This WEEKEND

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012

A PECULIAR INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY // BY AVA KOFMAN

PLAYLIST

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GRAMMYS

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SPY

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TRACKS FOR YALE LIFE

REWRITING HISTORY

VALERIE PLAME WILSON

Teo Soares and Leena Ramadan match popular songs with Yale traditions and pastimes.

WEEKEND gives its two cents on music’s big night out.

Akbar Ahmed talks to the ex-spy as she prepares for the Global Zero Student Summit this weekend.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

We’re sexy, and you know it // BY MILA HURSEY

My “Big Sib” freshman year told me coming in that I might have a problem with romance at Yale because I’m black. I was like nahhhh, racism is so passé, but after three years at Yale, I had lunch with her and I was like, man I’ve given up. I’ve actually given up. And she was like, yup. She doesn’t know any Black women in her six years around this campus who have had relationships that haven’t been long distance. I do, but the numbers are still so saddening! And somehow we both do fine as soon as we leave campus. This phenomenon that has been corroborated by Latina women, Asian men and women, Indian women, Arab women, etc. (I can’t speak for most men, so yeah.) Racial preference in dating exists everywhere. But somehow it feels closer to home here.

I’m writing this article because many people — not just me, and not just black women — feel like they are being judged sexually and romantically because of their race. Being intimate with someone involves some introspection about what you like and what you don’t. It also is a good indicator of how much prejudice is forgotten in a deep dark place inside you, because nothing better signifies your true worldview than the people with whom you will and will not become intimate with.

So I just discovered the OK Cupid blog. If y’all don’t know, it is a blog of statistics based on the profiles, dates and dating preferences of the OK Cupid clientele. For some reason, the statistics really bother me. In various studies on ethnicity and dating, Asian men and Black women were found to be statistically less “desirable” mates than any other ethnic/gender group. I could maybe understand if the statistics showed that people tend to date within their own culture or religion or something like that, but that is clearly not the case. I have heard so many Asian men of different sexual orientations say to me, personally, that they feel it is harder for them date/meet people because of their ethnicity.

There’s something to their concerns. On the OK Cupid blog comments, an Asian woman jus-

tified her unwillingness to date an Asian man because she was born in a liberal place and Asian men are conservative and want their women to stay at home and cook for them. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t sound like any Asian guy I’ve ever met, and I’ve encountered more than a few in my lifetime. I have also heard from people, “I don’t find Asian men attractive,” or “Asian men are ugly,” and I find that blatantly false, racist and ignorant. Anyone who has ever seen a Korean drama can tell you that Asian guys can be, and are, way hot and more importantly, can take part in a loving and fulfilling relationship. But these claims and their validity are not the problem here. The biggest problem by far is the fact that people find it okay to make these broad generalizations about a billion people based on their ethnicity. And don’t think that because Yale is so “liberal” that claims like these haven’t been made, because they have, and who knows why it’s acceptable.

My next case is the romantic plight of the modern day Black woman. You wouldn’t think it, but there is an entire canon of studies, books and Essence articles dedicated to this very topic. I’ve seen books entitled “Why Black Men Choose White Women” and other such shockers, but shall we look at the statistics? According to OK Cupid (which of course is the dating statistic holy text), Black women are sending out more messages than any other group, but they are also getting the least responses of anyone. This kind of effort — with very little outcome — inspires the commonly accepted statements, “Black women will die alone,” “The standard of beauty is based on women of European descent and that’s why nobody will date Black women,” and other depressing things that Black women tell ourselves. With the rate of Black women enrolled in college far exceeding that of Black men (who many women think are choosing not to date Black women anyway), Black women are looking elsewhere for love, and being rejected most of the time.

I just regurgitated a bunch of stuff I read in books and whatnot, so let me take this to a personal level. When I was researching a paper about Black women and relationships in modern day, I interviewed my daddy, an über-white guy, about whether he thought these findings were true. He told me that as a white guy, people assume he is married to a white woman, blah blah blah, and people say some pretty awful and racist things about Black women in front of him, including at his place of work.

Or course, my dad then chooses not to do business with them (HA!), but his observations led him to one conclusion. “I guarantee you many, I don’t know if it’s most, American white men would have a problem marrying a black woman. Date ‘em and well, you know, sure. But I bet you they wouldn’t take them home to meet the family.” Well that’s dismal, right? But you may be asking, “What does that have anything to do with Yale?” There is not a single Black lady here that I have ever talked to about this (and I talk about it far too much), who has not felt that race has affected her ability to date, flirt, hook up, whatever.

In my years here, I have talked to a rainbow spectrum of people and so many people have had some gripe with race in dating — but somehow, there isn’t any kind of discussion about how pervasive these feeling are. We talk about hook-up culture and sex, but not about how excluding or exclusively dating (ahem, Yellow Fever) someone based on their ethnicity is the last bastion of accepted racism. I challenge you Yalies out there to think about what you find attractive versus who you are actually willing to date. Think about maybe stepping out of your comfort zone and trying someone different on for size. Maybe you’ll find that you had a misconception about them for whatever reason, and that you have way more in common than you ever thought you would.

Contact MILA HURSEY at mila.hursey@yale.edu .

Profiles for Occupy

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 17

SOARES AND RAMADAN

HURSEY

WEEKEND VIEWS

ALON HARISH’S ’13 BIRTHDAY Everywhere // All Day

Happy Birthday to our favorite managing editor. Love, WEEKEND.

And music for all // BY TEO SOARES AND LEENA RAMADAN

Inspired by President Obama’s recently released campaign playlist, whose tunes so accurately capture America’s national climate (e.g., “Green Onions,”

by Booker Ts & The MGs), we compiled a soundtrack for the every day of Yale life.

Dubra: “Fade into Darkness,” AVICII Ronnell Higgins: “Not Afraid,” EMINEM

The guy who takes the last chicken tender: “Die,” LUPE FIASCO

The VAAD: “The What,” NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

Freshmen: “We Be Burnin’,” SEAN PAUL

Funny Yale memes: “One,” SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA

SOULJA BOY

“Turn My Swag On,”

Seniors: “Vaporize,” BROKEN BELLS

“Bottoms Up,” KEKE

TD: “Somewhere Only We Know,” KEANE

Saturday (10 p.m.): “In for the Kill,” LA ROUX

EliApps: “Ayo

Sunday (12 a.m.): “We Found Love,” RIHANNA

McKinsey info session:

Technology,” 50 CENT

FT. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

FT. CALVIN HARRIS

Three-fourths of Yale guys: “Makes Me Wonder,” MAROON 5

Sunday (2:30 to 2:34 a.m.): “Bedrock,” YOUNG MONEY

Shopping period:

“Wake Me Up When September Ends,”

Sunday (10 a.m.): “Blame It,” JAMIE FOXX FT. T-PAIN

“Are you Jewish?”:

“Lessons Learned,”

GREEN DAY

“Should’ve Said No,” TAYLOR SWIFT

Yale Summer Session: “Ni**as in Paris,” JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST New Haven Green:

“Ready to Die,” BY NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

Section: “Blah Blah Blah,” KE$HA

Your personal librarian:

“Who’s Dat Chick?”

RIHANNA FT. DAVID GUETTA

G-Heav: “I Make Good Girls Go Bad,” COBRA STARSHIP The 5,225 of us not in 50 Most: “Beautiful,” CHRISTINA AGUILERA

PALMER

Safety Dance: “Too Drunk to Fuck,” DEAD KENNEDYS Getting kicked out of Box 63: “Club Can’t Even

Handle Me Right Now,” FLO RIDA

Sunday morning brunch: “Rumor Has It,” ADELE Rush SigEp:

“Billionaire,” TRAVIE

Sunday (10:02 a.m.):

MCCOY

MATT AND KIM

Rush SAE:

Next Saturday: “Back at your Door,” MAROON 5

“Seek Bromance,” TIM BERG

Rush SigChi: “Where Dem Girls At,” DAVID

Mary Miller: “Hey Ma,” CAM’RON

GUETTA

Second-semester senior:

“Princess of China,”

“Party and Bullshit,”

NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

Meeting with your academic adviser:

Skipping section: “Livin’ “Hello Goodbye,” THE La Vida Loca,” RICKY BEATLES MARTIN

Freshman Screw:

Class on Science Hill:

“A Thousand Miles,” VANESSA CARLTON

Excellent yield in orgo lab (with minimal impurities): “Like a G6,” FAR EAST PROJECT The last 20 minutes of seminar: “Misery,” MAROON 5

Hot MCDB major:

COLDPLAY FT. RIHANNA Alpha Delta delivery guy at 3:01 am: “Hero,” CHAD KROEGER Tofu apple crisp, bacon cupcakes, a cappella:

“Doin’ Too Much,” SNOOP DOGG

“Don’t Stop Believing,”

Maria Yagoda: JOURNEY

Contact TEO SOARES at teo.soares@yale.edu and LEENA RAMADAN at leena.ramadan@yale.edu.

// BY ILANA STRAUSS

SIPS FOR SMILES

Claire’s Corner Copia // All Day Mmmmmm Claire’s. Our favorite!

“FROZEN MOVEMENT”: ANGLES ON ART

Yale University Art Gallery // 3:00 p.m.

Watch Allegra Krasznekewicz ’13 do her thing.

“WHENEVER I HEAR ANYONE ARGUING FOR SLAVERY, I FEEL A STRONG IMPULSE TO SEE IT TRIED ON HIM PERSONALLY.” — ABRAHAM LINCOLN

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

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ut let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil,” John C. Calhoun 1804 argued on the U.S. Senate floor in 1837.

“Far otherwise, I hold [slavery] to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition.”

That same decade, Samuel F. B. Morse 1810 was also engaged in a heated debate, though over a different sort of property. His revolutionary invention, the telegraph, had come under fire with patent law. Yet as his fame and fortune grew, Morse moved from a defense of intellectual property to a defense of slavery.

“Slavery per se is not sin,” wrote Morse in 1863. “The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than being a parent, or employer, or ruler.”

In 1933, Yale named Calhoun College. Twenty-eight years later — three years before the Civil Rights Act and Yale’s award of an honorary doctorate to Martin Luther King Jr. — Morse College was named.

Fast-forward to Yale’s tercentennial celebrations. The year is 2001 and Yale’s relationship to slavery is summarized thusly in its 300th anniversary brochure: “Yale graduates and faculty have had a long history of activism in the face of slavery and a modern history of scholarship about it.”

For three graduate students — Antony Dugdale GRD ’01, J. J. Fueser GRD ’02 and J. Celso de Castro Alves GRD ’06 — Yale’s retelling of history seemed too pat. Penned in part as a response to Yale’s lack of “serious scholarly reflection about the institution’s progress in the past century” and inspired by the nation’s larger discussion of reparations for slavery, the three paused their respective dissertations to publish a 50-page report on “Yale, Slavery and Abolition” midway through the tercentennial.

