WKND Full Issue by Yale Daily News

WEEKEND In Me

// FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012

Does Yale

d i a suppo s Re s rt the m

edia o f the f uture BY YA ? NAN W A NG

SEX

JAZZ

WINTER

OPPOSING VIEWS

A SLOW START

FINDING YOUR HAPPY PLACE

Cody Kahoe, Caleb Madison and Lauren Rosenthal respond to Maria Yagoda’s column, “Just say no (to awful sex).”

Akbar Ahmed profiles Yale’s jazz scene — and finds room for growth.

WEEKEND solicits remedies for Seasonal Affective Disorder.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND VIEWS

KAHOE & MADISON

YALE MEN ARE GETTING BETTER AT SEX, YOU’RE WELCOME // CODY KAHOE AND CALEB MADISON

To the perpetually unsatisfied straight single women of Yale: on behalf of all the NiceLooking, Not-Evil and Socially Adjusted Straight Single Males (NLNESASSM) of Yale, we sincerely apologize for our past sexual ineptitudes. After reading last weekend’s column in the YDN, we have come to realize that we can no longer coast through coitus with the vain, aimless thrustings of yore. Message received. Too long have our phallic forests rejoiced in surfeit precipitation, while the vaginal tundra remains cold and barren! Too long has feminine desire outlasted the fleeting passions of the weaker sex! Too long has machine been forced to fulfill the endeavor once entrusted to man! Perpetually Unsatisfied Straight Single Women of Yale (PUSSWOY), we hear your plea, and we are ready to respond. To mitigate these woes, we would like to announce the inception of the Yale Men’s Sex Team. We believe that, through hard work, practice and dedication, we can restore the female orgasm to its former seat of glory. Although we are not yet recognized as an official undergraduate organization, and our NCAA membership is pending, this team will allow us to hone our skills for when we meet you (PUSSWOY) in the arena of copulation. We’re ready to rectify our shortcomings before your discerning eye. We know it won’t be easy. We’ve already begun practicing on household objects like athletic socks and fruit preserves, and, once undergraduate funding comes through, we’ll be able to upgrade our training equipment to Bulldog-blue Vaseline and official Yale Fleshlights.

ROSENTHAL

// DAVID YU

Practice will be held weekly in WLH 114, and will consist not only of intimate coaching sessions with seasoned members of long-term relationships, but also a complete overhaul of our traditional playbook. This will be supplemented with biweekly screenings of game film at Whitney Humanities Center (a tentative lineup includes “Brown Bunny,” “Wild Things” and “Basic Instinct”). We’ve even brought onto campus some talented prospects from nearby colleges to enhance the quality of our current roster. Sex Team apparel will be on sale at both Campus Customs and the Yale Bookstore, including bobbleheads, foam hands and customized jerseys. Additionally, the Sex Team will host our first annual Whack-A-Thon, in which sponsors can choose to pledge a dollar for each minute lasted. This will both raise money for the team and increase our stamina. As you can see, PUSSWOY, we are more than ready to rise to the challenge you so clearly, and rightly, elucidated last week. Your pleasure has become our prerogative, and we hope that this initiative will lead to a more harmonious and satisfying intimacy between the sexes. That said, above all else, we need playing time to apply in the bedroom what we’ve trained for so hard in the weight room. Challengers are highly encouraged to contact either of us to arrange a time and place for the event. Our game schedule remains literally wide open. Contact CODY KAHOE and CALEB MADISON at f.kahoe@yale.edu and caleb. madison@yale.edu .

Just say yes (to yourself) // LAUREN ROSENTHAL

Last Friday, Maria Yagoda argued in these pages that there is a “scarcity of nice-looking, not-evil and socially adjusted straight single males (NLNESASSM)” at Yale. According to Yagoda, the overwhelming majority of these acronymic Romeos are really, really, really bad in bed. Yagoda claimed that she was speaking on behalf of legions of straight women, whose sexual encounters with Yale men left them unsatisfied and reaching for a sandwich instead of an ablebodied partner. My friends and I read and hotly debated Maria’s article. As a straight Yale woman not aspiring to nunhood, I could identify with some of what I read, but mostly disagreed. Straight women are every bit as accountable for the quality of their sexual experiences as their male partners. I excelled at keeping my words to myself until I read Jezebel’s Jan. 25 interview with Yagoda. “Literally every woman at Yale is obsessed with it/finds it true,” Yagoda told a reporter by email. “I’ve gotten a huge amount of random, positive responses.” I’m glad we’ve been reading and talking about this piece. But I think it’s time to address the glaring flaws in Yagoda’s argument

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— and in the way straight women might conceive of sex and pleasure at Yale. Let’s start with some basic arithmetic: Most sex requires at least two partners (I’ll get to this in a minute). All partners taking part in the sex should take responsibility for its quality, for their partner’s pleasure, and for their own pleasure. This isn’t lost on Yagoda — but she still writes that a Yale woman’s most grievous offense is “seeking and continuing to have unsatisfying sexual relations with NLNESASSM.” Withholding sex from an unskilled sex partner is not going to help that person become any less inept (or, as it sometimes happens, bizarre) in bed. Most young people measure their sexual experience in terms of the number of sex partners they’ve had — not the quality of the sex they’ve had, the pleasure they’ve given or received. You might have seen this coming, but I’m a feminist. So is Yagoda. I think that she, and I, and all of our sandwich-loving female friends, should feel free to have sex in any kind of relationship we choose. I think we would all agree that having sex more often helps us get used to it and figure out what we like and what our partners

like. But I strongly believe that the only way to get better at sex is to have it with a communicative and open partner with whom you feel comfortable, and I believe that the best, most open, most honest partner is the one in the mirror. It’s you, dummy. Yagoda hit on something big when she discouraged Yale women from faking orgasms, and pointed out that women are scared to ask for what they want “if they even know what they want, which would help if they had a vibrator.” How many straight women CAN articulate just what it is they want from their male partners? If you don’t masturbate, you’re less likely — if not totally unable — to give good directions to your sexual partner. It’s awfully hard to speak up when you don’t know what to say. There are a lot of reasons why we fake — we’re tired, we’re sore, we’re sorely tired of sex, or of sex with that particular partner. I know women who have never had an orgasm and want to have their first with a partner. I know women who are afraid to masturbate, for fear they’ll grow so dependent and accustomed to self-pleasure that they won’t be able to get off in the company of anyone else.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE CUSHING CENTER

Sterling Hall of Medicine // 10 a.m. See some brainz.

Part of this fear results from living in a culture that presents orgasm — particularly, the male orgasm — as the pinnacle and primary target of all sexual encounters. Male orgasm is often taken for granted. If I were presenting this piece in a lecture hall, this is where I would show you a compilation of every premature-ejaculation and jackoff scene in every teen movie since the dawn of time and/or the first “American Pie.” Long before most men have their first sexual experience with a partner, they have logged enough solo flight time to pilot a 757. I’ve only recently realized how few women at Yale masturbate in comparison with their male peers. They’re not uptight: it might be because they don’t know how, or it never occurred to them because it wasn’t expected of them. Again, think of “American Pie.” Alyson Hannigan’s schtick wasn’t shocking in the context of that film just because her weapon of choice was a flute. It was shocking because a young woman is not expected to feel and act upon sexual desire. Even since the ’90s, we’ve come a long way. Twenty-first century America is a beautiful place to live. Men can identify as femi-

CONVERSION TO ISLAM RECONSIDERED: MULTIGENERATIONAL RELIGIOUS DRIFT IN RURAL FRENCH SUDAN Institution for Social and Policy Studies B012 // 11 a.m.

The name says it all.

IF WE’RE AFRAID TO PURSUE OUR OWN PLEASURE, WE’RE TREATING OURSELVES LIKE SHIT. WE’RE TREATING OURSELVES LIKE SHIT WHEN WE WAIT FOR OUR MALE PARTNERS TO DO THE MATH. nists, feminists can watch/like/ make porn, and staying home from work to raise children is once again a valid choice for women. Sexual identity and freedom of sexual choice are less restricted now than they were for our parents and grandparents. In this free and open atmosphere, Yagoda and I can write articles that mention the word “orgasm” a million times without fear of perpetual unemployment (oh my God I hope), and I can call Yagoda’s column unfair, unfunny, and unempowering without fear of getting stabbed by any one of her hundreds of rabid female admirers. Yagoda herself told Jezebel that if she had another shot at her column, she would prioritize open communication over calling out men for crappy sexual performance. “But then again, I think it’s

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY: LESSONS FROM THE DISCOVERY INITIATIVE WLH 116 // 11:30 a.m.

Is the Discovery Initiative like the Discovery Channel? Or the Daft Punk album? Probably neither.

important to take jabs at guys, considering it NEVER happens,” she added, going on to say that her female friends universally complain that “the men usually treat them all like shit.” I agree that women deserve better. But if we’re afraid to pursue our own pleasure, we’re treating ourselves like shit. We’re treating ourselves like shit when we wait for our male partners to do the math and figure out that pinching and ear play and weird tongue stuff is usually repulsive, or when we wait to find a male partner who doesn’t do any of those things and is a sexual genie. We might be waiting a long time — and woman cannot live on sandwiches alone. Contact LAUREN ROSENTHAL at lauren.rosenthal@yale.edu .

“MEDIA STUDY DOES NOT REPLACE TEXT. IT BROADENS AND DEEPENS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF TEXTS.” — PHILLIP M. ANDERSON

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE // BY YANAN WANG

ailed as a bastion of the liberal arts, Yale prides itself as a school where you can learn virtually anything within the realm of your imagination. Students boast an overwhelming amount of choice when it comes to the subject matter they pursue: courses are offered in anything from sexuality studies to immunobiology, global health to chemical engineering. But even with 75 available majors, not everyone’s interests make the cut. Since her senior year of high school, Taja Cheek ’11 had wanted to pursue media studies: an interdisciplinary field that involves the analysis of digital media across literature, film, and even video games. When Cheek arrived at Yale as a freshman, she immediately made an appointment with the director of undergraduate studies for the special divisional major, Yale’s alternative for students who want to pursue a curriculum outside of the College’s existing major programs. Cheek asked Dean Jasmina BesirevicRegan about creating a major that would embody her interest in digital literature and alternative modes of communication. “I was basically laughed at,” Cheek said of the meeting. “I think her exact words were, ‘We’re not Brown.’” Besirevic-Regan said that she does not recall meeting with a student who requested to do a special divisional major in media studies. Cheek had, in fact, been hoping to recreate Brown University’s Modern Culture and Media program. The major, known by the abbreviation MCM, is a combination of two former branches of study at the school: Semiotics, and Literature and Society. Students in MCM study both theory and production, eventually choosing between tracks in production and critical analysis. Although demand exists for a Media Studies program at Yale, it remains a question whether it would be true to the Universi-

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ty’s character to pursue a nontraditional, modern and pragmatic discipline like the study of digital literature in the modern world. Cheek’s experience highlights a central tension within institutions such as Yale: How many new modes of education can be adopted before they begin to compromise the well-established and fabled learning structures of old? *** In the 1940s, Yale began offering its first courses in film. By then, commercial film and Hollywood had already become a popular topic among everyday consumers and academics alike: It was clear that the analysis of film, similar to the analysis of literature, would eventually become a subject of intellectual discussion — not only at dinner tables, but also inside schools of humanities and arts. It was not until 1987, however, that Yale approved Film Studies as an official major within the College. “The general feeling was that the faculty as a whole did not regard film studies as a proper academic discipline at the time,” said Aaron Gerow, the major’s current director of undergraduate studies. Gerow noted that while Yale now stands as a leader in the study of film, the school was “late” entering the race. While other institutions had been readily adapting their curricula to fit the mould of new media and the digital age, Yale was still clinging desperately to the past. Among faculty interested in advancing media studies, there is a consensus that the larger Yale community is either unprepared for or resistant to adding the discipline to its academic canon. “There isn’t a lot of momentum as far as I can see,” English professor Jessica Pressman said. “In terms of the digital realm, Yale has to do a lot more.” Pressman is the coordinator of an on-campus faculty and graduate student reading group called the Media Studies Collective. Comprised of 15 to 20 regular members, the group meets monthly to discuss published works on the subject of media

THE CHARISMATIC BODY IN EARLY SAFAVID IRAN LORIA 259 // 12:00 p.m.

