WEEKEND

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014

What happens when shrinking state resources go head-­to-­head with local need?

//By Isaac Stanley-­Becker, page 3

DEATH-DEFYING

B4

DATES

B6, B7

DANCE

B9

SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS

RESULTS AND NEW ENTRIES

POETIC PIROUETTE

Allie Krause reports on students scaling the world’s tallest peaks.

Did WEEKEND help them find love? Will WEEKEND help you find love?

Madeline Duff explores an interdisciplinary Yale collaboration.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

TO ALL MY LISTENERS OUT THERE // BY MAYA AVERBUCH At 12:30 a.m. one night last semester, while I wailed on my clarinet in Berkeley’s spacious, wood-paneled music room, someone knocked on the door. It was a girl from one floor up, bleary-eyed, pajama-clad and obviously not thrilled to be having a chat. For all those musicians who are deceived by the freedom of being able to pace through the vast space between two grand pianos, here’s a warning: The walls are not soundproof. Perhaps you noticed when people walking down Wall Street peered at you through the window, or when the common room population dwindled as soon as you started pounding those piano keys, but I, alas, did not. If I accomplish little in life, I will at least be able to say that I singlehandedly caused the Berkeley Master’s Office to impose practice hours, so that the poor souls upstairs can sleep a little.

There’s a reason that incident was particularly shame-worthy: The stream of sounds from an amateur classical musician’s practice room are often not, by any definition of mine, music. Part of my training is to hit high pitches that, even now, make me want to plug my own ears. I plod through the same passages over and over again, stretching them out of rhythm to teach my fingers how to move. There’s a certain futility

to it all, for I’m never going to have absolute flow. To all the girls next door who had to listen to me struggle through my scales: I’m sorry. I, too, wish there were another way.

I must have enjoyed practicing at some point in my musical life.

When I was five, at the beginning of my five-year stint with the plastic soprano recorder, I tooted out “Carmen” and “America,” from West Side Story, with gusto. My one-year fling with the flute left me perpetually light-headed. At least the piano work — scales in “The Virtuoso Pianist,” two-part inventions from Bach and the rest — was decent; the keys were reliable, even if my own movements were clunky. I kept a diligent record of clarinet practice hours when I started elementary-school band, and though I sometimes cheated a bit, I was fairly diligent. It was in the later years that the work got harder, the hours got longer and I ran circles in my head to justify skipping another few days for the sake of school assignments. I still feel guilty about it, yet when there’s a stack of reading in my room and winter’s ugly remains are visible through the window, the four-minute trek to the practice room does not happen often enough.

I should clarify that I’m not one of those virtuoso YSO musicians. I

played in a couple residential college orchestras last year and in a strange experimental music group ominously named “Black Is the Color.”

But college asks us to categorize ourselves: Whereas in high school I could point to my principal clarinetist position in the massive symphonic band, or the many hours of Saturday orchestra rehearsal, chamber music sessions and lessons, here “musician” has fallen dangerously close to the wayside. After a particularly severe bout of non-practicing over the course of winter break, my suitemate asked why I didn’t just quit. I tried to explain that this would be abandonment: abandoning the wooden, silver-keyed beauty that I spent months searching for on eBay; abandoning the label that I have proudly wrapped around myself since I was small; abandoning all the pieces I have yet to play.

I tell people that I’ve just temporarily lost my momentum. After attending a chamber music performance in India over winter break, I was suddenly ready to ask my friends to rehearse. I listened to New York’s classical music radio station on a recent snow day, when the office where I work was almost entirely empty, and I thought of when I would next get to practice my Bach Partita. But still I relegate classi-

DAWE

Congratulations! // BY JAKE DAWE

Subject: Official Offer Confirmation Letter 21 February 2014 Dear XXXXX, My name is Colin Harp! I would like to welcome you to what we here at the Company like to call “the Company.”

We are pleased that you are interested in joining us! This letter confirms the terms of our offer with respect to your terms of employment.

As Director of Hiring and Internship Services, may I say just how excited we all are that you would consider being a part of our team? And for the contributions you will make during your impending term of employment? And for you to become a part of what we like to call “the Company Family?” And for that individual something you will bring to the work environment; what we like to call the “Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient?” Let’s get started!

You might be asking, “Colin, wow. Just wow. I’m so, so, so ready to bring my Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient to the Company Family, but how do I prepare?” Great question, XXXXX! Here at the Company, we pride ourselves on making the most of your summer internship experience, or what we like to call your Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience. But this process is nothing if you, XXXXX, are not up to speed on what an Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience looks like. I would like to take the time to explain the Experience for you. (I think I just heard a “Thanks, Colin!”

Ha-ha.)

You will begin your Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience at your very own mobile cubicle. You might be asking, “Colin, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t cubicles generally, like, immobile?”

Great question, XXXXX! Here at the Company, we believe that borders should not bind the Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience experi-

ence. That’s why each intern will have his or her own cart, or what we at the Company like to call an Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience Mobile Command Center. (Wow! Where’s mine? Ha-ha.) Each intern will use his or her Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience Mobile Command Center to distribute what we like to call “IntraCompany CommuniText,” “IntraCompany CaffeBusiness Acoutrements” and “IntraCompany AgriResources.” You might be asking, “Colin, hold on. Don’t you mean mail, coffee and lunch?” Moving on, XXXXX!

THAT’S WHY WE OFFER COMPENSATION IN COMPANY POINTS! No internship is complete without compensation, especially the Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience. You might be asking, “Colin, I was under the impression that the Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience is unsalaried, and therefore, um, unpaid?” Correct! You might also be asking, “Colin, since the Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience is, um, unpaid, how am I to support myself during my term of employment at the Company?” Well, XXXXX, we understand that our interns come from many diverse backgrounds, including your background growing up in XXXX, XXXXXX. We pride ourselves on making our resources and professional outreach available to all people, regardless of socioeconomic factors.

That’s why we offer compensation in Company Points!

Company Points are our way of saying “thank you” for all the unsalaried work you’ll be doing for us during your exciting and unique term of employment. You might be asking, “Colin, hey. I don’t

mean to come off as aggressive or ungrateful, especially since I fought tooth and nail for this position and, like, my entire summer plan depends on it, but Company Points aren’t, like, currency, are they?” Not quite, XXXXX! But that’s what makes them so exciting. Company Points are redeemable in the Intern Dining Facility for Ramen.

(Get in line! Ha-ha.)

You might be asking, “Colin, what else are Company Points redeemable for?”

On a different note, we here at the Company are sensitive and receptive to the unique stories that make our interns so well-suited for our Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience. For example, XXXXX, we know that your experience growing up in XXXX, XXXXXX provided a rural and/or small town and/or suburban development and/ or apartment housing and/or urban sprawl upbringing that is crucial to what makes you, you! Your remarkable interest in XXXXX, your passion for XXXXXXXXXXXX, and your experience in XXX didn’t just make you stand out in the application process; They make you a vital member of our Company Family. We think that your rural and/or small town and/or suburban development and/or apartment housing and/or urban sprawl roots will be a valuable asset to the Company.

As I said earlier, may I just express how excited we are for your contributions to our team? For your Unsalaried Human Resources Personal Diversity Quotient Summer Growth Experience Mobile Command Center? For what you will do with your Company Points?

For how your upbringing in XXXX, XXXXXX will make us all one happy Company Family? We are so ready for you to join us, and once you sign the attached binding contract, we know you’ll be ready to join us, too!

Sincerely, Colin Harp Director of Hiring and Internship Services Contact JAKE DAWE at jacob.dawe@yale.edu .

F R I D AY

OUT OF A CORNER OF THE 60S

F E B RUA RY 2 1

Dream on; let’s blow this Popsicle stand, let’s boogie!

32 Edgewood Ave. // 4 p.m.

MEDANSKY

AVERBUCH

WEEKEND VIEWS

// ANNELISA LEINBACH

cal music to pockets of my life: car rides with my parents, paper-writing stress sessions in the library and the like. I struggle to slip from listening back into playing, but I remember what my teacher said last week: The most important sorts of musicians are not the professionals, but those who practice even when there are no paychecks. I can’t say that I play only because I love it — no life-

long relationship is that simple — but I keep at it. If this article meanders too much, I do apologize; I was in the practice room just now, trying to make music that someone, on the other side of that non-sound-proof door, would listen to without wondering when I would be done.

Contact MAYA AVERBUCH at maya.averbuch@yale.edu .

Send in the Broads // BY MARISSA MEDANSKY

The final scene of “What a Wonderful World” ends on the bathroom floor in Brooklyn, from which a ragged Ilana video chats her best friend Abbi in Astoria, Queens. Ilana, hung over, has just puked into the toilet; Abbi and the audience can see everything. Ilana lifts her head and stares into the webcam.

“Come over,” she implores. “We have pizza.” Abbi, with a slight smile, asks what kind. We know she’s considering the offer.

Though short enough for YouTube, the joke proves revelatory about the new sitcom “Broad City,” which premiered on Comedy Central last month.

The brief interaction between the two characters captures their more routine dynamic, with Ilana the uninhibited partier and Abbi a bit more uptight.

(Lead actresses Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, the co-creators of the series, base the show off their own relationship, and their off-screen closeness shines through in the pace and familiarity of the comedy.) The video chatting, too, highlights the importance of technology to the series, which Glazer and Jacobson first introduced as a webseries in 2009. Even the vomit encapsulates the pair’s willingness to engage in a steady stream of brash physical comedy, whether that means losing a front veneer to a jawbreaker or writhing to hide a weed baggie from police dogs in a delicate, internal, feminine location.

“BROAD CITY” EMBRACES THE REALITY OF AUTHENTIC FEMALE FRIENDSHIP. Most importantly, though, the joke reflects the underlying philosophy of the program. This, refreshingly, is one of sisterhood and female solidarity. “Broad City” embraces the reality of authentic female friendship. It is true that a world in which women spend time with one another is not unusual for television.

What distinguishes Glazer and Jacobson from the pack is their portrayal of a relationship that is easy and uncomplicated and effortless.

Many critics have compared “Broad City” to HBO’s “Girls,” which also centers on the struggling New York millennial experience. But the programs are very different. The members of Lena Dunham’s foursome often seem perpetually exhausted with one another. The tradition of Horvath and Bradshaw alike proves that efforts to compartmentalize all-American women into broad archetypes, while convenient, result in weird and sometimes inexplicable friend groups. Why can’t these ladies find better friends? Arbitrary groupings beget the requisite tension for drama but fail

to yield optimal on-couch enjoyment.

Unlike the “Girls,” Ilana and Abbi are friends in earnest. They dig each other and want to spend time together — over dinner, at parties, while throwing up, in flagrante delicto (watch the first episode!). They have found what works, as friends in any breezy comedy should.

Because “Broad City” examines the phenomenon of female friendship (and let’s face it: because it stars women), the program has drawn attention for what the Wall Street Journal has described as “sneak attack feminism.” Andi Zeisler, writing for Bitch Magazine, called the show’s feminism “baked-in, with an emphasis on the ‘baked.’” And PolicyMic’s Jen Winston described it as an example of “real, everyday” feminism that “[reflected on] how normal people actually behave.” She writes: “By doing things like imagining sex with Lil’ Wayne … and cleaning a man’s apartment in their underwear, the girls exercise their equality in ways that are more real than obvious.”

To me, though, understanding Ilana’s objectification of Weezy qua female empowerment is neither real nor obvious. If the women of “Broad City” burst stereotypes in their brashness, it is incidental — and in many respects irrelevant. Their universe is not our own but an absurdist stoner landscape that makes no claim to any sort of reality: a Comedy Central sitcom that airs after “Workaholics” and has featured a cameo appearance from Fred Armisen in a diaper.

Whether Ilana and Abbi, these fictional people, abide by the principles of feminism is irrelevant to my daily life.

What is more relevant is how these fictional characters influence real women.

Does the program appeal to the better angels of our nature? Or do we treat our hour of television as a Two Minutes Hate? Does “Broad City” elevate us beyond the hate-watch? If a show can inspire feminism in the real world, it is feminist enough for me.

Fortunately, “Broad City” has not only portrayed but also offered a model for uncomplicated female friendship to its viewers. The program succeeds in making viewers yearn for the kind of easy and effortless friendship its protagonists share, and in a sense helps foster these friendships in its audience.

I’ve spent many a half hour re-watching episodes with a rotating cast of female friends, and in those moments we are transported into a New York City without irony and cynicism, the bread and butter of girl-on-girl-(on-“Girls”?) hate. Everyone vomits, and there’s no need to make fun or get testy on Facebook. A true friend will always save you a slice.

Contact MARISSA MEDANSKY at marissa.medansky@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Bundling Up

Technical points will be deducted if your scarf isn’t sufficiently tucked in.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

CITY AGAINST STATE // BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER

This is a story about numbers.

The first number is 1978.

A story, with dateline New Haven, ran on page seven of The New York Times on May 29, 1978, with the headline, “Connecticut to Reimburse Cities for Tax Lost on Exempt Property.”

Explaining that, for the first time, a state government would make payments to municipalities as partial compensation for the presence of nontaxable nonprofit organizations, the story opened with an anecdote evocative of the Elm City’s property tax predicament.

“From his 13th-floor office window, Mayor Frank Logue [’48 LAW ’51] looked down at the Yale-New Haven Hospital and then at the hills beyond the city line — and beyond the city’s tax grasp — where most of the patients come from,” Matthew L. Wald, special to the Times, wrote.

He then quoted Logue, who governed the city from 1976 to 1979: “Only one in five patients in the hospital over there comes from New Haven, but its tax exemption hits us.”

The very same statement could come today from the mouth of Mayor Toni Harp ARC ’78, perhaps looking from her second-floor office window past the New Haven Green and beyond Center Church at Yale’s Old Campus.

After representing New Haven for 21 years in the Connecticut State Senate, Harp took the city’s helm this January, nearly 36 years after Logue reflected on what remains one of New Haven’s thorniest problems.

Roughly 47 percent of the city’s grand list — the enumeration of its properties — is nontaxable, either in the hands of the government or of nonprofit institutions exempt from paying property taxes.

In recognition of the revenue problems tax exemptions create — most harmful, though certainly not unique, to New Haven — the state elected in 1978 to lend a hand. A $10-million hand. Of that sum, New Haven would get roughly $2.9 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Times story reported.

A 100 percent reimbursement was not sought, the article said, in recognition for the benefits towns and cities receive from playing host to institutions such as Yale.

So they settled for a 25 percent in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), as the program is called. The state was already doling out $7.2 million in compensation for state-owned property through a program dating back to the 1930s. In total, the state would give $17.2 million that year.

In 2014, the numbers are larger — much larger. Under a formula laid down in 1999, towns and cities are supposed to get 77 cents back from the state for every dollar they lose from tax-exempt colleges and hospitals. For nontaxable state buildings, the reimbursement is 45 cents on the dollar.

In New Haven, the payment should sum to $105.3 million, more

than 20 percent of the city’s current operating budget for fiscal year 2013-’14.

Harp, who ran for mayor touting her clout in Hartford, put the matter succinctly.

“The state of Connecticut is a lifeline to New Haven,” Harp said.

THE COFFER HALF FULL

In recent years, that line has frayed. In 2014, New Haven is slated to receive $43.6 million in PILOT, well under half the amount it is owed: Just 29 percent of lost funds from colleges and hospitals and 33 percent from state-owned properties.

New Haven does not suffer alone.

Statewide, the payments have not hit statutory levels in years. In the wake of the recession, Connecticut has had to tighten its budget, relying on a clause of a 1999 statute specifying that the payments to each municipality can be reduced based on fiscal constraints.

tax-exempt status to bed, Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93, Yale’s deputy chief communications officer, insisted.

“What’s notable now … is that taxation of colleges and universities is not part of the conversation here because PILOT and the University’s voluntary payment have created a context where it’s not an issue and the focus can be on cooperation…,” said Morand, whose experience at Yale and in New Haven also includes a stint as a city alder in the early 1990s.

MORE, PLEASE

Taxation, however, is part of the conversation; lawmakers both in New Haven and across the state are making sure of that. As New Haven stares down its fiscal future — budget negotiations begin in March — city leaders are sending a message to Hartford: Give us what we deserve.

New Haven’s Board of Alders unanimously endorsed a resolution

THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT IS A LIFELINE TO NEW HAVEN. NEW HAVEN MAYOR TONI HARP

“As a former [New Haven] alderman, I always used to read it as ‘You should give us 77 percent,’” said Connecticut State Rep. Roland Lemar, who represents portions of New Haven and East Haven in the body that help decides New Haven’s fiscal future. “Most of my colleagues see it as, ‘We fund PILOT based on however much we’re lucky to have.’”

As New Haven’s budget dealings loom — and as it grapples with a major hole in state aid — some in city government are ready to do battle in Hartford for increased funding.

Harp promised a lighter touch.

“I’m going to go with my hat in hand,” she said, adding that budgetary requests from city department heads warn of a potential $19-million hole in the general fund. “If the state does find a surplus, they should give it back to the cities.”

Lurking behind the fragile relationship between the city and the state is a third player: Yale University, the largest employer in New Haven and a multi-billion dollar institution that pays virtually no property taxes on its prominent downtown footprint.

The property taxes the University does pay — more than $4.3 million for the golf course and University Properties retail locations — make Yale one of the five largest taxpayers in the city, according to Lauren Zucker, Yale’s assistant director for New Haven and state affairs. Those payments, combined with Yale’s vast voluntary contributions to the city, have put the question of Yale’s

in early February calling on Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and the General Assembly to fully fund PILOT. More than a dozen alders cosponsored the resolution, drafted by freshman alder Mike Stratton, who represents Prospect Hill and Newhallville.

“This is not charity for the city of New Haven — this is our right,” Stratton said before the Monday evening vote. “Just give us our money.”

Stratton said the state has sought to substitute PILOT payments for piecemeal “pet projects,” putting cash into programs of its choice rather than giving autonomy to New Haven. The city is best situated to allocate its own money, he said.

New Haven is taking the hit for all of Connecticut, Stratton added.

Nonprofit institutions — including universities, hospitals, museums and churches — benefit the entire state, indeed the region, but cripple New Haven’s ability to raise revenue, he said, echoing Logue’s logic from 1978.

“The whole region is freeriding on the backs of our taxpayers,” Stratton said. The city’s mill rate — which determines property taxes based on assessed value — is 41.88, one of the highest statewide. Under the current rate, the owner of a home with an assessed value of $200,000 would pay $8,376 in property taxes.

Harp has said she does not want to raise taxes in the budget she presents to city alders by March 1.

The Board’s statement is largely

symbolic, Stratton acknowledged.

But it represents just one piece of the alder’s plan to convince the state to send more money to New Haven.

Stratton has also devised a lobbying strategy, which he has hired Bob Shea, a West Hartford lawyer, to execute.

“Bobby [Shea] is helping us navigate where the power is,” Stratton said. Shea did not return multiple requests for comment.

One idea Shea will float with state lawmakers is creating a board with regional oversight over the allocation of PILOT funds.

If the 77 percent and 45 percent thresholds were met, Stratton said, New Haven could lower its tax rate by a full 20 percent.

Nancy Wyman, Connecticut’s Lieutenant Governor, said reaching full PILOT funding this year is not possible. The state lacks the necessary funds, she said.

Harp made a more modest ask in the legislative agenda she laid out the same week the Board passed its resolution. She requested a $5-million increase in PILOT payments to New Haven, a proposal that Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney called “reasonable” at the time.

Anything more, he said, would be difficult given the city’s financial constraints.

In his budget proposals — presented Feb. 6 at the opening of the legislative session — Malloy called for an $8-million statewide increase in PILOT for colleges and hospitals. If approved, the increase would mean just over $2 million more for New Haven, less than half of Harp’s stated goal and a fraction of the Board’s.

Stratton said he is after more than one-time upticks in funding. A small increase does little to “change the culture in Hartford” surrounding PILOT, he said. He called on New Haven’s state delegation to fight harder for city. Right now, “They’re taking the easiest road to compromise,” he said.

State lawmakers interviewed said more drastic alterations to PILOT funding this year are highly unlikely.

The biennial budget is already in place. Legislative sessions during even calendar years rarely see new appropriations but rather amendments to the current budget.

“A radical redetermination of our entire budget is not likely in the 90 days that we’ve got,” said Roland Lemar, House vice-chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee.

Further, state spending is capped at roughly $21 billion per year, Lemar said. To fully fund PILOT, the state would have to “blow through that

cap.”

Still, Lemar said, full statutory reimbursement is a worthy goal, one he has to figure out how to pitch as an urban legislator to his suburban counterparts.

AN EVER-SHRINKING PIE

PILOT funding is like a pie, said Connecticut State Sen. Len Fasano ’81, a Republican who represents parts of Durham, East Haven, North Haven and Wallingford — suburbs surrounding New Haven. As the number of nontaxable nonprofits balloons, and as their footprints expand, different municipalities demand a bigger share of the pie. If funding is static, one town’s increase has to mean another town’s loss.

Many cities get themselves into their own revenue crises, Fasano added, pointing to New Haven’s courting of Gateway Community College in 2012.

“The legislature doesn’t have control over the expansion that municipalities themselves are pushing for,” he said.

Rather than increasing PILOT funding, the state should clarify the process by which a nonprofit moves into a city and takes the property off the tax rolls, said Fasano, who sits on the Planning and Development committee. When Quinnipiac University took over the site of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in North Haven in 2007, the acquisition cost the city a fortune by making the property tax-exempt.

As the PILOT law stands, he said, the state overpromises and underperforms every year.

Fasano said problems of tax exemptions are not unique to New Haven — and the state already sends vastly more money to cities than to suburban towns. For every dollar New Haven sends to the state in taxes, it gets back nearly two dollars, he estimated; North Haven retrieves roughly 12 cents on the dollar.

“Don’t make it sound like you’re doing all these great services for the state, and we’re starving the city,” Fasano said. “If that much is coming from all of our pockets, you need to tell us what you’re doing with the money. And let us review it.”

Former New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said moving toward fully funded PILOT is important, but additional revenue should not change the need to control expenditures. He said the debate highlights the need to diversify the tax base.

An ability to levy a sales tax or to charge user fees would free New Haven from its exclusive reliance on SEE PILOT PAGE 8

1999

The Legislature increases the reimbursement for colleges and hospitals from 60 percent to 77 percent and for stateowned property from 20 percent to 45 percent, its current statutory level.

1987

The Legislature increases the reimbursement from 25 percent to 40 percent.

1978

1980

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 2 1

1985

2005

1991

Public Act 78-113 establishes PILOT for tax-exempt property owned by nonprofit colleges and hospitals.

Yale sets formula for voluntary payments based both on fire service quotient as well as the number of students and employees on campus

Yale begins voluntarily compensating the city, at first as a portion of New Haven's fire service budget

1990

THE PAPER BAG PRINCESS

Whitney Humanities Center Theater // 8 p.m.

The story of a strong, independent princess who don’t need no Ronald.

1995

2000

2005

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Puddle Jumping

No industrial rain boots prohibited.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND CLIMBS

SCALING THE SEVEN SUMMITS // BY ALLIE KRAUSE

On Jan. 2nd, 2014, Alex Roth ES ’15 and Pek Shibao DC ’15 found themselves covered in ice.

They were at Nido de Condores, the second high camp on Mt. Aconcagua. Outside the paper-thin tent it was -25 degrees Celsius, and the 80 km/h wind howled. Pitched on an incline, they were both wrapped up in their -40 C gear and sleeping bags.

As he slept, Shibao had rolled into Roth, who proceeded to push him back over. The push jolted Shibao awake. He then discovered that a thick layer of condensation and ice had frosted over their sleeping bags as they slumbered.

It wasn’t until this point, the two recall, that they realized the true implications of high-stakes climbing. Their bodies responded in kind, close to crumbling amid these extreme conditions.

It was 2 p.m. on Jan. 4th, 2014.

They had started climbing the mountain on Dec. 25th, 2013, and were now on the last part of the summit push.

They had begun the push at 4 a.m. and had now reached La Cueva. At 21,850 ft. above sea level, the air was incredibly thin. It took five breaths to even take one step forward.

So close to the top, Roth and Pek were told by one in their group that it was not advisable for them to continue — they were going so slowly in the hour leading up to this point they were unsure whether they would be able to make it to the summit. Close to physical collapse, and having been on the mountain for 11 days, these last few hours seemed nigh impossible.

“We’re continuing on,” Shibao told them.

The peak was in reach, but the potential for danger still loomed.

Just a few days before their own summit push, on Dec. 28th, two American climbers had died from pulmonary edema — fluid in the lungs — as a result of altitude sickness just 700 ft. from reaching the top.

At this trying juncture, Shibao and Roth drew inspiration from another member of their group. At the third high camp, Camp Colera, he had expressed to them his joy at being exactly where they were; he felt completely fulfilled. If he made it to the summit, he said, it would be but a bonus.

The spirit of these words compelled them to soldier onward. The climb up the Canaleta, a journey that would have taken 10 minutes under normal conditions, took two hours. But, at 3:11 p.m. on Jan. 4th, they made it to the summit.

They had just arrived at the top of Mt. Aconcagua, one of the mountains necessary to climb in the Messner Seven Summits Challenge. It’s an incredible

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 2 1

feat, to be sure, but for Shibao and Roth, it’s just the beginning. *** For many, Yale can feel like a very small place at times, a place in which it is far too easy to find oneself falling into the rut of the daily grind. Once in a while, it’s important to break away from the mould and do something extraordinary.

Shibao and Roth carry this banner daily. On a frigid Monday, we pile into a booth in the Davenport Dive — no small feat given the ample coats we’re wearing to protect against the bitter New England winter. The sense of camaraderie between the two of them is tangible.

Over winter break, Roth and Shibao achieved the kind of goal that most will only ever dream of.

Together, they climbed Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. Located in the Andes and peaking at 22,841 ft., Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas and the second-tallest in the world after Mt. Everest.

When asked about their favorite parts of the trip, Roth joked: “It was more a series of unfortunate events that we learned to embrace as humorous.”

“It’s really Type B kind of fun,” Shibao concurred.

A true test of human endurance, the Seven Summits challenge consists of climbing the highest mountain on every continent: Everest in Asia, Aconcagua in South America, Denali in North America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Vinson in Antarctica and Puncak Jaya in Australia. By climbing Mt. Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro, Shibao is two mountains deep into the Seven Summits challenge. Roth, co-coordinator of Yale Outdoors, still has six mountains to go.

In fact, it was at a Yale Outdoors meeting at the end of their sophomore year that Shibao vo i ce d his desire to climb Aco n ca g u a in order to take the n e x t step of t h e

Seven Summits Challenge. Shibao describes Yale Outdoors as having been the perfect place to find a person who would be willing to do something “so crazy” with him. Though the group tends to keep its 50 or so trips a year to within an hour of campus, many of its leaders and members participate in fall and spring break trips and plan more intense expeditions together outside of term-time.

“I did Kilimanjaro in Africa freshman summer with a couple of other friends. After, I decided it was time for something much more challenging, and Roth was down, so I decided to rope him in and we planned our trip to Argentina,” Shibao recalls.

Of course, preparing to climb a mountain like Aconcagua is no easy task. Beyond improving stam-

the weeks leading up to the climb.

Their love of mountains is undeniable, though it certainly isn’t rooted in the landscapes of their homes.

Roth is from Indiana, which, with the exception of some rolling hills, is largely flat. Shibao’s homeland of Singapore also leaves something to be desired for those with hiking ambitions.

“We basically have no mountains of any sort,” Shibao laments. “Just tall buildings.”

Even so, both embraced every opportunity they could to travel.

While Shibao’s affinity for the outdoors comes from his high school days when he got the chance to travel more, including to Korea and Japan for winter-climbing, Roth’s desire to climb mountains was inspired by his

“IT WAS A MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT. WE’VE PLANNED HALF A YEAR TO COME HERE , AND WE’RE NOT GIVING UP NOW.” PEK SHIBAO ’15

ina, Shibao and Roth had to ready themselves to face altitude sickness, extreme weather conditions and a host of other physical and psychological challenges.

Each underwent a tough training regimen in the six months prior to their trip. Shibao’s workout of choice was carrying 40 lb. bags up and down the stairs of Payne Whitney. Due to a back problem, Roth was unable to follow a similar program, running 8 miles three times a week instead to increase red blood cell count, which intensified to every day in

father, who is also a climber. Mountain climbing, he elaborates, came with both the opportunity to travel and to bond with his family, and as he grew older, Roth and his father tackled increasingly challenging climbs.

Since then, his father has found himself incapable of completing the mountains he once could.

“In a way,” Roth explains, “some of my climbing is allowing my dad to live vicariously through me and be proud of my accomplishments. I try to share the experience with him as much as possible.”

T h o u g h c o m i n g f r o m

opposite ends of the globe and different walks of life, the deep dedication that carried them through training and the climb comes from a shared place of humility.

Reaching the summit of a mountain, while an extraordinary accomplishment, is about much more than the climber himself. Respect for the mountain, Shibao says, is of the utmost importance. And Roth agrees — “I see it as an exercise in defeating myself and my insecurities and pushing through them. The journey is always incredible and the view from the top is just as incredible.” *** For both Shibao and Roth, the view from the top of the Aconcagua, though stunning, is not enough. Several mountains remain in the Seven Summits challenge, and the two are already looking forward to the next.

Though Roth did not at first fully share Shibao’s dream of completing the Seven Summits challenge, since conquering Aconcagua he has experienced a change of heart, and is now looking to catch up with his friend by summiting Kilimanjaro. They intend to climb Denali together in the summer of 2015.

It’s a tall order, but one that Shibao and Roth both feel ready to take on.

Going forward, they will surely need this perseverance. Though Yale Outdoors provided them with a place to open conversation and brought them together, Roth and Shibao’s adventures must be funded entirely out of pocket. Yale will provide them no institutional backing.

One might look to the story of their final summit push up Aconcagua — that critical time when they were closest to giving up — in gauging their chances for success. Despite the physical strain and emotional hardship of the climb, Shibao and Roth revealed an equal commitment to the task at hand, foreshadowing a shared mentality for all climbs to come.

“It was a make or break moment,” Shibao remembers. “We’ve planned half a year to come here, and we’re not giving up now.”

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

//

THE FILES: A SURVEILLANCE DOCUDRAMA

LIE

KR

AU SE

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Iseman Theater // 8 p.m.

Don’t tell the NSA about this one.

AL

Olympic Bitching “I miss California”.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND ARTS

HEALTH IN HARMONY // BY DALIA WOLFSON

// HENRY EHRENBERG

In 4th grade, I fractured my right humerus in an arm-wrestling match with my elementary school crush and shortly afterward caught a terrific bout of cold.

Bed-ridden, arm nestled in a cotton sling adorned with blurred orange and red Sharpie signatures, and unable to write, I lamented my fate with mournful, out-of-tune limericks.

Peering into the glass display cases in the foyer of the Harvey Cushing Medical Library, those old ditties played scratchily in my head. The posters and songbooks on display are culled from the William Helfland collection in “A Cure for What Ails You,” an exhibit devoted to music about medicine. Pieces are arranged by venue (British town halls) or subjects (children, nurses) in the quiet space near the lobby of the building. Medical students brush past, preoccupied and tight-lipped, while their depictions inside the cases are open-mouthed with song.

A series of surgical compositions is especially sharphumored. “Oh Would I Were A Surgeon,” from the 1890s, opens with these lyrics: “You cut and saw and chisel, you cauterize and drill/ you wrench and twist and amputate, and possibly you kill!”

Frankly, I think I would prefer waiting room muzak to a medical

professional whistling this sort of tune. Nearby is a set of Argentine tango sheet music, with a print of doctors and nurses dancing passionately in blood-spattered white coats.

Facing each other from the opposite ends of the foyer are two cases, one dedicated to children and the other to nurses. The curator’s notes — written by librarian Toby Appel — discuss the function of medical-themed music in early education: teaching disease awareness and healthy practices.

In the nurses’ case, World War I songs praise the white angels of the battlefield, with melodramatic titles like “I Don’t Want to Get Well” and a picture of a sick soldier gazing adoringly at his caretaker.

In another case, we learn that those Pepto-Bismol jingles are the bubble-gum pink progeny of other medicine campaigns. In an attempt to sell its cure-all BromoSeltzer, the Emerson Drug Company distributed popular sheet music with ads on the front and back. “Murphy’s Head, or After Kelly’s Party” is a particularly loud example of this marketing. On the cover is an apish gentleman, clutching his head in pain, waiting at the druggist’s. The refrain runs: “A little Bromo-Seltzer, when we get awake. This is why our heads are cool and why they never ache.”

The song follows a particularly

long night for Lord Murphy, who is miraculously cured by a seltzer solution. Patrons could pick up these 54-song collections at pharmarcies, or mail in Bromo-Seltzer wrappers and receive a music packet in return.

But perhaps the most interesting idea that occurs within this crossover of music and medicine is the metaphorical capacity of “sickness.” Hence, we find Irving Berlin diagnosing a case of rag-ititis: complaining to the doctor that “any little rag will start me doing it” and “some peculiar something sets my feet a-jumping.” By the end of the recording, the conclusion is “there is no cure” — everybody, including the doctor, is dancing. In “You’re a Sweet Little Headache,” Bing Crosby serenades his migraine mistress. The performing arts become ‘addictive’, and love can be an ‘ailment.’

In the sheet music on display, then, we find the creative ability to transform medical terminology: to move from the sterile, hygienic rooms of a clinic to the feverish, sweaty, destabilizing realm of human emotion. All of a sudden, Ke$ha’s “Your Love Is My Drug” or Lady Gaga’s pleas of “I want your disease” are framed by a robust tradition.

matize the history that the accompanying plaques merely summarize, making for an experience that is at once that of an historical thriller and an epic. For instance, FBI papers appear throughout the exhibit, thus demonstrating how much surveillance the bureau placed on the Panthers. A read through these documents illustrates effectively why the Panthers would feel paranoid and, as a result, suspect members in their ranks. The many excerpts from newspaper columns that covered the turmoil on campus also highlight the significance of the May Day Rally as a cultural event. And with a snapshot of the aftermath of a bomb detonation at Ingalls Rink, we are reminded us just how close the protest came to descending into fatal violence. These images and documents transcend their stasis and pull the viewers into the same era as the Panthers and the protesters, causing

us to feel the mixed emotions of anger, fear and hope that the rally brought with it.

But even as the exhibition succeeds in drawing us into a more fiery time in American history, its conclusion is lukewarm. The exhibit would have benefitted from touching on how the trial indicated the continued fracturing of the Black Panther Party, which was already disintegrating under the FBI’s aggressive neutralization efforts and under the weight of its own ideological schisms (e.g., how the Panthers should deal with community involvement, political activism, gender roles, etc.).

By concluding the Black Panthers’ story with a plaque detailing the conviction of three of the New Haven Nine, we’re left with a cliffhanger. The Panthers’ story is much bigger than the trial and the rally on the Green. In the end, of course, this is an exhibit about Yale. The curators have little obli-

// JENNIFER LU

Contact DALIA WOLFSON at dalia.wolfson@yale.edu .

Black, White and Blue // BY PATRICE BOWMAN

Walk through the Sterling Memorabilia Room’s new collection of primary documents from the 1970 May Day Rally, and you’ll be transported from the small exhibition space to a more explosive time at Yale, when protests rocked the campus and violence threatened to erupt every day.

On May 19, 1969, Black Panther Party (BPP) members in New Haven kidnapped and killed fellow member Alex Rackley on the suspicion that he was an FBI informant. Nine BPP members, including the organization’s co-founder Bobby Seele, were arrested; they would later be known as the “New Haven Nine” (a nod to the Chicago Seven). Their trial instigated protests from people both within and outside of Yale, all of which cumulated in a three-day rally on the New Haven Green. While Yale didn’t meet demands for a moratorium on classes, the University demonstrated its support by pro-

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 2 1

viding shelter, food, first aid and a day care for the ralliers and their children.

But the rich collection of black and white photographs, posters, newspaper pages and documents demonstrates that, long before the New Haven Nine, sociopolitical tensions were already affecting life on campus. The first part of the collection sketches out the University’s growing pains during the tumultuous 1960s as it — like many other schools during this period — contended with the increased visibility of female students and students of color, as well as the presence of anti-Vietnam War protests and labor rallies.

It would be impossible for one exhibit to show us the entirety of Yale’s evolution during that decade; however, curators Sarah Schmidt and Bill Landis succeed in displaying objects that outline how the times were, as Bob Dylan would put it, a-changin’.

In one photograph, an elderly woman holds up a sign that reads “Yale Employees on Strike for a Fair Contract.” An album with the caption “Yale is the wrong place for a black radical” depicts two Black students pumping their fists upwards, making the Black Power salute.

The bulk of the collection’s strength rests in its documentation of the events that led directly to the May Day Rally, from the rumblings of discontent in early April to the loud, albeit largely peaceful, roar of the May Day weekend itself. The pieces of history that rest behind the glass cases have the demanding duty of bringing the past alive with still pictures and printed words; this isn’t a multi-part documentary that has the benefit of interviews or a smooth narration by Morgan Freeman.

As a result, the curators display certain primary sources that dra-

PROOFREAD

Sudler Hall // 7 p.m.

An a cappella jam after our English major hearts.

The May Day rally in a new light. gation to tell the story of the Panthers, even if it’s compelling.

While the exhibit informs us about a fascinating chapter in Yale’s history, the images also push us to consider the sociopolitical activism that has marked our stay at the college. In the past three years on campus, students have dealt with an increased awareness of sexual violence on campus, the boycotts surrounding wage disputes at Gourmet Heaven and a desire to open up more conversations on class issues. This new collection enables us to not only travel back to a more incendiary time, but also to reflect on how much has — or hasn’t — changed within the University’s gates.

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

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic House of Cards Sprint to the latest episode!

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND MATCHMAKES

WEEKEND PLAYS CUPID: Date Recap // BY WEEKEND

Our winning pair last week was Bachelorette #2— Angela Chen ’16—and Bachelor #10—Gregory Scutoro ’14. Read their scintillating stories of the experience below.

She says: // BY ANGELA CHEN 7:04 a.m.: Get up, run, shower, catch the shuttle up Science Hill.

12:57 a.m.: Lunch with Nicole.

“Guess who’s going on a blind date tonight on the YDN’s dime?”

“You’re kidding — do you know who he is?” “I think he wrote ‘Major: Lazer’ and included ‘being a tiger’ in his hidden talents.” I hope we have something to talk about, considering I’m more of a dog person.

5:00 p.m.: iMessage from Greg — I’m standing in the walkway between Branford and JE. And so it begins…

Truthfully, I expected to meet a leather jacket and Beats headphone-wearing Electronica aficionado. Instead, I spotted a cleanshaven guy who had on rugged hiking boots, a weatherproof North Face and a smile set with extremely straight, white teeth. Needless to say, within the first two minutes of conversation, I realized that I had read, in preparation, the bio for a completely different bachelor.

So this guy’s celebrity spirit animal wasn’t actually Mike Tyson.

I couldn’t help wondering what revealing idiosyncrasies were waiting for me in the biography of the real winner, Gregory Santoro ’14.

Gregory … like Gregory Peck, one of my favorite actors of all time.

Call me Greg, he had said in an earlier email. Several emails later, I

was aware of his sincere warmth and cordiality. I looked forward to meeting him and, being the silly girl that I am, decided to wear heels in honor of the occasion. Luckily, Greg didn’t seem one bit perturbed by my uncoordinated hops over icy patches and even guided me through detours that had more reasonable puddles as opposed to pools. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I walked beside him to Miya’s.

During dinner, I was so engaged in conversation about our mutual interests in running, being outdoors and traveling to Spanish-speaking countries that at times, Greg had to remind me to try the “Roll of a Lifetime” that sat patiently on the plate before me. He laughed at my little jokes, filled in conversation when I stuffed sushi in my mouth and graciously grabbed the check after the quickest two hours of my life had passed.

After a walk back under a shared umbrella and a warm embrace, I stepped into my common room, kicked off my heels and searched WEEKEND’s website for Bachelor #10’s biography. “Celebrity spirit animal: St. Bernard or St. Bernese Mountain Dog.” This is my kind of guy.

Contact ANGELA CHEN at angela.chen@yale.edu .

He Says: // BY GREGORY SANTORO After traveling in the rain and slush, I arrived outside Jonathan Edwards College to meet Bachelorette #2 — Angela Chen ’16 — for the first time. Shortly after I got there, I saw her exit the college from the gate farther down. It was funny, because we then had to do that awkward walk towards each other where you can’t say anything because you would have to yell, but you don’t just want to stare, either.

Finally meeting each other for the first time, I realized that this truly was the blindest date for the bachelorette. She asked, “So, you are Major: Lazer!?” Although I lawled pretty hard when reading that myself, I was not the infamous Major Lazer.

And then the date began.

We decided to go to Miya’s Sushi. Although rain is not unusual in New Haven, Angela stayed true to her bio and wore high heels! As we walked down Chapel and then Howe Street, there seemed to be no exit from the sidewalk not guarded by a pool of slushy ice water. Fortunately, she could jump with heels, as we traversed a wintery Elm City. Lucky for me, she took walking around puddles and snow like a champ. After many zigzags, we arrived to Miya’s dry.

I don’t know about her, but I had a great time. Fortunately, Miya’s

S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 2 2

was not crowded. We ate great food and talked about life in general. Of course, we talked about school a bit, but we also talked about travel and our ambitions for the future.

She was easy to talk to — there was never an awkward pause in the conversation (I think). It was exciting to hear about the things she has done, as well as her extremely ambitious plans. I’ve always talked about waking up at 7:00 a.m. to exercise, but Angela does this every day. Hearing about the achievements and goals of others has always helped drive me.

Angela also stayed true to another part of her bio — her major in happiness. The whole time she was smiling and laughing. The combo of ambition and positivity was a plus-plus. If anyone is feeling unhappy, just talk with Angela. We ended the meal with Miya’s fried ice cream, which is a dish every New Havenite should try.

On the way back, it was raining!

We had to traverse a now rainy and wintery New Haven quickly so that she could get to art history class.

And although the date began with a handshake, it ended with a great, big hug and a fun experience — thank you YDN.

WEEKEND PLAYS CUPID: The Blindest Date Part 2

BACHELOR #1 Major: Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering Interests: Power lifting, D.J.’ing, MUSIC, orchestra, and Air Force ROTC. Hidden talents: Holding a plank for 12 minutes. I can also twerk.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Beyoncé really isn’t a reality TV star, but if I had to choose a kindred spirit, it would be her. A thousand times.

Looking for: A sweet guy who likes to work out and be goofy (but not at the same time of course … safety first!)

BACHELORETTE #1:

Major: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Interests: Multiple TV shows, musicals, dancing, rugby, chilling with friends, cats Hidden talents: I can juggle =) Reality TV kindred spirit: Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I know that’s not reality TV, but still…)

Looking for: Good times

// BY WEEKEND

BACHELOR #2 Major: Anthropology Interests: I love to travel, to get out and explore, also being a homebody, too. Almost wherever, I like taking amateurish photos without people in them, reading, listening to music, trying to write. Also interested in language, economic anthropology and the ways we feel we have to justify ourselves to others.

Hidden talents: Ballroom dancing (cha cha and rumba are my best), but I can be pretty crazy at Toad’s, too.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Capt. Sig Hansen from Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” — a crab fisherman who’s tough, competent, who knows where he’s from, who stands saucy in the face of doom and cold.

Looking for: I appreciate a gentle person, who is able to listen, intelligent but with no need to talk about it, open-minded — rough around the edges is just more interesting.

Following last week’s Blindest Date contest, WKND presents to you our next slate of bachelors and bachelorettes. This week, with input from our readers, we’re matching those seeking the same sex to their soul mates. We’ve got language lovers, Girl Scout Cookie aficionados and extreme hockey fans — all the makings of a happily ever after.

Head online to vote for your favorites after reading, and commence the love!

Major: Spanish and French Interests: I’m intensely passionate about languages, but they aren’t my only love. I am also interested in Invisible Children, Broadway (did someone say Pippin?) and all things queer!

Reality TV kindred spirit: Colton Haynes (OK, maybe not reality TV but who could turn that down?)

Looking for: I’d love to meet a person with whom I could watch TV shows that feature devastatingly attractive people (e.g.: let me get you into “Arrow” or “Looking”; I promise you won’t regret it). I’d also love to have a conversation in which I could use my

Major: I’m a (disgruntled) EEB major who’s probably only a few steps away from becoming a stereotypical mad scientist.

Interests: When I’m not on Science Hill, I’m interested in Homestuck soundtracks, sobbing over fictional characters, and cats.

Hidden talents: I can wow you with my talent of being able to cook (mostly).

Reality TV kindred spirit: While I can’t say that I know enough reality TV to have a kindred spirit, I do often feel like my life could probably make a good queer reality TV series.

Looking for: Fair warning that I don’t have much of a romantic streak — I’m mostly looking for a laidback person with whom I can watch TV and cuddle while snarfing junk food (at least the calories won’t count if we share).

BACHELORETTE #4:

BACHELOR #5 BACHELOR #3

BACHELORETTE #2:

Major: History of Art and also pre-med.

Interests: I enjoy strolling through art galleries without the hindrance of time, weight lifting (started bodybuilding last year and have become progressively more serious) and sports nutrition, sports (football and particularly the San Francisco 49ers since I’m from there), having honest conversations about the human condition, watching romantic comedies, my work boots, collecting pillow pets and Pokémon.

Hidden talents: Not many people know this, but I can cook some mean Vietnamese dishes including pho, bún bò huê, and bánh xèo. As a bodybuilder with a decent amount of knowledge in personal training, I’ve been told I give awesome massages, too.

Reality TV kindred spirit: It would have to be Adrian from the MTV reality series “Scrubbing In.” Looking for: Emotional honesty, lots of confidence in

Major: The Sexuality of the Female Goddess Interests: Theater, politically charged rants, theater, really good Sci-Fi/fantasy novels, theater, Arthurian Legend, and, lastly, theater Hidden talents: Tying clove hitch knots with stage rope like nobody’s business.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Gordon Ramsay Looking for: A high cuddle factor, a love of showtunes and indie rock, as well as an appreciation of the merits of sawdust.

BACHELOR #9

Major: I enjoy saving lives and rescuing people from imminent danger — but not in the traditional way as a knight would; instead I’d like to think of myself as a T-cell lymphocyte to your surface membrane receptor — once we bind to each other, I will do all that I can to cure you of any sickness till death do us part — apoptosis and all. So yes, I’m an MCDB major.

Interests: Easy. Getting to know you … and we can take it from there.

Hidden talents: Well, for one thing, I’m … uh … “magical” — I’ll read your mind and make things disappear — but I promise I won’t make your clothes disappear on the first date. I also enjoy slamming poetry … onto the table where I’d do it all night long (as in writing it) — so I can pretty much tell you that for every wonderful memory we have together, I’ll be telling the world anonymously about how awesome you are. I’m an avid dancer of swing/blues — so I’ll make sure to sweep you off your feet on the dance floor under a dimly lit room until the beats of our hearts sing together in unison like two best friends in a church choir, arms around each others’ shoulders.

Reality TV kindred spirit: I’d like to make our lives a reality television show entitled, “Happily Ever After.”

Looking for: You gotta be “SMILES.” Sweet, Memorable, Intrepid, Logical, Easy-Going and Smiley. :)”

Major: Economics and Chemistry double major Interests: Fan fiction, hockey, sass, investment banking and (did I mention?) hockey.

Hidden talents: I have a diverse group of talents, the greatest of which being my ability to go from a super serious, intelligent discussion about the current state of the economy to a sassy backhanded compliment faster than you can say “GDP.” Reality TV kindred spirit: I’m not super into reality TV (unless you count hockey, in which case my kindred spirit would definitely be a hockey player. Gabriel Landeskog, anyone?) — but I could be into reality TV for the right person. ;) Looking for: Someone who can make me laugh, keep up with my sass, and would be equally comfortable staying home cuddling or going out for a night of fun. Gotta shake things up sometimes.

Major: American Studies Interests: Pop culture aficionado. Musical theater pundit. Big on smiling. Hidden (lack) of talents: inability to put in contacts, failure at team sports, difficulty whistling. Enjoys curating playlists for the gym almost as much as going to the gym.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Loathes reality TV, but will gladly watch a movie with you. Also glad to “watch a movie” with you.

Looking for: Someone exciting to spend the rest of senior year with — someone who gets down at Woad’s, and who spars in bed and in seminar.

BACHELOR #10

BACHELOR #6 Major: Political Science Interests: Baking, $1 iced coffee from Atticus, writing, and playing the MMO version of Flappy Bird Hidden talent(s): I have two: making myself cry on command, and stealing your Longest Road in Settlers of Catan.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Raja from season 3 of Rupaul’s Drag Race Looking for: Someone who will sing “Let It Go” with me. Someone for whom the name Idina Menzel means something. Someone who can name all 151 original Pokémon (and none of the shitty new ones). But really, most of all, I’m looking for someone who is fast enough to get us a reservation at Fortnight, because right now that’s all I want from life.

BACHELOR #8 Major: Chords. (No minors.)

Interests: running, usually from my problems.

Hidden Talent(s): Reciting poetry. I know a hundred lines or so, mostly English, all seductive.

Reality TV kindred spirit: I feel like there was this blonde guy on an episode of “Amish Mafia” who was almost Amish but not really. Awkward, right? But useful.

Looking for: A tall, dark glass of Guinness and a cowboy burger at Prime 16, with a man to match.

Major: Pretending to work in the library Interests: Lifetime Movies (but only the ones about Teen Moms), the color maroon, and figuring out what the word “postmodern” really means.

Hidden talents: I can wiggle one of my ears and can sleep for more than 15 hours straight. (I’ve slept through earthquakes) Reality TV kindred spirit: Tia and Tamera Mowry (Yes, both of them. They have froyo on every episode so obvi kindred spirits with me.)

Looking for: Someone who is willing to put up with me — trust me, that’s a lot to ask.

BACHELORETTE #5:

Major: Economics, the crunchy-granola-save-the-worldend-poverty type.

Interests: Blues dancing, mountain hiking, feminist sci-fi and fantasy novels, getting creatively lost in interesting places.

Hidden talents: I can raise either eyebrow Colbert-style, sew a quilt and detect any Girl Scout Cookie sale within a half-mile radius. I’m also a professionally certified cuddle buddy.

Reality TV kindred spirit: The professional dancers on “Dancing with the Stars.” They love what they do and love to show it!

Looking for: An adventurer, someone who’s passionate about things: social justice, 18th century Japanese poetry, whatever. I want someone to be silly and brave and fun with.

BACHELORETTE #6:

BACHELOR #7

BACHELOR #4

BACHELORETTE #3:

Major:Biochemistry, with a concentration in being hella fuckin’ gay Interests: Staying up too late laughing with friends, theater, activism, eating, accidentally dancing in my underwear when there’s a tour group outside my window Hidden talents: Sneezed on the beat and the beat got sicker, [Bachelor #__] all on his mouth like liquor Reality TV kindred spirit: Jenna from 30 Rock (30 Rock is real, right?)

Looking for: Someone who is emotionally intelligent and not afraid to experience the highs and lows of life together

Major: I am a rare breed — a woman majoring in computer science!

Interests: I am all about female-empowerment. My interests range widely from deep discussions of the impact of bi-erasure to lighthearted conversations about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” from reading Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” to writing my own novel about queer women who do awesome things.

Hidden talents: My (not-so-)hidden talent seems to be combating misogynistic douchebags who don’t respect me because of my gender.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Though I’m not exactly a huge consumer of reality TV, my television kindred spirit would probably be Lydia Martin from “Teen Wolf” — I’d certainly like to think of myself as hot, brilliant and kick-ass, at least.

Looking for: Friendship is the foundation for any great relationship … beyond that, well, isn’t that for us to discover?

BACHELORETTE #7:

Major: I am a true patriot, and I study America — mostly so that I can impress a sensitive and beautiful American woman one day!

Interests: When I’m not watching Pretty Little Liars, I’m probably thinking about how to empower others to unleash their dreams (nbd). I love dogs, and one day dream of having a mastiff so that my children can ride his back like a small pony.

Hidden talents: One thing most people don’t know about me is that my mouth has magic powers: I can replicate the sound of a trumpet without actually having a trumpet in sight.

Reality TV kindred spirit: If I were a reality TV star, I would be Steve Irwin (RIP) because I dig danger and I’m not afraid of a little bite. ;) Looking for: My ideal girl is funny, quirky, and ridiculously good-looking … or am I just describing myself? (I’m

BACHELORETTE #8:

Major: Global Affairs Interests: psychology, traveling, writing, crying about fictional characters, listening to other people being really interested in things Hidden talents: I have an almost-perfect memory for music and song lyrics, which might be useful if I weren’t completely tone-deaf.

Reality TV kindred spirit: Do cooking shows count as reality tv?

Looking for: Pretty much the same things I look for in a good friend (trustworthy, fun to talk to, willing to make a fool of yourself and to watch me make a fool of myself), but with more kissing.

Bonus points if you like to cuddle.

Contact GREGORY SANTORO at gregory.santoro@yale.edu .

THE STORY OF THE LIGHTNING BUGS Dwight Hall // 1 p.m.

“Oh, and there are bears.”

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Snowman Building

We won third place in a contest once for our snow beaver.

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CONDENSED MATTER: PART 2

Yale School of Art (Green Hall) // 6 p.m.

The highly anticipated sequel to “Condensed Matter: Part 1.”

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Beer Jacket Construction The cold never bothered us anyway (?).

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

MAKING UP A DEFICIT PILOT FROM PAGE 3 property taxes, he said, which inevitably skyrocket when state aid falls.

“Right now, we’re fundamentally attached to the state’s economic wellbeing,” DeStefano said. “When the state catches a cold, the city of New Haven gets pneumonia.”

The best time to reopen the issue of the tax base would be when the economy is on firm footing, he added.

What seem like upward trends in the state’s current economic forecast might loosen up funds to at least address municipal budget needs this year, Harp suggested.

“If the [state] economy improves and the surplus deepens, that creates an opportunity to get more resources,” Harp said. Upgrades to information technology and more trucks for the Public Works Department are one-time payments that could be covered by isolated, singleyear state contributions. Rebecca Bombero, a legislative liaison, said that following the passage of the Board’s resolution, the mayor’s office is putting consistent pressure on the state to up the payments. The mayor’s relationship with the governor is strong, Bombero added.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73 also pointed to the state’s budget surplus — of $500 million, not counting delayed bond repayments — as an avenue to redress New Haven’s revenue woes. Connecticut as a whole, Blumenthal said, is uniquely dependent on property taxes in funding education and other local needs.

Partially in recognition of that fact, Connecticut is one of just two states to compensate municipalities for tax-exempt property. Rhode Island also furnishes its cities and towns with PILOT.

“I CALL IT REVERSE PILOT”

Simply increasing PILOT does little to address underlying inequities in revenue, said Speaker of the Connecticut House Brendan Sharkey.

In a proposal that he said will take the form of a bill later this year, Sharkey said he wants to scrap the PILOT law altogether and impose property taxes on nonprofit institutions. Colleges and hospitals will then have to apply to the state for reimbursement, he said, but cities and towns will be guaranteed the revenue.

“I call it ‘Reverse PILOT,’” Sharkey said. “We will have substantial discussion and debate about this. It will be heard in committee this year.

I can’t say whether we’ll be able to work out all of the details by the end of the session.”

The logic behind the proposed change is two-fold, Sharkey said.

First, cash-strapped municipalities should not be subsidizing pri-

Total New Haven currently gets in PILOT

$43.6

vate institutions, some of which have endowments that dwarf local budgets. Second, the designation of “nonprofit” does not account for the ways in which major universities are involved in generating profit, Sharkey said.

Sharkey said he thinks there is unique political will behind shifting the onus of taxation back onto nonprofits, namely because the process of haggling over PILOT funds has become acrimonious.

Stratton said the law could be worked out to set a certain exemption level after which nonprofits have to chip in. The first $1 million of property value could remain exempt, he said.

“A small church in Newhallville might still not pay any taxes,” Stratton said of the “Reverse PILOT” proposal. “It’s aimed at the bigger guys.”

Harp said Yale may have a legal claim against such a move. The University’s tax-exempt status is unique; it is written into Connecticut’s constitution, immutable by simple statute.

Sharkey said another possible loophole could exist for municipalities and nonprofits that can independently work out a mutually satisfactory arrangement. He pointed specifically to Yale as a model of how universities should orient themselves to their home communities.

When asked if Yale should up its payments, both Harp and DeStefano — who presided over a renaissance in town-gown relations along with former Yale President Richard Levin — said the University already contributes immensely. Voluntarily, Yale will give New Haven more than $8 million this year alone. Since 1991, when Yale’s payments began, the University has bestowed more than $82 million in voluntary contributions on New Haven. Now it also gives money to West Haven and Orange, owing to the expansion of West Campus.

Yale’s footprint, much of which occupies prime downtown real estate, constitutes no more than 6 percent of New Haven’s total acreage, Morand estimated.

But Yale’s tax-exempt property is immensely valuable — and would generate substantial revenue for the city if it were taxed. This property totals roughly $2.44 billion in value, according to Michael Condon, a municipal assessor for the city of New Haven.

Under that estimate, Yale would owe more than $102 million in property taxes. Yale-New Haven Hospital is worth roughly $748 million, which would generate another $31 million.

James Pascarella, the president of Hamden’s Legislative Council, said the perception of exempting Yale from an otherwise statewide change would be disastrous. Pascarella

called the “Reverse PILOT” idea a “last-ditch response” to a decadesold problem of “people who are barely able to make ends meet essentially subsidizing huge corporate nonprofits.”

Quinnipiac gives Hamden an annual stipend of $100,000, which goes to various charities, not the municipal budget, Pascarella said.

Unlike Yale, Quinnipiac does not have its own police force; when a fight breaks out on campus, the Hamden Police are called.

“We want a partnership,” Pascarella said. The single Quinnipiac official authorized to discuss relations with the town is away until March.

Sharkey said Quinnipiac has defended its actions — or inaction — by pointing to its federal nonprofit status. Though nonprofit designation is federal, Sharkey said, tax exemptions are all granted at the state level.

Sharkey and other proponents say they are prepared for substantial blowback from colleges and hospitals.

“I approach this fully aware that the proposal would impose a substantial burden on [nonprofits] in the short-term, which is why we should begin the conversation now,” Sharkey said. “Nobody likes to pay taxes.

But we’re talking about equity.”

Lemar said the item would be “really, really politically challenging to pull off in 90 days.”

Connecticut State Rep. Pat Widlitz, House chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said she would have “great difficulty” supporting such a bill. Finding the money to put into PILOT would be more politically palatable, she added.

Fasano simply said no.

“This would not be a party line vote. Democrats and Republicans would be against it, urban and suburban legislators would be against it,” he said. “In an election year, when you have the governor’s office at stake and legislators up for reelection, I doubt the bill ever gets debated on the floor of the House or Senate. It would be a hugely unpopular vote to have.”

BENEFICENCE OR BUST

Judith Greiman, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, said the “Reverse PILOT” proposal is bad policy — its legal complications aside.

She said reversing tax exemptions would “upend town-gown relations at a time that towns and non-profits that are major employers need to be working even closer together.” Further, she said, the change would hurt students, because it would likely increase the cost of college.

From Yale’s perspective, Morand

said the change would disrupt an effective partnership between Yale and New Haven, one that has become a “poster child for how to get along,” he said.

“One should not mess with longstanding policies in that way,” Morand said in response to Sharkey’s proposal. “This has proven to work.”

The system — whether it is the fault of the state, the nonprofits or just bad economic times — does not work, according to city, state and national leaders. Yale and other nonprofits enjoy the services and benefits of New Haven, Blumenthal said — why should they not pay into them?

Morand countered that Yale does not call on most municipal services.

By and large, students do not have school-age children who attend the New Haven public schools. The city’s public works department does not pick up trash in Yale dormitories. Morand said the University’s net budgetary impact on New Haven is “actually quite salutary.”

Fasano, who was born and raised in New Haven, agreed, putting the dynamic bluntly: “Without Yale, New Haven would perhaps be more like Bridgeport in terms of economic growth.”

Blumenthal said it is also a question of equity: New Haven is at a disadvantage, while Yale has immense resources at its disposal. Under Levin and now under Yale President Peter Salovey, the University has advanced “lightyears in helping New Haven,” Blumenthal said. But the future is uncertain.

“Do we want to rely on beneficence?” Blumenthal said. “Do we want to rely on the wisdom of really good leaders, like Levin?”

He answered his own question: “At some point, there may be a need to revisit the principle that nonprofits pay no local property tax.”

Voluntary payments are just that — voluntary. Yale’s payment formula has built-in growth: It is a calculation of the percent of fire services the University uses plus a figure tied to the number of employees and students on campus. When hundreds of new students arrive and begin to populate the two new residential colleges, Yale’s payments will likely increase.

When asked if the formula itself is static — or subject to discussion and debate — Morand said the current

Each point represents $1 million

New Haven’s 2013-14 budget million

WHO PAYS?

In the authoritative “Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City,” the late Yale political scientist Robert Dahl turned to New Haven to explore a mammoth question about power and governance: In America— indeed wherever popular government exists — who actually controls political decision-making? He theorized that power in New Haven was dispersed among many groups, not concentrated in the hands of the business elite. No single group held all the cards.

In a new preface to the book’s second edition, Dahl dwelled on the complexity of his initial question.

“The absence of satisfactory ways of measuring power and influence, and thus describing them accurately, presents a huge challenge,” he wrote.

In 1978, power aligned in Connecticut to reimburse the state’s towns and cities for a portion of the money they lose every year to taxexempt properties. The Times story noted an unusual coalition of municipalities and tax-exempt institutions, “two traditional adversaries.”

Unlike power, money is an easy calculus. It adds up. Except when it doesn’t.

Money is zero-sum — and not just for Connecticut municipalities competing in 2014 over shrinking PILOT funds.

“Someone has to pay,” Stratton said. “For years, it’s been the taxpayers of New Haven. Maybe it’s time someone else pitches in.”

Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .

Hole in property taxes from Yale University

million

$497.5

method works.

“Your University makes the single largest payment to any municipality … it’s already the single largest, and it has a built-in growth” he said. “It’s a question that need not be asked.”

But that did not answer the initial question: Could the formula itself be revised to reflect changes in the city and perhaps growing need on the part of New Haven?

“The University’s willingness is established,” Morand said.

The question was put a third time: Is the amount the University pays up for discussion or revision?

“The voluntary payment formula works extremely well and ties the University’s growth to growth in the payment,” Morand said.

The total lost

by New Haven in property taxes due to Yale

$86.5 million

$133

Total New Haven should be getting

million

$105.3

Payments from Connecticut

million

$38.5 million

Voluntary payments from Yale

$8

million

S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 2 2

“DR. STRANGELOVE” SCREENING

Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium // 8:30 p.m.

With commentary from professor David Bromwich on how to stop worrying.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Squinting Beware of snow blindness!

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B9

WEEKEND COLLABORATES

THE DISCIPLINES WANT COMPANY // BY MADELINE DUFF

Spotlights illuminate soloist Taylor Stanley’s churning torso.

His arms sway and torque like palm tree leaves when the wind picks up before a storm. Strings crescendo, then decrescendo. He spirals in and out of familiar ballet poses before cascading into a lyrical suspension.

This is a graceful contortion — feet parallel, now turned out, a pirouette into a landing that unfurls, seamlessly, into the next développé.

His feet anchor the motion. In one moment, his port de bras nears fifth position, the negative space a full moon seventy degrees to the horizon. What might be a tondu retracts, suddenly: a hermit crab retreating. Stanley remains lithe, controlled. His energy electrifies each extension but magnifies the still moments. Music guides him and, though invisible, language seeps through the choreography: “The dream of an ending/the reluctant swimmer returning — / in a space carved from shadow and air/dusk phosphorescent, a/moonshell/fish, dolphin, minnow bird, bright blue — /Shark.”

These words form the coda of the libretto “The Impulse Wants Company,” the poem instrumental to BalletCollective’s recent critically acclaimed piece by the same name.

The dance premiered on August 14, 2013 in New York City as part of Ballet v6.0, a two-week festival for experimental companies at the Joyce Theater.

At the helm of the “Impulse” project were three collaborators from different artistic fields: poet and English professor Cynthia Zarin (author of the project’s namesake poem), composer and BalletCollective Music Director Ellis Ludwig-Leone ’11 and dancer and BalletCollective Director and Resident Choreographer Troy Schumacher.

Following the piece’s successful premiere at the Joyce Theater on August 14, 2013, The New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay wrote in an exclusive review of “Impulse” that Schumacher showcased “a completely fresh use of familiar ballet language.”

Schumacher, who founded BalletCollective in 2010 with a vision to engage with other art forms, says he views that sentence of Macaulay’s as a possible testament to the value of inter-disciplinary collaboration.

Last December, “Impulse” was featured among Macaulay’s Top Ten Dance Favorites of the year.

The renowned critic had just one

S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 2 2

request: “More, please.” *** Zarin and Ludwig-Leone met one another at the beginning of Zarin’s Yale career, in the first English 120 class that she taught on campus.

“I met Ellis pretty much on the first day of school,” Zarin recalls.

The two remained in touch, and in November 2012, they were brought together by Hurricane Sandy.

Unable to return to his Brooklyn address following a rehearsal, Ludwig-Leone stayed with Zarin at her apartment in Harlem. At the time, Ludwig-Leone had been arranging music for an earlier BalletCollective led by Schumacher called the Satellite Ballet.

Though initial conversations began in November 2012, the project “gestated,” according to Schumacher, until the August 2013 premiere of the final twenty-two minute piece. Of his literary and musical collaborators, Schumacher noted their ability to communicate through an interdisciplinary lens.

During his undergraduate years, Ludwig-Leone worked with actors, painters and YaleDancers as the founder of the musical ensemble SicInc. The task of incorporating language in performance, however, was less familiar to him.

“Impulse” was the first time Ludwig-Leone would collaborate with a writer. Ultimately, he settled

FOR ZARIN, SHARING A BACK-ANDFORTH WITH HER COLLEAGUES ALLOWED FOR GAINING A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE OF HER CRAFT. Zarin, who attended a performance on Ludwig-Leone’s recommendation, was immediately impressed by the quality of the production.

After the show, Zarin, who has done ballet in the past and has been a New York City Ballet enthusiast since she was a small child, learned that Schumacher was seeking a writer to join the company.

By chance, a mutual friend on the Board of the Satellite Ballet in the audience that evening then connected the choreographer and poet.

Soon after, Schumacher united his new artistic team in an initial production meeting, unaware of the connection that already existed between them.

From there, the triumvirate set about melding their respective art forms: literature, dance and music.

Though previous works at BalletCollective have featured abstract librettos or textual foundations as points of departure for choreographic work, Professor Zarin’s poem “The Impulse Wants Company” provided a new platform. “[Zarin] was able to distill conversations between herself, Ellis and me about concepts that were very interesting to us as artists individually and then combine them to create a work of art of her own — which in this case was poetry,” Schumacher says, placing “Impulse” in contrast to previous projects.

11TH ANNUAL SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES SPRING CULTURAL FESTIVAL Luce Hall // 6 p.m.

“…along with a buffet dinner of Southeast Asian cuisine.”

on using the poem as a “structural backbone.”

Ludwig-Leone separated his composition into five parts (Zarin’s poem also has five sections) and “mapped it out exactly as a series of little conversations, just like the poem was.”

From there, conjuring “Impulse” involved a series of artistic conversations between choreographer, poet and composer. Zarin describes the dialogues as “free-flowing” and emphasizes the liberty each artist was given to bring his or her interests to the collaboration-room floor. Her concept of the beach as a locus of movement, a real-world stage characterized by relationships between people, projected the piece forward.

“It was only with [Ellis’s and Troy’s] input that I began to write,” Zarin reflects. “The first draft of the poem took about a month and it was unlike anything else I had written.

I’ve never written in collaboration with anyone.”

Rehearsals progressed as flowing interchanges between all involved.

Rather than present finished products to one other, the artists influenced each other as the work progressed. For Zarin, sharing a back-and-forth with her colleagues allowed for gaining a different perspective of her craft.

“I hope I did something new,” she says. “I think the idea of BalletCol-

lective is that as separate artists we come together to expand and extend our thinking. It would be awful if what resulted was what was in my head. I think it’s wonderful to be surprised.” *** At Yale, students explore these same interdisciplinary questions through a variety of courses. “Moving Texts,” which was co-taught by dancer and writer Emily Coates ’06 GRD ’11 and playwright Deborah Margolin in spring of 2013, specifically analyzed the relationship between language and movement.

Earlier this week, the two creative forces shared their artistic philosophies over lunch in the Pierson dining hall. Their conversation resembled a class session in miniature, as two waves of thought met and sometimes collided. Their differences of opinion, though, only led to deeper questions.

Coates galvanized the creation of the dance studies curriculum in 2006, and “from the very beginning, it was always to foster crossdisciplinary dialogue,” she says.

Those conversations, such as the ones fueling “Impulse,” have collaboration as an underlying education tool, Coates believes: “Ellis and Cynthia are speaking to each other and to Troy Schumacher, finding common ground from each of their disciplinary perspectives.”

A mutual respect for one another’s unique abilities is mirrored in the relationship between Coates and Margolin.

In response to Coates’s praise for her “writing muscle,” Margolin said, “I appreciate your saying that.

I have tried to communicate to you how absolutely articulate I feel your movement is when I have the honor of watching you work.”

Both professors echoed the idea of the arts as “research.” In “Moving Texts,” the students collaborated on a single final project, rather pursuing individual ones.

Amymarie Bartholomew ’11, founder of the Yale Undergraduate Ballet Company and a former “Moving Texts” student, has carried questions from the classroom dance “lab” with her to Harvard, where she is currently pursuing a doctorate in chemistry. Last fall, Bartholomew was accepted to the Harvard Dance Center’s Emerging Choreography Residency. In “Moving Texts,” she says, “the doors just opened up.” Her final piece, which dealt with issues of memory and

space, was based on the layout of the Broadway Rehearsal Lofts on Elm Street, where Bartholomew took the course, practiced ballet and participated in projects such as Yale Dance Theater, among others.

Exposure to language in that course and her experiences working with composers in other interdisciplinary courses inspired her to foster growth through group dialogue.

“Whenever you widen your frame a little, you start to see the limitations of where you were working before,” Bartholomew said.

“That’s part of the experiment.”

Aren Vastola ’14, a theater studies major who has taken several dance curriculum courses, believes that experiments like BalletCollective’s “The Impulse Wants Company” may “indicate that in both college environments and in the artistic world there is a strong, renewed interest in this kind of inter-disciplinary work.”

Just as Coates and Margolin’s thoughts may be ongoing discussions of questions rather than answers; just as Schumacher’s choreography continues to evolve postperformance; and just as Yale student choreographers reprise issues for further analysis in their own work, so too will the BalletCollective collaboration soon go back — to the drawing board, the page or the studio — for a pas de deux project.

Both Ludwig-Leone and Zarin are looking forward to working with one another again. In the wake of talks related to “Impulse,” they have come to view their respective disciplines a little differently.

Ludwig-Leone said the joint effort has allowed him to look at his music through a more global viewpoint, with less attention to specificity.

And in her course “Writing the Contemporary Essay” this spring, Zarin thinks she has been “speaking more than usual to the shape that prose makes in your mind, to how we can actually chart and draw different kinds of shapes in which narrative and reflection intertwine.”

Margolin believes these threads will continue to be unraveled in the realm of the performing arts — that they will, in fact, never reach a coda.

“It’s the future,” she says. “It’s what’s happening; we might as well study it.”

Contact MADELINE DUFF at madeline.duff@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Red Cheeks No Cherub Left Behind!

PAGE B10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

RAGERS AND DAY JOBS // BY REBECCA LEVINSKY

Dear Rebecca, I work an on-campus job and my manager and I have very conflicting views on workplace etiquette. My manager likes to call me in to pick things up on days when I’m not scheduled to work. I cannot bill the 15 minutes it takes for me to walk from my room to my place of work — and on top of that, it is usually through the snow. She’s also sensitive. Very sensitive. So I don’t feel like I can bring this up with her. How do I resolve this dilemma?

— Damsel in Distress *** Dear DD, I tend to have pretty unique relationships with my managers at work. For example, I gave my boss at my internship this past summer a Beyoncé poster as a farewell gift, and then she took me out to lunch so we could dissect every minute of the Mrs. Carter World Tour.

But I’m not claiming to be a boss-whisperer or anything.

I, too, have had problems with

REBECCA LEVINSKY ASK REBECCA bosses overstepping their limits and know how frustrating they can be.

A particularly memorable experience was the summer that I was a vegan and worked for a pasture-raised poultry company. We sold poultry at farmers’ markets four days a week, and despite the predictable, weekly timetable, my boss’s approach to scheduling was erratic at best. She would often text me midmorning, asking me if I could work that night. I had to cancel my plans, because otherwise, who would sell the poultry? Eventually, I had to ask her for the week’s schedule in advance, but even getting to that point took a lot of guts.

It’s up to you to decide whether your job is worth putting up with your boss’s flighty nature. I remember spending

that entire summer feeling as though my boss did not respect my time. (I knew that when I agreed to work at a poultry start-up I was completely compromising my vegan morals, but I didn’t realize I would also have to give up dinners with my parents.)

The bottom line is that if you like your job and need the source of income, the inconvenient infringements on your time might be a necessary evil.

Just keep in mind that, eventually, the snow will melt.

My most rewarding jobs have been those in which I am able to foster valuable relationships with my managers and coworkers. My boss from the summer just told me that the last song they played at her wedding was “XO”— clearly, we developed a close relationship. But even if you don’t envision your boss keeping you in the loop on his or her wedding plans, that’s okay.

As long as you find something worthwhile at work each day, I suggest you hang on to your job.

If not, it’s also okay to quit.

Best of luck, Rebecca

for not throwing them for me.

(Yes, still a sore subject.)

But I have planned a lot of parties during my time at Yale.

I should warn you, though, that at the height of my time spent as social chair of a major campus social organization that I will not name, only 25 people came to the party I was throwing (a similar event had drawn over 300 the previous year). So take this all with a grain of salt.

First of all, do you need to have a theme? A theme can be a big draw, especially if you can dress up, tailor the drink menu accordingly and play games. I once threw a hugely successful SodaStream party, which included its own hashtag #sodastreamyale. The “Soda” playlist featured such hits as “We’re up All Night to Get Bubbly,” and people, put simply, were into it.

Basically, themes are always the way to go. The only exception is a 21st birthday party, because the theme is always liquor.

So once you have a theme and a date, it’s time to create the guest list. Make sure to invite both the people that you want to be there, along with the

people that you can only hope would want to be there. In the off chance that these “reaches” show up, this will increase your street cred and push the fun through the roof.

When the night arrives, make sure your closest friends are there early to establish the vibe.

It’s always good to ask someone to wear a romper — pretty much the insta-cool outfit. And before you press play on your themespecific playlist, take a shot of tequila and get pumped up.

But I’m just wondering — you said your party is this Friday night, so did my invite get lost in the mail?

historically elegant specimens come from France’s Northern Rhône Valley, where Syrah is the star grape in such revered appellations as Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage. Syrah is also used as a blending varietal in Southern Rhône wines — for example Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas. The first wine I’m drinking tonight, a 2010 Syrah by Louis Chèze, comes from the Northern Rhône. The wine offers a bouquet of black cherry and cigar box, carrying flavors of baking spice, coffee and pine forest to the mouth. Refined, yet robust, the Louis Chèze is classic Northern Rhône Syrah.

Outside of France, Syrah grows most famously in Australia, where it goes by the name Shiraz. Why exactly it’s called Shiraz down under remains a wine world mystery. Some oenophiles theorize that the varietal originated from the Persian city of Shiraz, but this legend still doesn’t really answer the Australia question.

Syrah gained popularity in the United States in the 1980s after

a group of American winemakers called the Rhône Rangers pushed for the planting of Rhône varietals in California.

wine. Notably stronger than the Louis Chèze (13 percent alcohol), the Klinker Brick offers a bolder, more aggressive, but nonetheless delicious New World-style Syrah. The spiciness hits you immediately on the nose and brings with it to the palate notes of ripe plum, bittersweet chocolate and burnt oak. This masculine wine definitely has a kick, and it will surely satiate anyone’s thirst for a big California red.

If, like me, you plan on watching the final events of the Sochi Winter Olympics this weekend, get in the spirit with fiery, internationally beloved Syrah before they extinguish the flame on Sunday. Cheers to the Games!

The second wine I’m sampling — Klinker Brick’s 2011 “Farrah Syrah” — comes from Lodi, Calif., a Central Valley region east of San Francisco Bay (the city is also the subject of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song). At 14.9 percent alcohol, the Klinker Brick sits at about the maximum desired alcohol level for red

Both the Louis Chèze “Syrah” 2010 (Rhône Valley, France) $18 and the Klinker Brick “Farrah Syrah” 2011 (Lodi, Calif.) $21 are available for purchase at The Wine Thief (181 Crown St., New Haven).

was perhaps a bit stunted developmentally. Babe Ruth was a gregarious man-child with the digestive and sexual appetites of five men. Charles Lindbergh was boring, antisocial, and possibly in love with his mother.

Without any hint of nostalgia, “One Summer” spins a delightful tale of a bygone America — a time when bigotry was the norm, corruption was far more open and sitting on a flagpole atop a skyscraper was considered fun.

“One Summer” makes the reader enjoy history and understand how so many small, amusing anecdotes compose a story we all think we know.

So why do academics, such as Brinkely, hate it? Well, they’re jealous.

They’re jealous of Bryson’s commercial success. He sells more books than they do, in spite of their harder work and fancier credentials. They resent his (relative) celebrity and his ability to do what they cannot.

To be sure, they have a point.

Bryson is not an academic historian, and he neglects to delve deeply into the meaning and interconnectedness of his story.

He makes some amateur mistakes and often has little to no understanding of historical context. Yet Bryson does not claim to be an academic historian. He openly writes to entertain, not to elucidate.

And when Brinkley wrote in the Washington Post that Bryson’s book is “devoid of footnotes” and that its “sourcing is sketchy,” Bryson rightly responded (with a hint of glee) by directing Brinkley to his 119-page appendix, containing roughly 1,200 endnotes.

Bill Bryson writes in a way that makes history accessible and interesting to the general populace, not merely the academic echo chamber. And while academic history is incredibly important and serves several critical purposes, so does

pop history. A slightly more informed public is a public with a slightly better-honed sense of skepticism. (This is not to excuse deplorable “historians” such as David Barton or Bill O’Reilly — Bryson writes without a political agenda.)

“One Summer” is among the more readable and fun histories of any couple months in American history. If you’ve ever wondered about the sexual fancies, peculiar prejudices or skeletons in the closet of some of our most revered figures, pick up a copy. If you ever wanted to know about an era in which two-thirds of murders went unsolved, an era that saw the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, or an era presided over by a president who loved nothing more than dressing up in a child’s cowboy costume, this is the book for you.

Dear Rebecca, A party I threw for my birthday last year was so great that one notable campus celeb even praised it as the “sleeper best party of the year.” My birthday party for this year is on Friday.

I’m starting to feel the pressure.

How do I make sure to throw a party so rager that it maintains this reputation?

— Birthday Boy *** Dear Birthday, First of all, a very happy birthday!

Unfortunately, I have to start off by warning you that if your party last year was called the “sleeper best party of the year,” the bar is high for this year. People are now expecting a lot from you.

To be perfectly honest, I’m impressed that you are even throwing yourself a party this year after last year’s success. I’m personally too anxious to ever throw myself birthday parties, and then I get mad at my friends

Rage on, Rebecca Contact REBECCA LEVINSKY at rebecca.levinsky@yale.edu .

Have more questions?

Email WKNDadvice@gmail.com or submit them anonymously on the Yale Daily News website.

A Sip of Syrah for the Sochi Games // BY BRYCE WIATRAK

My suitemates and I have been hibernating the past couple weeks obsessively watching the Sochi Winter Olympics, avoiding the snowstorms and consuming a considerable amount of wine in the process. Tonight, as we watch the women’s figure skating short programs, we’re celebrating with Syrah — a firecracker of a wine known for its signature spice.

But, before I start pouring, I’d love to address perhaps the most frequent question I receive about wine. People often ask me how a wine — made from grapes — can develop a cornucopia of seemingly unrelated flavors. Do winemakers add other ingredients to the wine while they’re making it? The full response is a lot more sciencey than my humanities-centric mind can fully grasp, but the basic answer is no. Simply put, each grape varietal has a distinct flavor profile that becomes transformed by the land and climate where it is grown — its “terroir.” The winemaker then makes a number of decisions during the fermentation, ageing, and poten-

BRYCE WIATRAK WINESDAY tially blending, processes that can both manipulate and contribute to the flavor profiles. California Chardonnay, for instance, that undergoes malolactic fermentation will develop a buttery flavor, or a red wine aged in new oak can adopt a caramel or toffee character. Ironically enough, wine rarely ever tastes like grapes, with Muscat or Moscato being the most notable exception.

Sommeliers will frequent farmers’ markets, sniffing everything imaginable to fine-tune their olfactory organs. With their highly cultivated senses of smell, they can then pinpoint these incredibly specific aromas before a wine even touches their lips. While the differences between dried rose petal and fresh rosebud, or candied Meyer

lemon peel and lemon grove may seem absurd or pretentious to the casual wine enthusiast, these nuances can actually be incredibly informative to wine experts when discussing issues such as aging potential, food pairings and overall quality. That being said, wine tasting is a subjective art. Just because you smell something different than what the little blurb in Wine Spectator suggests, that doesn’t make you any less correct.

Certain wine descriptions may come off as surprising — if not downright unappetizing — if you’re not familiar with the lingo. Experts often acknowledge a distinct smell of cat pee in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, or they may get a whiff of leather in Spain’s celebrated Rioja. But don’t fret — both can be viewed as complimentary in reasonable doses. Nevertheless, no winemaker ever wants to read that their product is reminiscent of “grandma’s closet” or “running shorts.”

But back to Syrah. The most

“CERTAIN WINE DESCRIPTIONS MAY COME OFF AS SURPRISING — IF NOT DOWNRIGHT UNAPPETIZING — IF YOU’RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE LINGO.”

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

History, As Told by Bill Bryson // BY SCOTT STERN

Perhaps “One Summer: America 1927,” by Bill Bryson, is “remedial pseudo-history” that “does a disservice to the very word ‘history.’” Or perhaps it is “a splendid book, written in the breezy and humorous style that has come to be Bryson’s trademark.” This depends on whom you believe — esteemed professor Douglas Brinkley or prolific journalist Jerry Harkavy. And that truly defines the gulf of opinion when it comes to Bryson’s work — do you think he’s a hack spouting anecdotal half-truths, or a genius distilling boring ephemera into readable prose?

Either way, you have to admit Bryson’s an engaging and generally hilarious writer. And “One Summer: America 1927” exemplifies why.

“One Summer” tells the story of a fascinating couple of months. From roughly June to September, Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in a single

S U N D AY F E B RUA RY 2 3

SCOTT STERN READNG BETWEEN THE LINES season, Philo Farnsworth made a critical breakthrough that led to the invention of the television, the first talking picture was released, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed, the Mississippi River overflowed and killed thousands, Henry Ford finally moved past the Model T, a foreign-born engineer began work on Mount Rushmore and the masters of the financial world made a decision that led directly to the Great Depression. Among much else.

Bryson shows us how pitchers used to coat baseballs in “globulous” substances to make them harder to hit. He informs us that,

in order to prevent alcohol consumption during Prohibition, the government poisoned batches of moonshine at random. He traces the early history of jazz and explains what it meant to dance the Charleston. Among much else.

Several skeptical critics have pointed out that close examination would yield a similarly overwhelming slew of interesting stories about any period in American history. This is true, of course, but few would do it as well. Bryson writes with an almost effortless irreverence and wit, shredding esteemed reputations with a couple quick turns of phrase.

Bryson tells us that Henry Ford was an altogether subpar individual and an unusually selective — if dedicated — anti-Semite. Ty Cobb was a stupendous racist and almost psychopathically violent. Warren Harding was dumb, Herbert Hoover was pompous and Calvin Coolidge

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Contact SCOTT STERN at scott.stern@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Pinterest-ing.

May the best wedding board win.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND THEATER

INTO THE MODERN DAY FOREST // BY KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Puck says in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The Yale Dramatic Association’s opening performance on Wednesday night captured not only the humorous foolishness, but also the whimsicality, playfulness and magic of this classic Shakespearean comedy. In a departure from the original, however, many of the scenes play out against the backdrop of thoroughly modern settings. In doing so, the Dramat injects the timeless work with a contemporary edge.

The modernity of this adaptation works, even if it takes a little getting used to. Hermia and Lysander wear backpacks as they run through the forest. Lysander and Demetrius rap with each other in classic Old English, and toss a football to each other. The two couples participate in a yoga class led

by Puck. In one scene, the cast breaks out into a song from Disney’s The Lion King, and characters at another point appear to read from editions of Fifty Shades of Grey.

The show invites the audi-

ence to participate in the production more than many traditional renditions. Puck sits in the aisle, right next to audience members, for large portions of the show. At first I thought Rebecca Brudner ’16 might have been out of character, as she leaned over to smile and giggle at a person sitting next to the aisle. I was wrong. Puck was very much in character, and was simply engaging with the audience. In a theater as small as the University Theatre, this allowed for an added layer of intimacy and liveliness.

The modern adaptation demands flexibility from the actors and actresses. The cast must flit between scenes in the forest outside Athens, interspersed with scenes in school cafeterias and bathrooms. The actors must convince the audience that they are authentic versions of Shakespeare’s characters, even within these 21st century settings.

The cast certainly rose to the challenge. The scenes in the school were endearing, honestly acted and lighthearted, while the scenes in the for-

est were alluring and mysterious. It might seem that having such different settings would cause the play to feel choppy in its timeline, but the actors transition smoothly between each setting. They do so by maintaining a youthful exuberance throughout the entire play, bringing practical (and at times childish) humor to each scene.

Bottom (Eric Sirakian ’15) really shone in his ability to master the character transformation this comedy requires.

He showed the audience gleeful obedience (to Tatiana), drama (in the Theseus suicide scene) and a love of practical humor (as he licks Wall’s behind).

The set is nothing short of magical, and succeeds in evoking the allure and mystery of the forest outside Athens, to which the Athenians escape for much of the play. Rising balloons, towers of dimly lit lamps and an eerily lit moon that changes set the mood for these scenes. The moment when Tatiana (Juliana Canfield ’14) awakes to find herself in love with Bottom is a high point of set design in the production. As she wakes up, deep,

earthy, rumbling music comes on, and the intense red and orange light bathes the stage.

Director Stephen Kaliski’s rendition is alternatively very sexualized, yet also sweetly innocent at times. Perhaps the most surprising part of his adaptation comes in an interaction between Tatiana and Bottom. Tatiana has already awoken to find herself in love with Bottom, who has turned into a donkey. Bottom disappears under the folds of Tatiana’s wide skirt, and she proceeds to gasp and shudder for at least a full minute. The scene inevitably made for a few uncomfortable laughs from the audience.

Even so, the scene represents one of the most brave and daring adaptations of the whole performance. This scene — and other modern flourishes — plays up Midsummer’s naturally whimsical and playful side. But for diehard Shakespeare devotees, the play might prove a disappointing deviation from the classic.

// WILLIAM FREEDBERG

Contact KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG at kirsten.schnackenberg@yale.edu .

Exploring the Human Psyche Through Maids // BY GAYATRI SABHARWAL

// NICK THIGPEN

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“Maids,” shown at the Yale Cabaret on Thursday and directed by Dustin Wills DRA ’14, opened to reveal a room within a room. The room, in which the characters performed throughout the whole show, was framed by glass windows. The construction made for a veritable transparent screen between the audience and actors. In the opening scene, two characters, clad in nothing but white undergarments, use this space to explore their fantasies, while catapulting the audience into the dark realm of its own psyche. Right from the first act, “Maids” threw me into simultaneous reflections on human confusion, introspection, pride and submission.

The play offered a masterful commentary on issues of gender, sex, attraction, betrayal, vanity and profanity. In one scene, for instance, the maids portray intense hatred toward one another. Following the expletives, however, came love bites. This scene embodies the lack of consistency in action and mood that is portrayed throughout the play. Struggling with the contradictory pressures of physiological arousal and moral rectitude, the characters are swung into a battlefield of insecurity and vulner-

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ability.

The three male characters all expertly portray fluid personalities, transitioning from one extreme emotion to the next with ease. More than representing specific men or women, the characters acted mainly as symbols of powerful and dynamic human character.

The play did, however, occasionally add a nice dose of humor to an otherwise dark story. The audience seemed to particularly like the brutal honestly of one maid’s admission of running out of expletives for the other.

“Maids” ends with a shocking scene. The sadism, guilt and relief experienced by the maid vaguely resembled the familiar human feeling of closure — typical to what we experience when a relationship ends and the struggle is over. The whirlwind of thought and emotion stood suspended, and the play drew to close.

Throughout the performance, the audience was either pin-drop silent or in a state of controlled and remarkably synchronized laughter. It seemed as though, despite the numerous ways in which each scene could be interpreted, “Maids” provided a solid foundation for venturing into a collective

exploration. The Cabaret presented a complex yet bare keyhole view into sensitive issues; the darkness of the underlying theme was lit up by the dignity of talented actors and the elegance of the set.

“Maids” made me feel disappointment, liberation, confusion and, ultimately, plain appreciation. I walked out

with a sense of surrender. I suppose art, like human nature, is to be marveled at with a reflective innocence, rather than be understood with a clinical arrogance. So, go and indulge your mind in the beauty of the unknown and the uncertain.

Contact GAYATRI SABHARWAL at gayatri.sabharwal@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Olympic Lecture Skipping

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PAGE B12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

SIR GILBERT LEVINE: Conductor, Mediator, Salovey-enthusiast // BY MADELINE DUFF

// HENRY EHRENBERG

Q. How did you come to conduct the upcoming performance?

A. My son, Gabriel Levine ’14, is the principal bassoonist in the YSO. Toshi [YSO Musical Director Toshiyuki Shimada] asked me whether I would like to conduct the YSO and I said, “With my son in it? Of course.”

Q. So New Haven is not uncharted territory?

A. I received my M.A. here at Yale and I’ve been a fellow of Trumbull for many years and have done a number of Master’s Teas.

So I’ve really enjoyed my university connection; however, this is the best — getting to conduct my son in the YSO. The program is just an astonishing Yale program because we’re doing a work by Richard Danielpour called “Washington Speaks” on, I believe, Washington’s birthday — which includes the words of Washington on religious tolerance. There is also a fantastic Yale connection to those words because Ezra Stiles, the third president of Yale, was the pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport and was present at the inauguration in 1763 of the Touro Synagogue, which was the synagogue to which Washington wrote the letter. So it’s like coming full circle.

So, this issue of religious liberty at Yale goes back to its founding and certainly to Ezra Stiles. Then you have this incredible arc to Peter Salovey, who comes from a great rabbinic family. The Soloveitchik rabbis are a legendary family of rabbis from White Russia and from BrestLitovsk. To have as the President of Yale the son of a great

rabbinic family and stretching back that tradition to Ezra Stiles, who befriended a rabbi in Newport, and to have Washington write that letter — there’s just a remarkable confluence there.

Then the Mahler Second Symphony is this gargantuan canvas, and because it’s so large and rich, we have the members of the YSO and we have students at the YSM who are filling out the sections, particularly the brass of the YSO. Then you have the Yale Glee Club and the Yale Camerata (an undergraduate and graduate ensemble) and you have students and a faculty members singing. I love that. That’s just a great Yale event. I’m really looking forward to that aspect of it.

Q. It seems the music is unifying all of these different parties.

A. That’s what it’s about and that’s what a lot of my life has been about is music as a unifying force. I did the Mahler Second Symphony at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome and the Imam of the Mosque of Rome at the concert called the Papal Concert of Reconciliation with the Pittsburgh Symphony and choruses from Krakow, London, Turkey and Pittsburgh and two German soloists. Again, bringing people together is what music does. So, this is the Yale cast. President Salovey has just been fantastic.

Q. Do you think these religious themes are particularly relevant today?

A. They’re more relevant today than maybe at any time in history if you look at the killing that’s going on around the world

in the name of religion. We are a Holocaust family so we lost forty members of our family from racial hatred of the most extreme kind. If you look at what’s going on now in Syria among Muslims — it’s a deep human tragedy that people kill in the name of God. We can use whatever means (and I use music because it’s my art) to bring people together and to remind people of what we have in common: our human characteristics. It’s something which obviously formed the core of my relationship with Pope John Paul II, he being Polish-Catholic, I being of Polish-Jewish heritage (or Jewish with Polish heritage). Finding a bridge, finding a way to use music as a language of at-one-ment is extraordinary.

When you have your art serve that purpose with one of the great spiritual leaders of all time, now to be made a saint on April 27, it’s an honor and a responsibility and a privilege as an artist.

Q. Was there a pivotal moment in your early years when you realized music was your art?

A. Most people are forced by their parents to practice. I may have been guilty about doing that to our sons a little bit but I was never forced. My family was a very unmusical family. We had a little spinet piano so my mother could play folk songs. I, from a very early age, couldn’t be dragged away from the piano. I’m sure that the sounds I was making were horrendous because I had no training and I was just pounding but there was something mystical about those sounds. They struck a chord with me that was really profound. I remember feeling that

way from the earliest possible age, that music had that capacity for me to reach a different level of understanding with the world. It brought me away from the world in a way that was remarkable but also tuned me into the world in a way that was as remarkable.

Later, I began studying seriously.

It became clear music could be a profession, but at first it was a state of being. I learned I was more proficient at music than I was at language and I was more proficient at expressing myself through music.

When I encountered symphony orchestras, I guess at eleven or twelve, I said, “My God, somebody can make something sound like that?” It was sure no spinet piano. It was something quite remarkable. The person who did that was Leonard Bernstein. I met him once very late in his life at Tanglewood, but he was a television personality. There were no American conductors before him, so he was the first and I said, “Oh wow, I can actually do that!” He was my inspiration. My mother even wrote a letter to his assistant saying, “What do I do with this crazy kid?” He said to find somebody of impeccable credentials and have him give your son a brutally honest answer as to whether he has talent. So my mother trundled me off without telling me what was going on to audition for this guy and he called her just shortly after my lesson and said, “It’s okay. He’s got the goods.”

Q. What do you see as the ideal role of the conductor?

A. My job is first of all to have an idea, to understand a score sufficiently. You are the composer’s representative. And that’s not so simple because it takes a tremendous amount of abnegation of ego to put yourself in the service of composer. It takes endless hours of just trying to understand the creative impetus, the creative core of a piece of music and then to translate that in your own mind. My method of studying, for instance, is that I sit at a table with an open score — no recording, no nothing. I allow the notes to speak with me. I have to come to an understanding of what Brahms or Beethoven or Mahler is trying to say. My conductor’s brain comes in as far as translating that conception to the orchestra. That’s the talent.

You have to take the composer’s view as you know it and then make that sum greater than the parts.

Q. What was your creative process in preparation for conducting Mahler?

A. When I went back to study Mahler’s Second again for this performance, I found new things

that made sense to me. It’s like reading a Shakespeare play. You can read it in every decade of your life and you will understand it differently. Every time I do the Mahler Second Symphony, I learn new things that Mahler or Mahler’s culture imbued and imprinted into that symphony.

There are many, many right ways of doing the Mahler Second.

There’s only one right way for me right now this week.

Q. Some of the audience members in Woolsey this Saturday, I imagine, will be Mahler devotees.

A. But many not. And that’s very important because I conduct for everyone in the hall. If there are Mahler devotees, they’ll compare my performance with the 25 other performances they’ve heard. If they’re hearing it for the first time, that’s even better. You’re introducing them to the colossal masterwork. I am acutely aware that there will be people in the audience who will be very, very well versed and people who really will have nothing of an experience. Or there will be people who are deeply religious and come at it from that point of view and be uplifted by it spiritually. That’s a fascinating thing to see: that spiritual uplift that happens regardless of what you think you believe. I am about music and spirit, and bringing music and spirit together, because I think they are one and the same when they are done properly.

Q. So that they transcend …

A. Yes. When I was here getting a Master’s, Leopold Stokovsky, a famous British conductor of Polish heritage, came and it was my job to prepare the Yale Philharmonia for his arrival.

“

I prepared them on the stage of Woolsey; it was Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. This limousine pulled up to the stage door of Woolsey and Stokovsky got out, aided by an assistant, and I don’t think he knew where he was. He was maybe ninety years old. But when he got on stage, he connected with the audience in an electric way. His spirit and his brain were turned on. He sat down and transformed the Philharmonia and made them come alive with his understanding. He was a genius conductor. That’s what music does — to those who make it and to the orchestra itself.

Q. And to the audience as well?

A. Yes! And that’s our goal, to be the medium for the composer to reach the audience with his or her music.

Q. And for people who are less familiar with Mahler or classical music?

A. They will be blown out of their chairs! And that is the truth. This piece will literally blow them away! The Mahler is a piece which brings people out of their chairs. It is overwhelming and uplifting in the way the Beethoven Ninth is. There are very few pieces where you walk away saying, “Wow! That was an unbelievable experience!” It is a great experience for somebody who’s never been to a concert. I think the Salovey and “Washington Speaks” element is wonderful as a Yale moment. Woolsey Hall will rock! I think every single person on campus and in the town will find it uplifting. I didn’t do that. Mahler did.

Contact MADELINE DUFF at madeline.duff@yale.edu .

THE MAHLER IS A PIECE WHICH BRINGS PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR CHAIRS.

“

R

enowned conductor Sir Gilbert Levine, known as “The Pope’s Maestro” for his close connection to John Paul II, graduated from the Juilliard School of Music, received an A.B. from Princeton and completed his M.A. here at Yale. Since then, he has strived to foster close connections between composer and conductor, conductor and orchestra, and orchestra and audience. His teachers include the notable Milton Babbitt and Nadia Boulanger, and his dynamic musical career has carried him to international stages from Italy to Krakow. In 1994, Pope John Paul II honored Levine’s efforts to promote common chords of understanding between Judaism and the Catholic Church by deeming him a “Knight Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great.” Inspired by the great cultural figurehead Leonard Bernstein from a young age, Sir Gilbert has also conducted music for millions through public television. February 22 promises to be another winning spectacle as he channels composers Richard Danielpour and Gustav Mahler at the helm of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. The program includes narration from President Peter Salovey, soloists from the Yale Camerata and musicians from the Yale School of Music and Yale Glee Club. Earlier this week, Sir Gilbert serenaded WEEKEND with prescient thoughts on music, the art of conducting and the perks of channeling Mahler.