The stories of Calhoun and Morse, along with those of other prominent affiliates honored by Yale, were unearthed in the essay’s report of Yale’s relationship to slavery. The report revealed that eight out of 12 of Yale’s residential colleges had been named after men associated with slavery and slave money.

“The vast majority of people didn’t even know slavery existed in New England,” said history professor David Blight, one of the nation’s leading authorities on the Civil War and the director of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. “Never underestimate ignorance about history.”

For many, the report served as a wake-up call to ask how issues of slavery and memory could be dealt with differently — then and now. *** A conference titled “Yale, New Haven and American Slavery” was the University’s response to the report’s findings in 2002. Co-sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center and Yale Law School, Blight gave his first speech at the University as the center’s new director.

Yet according to those who attended, including Blight, the actual issue of

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SURREALISM IN POLISH CINEMA: A CONFERENCE, DAY 1

Luce Hall, first-floor auditorium // 5:30 p.m.

Bedziemy tam.

Yale’s relationship to slavery, as detailed in the report, was only mentioned once throughout the conference, in passing.

“Yale did a good job of making the report go away by hosting a conference purporting to be about the issue at hand, which then it wasn’t,” said R. Owen Williams LAW ’07 GRD ’09, who attended the conference while a graduate student at Yale.

Since 2002, no further allusions or actions have been announced on the part of the University to scrutinize its own involvement with slavery head on.

“If there’s ever a chance for a robust conversation to deal with race, citizenship and how New England’s contributions were wound up in the capitalist system of slavery, and it’s not taken, I see that as a missed opportunity,” Calhoun Master and Professor of History Jonathan Holloway GRD ’95 said.

“It was a flare-up that went away almost as fast as it came,” Williams recalled. “It made for a wonderful discussion that lasted for all too short a time.” *** Williams wrote a paper called “Calhoun College: Honoring the Dishonorable,” which argued that America was “so white and lily white supremacist in its bias as a nation in the 1930s that no one questioned the naming of Calhoun College.”

On Indigenous Peoples Day in 2009, members of the Undergraduate Organizing Committee chalked and posted flyers of new names onto the residential colleges, including Calhoun, as a way of “provoking thought and asking people to think about what the names really mean,” said Mac Herring ’12, a member of the Undergraduate Organizing Committee.

“It’s so easy when you’re talking about Calhoun College to forget it was named for John C. Calhoun, who was one of the more reprehensible figures in American history,” Ben Crosby ’13 said.

“What the chalking did best for me was to defamiliarize [the status quo] and to ask about the implications of memorializing folks who were involved with slaves and slave trades in the brick and mortar materiality of the university.”

Historians often caution that for all the geography and traditions they share, Old Yale and today’s Yale are very different places full of completely different people. But even so, it was not antebellum Yale that named Calhoun College but rather, early 20th-century men, tied to Yale’s long-standing Southern associations.

“Why are we honoring him at this erstwhile bastion of antislavery?” Williams said.

For the authors of the “Yale, Slavery and Abolition report,” what was most troubling was that Yale chose to ignore their honoraries’ unsavory actions, decades, and then even centuries later.

The tercentennial edition of the Yale Alumni magazine listed Morse as one of Yale’s top graduates without mentioning his pro-slavery positions or his leadership in the movement.

Whereas the report did not seek to discredit men such as Morse for their accomplishments, it asked why no critical inquiry had examined the way these men and Yale were complicit in the institution of slavery while the equally influential abolitionist alumni had received little to no recognition.

That said, many said they would shy away from renaming Calhoun College entirely. The UOC had wished to pro-

“LUMINARIAS” BY EVELINA FERNANDEZ

Morse/Stiles Crescent Theater // 7:00 p.m.

“Luminarias” uses a comedic framework to address serious themes of the Latin American experience.

voke a discussion about the colleges, members said, rather than rehaul their names permanently.

“Conversations about names are important, and acknowledging Yale’s troubled past with race and other oppressions would be really great to do with naming of new colleges so that we don’t remember more dead white men with problematic opinions,” Herring said.

The naming of the two new colleges, scheduled to open in 2015, will open this dialogue again with new results.

Indeed, many professors and administrators wish to name one of the colleges after Edward Bouchet, the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in the United States.

“There are so many reasons why,” Chief Research Archivist and inaugural recipient of the Edward Bouchet Legacy Award Judith Schiff said of the possible naming. Bouchet was a native of New Haven and the first African-American graduate of Yale College. He graduated sixth in his class from Yale as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society. Still, he was unable to find a post as a professor because of his race, Williams said. *** A good rule of thumb is that if you go back far enough in any university’s — or for that matter, any institution’s past — involvement and investments in slavery will arise.

Connecticut passed its gradual emancipation plan in 1790s and did not finish liberating slaves until well into the 1820s and ’30s, meaning that slavery was legal during the first full century of Yale’s history. It was not unusual, then, for ministry or gentlemen in the North to own slaves.

In light of this historical fact, Yale administrators were quoted in a 2001 New York Times editorial saying that “few, if any, institutions or individuals from the period before Emancipation remained untainted by slavery.” Critics took this stance as one that avoided or excused the University’s responsibility for its legacy.

The “Yale, Slavery and Abolition” report questioned the notion that men are nothing more than the products of their time. By examining the actions of other men from Calhoun’s time period, the authors suggest that he did not necessarily need to own slaves.

Calhoun’s contemporary, James Hillhouse 1773, served as Yale’s treasurer for half a century and fought against the importation of slaves into the Louisiana Purchase. “I consider slavery a serious evil,” the report quotes him saying, “and wish to check it wherever I have the authority.”

Regarding his moral defense of slavery as a good, Calhoun said as he grew older, “In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct.”

Apparently, neither did Yale.

“The fact that there was no controversy then,” Blight said, “shows us that problems of historical memory are always implicitly about the present — and the present views in which we have these debates.” *** At the time of the report, Yale seemed more embarrassed than accepting of the findings.

“Institutional memory is always selfpromoting by definition,” Blight said.

“You have a public affairs office to exalt what goes on here and there are incredSEE SLAVERY PAGE B8

THE DUKE’S MEN OF YALE PRESENT: “ALICE IN WONDERJAM” The Center Church Parish House // 7:30 p.m.

Take us down your rabbit hole, Duke’s Men.

“SLAVERY IS NO SCHOLAR, NO IMPROVER … EVERYTHING GOES TO DECAY.” — RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

MFA THESIS SHOW DEFIES EXPECTATIONS, EASY ANSWERS // BY JACK LINSHI

A piece of art is generally regarded to be self-evident, a transcendent object rather than a documentation of the artist’s personal growth. The Yale MFA Thesis Show: Painting and Printmaking, the first part of which opened on Feb. 8 in Green Hall, is the culmination of the nearly two-year process of obtaining an MFA. So in this art school setting, when given a series of final works, it is natural to wonder about the journey taken to arrive at this destination. But this show places art as art over a narrative of educational fulfillment. In that sense, it has the contextlessness of an unfamiliar gallery, though ultimately the art’s mysterious presence demands more meaningful engagement.

The show, which features 10 second-year painting and printmaking MFA candidates, is at the very least an engaging visual experience. Divided amongst the three floors of the Green Gallery, the works of these artists are clearly engaged with the space. On the bottom floor, you’ll see an odd stack of crates from the floor to the roughly 30-foot ceiling among other works. On the top floor, a series of small, similarly-sized

//JACOB GEIGER

The Yale MFA Thesis Show: Painting and Printmaking

colorful paintings neatly line the walls of the gallery.

As an artist interested in process and technicality, I was particularly fascinated by the works on the second floor. It is a small space, easily less than half of the area of the first or second floors.

The space features a toppled bed frame covered in a bedsheet covered in splattered paint in the style of Jackson Pollock. Suspended on the walls by hooks are bed sheets

with intricate prints of flowers, circles and lines. On another wall, a canvas taller and wider than I am features indistinct slews of color in a pointillist fashion.

Here, everyday objects are literally flipped over and turned into art. Looking at the process, the transformation of a bed sheet into a meticulous mosaic of shapes and colors poses clear difficulties — adhesive of medium onto surface, issues of the sheet sliding around,

etc. — all of which have been addressed successfully. One can only wonder how these plain linens turned out the way they did.

Another piece worth a look resides on the bottom floor, a piece in the style of chalkboard which spells out a number of words. “PO,” “TO,” “SI,” the first half reads, and then “HUTUSI,” “WATUSI,” “WENTUSI,” “WAITUSI.” On first glance, this seems like a helpless game of Scram-

ble with Friends. A Google search of these terms turns up nothing.

Some Spanish words line the right side of the board. But on second look, there is some explanation to the piece (finally!). Stuffed in between a series of non-words is the phrase “Are there signifiers in abstraction? Do emotions signify?” Ultimately, the initial struggle to understand the metaphor provides a stronger understanding of the piece — which, in

Evan Nesbit: A trip and some ‘Gardening’ // BY JOY SHAN

WEEKEND sits down with painter Evan Nesbit ART ’12 to talk about process, symbols and Northern California attitudes.

Q. First of all, what exactly is the Painting and Printmaking program at Yale’s School of Art, and how did you end up there?

A. The School [of Art] is kind of unique in that it differentiates mediums, and the department is divided that way. For Painting and Printmaking, the history and syntax of painting becomes important — it’s really a department for students who seek conversation about or around painting. It’s kind of a loose scattershot group of primarily painters and printmakers, but even some people who are straight up sculptors. I came in as a painter, for the program’s focus on painting.

I felt like that was important for me.

Q. Many of the pieces in your MFA exhibit seem to feature many colors of paint loaded onto pieces of burlap.

How did you create these, and what were you hoping to accomplish?

A. A lot of the paintings in my thesis show contain images that are driven by the material process I use.

I was interested in the idea of working a painting backwards — so kind of flipping the thought process. All of the paintings are painted backwards. I painted them backwards through the burlap, so it was like a traditional easel painting but the painting was faced backwards, and gravity pulled the paint through to the other side. The finished image is the process turned around and then set on the wall. A common analogy would be a philosophical approach to image-making rather than thinking of myself as a draftsman … it’s more like trying to foster the conditions in which the work occurs.

Q. Ok, but the piece called “Gardening” was really different from these. It features a few scant painted designs of what looks like marijuana leaves on a piece of burlap rather than piles of paint loaded onto a canvas. Why?

F R I D AY F E B RUA RY 17

A. “Gardening” is me taking a step back, distilling a few visual ideas where each little image is brushed very specifically — not like the head-over-heels approach that I used in pieces like “Stony” where I literally took pounds of paint and pushed it through the back of a canvas. In pieces like “Stony,” things are sort of out of my control when the painting is really happening. But “Gardening” is not about the unexpected; it’s about manicurity and fostering a proper set of conditions for more indulgent paintings.

Q. What do the images of “Gardening” represent to you?

A. The piece is set onto a grid; it’s structured like a lexicon of symbols.

At the same time the marijuana represents a plant, or the rocks represent the idea of gardening or balance. I wanted it to be like a Zen garden of nuggets of information. A comment that I once got was, “Oh, this is trippy!” It has a certain type of attention or visual focus that is stony or heady in a way that someone under the influence might get caught up in the minute details.

I wanted to play with the idea of stony painting, making a rock garden out of a loose set of iconographic symbols that play into my work.

Q. So would you say “Gardening” is a symbolic piece?

A. I feel like they’re abstract paintings. But abstractions are just one way to talk about the transition between languages and ideas or some vehicle to stimulate that. The symbols in “Gardening” are symbols, but they’re flat, one-dimensional symbols. It comes out that the pot leaf and the rocks and the puns are like slapstick humor, even though [the humor]’s coded and supposed to speak more to humility, physicality, presence of materials.

Q. So how did you even begin to think about creating this?

A. One thing I can say about the “Gardening” piece: I grew up in the

Sierra Nevada foothills, and that played a lot into in my artistic practice … A lot of the language of the painting is grown out of an idiosyncratic approach which is typical Northern California. [Northern California has] a Pacific coast approach to form that has this natural headiness to it, a lot of ritual and pseudo-spiritual imagery that naturally builds out of the work …

I just like to bring my own personal background and familiarity to my academic art training.

Q. That’s quite a transition: you studied art at an art school in San Francisco, and now you’re at Yale. Has your work changed as a result?

A. I was 110% surprised by how my stuff changed. The work changed because the context changed and the location changed … In a reactionary way I work against it. I try to make space for myself rather than find space, and I didn’t want to contort my work to fit in here. I wanted to come in, find myself, develop, practice, and make room for the art I wanted to make and the conversation I wanted to have. But there’s a strain of regionalism in the thought process and I do think location is really important to the context of the work and can change the way the work functions. I went from this private art school to another private institution, and it’s got a different sort of shape and rhythm and rigor to it. The work, I felt, was more intellectually grounded and rigorous before I came here. When I arrived, I chose to throw all caution to the wind, kind of in a questionable way. So my work became more emotive and experimental.

Q. Experimental? Do you mean in a good way?

A. I’ve gained a lot of traction from being here. Before I came here everything was very rigid. I made geometric abstract paintings and I guess I was pretty fussy. The space [I worked with] was incredibly conflated and confusing but the technique and craft behind it was very particular and fussy and

LAURELINE KRUSE & YOU WON’T Underbrook Coffeehouse // 7:30 p.m.

You won’t regret going … see what we did there?

almost anal. That shut people out of the work. I always felt like I had to spend 3 or 4 months on a piece before it meant anything, and now I can spend like an hour and I can get so much further.

a cleverly circular manner, is actually to evoke that same struggle of questioning, confusion and mystery.

Upon leaving, the viewer may be somewhat frustrated that the artists or their statements were not by their works, explaining their influences and motives. You are left to yourself to completely decipher these meanings. For some, this is somewhat annoying.

But for the curious, this show will allow for indulgence in the freedom of speculation.

Part II of the MFA Thesis Show opens on Feb. 18.

Contact JACK LINSHI at jack.linshi@yale.edu .

Rushern Baker: A middle ground // BY AARON GERTLER

Q. So how have people been reacting to images like “Gardening” and “Stony”?

A. I was really happy before my thesis review: before the panel said anything a lot of [the members] just kind of cracked a smile. It seems like people are responding to the haptic quality of the paintings — how in a visual way, they are physically tactile. People seemed really drawn to the substrate-ground material relationship …The material aspect has a real painterly sort of logic to it that everyone seems to have access to because it’s not hidden. Yeah, it can be confusing when you first step up [to the painting], but then after a while you’re like, “Oh I want to see what it looks like on the back!”

So the potential of the next piece is kind of present in the mind of the viewer in a way that is real positive and encouraging.

Q. How would you best sum up this collection of pieces and your aspirations for it?

A. The phrase to title it has been Light Farming/Heavy Gardening. It’s from a Utah Phillips quote, but it flattens out into a big stoner pun. I’m all about Big Dumb ideas.

This was sort of slapstick, almost tongue-in-cheek and very culturally specific. I’m trying to develop a visual language while at the same time suppressing a lot of impulses that come along with that.

Q. What sort of impulses?

A. Like narrating, I work best with loose ends. The more loose ends the better, and I like the idea of nonlinear thinking and nonlinear intellectual thinking in painting.

Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .

YALE ANIME SOCIETY PRESENTS: “ZIPANG” Saybrook TV Room // 7:30 p.m.

Yale Anime Society at it again.

“DRACULA”

Q. Have you always known you’d be a Master of Fine Arts?

A. Yeah. Growing up, I did a lot of social work and political work, both political art and actual work on campaigns, since my father is a politician in Maryland. I feel like there can be a bridge between the two; politics is kind of polarized right now, so I don’t see how I can be an effective participant.

Q. So your art is meant to express moderation?

A. That’s true. My practice is about compromising or opposing ideas – freedom and restraint; freedom from architectural spaces. Like with that section of the painting where the materials are thick enough to stick out in another direction, another dimension; that’s the expression of a possibility. It’s not realized, but it’s there.

Q. You’re known to add to your paintings long after others might consider them “finished”. How do you know when to stop working?

A. I don’t think a painting is ever really finished. For now, these are done – I’m ready to talk about them and present them. But they’re not

Yale Cabaret // 8:00 p.m.

Before there was Twilight …

concretely done. I can still add something – or take something away.

I’ve done both.

Q. Two of your paintings make use of brick backgrounds. Is that meant to invoke all institutions, or a certain kind of institution — say, a school?

A. I think about institutions in general, and the grinding down of h i e ra rc h i ca l s t r u c tures, whether they’re financial in our country or somewhere else in the world – that kind of angst. The structures are here in their entirety, but there’s a moment when they break down …

I’m interested in the art form that comes out of a spontaneous combustion.

Q. I also notice that this painting is shiny.

What kinds of unusual materials do you use?

A. I paint on aluminum to get that reflective effect and adhere it to the canvas. I’ve mixed paint with tile adhesive and acrylic paint with concrete. There’s no huge art supply store in New Haven that is affordable, so we’ve all learned to appreciate Home Depot.

Contact AARON GERTLER at aaron.gertler@yale.edu .

“THE SINGING OF A MAN CAST AWAY UPON A DESOLATE ISLAND MIGHT BE AS APPROPRIATELY CONSIDERED AS EVIDENCE OF CONTENTMENT AND HAPPINESS, AS THE SINGING OF A SLAVE; THE SONGS OF THE ONE AND OF THE OTHER ARE PROMPTED BY THE SAME EMOTION.” FREDERICK DOUGLASS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND NOBEL

A NOBEL STORY // BY GRACE PATUWO

U

p four steps, left through the rotunda, up two floors and finally left through a solid oak door is a windowless room at 333 Cedar St. brimming with the buzz of machinery. A shiny, thick black plastic curtain drapes across a dark alcove. Inside, sits a contraption Amanda Foust GRD ’12 has built to study the neuron electrical impulses that initiate our every thought, feeling and movement.

A midsummer’s week in 2011 brought Foust into the company of Nobel Laureates who laid down the foundation of her research.

In 1976, just one floor down from Foust’s lab at the Yale School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Erwin Neher had built from scratch a setup that recorded findings which led him to co-win the Nobel Prize with Bert Sakmann.

In the 111-year history of the prize, Yale has been rich with the lore of Nobel laureates. But their journeys from the Elm City to Stockholm are far from predictable. “One never expects to win a Nobel,” George Akerlof ’62, like most laureates, will be quick to dispense. WEEKEND delves into the commonalities that have guided them to achieve the highest of all academic honors, and the aura around the laureates begins to demystify.

A HERITAGE OF MENTORSHIP

Growing up, John Fenn GRD ’40 had a long affair with the Book of Knowledge — a children’s encyclopedia his parents gave him at the age of 8 or 9.

“During the hours that I pored over them, its 20 volumes became a wellworn magic carpet to new and fascinating worlds,” he wrote in his autobiography for the Nobel Prize, published in the “Les Prix Nobel” series.

“I’ve often quipped that ‘I got through college on the Book of Knowledge, a bit of rhyming hyperbole that contains an appreciable kernel of truth.”

Berea College in his hometown in Kentucky passed by without much hardship, but provided much academic influence for Fenn before he stepped onto the “Fifth Avenue Gothic” Yale campus for his Ph.D. in physical chemistry with “the vaguest idea of what graduate study and research were all about.”

On September 1937, he was unceremoniously assigned to his advisor, Gus Akerlof — a mentor with whom Fenn would form a close friendship with throughout his life.

Fenn passed away December 2010.

While the actual research he worked on initially felt less than inspiring, Fenn found the camaraderie of fellow students and faculty to be especially stimulating both in and out of the laboratory.

“I was extremely fond of Gus and most grateful for his always calm demeanor and seeming imperturbability,” he recalled.

Fenn would later follow Akerlof to Princeton before returning to Yale as a professor himself in 1967.

In the same way Fenn valued the guidance of his mentor, Dave Bulkley GRD ’13 credits Sterling Professor Thomas Steitz with shaping his own approach to research and science.

“Something I’ve inherited from Tom is

“

that science doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Bulkley said of his mentor, a 2009 Nobel chemistry winner.

“Rather, it’s the collaborative side of things — tossing around an idea with your friends in lab, or going over the results of one of your experiments with another scientist — that often sparks a good idea and really gets the scientific juices flowing.”

BENDING GENDER EXPECTATIONS

This past summer Bulkley, along with Amanda Foust and Adele Ricciardi MD ’18 GRD ’18, was selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting in Germany for a week of social and academic exchanges with laureates and other promising young researchers from around the world.

Among the laureates they met on the historic resort island of Lindau was biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, who often acknowledges the impact mentors have had on her career.

It was not exactly science that first attracted Blackburn to Yale, but it was love and determination to balance her new marriage (to a fellow University of Cambridge lab member) with her scientific aspirations.

After her fiancé had been offered a position with biology and history professor William Summers, Blackburn decided to chance a postdoctoral research opportunity in the Elm City.

“Thus it was that love brought me to a most fortunate and influential choice: Joe Gall’s lab at Yale,” she wrote in the 2009 “Les Prix Nobel.”

Under the guidance of MCDB professor Joseph Gall GRD ’52, she worked to uncover the structure of telomeres, the region that prevents chromosomes from breaking apart during replication. Blackburn and her mentor would publish a landmark paper in 1978 on this discovery of telomeres, which later won her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

It was considerably rare for women to be in science research in the 1970s. Even so, Gall fostered a welcoming and encouraging environment for women in the male-dominated world of academia.

“I really do think that the mentor has the power to set the tone in the lab,” Amanda Foust said. ”Even as far as the jokes that they will or will not tell or will or will not laugh at, I think that makes a big difference.”

As a female in the mostly male field of electroneurophysiology, Foust is familiar with navigating the masculine culture that can arise.

