Weekend

// FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

UNITE HERE?

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s election, Nick Defiesta reports on the growing presence of organized labor in New Haven. //Page 3

CARRELS

B2

CHORUS

B4

CANDIDATES

B5, B9

LIBRARY FRIENDS

A MUSICAL MEDLEY

HARP V. ELICKER

Lucy Fleming muses about the company you find among the shelves.

Deborah Oyeyemi chimes in on 1701 Records’ newest mixtape.

Is Harp like DeStefano? Can Elicker walk his beat? WKND reporters investigate.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

FLEMING

WEEKEND VIEWS

LIBRARY FRIENDS // BY LUCY FLEMING

// MOHAN YIN

GELBFISH

Last year, I had several library friends. We spent hours together in the oblong den that is the Saybrook College library, listening to the near-silent hum of the yellowish lamps, the soft, soothing rhythms of typing fingers, the occasional mysterious shriek from the courtyard. We listened to each other breathe, from quiet mid-paper sighs to huffs of relief at the end of a pset. We made eye contact once or twice, too.

For most of our time together, I referred to them, these fascinating individuals, by number — Library Friend #1, #2 and so on. No, no, I didn’t know their names. But I did know their word-perminute typing skill and shaving habits.

You just get used to that kind of stuff.

Some drank coffee, others didn’t. Some fell asleep and drooled a little. One wore the same Yale sweatshirt almost all the time. It’s okay, Friend #3, so did I. Everyone has library friends. Think about it. Everyone does. If you can recognize them better in sweatpants than in a dress, in stubble as well as no stubble, they are your library friends. You know the Snow White silhouette that clutches the Apple on their Macbook

Pro, but not their name. Still, you are library friends.

There’s camaraderie in this. You see that they’ve made almost no progress in “The Aeneid” since they arrived approximately four hours ago. You feel slightly embarrassed that you have made almost no progress in “The Faerie Queene” since you arrived approximately four and a half hours ago, and they can clearly tell. You exchange a brief nod of resigned acknowledgment; you are library friends. Brief nods of resigned acknowledgment are to you what long walks on the beach are to honeymooning couples. They seal your bond. Forever.

Little-known fact: There are two rules about library friends. First, you may never actually speak to them at a normal volume. You may whisper, but only the following sentence, and in a desperate tone, “Could you watch my stuff for a sec?” Then rapidly scamper away as they nod blankly. Second, you may never under any circumstance learn their names. That ruins everything. Once they have actual identities, instead of sitting peacefully in

the library with Library Friends #1 and #4, you’re sitting with Evan and Jonathan, who are not library friends. They are strangers. Suddenly you are not in a cozy library; you are in a work environment with potential lunatics. Library Friends #1 and #4 are sharing in your struggle, but Evan and Jonathan are probably texting about how awkward you are. They’ve become your rivals.

IF YOU CAN RECOGNIZE THEM BETTER IN SWEATPANTS...THEY ARE YOUR LIBRARY FRIENDS. Of course, they could become your friends.

As I type this in the Saybrook library at a ridiculous hour, I am surrounded by former library friends. Yes, former.

It’s sad. We are all here with our laptops, various books spread across tables and laps, various colors of headphones,

music pulsing gently in our ears. It’s late enough that the evening crowd has trickled out; it’s just us night owls left.

We have spread out pretty well. There at the end of the table we have Patrick, formerly known as Library Friend #2; Nate is trying to finish composing a Spenserian stanza (he was Library Friend #8 for a split second before we realized we signed up for the same class and were forced to learn each other’s names and bond over dactylic hexameter). Library Friend #5 just waved goodbye before heading downstairs.

This year, she’s my roommate.

I have one library friend left, though.

If you’re reading this, you know who you are. You’re the one who saw me reading “Fifty Shades of Grey” that one time while you worked on your physics problem set. It was for a class, in case you were wondering. We were examining masochism in Shakespeare. Anyway, I thought you were going to graduate, but surprise! you didn’t. Frankly, I’m thrilled. See you in the library.

Contact LUCY FLEMING at lucy. fleming@yale.edu .

Gore and Sympathy // BY EZRIEL GELBFISH

When Stephen King heard that MGM and Screen Gems wanted to shoot a remake of his novel, “Carrie,” his question was “Why, when the original was so good?” The 1976 version of the movie, directed by Brian De Palma, is a classic of the horror genre, and this remake, directed by Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”) from a script by Lawrence D. Cohen and Roberto Aguierre-Sacasa, inevitably evokes comparisons with its predecessor, usually to its detriment.

Still, this version of the story is good enough to stand on its own, and successfully modernizes the plot with some cyberbullying tidbits. Even if it doesn’t compare to the original, this Carrie is quite a lot better than most horror movies.

The narrative is simple: Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz in this version) is a pitiable loser who is constantly bullied, whether at home by her Christian fundamentalist mother (Julianne Moore) or at school by a clique of plastic girls led by the spoiled Chris Hargenson (Portia Doubleday). But with the onset of puberty, Carrie develops telekinetic powers and, after her classmates prank her on the night of Senior Prom, she uses them to catastrophic effect. Voted Prom Queen, and then drenched in pig’s blood, Carrie snaps and kills most of her school.

F R I D AY NOVEMBER 1

Viewers will probably go into the theater aware of the plot, so the “Black Prom,” as it is called in the book, comes as hardly a surprise. The ingenuity of King’s plot stands out, however, in that it makes the foreplay just as engaging as the climax. In one famous early scene, for example, Carrie gets her first period in front of her classmates in the locker room showers. Because her mother has not taught her about puberty, Carrie thinks she’s dying, while her classmates taunt her with sanitary napkins and cries of “Plug it up!” (in the new version, Kris films Carrie’s breakdown and posts it online). And King’s brutality intensifies in Carrie’s home life. Margaret White is convinced that her daughter is inherently full of sin, and often locks her in the closet to force her to repent. With scenes as strong as these, it’s hard not to pay attention regardless of who’s onscreen.

In the lead roles of Carrie and Margaret White, Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore don’t compare to the originals, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, whose acting earned them Academy Award nominations, a rarity for the horror genre. Spacek in particular depicted Carrie as so defenseless that you understood why she was a magnet for mistreatment. But as played by Chloë Grace Moretz, best known from her killer turn

in 2009’s “Kickass,” Carrie seems merely spaced-out and weird, as if a bird has perpetually just landed on her shoulder.

“I just want to be a real person,” she says to her mother — but the audience never gets the feeling that she isn’t a real person, merely an introverted one. Still, Moretz’s stooped shoulders and frumpy clothing are convincing enough, and her scenes with her mother shine, if nothing else than because Moore gives depth to Margaret’s self-destructive neuroticism.

REVENGE, WHEN IT COMES, HAS A VINDICTIVE PLEASURE, PITTING CARRIE AS AN ANGEL OF (ALMOST) WARRANTED DESTRUCTION. Revenge, when it comes, has a vindictive pleasure, pitting Carrie as an angel of (almost) warranted destruction.

When Carrie goes up to the podium, it’s the single happiest moment of her life, and the moment is all the more painful when it is ruined. If anything, this

SPOOK’D

Contact EZRIEL GELBFISH at ezriel.gelbfish@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Alchemy // 9 p.m.

Get your twerk on in the (90 percent chance of) rain.

decreases the dissonance that comes from the fact that Carrie is both the movie’s most sympathetic character and its most violent. Accordingly, Ms. Peirce downplays the massacre itself, by having Carrie kill only the people who have done her wrong, and in the process makes her version less ethically complicated. But De Palma’s take is more powerful: Carrie indiscriminately murders most of the school by locking everyone inside and lighting the building on fire. Perhaps Peirce wanted to minimize the schoolrelated deaths in the movie, as it’s a nerve best left untouched, but that choice does mitigate her film’s impact.

Still, “Carrie” is markedly better than most other works of its genre, because it is a story of sensitivity, or lack thereof.

The tropes of the slasher movie — suspenseful music, a cloaked killer waiting around the corner, eager to carve up teen flesh — are wisely eschewed, so that, like De Palma’s version before it, this “Carrie” lets the pain of the characters become the story’s primary motivator.

If “Carrie” can’t compare to the original, that’s only a testament to the status of De Palma’s version, not to deficiencies on the part of this remake.

Bipartisanship

If we can do it in the lounge, Congress should be able to do it on the Hill.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

FROM DOORSTEPS TO CITY HALL // BY NICK DEFIESTA

It’s lunchtime at New Haven’s Celentano Museum Academy, and the fire truck sitting out front has its sirens blaring.

But firefighters aren’t on their way to put out a blaze — the fire truck is stationary. Nor are any of the school’s students in any danger. Instead, they are sounding the alarm to warn of another threat to the safety of New Haveners: Ward 19 aldermanic candidate Mike Stratton.

It was the day of the primary election, and teams of canvassers were going door to door in the ward, pulling voters to the polls at Celentano. Large signs at the school’s entrance warned: “Having a Heart Attack? Your Home is on Fire! A Loved One Involved in a Car Accident ... Michael Stratton’s Plan is to CUT Your FIRE ENGINE.” Stratton, who announced this spring that he would run to replace retiring alderwoman Alfreda Edwards, had proposed reducing the size of the city’s fire department to tackle growing budget issues. A month later, he joined Take Back New Haven. Founded

by Ward 7 Alderman Doug Hausladen ’04, the group was a response to the looming influence of Locals 34 and 35, the New Haven chapters of the international UNITE HERE! union that represent thousands of Yale workers. The two unions have emerged as a powerful political force in the Elm City, having helped to elect approximately two-thirds of 30 legislators on the Board of Aldermen.

These two actions convinced Yale Alumni Fund employee and Local 34 member Maureen Gardner to declare her candidacy in the race.

With the backing of the fire department and Yale’s unions, Gardner announced her run days before the filing deadline, and almost three months following Stratton’s entry into the race.

In addition to arguing that Stratton’s fire department suggestions would endanger city residents, Gardner’s campaign sent literature to residents of Ward 19 — which houses both some of the city’s poorest residents in Newhallville and some of its wealthiest, including Stratton, in Prospect Hill — that featured pictures of his milliondollar house on Huntington Street.

A closer look at Stratton’s proposal, first submitted to the Board of Aldermen in 2012, reveals the rationale behind his cuts. Given that New Haven suffers under the weight of enormous debt — almost 30 cents of every dollar of tax revenue goes toward the city’s $63 million of debt obligations — Stratton had been looking for places to save taxpayers money.

New Haven’s fire department has far more firefighters per capita than the 10 largest cities in America.

Setting Elm City firefighter staffing levels to the national average — decreasing the firefighter per resident ratio from 350 to 800 — would save the city nearly $20 million.

But this rationale didn’t please the firefighter’s union, who backed Gardner, a candidate Stratton said had “appeared out of nowhere” and did not seem to have any sort of position about what she would do once elected. She had seemingly only been recruited to run to prevent Stratton from obtaining a spot on the Board, he noted. “‘He’s a rich white lawyer who doesn’t understand your problems’ — that was their position,” Stratton said. “That was their position, it’s not like they had any positive agenda for the city … there was no explanation for what they would do when they won.”

Hausladen, one of the biggest critics of organized labor’s influence in the city legislature, faced a similar challenge when he ran for reelection in his ward. Two days

I

F R I D AY NOVEMBER 1

before the filing deadline, Ella Wood ’15 broke her lease on Dwight Street and moved into Ward 7 with the intent of unseating Hausladen.

On the day of the September primary, vans decorated with signs for both Wood and mayoral candidate Toni Harp ARC ’78 — also backed by the University’s unions — shuttled voters to the polls. Union-backed aldermen like Ward 6’s Dolores Colón stood outside the ballot box, encouraging poll goers to vote against their current colleague on the Board in favor of Wood.

vassers had heard on doorsteps: that jobs, youth and public safety were what most concerned city residents. This move, explained New Haven Independent Editor in Chief Paul Bass ’82, was “powerful” in a city that’s not ideological and typically suffers from the absence of an agenda.

Even before taking office, the new supermajority had started to see results. In a move largely regarded as a response to the union’s success at the polls, DeStefano brought in current New Haven Police Depart-

YOU CAN’T JUST PARACHUTE IN AND TRY TO ORGANIZE AND THINK THAT THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN.

LOUISE SIMMONS, DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT’S URBAN SEMESTER PROGRAM While these tactics were not enough to secure victory for the union-backed Gardner or Wood, they came closer than many expected. Eight of 10 labor-backed aldermanic candidates emerged victorious that night — reminiscent of 2011, when they won 17 of 18 races. As independent voices on a board predominantly comprised of union-affiliated politicians, Stratton and Hausladen are the exception, not the rule.

Since unions first emerged as a politically powerful force in the city two years ago, their influence over city policy has been brought up in nearly every municipal race.

Given that labor-backed candidates hold over two-thirds of the seats on the Board of Aldermen, several spots more than the 16-seat requirement for passing legislation, one might wonder what the union plans to do with such power.

“What are they doing?” Stratton asked. “What are they doing to make the city a better place?”

THE STATE OF THE UNIONS

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, only 52 percent of those surveyed said they favored labor unions — a figure down from 75 percent in the 1950s. The electoral victories of Locals 34 and 35 — which have been covered in national publications such as The Nation — stand in stark contrast to the situation in places like Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker stripped workers of collective bargaining rights in 2011. Former Democratic Party activist Charlie Pillsbury, who has been involved in city politics since the late 1970s, said New Haven is regarded as a “vanguard.”

In the last round of municipal elections, Yale’s unions ran in 15 contested races in the Democratic primary election in an attempt to gain control of a Board of Aldermen that many interviewed for this piece said had traditionally been regarded as a rubber stamp for Mayor John DeStefano Jr. Busy fending off a set of three challengers, DeStefano was unable to pour the usual amount of funds and manpower into ward-level races for aldermanic candidates supportive of his agenda, allowing city unions instead of City Hall to claim a majority on the Board of Aldermen.

“2011 is the culmination of what they’d call organization and working in neighborhoods to elect a Board of Alderman,” said Drew Morrison ’14, who organizes the campus operations of mayoral candidate Justin Elicker SOM ’10 FES ’10. “Part of [their success] was building infrastructure, part of it was spending time on doors, part of it was [the money spent].”

After achieving a supermajority on the city’s legislative wing, candidates backed by Locals 34 and 35 convinced all 30 representatives to sign onto a vision statement that put forth a policy agenda that had been developed based on what can-

ment Chief Dean Esserman to bring back the community policing demanded by voters. Upon the start of their term, the new Board began work on a “jobs pipeline” to connect city residents to local jobs — which manifested itself in the form of New Haven Works months later — and, under the direction of Ward 1 Alderman Sarah Eidelson ’12, began a survey of youth spaces and programs in the city.

But even after the election was won, union-backed candidates kept knocking on doors.

“One positive thing [that’s resulted from the union supermajority on the Board], that’s maybe not as evident, is the level of engagement with the community in different neighborhoods across the city,” Gardner said.

Gardner cited Ward 20 Alderman Delphine Clyburn as an example of one legislator who’s “out there every day” talking to her constituents about their concerns. This constant voter contact paid off: in September’s primary, Clyburn defeated challenger Charles Blango, whom she first bested in 2011, by a vote of 416 to 297.

A HISTORY OF ORGANIZING

The unions didn’t become the political force that they are overnight.

“You can’t just parachute in and try to organize and think that things are going to happen,” said Louise Simmons, the director of the University of Connecticut’s Urban Semester Program. “This is the culmination of years and years of work, and a lot of base-building activities as we call it. It’s base building, it’s relationship development, it’s fostering trust.”

True to its reputation as a hotbed of progressive activity — receiving national attention for stances on immigration, for example — New Haven was a center of organized labor long before 2011. In May of 1970, a News headline declared “Faculty Votes To Allow Class Sus-

pension,” accompanied by an article that described a campus where neither professors nor students were expected in class as a result of a University-wide strike. Among the demands issued were calls for Yale to establish adequate wage and worker’s compensation plans, and to change how it expanded into New Haven.

By the end of the 1970s, Pillsbury said, labor relations were at a “depressing” point, with strikes among Yale workers occurring almost every three years. But during the worst of it, the idea arose that “the community could help labor” and vice versa, he said.

This realization, Simmons explained, led to the creation of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy (CCNE), a “think-anddo tank” affiliated with Locals 34 and 35. Simmons, who chairs the board of CCNE, said labor groups gradually began to change their tactics.

“Some of the more forwardthinking people in UNITE HERE! and the unions realized it couldn’t be a one-way street, they had to listen to the community and deal with the community in terms of helping to make that part of labor’s agenda, or developing coalitions that could … develop power on the community level that was community and labor working together,” she said.

In 2006, these tactics hit a testing point in negotiations with YaleNew Haven Hospital, where organized labor in the city pushed for the hospital to allow clerical and lower-level workers to unionize in return for support in building Smilow Cancer Center. But the final deal struck with the hospital, called a Community Benefits Agreement, contained provisions that benefitted the neighborhood as a whole, including Yale-New Haven’s commitment to funding housing and economic development around its campus, city youth programs and more.

Labor continued to refine its community organizing ability in 2008 with the election of President Barack Obama. And they proved their value as a political mobilizing force in 2010, when Gov. Dannel Malloy defeated Republican candidate Dan Foley by fewer than 7,000 votes, seeing a vote margin of over 18,000 in his favor in New Haven, in part because of the efforts of organized labor.

“You better believe that statewide officials know about the power

‘COMMUNIST PARTY VIETNAMESE RE-EDUCATION CAMP’

Earlier this week, union-backed and employed Eidelson, wearing a sleek black blazer, faced off against a bespectacled Paul Chandler ’14 in a News-sponsored debate over the race to represent Yale on the Board.

The two stood at separate podiums adorned with campaign signs before a crowd of nearly 200 — roughly split between Eidelson and SEE UNION PAGE 8

New Haven Unions

building trades service sector

public sector

municipal employees Locals 34 and 35 police department

painters

SEIU Healthcare 1199NE laborers

fire department carpenters teachers

YALE PHILHARMONIA

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Woolsey Hall // 8 p.m.

WEEKEND’s not at all mad that we didn’t get YSO tickets.

of the unions,” said Tyler Blackmon ’15, a volunteer for the Eidelson campaign.

By 2011, with their grassroots organizing ability fully tested, the unions finally decided it was time to take control of City Hall.

“I think they had decided they wanted to set the agenda for the legislative body, and they wanted to do it by building a community force,” Bass said.

After achieving a majority on the Board, city unions worked to elect a set of labor-friendly ward co-chairs, taking control of what former Aldermanic President Carl Goldfield, who was defeated by a labor-backed candidate in 2011, called a “weak” Democratic Party.

Now, Pillsbury said, Locals 34 and 35 are setting their sights on a final prize: the mayor’s office.

Martin Sheen

Not everyone loves “The West Wing,” but we can all get behind Martin Sheen.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

BACK IN SESSION: STUDENT SOUNDS IN 1701 RECORDS // BY DEBORAH OYEYEMI

The phrase multitasking often comes to mind when thinking of students at Yale, and even then, it may be hard to believe that some among us might be bona fide rock stars in the making. It was in the belief that students had serious musical talent, not only on the performance level, but also within the realm of editing and production, that 1701 Records was undeniably created. And with their most recent mixtape, “Back in Session II,” which they celebrated earlier this month at Fence, 1701 introduces us to the diversity in music that students on campus have to offer.

On Back in Session’s Bandcamp page, one finds the following tags: acoustic, alternative, dubstep, edm, funk, hip hop and New Haven. The grouping of these words might seem suitable for a musical taste suffering from borderline personality disorder, but in the context of 1701’s vision for music on campus, the tape’s scattered sampling serves as the perfect introduction to some of their best talent.

In album opener, “Catch Your Eye,” Töks — better known as Chris Tokita ’14 — raps sweet nothings to an Eminem-like rhythm, while Tricia Coronel delivers the quintessential female R&B hook. Coronel may be a non-Yalie, but she certainly merits the inclusion, as her smooth voice is the perfect complement to Töks’s articulate

rhymes.

Looking down the list of featured artists, one’s eyes naturally stop at Nero, My Panda.

The band is well known for its crowded and sweaty showings at venues like Sig Ep. Sadly, their track “Thing or Two” is just okay. Their characteristically unpolished vocals don’t help the seemingly unfinished song, and their position on the mixtape — oddly lodged between a jazz-like piece and a summer beach track — does them a further disservice.

Even with Nero’s sticker appeal, I found myself drifting between Marian Hill’s sultry-sounding “Whiskey,” and Fusion’s later atmospheric electronic track, “Sakujo.” Both tracks are strong stand-alone singles, so it’s no surprise that the respective brands of these artists extend far beyond campus. Upon visiting Marian Hill’s SoundCloud, one is immediately confronted with sweet greetings from fans in Belgium and Israel; the duo’s Twitter page is filled with tweets from music aficionados claiming they’ve blasted another track of theirs called “Lovit” on repeat.

The serious genre-hopping starts with El Silver Cabs and doesn’t end until the conclusion of the mixtape with Chris Peters’s ’16 soft ballad, “Almost September.” Now, El Silver Cabs should find favor with resident Californians. Their song, “Oh

// WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

9 tracks of undergrad work No,” the fourth of nine tracks on 1701’s album, is the perfect soundtrack to those “I’m driving to the beach with my friends and I can’t see anything because my hair is in my eyes” days. “Oh No” is fun, jumpy, and a bit loony, traits on which the garage pop genre certainly depend.

The playfulness continues with “unground,” a collaboration between Yadda Yadda and Jacob Reske ’14, whose kitschy use of rhythm echoes of rock-choir fusions like the Dirty Projectors.

There’s also folk rock courtesy of Thomas Hopson ’16 of Trumbull, and a pop track from violinist Caitlin Pequignot ’14, aka “Anchorage,” though the bright and auto-tuned chorus was a bit too pre-teen for my taste.

Overall, if you get a chance, do check out 1701 Records’ “Back in Session II.” If anything comes of one of these bands, you can tell your adult friends about how you went to school with Fusion before they were famous. And for some, like myself, the unmatched talent of peers, namely duo Marian Hill and lone man Chris Peters, will serve as motivation by reigniting the inferiority complex that undoubtedly defines life at Yale.

Contact DEBORAH OYEYEMI at deborah.oyeyemi@yale.edu .

An Unexpected Fright // BY LEO KIM

Shivering from the cold, I’m one of many students waiting outside of Silliman’s entryway M on a crisp Tuesday night.

We’re all here for the same reason: the college’s venerable haunted house. The line stretched far down the courtyard, and the anticipation after a year of the Halloween staple’s absence was evident. Needless to say, the wait was long, but I eventually found myself at the front.

The first impression formed was one of playfulness. Two silent, masked actors wandered up and down the line that had formed, one passing out candy while the other overdramatically sulked about. With the rather cute decorations gracing the master’s house and the laid-back chatter that filled the atmosphere, the event seemed more lighthearted rather than fright-filled and serious.

As the tour guide led my group down into the basement, my preconceptions were merely reinforced. The guide explained to us that we were about to enter a mental health care center for celebrities, and that we would meet Britney Spears, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus. Yet, as the door opened and we all shuf-

F R I D AY NOVEMBER 1

fled into the grimly lit basement hallway, it took a turn.

Just enough light slivered around the corners onto the walls for the tour group to make out their surroundings. Immediately, one could tell that the decorations were minimal and sterile, yet a little off-kilter — quite befitting of a dilapidated mental health hospital. Plastic covers taped to certain corridors acted to funnel the group into one-way tunnels, and while the plastic and tape did appear a little patched-up and crude, the overall claustrophobic effect it created was surprisingly heavy.

The haunted house used the natural eeriness of the basement to its advantage, exposing it instead of drowning it in decorations.

Entering the hallway, the thud of the closing door was quickly followed by screams. A girl previously hidden in the dark had crawled forward in contorted lurches, causing shrieks and panicked shuffling all around.

Face shrouded by tussled hair, dressed in a dirtied white patient gown, the “patient” kept on walking until she was breathing down the neck of whoever was unfortunate enough to be in the back. Yet, unlike many of

the actors and actresses in the haunted house, this patient, rather than becoming humorously melodramatic in proximity, remained truly hair-raising.

This first encounter instantly set the tone for the entire experience.

Walking through the “care center,” the group was led to a few wards that housed the celebrities. However, these wards, generally better lit and more open than the corridors, often lost the oppressed atmosphere that turned out to be the forte of the haunted house. In walking through the hallways, there was a constant fear that something would jump out at the turn of the corner or sneak up from behind; it promoted a kind of anxiety and panic that built on itself through paranoia, much of which was lost in the rather static moments when the group was left standing still. In fact, these moments often took away the mystery that accompanied movement into the unknown, giving time for the group to become familiar with their surroundings and making apparent the slight theatrical ridiculousness of the actors.

In the narrow hallways that the group snaked through, the

// KEN YANAGISAWA

A journey to a celebrity mental hospital

ambiance was unexpectedly ominous. From an actor stumbling down the hallway and “vomiting” next to the group to a man popping out from a ledge positioned six feet above ground, the erratic and distorted activities kept the atmosphere tense. And somehow, through it all, the haunted house still managed to keep its initial playful charm. The frightening moments were the kind that left me laughing at the fact that I was actually frightened — after all, having Miley Cyrus jump out at you quickly turns entertaining after the immediate shock.

The haunted house proved not only to be fun, but atmospheric and well produced.

While not taking itself too seriously, the haunted house was not the purely lighthearted joyride I anticipated going in, but it was this very contrast that made it all the more memorable.

Contact LEO KIM at leo.kim@yale.edu .

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Whitney Humanities Center // 7:30 p.m.

A famous biopic of Michelangelo. Bonus points if you show up in a TMNT costume.

The Federalist Papers.

Publius had it right.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND FEATURE

THE HEIR TO KING JOHN? // BY SARAH BRULEY AND TASNIM ELBOUTE John DeStefano Jr. was elected as the 49th mayor of New Haven in January 1994 and has held this office for 10 consecutive terms. In January of this year, however, he announced that his time in office would be over: He would not seek re-election.

In the wake of DeStefano’s announcement, several contenders stepped up to fill his shoes, but after the results of September’s primary, two candidates have risen to the fore: Toni Harp ARC ’78 and Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10.

Of the two candidates Harp is most often seen as DeStefano’s successor, both by her critics and champions. But after 20 years under one mayor, would a Harp administration mean more of the same?

According to her campaign, Harp’s platform rests on economic development, education reform and improving public safety.

For those looking for change, Harp promises to increase coordination between the mayor’s office and the Board of Aldermen and increase community involvement in public safety — both of which were not DeStefano’s top priorities, at least according to the senator’s camp.

But even within these issues, there are similarities in the rhetoric used

by Harp and the mayor. Though their proposed ways of accomplishing them differ, Harp and DeStefano advocate for the same goals, and in almost the same language.

But in response to the criticism that she and DeStefano are similar politicians, Harp pointed out that change isn’t necessarily good for its own sake.

“I hope that when I’m mayor that people feel that same sense of stability,” she said.

Harp promises to be able to continue many of the mayor’s emphases, especially in areas such as education reform and public safety. According to Harp’s campaign, Harp has a lot of support from local politicians, especially the Board of Aldermen, because she knows the city just as well as the mayor does. But while this means that Harp, if elected, would have much of the support that ensured DeStefano’s longevity, for better or for worse, it also means that the city’s priorities wouldn’t be likely to change.

THE EARLY DAYS

Harp first became active in New Haven politics when DeStefano was in office. She came to New Haven as an architecture graduate student almost 40 years ago and was elected as Ward 2 alderwoman in 1992. In 1993, she became state senator of Connecticut’s

10th district.

But Harp was not always perceived as DeStefano’s successor, or necessarily his ally.

Harp campaign manager Patrick Scully said the two were able to collaborate on some legislative goals when she first arrived, and resisted calling the two politicians rivals during the rest of DeStefano’s term because they’ve occupied different political spheres: Harp as senator and DeStefano as city mayor.

But during New Haven’s 2011 mayoral campaign, Harp made the bold decision to endorse Clifton Graves, who ran against DeStefano. In her endorsement speech, Harp advocated for a better solution to reducing violence in the city, citing the 23 homicides that had been committed already that year.

During that same election, Harp’s popularity was compared to DeStefano’s even though she was not running for mayor. A survey commissioned

by DeStefano’s reelection campaign in 2011 analyzing voter preference between DeStefano and Harp ranked the state senator over the mayor.

“bully pulpit.”

But others see Harp’s connections differently: as a way for her to work more efficiently.

Scully emphasized that Harp would not be afraid to stand up to her supporters if she disagreed with them.

“She isn’t beholden to them by any means,” he said in reference to her union connections.

And Harp doesn’t just rely on unions. She has the endorsement of most New Haven Aldermen. Members of the board are happy to see a mayoral candidate who is on the same page as them, especially since DeStefano’s policies weren’t always coordinated with theirs.

According to Alderman Frank Douglass (Ward 2) and Jeanette Morrison (Ward 22), Harp’s hopes for New Haven are in harmony with the Board of Aldermen’s Vision Statement for 2013-2014.

Harp commended DeStefano’s work on public schools, but added that “we have to make sure that inside those beautiful school buildings we have a world-class education that works.”

Harp has found support for these policies among local politicians, and Douglass specifically commended her for moving in the direction that New Haven’s students need.

“I think she’ll play a big part in actually making sure that the school systems work as opposed to just having new facilities,” he said.

Many of those within the education system also seem to agree. As an educator at Gateway Community College, Alderwoman Morrison believes that Harp’s education policy would give more students an education that would prepare them for college-level classes, something that wasn’t the case under DeStefano.

TONI HARP IS MORE OF A BRING EVERYBODY TO THE TABLE LEADER. PATRICK SCULLY, HARP CAMPAIGN MANAGER

TWO THUMBS UP

Still, over time Harp has found support from many of the same people as DeStefano. And the most prominent of these have been the local unions.

Local 34 and Local 35, which represent Yale’s workers, endorsed her in June of this year, but she has also received support from over 10 other unions, including the New Haven Federation of Teachers, and the New Haven Firefighters.

These endorsements have become a major selling point for Harp, earning her an endorsement from the New Haven Register, which specifically cited her connections to the Board of Aldermen and to the unions.

DeStefano has stared down union demands in the past. In February of 2011, he fired 16 New Haven firefighters, a situation that led to a union protest and eventually escalated into a prominent court case: Ricci v. DeStefano. But even in the face of legal opposition, DeStefano continued to act independently.

President of “Yale for Elicker” Drew Morrison ’14 questioned whether Harp would do the same. He explained that many view Harp as beholden to special interests, given how much she has relied on union connections during the campaign process. “[If Harp is elected] a lot of the ideas and decisions are not going to come from the mayor,” Morrison said.

He argued that Harp is running from a

Douglass has known Harp for a long time, and he believes she’s ready to work with the board. “Its personal between me and her,” he joked.

Personal might be a good watchword for the Harp campaign, at least according to Scully.

“DeStefano is more of a top-down type of mayor,” he said “Toni Harp is more of a bring everybody to the table leader.”

Perhaps because of this difference, Harp said that she feels a sense of urgency when it comes to education reform. DeStefano’s policies, in school reform as well as construction, have worked so far, but she believes that there is more to be done, and that it needs to come quickly.

“We can’t afford to take years to create the change that these children need,” Harp said.

GETTING SCHOOLED

5-O ON YOUR BLOCK

After being sworn into office in 1994, John DeStefano set out on the ambitious mission to renovate or rebuild every New Haven public school. Now New Haven schools, newly renovated, boast innovative designs: white concrete and glass at Hill Regional Career High School and curved brick at Truman School, to name a few.

Like DeStefano, Harp emphasizes education reform as one of her priorities. But where DeStefano emphasized infrastructure, Harp prioritizes reform in the classroom. One of her main emphases has been on expanding curriculum improvements such as tailoring content to the needs of the kids in the class.

The New Haven of the early 90s, when DeStefano first took office, was much different, and more dangerous, than the New Haven of today. It was the site of widespread violence, much of it caused by drug wars.

And even as much of that violence has disappeared, DeStefano has kept reduction of crime at the top of his priorities list.

In 2012, there were 50% fewer homicides and 30% fewer non-fatal shootings than there were in 2011. In 2013 to date, violent crime is down 10%. This change has been due in a large part to DeStefano’s efforts.

If elected, Harp promises to continue DeStefano’s public safety policies, but to focus on community engagement, specifically through community policing. Many concerned citizens of New Haven, she argues, would like to be more involved in their own security.

This model of policing relies more

on neighborhood watches and officers on walking beats in New Haven’s neighborhoods. It’s good for community involvement, according to Harp’s campaign, but not New Haven’s traditional approach. According to Harp, at the start of DeStefano’s time as mayor, he was a proponent for more community involvement in public safety, but as he moved through police chiefs, the community-policing model fell by the wayside in favor of other priorities, such as targeting violent criminals instead of on-the-block policing.

Harp was the first to make a strong push for community policing in New Haven when she was the Ward 2 alderman and, while her emphasis isn’t the same as the mayor’s, her approach has local support. Current Police Chief Dean Esserman, according to both Harp and Scully, is on board with a shift in focus.

“Community policing is the linchpin of [Harp’s] public safety policy,” said Scully.

TWO CHEFS IN THE SAME KITCHEN

Although many parallels can be drawn between DeStefano and Harp, her supporters see her possible election as one that will bring about a lot of change. Connecticut congresswoman and Harp endorser Rosa DeLauro acknowledged that DeStefano was an “outstanding” mayor who brought a lot of good to the city. But she also said that she looks forward to Harp’s “historic” election. If she wins the vote, she will be the city’s first female mayor.

“She has a vision and understanding for the city, and the skills to create a great future for New Haven,” DeLauro said.

But some of Harp’s opponents worry that if elected, her similarities to DeStefano will result in stasis for New Haven. Since they share similar goals and work with the same coalitions, they argue the opportunity for change in New Haven would be limited. They want a new mayor, not another DeStefano.

But Harp supporters argue that differences do exist — especially in her willingness to try new approaches to old issues.

Douglass emphasized that, in the end, Harp and DeStefano would work towards the good of the same New Haven, though her proposed approach has a different flavor than the current mayor’s.

“I don’t see her as anything like DeStefano,” he said. “They wear two different aprons.”

Contact SARAH BRULEY and TASNIM ELBOUTE

at sarah.bruley@yale.edu and tasnim.elboute@yale.edu .

// KATHRYN CRANDALL, TASNIM ELBOUTE

F R I D AY

A SOUL HAUNTED BY PAINTING

NOVEMBER 1

Take a break from HalloWKND with the 1994 Chinese classic.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Luce Hall // 7-9 p.m.

Schoolhouse Rock

Sometimes WEEKEND needs to be reminded how bills become laws.

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND RAGES

ITZ H@LLOW33N!!!! #BOO

R

u totally mad because u wer 2 busy/lame 2 leave ur suite 4 Halloween this year? It sux 2 miss out, especially when ur missing out on The Campus Event of the Year: Halloween.

Every1s out with their friends n family havin costume fun, and where were u? Inside, probly. So u don’t even kno wut happened at all on Halloween. Luckly, we hav friends hu DID go out and have had fun.

So we hav them writing Here, right here and now, so u can find out all the fun u did not hav. GHOST-EDITED by CODY KAHOE and CALEB MADISON.

It’s Our Party // BY JAKE DAWE Halloween is difficult. We’ve been at this for around 20 years a pop, and it’s hard to keep your parties as fresh as the day you dressed up as Charmander in second grade.

If you’re struggling, check out my list of possible party themes. Fear no more. Papa’s here for you.

Dead Pets Party: Most of us grew up with pets in our house. Some people (me) witnessed horrific deaths involving freak accidents with a parakeet whose wings were supposed to be clipped and a ceiling fan. At this rager, everyone dresses like one of his or her dead pets — mode of death included. For example, I would dress as a parakeet with a hemorrhaging gash under my right wing where the ceiling fan blade struck me like a baseball bat.

The Donner Party: You know the story. An 81-person wagon train heads to California. Winter hits a little early. Susie’s down and out. People are getting a little hungry. At first Susie was buried but then people start wondering how Susie tastes. Is she lean? Stringy? Fatty? Why not give her a try? What’ll it feel like to have her stuck in your teeth? What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, Cousin George froze to death, too? We wouldn’t want to leave him to waste, now would we? And Aunt Mary knows just a splendid little pâté recipe. Aunt Mary! Come on over here! Just dress up as a pioneer, lock the door of your party and start nibbling.

Stalker Party: This one requires some preplanning. Figure out who’s coming to the party. An even number of guests will work well. Assign each person attending someone else on the list. No two people should have each other.

Everyone will stalk their assigned person for one week and is required to take photos of them unseen. For example: Jessica sleeping, Jessica blowing her nose in Bass, Jessica crying on a bench, Jessica spraining her ankle as

she falls off the stage at Toad’s, Jessica vomiting into an A1 french fry tin. Those sorts of moments. For the party, everyone prints out the most compromising photos of their assigned guest and tape them all over their own body. It’ll be a great conversation starter and everyone will be closer because of it.

There won’t be any lawsuits.

Jonestown Party: Bill it as a normal Halloween party. Wear normal costumes. Play normal music. You, the host, will dress as a pro-Communist radical reverend. Depending on the size of the party, have about a quarter of the guests agree to collapse on the floor at a prescribed time. When talking with uninformed guests, slip the question “Did you try the KoolAid?” into conversation whenever you can.

As people answer, walk away faintly murmuring “good, good” and “soon.” Leave canisters labeled “rat poison” throughout the party. At the prescribed time, the guests in on the joke will collapse wherever they’re standing, except for you. As the uninformed guests freak out, ask again about the KoolAid. Walk upstairs laughing and murmuring “good, good.”

Go have a blast. You’re welcome.

Costume Predictions

Your Presence is Not Requested

// BY RYAN BOWERS

// BY ANDREA VILLENA

Following numerous hospitalizations and destructions of property, the Yale Symphony Orchestra has decided to cancel the annual YSO Halloween Show.

In an email sent out to the student body on Friday morning, YSO officers cited “rowdy” behavior and eight hospitalizations as the reasons behind the cancelation. Despite a YDN op-ed by producer Joan Rhee begging students to put down their flasks and listen to the music, co-eds donned ostensibly not-racist costumes and downed at least three full flasks in the minutes leading up to the show. In the words of one student, “HURRY UP MARK, OR YOU’RE GOING TO BE SOBER WHILE YOU WAIT IN LINE.” The students weren’t the only thing messed up during the show, however. People stumbling out of the show complained loudly of audio and visual problems. Fake Name, ’14, said, “Have yu sene my friend? She’s drsed up as Khaleeeesi. I wAnt to og to SAE but I cunt findher!!?!”

This year’s Halloween Show bore many similarities to past events canceled because of alcohol use, like Safety Dance and Pierson’s Inferno.

One unidentified student, dressed as campus celebrity The Poopetrator, shat off of first balcony, paying homage to both his costume’s inspiration and the student who also shat on the floor during last year’s Safety Dance. “Some of it splattered into my piccolo,” said a YSO freshman whom now no one will kiss.

Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry expressed concern over the high number of alcohol-related hospitalizations, saying that eight students sent to Yale Health is “too high” a number. This means, Gentry explained, that a shocking total of 0.001886% of students in Woolsey were hospitalized. “We will definitely have to email out another one of those handy alcohol surveys,” Gentry said, “Those really help someone somewhere do something important, I think.”

The YSO has yet to say if they will replace their most popular and dangerous event with a safer alternative for next year. Gentry suggested a Spooky Halloween Tailgate Village, where students would gather on Beinecke Plaza for a performance by the Yale Precision Marching Band, which, if you can believe it, alcohol actually makes worse. “Sorry in advance,” said a YPMB spokesperson.

Who was what now?

Your Section Asshole: This year, your section asshole is going as the protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s “To The Lighthouse for Halloween.” He knows that everyone was only assigned Mrs. Dalloway, but he feels like he can make some really interesting party conversation about “To The Lighthouse,” so he’s going to, damn it.

President Peter Salovey: This year Peter Salovey is wearing his full inauguration regalia and praying that a lightning bolt will strike Harkness Tower precisely at the twelfth strike of midnight, thereby fusing the robes to his skin and making him the “Supreme University President of Eternal Darkness” for the rest of time.

The Pundits: Probably something naked.

What the f*#@ else do they do?

The Person Who You Haven’t Actually Hung Out With Since Freshman Year: This person was in your friend’s common room that one night three years ago, and you’re

only 85 percent sure of their name (Is it Alex or Luke? Luke something, right?), but they’re still suggesting that you should go as the Thing 2 to their Thing 1. They will continue to make this suggestion until you awkwardly run into them at a party wearing different costumes.

Chief Ronnell A. Higgins: He’s definitely not going as a campus robbery. Those never happen, okay? Blue phones.

That Girl You Think Is Really Hot: You don’t get invited to the kinds of cool parties she does, but you’ll find out what her costume was when you Facebook creep on her next Monday.

Your TA: You’ll see them wearing something a little revealing on the way to GPSCY, which will force you to come to terms with the uncomfortable reality that all TA’s have genitals.

Unoriginal People: Walter White or Miley Cyrus. They’ll think it’s still funny, so just let them have this one.

Contact RYAN BOWERS at ryan.bowers@yale.edu .

Contact ANDREA VILLENA at andrea.villena@yale.edu .

Brought to You

By Your Dean // BY EMMA BRENNAN-WYDRA Dear Students in Yale College, The Yale College Dean’s Office is thrilled to present the following Halloween-themed events for undergraduate students.

Faculty Research Presentations: RealWorld Terrors Monday, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m.

Start off Halloween week with a real scare! Professors from the Environmental Studies, Astronomy and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration departments will be giving brief talks on their most terrifying research findings. Topics include global warming, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy that will someday engulf us all and genocide. A representative from the American Studies department will sit in the corner dressed as The Ghost Of Modern American Media Culture.

Avant-Garde Pumpkin Carving Tuesday, Oct. 29, 7:00 p.m.

Faculty members and graduate students from the Art department will be leading a hands-on experimental pumpkin carving workshop. Whether you choose to channel Andy Warhol, evoke Salvador Dalí or create an aesthetic all

on your own, you can be sure that your Jack-O-Lantern masterpiece will be truly one-of-a-kind. All pumpkins will be destroyed immediately following the carving, so that this performance cannot be replicated.

Roundtable Discussion: The Ethics of Halloween Wednesday, Oct. 30, 6:00 p.m.

Are you still feeling bad about egging your FroCo? Wondering about the moral implications of Ding-Dong Ditch? Just looking to have an all-around fun, safe and ethical Halloween experience this year? Join Dean Marichal Gentry, Professor Shelly Kagan and the Communication and Consent Educators for a roundtable discussion on classic Halloween pastimes. Seating is limited; please reserve a spot in advance.

Skull and Bones’ Haunted House Thursday, Oct. 31, 9:00 p.m.

Join Yale’s Halloweeniest senior society for a super spooky, totally terrifying tomb tour. As you trek through the hallowed halls, your ghoulish guides will tell tales of bygone Bonesmen. Think of a regular haunted house, but with more prestige and elitism. Be sure to BYOBones!

Tour of HGS Basement Thursday, Oct. 31, 11:00 p.m.

Self-explanatory. Fucking terrifying.

Stay safe, and have a happy Halloween!

Yours, Dean Mary Miller Contact EMMA BRENNAN-WYDRA at emma.brennan-wydra@yale.edu .

Contact JAKE DAWE at jacob.dawe@yale.edu .

// ANNELISA LEINBACH (FEAT. MOHAN YIN)

S A T U R D AY NOVEMBER 2

HORCRUX IMPROVITAS

Jonathan Edwards College Theatre // 9 p.m.

How many Yale-Hogwarts comparisons can be made in one weekend?

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: A multi-party system

You don’t have to invite the Marijuana Party to the debate, but it could really shake up things.

S AT U R DAY NOVEMBER 2

PIERSON INFERNO

Pierson College Dining Hall // 10 p.m.

On this episode of “Cultural Appropriation at Yale”: a Day of the Dead-themed dance.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The Commonwealth

Fifty-three member states, one female head. #whoruntheworld

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND RAGES

ITZ H@LLOW33N!!!! #BOO

R

u totally mad because u wer 2 busy/lame 2 leave ur suite 4 Halloween this year? It sux 2 miss out, especially when ur missing out on The Campus Event of the Year: Halloween.

Every1s out with their friends n family havin costume fun, and where were u? Inside, probly. So u don’t even kno wut happened at all on Halloween. Luckly, we hav friends hu DID go out and have had fun.

So we hav them writing Here, right here and now, so u can find out all the fun u did not hav. GHOST-EDITED by CODY KAHOE and CALEB MADISON.

It’s Our Party // BY JAKE DAWE Halloween is difficult. We’ve been at this for around 20 years a pop, and it’s hard to keep your parties as fresh as the day you dressed up as Charmander in second grade.

If you’re struggling, check out my list of possible party themes. Fear no more. Papa’s here for you.

Dead Pets Party: Most of us grew up with pets in our house. Some people (me) witnessed horrific deaths involving freak accidents with a parakeet whose wings were supposed to be clipped and a ceiling fan. At this rager, everyone dresses like one of his or her dead pets — mode of death included. For example, I would dress as a parakeet with a hemorrhaging gash under my right wing where the ceiling fan blade struck me like a baseball bat.

The Donner Party: You know the story. An 81-person wagon train heads to California. Winter hits a little early. Susie’s down and out. People are getting a little hungry. At first Susie was buried but then people start wondering how Susie tastes. Is she lean? Stringy? Fatty? Why not give her a try? What’ll it feel like to have her stuck in your teeth? What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, Cousin George froze to death, too? We wouldn’t want to leave him to waste, now would we? And Aunt Mary knows just a splendid little pâté recipe. Aunt Mary! Come on over here! Just dress up as a pioneer, lock the door of your party and start nibbling.

Stalker Party: This one requires some preplanning. Figure out who’s coming to the party. An even number of guests will work well. Assign each person attending someone else on the list. No two people should have each other.

Everyone will stalk their assigned person for one week and is required to take photos of them unseen. For example: Jessica sleeping, Jessica blowing her nose in Bass, Jessica crying on a bench, Jessica spraining her ankle as

she falls off the stage at Toad’s, Jessica vomiting into an A1 french fry tin. Those sorts of moments. For the party, everyone prints out the most compromising photos of their assigned guest and tape them all over their own body. It’ll be a great conversation starter and everyone will be closer because of it.

There won’t be any lawsuits.

Jonestown Party: Bill it as a normal Halloween party. Wear normal costumes. Play normal music. You, the host, will dress as a pro-Communist radical reverend. Depending on the size of the party, have about a quarter of the guests agree to collapse on the floor at a prescribed time. When talking with uninformed guests, slip the question “Did you try the KoolAid?” into conversation whenever you can.

As people answer, walk away faintly murmuring “good, good” and “soon.” Leave canisters labeled “rat poison” throughout the party. At the prescribed time, the guests in on the joke will collapse wherever they’re standing, except for you. As the uninformed guests freak out, ask again about the KoolAid. Walk upstairs laughing and murmuring “good, good.”

Go have a blast. You’re welcome.

Costume Predictions

Your Presence is Not Requested

// BY RYAN BOWERS

// BY ANDREA VILLENA

Following numerous hospitalizations and destructions of property, the Yale Symphony Orchestra has decided to cancel the annual YSO Halloween Show.

In an email sent out to the student body on Friday morning, YSO officers cited “rowdy” behavior and eight hospitalizations as the reasons behind the cancelation. Despite a YDN op-ed by producer Joan Rhee begging students to put down their flasks and listen to the music, co-eds donned ostensibly not-racist costumes and downed at least three full flasks in the minutes leading up to the show. In the words of one student, “HURRY UP MARK, OR YOU’RE GOING TO BE SOBER WHILE YOU WAIT IN LINE.” The students weren’t the only thing messed up during the show, however. People stumbling out of the show complained loudly of audio and visual problems. Fake Name, ’14, said, “Have yu sene my friend? She’s drsed up as Khaleeeesi. I wAnt to og to SAE but I cunt findher!!?!”

This year’s Halloween Show bore many similarities to past events canceled because of alcohol use, like Safety Dance and Pierson’s Inferno.

One unidentified student, dressed as campus celebrity The Poopetrator, shat off of first balcony, paying homage to both his costume’s inspiration and the student who also shat on the floor during last year’s Safety Dance. “Some of it splattered into my piccolo,” said a YSO freshman whom now no one will kiss.

Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry expressed concern over the high number of alcohol-related hospitalizations, saying that eight students sent to Yale Health is “too high” a number. This means, Gentry explained, that a shocking total of 0.001886% of students in Woolsey were hospitalized. “We will definitely have to email out another one of those handy alcohol surveys,” Gentry said, “Those really help someone somewhere do something important, I think.”

The YSO has yet to say if they will replace their most popular and dangerous event with a safer alternative for next year. Gentry suggested a Spooky Halloween Tailgate Village, where students would gather on Beinecke Plaza for a performance by the Yale Precision Marching Band, which, if you can believe it, alcohol actually makes worse. “Sorry in advance,” said a YPMB spokesperson.

Who was what now?

Your Section Asshole: This year, your section asshole is going as the protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s “To The Lighthouse for Halloween.” He knows that everyone was only assigned Mrs. Dalloway, but he feels like he can make some really interesting party conversation about “To The Lighthouse,” so he’s going to, damn it.

President Peter Salovey: This year Peter Salovey is wearing his full inauguration regalia and praying that a lightning bolt will strike Harkness Tower precisely at the twelfth strike of midnight, thereby fusing the robes to his skin and making him the “Supreme University President of Eternal Darkness” for the rest of time.

The Pundits: Probably something naked.

What the f*#@ else do they do?

The Person Who You Haven’t Actually Hung Out With Since Freshman Year: This person was in your friend’s common room that one night three years ago, and you’re

only 85 percent sure of their name (Is it Alex or Luke? Luke something, right?), but they’re still suggesting that you should go as the Thing 2 to their Thing 1. They will continue to make this suggestion until you awkwardly run into them at a party wearing different costumes.

Chief Ronnell A. Higgins: He’s definitely not going as a campus robbery. Those never happen, okay? Blue phones.

That Girl You Think Is Really Hot: You don’t get invited to the kinds of cool parties she does, but you’ll find out what her costume was when you Facebook creep on her next Monday.

Your TA: You’ll see them wearing something a little revealing on the way to GPSCY, which will force you to come to terms with the uncomfortable reality that all TA’s have genitals.

Unoriginal People: Walter White or Miley Cyrus. They’ll think it’s still funny, so just let them have this one.

Contact RYAN BOWERS at ryan.bowers@yale.edu .

Contact ANDREA VILLENA at andrea.villena@yale.edu .

Brought to You

By Your Dean // BY EMMA BRENNAN-WYDRA Dear Students in Yale College, The Yale College Dean’s Office is thrilled to present the following Halloween-themed events for undergraduate students.

Faculty Research Presentations: RealWorld Terrors Monday, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m.

Start off Halloween week with a real scare! Professors from the Environmental Studies, Astronomy and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration departments will be giving brief talks on their most terrifying research findings. Topics include global warming, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy that will someday engulf us all and genocide. A representative from the American Studies department will sit in the corner dressed as The Ghost Of Modern American Media Culture.

Avant-Garde Pumpkin Carving Tuesday, Oct. 29, 7:00 p.m.

Faculty members and graduate students from the Art department will be leading a hands-on experimental pumpkin carving workshop. Whether you choose to channel Andy Warhol, evoke Salvador Dalí or create an aesthetic all

on your own, you can be sure that your Jack-O-Lantern masterpiece will be truly one-of-a-kind. All pumpkins will be destroyed immediately following the carving, so that this performance cannot be replicated.

Roundtable Discussion: The Ethics of Halloween Wednesday, Oct. 30, 6:00 p.m.

Are you still feeling bad about egging your FroCo? Wondering about the moral implications of Ding-Dong Ditch? Just looking to have an all-around fun, safe and ethical Halloween experience this year? Join Dean Marichal Gentry, Professor Shelly Kagan and the Communication and Consent Educators for a roundtable discussion on classic Halloween pastimes. Seating is limited; please reserve a spot in advance.

Skull and Bones’ Haunted House Thursday, Oct. 31, 9:00 p.m.

Join Yale’s Halloweeniest senior society for a super spooky, totally terrifying tomb tour. As you trek through the hallowed halls, your ghoulish guides will tell tales of bygone Bonesmen. Think of a regular haunted house, but with more prestige and elitism. Be sure to BYOBones!

Tour of HGS Basement Thursday, Oct. 31, 11:00 p.m.

Self-explanatory. Fucking terrifying.

Stay safe, and have a happy Halloween!

Yours, Dean Mary Miller Contact EMMA BRENNAN-WYDRA at emma.brennan-wydra@yale.edu .

Contact JAKE DAWE at jacob.dawe@yale.edu .

// ANNELISA LEINBACH (FEAT. MOHAN YIN)

S A T U R D AY NOVEMBER 2

HORCRUX IMPROVITAS

Jonathan Edwards College Theatre // 9 p.m.

How many Yale-Hogwarts comparisons can be made in one weekend?

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: A multi-party system

You don’t have to invite the Marijuana Party to the debate, but it could really shake up things.

S AT U R DAY NOVEMBER 2

PIERSON INFERNO

Pierson College Dining Hall // 10 p.m.

On this episode of “Cultural Appropriation at Yale”: a Day of the Dead-themed dance.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The Commonwealth

Fifty-three member states, one female head. #whoruntheworld

PAGE B8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

IN PLACE OF A PARTY

2/3 Around

Contested seats won by

labor-backed candidates 2011

of the board of alderman is

union affiliated UNIONS FROM PAGE 3 Chandler camps — on the stage in Sterling-Sheffield-Strathcoma Hall.

For nearly 90 minutes, they sparred over topics ranging from Eidelson’s tenure as alderwoman to Chandler’s decision to run as a Republican. But more than anything else, the candidates and audience questions returned to one subject: the role of unions in city politics.

Eidelson stressed repeatedly that she has voted with an independent mind over the past two years despite her affiliation with organized labor, including her job as a graphic designer for Local 34.

“I represent the people in this room. I represent Yale students,” she told the audience. “I don’t represent Yale as an institution, and I don’t represent Local 34 as an institution when I’m voting on the board.”

But Chandler argued that the incumbent’s connections to the unions should give students reason to worry, and told the audience that having so many candidates elected by unions on the Board limits transparency. A supermajority like the sort Locals 34 and 35 enjoy, regardless of political affiliation, is inherently a conflict of interest, he added.

He cited comments by Local 35 President Bob Proto following last year’s labor contract agreement, when Proto credited the unions’ successful negotiations to their controlling “20 out of 30” seats in the legislature.

Gardner disagreed with Chandler’s sentiment, calling the criticism unfair. She pointed out that other aldermen hold jobs that could also pose conflicts of interest, and that the negative implications of this supposed conflict have not been illustrated since labor took power.

While Bass said Chandler was not incorrect to raise the issue — “it’s still a fair criticism to ask: where are your loyalties are going to be? Will there ever be a conflict?” — he echoed Gardner’s sentiment that there has been little evidence to support this fear. While critics often point to the city’s selling of portions of High and Wall Streets to the University as an one such conflict of interest, the decision in fact split the coalition of union-backed aldermen, he said.

And although he thinks union domination on the Board probably did affect contract negotiations, Bass argued that it’s not necessarily a negative, pointing out that the biggest impact on poverty over the past 30 years was the formation of Local

S AT U R D AY NOVEMBER 2

34 — a trend that the wage and benefit agreements in the 2012 contract continues.

“Yale saw that reality [of union control of the Board], and I think that definitely helped [the unions] at the bargaining table,” Bass said. “If they were up front, they would say that helps New Haven.”

Organized labor also emerged as a point of contention between four candidates for mayor at an August debate.

Elicker told the debate audience that he admired the work labor had done in involving more voters in the political process and setting a legislative agenda for the city. But he argued that more openness was needed in the decision making process, a point Goldfield took further by telling the News that his meeting with the unions during their 2006 Community Benefit Agreement campaign was reminiscent of a “Communist Party Vietnamese reeducation camp.”

“The union mentality is you’re either with us or you’re against us, they broach no dissent whatsoever,” Goldfield said. “It’s like ‘this is the agenda, you line up behind the agenda or we’re gonna knock you out.’”

Former city economic development administrator Henry Fernandez, meanwhile, reminded the debate audience that in their zest to elect labor-friendly candidates to the Board, the unions had selected candidates ill-prepared for the role of local legislator. He referred to Gabriel Santiago, who was elected to represent Ward 14 in 2011 but only attended a few Board meetings before resigning earlier this year.

“That wasn’t organizing,” Fernandez said. “My ward was unrepresented for over a year because they forced a candidate on us that had no background, no experience and no right to be elected.”

Pillsbury, though, said candidates like Santiago and Wood simply come with the territory of accomplishing an agenda.

We’re talking about how you build power, and sometimes that’s messy.

You make mistakes, you overreach, but that’s a distraction,” Pillsbury said. “As a whole, that shouldn’t take away from the broad, progressive agenda that … the unions will be bringing into City Hall.”

In contrast to others at the debate, Harp argued that the work of the unions had improved democracy in the Elm City, citing the exis-

14 out of 15

2013

8 out of 10

tence of Take Back New Haven as evidence. Before UNITE HERE! rose to power, she said, the city didn’t see a population that was engaged in politics. Now, organized labor has increased civic discourse, she said, and has brought democracy closer to New Haven residents.

But Stratton argued, however, that while labor had brought more voters to the polls, they did so primarily for their own electoral means.

more up front about what they’re up to, they might find that a lot of people really like what they’re doing.”

FROM ‘DESTEFANATI’ TO ‘UNIONISTAS’

Perhaps the best way to think about the unions in one-party New Haven — the Elm City hasn’t seen a functional GOP establishment in years — is as a sort of “substitute political party,” Goldfield

THE UNION MENTALITY IS YOU’RE EITHER WITH US OR YOU’RE AGAINST US, THEY BROACH NO DISSENT WHATSOEVER. CARL GOLDFIELD, FORMER ALDERMANIC PRESIDENT

“I think it’s really cool that they’ve brought all these people into the process who haven’t been there before, but you haven’t empowered them with their own unique voice,” he said. “What you did is you brought them in and sat on them and made them vote in a certain way.

That’s not progressive.”

Three Yalies involved in union organizing declined to comment for this story, two of whom cited time concerns in the run-up to next week’s general election. Two more labor-affiliated students — members of Students Unite Now, an undergraduate organizing group tied to Locals 34 and 35 — did not return multiple requests for comment.

One of organized labor’s biggest obstacles, Bass said, has been the difficulty they’ve had in communicating their plans for the city, particularly because they often appear to do their organizing in the shadows. In 2011, union-backed candidates, suffering from what Bass described as a “schizophrenia,” were not open about running as a slate, leading some to see a sort of labor conspiracy.

“They have to be a little less secretive,” Bass said. “If they’re a little more transparent and a little

said. Whereas before 2011, political affiliations took the form of aldermen either aligned with or against DeStefano, the factions within city government now seem to fall along lines of whether or not a legislator is connected to labor.

“Instead of the ‘DeStefanati,’ longtime downtown resident Edward Anderson told the News during a September debate between Wood and Hausladen, “it’s the ‘unionistas.’”

A lot of the rhetoric on both sides of the debate, Bass said, is “overwrought” and “overheated.”

Instead, he echoed Harp, explaining that UNITE HERE! has managed to democratize the city by bringing more voters to polls and encouraging the development of slates in opposition like Hausladen’s Take Back New Haven.

“I think there’s no downside to having a slate that decides how to run a city well and delivers voters and is trying to figure out how to govern,” he said. “But what’s not healthy is not having any new set of candidates to challenge them … if you don’t have other groups that run candidates and have good ideas too.”

Perhaps the biggest critique of the current union control of the Board

LIQUOR TREATING

Contact NICK DEFIESTA at nick.defiesta@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Various residential colleges // 9:30 p.m.

Pumpkin spice shots galore.

of Aldermen, Bass said, is its lack of an agenda. Labor-backed aldermen, he added, have “three ideas” — referring to their triple-pronged vision statement — but not the sort of comprehensive governing plan that one might expect. For example, he said candidates supported by the unions have not articulated a vision for the city’s schools, which are currently undergoing a nationally recognized school change initiative.

Morrison argued that the creation of New Haven Works and return to community policing have been good, but hardly indicative of a sweeping plan to reshape the city.

“I think the question that hasn’t been asked well enough is: to what end?” Morrison said. “They have not pursued an aggressive policy plan … it’s a very murky world.”

Blackmon, meanwhile, cautioned against passing judgement on what union-backed aldermen stand for, given that their agenda has had less than two years’ time to come to fruition. Both those in support of organized labor and those who view it through skeptical eyes, he said, should hold off judgment on the successes and failures of the movement spearheaded by Locals 34 and 35.

With a mayoral election that seems to offer a reasonable chance at handing unions the mayor’s seat, City Hall could be united under the hand of organized labor. With national attention heaped on New Haven, Simmons said, the Elm City is proving to be an incubator for laborcontrolled progressive governance.

But first, Bass said, union-backed candidates need to figure out how to run the city — labor-affiliated aldermen have yet to take the step from setting the city’s agenda to actually governing the Elm City.

“If they really want to be a national model, they have to show they can govern,” Bass said, “and they haven’t governed yet.”

Democracy

Like maps, a good Greek invention.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B9

WEEKEND FEATURE

WALKING THE BEAT // BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS

Justin Elicker is six feet and two inches tall, weighs 160 pounds and has reddish hair. At the intersection of Whalley Ave. and Orchard St. in New Haven, he sticks out. He wore a pair of ill-fitting trousers that bunched up around his ankles, a buttondown with light blue stripes and a pair of narrow, well-polished brown oxfords.

Whalley and Orchard meet less than half a mile from the gothic spires of Yale University, yet the intersection is far away in every sense but space.

Elicker and I met and shook hands, turned right and started up Orchard St. *** On a frigid night in January a week after Elicker announced his mayoral candidacy for the Elm City, 20-year incumbent Mayor John DeStefano Jr. announced his decision not to seek re-election.

DeStefano’s departure opened a vacuum in the city’s politics, a vacuum that Justin Elicker believes he is best suited to fill.

But DeStefano also opened the door to a host of other questions.

Whether the bright parts of New Haven’s future extend to all parts of the city is uncertain. Divided along lines of race and class, the city exhibits not only diversity, but segregation, too. And so as DeStefano exits, mayoral candidates and voters alike have been forced to ask who can unify this city whose unity is itself uncertain.

In September, I asked both candidates to walk through the city with me, hoping they might speak to how they would bridge the divides that for decades have defined New Haven. From Harp I received a polite denial, from Elicker an enthusiastic acceptance.

ORCHARD STREET

Elicker began our walk not by talking about the arcs of the city’s history, but rather how he worked with community leaders to keep kids on dirt bikes off the streets of Dixwell. He is about small solutions that add to big results — keeping the pool open at Career High School during the summer to give kids something to do and encouraging the growth of an organization called Solar Youth were two of the first things

he talked about as we walked through the streets where policies become realties.

Throughout the campaign, Elicker has sold himself as the wonk, the guy who reads and understands every line in the budget. With his campaign team, he drafted 75 proposals, all listed on his campaign website, that dive deep into how to solve the city’s problems. As we walked from block to block, he jumped from policy to policy, suggesting they are part of a holistic approach to a better New Haven.

For urban violence, he suggests creating unemployment in disadvantaged communities, enhancing community policing, better organizing block watches and using technology to improve policing. For economic development, he looks to development the city’s waterfront, improving vocational training, reforming the state’s tax system and stabilizing neighborhood through home ownership. The issues go on and so do the solutions.

“Everything is related,” he said as we walked up Orchard. “How do you push everything forward?”

Elicker has painted himself as the apolitical politician. Finding smarter ways to fix sidewalks, putting property permitting online and reducing waste through information are not ideological. Elicker does not use soaring rhetoric. He is more comfortable in long discussions with one or two people — into which he can throw numbers and studies — than he is shouting a sound byte into a microphone.

Vacancies, houses where the paint chipped from jagged sideboards, lined Orchard St. Several had “No Trespassing” signs.

The grass planted between the cracked sidewalk and the street was overgrown and wilted. The crevices in the street left by last winter remained.

Half a mile down the road, as we came to the intersection of Orchard and Henry St, Elicker stopped.

While we stood on the corner, Elicker talked about the importance of the Liveable City Initiative, which works to reduce urban blight throughout New Haven.

While Harp wants to defund LCI, Elicker says, he wants to improve

S AT U R D AY NOVEMBER 2

its effectiveness by inspecting properties more frequently and following up on property violations. It could even be an important source of funds for the revenue-starved city, he said.

It wasn’t until we had started walking again that Elicker turned and said, “By the way, this is one of the most dangerous intersections in the city.”

Elicker then commented that focusing cops’ attention on locations instead of individuals, recognizing that “you don’t just need a perpetrator, you need a victim” and projects like the Beulah Heights Church Home Ownership Program — which provides affordable housing a block from Orchard and Henry — can lessen the city’s needless deaths.

We kept walking up Orchard for another block until we bore left on Dixwell Ave. and entered Newhallville.

ELICKER HAS PAINTED HIMSELF AS THE APOLITICAL POLITICIAN.

NEWHALLVILLE

Although Dixwell is broader and more heavily trafficked than Orchard, it has a similar feel.

Some of the houses are well painted, others are not. Many are enclosed with wire fencing. We walked along Dixwell for a few hundred yards before turning at West Division St. Newhallville is among the poorest and most dangerous parts of the city. It was once home to a large gun manufacturer, Winchester, but those jobs have since disappeared, leaving little employment for the primarily blue-collar, black work force.

For the better part of a century, Newhallville have been on the receiving end of the collapse of blue-collared industrialism. Both Elicker and Harp have said the transformation has left residents with the impression that they are “stepchildren” of the city.

In the not-so-distant past, violent crime was endemic in the

neighborhood; drug dealers and gangs abounded. But Newhallville has also made strides forward. Community policing and residents’ efforts have helped clean up the streets.

But Newhallville is still not a safe place to walk late at night.

Earlier this year, a Yale Professor Paul Brouard was assaulted while parking to work on a house designed and built by Yale School of Architecture students.

It is also not Elicker’s territory.

In the primary, Harp received 530 votes in Ward 20, which covers the neighborhood. Elicker managed 14. Many of the employed in Newhallville are members of unions, which have thrown their full weight behind Harp. Most of the residents in the neighborhood are black.

But many, in particular Harp and her supporters, have criticized Elicker for being unable to understand the plight of Newhallville’s residents.

At a recent mayoral debate, New Haven Independent Editor Paul Bass ’82 asked Elicker how he could expect to govern with “no appreciable support” from blacks and Latin Americans.

Harp said her supporters reflect the diversity of the city in a way Elicker’s simply do not.

Under her leadership, Harp says that everyone in the city will get their due. “New Haven’s glass is half full,” she told a crowd recently, “and in November our cup runneth over.”

While Harp speaks of equal distribution, Elicker speaks of equal opportunity. “The mayor’s job is to make sure everyone gets a fair shake,” he said as we walked on West Division. “We don’t have the money to give everyone their due.”

Although the budget is finite, Elicker says, the distribution of resources — of school funding, of snow plows in the winter, of police attention — can be improved through transparency.

To Elicker, effective governance is making decisions based on data, meticulously collected and painstakingly analyzed, not emotion. Good governance, he said, is ensuring that citizens have access to that data and can participate in the process of governing.

It was not until long after we had passed out of Newhallville

MIRACLE BERRY PARTY

ORANGE STREET

The spine of Elicker’s Ward 10, the four-lane Orange St. runs from downtown out to East Rock Park. The park is densely wooded, and at any time joggers and cyclists make their way up it, couples walk through the paths and middle-aged men run their dogs. East Rock Park, Orange St. and the neighborhood they define share little with Newhallville.

As we walked back toward downtown, he saw a lot of familiar faces. Members of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop cycling team, enjoying post-ride coffees at a table outside of Romeo and Cesare’s Gourmet, a far cry from the corner store at Orchard and Henry, called out to Elicker. We stopped to talk. They exchanged pleasantries and chatted briefly about the previous Friday, which DeStefano had declared “Matthew J. Feiner Day” for the bike shop owner’s contributions to the city.

Not far past Elicker’s house, Elicker waved to the Sunday crowd enjoying sandwiches outside of Nicas Gourmet Market.

They waved back, and we paused again to say hi.

It is not surprising that Elicker seems more at ease in East Rock.

These are his constituents, the people he emails about street cleanings and for whose kids he negotiates playground building.

He has given out his cell phone number here for more than three years. He only started giving it out in Newhallville in January.

HILLHOUSE AVENUE

After two miles, we turned

onto Hillhouse Ave. Both Dickens and Twain called Hillhouse the most beautiful street in America. Its mansions, once inhabitted by industrialists, are relics of a bygone New Haven.

But the city’s future, Elicker is quick to point out, is looking up.

Initiatives like Science Park and the New Haven Grove are encouraging innovation and bringing stable, high-paying jobs. New policing strategies, investments from Yale and proeconomic development policies, among others things, have helped curb urban violence. But, Elicker admits, the improvement has not been universal, leaving a city that can feel divided between have and have-not, safe and dangerous, optimistic and desparate.

Elicker believes his emphasis on transparency is the first step to repairing this divide, and his proposals range from the simple, such as tracking snow plows with GPS systems to the complex, such as basing budget decisions on outputs rather than inputs.By committing to remind all of New Haven’s residents of their equal stake and voice in the city, he said, “government will be working more for people than for politicians.”

But why New Haven? I asked.

Elicker does not need to live here — his roots in New Canaan and his lucrative consulting business ensure that he could live in the roomier suburbs.

“I opted into New Haven,” he admits. It is the “sense of place,” he says — the ability to spin a web of interactions on a block, to walk instead of drive, to speak face to face instead of phone to phone, to become a fuller person through the relationships only urban life can engender — that drew and kept him here.

“This city makes me happier because of the environment we live in,” Elicker said. “I’m excited about the person New Haven has helped me become.

If elected, the task Elicker will face is how to ensure that all residents of New Haven, whether they live in East Rock or Newhallville, can feel the same way about their city.

Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Silliman M22 // 9:30 p.m.

The Yale Epicurean invites you to “get (flavor) trippy.”

that Elicker acknowledged the anger, telling me, “People in Dixwell and Newhallville feel a level of desperation because of the levels of violence and poverty.” But if he could just talk to them, he said, have a real conversation with them, they would understand his message.

A hard campaigner, he has made every effort to spread that message. Elicker says he responds to every phone call and email he receives. But he’s been in the neighborhoods too. On one recent Sunday, he personally knocked doors in East Shore, Beaver Hills, East Rock and Fair Haven.

Voting

A constitutional right we all can agree on.

PAGE B10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

HOW HORRIFYING ARE HORROR FILMS? // BY MICHAEL LOMAX

By the time you read this, Halloween will have passed, and hopefully you enjoyed a nice fright or two. After all, the popular point of Halloween is to scare the hell out of yourself. And what better way to scare the hell out of yourself than to watch a scary movie?

Some of the greatest films of all time are downright terrifying, though they’re not horror films per se. To be fair, that’s probably a good thing, because when you start thinking about it, horror films don’t stick around long. Sure, you can find and watch them, but after you’ve seen them once, the dark magic is lost. Or maybe I’m just being a little biased to relatively recent films — “It” and the entire “Texas Chainsaw” series come to mind.

I wrote a column two years ago that was a countdown of my 10 favorite horror films, and “Paranormal Activity” was right near the top of the list. My reasoning

MICHAEL LOMAX CINEMA TO THE MAX was straightforward: “Paranormal Activity” is one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen in my entire life. (Katie and Micah’s home in that movie reminds me far too much of my own.) But after you know when to expect the demon, you’re not quite so scared anymore.

The same goes for pretty much most of the horror movies you’ve seen — from “Paranormal Activity” to “Saw” to every single Japanese gorefest and their American remakes. Simply put, their quality as a genuinely scary picture diminishes rapidly after that first viewing, though I don’t think most of us care that much. Horror films, after

all, are something you tend to watch with other people, with the group collectively inhaling and exhaling and gasping and nervously laughing.

The experience makes the movie.

The problem comes when we try sitting down to evaluate these works. Scary films should be scary, and if that scariness does not hold up well over time, were they ever really scary to begin with? In other words, were these films actually any good?

AUDIENCES TODAY OPENLY LAUGH AT THE ‘THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN’.

“Halloween” has always been my favorite horror film, but mostly because I was about ten or eleven when I saw it. I got to test its long-

Of Mind and Mountain

term scare appeal last year, when a buddy of mine and I caught a latenight screening at the Criterion.

The audience was literally laughing for an hour and a half, and there I am sitting in the back of the theater, uncomfortable and uneasy. I wanted to be terrified, but the truth of the matter is, “Halloween” just isn’t all that terrifying — anymore.

And don’t get me started on horror films that predate Hitchcock’s “Psycho” — itself a classic example of when a scary film ceases to be scary and simply becomes an exercise in psychoanalytic over-examination. Basically, it’s not even worth trying to work out the demerits of a film like “Nosferatu” or even “The Night of the Hunter” — these movies are just too old. Audiences today openly laugh at “The Bride of Frankenstein,” though I bet if you took an audience from 1933 and screened “28 Days Later,” half a dozen patrons would die of heart attacks.

I don’t think any horror film stands up well over time, and that’s a shame. I’d love to feel the same awe today as I did when I was 10 or 11 and watching, for the first time, Michael Myers chase a young Jamie Lee Curtis all over Haddonfield, Ill. with a butcher knife. But it’s just not going to be the case.

Even so, what you ultimately can’t take away is that initial experience of excitement and fright. It seems, then, that what’s really at stake in these movies is whether or not you’re actually entertained.

Like I said before, if you’re sitting down to watch a horror film with a group of three or four friends, it’s of no consequence that you’ve trained yourself on when to expect the blood and gore. At the end of the day, you’re having a good time. The actual horror is just an added bonus.

Contact MICHAEL LOMAX at michael.lomax@yale.edu .

In Praise of Pinot // BY BRYCE WIATRAK

// BY ALLIE KRAUSE

Left, right. In, out.

That’s all there is when you’re on the mountain. The steady rhythm of your feet. The soothing sound of your own breath. Just your body and the trail ahead of you.

I write this atop East Rock looking down on New Haven, the hazy blue sea to my left, an endless stretch of autumnal trees to my right. There’s an adorable elderly couple a little ways away, chatting, laughing and holding hands — something I normally wouldn’t care to notice, given my perpetual state of hustling to my next class, the library or Blue State for that necessary caffeine hit. But up here, far from the seemingly never-ending rush of campus, I can see a little more clearly.

Before fall break (oh hey #5dayWKND), I was a mess on the verge of a breakdown. I felt suffocated, inundated in a wave of work and entangled in the web of my personal problems and the ones of others. I know, of course, that I’m far from the only one — we’re all lost in our own heads, attempting to navigate our own tempest. But this solidarity, while comforting on its face, seems to make it all the harder.

My depression, for a while dormant, had once again reared its ugly head to drag me under. I was drowning. So I decided to hike.

It wasn’t a decision I arrived to on my own — my friend chose this time to invite me to stay with her up in Vermont, in a house obscured by trees of every shade of autumn, virtually secluded from the rest of the world.

Whether or not she knew it then, this trip would prove the life raft that pulled me out from beneath the murky waters in which I had struggled to stay afloat.

I WAS DROWNING. SO I DECIDED TO HIKE. I rose Friday morning for my first full day and, as quite the delightful contrast to New Haven, wasn’t woken up by the excruciatingly loud beeping of rubbish trucks or the obnoxious gunning of a motorcycle engine. I stepped outside, the only sounds to be heard the light chirp of a blue jay and the wind whistling through the leaves, which at this time of the year were barely clinging to the trees.

As we embarked on our first hike of the trip, up Belvidere Mountain, I still struggled to quiet the swirl of infinite thoughts in my head, going round and round and round again. But the further up the mountain we climbed, the eas-

S U N D AY NOVEMBER 3

ALLIE KRAUSE HER GRACE’S TASTE ier it became to let go. All I could think about was putting one foot in front of the other and measuring my breath.

As we marched onwards and upwards, I watched the browned autumn slowly turn to a winter wonderland, a virgin layer of snow covering that dying season.

Gradually, my mind began to resemble the snow on the path: clean. Clear.

The troubles that had so haunted me in New Haven became suddenly manageable as I grew completely absorbed in my body and the mountain. Left, right. In, out.

Coming down, the browned leaves that had so reminded me of death before were beautiful, creating a multicolored carpet that crunched ever so satisfyingly underfoot as we made our way back out of the forest.

I was worried that on my return to New Haven this state of clarity would leave me and I would be left once again to face my demons alone. I lay in bed Sunday night remembering all the things I had to do this week. Write a paper. Study for a test. Organize a fundraiser. Organize gear orders. Write another paper. Start research for a final paper. Write this column. And most importantly: Find a Halloween costume (in case you were wondering, I settled on hipster Minnie Mouse).

I could feel myself beginning to panic, that intermittent cycle creeping back into light. So I made a pledge: “Allie, tomorrow you are going to hike to East Rock.” Though comparably small next to the sprawling, majestic mountains of Vermont, that brief hike still provided me with that calm that had so relieved me up north. Left, right. In, out.

I’m not one to run away from things.

I know that my problems won’t just magically disappear every time I go for a hike — they’ll still be waiting for me at the bottom. But with clear eyes and a clear mind, the kind only found in a trek up nature’s walkways, I know I can tackle them. I know that I am stronger than them.

If you ever want to join me on a hike, just hit me up. Monday afternoons and weekend mornings, rain or shine. Providing there isn’t over a foot of snow on the ground, of course. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Contact ALLIE KRAUSE at alexandra.krause@yale.edu .

Although it is officially November today, let’s be honest: We still have two more nights of Halloween. But, if you’re looking for a slightly more low-key way to rally, then I would suggest Pinot Noir, our grape variety of the week. If there were one word I could use do describe Pinot Noir, it would be elegant. Light to medium-bodied, this is a super-smooth red you can drink through the summer, but it carries enough weight to warm you up in the chillier months as well.

Today I’m sipping two Pinot Noirs — one from France, and one from the United States.

People are often intimidated by French wine. First off, the labels are in French, often featuring a drawing of some castletype building, seemingly indistinguishable from one brand to the next. But, if you learn the basics, French wine labels are actually incredibly easy to dissect. I typically look for four things when picking out a bottle of wine: vintage, region, varietal and producer. The French map those out clearly on every bottle.

The easiest to find is the vintage — the year the grapes were picked — as it should be the only date on the bottle.

The next step is where new wine enthusiasts usually get confused. The French wine industry is so organized that the region alone will tell you the grape variety or varieties used to make the wine. All quality wineries in France operate under the AOC system, or Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée. For a wine to be deemed AOC, it must conform to certain regulations, most notably that only certain grape varieties can be grown in certain regions.

For this reason, an experienced oenophile will know that Vouvray is always the grape Chenin Blanc, or that Pomerol is a Merlot-driven Right Bank Bordeaux blend. The more French wine you drink, the more familiar you’ll become with the different regions and their grapes. But for starters, if you’re feeling lost in the France section of your local wine store, a simple Wikipedia search on your smart phone will tell you what you’re looking at. Finally, the producer is the other set of the words you’ll find on a French label, often beginning with “Domaine” or “Château.”

The French wine industry boasts centuries of rich history, so they are pretty stuck in their ways about what grapes can be grown where. The American wine industry, on the other hand, is still relatively new, constantly experimenting by growing new grape varieties in different areas. For that reason, American wine laws are decidedly less strict. The American counterpoint to the AOC guidelines is the AVA system, or American Viticultural Area. An AVA has clearly defined boundaries, and must feature distinctive terroir (climate, elevation, soil, etc.).

For an American winery to write an AVA on their wine label, 85 percent of the grapes used must come from within those borders. But, unlike in France, the AVA will not tell you exactly what you’re

BRYCE WIATRAK WINESDAY drinking — there’s no guarantee that a red Sonoma wine is Cabernet Sauvignon. So, with American wines, you’ll typically see both the AVA and the grape variety on the label.

Back to Pinot Noir: I’m sipping a 2010 Burgundy by Chartron et Trébuchet and a 2010 from Emerson Vineyards, from Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Burgundy is the gold standard for Pinot Noir, producing some of the most expensive and complex wines in the world. Understanding the region is really quite simple: all white Burgundy is made from Chardonnay, and all red Burgundy is made from Pinot Noir (with the exception of Beaujolais, the southern tip where they do their own thing).

But, alas, Chartron et Trébuchet decided to play nice, naming their wine “Bourgogne Pinot Noir.” This Burgundy definitely falls on the weightier side of the spectrum for Pinot Noir, a perfect fit for the time of year. With notes of cola and spice on the nose, the wine holds a distinct earthiness, leading to a bold, lingering finish.

PEOPLE ARE OFTEN INTIMIDATED BY FRENCH WINES. The Willamette Valley AVA is one of America’s latest Pinot Noir hotspots, but other great American Pinots come from California AVAs such as Carneros, the Sonoma Coast and Mendocino County.

This Emerson Pinot tastes a bit jammier than the Burgundy. Aromas of vanilla and Bing cherry carry to the palate, meeting flavors of fresh raspberry and cola.

This wine has a vibrant, refreshing acidity, paving the way for a gentle and delicious exit.

Ultimately, whether it’s French or American, you can’t go wrong with Pinot Noir this time of year. And one last note: It is a complete pain to grow. This particularly finicky variety loves warm days and cool nights, causing stress for winemakers worldwide. So as you unpack your winter coats and accessories, take a moment to sit back with a glass of Pinot Noir and really appreciate the passion and perseverance behind the bottle.

Both the Chartron et Trébuchet “Bourgogne Pinot Noir” 2010 (Burgundy, France) $17 and the Emerson Vineyards “Pinot Noir” 2011 (Willamette Valley, Ore.) $20 are available for purchase at The Wine Thief (181 Crown St., New Haven).

CHURCH

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Any denomination // 10:00 a.m.

You’re gonna need it after this Halloweekend.

Contact BRYCE WIATRAK at bryce.wiatrak@yale.edu .

“Party in the USA”

Reminisce on when Miley Cyrus was a true American.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND THEATER

PLAYING WITH UNDERPANTS // BY AKASH SALAM highlight her lively performance throughout the play. Her interactions with other characters, particularly with Cohen, drive much of the plot forward. Her carefree nature also emphasizes the play’s focus on engaging and likable characters.

WHEN THE LAST LINES WERE PLAYED OUT ... I WAS LEFT WANTING MORE. Although humorous and full of witty dialogue, the story falls a little short. For instance, Maske and Gertrude almost have an affair midway though the play, but their plans suddenly stall when Gertrude decides to pull out. Not only does this scene add very little to the story, it becomes a distant memory as the play progresses. When Maske and Gertrude meet again

When Evil Pays builds and builds until it’s too late.

The actions of the townsfolk alone are enough to convince us, in the words of the priest, that Hell is within ourselves; still, the lighting design of Caitlin Rapoport DRA ’15 and the sound design of Brian Hickey DRA ’15 sound design work together to emphasize this dark vision of human nature. At several moments, the front stage lights beam onto the players and throw threatening shadows on the walls behind them. These shadows, accompanied by screeching strings or discordant accordions, become players in themselves — embodying the growing darkness of the townspeople. It is the kind of obvious symbolism that you can snicker at, but the manner in which the shadows loom over Alfred is impressive and unnerving.

THE ACTIONS OF THE TOWNSFOLK ALONE ARE ENOUGH TO CONVINCE US ...

THAT HELL IS WITHIN OURSELVES. While “The Visit” does stumble upon its tonally odd beginning and long running time, it’s a production that both tells an intelligent story and makes the audience reconsider their own complicity. This is not just a play about a small town full of greedy people; this a play about how human beings systematically degrade each other. This is play about the kind of people who participated in such real life horrors as the transatlantic slave trade, the Holocaust and the Abu Ghraib prison, where a cold, steady, illogical logic made evil easier than good.

Contact PATRICE BOWMAN at patrice.bowman@yale.edu .

// CHARLES ERICKSON

S U N D AY NOVEMBER 3

was not finished or the characters still had something to prove. The show left a lot of loose ends, and plot points, unresolved. What really happened to those underpants, anyway?

And the nice silky cloth?

As I rode the taxi back to Yale, I realized it was not the story that left me wanting more — it was the characters. Every one of the six performers played their parts so beautifully, so creatively, so imaginatively that I could not help but long for more. Even though the satire’s message was shallow, the cast filled the comedy with memorable and humorous moments.

And their sense of fun and enthusiasm overshadowed any weaknesses of the plot.

Contact AKASH SALAM at akash.salam@yale.edu .

Well Worth Appraisal

// BY PATRICE BOWMAN

If you only watched the light-hearted beginning of “The Visit,” directed by Cole Lewis DRA ’14, you would never guess how messed up everything becomes when the play hits its stride. This tragicomedy, about an extremely rich woman who promises to revive Güllen, her dead-end hometown, if they kill her old lover, begins as one of those self-aware productions that can’t get enough of making you laugh at its overly theatrical nature. For instance, Güllen is made up of a set of dollhouse-like scenery, which the actors pick, stack together, and sit upon. We aren’t sure whether these props represent a location or are just a big collection of toys — look at how wacky we are, the performers seem to say.

But the theatricality turns sinister with the arrival of Claire Zachanassian, played by Mariko Nakasone DRA ’14. From the moment that she bosses around the train conductor who drops her off in the town, Nakasone emerges as the most energetic presence in the play. She is elegant, sexually teasing, and, when she reveals her proposal, threatening. But she is also sympathetic. Nakasone balances Claire’s thirst for vengeance with her lingering feelings for Alfred Ill, the lover who she intends to call a hit on. When Claire first reunites with him, you can see in Nakasone a desire to rewind time and forgive him. But Alfred abandoned her when she was young and pregnant. You can see the despair in her appearance — sunken cheeks, hollow eyes and a prosthetic hand — though shes covers it with anger and flaming red wig.

Alfred, portrayed by Chris Bannow DRA ’14, is less energetic but equally sympathetic. He has married a woman for money, though he no longer loves her. Because his family life is so unfulfilling, he starts to yearn for Claire, though he also must take responsibility for leaving her when she most needed him. I couldn’t help but feel dread as Claire’s proposal turned the townspeople against him and they began brandishing guns in his face.

While the play faults anyone who values material goods over humanity, it takes a particular interest in condemning do-nothing religious and intellectual figures. Once Claire promises money in exchange for Alfred’s death, the townspeople start buying on credit.

The priest, portrayed by Christopher Geary DRA ’15, exchanges his sackcloth for a crimson cloak, expecting to be paid as soon as someone else kills Alfred. It is easy to scoff at him, but we cannot do the same with the conflicted schoolmaster, played touchingly by Mamoudou Athie DRA ’14. An intelligent individual, he suspects Claire’s motives from the beginning, tries to bargain with her and attempts to expose the town’s corruption to reporters, but, in the end, he abandons his decency for money. Like him, some of us assume that groupthink is only the affliction of the masses.

The play gives us a reality check.

This production is so keen on proving how fallible we all are that, from the very beginning, the characters break the fourth wall and address the audience. The townsfolk instruct us to wave a flag or to cheer when Claire arrives, for instance. I thought this conceit was pointless until the townsfolk started to betray Alfred.

Without thinking, I had joined into a mob mentality.

I may not have been onstage with the characters that were plotting Alfred’s death, but I was a passive participant who indirectly supported their corruption and mindlessness. The play runs for a little less than three hours, which seems like a bit much, but this length allows the presence of evil in Güllen to accumulate slowly. The violence

later in the play, they barely interact, and there are no hints that their love story even took place.

The audience was lively throughout — laughing at every joke and murmuring gleefully after many of the humorous lines. The references to gender roles and current political issues were particularly effective at generating buzz. For example, when Versait and Louise played with a long sword — creating an allusion to private sexual parts — audience members cried with laughter. It was in those moments when the audience engaged — with thunderous laughter or silent murmurings — that the play truly shined.

“The Underpants” concludes with a surprise reveal and a twist. However, both fall short of their premise. When the last lines were played out and cast finally walked off, I was left wanting more. The show ends mid-plot, without revealing exactly what it’s meant to be a satire of. It was as if the story

ON

enough. Government clerk Theo Maske (Jeff McCarthy) and his wife, Louise, go to a parade in hopes of watching the Kaiser.

However, the royal celebrations quickly escalate into a disaster when Louise’s undergarments are exposed to the entire crowd.

Terrified of the scandalous situation, Maske becomes terrified of losing his job.

Ironically, the incident results in a boom for Maske’s side business, renting out rooms in his house. Three men — Versait, Cohen, and Klinglehoff (George Bartenieff) — all arrive to stay with the Maskes. And throughout the play, Versait and Cohen desperately try to court Louise, who is advised by Gertrude Deuter (Didi Conn), her opportunist neighbor, to play along with the men and pursue love’s guilty pleasures.

Louise, as played by Leona, is a lovable character — oozing with the distinctive personality of an irresponsible bride. Leona’s graceful movements across the stage and her cheerful voice

S ERICKS // CHARLE

It was a devious plan: Get rid of Benjamin Cohen (Steve Routman). Permanently. Louise Maske (Jenny Leona) and Frank Versait (Burke Moses), two lovers frantic for some sexual pleasure, despise Cohen, an older gentleman who shamelessly desires Louise’s undivided love. Together, they try to get the older man so drunk that he never comes back to the house.

But when that plan fails, Louise comes up with something even more sinister. She tricks Cohen into believing that he is so sick that his mouth is “scarlet” red, his tongue made of “rabbit fur” and his head a burning “inferno.”

Then she tells him that his affliction can only be cured with a dangerous potion. Desperate and foolishly in love, Cohen does exactly what Louise hopes — he drinks the forbidden potion.

But, before it reached this level of chaos, “The Underpants,” a satirical comedy written by Steve Martin and performed at the Long Wharf theater, started out simply

RESTAURANT WEEK

Thirty New Haven restaurants // All week Featuring dinner at Caseus for $32. You deserve all the cheese.

// BY MADELINE DUFF

The last minutes before dimmed lights sig- Actress Alex Trow GRD ‘12, in the role of Alec’s naled the start of “Owners” at the Yale Rep- mum, commands the stage with silence, rather ertory Theatre felt a bit like collect calling the than Marion’s forceful voice. Believed to be los1970s — and being put on hold. Vince Guaraldi- ing her mind by Alec and the rest of the famesque jazz piano kept the wait upbeat, (reminis- ily, she rests in her chair and almost melts into cent of a “while your party is reached” phone the apartment’s scenery. Trow’s makeup is also melody) and the scene on stage seemed paused, layered into wrinkles so subtly that she disapand about to pick up again. The destination: an pears into a role over 40 years her age. When urban London neighborhood in a transitional she whimpers, “Edie” — a name that’s never time of day. Morning or evening has already attached to someone in the plot — Alec usustarted here. A plastic dog figurine stands fro- ally answers her because, as he says, she likes zen at the heels of a larger, hunched female someone to answer back. One call to her famstatue. Another female mannequin props her- ily: “Edie,” though, goes unanswered when Lisa, self against a grocery cart. A tune began to play Alec’s wife, struggles on a nearby bed with labor — one to twist and shout or shimmy to. pains. Though clearly pained with the labor of On the other end of the line, the characters movement herself, Alec’s mum unexpectedly in Caryl Churchill’s now retro play answer with raises herself up. She creaks out of her chair, and passionate voices. They are people whose lives moves toward the door, into the kitchen, and spin in and out of control. The enigmatic real back into the parlor — returning with a tea ketestate agent Marion sits at the top of the hier- tle, no less. The journey proves costly, though, archy and magnificently continues to scale her and she crumples back into her chair a bit. Still, community’s social ladder; on the other hand, she has made it. her soon-to-be unemployed butcher husband, “Owners” certainly makes it, too. Carmen Clegg, falls prone to the economic downturn. Martinez’s GRD ‘13 professional scenic design His pride falls with him. Their neighbors, the creates artful interludes between the silence lively Lisa and consistently calm Alec expect and sound of the play’s moving, three-dimena baby but never expect the smooth-talking sional characters. Their world, and the probWorsley (Marion’s colleague) to offer to pur- lems that threaten to break it up — sexism, chase their home. social injustice, racism — can still call out today.

Clegg calls Marion a “magnet” and actress Brenda Meaney GRD ‘13 successfully conducts both a cold, austere intelligence — masked by Contact MADELINE DUFF at a dark sense of humor — and a fiery electricmadeline.duff@yale.edu . ity. After the lifeless female faces of the models we first see on stage, Marion’s entrance is all the more animated; her ambition propels her. Costumer Seth Bodie provides Marion with an utterly fabulous green coat for her first entrance, and the stylish ensembles reappear throughout the performance. Yes, Miranda Priestley, Marion made fashion statements in her office before the devil wore Prada.

But Marion, too, reveals her humanity. She is more than a hungry mogul. Turns out, her impulsive pursuit of the flat in question is really a quest for the man inside of it. Marion never fell out of love with the now broken down, uncaring Alec. The choices she now makes in her own are all in the shadow of the life she could have had with him. Marion manipulates Lisa into letting her adopt Lisa’s baby. And, when Alec still refuses to commit to her, she and Worsley plot revenge. He suggests burning the house down, and Marion likes the idea. Toward the climax of the play, her sanity seems to deteriorate as Alec’s revives. She clings to Alec’s baby, her piece of him, and declares a fit of passion: “I can be as terrible as anyone!” This assertion of emotional equality almost recalls Jane Eyre — perhaps Marion’s unique tragedy lies in her combination of both Bronte’s learned heroine and the madwoman in the attic (flat?) all at once. Overload!

In contrast to such outwardly dramatic scenes, Churchill also // JOAN MARCUS includes moments of quiet power.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Obscure political stickers on your laptop “Commercial Fishing — A Valuable Industry”

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

TRICKS AND TREATS: JEN KRAMER ’14 TALKS MAGIC // BY LEAH MOTZKIN

T

he world of Jen Kramer ’14 is truly filled with magic. As founder and president of the Yale Magic Society, this illusionist extraordinaire says that for her, magic is all about making people smile. From performing at the release of the seventh Harry Potter book to Jeff McBride’s Magic TV, Kramer is no stranger to crowds. She has interned at Las Vegas’ Nathan Burton Comedy Magic and met all of your spellbinding icons — Criss Angel, David Copperfield and David Blaine. In honor of Thursday’s bewitching holiday, WEEKEND sat down with Kramer to discuss her path and approach, as well as to see some tricks performed firsthand.

A. For my tenth birthday, I received a magic book from my uncle Steve, called “The Royal Road to Card Magic.” And I remember sitting cross-legged on the floor of my room, reading this book cover to cover. I just could not get enough of it. From that point since, I started going to magic camp, magic conventions. I joined young magicians’ groups. It’s been a wonderful community to be a part of.

Q. What was it like for you as a child entering this magical world?

A. It’s a crazy world. You have different magic communities — in New York, in Las Vegas, for example. I’ve been really fortunate to meet other magicians who are just so supportive of each other and we all meet up and brainstorm.

Q. What are the basic first tricks you learned, and how did you go about developing your own illusions later on?

A. The first thing for me was card magic. I think a lot of people start off with close-up magic. It makes sense logistically — all you need is a deck of cards or a couple of coins. But everyone has his or her own path. And that’s one of the exciting things about magic — you meet so many different people, all of whom have done different types of magic, met different people, been different places.

One of the exciting and challenging aspects of magic is figuring out how to put your own twist on the effects you perform.

Q. You talk about different types of magic that people perform. To you, what is magic?

A. Magic is so many things to me. One thing that makes magic unique as a craft is that it has this amazing ability to inspire wonder. I think that’s really powerful.

It brings out the five-year-old in everyone.

Q. What is your favorite trick to perform?

A. I can’t decide, I love so many.

Q. Well, can you describe some of your tricks?

A. I’d love to show you some!

She proceeds to pull out a deck of cards and her wallet and asks us to pick which one we’d like to see a trick with first.

Q. Do you have a deck of cards on you at all times?

A. Pretty much. My suitemates make fun of me sometimes. I’ll be going out for a run — iPod, deck of cards, good to go. They’re like, do you really need that?

We pick the wallet and she hands us two one-dollar bills for us to verify as real. She’s in performance mode. Her demeanor commands respect, and it is clear that she is serious about her craft.

Kramer wore short sleeves, she jokes, so that she wouldn’t be one of those magicians who always have something up their sleeves.

She plays with the two bills, saying that she will melt the molecules of the two together. Soon enough, a $20 bill is all that remains. Kramer quips that she can’t do that one all of the time — or it would cause inflation. She ends with a card trick, asking us to get close because the “hand is quicker than the eye.”

Q. What kind of positive impact can magic have on people’s lives?

A. Absolutely, I think it plays a really positive role in both magicians’ and spectators’ lives.

Magic is this great metaphor for life because magicians are tak-

ing these seemingly impossible things and making them possible. Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in magic have been performing at soup kitchens, homeless shelters …

And there are these two magicians, Tom and Janet Verner who have this organization called Magicians without Borders, and they spend most of the year traveling to war-torn areas of the world to spread their message of hope. Their message is: look, if we can make that card impossibly jump over there, then you too can overcome any obstacle you may be facing. They are incredibly inspiring.

Q. You founded the Yale Magic Society in your freshman year.

Can you tell us about the process of establishing the group and its membership today?

A. It’s a great group of guys, and a few girls. Most members came to Yale with little or no magic experience but lots of enthusiasm, and I’m really proud of how far they’ve all come. They’re awesome. We meet Wednesday nights; if people are interested, they can always feel free to shoot me an email, or send me an owl … Whether you’re a magician already or a Muggle who’d like to learn magic, you’re more than welcome!

When I came to Yale as a freshman, I was really excited to join some magic group. Yale is basically Hogwarts — there has to be a magic club, I thought. But there wasn’t one, so I reached out to some of the other magicians floating around campus at the time. We decided we all wanted to get together and jam and perform on campus and in the community. It’s been great to have this group to support each other and brainstorm. We bring in guests from Las Vegas to do Master’s Teas, workshops and lectures. We perform at Fellows Dinners in the colleges and at alumni reunions. And we have a lot of fun. I’m really excited for the future of the group.

Q. What advice would you have for someone interested in getting involved in the world of magicmaking?

A. Work hard, do what you love and have respect for the magic community. A great thing about magic is that when you go to a convention, you have the opportunity to meet and hang out with your role models. It’s really special how tight-knit the community can be and how welcoming many of the most accomplished, advanced magicians are to the younger, up-and-coming magicians.

Q. Who are some of your role models?

A. There are so many! There’s David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Nathan Burton, Mac King … I worked for Nathan Burton’s show at the Flamingo for two summers. He really knows the business of show business — especially in a place like Las Vegas, where everyone is competing to fill 750 seat theaters.

Nathan was always thinking of new, outside-the-box ways of

“

doing that. There is so much to learn and experience in magic, so if someone is starting, I’d say just absorb as much of it as you can.

Q. Maritess Zurbano recently pointed out in the Seattle Times this August that there are fewer than 50 professional female magicians in the world. What is it like being a woman in such a maledominated field?

A. At magic camp, I remember, I was one of eight or nine girls and there were, I think, 101 guys.

Some people say the magic community can be an old boys’ club, but in my experience, the other magicians have been really supportive. I also think that magic is moving in a direction where more women will get involved. In high school, I was a part of a committee back with one of my greatest mentors, Albert Lasher, that discussed this question. We were throwing out all sorts of hypotheses. Is it because all of the major household names of magicians are male? Also, you think of the classic image of a magician [as someone] in a top hat and tails. I even remember reading some of the classic magic books when I was a kid, and these books aren’t written for a 10-year-old girl.

They say, ‘reach into your trouser pocket and lift up your top hat.’

It’s a tradition that’s been maledominated, but it’s also something that is changing.

Q. What have been some of the highlights of your career thus far?

A. Having the opportunity to experience the magic scene in Las Vegas was exciting for me, seeing how things work out there. I grew up in New York and also had amazing experiences with the New York magic community, starting from the Society of Young Magicians group back when we used to meet in the basement of Maui Tacos. But getting to perform in Vegas was really cool. It’s like the Magic Mecca. I also love the idea of magic being something universal, something that transcends barriers. I’ve loved the chance to perform in different languages — French, Spanish and Swahili for example.

Q. What role do you see magic playing in your life after graduation?

A. Magic is a field where you’re really charting your own course.

It’s exciting and challenging.

There are so many possible paths that a magician could take. I want to stay true to what I love about magic. I want to do new things with magic, hopefully take it in new directions. I would love to inspire young magicians to reach people in new ways. These are some of the ideas that I’m exploring for my senior project through the Theater Studies department. It’s a floating magic show that will take place in April — a show that takes spectators outside of traditional theater space and into everyday settings with site-specific illusions.

I know I will be in magic for the rest of my life.

Contact LEAH MOTZKIN at leah.motzkin@yale.edu .

MAGIC IS MOVING IN A DIRECTION WHERE MORE WOMEN WILL GET INVOLVED

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Q. When did you get your first taste of magic, and what about it was appealing to you?