress. O OCTOBER 21, 2013
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the stakes of space ERIC SHAW
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ravity, the new film by Alfonso Cuarón of Harry Potter and Children of Men fame, is one of the most terrifying movies in recent memory. This is mostly due to the impenetrability and all-encompassing quality of the foe—Space. Somehow, dying alone drifting through nothingness is scarier than an insane being or creature could be. What has earned Gravity’s universal appraisal is Cuarón’s ability to manipulate the universal fear of helplessness. We like thinking we have power and agency to protect ourselves, but it’s hard to be anything but humbled in the vast nothingness of Space. While Cuarón capitalizes on a normal viewer’s fear of the dark side of space, entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson have a different vision, exploring the possibility of “Space Cities” in the future. These bold plans for colonization serve to counteract our fear of helplessness, humbling Space in spite of its terrifying depiction in Cuarón’s Gravity. Cuarón exploits the terror of space, forcing us to sacrifice our normal role as viewers and experience this harrowing journey with Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock). Despite the suffocating tension within much of the film, it cannot help but be beautiful. The space setting allows Cuarón to play with light and angles in unconventional ways, producing gorgeous shots of Earth, the Aurora, and the stars. Earth serves as a constant backdrop throughout the film and we see the Aurora from above as opposed to the below. Both Bullock’s and Clooney’s characters drift up or into the cosmos, centered against a view of the stars without light pollution. Poetic, slow, and peaceful shots are juxtaposed with the franticness and violence that is central to the entire movie.
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Cuarón has perfected the use of single shots, never cutting away from the action and, subsequently, never giving us a chance to breathe. Particularly breathtaking is the opening scene; satellite debris rips through the Hubble telescope as Bullock is sent spinning around on what seems to be a tilt-a-whirl from hell. The music has a hint of the fear-inducing strings of a horror movie, producing an overwhelming sense of dread in the viewer. The pacing of the film is tight and danger springs out at any moment we feel safe. Sudden transitions of coming dread—rather than the “gotcha” moments of horror films—puts us right back where we belong: on the edge of our seat. By mixing both the beautiful and the terrifying, Cuarón acknowledges how Space is full of serene awe in its cold and unsympathetic power. Despite how daunting and overwhelming Space may seem, there is still a desire among some to explore beyond our little blue planet. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX both have long-term missions of sending people to colonize space. Some 500 people across the globe, all presumably part of the 1 percent, have signed up to become private astronauts with Virgin Galactic. SpaceX deems it necessary for the human race to colonize space because eventually Earth will be uninhabitable. Where Cuarón uses the infinity of space for terror, these companies use the same infinity as an appeal for excursion. It’s laughing in the face of danger. They take Cuarón’s pairing of terror and beauty and use it to show why it is worth it to explore, rather than to just survive. Only time will tell if humanity can summon the courage to conquer the vast nothingness of Space. O
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We like thinking we have power and agency to protect ourselves, but in the vast nothingness of Space, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to be anything but humbled.
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PIANO sQUARE • by Sophia Grogan •
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icture this: it’s a busy autumn evening in Davis Square. Commuters, families, and college students lounge on park benches and enjoy pumpkin ice cream. It’s an average night in Somerville’s heart with the exception of one new addition: a fullsized piano. “Play me, I’m Yours” is an art installation orchestrated by Luke Jerram, a British artist, who has brought this project to many urban areas across the globe. Jerram was inspired to conduct a public installation that would bring strangers together who share the same urban space after noticing how little neighbors interacted at his local laun26
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dromat. “I saw the same people there each weekend and yet no one talked to one another. I suddenly realized that within a city, there must be hundreds of these invisible communities, regularly spending time with one another in silence. Placing a piano into the space was my solution to this problem, acting as a catalyst for conversation and changing the dynamics of a space,” he said. Since its inception in 2008, the living art “street pianos” have reached over 30 cities worldwide. In the past, major urban areas such as Barcelona and Sydney have housed Jerram’s innovative project. As of September 2013, Boston has been captivated by its melodic pres-
ence. Regularly-maintained, functional pianos have been placed in outdoor locations for anyone to use. From antique photos to graffiti-style graphics, each piano sports a unique visual experience for players and listeners alike. The only design that each instrument shares is the bold text: “Play Me, I’m Yours.” These words call out to those who pass by. There is something incredibly magnetic about an instrument that, figuratively speaking, has no strings attached. Many people cannot spare the time, space, or money to own a piano, but will immediately take a second out of their schedule to sit down and let their creative intuition take hold. These
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pianos can belong to anyone, regardless of the range of personalities who end up sitting down on the bench. If you sit by the Davis Square piano on a busy day for at least ten minutes, you can experience a show of wildly varying characters and styles. The piano’s bright blue paint and funky shapes set an inviting and lighthearted mood. The opening act might be a toddler’s chaotic interpretation of a song, while the next instrumentalist might deliver a complex Bach composition. The levels of experience vary from first-timers to professionals with decades of classical training, and everywhere in between. “Concert pianists don’t get to play out on the streets,” says Patricia Abreu, an experienced pianist who lives in Somerville. “I really enjoyed this because I got to collaborate with other musicians and play classical music, which is generally not performed outside like this.” The “Play Me, I’m Yours” project has undoubtedly allowed Ms. Abreu and others to leave their comfort zones and expand their musical horizons. In a
world that often puts a price on music, impromptu entertainment at no cost is a wonderful surprise.
Ordinary people will sit down and produce something beautiful for the entire community... In this moment we are all musicians and we are all listeners. Although the street pianos were removed from Boston on October 14th, it seems as though they have left a lasting impression on all of the locations to which they were assigned.
“It’s really amazing how many people are musicians,” says Valentin Prince, a local guitarist, as he plays a gentle blues riff on a piano in Harvard Square. “These unsuspecting and ordinary people will sit down and produce something beautiful for the entire community. Although it is an international project, it really feels like it was created just for us. In this moment we are all musicians and we are all listeners.” The street piano installation creates an unmistakable bond among Bostonians. It manifests in the gathering of banjo and harmonica players who circle around the piano. It is apparent in the way that strangers clap for one another at the end of each performance and the massive Journey sing-a-longs that break out every weekend. In a society where it is easy to become isolated and consumed by technology or work, the “Play Me, I’m Yours” pianos remind us of the unifying power of music in our shared urban space. O OCTOBER 21, 2013
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POLICE BLOTTER
By Aaron Langerman and Moira Lavelle
September 27, 1:47 am
Pizza Days Charade
Officers were called to a residence on Boston Ave and were met by three Medford police officers. Medford officers reported a Tufts student had taken a cab from Cambridge back to her residence. The student told the cabby that she was just going to run across the street to “pick up some pizza” from Pizza Days. Fresh pizza in hand, she proceeded to sprint into her house. The cabby waited 30 minutes before calling the police. Knocking on the door, the police discovered the girl and her pizza were nowhere to be found. The student’s roommates were contacted and kindly collected funds to pay the poor cab driver.
September 29, 12:40 am
The Great Escape
TUPD received a call from confused students reporting a person with a head injury at Carmichael Hall. It turns out the intoxicated student somehow tripped and hit his head. He was sent to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. At 10:40 am, officers received a call that the student left the hospital before he was cleared, IV still in his arm. Officers later found the student on College Ave and transported him back to the hospital. Despite the head injury, he still had the mind to try and hide the IV in his pocket and continue with his night.
Tequila Twisted
October 12, 8:24 pm
Cops were called to South Hall to deal with a heavily intoxicated male. The cops first asked him what day it was. He said Sunday. It was Saturday. The next question was if he knew where he was. He said the football game. He was in South Hall. The third was how much he drank. He answered “tequila.” The police were unsatisfied with his answers. He was sent to the hospital.
Observer Cartoon Caption Contest Winner: “Hey lady you got the time? I don’t because I don’t have a watch because I have no where to keep a watch. You see, I’m just a head I have no body if I had a body with arms I could put a watch on one of them even a phone could tell me the time but I have nowhere to keep a phone because I don’t have pockets because I don’t have pants because I don’t have legs, I’m just a head. O.K.?” - Jimmy Bonish 28
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ALEXIS O’CONNEL
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