While the situation has improved greatly since the generation before, artifacts of the gender climate of prior decades still exist today. ”I don’t think that we have completely let go of the notion that women will work less because they will be having and raising children,” Adele Ricciardi said.

“In many ways, I also think that women have this absurd notion that they need to sacrifice their family life to be successful because if they aren’t putting in that time at work, [then] there may be someone else who is willing to do that.”

IN THE 111-YEAR HISTORY OF THE PRIZE, YALE HAS BEEN RICH WITH THE LORE OF NOBEL LAUREATES. BUT THEIR JOURNEYS FROM THE ELM CITY TO STOCKHOLM ARE FAR FROM PREDICTABLE.

“

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“I <3 DPOPS”

Battell Chapel // 8:00 p.m.

Relive the classics: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “I Will Survive,” music by Frank Sinatra, and selections from “Gone with the Wind,” “The Lion King,” and “Aladdin.” Get ready to sing along!

PERSISTENCE WINS THE PRIZE

If anything, the essence of science seems to be centered around challenges and finding ways to overcome them.

Science for George Akerlof, son of Fenn’s mentor Gus Akerlof, was a “family ideal.”

Embarrassed after burning himself blowing glass in his father’s laboratory, he wanted to find a new identity to separate himself from his more scientifically-inclined older brother. Besides, he was convinced that he was more “interested in social things: history and, if children can have such interests, economics.”

While he followed his brother’s footsteps to Yale, Akerlof was intent on pursuing his interests in the humanities. He enrolled in Directed Studies and heeled as a staff reporter for the Yale Daily News before turning his focus to math and economics.

“In the first two years at Yale I mainly worked on the News; in my last two years I was entirely a student,” Akerlof recalled. (“A lot of what I’m doing is still News work,” he said in a recent interview with the News. “I feel that, in a sense, good economics is just a high level of reporting.”)

In his first year after finishing his Ph.D. at MIT, Akerlof completed his manuscript “The Market of Lemons,” which showed how an imbalance of information between sellers and buyers leads to unfair exchanges in the market.

Shortly after submitting “Lemons” to The American Economics Review, he received notice from the editor that they “did not publish papers on subjects of such triviality.”

Twice again Akerlof would receive the same dismissive response to the 13-page paper that eventually won him a Nobel Prize in 2001.

“How persistent are you supposed to be? I think it’s an important skill to learn when to persist and when to give up,” Akerlof said. “I don’t think it’s something you can formally teach … you have to have a sixth sense.”

A MATTER OF PASSION

Frustration, laureate Erwin Neher said, is part of the business of research.

Now Director Emeritus of the Biophysical Chemistry Department at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Neher said that he still finds himself constantly met

“GOOD GOODS”

Yale Repertory Theater // 8:00 p.m.

An otherworldly love story of the (dis) possessed.

//

GR

AC

U AT EP

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with c h a l lenges in the laboratory even after more than fifty years in science.

But the most important thing, he said, is a real interest in the subject matter.

“Interest” is perhaps a modest term for what might more emphatically be described as passion. Whether it was Neher or Blackburn or Steitz, there was a clear sense of joy when the Laureates talked about their research at the 61st Lindau Meeting this past summer.

This joyous contagion was not lost on the students — the future faces of science — in attendance.

“It’s so great to see people who are so incredibly fulfilled by what they do and absolutely love it,” Dave Bulkley said on the last day of the weeklong meeting.

Adele Ricciardi agreed: “The biggest thing that I have taken away from all of my mentors is that they get up every morning and do something that they love.”

For Ricciardi, an MD-Ph.D. candidate at the Yale School of Medicine, science is about more than the excitement of discovery; it’s about “discovering something unknown and using it to positively impact someone’s life.”

Perhaps it is the job of scientists to help us blaze through this unknown. Without the guidance of beaten paths, it is how they chose to handle obstacles along the way that orients them to new treasures ahead.

And when the accidental comes along on this curiosity-driven adventure, Nobel laureate Avram Hershko says “Grab your luck!”

Like him, you just might hit gold.

Contact GRACE PATUWO at grace.patuwo@yale.edu .

KAMASCREWTRA

Thali Too // 10:00 p.m.

DJ Vishal will be spinning.

“FOR SOME SLAVES, THE FIRST STEP OUT OF BONDAGE IS TO LEARN TO SEE THEIR LIVES WITH NEW EYES .. .THEY CANNOT EASILY REDEFINE THEIR LIVES OUTSIDE THE FRAME OF ENSLAVEMENT.” KEVIN BALES

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND GRAMMYS

GRAMMYS FASHION – THE COLLEGE(!) VIEWPOINT // BY AKBAR AHMED

STAY AMAZING PLZTHX: So, you might have never thought about Skylar Grey beyond her chilling little cameo in “Coming Home.”

And that’s fine — I’m not judging you for being close-minded or generally silly. But please, please just go look at what she wore on that star-studded night and tell me you don’t want her to be your Goth bestie/nanny/nemesis.

What Skylar’s brought back is the kind of look that says “I’m going to look like I’m about to go to a funeral and WIN it” (yes, that’s a thing you can do at funerals; no, if you weren’t aware of that already, you will never be capable of doing it). Her long, straight-cut dress, with its unconventional midcalf hemline, was accentuated by fantastically raven hair and red heels wisely selected in a shade that didn’t clash

with the carpet. She also jives well with this last fashion week’s theme, a sort of return to the Old World, in ways both Amish and amazing. Way to be fashion-forward and as creepy as the ninth floor of stacks, Ms. Grey.

TIME TO MEET SOMEBODY NEW: Robyn let us down at the Grammys. To those of us bitter souls who’ve spent months creepin’ along to “Dancing on My Own” and considering how shitty our lives are as we listen to “Call Your Girlfriend,” the diminutive blonde Scandinavian was the crucial voice of reason that told us to ditch the third magic bar and just go dance irresistibly somewhere. Her sound is perfect for this campus: it’s Adele with a dash more biting wit; it’s alternative but has a beat, uniting High and Howe for one big chant of “I’m not the girl

you’re taking home.”

But then she decided to show up wearing a platform-heeled pair of those dodgy Timberlands muchbeloved of the crew that does 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. runs to Payne Whitney. Just gotta say it, dear reader: I could literally feel my heart sink and my brain go, “Hmmm, maybe it’s time to reconsider Yelle as my source of Europop.”

Granted, more inches of Timberland heel meant more Robyn. But sometimes, reader, less is more — and shoes that were less clown-meets-climber would have made a significant difference.

Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .

My conversation with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon // BY AUSTIN BERNHARDT

Well, I have eight words for you, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon: “My my my, my my my, my my.” How about that speech you gave when you won the Grammy for Best New Artist! How about that?

Also, actually, three more words: Dude. Dude. Duuuuude! Did you realize you were at Music’s Biggest Night?

That right before you stood on the stage, your name was announced by professional attractive blonde person Carrie Underwood and the legendary (LEGENDARY!) Tony Bennett? Maybe that’s who you were referring to when you said, “There’s so much talent out here, like, on this stage.”

“LIKE, ON THIS STAGE”?

WHAAAAT?!

Most people at these kinds of things who garble their acceptance speeches do it because they’re so overwhelmed by the honor and shock of winning (here’s looking at you, Melissa Leo).

And yet you (yes, you, Mr. Vernon), in a hilarious feat of blasé dismissal, somehow managed to seem, well, vaguely bummed to win a prize recognizing your achievement as a musical artist.

Or a … hold on … yes, as you put it, a

“sweet hookup.” You called a Grammy a sweet hookup! Do you remember that, or did you black out on the fumes from your own beard?

To be fair, you did say you were grateful — so grateful, in fact, that you apparently found it appropriate to thank almost everyone you could think of: your parents, other bands, Wisconsin, the nominees, the non-nominees … hominies?

Oh. My. God. Did you forget to thank the hominy grits that gave you the creative energy on that fateful morning to go out and record “For Emma, Forever Ago”? I mean — What’s that?

You actually won for the self-titled album you released earlier this year?

But …

Wait a minute …

Best New Artist? In what sense are YOU a “New Artist”? “Bon Iver” is your SECOND album! And while we’re on the subject, the elapsed time between your latest and “For Emma” was like, three years (or, to use industry lingo, “Forever Ago”).

Who votes for these things? Are they in a capsule orbiting Mars, receiving news from Earth but, due to the transmission delay, only retrieving new messages every three years? And if they see Bon Iver, a band that formed in 2007, as “new,” why don’t they just give the award to singing legend (LEGEND!) Tony Bennett? After all, he’s only been singing for what, 60 years?

Forget all the other stuff I said, Justin. You were probably just distracted during your speech because, for a few minutes, you must have thought you’d been thrust back in time to the 2009 Grammys to save the world from some impending catastrophe and you were looking for clues like Denzel Washington in “Deja Vu.” So keep it up, bud. Maybe your next album could be some kind of spoken word/free jazz fusion.

You know, just to fuck with us.

Rolling in the deep, setting fire to the rain. She’s not someone like you.

Least Likely to Aid Y Body on the Side of Roman Zolanksi ak aka WHAT THE WH // BY JORDI GASSO

Contact AUSTIN BERNHARDT at austin.bernhardt@yale.edu .

WEEKEND WINS THE GRAMMYS

Nicki Minaj was undoubtedly a tour de force in 2011.

Whereas Adele enraptured all woebegone twentysomethings carrying heavy hearts and iTunes purchasing power, Nicki attracted the attention of everybody else. And that included renowned rappers, parental groups, dorm parties and that little fat British girl in the tutu. So what the fuck was that performance at the Grammys on Sunday? Inexcusable! Who’s Roman Zolanski? I don’t care!! For those of you who do, apparently HE is a secondary identity, some kind of angry demon possessing Nicki à la Regan MacNeil. But I, for one, don’t want to listen to Roman, or bust a move with Roman or even let my daughter swap lyrics with him on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Alter egos seldom work —

Wisconsin in Tea // BY MARISSA MEDANSKY

You know how at Miya’s they have that thing on the menu that’s like “good food isn’t classist?”

Because, seriously, for the love of all that is good and true and surrounded by rice and okra, good music isn’t/shouldn’t be classist, either. I get that it’s cool and trendy to distance yourself from the capitalE Establishment, but capital-E Elitism isn’t cute, either, especially when it’s nationally televised and awkward.

We get it, Bon Iver — or Justin Vernon or Dances With Wisconsin Teardrops or whatever your name actually is — winning two Grammys made you uncomfortable. Because Bon Iver isn’t an artist, it’s an idea or a feeling or something. But honestly, being nominated for four of the most prestigious awards in

S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 1 8

NIKITA LALWANI’S ’13 BIRTHDAY All Day // Everywhere

Watch out, DUH.

SIPS FOR SMILES

Claire’s Corner Copia // All Day If you missed it on Friday …

FIRST ANNUAL PROGRESSIVE PRINCIPLES AT YALE CONFERENCE WLH // 9:00 a.m.

Come for speaker John Halpin!

d S M I P W S w n k

“AS LONG AS THE MIND IS ENSLAVED, THE BODY CAN NEVER BE FREE. PSYCHOLOGICAL FREEDOM, A FIRM SENSE OF SELFESTEEM, IS THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON AGAINST THE LONG NIGHT OF PHYSICAL SLAVERY.” MARTIN LUTHER KING

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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// ILANA STRAUSS

The Boss, still born in the USA.

Your Ailing of a Road: ka Nicki Minaj HAT???

dirtytaylorswift.tumblr.com

Fascination with ritual // BY BAOBAO ZHANG

do you remember Sasha Fierce, or that moronic Love Symbol? Neither do Beyoncé nor Prince. And Nicki Minaj has about five zany personalities under her belt!

I just want to go back to simpler times when it was Pink Friday or when I could rap you her verses in Kanye West’s “Monster” on command (for realsies, try me).

Someone stop her from walking down the red carpet while locking arms with fake Popes before the Illuminati takes her away from us, citing unholy gigs or, you know, general blasphemy.

Nicki Minaj’s over-the-top performance at the Grammy Award left some puzzled — and others very deeply offended. The Catholic League issued a statement criticizing the Recording Academy for allowing Minaj to stage her show. But the 29-year-old rapper is not the first to borrow religious motifs for entertainment or art’s sake. From Marquis de Sade to Madonna, provocateurs have been fascinated by the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.

Perhaps, artists are intrigued by Catholic rituals because those rites are like per-

formances. As a low-church Episcopalian, I used to look at Catholic-style liturgy with indifference. Last summer, I reluctantly dragged myself to a high-church mass. I struggled through the four-part Latin harmonies and the incense that made me sneeze uncontrollably. I forgot most of that service, but I vividly recall the sermon, in which the priest compared himself to an actor and the Eucharist to a play.

Since then, I have learned to appreciate ritualism. It’s strange to imagine people regularly staging a play that existed

Bad children

Contact JORDI GASSO at jmgj11@gmail.com.

// BY MILA HURSEY

since the Middle Ages. We don’t go around speaking Shakespeare’s English, yet in some of New Haven’s churches, parishioners perform rituals passed down from the days of Sir Thomas More and Philip II. Catholic rituals are historical, yet they seem to transcend time; perhaps, that is their appeal — whether you’re a St. Mary’s regular or Nicki Minaj.

Contact BAOBAO ZHANG at baobao.zhang@yale.edu .

It follows naturally // BY AARON GERTLER

ardrops the music industry shouldn’t make you uncomfortable on some sort of normative level, the way you’d be if after getting stung by a bee or eating some bad fish or realizing that your Chinese character tattoo actually says “fish sticks.”

Don’t get me wrong, I listen to Bon Iver, too, but I’m pretty sure Justin Vernon is an actual artist and not like an existential concept or philosophical aura or intangible thought. I’m pretty sure he’s a real dude. And artists can’t afford to look a gift Grammy in the mouth.

So, Chris Brown is a giant douchey shitshow.

We all knew this (or did we forget?). Whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that some biddies on Twitter tweeted something like, “OMG Chris Brown is so hottttttt, I would totally let him beat me.” I think as a hopeful future parent of America, my first instinct would be: A) delete their Twitter. I wouldn’t want anyone else in the world to know that my child is a fucking idiot; B) make them send a handwritten note — written in blood, of course — to Rihanna, apologizing for being such an insensitive, immature idiot; C) (and I think my favorite one) go on a tour of a high-security prison, where people are in jail for life for beating people up with their bare hands.

I’d make my child stare into their cold, feelingless eyes and then have him do a boxing circuit with pictures of my fucking idiot child on the punching bag. The desired effect is hopefully a good and healthy fear/anger towards all offenders of violent crime. Also, Chris Brown. You are disgusting. I hope someone knocks your ass out.

Contact MILA HURSEY at mila.hursey@yale.edu .

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

READ THE WEEKEND BLOG

www.yaledailynews.com/weekend Check it out!

REACHING ZERO: GLOBAL ZERO STUDENT SUMMIT Linsly-Chittenden Hall // 9:00 a.m.

Read our Backstage with Valerie Plame Wilson and get excited!

“HIGH SEAS AND HIGH TEA” FAMILY EVENT

Yale Center for British Art // 10:30 a.m.

This sounds both delicious and educational.

Six Grammys for Adele?

Come on! That woman is a onetrick pony; she sings loudly and makes people cry. I did the same thing the first day of freshman year; one dropped octave into a butchered harmony and the tears were trickling down my high school director’s face. You know who else sings loudly? Florence Welch! A scarlet-haired goddess, who, like any good mythological figure, loves harps. You know who else loved harps? The Marx Brothers (especially Harpo, for some reason). They made blackand-white comedies. You know what comedy will likely win Best Picture this year? “The Artist.”

Black and white. Now, are you really telling me the Grammys made a better decision than the Oscars will?

And you know who else was thinking in black and white this year? Lil Wayne, who told us this year on “Six Foot Seven Foot” to

purchase “black and white diamonds — fuck segregation!” Do you support segregation, Adele fans? Wayne also informed us that he talks to himself “because [he is his] own consultant.” So why don’t we listen to the man who penned the year’s cleverest song and nominate an artist who works alone, instead of using 10 different producers like that Adele chick? Like James Blake, who went from dubstep to shivery singer-songwriting and made lots of people cry. Partly because the songs are sad, and partially because his dubstep was much better. So to honor Blake, let us reward the man who left punk rock behind to take up dubstep in the master’s place. Skrillex for Album of the Year! Or Florence or M83 or Radiohead or something.

Just not Adele.

SURREALISM IN POLISH CINEMA: A CONFERENCE, DAY 2 Luce Hall // 10:30 a.m.

One can never have enough Polish surrealism.

Contact AARON GERTLER at aaron.gertler@yale.edu .

“WHEN WE HAVE LIVED UNDER A PERNICIOUS POWER LONG ENOUGH, NO MATTER HOW OPPRESSIVE, WE GROW SO ACCUSTOMED TO THE YOKE THAT ITS REMOVAL SEEMS FRIGHTENING, EVEN WRONG.” GERRY L. SPENCE

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

UNNECESSARY EVIL // BY AVA KOFMAN

SLAVERY FROM PAGE B3 ible great things, before bringing up skeletons in one’s closet. But the point is the past is always full of surprises if you look.”

Universities, first and foremost, are supposed to stand up for the truth, Crosby said. But, as professor of Slavic languages and literature John MacKay GRD ’98 added, this is not always simple.

“If one is a critical intellectual, one has a duty, often a painful duty, to criticize the institutions in which one is doing intellectual work. It’s not an easy duty because it does require painful reflection.” *** Does the truth really have to go hand in hand with disgrace?

The UOC points the possibility of further transparency and education as being able to lead the effort.

“In our classes, we learn about the history of slavery and colonialism but only at a distance, as if these issues lie purely in the past,” members of the UOC wrote in the News in 2009. “Instead, we are part of a living institution that has played a major role in the oppression of peoples — this should be a tool used to bring this history closer to home. Yale’s suppression of this legacy furthers the wrongs done in the past. But we have an opportunity to redress these wrongs through open and honest dialogue.

Holloway has embraced Calhoun’s name as an occasion for more serious reflection on history and community, meeting with small groups of students over dinner to have the sort of productive, intimate and tricky conversations about slavery that the college’s namesake enables.

When the issue of an image in the Calhoun dining hall of two black women picking cotton was brought to him in 2006, Holloway decided to leave the pane there, making the college a positive model for acknowledging, rather than erasing, history.

When Dwight Hall leaders found out about Timothy Dwight’s slave-holding sympathies from the 2001 report, they considered changing the name of their organization. Although eventually they decided to keep the name for “ideological continuity … in the minds of Yale students and New Haven residents, who associate Dwight Hall with the ideals of public service and social justice,” they also put up a plaque explaining their choice and recognizing Dwight’s “pro-slavery thought and actions.”

But the University has put up no such plaques.

Instead, an obscured window depicting Elihu Yale, with an African slave in metal collar and chains kneeling before him, was quietly removed in 2007 from the table above the Yale Corporation Room in Woodbridge Hall. Few students ever go there. It is the semisecret room where Yale’s men write a history that is off the public record.

“It’s really hard to maintain a historical and institutional mem-

ory of wrongdoing, and that’s actually most important at times,” Herring said, adding that academics can sometimes distract students from focusing on these sorts of issues. *** “Lest we think we’ve always been this bastion of left-wing ideology, think twice,” Blight said.

Despite, and perhaps because of, slavery’s intra- and international consequences, better educating students about Yale’s own history could be used as a great jumping off point for starting a broader dialogue about this history at large.

In a discussion following the report, editorials in the News called for Yale to form a truth and reconciliation commission similar to the University-led standing committee at Brown. “Yale cannot acknowledge its complicity in prior wrongs until it figures out what exactly those wrongs were,” the News’ board wrote in 2006.

Using a place that people know and care about like Yale as a point of access can help to familiarize an issue that for some students today seems distant or even irrelevant, Blight said.

“I work on this every day,” Blight says. “The Gilder Lehrman Center exists to deal with slavery’s legacy all over America and the world — Yale’s own local legacy is one small part. The place where this might have important resonance is to inform Yale students to face the past.” *** Next year, the Gilder Lehrman Center will offer a “Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery Fellowship” for scholars to study historical and contemporary forced labor practices.

The history of slavery is also the history of the nation’s, and world’s, economy.

“There is and always has been in an advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capital.” Calhoun also said in his 1837 speech.

Yale has an economic identity that is not disconnected from larger economic forces of exploitation, MacKay said. The UOC, while working closely with the the labor unions and for financial aid reforms on campus, has helped to write this last chapter in Yale’s labor history.

Although Holloway agrees that the “abusive capitalist system is not far removed from the logic of the slavery system,” he warns that one must be careful not to trivialize or “diminish the true horror of slavery” while making comparisons.

The national debate, for now, has turned from reparation agendas to recession concerns.

“You can imagine how a decade out from now the University may revive this question about Yale’s past with slavery,” Blight said.

“The past is sometimes as unpredictable in its uses as the future is unpredictable by its definitions.”

Contact AVA KOFMAN at ava.kofman@yale.edu .

// ZOE GORMAN

S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 1 8

“GOOD GOODS”

Yale Repertory Theater // 2:00 p.m.

See it again!

“MOVING BODIES: A KINESTHETIC APPROACH” Yale University Art Gallery // 3:00 p.m.

Elena Light ’13 knows a lot about art.

“BRIGHT EVERYTHING: NEW MUSIC FOR JAZZ QUARTER AND CHAMBER ENSEMBLE”

Whitney Humanities Center // 5:00 p.m.

A senior project for Gabriel Zucker ’13.

“HUMAN SLAVERY IS WRONG, INSECURE, AND DEMORALIZING. ON MECHANICAL SLAVERY, ON THE SLAVERY OF THE MACHINE, THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD DEPENDS.” — OSCAR WILDE

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND FASHION

OFF-(LINCOLN) CENTER // BY MATTHEW CLAUDEL

// MATTHEW CLAUDEL

“Hello, I make it snow in warehouses, because I look that good.”

// MATTHEW CLAUDEL

Michael Bastian talks Mod, modishly.

Fashion Week descended upon New York City this week, hosted at the Lincoln Center for the fourth season running. The move out of Bryant Park in September 2010 was met with mixed opinions, and has unquestionably changed the character of the event. “It’s definitely different,” said Jacob Lopez, New York-based dancer, actor and model. “At Bryant Park, everyone was standing on the same cobblestones; it was more relaxed. Now [at the Lincoln Center] everything has become a huge production.”

Yet there are still a number of events that are hosted independently of the official Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week. Lesserknown labels, as well as top-name designers, choose to present their collections at other venues. Such designers include Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs.

“It’s less formal than the tent shows,” said Evin McMullen ’12, who attended several of this season’s non-Lincoln Center events, “and designers use their space more creatively. The models can be more than just clothes hangers, and show a bit of personality to add something to the collection.”

Among the presentations outside of the main tents is Gant by Michael Bastian. Titled “The Lucky Ones,” Bastian’s collection for Gant is independent of his eponymous label. Each season has a specific sports theme, and draws on a particular set of inspirations. Winter ’12 draws on Bastian’s college years and the mod revival that took place at that time, all set to a boxing theme. As always, Bastian maintains a strong connection to Yale and New Haven, through Gant.

Matthew Claudel sat down with Bastian on Wednesday evening to discuss the collection.

Q. The obligatory question about this collection. Tell me about it.

A. It’s inspired by my time at school — when I was YOU — but I was in Boston. At the time, there was this great music thing going on ([music] which is actually playing right now!) … there was a mod revival.

Q. In terms of fashion or music … ?

A. In terms of fashion AND music, and going to those clubs, and the whole nine yards. I’ve always kept this in my back pocket. I’ve been dying to do this collection that’s basically preppy but has this really heavy mod overlay to it.

Q. … and there’s a boxing theme.

A. Well, there’s always a sport. We always make sure that there’s a sport with Gant, and this season we just chose boxing.

Q. For any specific reason?

A. No, I wasn’t a boxer! People keep saying, “Oh, did you box?” but no, I was more on that side of the ring.

[Gestures into the distance.]

Q. Well, I wouldn’t be the one to pin that on you. Tell me about your relationship with Yale now.

A. The Gant store? Yeah! We’re very close to Yale, with the shirts that we do and the store in New Haven. Of all the colleges in the world, we’re probably most connected to Yale, at the moment.

Q. Do you have any plans to do anything further with Yale in the future?

A. Well, I always ask them, “When are you going to invite me out to Yale? When can I meet these students?” You know? So far they haven’t sent me … I don’t know why [laughs].

Q. You should come!

A. Of course. I would love to see the store, I’ve heard it’s in a great location.

Q. Anything else you’d like to say?

A. I’m an empty shell at the moment. After my own show on Monday and then this one … after this, I’ll get in my bed and won’t leave for about three days.

Contact MATTHEW CLAUDEL at matthew.claudel@yale.edu .

Q. A Mod revival?

A. Yeah, and I found myself in the middle of this mod revival that I kind of got into, hard-core for a little bit.

Matthew Claudel is a student liaison for Gant at Yale. Among other projects, Claudel has assisted with Gant photoshoots taking place at Yale.

// MATTHEW CLAUDEL

“Do you mean to say that you don’t also wear your tweed blazer when boxing??”

I’VE ALWAYS KEPT THIS IN MY BACK POCKET. I’VE BEEN DYING TO DO THIS COLLECTION THAT’S BASICALLY PREPPY BUT HAS THIS REALLY HEAVY MOD OVERLAY TO IT. S AT U R D AY F E B RUA RY 1 8

DUMPLING NIGHT AACC // 5:00 p.m.

$5 for an all-you-can-eat dumpling party!

YSO PRESENTS ROBINSON, HINDEMITH, AND LISZT Woolsey Hall // 8:00 p.m.

We’ll be there.

THE FIFTH HUMOUR PRESENTS … “BANANARCHY!” Saybrook Underbrook // 8:00 p.m.

Featuring former WEEKEND editor Austin Bernhardt ’12

“HATRED, SLAVERY’S INEVITABLE AFTERMATH.” JOSÉ MARTÍ

PAGE B10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

TRANSMISSIONS TO LIFE ON MARS Here are two nuggets about astronomy, kids: the universe hums a steady B-flat, and outer space reads binary. The former, I learned in sixth grade music class and wrote down on the “To Be Used As a Vague Yet Evocative Metaphor In Future Poetry” page in my journal. The latter, I suppose, was the assumption made when, in 1974, a binary sequence known as the Arecibo message was transmitted into space to celebrate the Arecibo radio telescope’s remodel. Radio waves shimmied up and out, and in about 25,000 years, the kind residents of globular star cluster M13 will get to learn all about human DNA and what our solar system looks like, if they bother to check their inbox.

Actually, by that time, M13 will have apparently moved a bit, and, well, Pluto’s already a bit passé.

So essentially — spoiler alert — this message is going to nobody. I know it is probably extremely difficult for you to imagine a radio broadcast that reaches no listeners (shout outs to all zillion loyal fans of my radio show!), but bear with me: the Arecibo message was transmitted with full knowledge that it would never be picked up.

The nation’s savvy technological muscles were flexed, and something that looks like Pong was sent irretrievably into the void.

Disregard for the listening capacities of an audience — Earth-dwelling or otherwise — is hardly a new sentiment in the creation of music. Like critical literary theory or pure mathematics, a good deal of what has been produced outside the stream of popular music in the last half-century or so is as much a study in form or concept as it is an appeal to a listenership.

NINA WEXELBLATT PLAYING OFF THE BEAT In light of Valentine’s Day, it admittedly seems a bit unromantic to question the sacred connection between musicians and their audiences. But sometimes it’s important to remember that just like the happy hordes of us who spent this past Tuesday in pajamas repeatedly taking “one last” chocolate while reading every McSweeney’s list ever published, some music simply isn’t actively involved in making a connection.

What immediately springs to mind here is my longtime violin teacher. A fiery little woman with a fixation on posture and technique, she lamented the state of contemporary atonal symphonic music after hearing my high school orchestra’s premiere of an expensively commissioned composition that explored the sophisticated and culturally resonant “concept” of a dentist’s office.

“Contemptuous of its audience!” she cried.

So exactly how many drills in the percussion section is too many? That is, when is it okay for musicians to abandon their audiences for their own purposes?

Setting aside free jazz, experimental noise music, and Skrillex (yeah, sorry Sonny Moore fans, dude’s gotta be trolling everyone), a lot of perfectly listenable pop music is deeply self-involved.

In possibly unintentional Arecibo fashion, the ease with which music can proliferate thanks to the Internet has at times turned the idea of “release” into essentially a publicly accessible flash drive. For example, ignoring the fact that there probably is little

// NASA

The abyss is beautiful but stupid.

that is rational about the trending topic rapper Lil B, the guy couldn’t reasonably expect people to listen in earnest to his “Free Music: The MySpace Collection” of 676 tracks. Sending a wave of 676 songs into cyberspace is itself the artistic act, and it is still possible to be a crazed Lil B fan without going through each and every one.

There is something deeply solipsistic about releasing music with this in mind, but at the same time, making music for nobody in particular can also be poignantly unegotistical. Countless musical acts with no fan base to speak of find their way to SoundCloud or BandCamp and cross their fingers that someone will click a lucky link (after all, the Internet thing worked for Diddy darling Cassie).

But if we make the assumption that artistic production is a form of communication, then perhaps communicating with the abyss is generally, to borrow from Jenny Holzer, beautiful but stupid.

That said, as listeners, we have the opportunity to prove that there truly are residents living in star cluster M13. As artists reach out into the dark, they do it for their own gratification as much as that of their audience.

In this earnest form, an incredible amount of music is floating out there, and maybe has been for a long time, perhaps not expected or even intended to be heard. But it is, nevertheless, available for the most curious among us to aim our receivers in its direction.

Contact NINA WEXELBLATT at nina.wexelblatt@yale.edu .

My totally scrupular and feminist cartilage Let us begin with a few propositions: Mr. Gassó, Teenage Boy Wonder and adequate tennis player, once lacked the time to worry about women’s rights. He had few scruples.

My 18-year-old self had no sense of tact.

Pre-college Jordi would have laughed at (or worse, laughed WITH) the disreputable Delta Kappa Epsilon pledge chanting.

High-school Me was a twerp.

All tautologies! But what a difference three years can make.

Well, somewhat. I’ve certainly become more acquainted with the extent of my occasional crassness and the confines of American political correctness, and how much they can overlap. This awareness has led to some subtle changes in my general thinking and gut reactions. Instead of giggling at a rape joke, I’ll now just sit there with a gloomy lump of awkwardness knotting in my throat; I’ve grown more and more interested in headlines about birth control regulation. Yet despite my “scrupular” upgrade, I still don’t fully grasp the societal standards expected by the more informed and assertive members of the Yale intelligentsia.

I didn’t pursue higher education in the U.S. to bear a “Yale Feminist” t-shirt — sorry but I’m not sorry. It was never my intention to come into contact with feminism; I merely overlooked that it was even a possibility. I don’t suppose the majority of people want to understand where I’m coming from. Diff’rent strokes for different folks! For the five readers who do want to understand, then it’s a little lame to hide behind simplistic platitudes.

The life lessons began on the pages of this newspaper. As a reporter for the News, I was assigned to the student affairs beat, a task that I undertook

JORDI GASSÓ INTERMISSION begrudgingly at first. A week after receiving my new responsibilities, controversy ensued. We all know the story, I hope. The DKE incident, outrage, an inflammatory editorial, more outrage, media circus, panels, committees, reports, sanctions. Fastforward to a few months later and the Title IX hullabaloo explodes on the collective lap of our campus.

My particular year of reporting can be summed up with the catch-all euphemism and winner of THE Yale Word for 2011: sexual misconduct. I beg your pardon, sexual what? I had never heard of such a thing! In Latin America, sexism and sexual violence in all their variants are so rampant, yet so unspoken that they appear seamlessly weaved into our cultural fabric. Context could never justify these problems, but it can explain the apathy I’ve shown toward women’s issues for most of my existence.

Back at the YDN, in the midst of sleepless nights and fetal positions to the sounds of Mates of State, I faced a wave of realizations about sensitivity. Part of it was tough and even felt a little indoctrinating, especially when sources treated you like a student writing a term paper rather than an amateur journalist doing his job. Decisions by some of my editors burdened this path with nasty bumps, doing nothing but injuring our newspaper’s rapport with the student body. At times I found myself trying to mend burned bridges.

When you’re a reporter of the students for the students, specifically when dealing with a contentious subject, it’s very tricky to avoid growing attached to your story or to the views of one of

your sources. While Newsie Jordi remained the objective eye in the midst of the media tornado, Student Jordi grew what I dub a tiny “feminist cartilage,” somewhere along my left tibia I assume. Not a bone, not an organ nor an alternate conscience, but a wisp of improvement in all of its gelatinous glory.

I might get a noogie from my closest editor for saying this, but because I’m no longer a beat reporter, I can freely tell you that the DKE chants were blatantly misogynistic. Also, I still owe a high-five to each of the Title IX complainants. That’s my feminist cartilage talking; two cheers for that watershed! Of course, these revelations are a far cry from the Mr Gassó who used to pay no mind feminist fancies, and I chalk it all up to my time as a reporter.

My constant coverage of matters of sexual misconduct at Yale earned me verbal accolades as well as a fair share of criticism. As such, I still have residual reservations regarding my contribution to our campus climate, so I’m not quite ready to claim some kind of expertise on the subject, or even attend an event at the Women’s Center just yet. Note: I’m good friends with some the Center’s members and I’m all for chocolate fondue, but sometimes I still worry there’s a dartboard hidden somewhere inside with my face as a target.

Now during my time off back home, this renewed part of me twinges a wee bit when I read about another victim of domestic violence, or when my driver catcalls every other chica walking down the street. The cartilage’s glaring presence lets me know there’s plenty of room for growth.

Given my upbringing, that’s sizable progress. Baby steps, baby steps.

Contact JORDI GASSÓ at jmgj11@gmail.com .

Let your hair down, play footsie “Dang, girl, you look just like a banana.”

My friend Gaby was at a bar when an older man approached her and used this as a pickup line. While the line didn’t work — she in no way looked like a banana, nor understood how this would be flattering — I’m going to give this guy some props. It’s challenging to strike up a conversation with someone you’re interested in because it’s so easy to sound sketchy.

Surroundings are key.

A pickup line’s creepiness, for example, is inversely proportional to the lighting of your location. Going up to a random girl and asking, “Hey, do you want to get out of here?” in a park during the day is way creepier than asking in a poorly lit bar. Yet even in Yale’s poorly lit places, we tend to be skeptical of people who visibly hit on us, and more often than not, we’re too scared to visibly hit on people. We shoot people down constantly.

Once this guy was hitting on me at Box, and I already didn’t like him because he insulted the Phillies and earnestly wore his hat sideways.

He drunkenly lost his balance, falling on my friend and spilling beer on my body. I didn’t give him a second chance, and maybe I should have.

Another guy once approached my friend and “politely” asked her, “Do you care to dance?” and then pointed to his crotch. Poor kid didn’t get a second chance either. Sometimes, however, we give guys points for creativity.

One guy asked my friend, after she had insulted his strange leather pants, “Do you want to see what’s underneath?”

And she did.

Initiating is always challenging, especially at Yale. This is why blackout bros grind up on girls, and girls let themselves be grinded up on. How else to initiate contact? A conversation?

Nah, man. Nah. Sometimes we recycle contacts from our phonebooks. Technology fuels both our chronic shyness and laziness.

We don’t have to look at a face, or deal with a face rejecting us, when the conversation is on a phone or a Facebook chat. But, technology is actually the worst. We are doomed to relearn this over and over again, as we continue to text regrettable things to regrettable people at late hours. Give me two drinks minimum and I’ll do everything in my power to text a boy something I’ll regret. It’s this weird instinct that kicks in with alcohol, like the urge

S U N D AY

HARKNESS TOWER SUNDAY TOURS Harkness Tower // All Day

Claire’s Corner Copia // All Day

Dwight Hall Chapel // 5:00 p.m.

F E B RUA RY 1 9

You know you’ve always wanted to go up there.

In case you missed it the other two days.

Pray you don’t fail that stats midterm.

SIPS FOR SMILES

ECY SUNDAY SERVICE

MARIA YAGODA MARIA DOES YALE to gyrate or eat nachos. It can’t be stopped. Your friends might try to stop you, but you’ll say, “No, no I’m just checking Nicki’s twitter,” and the second they turn their backs you text your ex-boyfriend a winky face. Or worse.

This past New Year’s Eve I texted every guy in my phone book who I felt had wronged me “Fuck you” and a personalized insult. It’s not a good look.

We should all take more risks with people in the flesh. Despite what guys think, girls really want to be approached. Girls also wish it was easier to approach guys without coming across as desperate or too forward.

My friend once told a guy in a bar she thought was cute, “I like your face.”

It didn’t work. There’s a delicate balance to be struck between the forward, I-like-your-face-approach and my general approach, which is to lurk in the corner, play “Fruit Ninja” on my phone, and avoid making eye contact with people. My friends who are successful flirters, however, adhere to the holy trinity of flirting: the hair flip, the giggle, and the casual arm graze, which 60 percent of the time works every time. (Good flirters also have body language that doesn’t suggest they’d rather be home eating).

If you struggle with flirting and humans make you uncomfortable, another good way to initiate contact is to write an article insisting that Yale men are bad at sex. Guys will approach you who want to prove you wrong, insisting “you’ve been having bed sex because you haven’t had sex with me.”

People will also call you a huge whore and/or virgin, so it’s really a mixed bag.

At the end of the day, confidence is the most important component of successful initiation. Confidence not only significantly improves a person’s attractiveness, even more so than symmetrical features, a proportional body, good hair, and the intoxication level of others in the nearby vicinity, but it also makes what one says sound funnier, smarter, and generally more charming, similar to British accents. I propose we all carry on as though we have British accents, and take more risks. Things might just work out.

Contact MARIA YAGODA at maria.yagoda@yale.edu .

“AMERICANS ARE SO ENAMORED OF EQUALITY THAT THEY WOULD RATHER BE EQUAL IN SLAVERY THAN UNEQUAL IN FREEDOM … THE SUBJECTION OF INDIVIDUALS WILL INCREASE AMONGST DEMOCRATIC NATIONS, NOT ONLY IN THE SAME PROPORTION AS THEIR EQUALITY, BUT IN THE SAME PROPORTION AS THEIR IGNORANCE.” ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B11

WEEKEND THEATER

‘Dracula’ brings the absurd to the Yale Cabaret // BY SIJIA SONG

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is perhaps the most iconic vampire story ever written. It features a small band of friends who bravely hunt down and defeat Dracula in order to save their loved ones from the curse of vampirism. It is lush and dramatic, with noble protagonists, a depraved villain and a clear and thrilling plot.

This isn’t Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

Dim red stage lights and candlelit tables turn the Yale Cabaret into a smoky barroom for the play “Dracula,” written by Mac Wellman and directed by Jack Tamburri DRA ’13. The hazy, bizarre and slightly seedy impression given by the lighting is more than fitting, because Wellman’s “Dracula” speeds past descriptions such as “strange” and “baffling” without a second glance, ending up somewhere on the border between “disturbing” and “incomprehensible.”

The performance starts out with some semblance of normalcy.

Childhood friends Mina Harker (Hannah Sorenson DRA ’13) and Lucy Westenra (Marissa Neitling DRA ’13) wax poetic about the night, while commiserating over the fate of Mina’s husband Jonathan Harker (DRA ’12). But immediately afterwards the play turns towards the surreal. In a flashback, it is revealed that Jonathan, the intrepid hero of the original novel, is first to fall under Dracula’s (Inka Guðjónsdóttir DRA ’12) influence in this adaptation. Jonathan becomes insane, and for most of the play his role is limited to mad monologues in an asylum cell.

Monologues are central to “Dracula,” because it is in this mode that most of the plot unfolds. Much of the performance occurs through narrative recounting, and only towards the end does action take place. The characters speak about these remembered events and philosophize on bizarre and unconnected subjects. One lovingly describes the process of eating a blowfly, and his manservant sings of “Mad Sally, humping on a grave,” finishing with “Bonka bonka bonka bonk.” These moments make as little sense in context as they do out of it, and after a while the viewer might begin to question whether

Jonathan Harker is the only one who is mad.

The actors perform madness with admirable vigor. In “Dracula,” there are no subtle glances or pregnant silences. Instead, the actors launch directly into gibbering, blubbering, insane laughter and inhuman screeches, and ensure that every snarl is just as horrifying and disorienting as the next. Neitling’s performance of Lucy in particular is an interesting mix of coy girlishness and eventual murderous intent, while Jonathan slobbers and chases his spiders with disquieting enthusiasm, and the vampirettes (Sarah Krasnow DRA ’14 and Alex Trow DRA ’12) change between raunchy burlesque singers and hissing, babyeating monsters.

In a strange and possibly deliberate twist, Count Dracula is the only character who does not seem absurd. In a play where the heroine snuggles in the lap of a large black dog, and where a pivotal, dramatic hospital scene takes place concurrently with a couple loudly having sex in a corner, Dracula comes as a breath of sanity. He is cold and grave and occasionally darkly humorous, and together with Lucy he shares some of the most interesting double entendres in the show. Dracula is likely to be a target for audience empathy, if only because everyone else is too alien.

“Dracula” is a well-acted and well-staged show that is defined, for better or worse, by its script. Is it a confused jumble of sound and fury? Is it a profound work of art too great to understand? Or is it an intentionally confused jumble posing as profound to trip up those who insist on digging for deep and significant meanings in everything? The viewer’s taste for postmodernism is likely to determine his answer to that question, as well as his enjoyment of the show. For one unfamiliar with postmodernism, “Dracula” might serve as an introduction to the genre.

Or, in the dying words of Lucy Westenra, “Bonka bonka bonka bonk.”

THE VAMPIRETTES (SARAH KRASNOW DRA ’14 AND ALEX TROW DRA ’12) CHANGE BETWEEN RAUNCHY BURLESQUE SINGERS AND HISSING, BABYEATING MONSTERS.

Contact SIJIA SONG at sijia.song@yale.edu .

// REID THOMPSON

Dracula at the Yale Cabaret.

The ‘Folly’ of love // BY YANAN WANG

“Whatever time there is in a life is a lifetime.” So declares Matt Friedman (played by Keith Rubin ’12), one of only two characters in “Talley’s Folly,” as he proceeds to explain that the span of a worker bee’s life is a mere 29 days and nights — all spent in continuous labour. But the bees are just distractions, like the dialogue about economics and politics later on. Matt seems to realize this, as he interrupts himself on several occasions to announce in his clipped German accent, “If everything goes well tonight, zis should be a waltz.”

“Talley’s Folly” is about neither bees nor economics: rather, it is the dance between two people stricken by love.

The play begins with Matt stepping onto the wooden platform of an abandoned boathouse. He directly addresses the audience and

S U N D AY F E B RUA RY 1 9

presents them with an itinerary of the evening’s events.

The play, he says, will last exactly 97 minutes, what he hopes will be a sufficient amount of time in which to relay his complicated story.

Hit by the thought that it might not be, Matt repeats his lines at twice his original speed. The performance is comical as a whole. Dressed in a suit and tie, Matt appears to fit perfectly the archetype of the bumbling intellectual with little romantic experience. But laced within his exaggerated acting is a more serious undertone: there is an edge in Matt’s voice that suggests the play might not be the classic cat-and-mouse chase its spectators expect it to be.

The real action begins when Sally Talley (Sarah Delappe ’12) emerges onstage. Audacious, witty

and rebellious, Sally struggles under the repressive hold of her ultraconservative Protestant household. She seeks refuge at the folly — a boathouse that was designed

by Sally’s Uncle Whistler, whom Sally admires for his reputation for sidestepping the family’s rigid principles.

The folly is also where Sally and Matt met last summer, a bygone affair that culminated with Matt, a man 10 years Sally’s elder, realizing that she is the only “girl who sees the world in the same way” as he does. They have not seen each other since the end of this romance and the play takes place on the day of their reunion. For reasons unknown, Sally is adamant about refusing Matt’s attempts at a marriage proposal. But even as she insists that he leave her alone, Sally watches Matt intently and

JULIAN REID JAZZ TRIO

Morse Dining Hall. // 5:00 p.m.

Yet another reason why Morse dining hall is the best.

“TALLEY’S FOLLY” IS ABOUT NEITHER BEES NOR ECONOMICS: RATHER, IT IS THE DANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE STRICKEN BY LOVE. laughs at his jokes, teasing him with every tilt of her floral dress.

“You can chase me away or wear a pretty dress,” Matt says. “But you can’t wear a pretty dress to chase me away!”

Sally and Matt make a dynamic pair. While Sally remains graceful and alluring for the entirety of the performance, Matt is perpetually at the cusp of being too pedantic or too jovial. He is an erratic character whose impulsiveness seems incon-

YALE PERCUSSION GROUP

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Morse Recital Hall // 8:00 p.m.

A great follow-up to Julian’s group.

gruous with Sally’s sensibility. At times, his speeches feel meandering, and his accent becomes no longer quite so endearing. But just as the production seems to sink into the tedium of a couple’s spat, revelations about Sally and Matt’s parallel pasts infuse the plot with intensity and mystery.

At one point, Sally compares people to eggs — fragile beings that are hesitant to grow close to one another for fear of cracking. But to this Matt asks, “What good is an

Your room // All night

Yeah …

egg? It ought to be hatched and broken and made into other things. Then you’re cooking.” The final scenes center around this “cooking,” with Matt and Sally daring each other to reveal the secrets of their respective pasts. Once all is exposed, the atmosphere becomes cathartic: Matt and Sally are now free to pursue a future together, and the lights dim as they share a kiss. Though this ending may be too predictable for some audience members’ tastes, Rubin and Delappe maneuver skillfully around the sparse set, making the most of a one-act, two-person play.

“Talley’s Folly” will be showing at the Whitney Theater this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

“SLAVERY IS THEFT — THEFT OF A LIFE, THEFT OF WORK, THEFT OF ANY PROPERTY OR PRODUCE, THEFT EVEN OF THE CHILDREN A SLAVE MIGHT HAVE BORNE.” KEVIN BALES

PAGE B12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

// BRANDON TAUSZIK & MAX WHITTAKER

VALERIE

PLAME WILSON Ex-spy, activist, global player // BY AKBAR AHMED

S

he spent years lying to everyone but her family about her job, she publicly shamed the Bush administration, she moved to Santa Fe because she was receiving too many threats at her home in DC — Valerie Plame Wilson has led a complicated life, but she’s not done fighting yet. The ex-spy who infamously had her cover blown, allegedly as political revenge for an antiIraq-war article by her diplomat husband, has a new mission. She is now working with Global Zero, an international initiative that pushes for “a world without nuclear weapons.” This weekend, Global Zero is hosting a large-scale conference on our campus and, on Sunday, Plame Wilson will speak to conference attendees about her career and her passion for the movement. WEEKEND sat down with the ex-agent to discuss her CIA experiences, why we need to realize just how scary the nuclear threat is and the role of the US government moving forward.

Q. Why is Global Zero important to you?

A. In my other life, as a covert CIA operations officer, I developed expertise on nuclear counter-proliferation, which means making sure rogue states and terrorists can’t get ahold of nuclear materials. I resigned from the CIA back in 2007. Soon after, I was approached by the producers of a documentary called “Countdown to Zero” to appear in their film.

That’s when I first became aware about the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. It’s fabulous that Global Zero is independent, nonpartisan and international. Our bench is also quite deep — it includes generals, diplomats, former presidents and prime ministers and students, all of whom really do have a vision.

Q. What lessons have you brought from your CIA work to Global Zero?

A. My career made me realize how close we really are to a nuclear accident or miscalculation. My job with the CIA was to delay or deter [these situations] or, in any other way, try to provide more space and time for political and diplomatic processes to work towards nuclear arsenal control.

That influenced my thinking. I

believe we really have to drain the swamp. The Cold War is over and we no longer need these enormous arsenals that sap so much in terms of resources and money, [that could go to] programs that make positive changes. It seems like, after the Cold War, we breathed a worldwide sigh of relief and then saw no further forward motion on arms control and reduction.

President Obama is really committed to the cause, though, as shown by his 2009 pledge in Prague to continue to pursue reductions, and the new START treaty Congress approved last year. We are making progress.

Q. So, what can students do to help ‘drain that swamp’?

A. There are so many ways. It’s important to keep in mind that individuals do matter and can make change. Global Zero is very democratic in its approach — we don’t believe that it’s just a few elites that should be responsible for the existential removal of nuclear arms. It’ll take a highly orchestrated process to get from where we are today to where we need to be: a point where nuclear weapons are just considered taboo like chemical and biological weapons are.

Please attend the conference or go to our very cool website — it can show you, for instance, how much any city or state could save from nuclear weapons being cut over the next decade.

I hope that students will walk out knowing that they can make a difference. The whole issue is so intimidating — for decades, arms control negotiations have been in the hands of very precious, well, men, for the most part.

You can start a chapter of Global Zero at your school, dedicate yourself to issue and learn everything from what we’re doing already to how to understanding the real cost of nuclear weapons.

The lineup [at Reaching Zero] is incredible — it’s people that think a lot about this issue all the time.

leak, if you will, from the White House, about considering huge reductions in the nuclear arsenal. That’s jaw-dropping news.

The Pentagon is currently doing a review, and Global Zero would argue, “Do we really need this massive overkill arsenal from the Cold War world?”

Of course, there will be critics. Everything unfortunately becomes highly politicized — Republicans are screaming that Democrats are soft on national security. But it’s not like the more weapons you have, the safer you are. In fact, the more weapons we have, the more likely it is that this technology will sold to or stolen by terrorist groups.

We simply do not need the massive arsenal that we have.

What are these weapons for?

Who are they targeting? Why do we have hundreds targeted at single cities like Moscow? Are nuclear weapons really ‘better’ than conventional weapons?

Q. What are the nondomestic factors that come into play?

A. The whole issue of Iran — the thought of Israel or Iran reacting in ways that destabilize the entire region and imperil millions and millions of people. Or you have a nearly failed state such as Pakistan that’s imploding before our eyes, but has quite a significant arsenal, as we know. The Cold War doctrine is not applicable any more.

Q. Do you see a move towards a nuclear-free world in today’s political developments? Is that a feasible goal?

Q. With countries like Iran and Pakistan, one key reason they want nuclear weapons is to assert themselves and prove that they can be in the elite nuclear club. How do you change the perception that an arsenal is a matter of confidence, particularly for borderline states?

A. I do actually believe that we have a window of opportunity right now. President Obama and President Medvedev of Russia are both pulling in the same direction, and where there’s political will, things begin to happen.

We did see progress with the new START treaty, and we got amazing news on Valentine’s Day — a

A. When Pakistan got the bomb, it definitely had that prestige. Dr A.Q. Khan [the scientist behind Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal] is considered a national hero. It’s a no-win argument to say that only Christian countries should be allowed to have an arsenal.

Try saying that to an Iranian or a Pakistani — it’s not sensible. The

only alternative is to move forward as an international community and enforce strong controls on highly-enriched uranium and other gadgets you need for a nuclear weapon. Also, we need diplomatic initiatives. Let’s say you could wave a magic wand and the whole issue of Kashmir would be solved. I would think that nuclear weapons would no longer be attractive to countries like India or Pakistan. That’s how you can ratchet the situation down.

And we can bring international pressure to bear on those outside the international norms.

Q. And how do you tell rising global players, like India and Brazil, to not prioritize big arsenals, as their influence and economies grow?

A. We had an amazing summit last year in London, that included everyone from all the interested nations and various walks of life: diplomats, the military, students and political leaders. It’s not Global Zero’s role to tell people what to do, but rather how to organize and set up pressures so that the political process works.

It has to be about political will, but who does political will listen to? The people. When they no longer feel safe, because of the out-of-control nuclear race that we’re in now, maybe cooler heads will prevail. They did in South Africa.

But you’re absolutely right — right now, there’s still a certain amount of fairy dust around the notion that we must be a nuclear state. The fact that the U.S. and Russia are [cutting their arsenals] is great. As an American citizen, I’m proud that my nation has stepped out ahead and done what isn’t popular, the way we did with slavery and the Marshall Plan.

Q. Do you think the American public is behind that move to reduce the nation’s nuclear arsenal?

A. There’s not that much news out about it, but it is a variable, particularly in an election year.

Obama is charting his path, of course, with an eye on November, but he’s committed to keep-

ing his word and making strategic steps towards honest reduction in nuclear weapons. The American people are completely besieged and very much concerned about the economy, their jobs, their rent, but when you put all those concerns into the context of where all our money is going, you just see the huge, bloated arms budget.

Q. What developments would you most like to see in the coming years, with regards to nuclear arsenal reduction?

A. Starting with this news on Tuesday, I would like to see significant reduction in our arms arsenal. Russia would follow suit.

The next big players, China and India, would do so too, and then we’d need to come to some sort of peaceful solution with Iran.

I don’t know what that would be, but, for this country, waging three wars in one decade would be catastrophic.

Q. Well, speaking about this country: a lot of people on this campus want to grow up and have jobs that serve the nation, but your case showed that the noblest of intentions can backfire, and badly.

What do you have to say to those kids, based on your experiences working with the CIA? A. Despite a very painful experience with the leak of my identity, which really was about politics, my husband [retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson] and I encourage all young people we speak to to consider public service. It really is noble to serve a cause greater than yourself, and I hope as many students as possible stop

by Reaching Zero and come to understand that.

Valerie Plame Wilson will be addressing this weekend’s Global Zero student summit at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19 in Linsly-Chittenden Hall. The event is open to the public.

Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .