Today's WEEKEND by Yale Daily News

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 01, 2013

PHONES

PAGES

PUZZLES

B6-7

THE WOES OF THE INTERNET AGE

MORE THAN PAPRIKA

FILL IN THE SQUARE

Poor little David has almost no communication skills, and he blames AOL. But now, he is turning a new leaf.

Vanessa Yuan gives us the 411 on the “Color Bound” exhibit that might just be the most exciting thing in the A&A library right now.

Word whiz Caleb Madison put together one of his world-famous crosswords just for WEEKEND. Take a stab at it.

PAGE B2

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

ADAMS

WEEKEND VIEWS

READ MY LIP-SYNC: ON BEYONCÉ, ASHLEE SIMPSON AND THE AUTHENTICITY IDEAL // BY WILL ADAMS

Last week, Beyoncé Knowles’ did-sheor-didn’t-she-lip-sync-the-NationalAnthem debacle overtook the Internet. Every couple of hours, another conflicting story would be published, and it was up to you to decide which version of the truth you preferred. The endless coverage seemed to be little more than another step in the media’s dedication to Really Important News – did you know that Michelle Obama has bangs now? Well, she does! – but the huge emotional investment each side took was strange. Why was it so important whether or not Beyoncé actually sang the National Anthem at Obama’s inauguration? Perhaps lip-syncing for such an important occasion is inappropriate. Perhaps lip-syncing such an important hymn is disrespectful (though supporters of Beyoncé pointed out that Whitney Houston’s iconic performance at the 1991 Super Bowl was prerecorded). Most of the discussion, however, centered on how this scandal would reflect on Beyoncé’s artistry. A transgression as severe as lip-syncing could undermine everything she has achieved so far. That may be an extreme prediction — at the end of the day, she is still Beyoncé — but her authenticity was called into question. This isn’t the first time lip-syncing has been a national controversy. Recall the Ashlee Simpson fiasco of 2004, when the fledgling artist stepped onto the “Saturday Night Live” stage to perform as musical guest, only to have a pre-recorded vocal begin playing while the mic was at her waist. Simpson became a pariah, lampooned tirelessly for her acid reflux excuses and wacky hoedown. She performed two months later at the Orange Bowl and

received a chorus of damning boos. Ever persistent, Simpson continued to produce music, but the incident remains a scourge on her career. The difference between these two singers’ artistic worth is irrelevant — in both cases, the issue of authenticity is at stake. Time and again, the concept of authenticity enters into pop criticism — at its core, those artists who are “authentic,” i.e. show investment in their craft, write their own songs and have at least one noticeable talent, are more valuable than those who don’t. While these qualities are certainly admirable in artists of any medium, a tension arises when this standard is grafted onto pop music. Beyoncé’s voice is arguably her most important feature — she is gifted with a warm timbre and a wide range that trill up high and growl down low — so she seemingly passes the test. But pop is built on image almost as much as it is music. Consider the iconic music video for “Single Ladies,” or even the premise of Beyoncé’s alter ego Sasha Fierce. No matter how invested Beyoncé is in these projects, it is still a mask, it is still a performance and there is some amount of artifice at play. When we are confronted with these lipsync scandals, this tension is most obvious. On one hand, we vilify artists like Simpson — and before her, Britney Spears and Milli Vanilli — for lip-syncing and label artists like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj as “fake.” On the other, these same artists enjoy massive commercial success. Even Simpson is included here; her smart distillation of Avril-inspired pop rock propelled her debut album “Autobiography” to triple platinum status. While album sales and chart performance are not necessar-

ily linked to quality, these examples show that big hooks, carefully crafted music and a well-defined image will almost always trump authenticity in the pop arena. Authenticity and artifice aren’t mutually exclusive, but our culture’s emphasis on the former in the wake of these lip-sync non-events reinforces a false ideal. At this point, any discussion of Beyoncé has turned to backstage photos of her rehearsing for the hotly anticipated Super Bowl Halftime Show. Whether she will sing live is an important question, but will it be any more important than whether she does the “Single Ladies” dance, or how many costume changes there will be, or if it’ll be awkward when Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams join her onstage? Given our image-driven, GIF-happy Internet culture, my guess is no. Contact WILL ADAMS at william.adams@yale.edu .

6 things to perk you up // BY MILA HURSEY

In this time of snow and cold, when 50 percent of the people I know have recently purchased a happy lamp or an industrial-sized bottle of vitamin D-3, I thought I’d share the things that are making me happy today, in hopes that they might brighten your day too. Excluded in this list are BuzzFeed links, baby animals and Tyra Banks GIFs because even though they are great, everyone knows about them. 1. Taye Diggs: This week, Taye Diggs discovered an intruder in his home, chased the motherfucker down and detained him until the police came. What a badass, protecting Idina and his Blewish baby — take notes people, this is how a man handles his business. 2. The return of gangsta rap: Maybe it never really went away. Maybe it’s been here the entire time, outshined by the likes of Soulja Boy and 2 Chainz — who are genius performance artists if they are at all self-aware — but I don’t have a fear/ awe relationship like I did with the rappers of yore. I wanna hear some rappers who’ve seen some shit, and have more to contribute to the canon than that they’re in love with strippers and chasing shawties. Ew. ENTER RICK ROSS, a giant, scarylooking man in furs who started a feud with 50 Cent for looking at him the wrong way. He just survived a drive-by shooting, and did I mention that he’s terrifying? The man is a true gangsta and can spit rhymes like woah. I haven’t been this scared of a rapper since DMX was relevant and I kind of missed it, you know? 3. Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star: I have a history of insomnia, but no longer thanks to a miraculous Spotify discovery! The artist Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star remixes artists like Sublime, Queen,

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 1

One Direction, David Bowie, Kanye, Fleetwood Mac and Rick Springfield into the dulcet tones of a baby’s lullaby. Want to expose your children to Nirvana without explaining the song “Rape Me?” Think that Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” would be a shock to a child’s senses? THERE IS A SOLUTION. Some god of a human turned almost every great song ever into a soothing lullaby. I think tonight’s selection will be an arrangement of Radiohead’s “High and Dry.” I swear to god, Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star will change your life. 4. Bipartisan immigration reform: I actually don’t know enough about anything to have a legitimate opinion about the immigration reform proposal made by a bipartisan Senate committee this past week, but I like the word “bipartisan” because it makes me feel as though I live in a country where civility is possible. And also unicorns and puppies and rainbows. 5. The Weather Channel named 2 inches of snow “Winter Storm Khan.” As in Genghis Khan/“Wrath of Khan,” Khan. … And finally … 6. Beyonce is coming out with an HBO documentary about herself. She’s also releasing a new album with Destiny’s Child and performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, making 2013 the most awesome year on record. This is literally the darkest part of the year. Spring break seems so far away, and there isn’t enough sleep, coffee or downtime to keep anyone sufficiently and sustainably happy in subfreezing weather. I hope you also find a couple of awesome things to perk up your day. Contact MILA HURSEY at mila.hursey@yale.edu .

JOSEPH-GOTEINER

HURSEY

// KATE MCMILLAN

Getting Over Diane // BY DAVID JOSEPH-GOTEINER

I don’t have lalophobia, and I wouldn’t label myself a “phonefearing” individual. But I do suck at making phone calls. Several people have relayed to me that the “No. 1 reported fear” in the United States is of public speaking. It isn’t mine. I wouldn’t rank public speaking above my fear of waterboarding, identity theft or running out of toilet paper in a public restroom. Yet there’s something about picking up a phone that gets me worked up in weird, and probably very unnatural, ways. My mouth dries up like the feeling of sucking in air at the bottom of a Coke-flavored Slurpee, and words get stuck in my throat like large tapioca balls in a regular straw. Maybe I should start to “visualize myself successfully making or receiving calls” and “imagine a positive conversation and feeling good afterward.” This is a nugget of advice from an About.com column titled “When Phone Fear is Something More” by clinical psychologist Arlin Cuncic; it is filed under treatments for those suffering from “social anxiety disorder.” Alas, my poor phone skills — and others’ irrational fear of public speaking — are probably a result of what is considered one of the greatest technological advances to take place in the past 20 years. The Internet. I’d go so far as to call us the “beta” generation, the lab rats and test tubes for this brave new world. New technological innovation is also, conveniently, the primary reason I suck at making phone calls. In my case, the anecdotal evidence is compelling. I can trace it all back to the days of my youth and the moment

SOUTH ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

NEW TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IS ALSO, CONVENIENTLY, THE PRIMARY REASON I SUCK AT MAKING PHONE CALLS. Over this past break, I went out to a hip(ster) bar in Oakland’s Jack London Square with my sister and her friends. Diane was there. At first she seemed curious about my first semester at Yale. What girls I’d met, what classes I’d taken and what the weather was like. And then, she brought it up. She leaned in extra close, like she was divulging a secret or a dirty fantasy, and began to reminisce about the long hours we spent communicating on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger for the uninitiated).

I realized then how much time I’d wasted face-to-the-monitor, vying for her attention and affection. The whole experience was disturbing: I saw my “Internet life” flash before my eyes. My online courtship of Diane 13 years ago was the first of the many not-too-personal relationships that I would develop mainly online. The pattern continued through the years I spent on Myspace, and later Facebook. I find myself wondering whether my outlook towards communication would be different if I’d spent those long hours chatting with Diane on my family’s landline. And if she had never signed onto AIM, would I have grown so attached to the Internet? I don’t want to end up searching for advice from people like Arlin Cuncic anytime soon — “visualize it…” — so I’d better start while I’m ahead. My recent encounter with Diane serves as a nice bookend for a series of Internet profiles; my AIM, Myspace and Facebook are permanently deleted. Yet I hold onto my Twitter handle and LinkedIn account for reasons I can’t fully articulate. I recognize the pattern of building relationships primarily online, and am working to break it. Next time you text or email me for an update or to grab a meal on campus, you’ll probably receive a (stuttering, awkward) phone call from me. Hopefully when we’re old, we’ll be sipping schnapps and looking back fondly at our long, engaging phone conversations. Contact DAVID JOSEPH-GOTEINER at david.joseph-goteiner@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Whitney Humanities Center // 6:30 p.m. We all have three to four spare hours for a Bollywood movie, right?