So much better than the body in late Safavid Iran.

studies. Last year, members of the group hailing from different academic departments presented panels discussing media studies through the lens of their respective disciplines, which ranged from English literature to American studies. Although the reading group gives students an opportunity to read and discuss works that they wouldn’t normally encounter in their classes, it is not very accessible to undergraduates. Without public announcements about meetings, most undergraduates interviewed who are interested in media studies did not know of the group’s existence, and the few that have attended meetings were referred by Pressman. Samuel Huber ’13, who has taken three media studies-related courses, expressed frustration over the lack of coherence within the field’s offerings at Yale. As an undergraduate, he said that he has often felt lost in finding a path that would match with his interest in the field. Although he is now a committed English major, he said he wishes there were more avenues available for students wanting to take a serious approach toward the emerging discipline. “We all had these frustrations about not knowing how to do it and not knowing how to fulfill this interest at Yale — which is ridiculous, because there are over 2000 courses at Yale, and this isn’t some obscure field,” said Huber. Huber noted that while his experiences with media studies courses have been generally positive, it is disappointing that there are no courses available for students with more advanced knowledge on the subject. “Anytime a professor enters a media studies class, s/he has to assume that it is the first such class the student is taking,” Huber explained. “You end up doing a lot of the same initial theoretical leg work, reading the same background material over and over again to get people on the same page.” *** As is common with new curri-

FURNITURE STUDY TOUR YUAG // 12:00 p.m.

I’m taking an entire class on Ottomans now, so…

cula, media studies is both widely recognized as valuable but also undervalued because of its lack of definition. The term “media studies” is both broad and vague, but it is more than just that: as Film Studies Department Chair John MacKay GRD ’98 said, “It’s a term that, when you start looking at it, agglomerates layers and layers of history.” Around the world, the field known as media studies is regarded as highly interdisciplinary, drawing from across the spectrum of the social sciences and humanities. Gerow, whose research centers around media culture in Japan, said academics in Japan regard media studies as crucial to understanding their modern literary and artistic landscape. In Germany, media theory has become one of the most popular academic avenues for university students who aspire to careers in journalism or television. Within different institutions — let alone across different countries — perceptions of what subjects encompass media studies vary widely. At Yale, the lack of an established definition has translated into a lack of coherence in the approach taken towards media studies across different departments. While some departments offer media studies-related concentrations and majors, these programs, taken together, are still not an official media studies major. For example, Cheek ultimately found her niche within the Program of American Studies, which offers a concentration in “visual, audio, literary, and performance cultures.” There is also a Computing and the Arts major which combines the practical skills of computer science with the theoretical background of the humanities. Apart from both of these, of course, remains Yale’s nearly 25-year old Film Studies Department. “If you just rotate the issue a little bit, you can say that the whole Film Studies Department has been doing this the whole time, just in different terms,” said Jesse SEE MEDIA PAGE B8

JAPANESE TOURISM TO KOREA CIRCA 1940: THE TENSION BETWEEN TOURISM PROMOTION AND ASSIMILATION POLICIES Luce Hall 240 // 12:30 p.m.

Foreign on foreign on foreign.

”IMAGES, SOUNDS AND SPECTACLES HELP PRODUCE THE FABRIC OF LIFE, DOMINATING LEISURE TIME, SHAPING POLITICAL VIEWS AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, AND PROVIDING THE MATERIALS OUT OF WHICH PEOPLE FORGE THEIR IDENTITIES.” — DOUG KELLER

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

‘REMEMBRANCES OF DAYS FOREGONE’: SHAKESPEARE AT YALE REP // BY ALEXI SARGEANT

To step into “Shakespeare at the Yale Rep” might well be to venture into the “dark backward and abysm of time.” But the first image that greets visitors couldn’t be more bright and colorful: Avery Brooks, arms flung wide, exults in a colorful feathered robe as King Lear in a lavish Olmec-inspired 2004 production. In some ways, the effect of the exhibition is bittersweet, presenting viewers with the visual fossils of shows they will never see. On the other hand, images like Brooks’ impassioned Lear, much like Shakespeare’s memorable turns of phrase, stick in the mind after the viewer has left the space of the exhibit. Composed of posters and production stills of plays from 2012 all the way back to 1971, this exhibit is fairly minimal. The images on the walls are numbered, but not labeled. One could, hypothetically, treat the exhibition as a game, matching photos with productions. But it is more fruitful to take advantage of the exhibit guides provided, as they identify each production, its director, and the pictured actors. Unfortunately, the guide neglects to note which roles those actors are playing. The upshot is that looking at the production photos is still something of a guessing game: Is the half-clothed figure in the Tempest shot Ariel or Caliban? Are those red-cloaked figures in the “Troilus and Cressida” photo Trojans or Myrmidons? After the Brooks “Lear” picture, the exhibit’s antechamber has posters and photos from ’70s productions, many directed by the prolific Alvin Epstein. Notably, the posters, such as a grainy shot of Stonehenge on a “Macbeth” playbill, here seem strikingly of-theirmoment, in a way the production photos do not, even the ones in black and white. These posters seem especially dated compared to the one 21st-century poster provided, the stylish advertisement for the Rep’s upcoming production of “The Winter’s Tale.” The main attraction, really, lies in

the production photos, and much of the fun is in the game of spot-thecelebrity. In the hallway you can find Christopher Walken as Angelo in “Measure for Measure” and Meryl Streep as someone in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” (Is she Helena? Hermia? Again, more exact captions in the exhibit guide would come in handy.) Once you get to the tastefully lit main exhibit room, you can find Paul Giamatti as the melancholy Jacques in “As You Like It” and James Earl Jones, lavishly dressed in gold and purple, as the title role in “Timon of Athens,” Shakespeare’s criminally underrated tale of conspicuous consumption, economic collapse and disenfranchised cynicism. This rarely-performed play was relevant when Jones did it in 1980, following the second oil crisis, and is even more relevant today; seeing its poster and production photo here is a special treat. The production photos boast many other gems: an absurdist “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” where the “fantastical Spaniard,” Don Adriano de Armado, is bedecked in a rainbow ruff and overdone eyeliner; an especially acrobatic rendition of the “Romeo and Juliet” balcony scene from 2011, with Romeo donning red high-top sneakers; a shot from a show intriguingly titled “Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella,” where an all-female ensemble stands wearing costumes from times and places as diverse as medieval Europe, ancient Greece, and imperial China; a nerdy Malvolio (complete with striped yellow knee socks) clumsily wooing the flabbergasted Olivia in a shot from a mod-style “Twelfth Night.” Finally, in a surprising photo sure to give anyone familiar with “Comedy of Errors” a chuckle, the usually unseen character Nell, an impossibly fat woman described in a comedic monologue by Dromio, the terrified object of her mistaken affection, is imagined as a pair of ginormous puppet hands reaching through windows in the set to fondle a

horrified Dromio. Obviously these photos and posters are most rewarding to one with a knowledge of Shakespeare. But images like the spry Pandarus facilitating, with a lascivious grin, the encounter of the titular couple in “Troilus and Cressida,” are scintillating in their own right and would certainly motivate a casual observer to find out more. The longest-running of many exhibitions going up as a part of Shakespeare at Yale, “Shakespeare at Yale Rep” opened this Monday and runs through June in the Whitney Humanities Center. Contact ALEXI SARGEANT at alexi.sargeant@yale.edu .

// TORY BURNSIDE-CLAPP

“Shakespeare at Yale Rep” runs through June.

Ages 9 to 99 hungering for these “Games” // BY SCOTT STERN

“A few hours later, the stampede of feet shakes me from slumber. I look around in bewilderment. It’s not yet dawn, but my stinging eyes can see it. It would be hard to miss the wall of fire descending on me.” I mean, you have to admit it’s engaging. Captivating, really. This is a line from “The Hunger Games,” the first book in the best-selling trilogy of the same name. “The Hunger Games” is a riveting story of death, despair, courage, love, hate, murder, betrayal and rebellion. It is an addictive book, nearly impossible to put down. Oh, and it is sort of intended for middle school-aged children. According to Amazon, “The Hunger Games” is for “ages 12 and up.” The New Yorker called it “fiction for young people” and Time called it a “young adult novel.” Its main character is a 16-year-old girl, and the main cast of the book is between the ages of 12 and 18. Yet I contend

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that “The Hunger Games” is an enthralling book for someone of any age — even my age. The Hunger Games takes place in a dystopian society located where the United States once stood. In this society, Panem, 12 poor districts are ruled by the powerful and opulent Capitol. To keep the districts in their place, the Capitol forces them to participate in an annual “hunger games,” in which each district offers up two “tributes” — adolescents for sacrifice, one boy and one girl — to fight to the death in a televised spectacle. Twenty-four go into the arena; one emerges alive. The protagonist of “The Hunger Games” is Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old resident of District 12 who loves to hunt but isn’t too fond of the Capitol. When Katniss’s younger sister, Prim, is chosen as the tribute from District 12, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Katniss is whisked off to the Capitol, where she learns to

hone her combat skills and meets the other tributes. Katniss is still hunting, but she now has a new prey: humans. Katniss’s fellow tribute from District 12 is Peeta Mellark, a boy to whom she has never spoken but with whom she has a complicated past. As more time passes, it becomes difficult to tell whether Peeta loves Katniss or whether he is planning to kill her. In either case, Katniss enters the arena trusting no one and certainly not expecting to survive. Let the games begin! Of course, many aspects of “The Hunger Games” seem contrived. The concept of young people fighting to the death in a mysterious arena is as old as the myth of Theseus and the minotaur. The government always watching, turning life into televised entertainment? Sounds like “The Truman Show.” A dystopian society targeting its own citizens? So “Brave New World.” As Laura Miller wrote in The

New Yorker, “An advantage to having young readers is that most of this stuff is fresh to them … To thrill them, a story doesn’t have to be unprecedented. It just has to be harrowing.” “The Hunger Games” is harrowing. But can its popularity be dismissed because it is read by so naïve an audience, unaware of the triteness of its plot? How then to explain that “The Hunger Games” is popular among readers of all ages (including, notably, Stephen King)? Maybe it is popular just because it is so “harrowing” and so captivating. Suzanne Collins, the author, has stated that she based “The Hunger Games” on televised scenes of carnage from the Iraq War. These transformed battle scenes — often pretty gory — are one reason why the book is so harrowing. But “The Hunger Games” is also captivating because it goes beyond the trope of young-adult-novel-asmorality-tale. It is a none-too-

LEARNING TO LOOK: UNDERSTANDING ART THROUGH LINE, SHAPE AND COLOR

WITHIN THE FRAME: A CRITICAL METAPHOR IN ART AND LITERATURE

You might think you know how to look, but chances are you don’t.

Time to think critically about the classics, y’all.

YUAG // 3:00 p.m.

Phelps Hall 207 // 4:00 p.m.

subtle critique of the titilating yet deadening effects of war as televised entertainment. Residents of Panem who watch the gore of the hunger games look deservingly absurd. But the heroes are not pure enough to make this a simple parable. The “good guys” — Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch — are all flawed and fully conscious of their own flaws. “The Hunger Games” is an interesting commentary on what a young adult novel can accomplish and who will learn from it. It’s just not simplistic enough to be disregarded as mere young adult fiction, which may be why so many older readers have enjoyed it. I read “The Hunger Games” a few weeks ago, mostly because the movie is premiering in a few months. I found it hard to put down, and finished the first book in a matter of hours. I moved on to the second and third installments of the series in short order. Having read “Brave New World,” “The Giver,” “1984,” the myth

of Theseus, and many other works with similar premises, one could assume that “The Hunger Games” bored me. Not being a middle school-aged child, one could assume “The Hunger Games” annoyed me. But it didn’t. “The Hunger Games” is an outstanding book — and good for people of all ages, even jaded college students — for two simple reasons. First, the plot is really captivating. A fight to the death in a dystopic society, a deeply flawed protagonist, a love triangle and a coup d’etat are all present in the book. Second, the writing isn’t terrible either. “The Hunger Games” may not go down in history as a classic work of literature, a Proustian masterpiece. But its narrative speaks to a quest for captivation that doesn’t have to end with childhood. Contact SCOTT STERN at scott.stern@yale.edu .

WISHING WELL: OPENING RECEPTION FOR THE STORY OF JEAN BOSCO

“[MEDIA LITERACY IS] GOING TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHETHER KIDS ARE A TOOL OF THE MASS MEDIA OR WHETHER THE MASS MEDIA IS A TOOL FOR KIDS TO USE.”

No one likes to be thirsty, so help these Yalies bring water to the world.

— LINDA ELLERBEE

Maya’s Room Gallery in Silliman // 7 p.m.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND JAZZ

// CASEY MCLAUGHLIN

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF JAZZ // BY AKBAR AHMED

For Julian Reid ’13, pretty much everyone is a “cool cat.” He plays with his musical ensemble every Sunday in Morse Dining Hall (“Master Keil is a cool cat”). He promised himself before coming to college that, “worst come to worst, [he’d] practice music in his room.” One of his biggest problems sophomore year was finding a bass player for his group. Reid is one of a handful of jazz musicians at Yale. And he feels that his brand of music is more or less left out in the cold. “All the classical people here who are up to snuff can get lessons and get credit for them,” Reid grumbles. “Why is that not the case with jazz?” Ranging from classical piano to opera, musicians at Yale have any number of options when it comes to developing their skills in the classical Western tradition or finding peers who share their interests. But jazz lacks the same kind of institutional infrastructure. The Yale Jazz Ensemble, a 17-piece big band, is the only registered campus organization devoted to performing jazz regularly; the School of Music’s Ellington Jazz series brings in four prominent jazz musicians annually, compared to what Reid estimates are almost weekly performances by giants on the classical music scene; classes on jazz performance and theory are offered in a scattered way, and across departments. “Classical is way bigger — there are seven orchestras on campus, but maybe three to four steady jazz bands, and just musicians scattered around in an unorganized way,” according to Jake Backer ’14, a member of Reid’s ensemble.

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Yale is nationally recognized for the strength of its classical music programs. It is, however, taking a while to catch up in terms of jazz.

JAZZ IN THE CLASSROOM

Perhaps the clearest explanation for why jazz has taken a backseat to classical music is that the form’s academic significance is still hotly debated. What’s still to be negotiated is a place for jazz in a music program largely centered on the Western canon. For some, like Music and Ethnicity, Race & Migration major Juliet Buesing ’11, who wrote her senior essay on the role of black music at elite universities, the absence of sufficient jazz-related classes must be taken seriously. “Out of four semesters of music history [music majors] are required to do,” said Buesing, “we spend one week on AfricanAmerican music. One week!”

Buesling believes that one reason Yale has yet to build up a jazz program is that it can take comfort in its main music program. “Yale is particularly good at what it does do; we’re very, very good at Western classical music,” she said, adding that this means it’s not surprising that the University has not felt a pressing need to change. A particular problem arises when Yalies want to find classes that can teach not just ‘about’ jazz, but how to ‘do’ jazz. It’s here that those invested in the younger form feel that they are at a disadvantage compared to peers building on classical music skill sets. Reid argues that Yale does not offer enough classes in jazz theory, performance and practice. To him, what’s key is bringing in more faculty members qualified to teach students about these subjects, mirroring programs like

YALE IS NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FOR THE STRENGTH OF ITS CLASSICAL MUSIC PROGRAMS. IT IS, HOWEVER, TAKING A WHILE TO CATCH UP IN TERMS OF JAZZ. Students and professors interviewed said they feel Yale is shortchanging jazz, particularly considering the form’s cultural relevance. They add that understanding jazz is not only about understanding a vibrant, rich form of music. It’s, in Buesing’s words, giving due credit to a phenomenon that meant AfricanAmericans finally had a voice, and which gave the European classical tradition a run for its money. Professor Brian Kane, who has taught courses in jazz technique, said he believes jazz must be discussed and analyzed in music department classes. “Jazz is an essential part of the history of Western music, especially American history,” Kane added.

THE PURPLE CRAYON PRESENTS: IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARE Stiles-Morse Theater // 8:00 p.m.

Shakespeare at Yale year goes on and on and on… but at least this one will be very funny!

Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies, or even Yale’s own ‘lessons-for-credit’ arrangement for undergraduates in classical music. “We could have more jazz cats come to campus — cats that live here in New Haven, or even in New York, who can actually teach players, not just theory,” Reid suggested. The music department has a different perspective. Kane, a practicing jazz musician who said he learned much of his skill by associating with musicians in Oakland during his undergraduate days at UC Berkeley, said he believes that people training to be jazz musicians can do so in less formal settings, like jams with local artists.

OUT OF THE BLUE PRESENTS: JAMS BOND Sudler Hall, WLH// 8:00 p.m.

It’s jam season! Get ready for a billion puns.

“Insofar as you want to turn people into jazz musicians, jazz does not need to be taught [by the music department],” Kane opined. “What I can teach people about is how to understand that music, what’s going on harmonically and what the musician intends.” Still, Beusing warns that Yale, with its focus on training new generations of classical musicians, may be left behind unless it caters to forms in which students and audiences today are more interested. Other universities, she said, are increasingly training jazz musicians, giving them a much higher degree of faculty support than such musicians at Yale receive. “Yale is really missing the boat on this one,” she added.

A COMMUNITY OF CREATIVE ‘CATS’

What a new surge in jazz classes and opportunities requires is demonstrated student interest. Amassing people to show this to the University has been a struggle, Reid said, though some students are now trying to cross this first hurdle. “People here are serious enough about the music,” Reid said. But he emphasized that the jazz community is dispersed to the point where putting together a petition would be challenging. This year, however, a new initiative to bring together student jazz musicians looking to perform together and discuss their music may lead to a more cohesive scene. Sam Frampton ’15 said he has taken charge of a panlist for the jazz community in order to create more of a community. “It’s been growing,” Frampton said, “We’re not all in contact, and

TAIWAN FILM FESTIVAL: THE FOURTH PORTRAIT Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium // 10:30 p.m.

Friday night is movie night.

I want to get people into it.” Still, a limited number of musicians means that situations arise such as when Reid lost a member of his ensemble after his freshman year and had trouble finding another interested student, a search that took him months. Reid added that, though he has been asked by admissions to contact prefrosh who have expressed an interest in jazz at Yale, he often does now know what to tell the admitted students. “We lose a lot of cool cats to schools with strong jazz programs, or even conservatories linked to them, like Princeton or Harvard,” he explained. Buesing said the reason why other top schools have strong jazz programs is that jazz is one form of black music that “has really broken into academia in a serious way,” because of its complexity and status as a serious art form. Kane argued that he sees Yale students as capable of, and likely to, take the initiative to establish their own undergraduate jazz culture. But without fresh blood, no student-fueled scene can survive. Whether it’s about academic snobbery or a wider issue with the kind of student Yale attracts, the university has yet to become the type of school that draws the leagues of “cats” Reid would like to see. “I wouldn’t phrase it as Yale is competing with other institutions for jazz musicians and losing out,” Buesing said. “Yale’s only playing one game right now, in classical music, and it’s winning.” The University has yet to decide whether it wants to enter this new arena. Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .

“IF, AS ARISTOTLE SAID, “THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING,” SO, IN TODAY’S LIFE, “THE UNEXAMINED CULTURE IS NOT WORTH LIVING IN.” — GEORGE GERBNER

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND WARMTH

WH P Y L P A P C E A E RE’S H AW ? R E T EEK Y N O I UR W EN R

Livy on the beach // BY KATE LIEBMAN

D TO E D R O NIC FO S I D E R SEASONAL AFFECTIV

Rise Above It // BY JORDAN ASCHER

My french lover, my down duvet

When winter’s getting me down, I take action. I choose not to let the dismal season dominate me: I strip naked, encase myself in ice, and have a friend place me on a high rooftop. There I pass the days and weeks in a semi-conscious state as my muscles atrophy and I slowly succumb to frostbite. After all, winter can really get you down. Watching the sun set at four in the afternoon; feeling the snow creep into your boot. I choose to literally rise above it, letting wind and storm buffet my exposed form. When possible I like to scream. Ever been walking around campus late at night and heard a ghostly howl riding the bitter breeze? That’s me, screaming away. And it’s easy to tell when winter’s over. As soon as the ice melts and I collapse to my knees, fall off the roof, and am taken to the hospital to be stitched back together and resuscitated, I know it’s spring! Hurrah!

// BY MILA HURSEY When it is cold and dreary, I find spiritual, emotional and physical contentment within the embrace of my beloved Henri. Henri is my French lover, my down duvet. If you think I’m weird for naming my comforter and attaching contentment and pleasure from him to an almost sexual degree, bugger off I’m from SoCal. Henri is basically a giant, poofy cloud of warmth with a velvet cover. Whenever I invite my friends to cuddle with him so that they can see why I love him so, they collapse on the floor, rolling around and moaning. The best thing about him is that I can take him anywhere! But mostly I like it when we stay in. He never disappoints me or pisses me off. He is the perfect winter companion and always welcomes a good snuggle.

Contact JORDAN ASCHER at jordan.ascher@yale.edu .

After I purchased my first inadequate coat freshman year, I realized how crucial it was to stay warm. So I tried a number of tactics. 1. Whales have a shit ton of blubber. Ipso facto, I should put on blubber. Thank you magic bars. 2. To work off the blubber (so not worth the warmth), run outside. Black ice is invisible. Slip. Fall. Get up. Repeat. 3. Find someone else to warm your bed. Twin beds (albeit extra-long) are just too small. 4. Become a klepto and steal as many sweaters as possible. Wear them all at once. 5. Grow hair out as long as possible. Animals are hairy and they seem warm. Yeah, the reason I haven’t shaved my legs is “to conserve heat,” not because I can’t find a razor blade. But the secret to warmth is a more-than-adequate coat. Throw out — no, donate! — that old coat, and find one that covers your ass and has a hood. If there’s some fancy word for the synthetic stuffing inside the coat, just go for it, no questions asked. Even if you’re warm, the New Haven winter will dry your skin out real bad. Watch out for your eyelids! Those puppies dry up overnight. When that drugstore brand lotion soaks in so fast you feel like your skin is in some sort of drought akin to the Dust Bowl, you have to invest in a tub of vaseline. As the label says, “Pure Petroleum Jelly protects your baby’s

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

skin against happy rash.” wtf is happy rash? I wanted to write to this company to thank them for all they’ve done for me, but I could only find addresses for Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, and Addis Ababa. Strangely, my “petrolatum” seems to be from Africa. And then I got so depressed I wasn’t in Africa where it’s hot and sunny, I just couldn’t bring myself to write that thank you note. It’s taken me three years of winter to come up with the basic information that you have to stay warm and moisturized. It’s not much, but I’ll let you know when that SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder — it really shouldn’t be called a disorder. Anyone who is happy in the winter is disordered) lamp comes to my PO Box. Hopefully I’ll be able to truck in some sand to my room, play some wave-sound music, turn that light on, and just pretend that I am reading Livy on the beach. Contact KATE LIEBMAN at kate.liebman@yale.edu .

SAD,meet SAD // BY TAOTAO HOLMES

Just me and my Vibrams

How do you fix SAD? With SAD! Sorry, let me clarify. Ah, yes — seasonal affective disorder. What is it again, exactly? For some, a (medically?) justified excuse to be depressed and mopey in winter, for others, genuine homesickness for sunnier states. I’m from Massachusetts, so snow and slush are my jam! I guess I can’t really relate so much to the Californians and Floridians, but I expect if I were accustomed to lush, balmy winters then New Haven would come across as a miserable, cold and barren pit of despair. Yuck. But I have a solution: don’t have SAD, do SAD! What am I going on about, you ask? The Standard American Diet, that’s what! Right when the weather starts getting frightful and there are no fires to keep us delightful, I tend to recede into biological hibernation mode and think that I need to put on lots of extra blubber to keep me warm through these blistery months. The development of clothing and central heating has actually proven this unnecessary, so my extra blubber proves, well, extra. And then where am I? Even SADder (the first kind), because not only is it still winter, but I am fat. So, this winter, fix SAD with SAD! Do the diet, then lose the weight, and have something cheerful and morale boosting to celebrate during these otherwise dreary months. Now if you don’t want to look outside, you can at least look in the mirror.

Bear the Winter // BY AUSTIN BERNHARDT

// BY AARON GERTLER

So I decided I was going to do something zany before I got to Yale — that I wouldn’t be just another average white guy. I happened to be a reader of health news, and when I saw an ad for Vibram Fivefinger shoes, I fell in love. You’ve seen them — they have toes and remind people of gecko feet. They cost me a pretty penny, but from August ’til December, it was totally worth it. Student reviews are mixed, but every dining hall worker who sees my feet wants to know more and I can finally run as nature intended (covered by expensive pieces of space-age material). I loved my Vibrams. They kept me through thick and thin — even when I took them to Toad’s for the foam party (I didn’t need to wash them for weeks!). But then, one afternoon I walked out of WLH to find something white falling from the sky. “WHAT?” I cried to the heavens. “What is this? Is it WIN-

Hearty, thick soups; warm, fresh bread: these offer salvation in the desolation of winter. The dry cold and razor winds of these months justify heavy fare, food presented and eaten before the chill can leave your cheeks plump. Salad? I spit on your greens, grown in laboratories or flown in from locales who do not know the splendor of spring because they do not know the sadness of winter. Give me stew, or a creamy chowder, or a turkey leg covered in gravy, whose combined juices seep through mashed potatoes already saturated with butter. I grow, becoming thicker and more mysterious under the formhiding effects of my layers. A jacket, a sweater, a flannel, a thermal, two t-shirts, and a padding of fats and starch. I understand the reasoning of the Grizzlies, who, rather than attempting to bear the ice, spend these weeks in the tropics of a dream. But why sleep this season away? Why not, instead, watch the flakes float by your window and imagine that your mashed potatoes have somehow sublimated to become the weather?

TER? Why was I not informed?” But arguing with the weather hasn’t worked for years now, and the snow was only getting deeper. Finally, I gritted my teeth and sped into the slush. Turns out, that when it comes to snow protection, Vibrams are actually the equivalent of your bare feet. I shivered for the rest of the night and woke the next morning to find the world one of those lovely blank pages of white that makes you want to find a flamethrower and melt the world. After a week of sneakers and three-pound boots, everything below my knee hurt. I still take the boys out for a treadmill session now and then, but I know they’ll never really forgive me. Why, in the 21st century, must we suffer the ignominy of the seasons?

Contact TAOTAO HOLMES at taotao.holmes@yale.edu .

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

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

// TAOTAO HOLMES

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 8

COSTUME DESIGN WORKSHOP Off-Broadway Theater// 1:00 p.m.

Impress your friendz with some sewing skillz.

QLAB SOUND WORKSHOP

Calhoun College basement // 1:00 p.m. We don’t know what the QLab is, but we like the letter “Q”.

THE SEAGULL

University Theater // 2:00 p.m. Fly away with the Yale Rep.

“[MEDIA EDUCATION] CAN ENLARGE THE CIRCLE OF WHO IS PERMITTED — AND WHO WILL BE ABLE — TO INTERPRET AND MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD, OF WHO WILL BE SEEN AND HEARD FROM IN AMERICA’S FUTURE.” — STUART EWEN

STUDENT GUIDE TOUR

Yale Center for British Art // 2:00 p.m. It’s a surprise!

DICKENS’ LONDON

Yale Center for British Art // 2:00 p.m. This silent film from 1924 is all about the past.

THE PICKWICK PAPERS

Yale Center for British Art // 2:15 p.m. This 1950 movie might not be silent, but it’s still about the past.

VISITS AND VISIONS: TRACING PRESENCE IN PAINTING YUAG // 3:00 p.m.

WEEKEND highly recommends the supernatural.

“[STUDENTS] MUST LEARN HOW TO SPOT A STEREOTYPE, ISOLATE A SOCIAL CLICHÉ, AND DISTINGUISH FACTS FROM PROPAGANDA, ANALYSIS FROM BANTER, AND IMPORTANT NEWS FROM COVERAGE.” — ERNEST BOYER

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND WARMTH

WH P Y L P A P C E A E RE’S H AW ? R E T EEK Y N O I UR W EN R

Livy on the beach // BY KATE LIEBMAN

D TO E D R O NIC FO S I D E R SEASONAL AFFECTIV

Rise Above It // BY JORDAN ASCHER

My french lover, my down duvet

Contact JORDAN ASCHER at jordan.ascher@yale.edu .

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

SAD,meet SAD // BY TAOTAO HOLMES

Just me and my Vibrams

Bear the Winter // BY AUSTIN BERNHARDT

// BY AARON GERTLER

Contact TAOTAO HOLMES at taotao.holmes@yale.edu .

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

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

// TAOTAO HOLMES

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 8

COSTUME DESIGN WORKSHOP Off-Broadway Theater// 1:00 p.m.

Impress your friendz with some sewing skillz.

QLAB SOUND WORKSHOP

Calhoun College basement // 1:00 p.m. We don’t know what the QLab is, but we like the letter “Q”.

THE SEAGULL

University Theater // 2:00 p.m. Fly away with the Yale Rep.

STUDENT GUIDE TOUR

Yale Center for British Art // 2:00 p.m. It’s a surprise!

DICKENS’ LONDON

Yale Center for British Art // 2:00 p.m. This silent film from 1924 is all about the past.

THE PICKWICK PAPERS

Yale Center for British Art // 2:15 p.m. This 1950 movie might not be silent, but it’s still about the past.

VISITS AND VISIONS: TRACING PRESENCE IN PAINTING YUAG // 3:00 p.m.

WEEKEND highly recommends the supernatural.

“[STUDENTS] MUST LEARN HOW TO SPOT A STEREOTYPE, ISOLATE A SOCIAL CLICHÉ, AND DISTINGUISH FACTS FROM PROPAGANDA, ANALYSIS FROM BANTER, AND IMPORTANT NEWS FROM COVERAGE.” — ERNEST BOYER

PAGE B8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

THE TECHNO CULTURED MEDIA FROM PAGE B3 Ramirez GRD ’13, who is currently teaching the residential college seminar “Technocultures.” But is it truly the same thing? *** Beyond the structuring of a potential media studies program, there is the larger dilemma of the place that technology holds inside the classroom. This debate is particularly relevant at Yale, where much of the educational curriculum is based on the traditions of the past. N e w

teaching methods are viewed with abject rejection at worst and skepticism at best. Even as the topic of digital media becomes more and more relevant, the issue remains hard to broach with those who think that technology is a threat to Yale’s educational foundation. “This is the new elephant in the room: if you’re studying humanities at a high level, then you need to consider digital media,” Pressman said. “But everyone is afraid to talk about digital media.” Last spring, Ramirez attended a conference in Seattle, Wash. organized by the Modern Language Association. It was one of his first experiences with media studies outside Yale, and he said that it opened his eyes to whole groups of people who were not only intensely interested in the subject, but also passionate about bringing digital material into the classroom. Ramirez said that he felt out of place at the annual conference, where people were encouraged to speak candidly about how to integrate te c h n o l og y into the mold of everyday life. One

“

THIS IS THE NEW ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: IF YOU’RE STUDYING HUMANITIES AT A HIGH LEVEL, THEN YOU NEED TO CONSIDER DIGITAL MEDIA. BUT EVERYONE IS AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT DIGITAL MEDIA.

“

segment that Ramirez found particularly interesting was the panel on video games. He said he was struck by the degree of interest that people demonstrated toward the topic. It was then that he realized that Yale’s general dismissal of new media is incongruous with the growing interest among other educators, he recalled. “I will venture a guess that when I teach ‘Call of Duty’ in my seminar, it will be the first time that a video game has ever been taught and critically analyzed at

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 8

MACBETH 1969

Long Wharf Theater // 3:00 p.m. Two worlds, one play.

Yale,” Ramirez said. Film Studies Chair MacKay reiterated that there exists a divide between those who adhere to old practices and those who advocate for the new. As an example, he outlined the debate over whether laptops should be allowed in classrooms. While some instructors regard them as valuable learning tools, others refuse to see them in any light beyond their power to distract. “The proliferation of screens,” MacKay said, should be a central concern for educators today. Yet many choose to ignore their presence, as if in the hopes that doing so might diminish their existence, MacKay noted. This choice to ignore how media has affected academia means disregarding the context within which most respected modern works are created. *** The Digital Media Center for the Arts at Yale is hidden within a grey facade of tinted windows and looming concrete awnings. With all the blinds shut and a nondescript inscription at the front door proclaiming “149 York,” the center hardly possesses the appearance of a place that inspires creation. And yet, it is just that. The former home base of YouTube celebrities Sam Tsui ’11 and Kurt Schneider ’10 and the current launching pad of 17O1 Records, the DMCA has provided equipment and guidance for a variety of digital productions across campus. But like most sought-after resources, its services are only accessible to a select few. While most buildings on campus are open to everyone during the day, the door of the DMCA is locked at all times, restricted to those with card access. The center houses everything from digital video cameras to lighting kits and video game consoles. The silent film portion of the annual Yale Symphony Orchestra Halloween Show, for instance, is created almost exclusively with equipment loaned from the DMCA. The center’s services are available to undergraduate students in the Art, Theater Studies, Music and Architecture majors, or to students enrolled in courses within any of the respective departments. Its services are also available to students of any of Yale’s professional art schools, such as the School of Drama. Since the onslaught of economic downturn, the DMCA has been understaffed and less funding has been available for the purchase of new technologies. Due to budget constraints, the center was unable to hire a new director after the retirement of the former one. The DMCA’s three remaining staff members now shoulder the responsibility of catering to 1,200 students over the course of a semester as well as managing regular administrative duties. “Sometimes the goals of students are too lofty for us to support,” Anna Loar, a technical specialist at the DMCA. Lee Faulkner, one of the DMCA’s two associate directors, agreed that because the demand for the center is entirely dependent on its ability to provide hands-on technology, budget cuts put it at risk of becoming an ineffective resource for students. At the heart of the center’s difficulties is the University’s struggle with reconciling its liberal arts mission with the need for more development in digital media production, which hinges on practical, vocational training. “It’s a schism, really, between the theory and practice of media,” Faulkner said. “It’s a shame because it’s so needless; it defies understanding how you could be an effective member of either field without having basic knowledge of both.” *** “I can’t see Yale becoming

THE SWORD AND THE SCREEN: THE JAPANESE PERIOD FILM 1615-1960 Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium// 7:00 p.m.

Never again will you encounter as much foreign film as you do at Yale.

Brown or MIT,” Pressman said of her vision for Yale’s media studies environment. But what does it mean to Brown or MIT, and what does it mean to be Yale? The media studies experience at Brown has been immortalized in Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides’ newest novel, “The Marriage Plot.” Himself a graduate of Brown’s semiotics program, Eugenides’ book tells the love story of three students at Brown, one of whom is studying semiotics within the English department — at the time in which the book is set, semiotics had yet to be combined with literature to create Modern Culture and Media. According to Lynne Joyrich, a professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown, the school’s transition from semiotics and literature to media studies was smooth. “At the beginning, there was more excitement than there were problems,” Joyrich recalled. “Our program is defined by its combination of creative thinking and culture, so I think we fit very well with other aspects of Brown.” If Yale were to create an official media studies program, it would probably be more similar to the major at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, the Media Studies major has been established since the late 1970s and is now among the college’s top 12 most popular majors, with an enrollment of 400 students despite its having a minimum GPA requirement. But when it comes to resource allocation, the university’s supply doesn’t match the major’s demand, according to Berkeley’s Media Studies Program Director Tom Goldstein ’67. “Resources have not been forthcoming because the people who allocate resources decide that they should be given elsewhere,” Goldstein said. Even at a school where the department has existed for decades, it can be difficult to compete with more universally-accepted fields. A successful media studies department at Yale would have to prove its mettle within an already skeptical environment. “Since we’re just throwing our hat into the media studies ring at this point, what can Yale provide that other schools cannot?” asked Matthew Rager GRD ’16, one of the primary organizers of the Yale Media Theory and History Graduate Conference. Rager suggests that the University’s long and rich history could be its selling point. Whereas other schools may focus more on the practical applications of media, Yale could contribute a critical perspective toward the subject. “What we want to emphasize at Yale is the historical element of it: even though it’s a new discipline, it is also a mode of study that has historic roots,” he said. *** Currently, the state of media studies at Yale has reached an impasse. With neither enough faculty interest nor energy to develop a major, for now, undergraduate students interested in pursuing the field must settle for the myriad opportunities scattered across departments. Ironically, while most of the media studies resources at Yale are available only to graduate students, it is the undergraduates, by virtue of the nature of their generation, who are most interested in exploring the new academic discipline. Ramirez received 120 applications for his “Technocultures” seminar, a class that was capped to foster more engaged discussion. Although the class has only met three times this semester, the in-class debates have already gotten rather heated, Ramirez said. The more he listened to students’ opinions on the subject of new media and technology, the more he felt that it was a conversation that

IGOR PIKAYZEN: VIOLIN RECITAL Morse Recital Hall // 7:00 p.m.

You will never encounter this much classical music again as well.

needed to be had. Two graduate students interviewed said that they had heard talk of a push to create a department or major for media studies, but these rumors were quickly dispelled by two professors spearheading Yale’s Media Theory and History faculty working group. “I don’t foresee the creation of a media studies major or department, because I haven’t experienced a whole lot of support,” Pressman said. “Yale, for good reason, is about tradition.” Professor Francesco Casetti of the Film Studies and Humanities departments was adamant that he has no plans for a more concrete media studies program. “What I want to focus on is a broad and organic point of view — no more than that,” he said. Before Casetti arrived at Yale in 2010, he served as an editor and board member of several digital communications organizations at Italian universities. He has done extensive work to raise public awareness of media studies. Soft-spoken and quietly brilliant, Casetti rejects all speculation surrounding his plans for the subject at Yale. “I want to be very clear on this point,” he insisted. “I do not want a department of media and I do not want a major in media. We have to expand our current vision, not create something entirely new.” *** Last year, MacKay led a group of faculty that successfully petitioned for a media studies section in the Yale College Programs of Study. In the physical Bluebook this year, you can find “Media Theory and History” sandwiched between Mechanical Engineering and Middle East Studies. It’s a triumph for undergraduates forging their own path toward an undefinable, undervalued field — a small luxury that students like Cheek had not known. Current junior Samuel Huber hopes that undergraduate students serious about media studies will eventually create a collective of their own, uniting under their interest in a field growing in prominence. “It would be nice for people to come together and develop a sense of shared intellectual enterprise that is usually provided by a major or department,” Huber said. In “Technocultures,” Ramirez shows a PBS documentary called “Growing Up Online.” The program presents the Internet not as a separate realm but as a continuation of our reality. Digital media is so woven into the fabric of our lives that to ignore it would be to deny one facet of the whole. Like media studies’ divergent definitions, current students are of the generation that embraces multi-tasking not out of necessity but as a rebellion against order. MacKay questions whether the debate over definition should ever be resolved: “Doesn’t it make sense to be loose and decentralized? In one way, the vagueness is disturbing — but in another way, it’s exhilarating. Media studies is not something you want to lasso.” Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

“ALL MEDIA ARE EXTENSIONS OF SOME HUMAN FACULTY — PSYCHIC OR PHYSICAL.” — MARSHALL MCLUHAN

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND BANDS

THE BASEMENT REVOLUTION: STUDENT BANDS TO WATCH OUT FOR // BY JACK LINSHI

With only a limited number of outlets, the student bands at Yale are not the most visible performing arts groups. Yet those who want to play music with other students are determined. Forming a band, rehearsing, gaining an audience and finding success might be difficult, but Yale’s undergraduate musicians will tell you it’s a highly rewarding experience. There is diversity in their music, and the stories behind their groups ultimately make for a rich music scene — which might not always be appreciated or more importantly, heard.

SISTER HELEN

Eva Lawitts and Chris Mobley had been playing music together since childhood. Years later, when they were in the eighth grade with Nathan Campbell ’14, the three friends joined forces to form a new band. At that time, another would-be Yalie, Sam Brudner ’12, was also actually a member of the band, although he would leave in 2008. But since that year, the aggressively alternative Sister Helen has had a set roster. With frontman and lyricist Campbell, guitarist Krasnow, bassist Lawitts, and drummer Mobley, Sister Helen is a band whose members aren’t Yalies (Mobley and Lawitts attend Purchase College SUNY and City College of New York, respectively). “Since three-fourths of the band goes to school elsewhere, Sister Helen’s presence on Yale isn’t that high,” Campbell said. But if you’ve been to the shows at 216 Dwight St., you may have seen Sister Helen perform — the band has already been featured there twice. And if you remember last year’s Spring Fling, Sister Helen was a part of the opening act after placing third in WYBC’s Battle of the Bands competition. Most of the band’s performances, though, occur in New York City during weekends and breaks when all the members are able to convene. Campbell described his band’s sound and performance style as a little over-the-top for the majority of people at Yale. “We got a couple very amusing and not entirely flattering writeups,” Campbell said. The band is currently working on its third album. For the music lovers on Yale’s campus, be on the lookout — Sister Helen’s new music will be more complex and more sophisticated than its previous tunes.

THE KEEP CALM

Buttoned-up power-pop outfit The Keep Calm is a relatively young band — it began just last year when Alexander Bae ’14 and Ishan Sinha ’14 were both enrolled in a freshman seminar

called “The Beatles, Bob Dylan, & the 1960s.” Bae and Sinha, who became friends during seminar, met a few times outside of class to play a few Beatles songs. Soon, they decided to form a band with Bae on vocals and Sinha on guitar. “Over spring break I wrote acoustic versions of our first couple songs,” Bae said. “And upon returning to campus, Ishan and I busied ourselves trying to find band members.” Sinha enlisted John Cocco ‘14,

agreed, but following the show, Crouch decided he enjoyed playing with The Keep Calm so much that he joined the band as a fulltime bassist. This past summer, the band recorded an EP at Tarquin Studios, where bands such as The National and Interpol have recorded. Since then, the band has played eight shows, including shows for the Yale College Council, Sophomore Council and Relay for Life. Last Thursday, The Keep Calm was featured at

“WE’VE PLAYED ONE [SHOW] WHERE THERE WAS LITERALLY NOT AN AUDIENCE MEMBER, AND WE’VE ALSO PLAYED AT WOOLSEY HALL FOR THE YSO SHOW.” with whom he had attended high school and previously played music. Since Bae found it difficult to do justice to the bass lines while singing, the band started to look for a bassist. The band found a stand-in bassist for the Battle of the Bands competition who dropped out the night before. As a las- minute substitution, Bae asked Kenneth Crouch ’14, his suitemate, to play bass guitar for them. Out of sympathy, Crouch

Toad’s. This year, the band hopes for even bigger gigs. “We’re trying to play BOMBfest and Gathering of the Vibes this summer and go on a minitour,” Sinha said. “This process so far has been incredible — I’ve always wanted to be in a serious band, and finally, here at college, I was able to.”

NO, WE’RE NOT

When Rich Gilliland ’13 asked

Peter Lewis ’13 to play a flute part in a song he was writing, Lewis happily agreed and brought along Zach Simao ’13 and Nathan Prillaman ’13, with whom he had been performing since freshman year under the name Mojoceratops. The group instantly clicked — soon, it officialized with Gilliland on lead vocals and guitar, Lewis on backup vocals, Prillaman on lead guitar and Simao on percussion. “Everyone in the group was really open to performing all different genres of music,” Gilliland said. “Before we knew it, we had five covers and five originals and were ready to play a show.” While No, We’re Not is in its early stages, the members have already started recording demo songs tending towards partyexperimental. Its first gig happened just last weekend in an off-campus basement. Gilliland mentioned that his favorite venues are those “random” offcampus house parties. And, he added, while it’s more difficult to draw an audience to these kinds of events, the environment is much more conducive to enjoying a live band. No, We’re Not is planning more gigs in the near future. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel like we’ve all got this sense of wonder and anticipation about what’s coming next,” Gilliland said.

HIGH DEFNITION

Hip-hop duo High Definition bring a DIY approach to partyrap. The group is composed of Carson Weinand ’13 and his best friend Brad Canada, a student at Rollins College. The two began their collaboration while Weinand and Canada were attending the same high school in Naples, Fla. Both of them had always been passionate about music, and one day they decided to mess around with some cheap equipment and the Apple program GarageBand. Slowly, the two bandmates improved musically, writing better songs and perfecting their delivery. High Definition has already recorded at professional studios but has not yet played at a venue on campus, since Canada attends school in Florida. “Because we go to differ-

// YALE MUSIC SCENE

Jamestown: The First town in America.

S AT U R D AY JA N UA RY 2 8

MIXED CO. PRESENTS: SNOW JOB XXX SSS 114 // 7:30 p.m.

Be prepared for something racy.

CRIMES OF THE HEART

ent schools it’s sometimes difficult to record,” Weinand said. “But when we’re in Florida for breaks we make sure to record new music.” But if you want to hear an alternative to the soft, slow rock that most Yale student bands produce, then just go on your computer to hear High Definition’s music — this past summer, the band recorded a nine-song EP called “It’ll Be Okay,” which is now for sale on iTunes.

JAMESTOWN

When Will Moritz ’12 was a freshman, he put out flyers all over campus looking for people interested in starting a rock band. “I got a lot of calls,” Moritz said. “People very quickly called me to ask if there was room.” With so much demand, Moritz was able to have his pick of members — Moritz, who plays guitar, formed the band with songwriter Mark Sonnenblick ’12, lead singer Raphael Shapiro ’13 and backup singers Brendan Ternus ’12 and Yael Zinkow ’12. Together, the five bandmates play rock originals and a few covers, essentially party music. The band finds time to practice together twice a week in the residential college music rooms. The band has played in many venues, their favorite being sweaty and dirty basements to really engage their audience. “We’ve played a bunch of different kinds of shows,” Moritz said. “We’ve played one where there was literally not an audience member, and we’ve also played at Woolsey Hall for the YSO show.”

Davenport-Pierson Theater // 8:00 p.m.

BRAINSONGS, OR THE PLAY ABOUT THE DINOSAUR FARM

Directed by Gabe Greenspan, this play will give you a taste of the South.

Come see what all the fuss is about.

Yale Cabaret // 11:00 p.m.

// THE KEEP CALM, YALE MUSIC SCENE

The Keep Calm (top) and Sister Helen.

A STREETCAR NAMED FUNK

A Streetcar Named Funk, which plays soul, R&B, rock, pop and funk, was just a group of instrumentalists while they were looking for a singer. It consisted of Moritz ’13 on guitar, Prillaman ’13 on bass, Simao ’13 on drums, Andi Zhou ’13 on piano, Alyssa Hasbrouck ’14 and Grant Phelps ’13 on saxophone, Nathaniel Meyer ’13 on trumpet and Tim Gladding ’13 on euphonium. They finally found their vocalist, Michael Blume ’13, and formed the student band on campus with the most expansive lineup. With nine members, Moritz said that it was almost impossible to coordinate practice times. “At Yale, everyone’s so busy,” Moritz said. “We practice from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Tuesday nights, since that’s literally the only time we could all make the practice.” Like Moritz’s other band, Jamestown, A Streetcar Named Funk has had a few funny shows in which only a few people showed up. “That’s life and performing,” Blume said. “But we’ve also done some awesome shows in packed basements with great energy.” If you’re looking for a balance of covers and originals, then A Streetcar Named Funk may be your Yale band. Head to an offcampus basement party and you might just catch them. Contact JACK LINSHI at jack.linshi@yale.edu .

“ONE OF THE FEW GOOD THINGS ABOUT MODERN TIMES: IF YOU DIE HORRIBLY ON TELEVISION, YOU WILL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN. YOU WILL HAVE ENTERTAINED US.” — KURT VONNEGUT

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

RICKY GERVAIS DOES IT AGAIN

The sex laws of robotics

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (“Runaround,” 1942): 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. Jacob Evelyn’s One Law of Robotics (2012): 1. Robots are really, really cool. Welcome to The Future. Robots are everywhere, from your toaster to your made-in-Japan puppy, and life is good. With the robotics of The Future, humans never have to worry about the stresses of the modern world, like cooking dinner every night, negotiating rush-hour traffic and making love to your spouse. Let robots do these things for you! Let’s look at some robots we have today, starting with the Roomba. The Roomba, if you’ve been living under a rock since 2002 (or under a piece of furniture in a Roomba-less household), is the king of modern robotic invention, and quite possibly the pinnacle of all human innovation. It’s a robot that vacuums. Of all household chores, robots nabbed the fun one. Vacuuming lets you suck up dust bunnies with a magic cleaning tube, while drowning out the sound of your downstairs neighbor learning to play the trombone (or making out with a Wookiee … who can tell the difference?). Rest assured, Roombas of The Future will have expanded their capabilities to other “tedious” jobs like eating the last cookie on the platter that everyone’s too self-conscious to take. You can still have fun doing laundry at home while your Roomba takes that vacation you always wanted (but never had time for), or goes out to that new restaurant with your boyfriend of three years. Didn’t think robots could get that personal? Think again. Already the company TrueCompanion has created

JAKE EVELYN THE FUTURE what it calls “the world’s first sex robot,” cleverly named Roxxxy. Designed by a Bell Labs artificial intelligence researcher, Roxxxy has everything you could ever want in a spouse: the ability to converse about one of several preprogrammed topics related to your interests (like football, or $3000 sex robots), five preset personalities designed for wouldbe Roxxxy enthusiasts— “Young Yoko” (pedophiles?) or “Frigid Farrah” (date rapists?) —and best of all, an off switch. If you’re on the market for a partner who listens to you, a partner who can be as calm or as playful as you wish, who has vibrating genitals and smells like a rubber factory and doesn’t move her lips when she talks, you’re in luck! But that’s today. In The Future, technology will be much more sophisticated, and Roxxxy will be so advanced that you might confuse her for just another ordinary woman with multiple personality disorder and vibrating genitals. In fact, the hardest part of life in The Future may be distinguishing humans from incredibly lifelike robots (in order to identify whom to subjugate). Already it’s hard to tell whether that emailer is really a Nigerian prince or just a spambot (and whether or not the people who ask about it on Yahoo! Answers should be considered intelligent life at all). In The Future, it’ll be impossible. That global robot takeover we all know is coming will happen simply because we have no way of knowing who’s really human. But it won’t all be bad. We’ll ride around in supersmart, accident-free autonomous cars (which have been around since 2005, but why rush change?). We’ll have robots make us food and tie our shoes. And maybe, in 20 years when we finally get to The Future, Siri will even acknowledge the existence of birth control. Contact JAKE EVELYN at jacob.evelyn@yale.edu .

The 69th Golden Globes have come and gone, sans excitement and upsets — sound familiar? The awards show hasn’t been relevant in years: not in presentation, not in star power, not even in choice of cable network. At most, the Globes offer a cooler, hipper venue for Hollywood’s elite to pat each other on the back. And that’s just because they serve liquor at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. A lot of it. But at least there was Ricky Gervais. The raunchy, crude, thoroughly inappropriate British comedian was (like last year) the lone bright spot of the entire evening. And why’s that? Because the man is not afraid to pull punches, he’s not afraid to tell it like it is. So January 15th rolled around, and Gervais imparted his wit on all those in attendance. And I, at least, consider his performance another success. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a closer look at his opening monologue, dissecting as we go. “Hello, I’m Ricky Gervais and welcome to the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.” Name? Check. Event? Check. Location? Check. Off to a good start, Ricky. “Tonight you get Britain’s biggest comedian, hosting the world’s second-biggest awards show, on America’s third-biggest network. Sorry, is it? Fourth. It’s fourth.” Personally, I don’t think NBC is that bad. Their Sunday night football game always has the best picture quality, in my opinion, and any network that can give me new episodes of “Parks and Recreation” (which has been appallingly robbed of hardware the last two awards seasons) is far from terrible. “For any of you who don’t know, the Golden Globes are just like the Oscars, but without all that esteem.” Tell me something I don’t know. “The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton.” That’ll do it. “A bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker, and more easily bought. Allegedly. Nothing’s been proved.” These are four of the top five reasons I don’t like Kim Kardashian. The fifth? She married Kris Humphries. Seriously? Who goes from Ray J, Reggie Bush, and Miles Austin to Kris Humphries? That’s like trading in a Porsche for a broken Nissan Civic that can’t play defense and doesn’t work hard enough on the glass. “But who needs the Oscars? Not me. And not Eddie Murphy. He walked out on them, and good for him. But when the man who said yes to ‘Norbit’ says no to you,

MICHAEL LOMAX CINEMA TO THE MAX you know you’re in trouble.” A very valid point. And kudos to Gervais for not explicitly mentioning Eddie Murphy’s secret drag fetish. “I love Eddie Murphy. He loves dressing up, doesn’t he? Versatile. He’s versatile. No, he is.” Spoke too soon. “Bit of trivia for you. Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler between them played all the parts in the movie ‘The Help.’ Isn’t that brilliant. They were brilliant. I cant believe they’re not here. Or maybe they are. They’re masters of disguise.”

especially not Jodie Foster’s ‘Beaver.’” The setup. “I haven’t seen it myself. I have spoken to a lot of guys here, they haven’t seen it either. That doesn’t mean it’s not any good.” And the punchline. “It’s been an amazing year in show business.” (Yeah, OK.) “It’s not all been good news. What’s with all the divorces? What’s going on? Arnold and Maria, J.Lo and Mark Anthony, Ashton and Demi. Kim Kardashian and some guy no one will remember. He wasn’t around long. Seventy-two days. A marriage that lasted 72 days. I’ve sat through longer James Cameron acceptance speeches.”

dance routine at the Oscars a couple of years ago on YouTube. They have the right idea! “But the Golden Globes aren’t just about movies. It also celebrates the best in TV as well. New shows like the amazing ‘Homeland.’ And returning shows like ‘Boardwalk Empire.’ I love that show. It’s great. It’s about a load of immigrants who came to America about 100 years ago and they got involved in bribing and corruption and they worked their way up into high society. But enough about the Hollywood Foreign Press.” You think the HFP regretted their decision to bring back Gervais by this point? “I’m joking. I love them and they’re good sports for inviting me back. What I didn’t know

THE GOLDEN GLOBES ARE TO THE OSCARS WHAT KIM KARDASHIAN IS TO KATE MIDDLETON. I’ve been saying it for years, but I’ll say it again: Hollywood needs to produce a good throwback comedy film starring Sandler and Murphy (think: “Beverly Hills Cop” meets “The Wedding Singer,” directed by pre-“Gigli” Martin Brest). Both hit their peaks over a decade ago and haven’t been the same since they reached the wrong side of 40 (watch “Meet Dave” or “Grown Ups” if you don’t believe me). If this hypothetical movie does well, look out for a revival of both their careers. You heard it here first. “Now the Hollywood Foreign Press have warned me that if I insult any of you or any of them or offend any viewers or cause any controversy whatsoever, they’ll definitely invite me back next year as well.” Touché. “They actually gave me a list of rules. I’m going to ignore them, but I thought it would be good to read them out. This is real, OK? No profanity. That’s fine. I’ve got a huge vocabulary. No nudity. See, that’s a shame. Because I’ve got a huge vocabulary. But a tiny penis. No, no. Doesn’t matter. It works. Don’t worry about it. It’s fine.” And here I was worried Gervais was going to go the whole monologue without referencing his junk. “And I’m not to libel anyone. And I must not mention Mel Gibson this year. Not his private life, his politics, his recent films, and

Sounds about right. If Cameron had won Best Director for “Avatar,” he’d still be talking. “Other celebrity scandals: Justin Bieber nearly had to take a paternity test. What a waste of a test that would have been. No, he’s not the father. The only way he could have impregnated the girl was if he borrowed one of Martha Stewart’s old turkey basters. Open wide.” Ouch. I mean, I might not be a Bieber fan (by any stretch of the imagination), but I feel like Bieber is probably due for a scandal like this about now. My evidence: lyrics from his single “Love Me” — “Love me, love me, say that you love me/Fool me, fool me, oh how you do me.” Yep. Bieber definitely sounds up to it. “It’s been a big year for women in film. ‘Bridesmaids,’ one of my favorite comedies of the year. The girls finally proved that they can be as raunchy as men. Farting, burping, cursing, performing wild sex acts, even pooping in the sink. I actually heard for research the cast spent the weekend with Dame Helen Mirren. She’s dreadful. Honestly, you don’t see a lot of it because she’s got good PR, but she’s off the rails.” First of all, “Bridesmaids” was OK. Not amazing. Just OK. Second of all, Helen Mirren? Dreadful? Blasphemy! She’s wonderful. Check out the Will Ferrell-Jack Black-John C. Reilly song-and-

is they do an awful lot for charity and their nonprofit organizations. Just like NBC.” Check out new episodes of “Parks and Recreation” every Thursday night at 8:30. I’m just saying. Your whole perception of NBC will go right out the window. “Should we get on with it? This time last year, our first presenter was the biggest movie star on the planet. I insulted his film ‘The Tourist,’ causing his career to plummet so far that he was forced to work with me on my new show, ‘Life’s Too Short,’ which premieres on HBO on Feb. 19. Please welcome the man who will wear literally anything Tim Burton tells him to, Johnny Depp.” I never thought about that before: “Edward Scissorhands,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Alice in Wonderland,” among others. Wow. Depp’s gone through more costume changes under Burton’s direction than Eddie Murphy on a Tuesday night at the roller derby. Of course, Ricky Gervais had more to say as the night went on, but this short excerpt is all the convincing I need. Gervais — come back next year! You’re funny, incisive, and biting. Drunken celebrities and bored television viewers at home deserve nothing less. Or at least that’s how I feel. Hollywood Foreign Press be damned.

range and effortless command of opera’s most demanding roles will long remain imprinted on the modern operatic tradition. My favorite sopranos are few and far between, but all are the quintessential diva: Birgit Nilsson, Montserrat Caballé, Leontyne Price and Mirella Freni. These women, like Corelli, owned the headline roles of opera — Nilsson and Freni championed Puccini, Price shone through Verdi, and Caballé reigned over Bel Canto. -I have to wrap up my short list with some conductors, lest they be forgotten. Picking and choosing conductors, I find, is more an intuitive process because they are necessarily making music through other people. In that sense, a fine orchestral recording says as much about the musicians as it does the man holding the stick. My favorites are too numerous to list here,

but I’ll share with you the ones I listen to most frequently: Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Neville Marriner, Ricardo Chailly and Karl Böhm. A last recommendation — instead of listening exclusively to their studio recordings, find some clips of these guys in rehearsal. Often the most entertaining and insightful performances never reach the concert hall. If none of the names I’ve listed interest you in the slightest, I promise I won’t take it personally. Frankly, I’d be astonished if you wholly agreed with my tastes. Use this woefully short roster as a springboard, if you like. As I said, while the music may remain the same throughout history, the sound is always changing.

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

Crash course, the artist’s hand The performance of Western art music is a supremely curious thing. It is, by its very nature, at once a traditional pursuit and a perpetual reinvention. Before I come dangerously close to opening a can of worms, let me clarify: in any given year, hundreds (if not thousands) of orchestras and performance groups around the world will invariably overlap in their seasonal selections. In other words, it’s totally plausible that in the span of a year, audiences from Tokyo to Moscow will flock to hear Brahms’ Symphony no. 1 any number of times. Yet, as it probably goes without saying, no performance is quite like any other. In pursuing a deeper understanding of classical music, it’s often easy to forget that while the music (i.e. the ink on the paper) will by and large remain the same, the performers are always changing.

S U N D AY JA N UA RY 2 9

BRAD TRAVIS BACK TO THE CLASSICS This constant development, in my opinion, is one of the fundamental forces behind the power and beauty of Western art music. In this column, I’ve talked mainly about the composers themselves while recommending a few albums here and there. This week, I want to change gears entirely — I want to share with you some of my favorite performers from this era and the last. They range from pianists to sopranos, and command virtuosity across numerous styles. Of course, musical taste is subjective; you might not be fond of everyone I mention. But something tells me you’ll like at least some of the artists on this short list.

-Two weeks ago I fortuitously rediscovered my love for a woman who has perfected her craft while hiding from the limelight. I’m starting my list with Martha Argerich for a reason: she is the most phenomenal pianist alive today (you can take your Lang Lang elsewhere, thank you). Remember Ivo Pogoreli, the Croatian pianist I recommended in my last column? A furious Argerich left the jury for the 1980 International Chopin Piano Competition — which she herself won 15 years prior — when he was dismissed in the third round. She thought him a genius; her peers disagreed. Her recordings of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G are, in my humble opinion, unsurpassed. -When it comes to string players, I admit I’m biased toward violinists, having been a medio-

UNIVERSITY CHURCH IN YALE WORSHIP SERVICE Battell Chapel // 10:30 a.m.

Make up for your debauched Saturday night.

cre one myself. Gil Shaham and Cho-Liang Lin are two of my very favorites because they not only play with such great feeling but also because their grasp of technique is as good as it gets. They do, after all, hail from the prestigious studio of Dorothy DeLay, a pillar of the Julliard School of Music. Check out Lin’s recording of Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, and Shaham’s recordings of Barber’s and Dvorák’s violin concertos. -It would be criminal, of course, not to throw in a few singers. Here’s where I can easily get into hot water: opera fans know what they like and won’t hesitate to judge the hell out of your tastes. In any case, I’m very partial to tenors, and none is more impressive than Franco Corelli. While he didn’t wield the most nuanced voice, his booming upper

BEAUTY OF BEAUTIES

Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium // 1:00 p.m. MOAR FOREIGN FILMZ PLZ.

ANGLES ON ART: REFLECTING ON WATER YUAG // 3:00 p.m.

Water is a life-sustaining force.

Contact BRAD TRAVIS at bradley.travis@yale.edu .

“ANYONE WHO TRIES TO MAKE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT DOESN’T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT EITHER.” — MARSHALL MCLUHAN

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND THEATER

// ZOE GORMAN

‘Brainsongs’ showing at the Yale Cabaret.

Levey sings his ‘Brainsongs’ // BY JULIA ZORTHIAN

The mind of Gabe Levey DRA ’13 is furnished with a red curtain made of sheets, light blue walls covered in glow-in-thedark stars, pinwheels and plastic dinosaurs. I could tell because that is what the set of “Brainsongs, or the play about the dinosaur farm” at the Yale Cabaret this weekend looks like, and “Brainsongs” takes place inside of Levey’s mind. Levey said he created the one-man show by bringing the images in his head to life. “I had all these different ideas, but I didn’t know how to put them together. The one unifying factor is that they all live in my brain. This [show] is the inside of my imagination, my brain,” Levey said. I didn’t quite realize what I was in for until I asked Levey for a copy of the script to refer to later. “There is no script,” he said. “The show changes every night. I’m … adhering to more of a map.”

An unscripted Levey meant he could interact with the audience more, visibly pleased at their reactions and, at one point, even mimicking the laugh of a drama student next to me. The show featured Levey’s (often humorous) actions more prominently than his words. Whether he was dancing with metallic mini-pinwheels or watching an electric pump blow up a large inflatable dolphin, what Levey did inside his mind (and on stage) was eager in an honest way. His raw emotion meant there was little guessing about what he was thinking: when he was excited I believed him, and when he was weeping, most of the time I felt bad for him. During a solemn moment, the music unexpectedly cut off while Levey danced and he started to cry about letting the audience down. I was surprised to find myself willing the crewmember behind the sound board to press play again, to cheer Levey up. Levey said he wanted to bare all for the

audience. “I have very intentionally taken every measure possible to make myself extremely vulnerable,” he said. “I think that level of vulnerability is really the greatest gift a performer can give to an audience.” Yes, Levey’s gift is a weird one. At very few Cabaret performances does one get the chance to see a play that takes place in the creator’s mind. If you are looking for the standard play experience, or anything remotely resembling a plotline, this is not for you. Levey did not create “Brainsongs” to deliver a story, but to reveal himself to the audience and entertain them along the way. “I hope that people leave happy,” Levey told me. And if audience members are looking for 45 minutes of offbeat simplicity, then there’s a good chance they will. Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .

Poetry with a bite // BY CLINTON WANG

Yale is at the forefront of an up-and-coming populist form of art and poetry, spurred by fifteen undergraduates looking for a way to combine interactive performance with written expression. Teeth Slam Poets will host the annual Regional College Poetry Slam starting tonight, the second time since the undergraduate group was founded less than three years ago. Dubbed “poetry for the people” and “democratization of the verse,” slam poetry is a competitive form of performance poetry that has grown exponentially since its inception in 1984. The Slam, this year under the title “New Haven Word Factory,” brings together eleven teams from New England and the Tri-State Area for a two-day competition. *** Slam poetry, which only reached the international stage in 2004, is strictly distinguished from other forms of performance poetry by its competitive nature and strict 3-minute time limit. But Teeth poets agree that the form also offers much more direct and raw expression than

S U N D AY JA N UA RY 2 9

other types of poetry do, trying to engage the audience by encouraging participation through judging. “[Slam] doesn’t dwell on form or how beautiful it sounds, but tries to connect with the audience,” Teeth poet Rebecca Aston ’14 said. “It’s a kind of communal experience. You feel like you’re part of the performance, and are encouraged to express your [feelings and reactions].” However, slam poetry has received some criticism for lacking innovation and using formulas to create a crowd-pleaser. In an interview published in the Spring 2000 issue of the Paris Review, Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom had only contempt for poetry slams. Bloom wrote, “Young men and women in various late-spots are declaiming rant and nonsense at each other.” “The whole thing is judged by an applause meter which is actually not there, but might as well be,” Bloom continued. “This isn’t even silly; it is the death of art.” Teeth members defended the

competitive nature of slam as a “gimmick” to further engage the audience in the performance, and Carmen Chambers ’12 said there still remains a lot of room for the art form to innovate, which has been spurred at the national level by awards for “pushing the art forward.” In this way, the form and discourse of poetry slams might serve as a barometer for assessing cultural trends. Chambers reiterated slam poetry’s unique power to engage audience members in the poetic process, and expects that the art form will continue to evolve and rise in popularity. “It really tugs on human emotions,” Chambers said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been moved to tears by slam poems.” *** Yale’s on campus slam poets take their name from a spoken word group that existed at Yale in the ’90s. The name “Teeth” also evokes slam poetry’s direct and edgier style — “poetry with a bite,” as the group motto goes. Members have joined the Teeth Slam Poets from a variety of back-

VIOLIN RECITAL BY WENDY SHARP Morse Recital Hall // 4:00 p.m.

MOAR VIOLINZ PLZ.

grounds. Teeth team member Aston said she had never been to a poetry slam until she arrived at Yale, where its direct and personal style engaged her in contrast to written poetry, which she finds difficult to relate to on a human level. Chambers wrote poetry since second grade, and used to present them by standing on the coffee table and reading them out loud. Discovering poetry slams only as a sophomore, she was drawn in by their accessibility and powerful expression. Sophia Sanchez ’13, now the group’s president, said she found slam poetry when searching for a new hobby after debating in high school. Emphasizing performance and interaction with the audience, slam poetry appealed to her love of public performance with a very personal and expressive feel, which gives her an almost “therapeutic” break from the academic rigors of her biology major. Teeth’s team of five, selected from a group of 15 to 20 initial candidates through a poetry

YALE CAMARATA: FOUNTAIN MUSIC SERIES First Congregational Church // 4:00 p.m.

Pretty music in a pretty church.

slam at the beginning of the year, ranked eleventh in the nation last year, with Macalester College’s team scoring in first place. This is the first major competition of the semester in a series of three, and Chambers said the key to a strong performance lies in memorizing the poems and exuding confidence. Competition offers Teeth the chance to interact with other performers and gain exposure to other techniques and styles. For Chambers, the slam poetry community is like a huge family, and she has made many friends on other teams with whom she remains in regular contact, sharing poems and YouTube videos of their performances. “Many people do poems about a breakup or the death of a mother,” Chambers said. “[Competitors] are making themselves vulnerable in front of hundreds of people, so they get really close.” Michael Rosen, last year’s head of the Wesleyan slam poetry team, the team with whom Teeth members bonded the most during last year’s season, said he greatly

WEEKLY READING WITH THE YALE SHAKESPEARE PROJECT Saybrook College WC-11 // 8:00 p.m.

MOAR SHAKESPEAREZ PLZ.

enjoyed getting to know the Teeth team, calling them “a group of people with a lot of heart.” “A lot of us were nervous that it’d be too intense, [but the Teeth poets] really created a lot of positivity and made us feel welcome,” Rosen said. *** Slam poetry has also certainly influenced the Teeth poets’ lives beyond the art. Teeth founder Amaya Dimyen ’13 said that the experience of slam competition has taught her to be able to look beyond scores and “ask the valuable questions: did you connect with those listening? Did you genuinely share a piece of yourself? Did you shift people’s perspectives?” The Regional Slam will begin this evening at 6p.m. in LinslyChittenden Hall room 101, with the first three rounds taking place over the course of the night, and the final round will take place Saturday at 8p.m. in Sudler Hall. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .

“TELEVISION KNOWS NO NIGHT. IT IS PERPETUAL DAY. TV EMBODIES OUR FEAR OF THE DARK, OF NIGHT, OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THINGS.” — MARSHALL MCLUHAN

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

ISHAAN THAROOR International correspondent, blogger, global citizen // BY AKBAR AHMED

// HENRY EHRENBERG

Q. What role has Yale played in the success you’ve had as a journalist and your life post-graduation? A. I studied a fair amount of Asia in my schoolwork, so I felt well prepared to engage with various issues I was reporting on. The first thing that really blows you away, though, is the number of Yalies everywhere. I arrived in Hong Kong and already had a network of Yale friends. [I had] Ivy League friends, journalist friends, and a sort of Venn diagram with Ivy League journalists in the middle. It’s also the exposure to various people and debates in society that you get at Yale that gives you a real sense of confidence when approaching writing for a real publication. You have a spring in your step. So, I had a cover story in Time International when I was 23. There’s a kind of hubris you get from being at Yale. It’s not necessarily always a good thing, but I definitely had a kind of confidence my peers did not. An environment full of striving, competitive people gives you that. Q. What parts of your Yale experience made joining Time seem like the right choice for you? A. I joined Yale in the fall of 2002, just before the Iraq War. I grew up in New York and went to an international school. I don’t think I was really prepared to be in an American institution. [Yale] was a bit of a culture shock. My way of entering Yale was to be a bit politicized. I fell into the antiwar movement and built my identity around what were, at that time, my left-wing politics. Sophomore year, I founded, along with some friends, a magazine called “Hippolytic.” It was a smart, informed, center-left paper to combat the fact that there were two or three right-wing journals [on campus] with outside funding and such. That was my entry into really being a committed journalist. Q. What do you make of the Yale political environment? A. Everyone here has liberal politics, but there’s a great deal of apathy as

well, and I don’t fault them for this. They’re more careerist about what they are doing. When I was here, there were a lot of divisive issues: Kerry vs. Bush, the labor strike. A segment of the population was working with unions, and lots of kids were activists, helping Yale employees push for better contracts. You felt like you were in a polarized space. Yale is very much the halls of power. It sends its best and brightest to all sorts of prominent institutions. I just hope kids going into them are going in with a consciousness about these issues. Q. Do you think that spirit of student activism is still alive at Yale? A. You know, it’s a difficult time for a lot of people. I completely understand why students would want to focus on putting themselves in places that would guarantee them good jobs. I wouldn’t expect Yale students to hang around Zucotti Park for half a semester — nor is that a good idea. But when I was at Yale, there was a lot of civic engagement, not just a careerist approach. I hope there’s that similar wanderlust that I had and my peers had. Q. Would you send your kids to Yale? A. Sure, if I could afford it. Q. How should journalists approach current global events like the Arab Spring? A. They should bring [to reporting] the rigor they’re taught at Yale in their academic studies. Even though a blog post might, at the time, seem flippant and a little fluffy, you have to bring that same sort of rigor. For an international journalist, the old platform would be interning at one of the old traditional media houses, working your way up and getting sent around the world to different bureaus. Those don’t exist anymore. Increasingly, the people doing the best work are freelancers, or those on Fulbright [fellowships] in different places, like the writers in Egypt who knew the language, the country, the politics — they

had a degree of understanding that an earlier generation of foreign correspondents didn’t. Q. What else do you think young people going into journalism need to know? A. It’s not Goldman Sachs money — it’s not a fraction of it. You have to work really, really hard, often without a reward. But, at its height, I’ll be, say, doing a story I would pay to do. You have to have a degree of wanderlust and a real empathy for the world. You have to care. Q. You run a news blog. How can journalists keep themselves competitive in an increasingly online environment? A. I’m hardly the one to give sage advice — in my entire career, everything happened by accident! But yes, you just have to be prepared to be adaptable. For journalists now, being skilled with, for example, a video camera is more essential. You have to be a wide array of things — a good blogger, a good pundit — because news organizations are increasingly trying to make brands out of every one of their reporters. Q. Does the idea of brand-name journalists affect the news value and quality of the stories produced today? A. I don’t think it’s ideal. It’s just that the industry is trying to refashion itself into something more nimble and more able to deal with the abundance of information people have. Still, a lot of people out there are doing good work that isn’t self-promoting. For anybody, even in an earlier era or any young person, you still need to be a good reporter, a good writer, an agile thinker. Q. You’re at Yale to talk about “Journalism in the Year of the Protester.” What do you think is behind that phenomenon and where do you think these movements are going? A. Time made “the protester” the person of the year for 2011, and it was, in many ways, with the risk of being hyperbolic, an incredible year in human history in terms of the scale of upheaval that we saw. It was also unprecedented in the depth of information and exposure these uprisings got. In the past, it’d have been easier for authoritarian governments to hide these things. But the rise of the Internet and information sharing enabled these uprisings to gain exposure. What was curious is how upstaged the Western media was by other forms of information. We had to react to it. Thanks to Al Jazeera in particular, and the liberal bloggers in Egypt and Tunisia with their clips and images of the

people killed, we were made to experience revolutions real-time. So what was unique about 2011 was that the events were global in their scale and global in their reception. They had resonance elsewhere — they fed into a summer of protest in Europe, and were invoked for months by Occupy Wall Street. It was a kind of fascinating global moment of dissent. Q. What’s fueling all this dissent? A. Rates of inequality are higher than they’ve ever been, especially in G20 countries. There’s a sense that, in the US, and more and more vehemently in Europe, and with Anna Hazare in India as well, there’s a worrying disenchantment in the belief that democratic politics can deliver. People are dissatisfied all over with kleptocratic elites. There are even very marked rightwing xenophobic backlashes in Eastern Europe, that are, in part, a response to just a complete disillusionment with the liberal European project.

slowly figure out ways that are both national and more global to redress this. Q. What new approaches do you think will be espoused? A. We can see the worrying continued success of the Chinese model. The Economist’s Davos coverage is all about the rise of state capitalism and the sense that democratic politics is in crisis around the world. Q. It’s possible that this kind of upheaval will lead to more volatile situations. What sort of challenges have you faced when covering such crises, like the rise of Maoism in Nepal? A. When you’re a young guy going out in the field, people get a bit amused by you. I’ve interviewed heads of state and they’ve giggled at me, but when they have to sit down and answer my questions, they realize that [I can be] tough and engaging.

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IT’S NOT GOLDMAN SACHS MONEY — IT’S NOT A FRACTION OF IT. YOU HAVE TO WORK REALLY, REALLY HARD, OFTEN WITHOUT A REWARD.

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fter a Yale career defined by an involvement in left-wing political activism, Ishaan Tharoor ’06 joined Time magazine as a Hong Kong-based correspondent writing on Asian geopolitics. He now works out of Time’s New York headquarters and edits Global Spin, the magazine’s foreign affairs blog. WEEKEND met with the busy journalist before a Master’s Tea he gave Tuesday to discuss careerist Yalies, journalistic commitment and how he got heads of state to take him seriously.

In the Arab world, people who were living under authoritarian regimes that many in the US thought would never change showed that they want what we all want: a stake in society and who rules it. That’s true for the Occupy protests too, and the protests in London, Chile, India — there’s a political crisis in the world that’s as profound as the economic crisis. Q. Where do you see that crisis going? A. A lot of the cognoscenti and various smart people meeting at forums like Davos need to face some hard questions about the structures of society and the way inequality has grown, and

Q. Going forward, what do you think your journalistic focus will be? A. A lot of editing and writing about myriad subjects, e.g. South Asia — I just wrote about Pakistan. I love reporting news about the world and certain kinds of politics, and I also feel a responsibility to engage certain issues, like multiculturalism, the health of democracies and human rights. Luckily, I have a platform where I can do that. Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .