Contrast Vol 6 Issue 2

CONTRAST

VASSAR’S ART AND STYLE MAGAZINE VOL. 6, ISSUE 2

A Letter from the Editor Dear Readers,

Contrast describes itself as “Vassar’s art and style magazine,” but rather than try to unpack the meaning behind such vague terms we try not to worry too much about “art” or “style” and instead present to you snippets of the many elements that make up our Vassar community. Of course, Vassar forever evolves as varying combinations of students and faculty come and go, but perhaps we may hang onto the trends, interests, and personalities of those individuals here and now for just a moment.

With graduation around the corner I cannot help but feel nostalgic. We are all so lucky to call Vassar our home – the crazy wonderland that it is. But I am now ready to move beyond the bubble with the confidence that ambitious and talented individuals will undoubtedly take my place. I’ve learned, grown and evolved in my time here through my experiences and relationships; I’ve completed my own bucket list and now could not be happier to present this issue—my last—to you all on behalf of the entire Contrast team.

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Your Editor-in-Chief,

Ali Dillulio

EDITORIAL

Zoey Peresman, editor Laci Dent Sarah King Sarah Lazarus Annie Massa Stephanie Muir Emilia Petrarca

BLOG

Hadiya Shire, editor Daniel Bogran Michael Gambardella Lauren Garcia Taylor Pratt Hannah Ryan

LAYOUT Alex Reynolds, editor

PUBLICITY

Julia Kawai, editor

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alison Dillulio TREASURER Jasmine Timan

PHOTOGRAPHY

Rachel Garbade, editor Margot Beauchamp, editor Victoria Gemme Jacob Heydorn Gorski Emily Lavieri-Scull Macrae Marren Emilia Petrarca Taylor Pratt Kevin Vehar Olga Voyazides

STYLE

Alycia Anderson, editor Christopher Farrell Matthew Ortile

MODELS

Eushavia Bogan Juan Dominguez Yanee Ferrari Jacob Heydorn Gorski Darryl Hornick-Becker Sonia Jacinto Zach Kent Sarah King Sarah Lazarus Daniel Lempert Noah Michelon Zach Nanus Gus Ostow Zoey Peresman John Plotz Alex Reynolds Dennis Rivera-Cash Edgar Rivera-Cash Liz Rowland Sarah Traisman Jaime Turak Nina Weissman

Table of Contents 4

The Nature of the Deece

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The Long Gray Line Meets the Rose and Gray

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Pedal Heads

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The Geography of Style

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Secrets of the Lehman Loeb

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Curiouser & Curiouser

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An Interview with Sophia Harvey

28 The Denim-on-Denim Diaries 32 The Vassar Bucket List

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THE NATURE OF de THE DEECE

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Article by Sarah King Photo by Jacob Heydorn Gorski First and foremost I am a foodie. You know, the kind of person at farmer’s markets squealing over fresh pea shoots and swiss chard...and subsequently the kind taking vast quantities of ingredients from the Deece to the comforts of her dorm cookware. So see, I’m not entirely insane. I have purpose, reason: making my own food acts as a form of expression just as essential to me as art and clothing. Not only that, but cuisine also has the power of full sensory association. Along with nourishment, it provides sensations of taste, smell, sight and feeling, which taken in combination, satisfy our needs.

This is where we meet the adventure that is the Deece. This is where I came into school having to fight and ultimately learn the nature of Deece. Three weeks before school began, one week before freshman orientation, and one week after being away from home, I joined the ranks of Transitions freshman and student athletes in the land of AC/DC. It was not the true array of Campus Dining most Vassar-dwellers know. Half the room was closed off and what was left was rather limited and dismal. The stir fry station was barren, converted instead into a lackluster salad bar. Bagels, bagels and pasta lived as the central entrees. Nervous and desperate for the comforts of a meal, my first interaction with the half-life Deece, was indeed a poor one. The key to taming the Deece, I came to learn, would involve avoiding a few errors popular to most all patrons: entering too fast, grazing the options too quickly, taking too much of each dish only to realize none of it is satisfying or entering much too slowly, skeptically obtaining no food only to leave oneself in a sad and grumbly state. Went there, did that, failed. But I could not let this unhappy awkwardness ensue. I knew I was missing something. Entering the Deece for a second time, I saw not whole meals but pieces, ingredients, things I knew and had the ability to manipulate. The first meal I made at the Deece, my first experience understanding its nature, was through the simple dish of my mom’s egg salad. Pre-chopped celery, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, mustard, salt, pepper, spinach, cucumber, each component open and waiting. My home, my comfort lay in the Deece; I just had to go looking for it rather than wait for it to find to me.

eecepiece

But eating alone in your room is not the social experience I, nor anyone else, hopes to enjoy every evening. I have come to develop more creative and yet obvious Deece manipulations to deliver glee however I choose to engage it. I can take ingredients to my dorm or I can concoct dishes within the confines of a bowl or stir fry pan. But why hide my discoveries from my dear fellow Deece-ers? Why not show you all just how wonderful the All Campus Dining Center truly is?

Thus, the conclusion and point to this long drawn out story: engage you long enough and convince you that through simple recipes the Deece can be your favorite place...or at least a place you are contently, happily satisfied.

The following recipes are either a) completely feasible to make while at AC/DC or b) simple to throw together in a bowl within the comforts of your room using only the supplies that fit in a green to go box.

Egg Salad 1 tbsp. pickle relish 1/2 cup plain yogurt 2 tsp. yellow mustard 2 hard boiled eggs Lots of chopped celery Chopped onions to taste Lemon wedges Red pepper flakes, salt, pepper Also farmers market tomatoes transform this (and almost every) dish into heaven, so splurge on them when in season.

Stir together pickle relish, mustard and yogurt. Chop the hard boiled eggs into the sauce, adding tuna (if using) and celery.

Mix thoroughly with a spoon.

Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper to your liking.

Serve with onions slices, spinach greens and cucumbers on a pita, slice of toasted bread or salad.

Thai Peanut Vegetables with Noodles 1 - 2 tbsp. peanut butter 2 tbsp. soy sauce 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar 1 tsp. ginger (or more) 1 tsp. red pepper flakes Noodles, cooked but not too much (spaghetti works, but ramen is better) 3 cups vegetables (Shredded cabbage, onion, carrots, peppers, celery, etc.)

Simply mix the peanut butter, soy, vinegar, ginger and red pepper together with a fork until smooth sauce consistency.

Separately, toss noodles with veggies and then add sauce.

Toss together and enjoy. It is delicious cold, microwaved or sautéed. Left to absorb sauce in the fridge over night is also tasty.

Tuna(less) Nicoise Muffaletta(esque) Sandwich 1 ciabatta bread roll Olives 1 hard boiled egg Spinach 3 slices of cucumber Sliced onion Salt and pepper Tomato slices Split and toast ciabatta bread for a few minutes (until golden but not too dry). Once toasted, carve out the inner bread to make two bread-bowl-looking halves. Take the olives and place a few in each half, then either slice or crumble egg into one half. Season egg with some salt and pepper and then layer on cucumber. Add some spinach, onion, and tomato slices in stacks on either side until each hollowed out half of ciabatta is filled to the brim or over.

Take one larger lettuce leaf and cover contents of the top half. Use this lettuce leaf as an aid to flip the top on the other half and squish down to make sandwich.

This is great to save for later. Wrap in plastic wrap, a bag or foil crushing the top and bottom together and let sit in the fridge.

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The Long Gray Line Meets the Rose & Gray West Point Military Academy meets Vassar College Article by Annie Massa

O

n Valentine’s Day, if you walked through the residential quad at exactly the right moment, you saw it: a group of students side-stepping, elbow jabbing, and turn-turn-clapping along to all three minutes of Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter.” Their brief dance, a special V-Day flash mob organized as a sexual harassment protest, wasn’t such an unusual kind of demonstration to see at Vassar. What was unusual was that there were two West Point cadets there too, in grey jackets with brass buttons and hats, dancing right alongside the dozens of Vassar students.

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Photo by Rachel Garbade

Those two cadets were part of the newly instituted Vassar-West Point Initiative, a program sponsored by the Mellon Foundation that promotes exchange and interaction among students from military academies and nearby liberal arts colleges.

The program’s main mission is to help future military officers and students from prestigious civilian universities understand each other personally and individually, instead of buying into stereotyped images of rank-and-file military academy students or liberal arts slackers that exist at each school. To that end, a small group of Vassar students and West Point cadets have been visiting one another’s campuses this year to attend classes, share meals, and see extracurriculars in action.

Many cadets were drawn to the Vassar-West Point initiative as a way to get a more realistic understanding of liberal arts students and their lifestyles.

Michael Ziegler, U.S. Military Academy (USMA) ‘13, one of the flash mob participants, said that West Point often buys into the cliché that Vassar students are “ultra liberal, anti-military, and anti-war.” But that wasn’t the feeling he got when he arrived on campus. “I was surprised by how welcoming people were,” he said, noting that the people he met at Vassar were warm and curious to talk to him about life in a military academy.

Vassar is the first non-military academy college campus that some of the visiting cadets had ever even experienced.

“I didn’t apply to any place except West Point,” said Kelly Derienzo, USMA ‘14. “I’d never been to a civilian college before, so I was taken aback by things like gender neutral bathrooms.” Other major campus differences cadets remarked on were professors who go by their first names, Vassar students’ ultra-critical take on readings in class, the long hair and beards many guys sport, and a handful of students walking around campus barefoot in the middle of the winter. Nick Caesar, USMA ‘14 was particularly impressed by the farmers’ market in the college center. “Vassar students are just immersed in culture,” he said.

At West Point, Vassar students had some new experiences of their own, that were just as alien to them as dancing in a college flash mob was for some of the cadets. Vassar students on the exchange learned to shoot M4 rifles in a simulation room, observed Survival Gate 4, a survival swimming test mandatory for graduation from West Point, and tried the cadet Indoor Obstacle Course Test, another taxing physical test mandatory for graduation.

But for all the differences the program exposes between student life and mentality at Vassar and West Point, it highlights plenty of similarities as well.

Over the course of the exchange, the Vassar students and cadets bonded over conversations about music, food, and travel. “At the end of the day, we’re all just college students,” said Caesar.

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PEDAL HEADS Article and photos by Emilia Petrarca

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t doesn’t take long for one to discover the enthusiastic bike culture at Vassar College – the bike racks outside most classrooms are often a tangled pile of wheels, frames and faulty locks – but it’s the cyclists that do more than ride from class to class that could use a little more time under the spotlight.

Fardeen Chowdhury ’13 calls himself a “lazy cyclist,” a phrase that, to his cycling cohorts at Vassar Lis Geraci ’13 and Caitrin Hall ’13, means waking up at noon rather than 6am to go for a 20-mile ride for the third time that week. In the real world though, “lazy” is certainly not a word that can be associated with any of these three students – Fardeen being a former bike messenger in the streets of New York City, Lis having biked all over Boulder, Colorado in support of Parkinson’s disease and Caitrin currently preparing to bike across the country after graduation. Not to mention, all three of them are currently enrolled in a triathlon training class. If they’re the lazy ones, then there’s no hope for the rest of us.

If you’ve been unfortunate enough to see the movie Premium Rush, it’s hard not to immediately picture Joseph Gordon-Levitt swerving through the busy streets of Manhattan at the mention of bike messengers. Thankfully, Fardeen’s adventures as a messenger the summer before his freshman year did not involve evildoers chasing him around the city, though he was flipped over a cab door once. “That’s when I decided to wear a helmet,” he said. “At first I was scared but I quickly learned that to be a good biker you can’t be afraid. You won’t make any money!” As a bike messenger, you must literally pedal as if your job depends on 9

it. If a customer pays for a 1-hour delivery on a package, it’s up to you to get it there, whether that means abiding by traffic laws or not. “There’s a certain freedom that comes with breaking some road rules,” he says, laughing. But that isn’t to say Fardeen isn’t also a safe and mindful cyclist. By the end of the summer, he had to learn the traffic directions and patterns of congestion of almost every major street in New York in order to bike both cautiously and efficiently. Now, he can get from Central Park to downtown Manhattan in 10 minutes flat – an achievement that in this city rivals teleportation. Out in the Hudson Valley though, Fardeen has to pedal even harder to keep up with his companions Lis and Caitrin.

Though Fardeen may be king of the city streets, Lis can officially call herself “the queen of the mountain.” Using an Apple application called Strava Cycling, the group can compete amongst themselves and with others in the area by comparing stats. Lis has laid her claim over the golf course hill, but she’s also cycled her way through Boulder, Colorado where she volunteered for the Davis Phinney Foundation as well as Copenhagen, Denmark, where she spent her junior year abroad. The Davis Phinney Foundation, founded by the former professional road bike racer, is committed to helping people with Parkinson’s live well with the disease – a disease that affects Lis’ father, a former amateur cyclist.

Lis spent last summer biking around Boulder in support of organization’s goals. Because of her dad’s love of the sport, she grew up biking. “I hated it then because I always had to go,” she says. But now she can’t stop. “When you’re on a bike you get into a certain groove. My mind becomes silent and the only thing I think about is the road and the tires and 10

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moving my legs. There’s a certain fluidity to it.”

Caitrin echoes Lis’ desire to let the bike be both a mode of transportation and of transformation. She sees cycling as a way to stay fit and healthy, as a way to escape the “Vassar bubble,” and literally as a vehicle for social change. Coming from Marin County, California, which just so happens to be the birthplace of mountain biking, Caitrin recently drove home from Vassar and was blown away by how little she had seen of the United States. This trip has inspired her to bike across the country after graduation with her friend Lake Buckley, who is currently a senior at Oberlin College, and create the Shifting Gears project. “We see it as an epic, ‘we’re done’,” she says. Epic indeed. The two will be riding 50-70 miles every day for around three months, covering over 3,000 miles. On top of all that, they’ve decided to dedicate their trip to spreading awareness about small-scale female organic farmers and the potential for the creation of an alternative, eco-friendly food system. They’ll be stopping along the way at farms that support the Shifting Gears mission and will create an online forum to link these farmers after the trip is over. On the same website, you can also follow them as they blog their way across the country. “I’m not nervous,” she says, giggling. “I’m just really, really, really excited. What do you think Nebraska looks like in July?!”

After these three seniors graduate, the following classes will certainly have large cycling shoes to fill.

If you want to learn more about the Shifting Gears project and make a donation, visit www.shifting--gears.com

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THE

GEOGRAPHY OF

STYLE A closer look at the eclectic items of Vassar students representing their hometown style.

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Erin Leahy

Durham, New Hampshire Erin wears a powder blue sweatshirt from her parents’ old potato chip factory and marketplace which they owned and operated in the late 1980s. Their business unfortunately went bankrupt around 1990, but for Erin the sweatshirt represents her lovely and humble home state, where old-fashioned lifestyles still seem to reign supreme. Having a family business is commonplace, especially in the tiny town of Durham, where Erin is from.

Nana Baffour-Awuah Accra, Ghana

“Powder glass beads have a history dating back centuries in Ghana and around other parts of the African continent. In ancient times, they served as a form of currency and usually only adorned the wrists of royalty. Through the times, however, they have become closely tied to traditional ceremonies, and more recently, a cultural relic, a fashion statement, and for me, a symbolic connection to rich traditions and a resplendent culture.”

Photo credits, left to right: Rachel Garbade, Margot Beauchamp, Rachel Garbade, Margot Beauchamp

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Dion Kauffman Saint Joseph, Michigan

“Two years ago, when I asked my Grandfather if I could borrow his old letterman jacket, he responded with: ‘As long as you let me tell a few stories about it.’

His stories involved ski slopes, rooms thick with cigar smoke, college graduation, a broken bone, whiskey, lovers. Putting it on, I immediately feel the presence of his experiences. Over the years I’ve added a few lipstick smears of mine to the collar by accident, but alas, he won’t know the difference.”

Lauren Garcia Bellevue, Nebraska

“The biggest element that ties Nebraskans together is college football. From the Tom Osborne dynasty in the 90’s to now, people can put aside differences in all aspects of life to join together and celebrate at the beautiful University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Memorial Stadium. As a true Cornhusker, I chose to wear my Nebraska Cornhusker hat, because it’s full of whimsy and happiness just like being a Nebraskan.”

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Margot Beauchamp Dallas, Texas

Margot wears her favorite cowboy boots, one of many authentic leather pairs of which she takes much pride in. “I’ve grown up in Texas and spent a large amount of time on ranches and my boots have gone from city to country and back again.” Margot gets a laugh out of the traditional “Don’t Mess With Texas” slogan, which ironically was an anti-littering campaign rather than the Texas pride symbol it has become today.

Anastasia Holodny Moscow, Russia

Anastasia wears a black coat with fur lining, a historical staple reflecting Russia’s notoriously cold climate.

For Anastasia, her scuffed black boots represent the ever-growing punk culture in Moscow.

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Juan Dominguez

Buenos Aires, Argentina Juan is wearing a cotton replica of a polo jersey worn during a match between Argentina and Great Britain. His accessory is a calabash gourd with some yerba mate (tea). His bombilla (silver straw) has the logo of the soccer club he follows, “River Plate”. “All of these things were bought in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While I was born and grew up in New Jersey, I am a dual citizen and visit ‘Baires’ 1-2 times a year.”

Eric Geisse Murrieta, California

Eric wears a black hoodie with the name of the shop “active” emblazoned in neon orange cursive on the chest; he also wears a leopard print hat he bought at Active as well. “This store basically sells the style that I associate with my town and it’s pretty central to how I try to represent. It has other stores around SoCal but a lot of my friends work at the one in my town and it’s been there forever.”

Photo Credits: left - Rachel Garbade, right - Kevin Vehar, top - Kevin Vehar, bottom - Rachel Garbade

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Secrets of the

Lehman Loeb Article by Stephanie Muir

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Left: Orange Painting by Helen Frankenthaler (1957) Bottom: Natatorium Undine by Florine Stettheimer (1927) Opposite page: Afternoon Tea Party by Mary Cassatt (1890-1)

Be warned, viewing Natatorium Undine may have life changing effects. This was the case for Jeanne Greenburg Rohaytn, class of 1989, who first encountered the Stettheimer work during her time at Vassar. As she revealed to the Emily Hargroves Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator at the Art Center, Mary-Kay Lombino, the painting continued to influence her years after she graduated. In 1995 she curated a show inspired by the work, entitled The Florine Stettheimer Collapsed Time Salon. Fascinated by the Stettheimer sisters’ pre-war attitudes and diverse artistic pursuits, the curator, gallery director and consultant ultimately named her gallery Salon 94 in honor of the salons the Stettheimer sisters put on to entertain their avant-garde friends and reveal their creative endeavors.

Orange Painting by Helen Frankenthaler arrived at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center in 1997, however it was not the painting’s first time on Vassar’s campus. Nearly forty years before returning as a part of the Roland F. Pease Collection, the painting hung on the dorm room wall of a young woman attending Vassar in the 1960’s. The unusual connection between the work and Vassar alongside the backstory that the woman was Marianne de Nagy, daughter of the art dealer who owned the work before Pease, remained unknown until well after the painting came to the Art Center.

Today, the work inspires students in a vastly different setting alongside many other works of art with equally special and surprising relationships with the school. Each work at the Art Center occupies a unique place not only in the history of art, but also the history of Vassar. The collection exists as a testament to the way in which visual art on campus and the Vassar experience inform one another. A diverse, often-untold set of stories illustrates this symbiotic relationship.

Not only can your exposure to art influence what you take away from your Vassar experience, but your Vassar experience can also greatly influence your taste in art. Consider Lucie Dourif Sandifer, class of 1941, who donated the 189091 Mary Cassatt aquatint, Afternoon Tea Party, because of its close associations with her days at Vassar. The watercolor-like print depicts two elegant women engaged in conversation while having tea in a plush room. When Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings, travelled to Sandifer’s New York City apartment to first look at the print, Sandifer revealed that she purchased the print because it reminded her of having tea in the Rose Parlor.

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses not only a collection of art, but also a collection of distinct histories and individual narratives relating to Vassar, stories unknown to many. A showcase of ingenuity and an inspiration to many, the collection is inseparably tied to and defined by life at Vassar in unexpected and extraordinary ways. As I walk through the galleries today, I cannot help but wonder in what ways the legacy of these works will remain with me throughout my life.

In the Art Center’s 20th century galleries lives the vibrant, pastel-colored, jazz age delight, Natatorium Undine, painted by Florine Stettheimer in 1927. This work depicts a spectacular and whimsical pool party and features the artist herself relaxing in the upper left corner. It’s presence in our collection remains something of a scandal since Stettheimer requested that her entire body of work be destroyed upon her death. The artist’s sister Ettie, however, refused to carry out her sister’s wishes and instead donated her works to various institutions of higher learning around the country. Because the Stettheimer’s spent a great deal of time in the Hudson Valley, Vassar proved to be the perfect establishment to house Florine’s work. Not only did the area remind Ettie of her sister, but it also played a significant and influential role in Florine’s life. It is only fitting that Florine’s work return to a likely place of inspiration for the artist.

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Curiouser & Curiouser “I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly,

“but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

Quotations from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There 20

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Photo by Rachel Garbade

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“Contrariwise,”

continued Tweedledee,

“if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.

That’s logic.”

Photo by Rachel Garbade

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“Keep your temper.� said the

Caterpillar.

Photo by Margot Beauchamp

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The Queen

had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small.

“Off with his head!” she said without even looking round.

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Photo by Jacob Heydorn Gorski

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An Interview with Professor

SOPHIA HARVEY Article by Laci Dent, photo by Macrae Marren 26

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Professor Sophia Harvey brings a unique, refreshingly complex vision and range of interests and experiences to Vassar’s film department. Specializing in Southeast Asian horror film, Harvey’s teaching style is not only fun and engaging but also challenges students to discover and think critically about a canon typically underrepresented in film courses, as well as established international and American classics. Professor Harvey spoke with Contrast about how one film changed the course of her life, her love of David Cronenberg, and her exciting future projects.

1. How did you initially become interested in film, and what about film specifically, above all other forms of art, captured your interest? Did a specific experience or film spark your passion?

My interest in film emerged from being a horror film fan at age ten. I remember an impactful encounter with an Indonesian horror film, Sundelbolong (Sisworo Gautama Putra, 1982). I could not help but be mesmerized by a vampire-ghost who terrorized men by chasing them with her dangling and putrefying entrails. I viewed the film with my god-sister. She never watched another horror film while I on the other hand made the horror film my subject of intellectual inquiry and scholarly study. Students in my Film 288: Asian Horror Cinema have not been spared as I have subjected them to clips from the infamous film.

2. What are your main interests in film? What genres or film styles would you say are your favorites to teach and watch, and why?

I am from Singapore, a city-state in Southeast Asia.

I am therefore interested in the contemporary films emerging from this dynamic and diverse region. Film 239: Contemporary Southeast Asian Cinemas, for example, examines Southeast Asian cinemas in the context of the digital filmmaking revolution in the 1990s.

I come from a Film Studies and Cultural Anthropology background, so films, for me, are aesthetic as well as cultural texts. I ask how films produce, contribute, and speak to the historical and cultural moment in which they are made.

3. You teach a senior seminar on David Cronenberg. What or Whom influenced your decision to focus on this particular director. Which other filmmakers would you say have most strongly influenced your personal tastes and ideas on film?

I chanced upon David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, a psycho-sexual drama featuring twin gynecologists.

The film intrigued me as it explored the painful, fraught, and ultimately doomed quest for individuation. I am most drawn to Cronenberg as a fan and as a

scholar because of his complex mediations and meditations on gender, sexuality, and the permeable boundaries between mind and body

4. What attracted you to teach specifically at Vassar? Has your time at Vassar and interactions with Vassar students shaped the way you teach and view film I feel blessed and so happy to be at Vassar. I enjoy the close intellectual rapport that we develop with our students. I’ve grown immeasurably as a scholar and as a teacher since arriving in 2008. Students here have introduced me to films I might otherwise not have seen; I’ve also incorporated student research topics into my succeeding film courses.

5. What has most surprised or delighted you (or both) about Vassar students and campus culture?

The students here demand much from their professors but they give so much passion and intellectual rigor and engagement in return. I could not imagine teaching anywhere else.

6.There’s word that you’ve done work with documentary film. Did you create a film? Can you talk about the creative process that went into this project?

I co-produced and wrote a documentary on jockeys for the Discovery-Times Channel. The channel is now defunct but in its heyday, it was a partnership between the New York Times and Discovery. The documentary chronicled the dangerous and challenging journey of jockeys who wished to race in the Kentucky Derby.

7. What advice do you have for students interested in launching a career in film, be it academia or the film industry?

I encourage students to be in touch and in tune with their passions and interests. I ask them to explore their intentions and examine why they are drawn to particular occupations in the film industry. I believe in keeping all options open for as long as possible.

8. What current film research or projects are you working on? Do you have any exciting plans or goals for the future?

My current book manuscript, Screening Singapore: City-Cinema and the Urban Imagination, engages with contemporary Singapore cinema (2000 – 2007).

It explores how filmmakers image and imagine Singapore as a city-state through the senses of touch, taste, sound, and vision.

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The Denim-on-Denim Diaries Article by Sarah Lazarus

Photos by Rachel Garbade

February 17, 2013 Classes starting to get crazy. I feel like a hamster on a wheel, only instead of a wheel it is art history flashcards, and instead of running I just cry a lot. Also, I’m a little concerned about Jeff. He’s been wearing tons of head-to-toe denim since we got back from break, even to our fancy Valentine’s Day dinner. At first I thought he was doing it to be funny but now am not so sure. The main reason is that today I asked him if he was doing it to be funny, and he said, Doing what?

And I said, Dressing like the cast of Boy Meets World. And he said, What? And I said, What? And then we both got real quiet.

Posted at 4:37 PM

0 Comments

February 19, 2013 Went over to Jeff’s tonight and a bunch of his creepy new friends were there. All of them were wearing denim-on-denim—one guy had literally put a pair of jorts on over his regular jeans. I sat next to a girl in a denim tracksuit with a tattoo of a jeans pocket on her wrist, and when I asked her about it she just laughed ruefully. Later she bent over and I swear to god the back of a denim thong peeked out. I don’t understand at all. What does Jeff see in these people? What’s their deal?

Wouldn’t a thong made of denim be likely to chafe? I want answers.

Posted at 11:58 PM

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February 23, 2013 Jeff and I went on an evening walk by the lake. It was so romantic. I got chilly and he offered me his jacket, but of course it was denim, and I was already wearing jeans, so I said no thank you.

He kept offering it though, and finally I put it on. I know I shouldn’t have given into his pressuring but I didn’t want to ruin the moment. And that’s how it happened. My very first Canadian Tuxedo. It was weird at first, but then it felt…nice. Really nice. I think I liked it. I think…I think I might try it again.

Posted at 11:03 PM

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March 28, 2013 Sorry I have not written. Too busy. Too ALIVE! Rediscovering my Self, my Senses, my World. I am a newborn woman on a fresh-baked planet. Nothing is old. Nothing is boring. Jeff says I have gone too far too fast but I sense he is jealous. And why shouldn’t he be? I am a blue-clad Goddess beneath the blue-clad heavens and where my cotton-twill-skinned limbs rub one ‘gainst the other, the angels sing. How was I so numb? In what deprivation chamber did I for so long live?

Or dare I even call it Life, that state in which I darkly stumbled, as blind to the riches ‘round me as a bat flapping through a cavern edged with rubies? Denim has awakened me. Denim has revived me with its cottony kisses and sent me reeling into the light. DENIM! That clarion call!

Rise up, sad Citizens of Humanity, rise up! Don the holy vestments of Levi and Wrangler and let us sing to the spheres that most sacred of songs: of denim on denim on denim on denim ondenimondenimondenimondenimondemonsdnofne;gqongw’,,,;;; Posted at 5:21 PM

2 Comments

April 4, 2013 All over. Have hit rock bottom. Nordstrom security guard found me tongue-kissing a pair of True Religions. Spent the night in mall jail. Humiliating. Where did I get this jean bra? I’m so tired.

Posted at 10:11 AM

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CONTRAST SPRING 2013

1 Comment

April 19, 2013 I’m finally starting to feel like myself again. Broke up with Jeff and threw all of my jeans into a cleansing bonfire. Now I am suspended for starting a bonfire and have nothing to wear but my bathrobe, however I am filled with hope. I am a snake who has shed her old denim skin. I am a butterfly freed from her denim cocoon. I am Botticelli’s Venus freshly risen from her denim-covered clamshell, casually hiding her lady-business with her hair.

The future is bright.

Posted at 4:21 PM

2 Comments

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Streak across campus.

Photo by Rachel Garbade

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CONTRAST SPRING 2013

The

Vassar

Bucket List 33

go sledding (Traying) by sunset lake.

Photos provided by Jamie Turak

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CONTRAST SPRING 2013

have Sex in the

library.

Photo by Margot Beauchamp

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BUCKET LIST

Steal a golf cart.

Photo by Rachel Garbade

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CONTRAST SPRING 2013

have a classy night AT ACROP.

BUCKET LIST

Photo by Margot Beauchamp

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BUCKET LIST

Photo provided by Zach Kent

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CONTRAST SPRING 2013

Climb walker.

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Contrast Magazine, Spring 2013 c o n t r a s t vassar.blo gspo t .co m Cover photo by Margot Beauchamp