I discovered the Internet was a way to connect with people. Perhaps I’m having delusions of grandeur, but I was surprisingly adept at online communication — employing wit, the right amount of “haha”s, and SAT-level words like “puerile.” I can trace it all the way back to third grade. My playground was my mom’s AOL account. I would chat up my older sister’s friends using my index fingers to tap out simple, and compound, sentences with proper punctuation. One friend in particular, Diane, was eight years older and in high school. We hit it off on a cyber level, although we’d also see each other when she came over to hang out with my sister.

Koffee?

It’s next to UCS. Drown your sorrows in a Nutella latte.

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

PAGE B3

WEEKEND COVER

Terminal — bash — 825x1350

coding a new path // BY JACKSON MCHENRY AND DAN WEINER

rofessor Dana Angluin’s office on the fourth floor of Arthur K. Watson Hall, the home of the Computer Science Department, is covered in graphs. One, which is pinned to the outside of the doorway, lists the enrollment numbers for the major’s introductorylevel lectures. The color-coded bars rocket upward as the graph approaches the present. This surge in interest might explain why the average Yale undergraduate has received several campuswide emails mentioning “hackathons” and “HackYale.” According to the Yale College Council, today is the first day of Tech Month, an initiative meant to bring the campus’s programming scene to the fore. It has been a long time coming, but now, the signs are clear that more and more Yalies are learning to scan lines of code in addition to lines of verse. In the spring of 2010, 28 students were enrolled in “Introduction to Programming”; three years later, 187 students squeeze into the lecture hall. This semester the number of applicants for HackYale, a student-run course that teaches practical programming basics, was around 250 for about 50 coveted spots in the capped lecture. In response to such record interest in computer science, members and supporters of Yale’s tech community have suggested turning HackYale into an official college course. In the process, students have cited the example of similar practical lectures courses taught at Harvard, Stanford and Penn. But there are growing pains. The computer science major has had roughly the same number of faculty members for the past three decades. Now, with increasing enrollment, professors have struggled to keep up. Classes lack sufficient numbers of teaching assistants for their size, and without the extra help, professors cannot meet the needs of every student. Despite University interest in expanding tech-related initiatives on campus, students, faculty and administrators have pointed out that the practical instruction required for this boom seems incompatible with Yale’s liberal arts mission. In computer science courses, Yale’s faculty is known to emphasize concepts. There are no lessons on how to build the app that will make you rich. The College is, after all, more well-known for DS than it is for CS. But most people involved in Yale’s tech community say that graduates can find success in this ever-evolving field on their own terms. The University may never churn out programmers or engineers like MIT or Stanford. But as pointed out by members of HackYale and Yale BootUp, an organization that sponsors events for campus programmers, the liberal arts pedigree isn’t always a drawback. Computers can be made to crunch the numbers behind the big questions: the political science major who builds a program to analyze AIDS rates in Africa, the art major who programs panels of LEDs, one node at a time. Tech at Yale is here; it has been for several years. The

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 1

challenge is finding a space for it to stay, and figuring out whether there’s enough room in the University’s old stone walls for both theory and practice.

THE SOURCE CODE

It’s easy to fantasize that coding in college means scribbling on your dorm room window at 3 a.m. while your suitemates get drunk and Trent Reznor’s electronic score blares in the background.

Yale’s signature course, “Introduction to Web Development.” The semester-long lecture, taught one night a week by students in the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design, introduces Yalies to some of the building blocks of the web: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. While the program is designed to teach 50 students, HackYale Director Zack Reneau-Wedeen ’14 said that their course could attract 1,000 applicants by

recent recession. A cultural shift may also underlie this change. Girvin pointed out that Yale’s quantitatively minded have begun to resist the siren song of the financial sector after graduation. “I’m not sure [these finance positions] led to very fulfilling lives or to making a difference in the world,” he said. “And I think there has been a national swing back towards science, engineering and computer science for those people.”

SHORT-CIRCUITRY

THERE IS A LITTLE BIT LESS ATTENTION PER COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT RIGHT NOW. BUT YOU HAVE TO IMAGINE THAT THE ADMINISTRATION NOTICES THE INCREASE IN DEMAND AND WILL ADJUST ACCORDINGLY.

As put by Stanley Eisenstat, the director of undergraduate studies for the Computer Science Department, many fledgling programmers are inspired by stories like those shown in the movie “The Social Network,” about Mark Zuckerberg and others who became billionaires by starting a company in college. Others cite stories closer to campus. Last year, Yale bought the license to Yale BlueBook from Jared Shenson ’12 and Charlie Croom ’12, the two students who designed the nowubiquitous course database. Croom currently works for Twitter. “[Computer science now] is cool, which hasn’t always been the case,” said Angluin, who taught “Introduction to Computer Science” in the fall. You know what else is cool? A billion dollars. Throughout his time at Yale, Max Uhlenhuth ’12 developed software to help forestry companies more efficiently manage their inventories. These efforts laid the foundation for the company he co-founded, SilviaTerra. In 2012, Forbes magazine named Uhlenhuth an “AllStar Student Entrepreneur” and reports that Uhlenhuth estimates that his company will pull in more than $3 million this upcoming year. Uhlenhuth, however, saw tech-savviness as necessary for more than just big payouts. “One of the skills that a Renaissance person needs to have in 2013 is how to interact with this digital world,” he said. This perspective is understandable, as coded products, from JSTOR to Snapchat, have become inseparable from college life, and Angluin echoed this sentiment. “In a terrible economy, tech hiring is a bright spot,” she said, commenting on recent employment statistics. But, financial concerns aside, “[students] expect to know how to use the things they use in life.” It is no wonder, then, that students in philosophy, chemistry and computer science alike have flocked to Hack-

expanding advertising alone. Despite the intense competition, HackYale does not pander to the experienced programmer. The vast majority of its students have never coded before. Only 20 to 30 percent of the students in each of the two 25-person sections tend to be computer science majors. In addition, the proliferation of online programming guides has made the coding world more accessible, said Yale BootUp President Aayush Upadhyay ’14. “You can just Google ‘How do I build a web app?’ and the first 10 links are all incredibly informative,” he said. “They assume you know nothing and

As the demand rises for a more technical kind of education, Yale’s resources might not be ready to properly face the changing times. “Yale’s [Computer Science] Department is undersized compared to other institutions,” Angluin said. Yale’s computer science faculty, according to Angluin, has been the same size for the last 25 years. “Now that the Admissions Office has presented us with more students, that will have to change.” The problem? According to professor Eisenstat, who has been on the faculty for all 25 of those years and more, “we don’t control the purse strings.” As noted by both Eisenstat and Angluin, Yale’s peer institutions — especially Harvard, Stanford and Penn — have pumped money into their computer science departments in recent years. Famously, Harvard reinvented its introductory programming lecture, CS50, in order to cater to a wider swath of the student body. In 2011, over 600 students had enrolled in the course, which employed two multimedia producers to record every lecture. “It has a very odd design,” said Angluin of CS50, commenting that it needs “rafts and rafts” of committed and paid undergraduate teaching assistants to make it work. Yale’s computer science fac-

INDEED, THE SCENE OF STUDENTS SPENDING TIME IN A HACKATHON, TINKERING WITH CODE FOR HOURS WITH LITTLE MORE TRAINING THAN HACKYALE, IS PERHAPS QUINTESSENTIALLY YALE.

they just take you step-by-step, and you build an entire thing that works and it looks nice.” Upadhyay also mentioned that Yale’s recent effort to increase STEM enrollment could promote a culture of innovation that will come to feed itself, even if it’s not destined to dominate campus life. Deputy Provost for Science and Technology Steven Girvin said that the economy has driven a large part of the rise in technical and entrepreneurial interest at Yale in recent years. After a visit to Silicon Valley earlier this week, Girvin confirmed that the tech industry shows very few scars from the

ulty, which is currently experiencing difficulty having professors work one-on-one with students for senior projects, just doesn’t have the manpower for that kind of course offering. Reneau-Wedeen said that enrollment in many computer science courses has tripled in recent years. The department has also struggled to find enough qualified teaching fellows; approximately 70 students and only one teaching assistant formed part of an artificial intelligence course taught last fall. “We have to sort of swallow a tiny bit of a bitter pill, ” Reneau-Wedeen said. “There

YALE HOCKEY VS PRINCETON

IS HACKING A LIBERAL ART?

Does the stereotypical Yale student code? Would he spend hours, even days, glued to a screen, out of sight of the University’s Gothic buildings? Would alumni scoff at the idea of a course that teaches students how to build a website, and not simply how to think about one? “Yale sees itself as very much a liberal arts place,” Uhlenhuth said. “[It] doesn’t want to become a trade school.” To that end, Yale’s Computer Science Department is designed to give students a strong background in theory. Up until a few years ago, “Introduction to Programming” taught students Scheme, a programming language that Uhlenhuth said is infamous among programmers — while it is good for teaching theory, it’s a “huge pain in the ass” to build anything with. Because of the department’s history, the proposal outlining a for-credit version of HackYale potentially faces more fundamental trouble than a lack of funding and a dearth of TAs and student input. Girvin said that while he could imagine engineering departments embracing a course like one modeled after Harvard’s CS50, he expressed doubt that the computer science program would be as receptive. “My impression is that [our department] views that kind of course as separate from their academic mission,” he said. Indeed, Angluin also believes that computer science at Yale is designed to be something more “fundamental.” According to professor Eisenstat, this focus on adaptability will serve majors well in the constantly changing technological world. This measure of well-roundedness, however, does not necessarily translate as well into the business world. “They don’t even recruit at Yale for Twitter,” Croom said. Yale graduates like Croom do work in Silicon Valley, but the road to get there is not as wellworn as those in peer schools. Because of this, it’s easy to see Yale’s lack of a tech pipeline as a problem, especially for high school students who see college as a stepping stone to career goals. Rafi Khan ’15 does not think Yale is particularly known as being a tech school. Khan won the App Challenge last year for Screw Me Yale, which helps students pair off their roommates for residential college dances. But, as Khan said, that perception can change, and not in SEE CODING PAGE B8

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Ingalls Rink // 7 p.m.

Bulldogs on Ice.

is a little bit less attention per computer science student right now. But you have to imagine that the administration notices the increase in demand and will adjust accordingly.” Staffing concerns, however, have proven to be a problem for members of Yale’s tech community, many of whom see Yale’s lack of a practical programming lecture as a sign of lagging administrative support. “I don’t feel that [the administration has] detracted from anything, but I also don’t think they have contributed too much either,” said Upadhyay. “I think it’s been very student-led, whatever tech initiatives we have seen here.”

Walking fast

When it’s cold, slow and steady is just annoying.

PAGE B4

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

WEEKEND ARTS

TICKLED FRENCH ROSE PINK // BY VANESSA YUAN

Hey, cool kids! If you’re looking for something cool and underground to do, you should check out “Color Bound: Artists Seek Inspiration From Color Theory,” an exhibition at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, in the lower floor, all the way to the right, in the back corner. I wasn’t kidding about the “underground” part. While I don’t understand why the least colorful, poorly lit and most desolate part of an otherwise aesthetically pleasing library is home to a show on color, the exhibit overcomes its shoddy placement. “Color Bound” features selections from the Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color at the Arts Library, a trove stocked with a range of color theory works dating back to the 16th century. This collection on color is considered // JACOB GEIGER

Josef Albers is smiling.

one of the most complete collections on color systems, color standards and color nomenclature. Jae Jennifer Rossman, the Library’s assistant director for special collections, selected works that explore the influence of color theory on contemporary artists’ books, which are artworks in the form of books. These books use text, image and form as the components of their composition. While there are historical records of scientific studies by artists and scientists (think Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton) on color theory, it seems as if contemporary book artists are less experimental. Then, asks this quiet corner, how does the work of these predecessors affect book artists today? And what other resources (such as paint chip catalogues, advertisements and architecture) do they draw from? Rossman organized the displayed bookworks into three categories. The first is a selection of historical texts on color theory, with the earliest work on dis-

play published in the 19th century. While these books do look back on some of the big names in color theory and other arts, such as Goethe and Schiller, I would have liked to see even older texts included so as to create a clearer material contrast between dated, now-crumbling journals and their contemporary equivalents. Such historical distance would help make it more striking to see the connections that do exist between today’s bookworks and those of the past. The second part of the exhibit includes the contemporary conceptual works which help complete the argument the show is making: Here, these works tell us, is where we can note the lingering influence of historical color theorists. Expect to see works by Josef Albers, who was part of the nowdefunct Department of Design at Yale. While students might have seen his art at the Yale University Art Gallery, which possesses a large Albers collection, or copies of his colorful designs as dec-

orations (I’m talking colored squares within squares) in residential college butteries, it is an entirely novel experience to see his work on book pages alongside his words. Finally, there is the display of books on color reference, the emotional and visual effects of simple switches between color swatches of the same image. This was a personal favorite. These books touch upon how we perceive the world, bringing us back to the origins of color theory and the reasons we make art in the first place. The catalogues also remind us why it has become necessary to name and categorize different colors and shades. In this vivid contemporary world, color is something easily taken for granted, but is also important artistically, scientifically and even economically. So come see “Color Bound.” Learn a bit about the visual world and pick up a new favorite color. Contact VANESSA YUAN at vanessa.yuan@yale.edu .

A film that prefers feelings to finesse // BY HAYLEY BYRNES

Darkness — flip. Unknown — flip. Fear — flip. With each slight flick of the wrist, a studious Yalie reveals the Farsi equivalents to each tragic term. Displayed in the moments before Monday’s Iranian Studies Initiative-hosted screening of “Iranian Taboo” began, those flashcards conveyed a melancholic flavor that was all too fitting. The film, the latest documentary by Dutch-Iranian director Reza Allamehzadeh, depicts the experience of the minority Baha’i community in Iran. It is an experience of prejudice, injustice and, above all else, silence (that is, the titular “taboo”). The documentary opens with the clumsy cinematography of a home video. Seconds later, a woman stands before the camera and explains, “I am having my daughter film this for future generations.” She wants the daughter to document why their family chose to flee from their homeland. She puts her hand to her face, looks away and cries. In the opening moments before the film, Yale history professor Abbas

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 1

Amanat echoed her sentiment: The act of documentation in itself has some healing power. In a booming voice and with a slight accent, he praised Allamehzadeh’s work for its focus on a largely ignored community, seemingly more impressed with its substance than its style. But is a well-chosen topic enough to make a documentary succeed? Allamehzadeh seems to think so. “Iranian Taboo” exposes Iran’s tragic treatment of the Baha’i with appropriate anguish, but the director stops short of any more nuanced reflection. The film traces the migration of one Baha’i woman’s family to Turkey, with the grief of her 14-yearold daughter as its driving force. The woman broadly alludes to the horrors of the discrimination her people face, and Allamehzadeh highlights telling examples: the exclusion of the Baha’i from higher education, the forced disclosure of religious affiliation on job forms and the government’s accusation that all Baha’i are Israeli spies (not the best rep in Ahmadinejad’s Iran). These stories are often told by Baha’i voices: A villager says he was

asked to divorce his wife on religious grounds; a bright Baha’i student complains of being denied entrance to college. And there’s the unforgettable story of Dr. Berjis, a prominent philanthropist and convert to the

“IRANIAN TABOO” EXPOSES IRAN’S TRAGIC TREATMENT OF THE BAHA’I WITH APPROPRIATE ANGUISH, BUT THE DIRECTOR STOPS SHORT OF ANY MORE NUANCED REFLECTION. Baha’i faith. Islamic fundamentalists came to believe that Berjis was a Zionist spy — and so they conspired to attack him. He was stabbed over 80 times. And Allamehzadeh doesn’t leave any part of that brutal murder to the imagination.

Allamehzadeh’s directorial strategy is defined by an effective, if basic, appeal to pathos. This narrow focus sacrifices any exploration of deeper questions: What are the roots of intolerance towards the Baha’i? Is there a solution? The film somewhat surprisingly excludes any mention of the religious differences between the Baha’i and the form of Shiite Islam prevalent in Iran, granting more screentime to sentimentality than to factuality. But if nothing else, the director’s penchant for near-sensationalism ensures that he avoids trivializing an issue of great human rights importance. An appreciation for Allamehzadeh’s investigative commitment must temper any criticism of his style. His film is especially impressive given the logistical difficulty of shooting in Iran. Allamehzadeh exploits the power of raw footage, interspersing it with mobile videos of “underground” universities and fuzzy footage labeled “amateur video.” While he primarily drew from interviews with Baha’i Iranians, Allamehzadeh also includes figures

MASTER CLASS: “COINS AND METALS”

YUAG // 2 p.m. Prep for your Goldman interview.

important on the Iranian political scene, like former President Abulhassan Banisadr and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. Allamehzadeh makes his own appearances throughout the film, at turns the grandfatherly narrator and the pushy investigative journalist. He does not shy away from the activism inherent to most documentaries. He has an agenda — albeit a humanitarian one — and rejects any polite BBC objectivity in favor of Michael Moore-esque “gotcha” questions. Regardless of its emotional predictability, “Iranian Taboo” does strike a chord with viewers. The simplicity of the experience and the dismissal of more complex political questions give the film a raw power and accessibility. As the ending credits appear and the lights flick on, I glance at the flashcard held up front of me: “Silence,” it reads. A word Allamehzadeh easily, and thankfully, forgets. Contact HAYLEY BYRNES at hayley.byrnes@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Pine-Vods

The best drink at Box.

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

PAGE B5

WEEKEND F(R)ICTION

CASE 93 – PART I // BY CHLOE DRIMAL Date: Sept. 8, 1998 Place: Malabar Hill Police Station, Ridge Road, Mumbai, India Interviewer: Detective Ramaj Nitu Interviewee: Stella Hart I’m the only one who was ever able to interview Stella Hart about Ajit Agarkar’s disappearance, something I now understand they did on purpose. It took Agarkar being gone for six years and my buying Hart a cup of tea at the teashop on Apollo Street every day for a year in order for her to allow me to step into her sunroom with my tape recorder. I thought if I had Hart, I would have Ajit. But that was silly of me. No one will ever have Ajit except Miss Hart herself. There was something potent in that sunroom that day, something so potent I was scared to stay too long, yet couldn’t leave Miss Hart, and I think she knew it. Stella Hart. If you could meet her, you would understand that words can’t describe her. Her mystery, her beauty. I saw Stella Hart for the first time when I was twelve and she was eight. She was one of three Caucasian girls at our school, but she still dressed in bright yellow saris more than she wore Western clothes. She had something about her, even at eight, which I can’t really explain. We all started noticing her and Ajit when we spotted them lying across the highest branches of various banyan trees at recess. No one understood how they got there; even us boys four years older than them were never able to climb so high, and I still don’t think I would be able to. But we didn’t just notice them because of how high they climbed. We noticed them because they were just looking out at us, and then past us into all of India. We noticed them because they never talked to each other when they were up in those banyan trees. It was as if they spoke to each other in a language we didn’t understand, a language of silence, a language I longed to be a part of. During the interview, we sat on a yellow couch in the middle of the blue-tiled room. There was a bathtub in the corner of the room, which was filled with tattered books and Polaroid snapshots of animals. There was a puja table next to the bathtub, although when Hart caught me staring at it, she made it clear that she was not a Hindu. A long slinky dress covered her petite 5-foot-5-inch frame. She wore big translucent sunglasses, even when the sun started to set. She was twenty at the time. Hart hasn’t been seen since September 1998. – Ramaj Nitu, Oct. 3, 1998.

seen. Ajit always came over for Ruby’s cooking. He loved watching her pull at the dough with her hands when she was baking bread. He wouldn’t come over when she was breading chicken legs or boiling lobsters, though. He loved animals too much. — Can you tell me a little more about life with your parents, life with your father? Hart No. — No? Hart It is not important to the story of Ajit’s disappearance. Frankly, it’s not important or interesting for that matter. Ruby is more important. — Do you think there is a chance of him being released? Hart My father? — Yes.

butterflies and birds in his brown hands, something I could never do. Hart smiled. Ajit gets along better with animals than he does with people. — There are rumors that he claims he can talk to them. Hart Ajit would never claim anything. Even if he can, he would never even share that secret. Some of the magic in life is meant to be kept to oneself. That’s what Ajit’s grandfather told us on the abandoned street when we found the miniature pig with intricate blue and red designs all over his skin, as if he had jumped right out of a painting. The pig squealed by my side the rest of the way to Ajit’s apartment building. “Stella,” his grandfather whispered to me when Ajit had run ahead to play with the fireflies. “This isn’t something you tell your friends over the cafeteria table, and especially not your parents.” I looked down at the small pig and picked him up in my arms, he stopped squealing immediately. “Stella, I love you, Ajit loves you, and now this little one loves

You don’t mind if I have one, right? It was Ajit’s grandfather who taught us about cigars and scotch. Hart began to light the cigar. She walked over to the bathtub in the corner, reached underneath the tattered books and Polaroids and pulled out a bottle of Johnnie Walker Gold Label. Do you care for some scotch? Hart walked back over towards the couch. It may make this story a little more practical. Hart crossed her legs, allowing her long dress to slide up and reveal her bare skin. She poured me a glass. For the record, I don’t smoke cigarettes. I think they’re trashy. Only cigars. And I don’t like Madonna. Ajit and I liked to smoke cigars under the large banyan tree in his backyard. Francis and Henry were always with us. It was always just the four of us: a little petite white girl, a slightly chubby Indian boy, a smiling elephant and a miniature pig whose fur was an intricate design of red and blue. We started smoking cigars under the banyan tree when we were fourteen. We started combining them with Ajit’s grandfather’s scotch when we were

F E B RUA RY 1

— Is that an exaggeration? Hart Not at all. You’ve been to the zoo. How can you even ask that? — I didn’t think you would remember.

Hart Oh no, not at all. We locked the doors to the staircase and even Sacha the chimp never was able to figure out the elevator. At first, we tried to have some sort of organization for the animals. First we thought to organize them alphabetically, but Ajit said that friends, even if they were different species or looked different, like Ajit and I, shouldn’t be separated. So, in the end, there was really no organization, which made it hard for newcomers but put the animals at peace. — But how did the animal floor become the zoo? Hart I drew a picture of Henry and then began to put posters up around our school. We listed the main attractions: the Dalmatian mice, the king cobra, the peacock, the white lion and, of course, Henry, who we painted to match Francis’ fur for the grand opening. We charged 500 rupees as an entrance fee. Ajit wanted to do 1,000, but I thought that was too much, no? I was going to get all the profit so I could run away from my father. You know, the zoo never would have happened, all you people would have never gotten to be so intimate with such beautiful animals, if it weren’t for my father — that’s Ganesh’s doing.

Hart I read about Ajit in the newspapers like the rest of the world. Well, yes and no. It’s hard to explain. You all came to question my father eventually. I was hiding at the Vipassana in Igatpuri; you know, the one three hours outside of Mumbai. I know the man that runs it. He kept me safe. My mother had fled the country, so my father was the only one your people could ask about Ajit in relation to me. I’m sure they regretted even trying. Detective Cornwell found him in a booth at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel bar overlooking the Arabian Sea, twirling a gin and tonic in his right hand. His left was probably still bandaged up.

F R I D AY

Hart Hart smiled. Ajit always had to be different. But, I guess, so did I, in a way. We came up with the idea for Ajit’s zoo underneath the banyan tree smoking Dada’s cigars from Havana. At this point, Ajit owned every type of wild animal that existed in India.

— Was the Agarkar family ever worried about the animals getting upstairs?

— How did you learn about Ajit’s disappearance?

Hart My mother didn’t leave a note, and I don’t expect her back. I think she was born with a kind soul, but even kind souls can be damaged by the stampede of time. Hart kicked off one of her heels, revealing navy blue toenails and a henna-covered left foot. I think she was just lost amongst a culture that wasn’t hers, a sea of colorful silk and elegant bindis, which put me at peace. Hart smiled. She taught me how to keep my nails clean and ordered dresses from New York for me to wear, but she looked at her feet when her drunk husband told the other parents, on the small bleachers lining the fourth-grade soccer field, that I was adopted, that his wife couldn’t carry a child. All she did was pull me out of soccer. She liked to pretend to be a socialite and had tea with women who didn’t like her. My father was obviously busy at the embassy, so they paid an African lady to raise me. Ruby. God, I miss Ruby. This was the first time I saw Hart truly smile, other than when I saw her at Ajit’s zoo. I was always jealous of the tone of her skin, of the way she never burned, didn’t have to wear a huge floppy hat under the Mumbai sun like my mother, didn’t turn red like my father. I felt it made her stronger, richer than anything else I had ever

— I always thought he was yellow.

Hart I remember everything. He kept them in the second floor of the apartment building that his family shared with his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles on his father’s side. Henry, of course, stayed in the garden — he enjoyed the shade of the banyan tree.

***

— Where is your mother now?

Henry was our personal Ganesh. We liked the idea of his big belly being able to digest whatever life brought. Whatever my father brought, or the summer monsoons. We liked to think that every obstacle put in our paths was put there just for us, that Ganesh had some big adventure for us in the end. I like to imagine him as yellow, like the sun, but Ajit swore he was pink. What color do you think he is?

— What do you mean? Hart She narrowed her eyes. I’m not an idiot; I know you read the gossip section of the papers. // MICHAEL MCHUGH

Hart You’re the officer, you tell me. Hart looked me straight in the eye. I looked out the window. She continued once I looked away. Hart My mother told Ruby not to pack sweets into my lunch, but Ruby chose not to listen. Sometimes she packed me those chocolate Hostess cupcakes with icing in the middle from New York; sometimes she packed homemade oatmeal cookies. On Fridays, she would ride her bike to my international elementary school and drop off a warm lunch in the front office. Sometimes, it was lasagna; sometimes, it was takeout from a restaurant she stopped at en route. My favorite was when she brought me linguini with white clam sauce. At least once a month, though, it was a whole pizza pie with a note taped to the box that said to share it with Ajit. — Ah. Ajit. Hart Yes, Ajit. Hart smiled, kicked her other heel off and crossed her legs Buddha-style on the couch at the mention of his name. I think I met Ajit in kindergarten. I can’t remember, to be honest. We were little, though. I liked him because he could catch

you too.” I can’t believe I’m telling you about Francis. Well, you will probably see him anyway. Anyways, as I said we named him Francis. He is my pig, but we had to keep him at Ajit’s for obvious reasons. — Where is he now? Hart Taking his siesta … Can I get back to Ajit? — By all means. Hart I was the one that came up with the idea of Ajit’s zoo. He already had the necessities for the zoo, but I helped him organize it. I made it famous. The story of how Ajit’s animals came to be is unclear to me. His mother once told me over Sunday tea that when Ajit started talking, all he wanted was animals, not cricket bats or Legos — animals. It started with dogs, but then dogs turned into boa constrictors and serpents, those turned into Dalmatian mice, and then those turned into larger animals, like his white lion and brown panda bear. Eventually, his grandfather surprised him with an elephant we called Henry. Hart began to reach over towards the coffee table and opened up a sterling case with a large S engraved on it. She pulled out a cigar.

fifteen. — What was Ajit’s grandfather like? Hart Ah. Dada. I wish he were still alive. Ajit’s father doesn’t care for me very much. He thinks I’m the cause of Ajit’s disappearance, which I guess is true. But Dada would have stuck up for me. I take care of Ajit’s animals, you know. — I didn’t know that. I assumed they had caretakers. Hart Well, they do. But I make sure Ajit’s animals are constantly being called by their proper names. It’s the only thing Ajit cares about with him being gone. — What do you mean? Have you talked to him? She smirked and looked at me with those big eyes, and her dress seemed to somehow slide further up her legs. Hart Yes and no … but back to Dada. My favorite memories of Dada are under the banyan tree. He taught Ajit and I the seven chakras of the body and made sure we knew all the different deities. Ajit’s and my favorite has always been Ganesh, with his elephant head — just like Henry.

“CENTRAL PLAINS” SCREENING WITH AIDS ACTIVIST WAN YANHAI

Hart She sighed. Why don’t we pull out a smoother bottle of scotch? She got to her feet and walked back towards the bathtub. A year before we came up with the idea for the zoo, when I was thirteen, my father started coming into my room at night. The first time, he just kissed my feet, stared out the window. Hart yanked out a new bottle of scotch from the tub, then turned and walked back towards me, keeping her eyes on the new bottle. But then he started doing other things. I guess he thought it was okay because I wasn’t his actual daughter. I’m not entirely sure if my mother knew, if she realized his half of the bed was empty for long periods of the night, but that’s when I started looking for my real parents. Hart poured herself another glass of scotch. Ajit’s grandfather tried to help me, though I never told him about my father’s night visits. Dada just didn’t particularly care for my parents. He didn’t care for anyone who didn’t have family dinners. Hart took a long gulp of her scotch. Contact CHLOE DRIMAL at chloe.drimal@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

WLH // 3:30 p.m. The story of how a blood plasma drive in China led to the infection of thousands. Scary.

— I’m sorry, Miss Hart. I didn’t mean to offend you. I just wanted to hear your side of the story, not theirs.

Sarah Solovay ’16

Vote for this Yalie to go to the Grammys!

PAGE B6

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

PAGE B7

WEEKEND WORDBENDER

TEASE YOUR BRAIN! LEARN NEW WORDS!

DOWN

// BY CALEB MADISON

hat better way to kill time than by taking your shiny little neurons out for a test drive? Caleb Madison ’15, a master of the English language, delivers one of his hippest crosswords to date. If you fill out the entire puzzle and show it to him, he will emcee your next birthday bash. Happy Guessing!

1. Word that can be found scrambled in the answers to the starred clues 5. Provokes, as a memory 9. ___ Sutra 13. Opened the closet for? 14. Folk singer Guthrie 15. Fertility clinic cell 16. *September-to-May period, usually 18. Actor Jared 19. “Waterfall” card, in King’s Cup 20. *Atmospheric region threatened by carbon emissions 22. Candy with peanut and peanut butter varieties 25. Interrogator of a silent, invisible Barack at the Republican National Convention 26. “Same!” 27. One of two in a game of Settlers of Catan 29. Ice cream measurement 32. Network for political junkies 34. Beat, as in a race 35. Soak (up) 38. *Talk show host who had a 2010 time-slot controversy 40. CPR practitioner, often 41. Newsfeed part 43. Part of a squirrel’s cache 45. Famous violin, for short 46. ___ Jima, Japan 47. Syllabus schedule makeup 51. Close, as friends 53. “Let me in!!!” 54. *The solver of this puzzle, most likely 58. Spanish lady: Abbr. 59. Exclamation twice before “It’s off to work we go!” 60. *Locale of Space and Thunder Mountain 63. Smell 64. Early smartphone 65. Zellweger of “Chicago” 66. Backup singers for Gladys Knight 67. Automobile pioneer, for short 68. Fortune teller

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

Go for the free pizza, stay for the hawt coders.

CALEB MADISON Caleb Madison ’15 is a sassy prodigy with locks of glossy brunette hair and a killer smile. A New Yorker through and through, Caleb will proudly tell you that his favorite Interpol song is “NYC.” He published his first New York Times crossword puzzle when he was just a bushy tailed 15-year-old — he’s got Will Shortz on speed dial. He also provided the official definition of “bromance” for the Oxford English Dictionary, just because he could. Heralded by Yale News as a “world-class wordbender” (note: ‘word-bender’ is not a real word), this verbal virtuoso spends most of his time at Yale applying to creative writing courses and performing with the love of his life, the Viola Question. You can find him on campus eating alfalfa sprouts in the Calhoun dining hall or procrastinating on Lynwood Place. Caleb is a total sweetheart — but sorry ladies/boys, this stud is taken. // KAREN TIAN

TECH MONTH KICKOFF HACKATHON

Center for Engineering Innovation and Design // 12 p.m.

ACROSS

1. Plants in the desert 2. Goddess who turned Arachne into a spider 3. DiCaprio, informally 4. Tokyo, once 5. Rapper featured on Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie” 6. Cookie with a Double Stuf variety 7. Peek 8. Philosopher Georges who wrote “Reflections on Violence” 9. Caffeine source in some sodas 10. Member of Animal Collective with Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist 11. TV button 12. Love, in Latin 13. Target in “Zero Dark Thirty” 17. ___ Pollos Hermanos (fast food chain in “Breaking Bad”) 21. Get drunk 23. Hip-hop’s Run-____ 24. Get a bad first impression of 27. Box on a calendar 28. Holiday visitor, often 30. Captain Morgan, for one 31. Certain explosive 33. Store co-owners with mas 34. Lennon lover 35. Lecture building across from Commons 36. Giant Hall-of-Famer Mel 37. Go from a pregame to a birthday party to Toad’s, say 39. Prefix with friendly 42. Ones taking in suits, perhaps 44. Pentagon-toLincoln Memorial dir. 46. Queen Bee, so to speak 48. Lunatic 49. Ike or Tina 50. Digging tool seen on decks of cards 52. Couldn’t not 53. It’s mined then refined 54. “Come Hungry, Leave Happy” breakfast chain 55. “Veni, ___, vici” 56. Like some cars or condoms 57. Biblical son of Seth 61. Age meas. 62. ___ Jordan (Quidditch announced and member of Dumbledore’s army in the “Harry Potter” series)

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Feb Club

Expect a prize if you go to every event!

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

“STONES IN HIS POCKETS” Yale Repertory Theatre // 2 p.m.

In this play, the arrival of an American film crew wreaks havoc at a small Irish village. FUCK COLONIALISM!

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The Treehouse At Yale

Go and donate some $$$ toward this noble cause.

PAGE B6

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

PAGE B7

WEEKEND WORDBENDER

TEASE YOUR BRAIN! LEARN NEW WORDS!

DOWN

// BY CALEB MADISON

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

Go for the free pizza, stay for the hawt coders.

TECH MONTH KICKOFF HACKATHON

Center for Engineering Innovation and Design // 12 p.m.

ACROSS

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Feb Club

Expect a prize if you go to every event!

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

“STONES IN HIS POCKETS” Yale Repertory Theatre // 2 p.m.

In this play, the arrival of an American film crew wreaks havoc at a small Irish village. FUCK COLONIALISM!

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The Treehouse At Yale

Go and donate some $$$ toward this noble cause.

PAGE B8

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

WEEKEND COVER

Terminal — bash — 825x1350

bubble or boom? BUILDING A FRAMEWORK

CODING FROM PAGE B3 a way that threatens the University’s core appeal. Indeed, the scene of students spending time in a hackathon, tinkering with code for hours with little more training than HackYale, is perhaps quintessentially Yale. For better or for worse, the College’s focus on broad-based education has defined the tech lives of its students. “You are just not going to compete with the hard-core MIT guys in raw computer science,” said Uhlenhuth. “But you can eat their lunch in computer science plus x.” The fusion of technical skills with a liberal arts background, School of Engineering Deputy Dean Vincent Wilczynski said, gives Yale students a competitive advantage, especially when compared to graduates of a more technical school. The new Center for Engineering Innovation and Design aims to provide a meeting and working space for students of all majors. It now houses the HackYale classes, fulfilling the center’s mission to host that unique blend of technical knowledge with liberal arts breadth. As of the start of this term, fewer than half of the center’s members planned on majoring in one of the STEM fields. The CEID counts among its 485 official members 59 students at the School of Management, 26 economics students and 16 architecture students. “People in your generation are not going to have one job at General Motors for the rest of their career, they are going to do 12 different things,” Girvin said. “The purpose of your Yale education is in part just to learn how to learn and to keep moving as the world changes around us.”

“We don’t want to keep starting from scratch,” explained YCC President John Gonzalez ’14, commenting on a proposal to allow HackYale to be taught for course credit. Yalies have tried to make HackYale a for-credit course almost since its founding in the fall of 2011. Last year, the YCC helped propose a course based on the HackYale model. The proposal fell through, however, because it lacked sufficient input from students

the ultimate decision, he said, of whether to offer a course similar to HackYale for credit, rests with the faculty. “I hope we can provide even more opportunities of this kind,” he added. Students hope to capitalize on Salovey’s sentiment. Gonzalez mentioned that, on the YCC’s upcoming “Salovation Report” (a list of recommendations for the Presidentelect), many of the proposals would involve supporting student innovation.

[LEARNING TO PROGRAM] IS NOT JUST ABOUT GETTING JOBS.

and faculty in the Computer Science Department. The faculty felt that any plan would need to propose a legitimate computer science course and not merely a vocational one, Upadhyay said. This year, Upadhyay hopes to finalize a plan by the end of February after consulting with computer science majors and professors. Given the demand for more computer science professors in general, Upadhyay added, Yale should bring in faculty to teach the class. Upadhyay said that President-elect Peter Salovey is “really interested” in bringing this type of course to Yale. Salovey wrote in a Tuesday email that he is pleased that a greater number of students are enrolling in introductory computer science courses. But

“I campaigned on applicable tech,” Gonzalez said. Tech Month is the result of that campaign. The event kicks off with a 12-hour minihackathon this Saturday. While providing some time for programmers to come together, share expertise and delight in snacks, the hackathon also marks the official start of the YCC’s App Challenge. Past winners, including events app Roammeo, Yale BlueBook, and One Button Wenzel, have all walked away with the hefty $1,000 prize. “The app challenge is the biggest win I’ve seen at Yale,” said Croom, the Yale BlueBook co-creator and Twitter employee. Croom is one of many returning to Yale for “tech talks” later this month and will be speaking in association with TEDxYale and Yale

BootUp. The last weekend of February will feature a full, 24-hour hackathon sponsored by numerous tech giants, including Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

WILL THE BUBBLE POP?

From 2000 to 2001, the price of Amazon stock fell from $107 to $7 per share. Shares of Cisco fell a similarly frightening 86 percent. The effects of the dot-com bust were mirrored in Yale’s course enrollment numbers: in spring 2000, 143 students were enrolled in Yale’s intro programming class; in spring 2002, the number fell to 67. 2013 is, of course, a different time, but even with recent success stories, the tech industry has yet to prove its staying power, at Yale or otherwise. Even HackYale Director Reneau-Wedeen said there is no way of knowing whether the booming tech culture that we live in today will fade as it did 10 years ago. But he has strong hope that the burgeoning interest in technology and entrepreneurship at Yale is here for the long haul. “It’s not just about getting jobs,” he explained. “It’s extremely intellectually interesting, stimulating, collaborative, and it relates to all fields on study.” Most importantly, ReneauWedeen said, every group involved, from HackYale to Yale BootUp to the YCC is working toward a common goal — having a positive influence on the Yale experience. And from this endeavor, each organization contributes unique strengths. Yale BootUp brings in speakers, organizes hackathons and other social coding events. HackYale recruits student-teachers to instruct

other Yalies how to code. The Student Technology Collaborative taught a course last fall on the programming language Ruby on Rails. The Computer Science Department continues to provide theoretical foundations. The YCC promotes their own technology initiatives as well as spreading the word about others. “It’s very mutually symbiotic from everyone,” ReneauWedeen concluded. “I think that’s going to be necessary in order to make this something that lasts.” This level of energy comes at a very important time for Yale. With the selection of a new president and provost, the University has been given a chance to consider on its own identity. “Our vision of Yale is in flux,” said Gonzalez, pointing out not only that the President-elect’s administration will “decide how much money the Computer Science Department gets,” but also how much support will be given to the tech community in general. What will this momentum lead to? According to Khan, “it’s foolish to speculate. What will happen is what the students decide.” Yale may still be more famous for producing people who campaign for office than people who code, but the coders are here, and they’re not about leave. Professor Angluin agreed. When asked if she thinks the numbers of Yale students interested in technology will continue to grow, she merely pointed at her door. “Well,” she smiled. “You saw the graph.” Contact JACKSON MCHENRY at jackson.mchenry@yale.edu . Contact DAN WEINER at daniel.weiner@yale.edu .

// MOHAN YIN

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

STUDENT READINGS – THE O’NEILL PLAYWRITING PROGRAM

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Yale Cabaret // 7 p.m.

Yale School of Drama actors will read original plays written by Yale undergrads and Co-Op High School students. Yay!

Lavender Diesel

Um … WKND’s collective stripper name.

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

PAGE B9

WEEKEND GUIDES

ART KIDS ON THE BLOCK // BY SARAH SWONG

As the blue construction tarps were lifted off of the Yale University Art Gallery this December, across the street the Yale Center for British Art revealed a new face, too. A photo of its 25 student guides laughing with their arms in the air invites pedestrians into the steely building designed by Louis I. Kahn. (The serious one is on their website.) This scene of the neighboring galleries reflects their respective images in the Yale community. The YCBA program actively maintains a strong presence among undergraduates, while the YUAG program has been known more by word of mouth. As the YUAG leaps into its new future as an expanded museum that has received more attention, a light is cast on its often conspicuous student guide program, and its more visible cousin on the same block. *** Although the YCBA guide program is more well-known today, the YUAG program was established first. The YUAG Gallery Guide Program began in 1998. Fusing the gallery’s missions to engage students with the collection and to educate the community, the Gallery Guide Program focuses on training undergraduates to lead tours of the art gallery for adult groups. The goal is to “teach students how to teach,” YUAG Museum Educator Elizabeth Manekin said, and to respond to the student demand to learn about art by engaging with original works themselves. YCBA Curator of Education Linda Friedlaender said she admired the YUAG student guide program so much that she started one at the YCBA in 2002. Their shared origins shed light on their common goal to educate students of all academic backgrounds on art, culture, museum research and presentational skills in a non-classroom setting. Both also wanted the student tours to attract both the Yale and New Haven community to engage with the museums.

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

*** On every Friday afternoon since she’s been at Yale, Hannah Flato ’14 has gone to a class outside her schedule. The YCBA program is structured like a seminar. The meetings cover everything from the British collection, tour techniques, audience engagement and department visits, depending on the week, Friedlaender said. Each week, all the YCBA guides gather together in the YCBA’s docent room, a small seminar room with a long table. Although Friedlaender has a lesson for every session, she is willing to make everything from art events to Yale news into a “learning conversation,” Flato said. The YCBA program is “so much more than giving a tour,” Flato said. Each guide engages with the British collection and finds paintings that speak to them, and construct their personalized tours through research and collaboration with curators. Current tours include “Postcards from Paradise: British Paintings of Foreign Places,” “The Painted Cave,” “Artistic Anesthesia” and “Female Strength and Fragility.” Since 2002, the YCBA program has expanded in size and has hosted more opportunities for the student guides. The Art Club allows student guides to host public events such as gingerbread house-making and T-shirt design twice per semester to engage the community with the gallery. (On Friday, the YCBA will be hosting a high tea where community members can come make T-shirts and drink tea.) After their first year, four to five student guides can participate in Art-in-Focus, which allows them to work closely with curators to put together an original exhibition. The current group is creating an exhibit on St. Ives, a community of artists in England who produced abstract art after World War II, Flato said. These opportunities have led the YCBA guides to develop more personal relationships and professional mentorship, with Friedlaender able to connect students to internships, Friedlaender said. The YCBA guides can also participate

THE ANNUAL FRESHMAN DANCE Yale Commons // 10 p.m.

Because there’s nothing controversial about bootlegging and the perils of American materialism.

in other YCBA programs, such as “Exploring Artism,” which is a free family program for children on the autism spectrum. The YUAG program also works as a gateway to other opportunities, such as the Highlights Tour program that teaches guides how to give a comprehensive tour of the whole collection. However, these opportunities are not part of the student guide program itself. Like the YCBA, the YUAG program is also like a class, but specifically focused on the instruction of guides in giving and researching tours. The YUAG requires only first-year trainees to attend meetings, twice per week in the fall and once a week in the spring. Trainees spend one year researching art, engaging with the museum and learning tour techniques, Manekin said. Research includes not only meeting with curators and immersing oneself in the collection, but also writing papers on four artworks on their personalized tours. Current tours include “Back to Basics: Understanding Art through Line, Shape and Color,” “Depicting Infinity,” “Myth-Making” and “Famous Last Words: Modern Art as Philosophical Coda.” After completing the training, the student guides return in their following years to give their unique tours a few times per semester, but do not come to regular meetings as in their first year, Manekin said. Indeed, to build communication between older and younger YUAG guides, the program assigns older mentors to younger mentees and has group events such as field trips to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and pizza parties, Sokoloff said. The two programs do not engage much with each other, both student guides and Manekin said. Student guides occasionally visit the other gallery for their respective research, Friedlaender said. Twice per year they have semiformals for the student guides and their friends at the galleries, she added. *** The YCBA program has spiked in popularity in the past five years as a result of increased advertising,

Friedlaender said. A few years ago, a University-wide mandate asked museums to try involving more students in the Yale galleries, she said. The mandate was the result of years of meetings and committees of the University’s administrators and faculty that culminated in a President’s Office general report on the University. She added that student museum attendance is a nationwide problem at universities. To respond to the mandate, the YCBA has hosted a booth at the extracurricular bazaar, holds open houses and organizes other public events to recruit undergraduates.

A FEW YEARS AGO, A UNIVERSITYWIDE MANDATE ASKED MUSEUMS TO TRY INVOLVING MORE STUDENTS IN THE YALE GALLERIES. This year, the program received 64 applications for six spots, an acceptance rate of 9 percent. The YCBA program keeps its size to 25 students, as “the guides like it to be a small group in terms of discussion, field trips social events — there’s camaraderie in the smaller size,” Friedlaender said. All the guides meet together to discuss the applications together, and each applicant is interviewed by at least three guides, she said. The YUAG program is less heavily advertised, YUAG student guides and Manekin said. Word-of-mouth is the primary path of promotion, with student guides sending emails to panlists and telling friends about the program, Manekin said. The program is “competitive enough” and draws enough highly qualified applicants that it does not need to advertise more than it already does, she said. The gallery receives approximately 30–50 applications for 12 spots, a 24–40 percent acceptance rate. The YUAG and YCBA attract different students. The YUAG assigns

// YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, KAREN TIAN

Who are the student guides? Find out here.

work as if it were an academic class, Manekin said. Since sophomores and juniors have stronger timemanagement skills and clearer personal goals, the YUAG tends to accept older students willing to commit to a training year, she said. Students such as Daniel Roza ’15 saw the requisite research papers as a sign that the YUAG program was “more intense,” and thus found the YCBA program, which requires students to report their research verbally, more approachable for a non-art major. The YCBA’s presence at the extracurricular bazaar makes it more visible to freshmen, Flato said. The YCBA guides said they see the program as not only an intellectual endeavor, but also a social opportunity. Regular meetings over four years foster a community that lasts throughout a guide’s time at Yale, Kathryn Kaelin ’15 said. Many begin as freshmen, who then evolve over the years together, Roza said. *** The YCBA program has no plans to change, as it has been successful as it stands, Friedlaender said. Although the YUAG has also been successful, its reopening of the extended wings is providing an opportunity for change in the student activity programs. Manekin said the student guides now have a wider range of artwork to choose from for their own tours. With the new resources, the gallery is beginning to brainstorm other programs to involve students, she said. As the freshly renovated YUAG and the YCBA invigorate their corner of Chapel Street, the student gallery guide program can continue to serve as a way to bring undergraduates and non-Yalies alike to the collections housed in creamcolored stone and matte steel. Contact SARAH SWONG at sarah.swong@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The new WKND blog

Go check the YDN’s homepage. Go! Go now!

PAGE B10

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

WEEKEND COLUMNS

WHY“BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD”WON’T WIN THE OSCAR // BY MICHAEL LOMAX

Anyone at all remotely interested in films knows that the Oscars are a bit of a sham, and just to be clear, we’ve known this for a while. By 1942 — when “How Green Was My Valley” beat out “Citizen Kane” and “The Maltese Falcon” for best picture — the trend was set. Each year’s Academy Awards ceremony almost never rewards the year’s truly best film. The winner needs a killer story, an aggressive producer and the eyes of the nation. Veteran filmmakers like Steven Spielberg (with his dastardly cohort Harvey Weinstein) usually carry these factors in spades. So as usually happens, the safest and most predictable film wins. There are no controversies. There are no surprises. But there still remains that vast and almost impenetrable pre-ceremony divide between what will win and what

MICHAEL LOMAX CINEMA TO THE MAX should: baby-faced director Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature “Beasts of the Southern Wild” falls in with the latter. In this film, 5-year-old Hushpuppy lives with her imperfect and alcoholic father Wink in the Bathtub, an impoverished bayou community set squarely in the sights of both a deadly storm and a pack of recently unfrozen prehistoric creatures called Aurochs. But rather than flee their home, Hushpuppy and Wink brave the destruction and lean on the Bathtub’s other survivors to maintain their collectively penniless way of life. This is a defiance that never dies, even as time runs out on Wink’s failing

heart. Eventually, it is Hushpuppy alone who must carry the torch of her ravaged and incomplete community, and it is with this imaginative little girl that the greatest triumphs of life and the living of it are revealed. From a purely logistical standpoint, this is exactly the kind of film that could make a run at the Oscars. After all, it’s about a broken American minority family that, on some level, finds the

meaning of happiness. Voters eat this kind of shit up, but only if it’s spoon-fed to them. Thankfully, Zeitlin refuses to do any such thing, much like his apparent mentor Terrence Malick. Last year, the modern-day auteur dropped a spiritual and philosophical bombshell on our heads: “The Tree of Life” was nothing short of an atomic wasteland of moral quandaries and probing questions — of the “Is there a meaning to life?” variety. But he wrapped this expansive thematic framework onto a loose (more like plotless) narrative that, for all its pretty images, confounded moviegoers much more than it entertained them. That’s not to say it wasn’t a critically crowning achievement: It snagged numerous independent awards, including at Cannes.

FROM A PURELY LOGISTICAL STANDPOINT, THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF FILM THAT COULD MAKE A RUN AT THE OSCARS. “Beasts” has done much of the same thing. Critics across the spectrum have praised Zeitlin’s debut, hailing it as an astounding insight into a little Southern slice

of poor but hardly downtrodden Americana. Indie awards shows (like Cannes and Sundance) have agreed. But don’t book it for one of the Academy’s golden statuettes. That’s a different arena entirely. And while many people have in fact checked out “Beasts” in some form or fashion, you won’t find its buildup buzz roaring like Aurochs in heat. If anything, the noise has been noticeably absent. No one thinks it has a chance to win, and that’s because it doesn’t. “Beasts” is a lost cause for best picture, just like every Malick movie that’s ever been made or ever will be made. But I want to believe that this film, which is without a doubt the most visionary little flick to come out in 2012, stands some kind of a reasonable chance. Sure, it’s not “The Godfather” or “Lawrence of Arabia” or “Casablanca.” It’s just little Hushpuppy and her father: individuals that, through some kind of humanistic miracle, resist death and decay in two remarkable blows. They live lives of passion and vitality that in the hands of anyone other than Benh Zeitlin would crumple and then combust. Instead, we get a carefully controlled explosion of sights and wonder that you have to think deserves some kind of higher recognition. If the purpose of the Oscars is to award the year’s best film, the award should go to this film. Too bad it won’t. Contact MICHAEL LOMAX at michael.lomax@yale.edu .

// JOURNEYMAN PICTURES

B202, Or, How You Fit Five Children and One Mother into a Three Bedroom Apartment // BY ZOE GREENBERG

I. THE BEDCHAMBER, OR, OPTIMISM In 6445 Greene St., Apt. B202 — the 1,699-square-foot Philadelphia apartment that has housed my family for 25-and-a-half years — my mother slept in what she called a medieval bedchamber. Actually, it was a mattress tucked into a wooden loft in the east corner of the family room, across from a Himalayan-size range of clean but unfolded laundry and a five-shelf bookcase overflowing with (among other things) Polly Pocket houses, Bionic Hulk action figures and plastic parking garages. The bedchamber was perpendicular to the trapeze. If you extended your legs while swinging from the trapeze, you could touch a black-framed poster titled “Rainbow Shabbat” with your toes. The family room/bedchamber is separated from the rest of the house by sturdy pine doors, which we opened at approximately 7 a.m. every school morning, and also in the middle of the night whenever one of us got a headache or had a nightmare or heard a mouse. My mother lived in my siblings’ and my wreckage with what I can only describe as an unaffected joy. She wanted lots of kids. When she was little, she imagined marrying an airline pilot, whom she hoped would enable her to have children and then travel the world and leave her alone. When no airline pilot emerged, she decided to be a single mother. My older two siblings and I have donor dads, and my two

S U N D AY F E B RUA RY 3

ZOE GREENBERG SOME THINGS CONSIDERED younger siblings are adopted from Guatemala. My mom always had a knack for deploying words. On Saturday nights when we complained about eating leftovers, she told us we were participating in “Saturday supper.” When we thought we had bedbugs and threw out all the mattresses and the couch in our apartment, she slept on the rug in our front hall, calling it “extremely cozy.” And when we asked her if she wanted her own room, she said she couldn’t imagine leaving her medieval bedchamber.

II. THE LIVING ROOM, OR, BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP Our living room served as our dining room, our guest room, and my mom’s rabbinical office. We often had young couples sitting on the couch between dinner and bedtime, preparing to get married. “How did you know that you wanted to spend your life together?” my mother would ask, as I traipsed barefoot behind her chair, carrying a bag of Barbies or a stack of “Baby-Sitters Club” books to the room I shared with my sister. Most importantly, the living room housed our own family meetings. Family meetings were formal affairs with a rotating facilitator and a written-up agenda. Like Supreme Court justices, we delib-

YALE SWING AND BLUES DANCE PRACTICUM Slifka Center // 8 p.m.

Get in your weekly swing and blues dancing.

erated a wide range of topics and paid careful attention to all points of view. How would we share the one computer we had? What chores would we do for the year? Who got to hang his or her backpack on the first hook in the front hall? Though my siblings and I were fierce participants in the democratic process, I realize now that my mother was exceptionally conscious of what was to be collectively decided and what was to be unilaterally decreed. She determined who slept in what bedroom and what we ate for dinner each night. She encouraged us to turn our attention instead to the family’s interpersonal dynamics, on which we could have an empowering impact. I remember writing brilliant documents with my siblings that propelled our family life forward, but once I was in high school, I realized that family meeting discussions might not have been as sophisticated as I thought. When I was 15, my younger brother Joey put “Pillows” on the agenda. He told us that every morning when he woke up, his pillows were on the ground. He was sure that our youngest sister Mozi had moved them there. I suggested that perhaps they had fallen off the bed due to gravity. Mozi argued fervently that it was the guinea pig’s fault.

III. THE BEDROOMS, OR, SHAKING THINGS UP Though we never moved out of B202, we constantly moved around within it. From ages 1 to 5, I shared

the “blue rug room” with my older sister and brother; after that, I lived in the “big room” with my older brother. When I was 9, I moved into B202’s third bedroom with my younger sister. I was, at times, desperate for my own room. My younger sister painted part of our mirror with red nail polish and breathed too loudly at night. When I had my history final, I made an elaborate concept map out of index cards and she accidentally kicked it, scattering the main ideas across the floor. Sometimes I just wanted to be able to shut my own door.

I WAS, AT TIMES, DESPERATE FOR MY OWN ROOM. When I prepared to leave for college, I packed up everything I wanted to keep and arranged it in my closet. My older siblings have closets full of belongings too. On the peeling blue bookshelf behind hangers of dresses, I put my yearbooks, posters of ballet dancers, the instructions for my laptop and an “Obama 2008” sign. Three years after I went to college, my mother invited me to a “Room of One’s Own” party in our apartment. She had installed a huge, wall-sized map of the world on one side of the master bedroom, and facing it, her own bed, not tucked away but at the center of the room, with two layers

of silky white comforters and pillows in lavender flannel cases. The windows were open, and the sunlight arced through new white linen curtains. After 18 years of sleeping in the medieval bedchamber, my mother was going to sleep like an actual queen.

IV. QUAKE At college I have my own room, where no one snores and where I can shut the door whenever I want. But this winter break, my siblings and I were back in B202. We brought cousins and boyfriends and godsiblings, and we faced a common question from our childhood: How would we all fit? We decided to have a “quake,” a word we adopted from my sister’s fiancé, which means everyone sleeps together in one room, on the floor. We gathered our sleeping bags and extra pillows, and we set up next to the medieval bedchamber in the family room. (We moved the laundry heap onto the dryer.) Head to head on the floor, 12 of us slid under our covers. My older brother wanted to tell stories, and I wanted to go to sleep. My cousin was unhappy because she had gotten up to go to the bathroom and her spot was taken. My sister wanted to sing us a lullaby. In the morning, we were totally exhausted, and delighted, and surprised. We had all managed to fit. Contact ZOE GREENBERG at zoe.greenberg@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Chipotle’s steak fajita burrito.

Only 800 calories if you don’t get the guacamole.

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

PAGE B11

WEEKEND THEATER

NO CLUES FOR THIS CODE // BY JENNIFER GERSTEN

If you knew nothing at all about Alan Turing, the place to start gaining a favorable impression of the man would not be in the opening scene of Hugh Whitmore’s 1986 play “Breaking the Code,” currently revived in a production by Amanda Chang ’13, as her senior project. Watching the stammering, fidgety Turing (Iason Togias ’16) unconvincingly report the details of a burglary to a skeptical detective, you might question the playwright’s choice of a protagonist seemingly unqualified to do anything except bite his nails. The brilliant Turing, a mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer largely credited for breaking the Germans’ Enigma code during World War II, is conspicuously absent in this introduction. In his stead is someone imperfect, at times embarrassingly so — in other words, someone just like the rest of us. “Breaking the Code” elaborates at length on Turing’s formidable genius, but ultimately cedes the spotlight to his homosexuality, “gross indecency” under British law, for which he is arrested and forced to undergo hormonal treatment. In oscillations between Turing’s boyhood, tenure at codebreaking headquarters Bletchley Park and current-day affair with the teenaged Ron Miller (Derek Braverman ’15), we discover a man struggling with emotions that run counter to the rationality of his intellect.

with the tenderness of the scene. Speaking to his childhood friend, Christopher Morcom (Isaac Hudis ’16), whom he idolized, or even to Miller, the object of his affections, his forceful delivery seemed misplaced. And his rendition of Turing’s stammer is more an affectation than a believable, natural slump of the tongue. Turing’s social ineptitudes are sometimes at odds with the assertiveness of his actions. Though anxious and possessed of selfconfidence bordering on arrogance, he initiates a relationship with Miller. In a moment of intimacy, Turing puts his hand on Miller’s thigh with a tenderness and sensitivity unexpected from one whose heart seems to pound for mathematical logic alone. When they later fight, and when Turing reveals under investigation that he has withheld information about their relationship to protect his lover, we realize that Turing is an emotional creature burdened like any other by the confusing weight of his feelings. Occasionally the script tends more towards biography than conversation, as when Turing explains the details of his residency at Princeton to Dillwyn Knox, a fellow codebreaker who is played with charisma and wit by David McPeek ’16. It feels dense in places, like a historical footnote. “Breaking the Code” is punctuated by moments of emotional fervor, but explanations of Tur-

TURING IS PLAYED WITH RELENTLESS DIDACTICISM, EVERY LINE TINGED WITH SELF-EVIDENCE. “It’s the logical part of the brain that counts,” Turing says, speaking at his high school alma mater about the future of artificial intelligence. To him, his homosexuality is anything but logical, a flaw in the system he cannot address with a calculation. Here he has broken another code, a social code, the repercussions of which will drive him to suicide. Turing is played with relentless didacticism, his every line tinged with an air of self-evidence. He is deliberately and uncomfortably awkward, an anxious, teetering fellow who walks as stiffly as the machines he dreams up. The expressive Togias conveyed a consistent air of exasperation that was understandable, if not tolerable, from a character cursed to always be the smartest in the room. But the invariance of his tone was occasionally at odds

// ANNELISA LEINBACH

Mathematician in a weighted situation.

ing’s background and development cause the play, which runs for nearly three hours, to drag. Still, Chang’s production, sparsely staged and framed in the background by sensual flowers and human bodies suggesting Turing’s sexuality, brings the audience’s full attention to what is overall a compelling dialogue for Turing’s tragic demise. With his character about to commit suicide, and illuminated by a stark beam, Togias dispensed with his assertive delivery and finally permitted his voice to waver as Turing contemplates the future of machinery during his final moments. “Can the mind exist without the body?” he croaked. In the machinated idyll of his imagination, can his pure and brilliant thinking escape from the imperfections of his damning desires? For once, he seemed like he did not know the answer. “Breaking the Code” runs Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the Whitney Humanities Center Theater, 8 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday. Contact JENNIFER GERSTEN at jennifer.gersten@yale.edu .

Linking Faith and Art // BY EMMA GOLDBERG The Yale Divinity School sits on a hill overlooking the New Haven skyline. At 5:15 p.m., the sunset is a brilliant blend of burnt orange and magenta. The city’s church spires and houses are silhouetted against the sky and the mild weather belongs more to spring than late January. But, of course, I don’t really notice any of this. I’m running from section. I’m late for an event. I’m focused on the long night of problem sets lying ahead, not on the stunning vistas of a New Haven evening. Brad Davis’ poetry seems a bit like a diagnosis prescribed to the typical overcommitted Yalie. At a reading of his work this Thursday at the Divinity School, he told the audience that, through his writing, he tries to make sense of the beauty of ordinary moments. Borrowing images from Christian texts, he uses his poetry to identify the holiness in everyday scenes and interactions. But listening to Davis read his poetry feels more like opening the pages of a friend’s diary than flip-

S U N D AY F E B RUA RY 3

ping through the Bible. He brings images from the Old Testament into modern-day contexts with unabashed irreverence. At the start of one poem he takes his readers to the top of a holy mountaintop, only to reveal that we are actually at the peak of a ski resort in British Columbia, “delivered by chairlift/ … / [to] worship at His holy mountain.” In another poem, he weaves images of the ancient city Jerusalem together with descriptions of Times Square in downtown New York. The crowd laughs in delight, taken by surprise each time he twists religious language into a contemporary context. For Davis, religion is beautiful not because it is mysterious, but because it is comforting and familiar. His casual use of religious language is refreshing — he is openly critical of overly complex discussion of God and faith, the moments when “we speak in tongues.” Similarly, he refuses to overcomplicate descriptions of his family and loved ones. The poem he reads about his grandmother’s death is strikingly plain and

“CREATING A COLLECTION”

Yale University Art Gallery // 3 p.m. Find out how Yale gathered its art through 250 years of collecting.

lacking in pretension. He explains that he wanted to write a tribute to his grandmother because she loved him more than anyone, and let him watch TV whenever he wanted.

LISTENING TO DAVIS READ HIS POETRY FEELS MORE LIKE OPENING THE PAGES OF A FRIEND’S DIARY THAN FLIPPING THROUGH THE BIBLE. “You don’t pull out intellectual googahs when trying to tell someone who ran a Laundromat ‘I love you,’” Davis explains. Sometimes he interrupts his own poetry readings with admissions of his own insecurities. “I feel like to read these things I’m taking off

clothing,” he says at one point, midpoem. “I’m exposing parts of myself I don’t want you to see.” The personal elements in his poetry make the reading feel like a conversation with a close friend, as he walks the audience through the parts of religion he finds confusing and the members of his family whom he doesn’t understand. But Davis is not just in conversation with his listeners — he seems to be in dialogue with a long list of writers whom he admires. In a poem about the gates of heaven and the New York skyline, he refers to “Walt Whitman’s Brooklyn,” and another of his writings references the pond in Thoreau’s “Walden.” He was particularly excited to introduce a poem that explicitly brought together two of his favorite artists: Bob Dylan and John Berriman. He explained that because he so admired the two writers, he wanted to explore a scene in which Berriman visited Dylan in the hospital after Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle accident. “The Lord accepts prisoners/

in the hospital Berriman to Dylan August 1966,” Davis reads. And perhaps he doesn’t realize it, but this poem is actually about a meeting between three great artists: Berriman, Dylan and Davis. Davis inserts self-effacing remarks during the reading — “There are too many great writers, thank you for indulging me,” he exclaims at one point, seemingly oblivious to his audience’s excitement about the raw, moving quality of his work. As I am leaving the reading, I walk a little slower and take notice of the Divinity School’s beauty when it is lit up at night. Davis’ passion — for nature, faith and poetry — is infectious. After the reading, one audience member, similarly affected, asks him to explain how he maintains his state of constant exhilaration. “I have ADHD,” Davis says. “I can’t stop getting excited about new things.” Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: The R programming language

Become the next Baobao Zhang ‘13 <3

PAGE B12

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

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

// KERRI LU

HAROLD KOH: LAWYER, PROFESSOR, STATESMAN // BY SCOTT STERN

mmediately after Barack Obama’s second inauguration on Jan. 21, the State Department’s legal adviser, Harold Hongju Koh, returned to Yale. Koh served as the dean of Yale Law School from 2004 to 2009 and as a professor there since 1985. Last week, he was appointed Sterling Professor of International Law. Koh, who had been a strong critic of President George W. Bush’s ’68 “War on Terror,” is an internationally renowned scholar of human rights. However, in the Obama administration, he has come under fire from former allies for his expansive views on the president’s authority to use unmanned drones to kill suspected terrorists abroad. On Tuesday, Koh spoke at a packed Master’s Tea in Davenport. Hours before that, WEEKEND sat down with Koh to discuss executive authority, drones and who he wants to see fill the next opening on the Supreme Court.

A. It hasn’t changed my views at all. I believe in a government of checks and balances. And I believe that an energetic executive is an important piece of that. I think that the thing that’s changed the most is just a political fact, which is that Congress has had much more difficulty constructively engaging on these questions. In most countries in the world, the legislature can pass a budget or make sure you don’t default on your debt, and [Congress’s failure to do these things] is increasingly becoming a problem in this country. So, the executive obviously has to act according to constitutional rules, and if you’re going to do so in cooperation with Congress, so much the better. Q. Speaking of executive power, in 2009, you became the legal adviser to the State Department. In that capacity, in May of 2010, you said that using drone strikes against al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations was a lawful military action and not an assassination, which is banned by executive order. Can you explain to an undergraduate audience the distinction between legal targeted killings and illegal assassinations? A. What occurs in the context of an armed conflict or war is not assassination. If a general of the Japanese government launches an attack at Pearl Harbor and kills thousands of Americans, we declare war on the country, and, in the course of the conflict, he’s one of the people who’s considered to be an enemy leader, then that is a lawful use of force. All killing is tragic. But there is a different between lawful and unlawful tools of war. So, 3,000 are killed in New York for going to work, by leaders of a nonstate actor, and the question is, can you respond to those leaders, after Congress has declared war on them and after we’re in an armed conflict with them? Q. Yet while you were a professor you criticized George W. Bush’s ’68 “War on Terror” as unconstitutional because it involved capturing “enemy combatants” abroad and holding them without

trial at Guantanamo Bay. In Obama’s administration, the government has used aerial drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists. To the casual observer, it seems like there’s a tension between denouncing imprisonment and supporting drone strikes (which can have collateral civilian casualties). Can you explain what appears to be a contradiction? A. Torture is always unlawful, even in wartime and even against your enemies. In an armed conflict, the laws of war police the line between lawful killing — which is of people you’re at war with, like Osama bin Laden — and unlawful ones. And so, you can be opposed to torture in all situations, as an illegal means of the use of force — even in wartime. But if you think your government is engaged in a lawful armed conflict, it has to have the authorities that go along with it, lawfully. Q. For almost two years, you were among the only Obama administration officials to speak publicly about the legal basis for aerial drone strikes to kill American enemies. You then justified the administration’s decision to engage in a conflict against Libya without congressional approval because the president does not need congressional approval to engage in “hostilities.” Because of these statements, a number of your old allies have publicly criticized you. Has the criticism from old friends and allies made you rethink any of your positions? A. No. First of all, the two things you mentioned have gotten a lot more press than 95 percent of the way I actually spent my time. So I always find this interesting. But a simple fact is this: I’m not the only person who said that congressional approval wasn’t necessary. John Boehner said congressional approval wasn’t necessary. Harry Reid said congressional approval wasn’t necessary. Nancy Pelosi said congressional approval wasn’t necessary. And John Kerry, as chairman of the [Senate] Foreign Relations Committee, said it wasn’t necessary. And Congress had made it clear that they would not approve what was going on, although they wanted the executive branch to do something. … My real question is: Was the War Powers Resolution, which was passed to stop future Vietnams, supposed to be used to allow more Rwandas and Srebrenicas? And my view was that was not the situation they were thinking of. I had written dozens of articles on the War Powers Resolution, and

I understood the legislative history of it. We never said that the War Powers Resolution was unconstitutional. We just said it didn’t apply to that circumstance. And I, to this day, think it doesn’t.

after two years of law school — in other words, you wouldn’t need a J.D. Do you think that’s a good idea? What do you think would be the impact that would have on law schools?

Q. Over the last several years, whenever a new vacancy on the Supreme Court has opened up, your name has been raised to fill it. If you could choose one person other than yourself, who would be your dream nominee?

A. I don’t think it’s a good idea. But you have to put this into perspective. There’s always been an apprenticeship route to taking the bar. In the old days, people graduated from college and they worked for a law office, and then they took the bar and they didn’t take any classes. So the rise of the professional law school, as a three-year entity, is very much a product of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. But I think law schools have done a lot better to become fuller experiences. It’s not just the study of legal rules, but it’s clinical practice, extracurricular activities, summer internships. I think that there’s still plenty of work to be done.

A. I think probably Hillary Clinton [LAW ’73]. Q. Would you care to explain why? A. She’s a very smart lawyer who understands how law and politics work together. She might have other thoughts about how to spend her time, but she would be an obvious good candidate. By the way, Barack Obama is not precluded, and he’ll be a pretty young guy who’s done with electoral office in four years, so that would be interesting. You know, William Howard Taft 1878 sat on the Supreme Court after he was president, so it’s not unprecedented. Q. The Supreme Court has been in the news quite a lot in the last couple years, especially with the controversial Citizens United and Affordable Care Act cases. How do you feel about the overall direction of the court? Do you feel it is too partisan or too activist, too liberal or too conservative? A. Well, it’s a very conservative court. I think that it’s different factions with one particular justice playing a swing role. So, as a result, it reaches some results in one direction and some results in another direction. I think, though, the thing that I worry about is that the Supreme Court decides many fewer cases, and there are large parts of American life and global life that it really has no opinion on. When you’re a first-year law student, you think that the Supreme Court occupies the world of law, and then when you’ve been the legal adviser of the State Department, it’s surprising how many issues you deal with in which the Supreme Court has absolutely nothing to say. That’s because of restrictions on its jurisdiction and its power to express views. Q. Speaking of law schools, there is a proposal gaining traction in New York that would allow law students to sit for the bar

Q. Related to that, in 1985 you left the Justice Department and took a job teaching at Yale Law School. Why did you leave a job in public service and become a professor? A. So, in Korea, there’s a term called “sun sang nim,” which means teacher. But it actually means more like Jedi Master. It’s a term of reverence. Teachers are

the greatest thing in Asian culture. And it’s an easy decision to go be a teacher. My father once said to me the way you shape the future is by the students you teach. And this time when I left the State Department, I mentioned a movie called “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” I don’t know if you’ve seen it. It’s about a guy who’s a music teacher who thinks his job is to write the great symphony, but he turns out teaching many students and his opus is actually the students he influenced. I feel the same way. Maybe in your own life you don’t accomplish everything you personally would like to accomplish, but you can challenge students to think more broadly about their own futures, and then, who knows? At the end of your life, it’s all of the people who’ve been affected by the ideas you’ve tried to convey and what they accomplish that count. The law professors who taught Bill Clinton [LAW ’73], for whom I served in one administration, and Hillary Clinton, had an unbelievable impact, even though nobody remembers their names or what they taught them. Contact SCOTT STERN at scott.stern@yale.edu .

“

AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE, IT’S ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO’VE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE IDEAS YOU’VE TRIED TO CONVEY AND WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISH THAT COUNT.

“

Q. I have been told that as a professor you were a strong critic of overly broad executive power. In 1990, you wrote a brief challenging President George H. W. Bush’s ’48 authority to fight in the Gulf War, and in 1992 and ’93, you sued the United States government and the president. How has your work in the executive branch under President Barack Obama changed your views on executive power, if at all?