Blue Devils King of The Mount

Transcription

OPINION The True Path to Equality - Page 5
Horses Are People Too
SPORTS Riding the Mustang - Page 11
- Page 7
LIFESTYLES Can’t Afford Designer Bags? - Page 12
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Volume 103 No. 17
Social Security Numbers Exposed in CCSU Letters CCSU Professor
Releases Critically
Acclaimed Book
Christopher Boulay
News Editor
Melissa Traynor
News Editor
Over the past week approximately 750
CCSU students have received mail from the
Bursar’s office that revealed their social security numbers in the name and address window of the envelopes. The letters were folded
incorrectly by a malfunctioning machine in
the office.
The letters mailed were IRS 1098T
forms, which are student tuition statements
that were meant to be mailed out by January 31. Last Monday, during the preparation
of the first batch of 2,300 letters which were
being folded by the machine, all were folded
incorrectly, but the office was able to catch
about 1550 letters and correct them before
they were mailed out.
Once Bursar employees were able to
trace the origin of the problem, the machine
was recalibrated and was able to fold the remainder of the entire set of 17,000 letters correctly.
Mark McLaughlin, the Assistant Vice
President of the Marketing and Communications department, is helping to handle the
situation, along with Bursar Elizabeth Fanguillo.
“As soon as we learned about this, we
were concerned about the protection of the
students’ identities,” McLaughlin said.
Joseph Mendyka, a senior at CCSU, was
a recipient of one of the exposed letters.
“I got the letter and looked down and just
noticed that there was other information on
the envelope, but I didn’t realize that it was
my social security number until I saw the
story on the news Thursday night,” Mendyka
said.
“I’m a little concerned because I’m about
to graduate and I will be looking at apartments
and applying for credit cards. It’s just blatant
disregard for identity security,” he added.
The Bursar’s Office also sent out a follow-up letter to apology for the folding mistakes.
McLaughlin explained, “We immediately sent out a letter addressed to those
750 students expressing our deep regret. We
suggested that students take steps to protect
Dr. Matthew Warshauer, history professor at CCSU, released a book on Andrew
Jackson that has received a positive review
from the New Yorker magazine.
Warshauer’s book, Andrew Jackson
and the Politics of Martial Law: Nationalism, Civil Liberties and Partisanship, was
released on September 1, 2006. The New
Yorker review was by Caleb Crain in the
January 29, 2007 issue. It was also covered
in the Hartford Courant.
The New Yorker called Warshauer’s
book, “lucid and well researched.”
According to Warshauer, he is the first
author to write about martial law with Andrew Jackson in New Orleans from 1814-15.
This is Warshauer’s first book, though
he has been writing it for an extended period
of time. According to him, he has been overwhelmed with the positive feedback.
“It’s been insane,” Warshauer said. “I
looked through emails for three hours yesterday from both people I know and don’t
know. It’s very nice.”
Warshauer has received compliments
from students, teachers and historians and
has been overwhelmed by the support.
“It is very gratifying to have these people contact me,” he said.
One of Warshauer’s former students
saw the Courant’s article and brought it to
read in class. Warshauer was honored to
hear about this.
See CCSU Professsor, page 3
See Social Security , page 3
Blue Devils King of The Mount U.S. Mint Hopes New
Central men continue winning streak with 74-62 win over Mount St. Mary’s
Alex Carr
Staff Writer
Dollar Coin Will Catch On
Ted Ancher
After defeating Quinnipiac last Monday
night and Mount St. Mary’s Thursday, the CCSU
Blue Devils are surging as they maintain sole
possession of first place in the Northeast Conference. Both wins have helped to advance the
team’s overall win streak of eight consecutive
victories.
The Blue Devils are also enjoying a 14game home NEC win streak. The streak is the
longest since the 1999-2000 season in which
standout Corsley Edwards dominated the NEC.
Though the Blue Devils have faired well as
of late, they have had stretches of careless play.
Against Mount St. Mary’s however, it was a different story.
“In 10 league games we had played we have
not had more assists than turnovers in any game,”
said head coach Howie Dickenman. “Last year
we had 12 games where we had more assists than
turnovers. Last night in the team meeting it was
taken to them in a rather stern manner that we do
not value the basketball. We get sloppy and we
played this team last time, and we had 19 turnovers, and this team creates 18 turnovers a game,
most in the league. I said the key to the game will
be to protect the basketball.”
Conrad Akier / The Recorder
Acknowledging the need to lessen turnovers, the Blue Devils would go on to record
Freshman Joe Seymore had a career-high 16
14 assists, while giving up only nine turnovers.
points in the win against The Mount.
Staff Writer
Beginning this year, the
U.S. Mint will be issuing new dollar coins
featuring the first four
American presidents
in the order of their
service. George Washington, which will be released on
February 15, and will be followed by John Adams in May, Thomas Jefferson in August and
James Madison in November. The program
will culminate in 2016 with Richard Nixon.
However, the program only ends with
Nixon as of now due to United States law
stating that a president must be deceased for
at least two years before being honored on
American legal tender. Due to the recent
deaths of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan,
they will be included in the program after
Nixon respectively. The reverse will depict
the Statue of Liberty with “$1” in the lower
left hand corner of the field.
This program began due to the widespread success of the Statehood Quarters
program, which began in 1999 with Delaware
and ends in 2008 with Hawaii. This brought
an entire new generation of coin collectors
See King of The Mount, page 9
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/
into the market, making it one of the most
profitable ventures
the United States
has ever put on,
gaining more than
$4 billion due to the
cost of producing the quarter, being five cents
lower than its worth as stated on us-coin-values-advisor.com.
According to the U.S. Mint, over 140
million Americans collect the statehood quarters, which they hope will carry over into the
Presidential Dollar program. It not only has
given the government added revenue, it has
also given the coin collecting industry a bump
as well. All past American currency has seen
an immense rise in collectorship due to this
program, most notably the Washington quarters, the buffalo nickels, the Indian and Lincoln penny as well as the mercury dimes and
Morgan dollars.
Unlike its predecessor, the Sacagawea
dollar coin, these dollar coins will feature “E
Pluribus Unum” as well as its mintmark and
date along the edge of the coin, where you
would normally find the reeds. According to
See U.S. Mint, page 3
2
News
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publication of Central Connecticut State
University and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of
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The purpose of the Recorder is to approach and define issues of importance
to the students of Central Connecticut
State University.
Prisons and Singers Collaborate
For Performance at CCSU
John Petroski
Opinion Editor
The Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble
brought Time In, a performance reflecting on
women in prison, to CCSU’s Torp Theatre last
Thursday and Friday with the intent of educating students about what life is like for women
behind bars.
Time In was originally conceived by JDPE
Artistic Director Judy Dworin after she was inspired by a chance meeting with novelist Wally
Lamb in 2005 at a conference for volunteers for
prisons. He is a writing teacher at York Correctional Facility in Niantick, Conn. and the
author of Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Stories of
our Imprisoned Sisters.
Dworin envisioned Time In as a collaborative effort between her JDPE and the a cappella
singers group Women of the Cross. Beginning in January 2006, representatives from
both groups began observing and interviewing
women at York to gather material for developing a performance based on women’s reflections on their time spent in prison.
Once the production had been somewhat
developed, JDPE and WOTC returned to York
in August to share the piece with the women
inmates who had helped create it. Dworin described the scene as one of, “Tears and cheers
and hugs and incredibly deep emotion as the
women saw themselves and their work reflected
back by the JDPE and WOTC performers.”
Thursday’s performance featured a collection of poems and songs either written or inspired by prisoners at York. These poems and
songs were accompanied by dances in styles
ranging from interpretational to liquid and
which were also either created or inspired by
prisoners from York.
Andrew Clark of the Institute for the Study
of Crime & Justice at CCSU, first learned of
Time In from an article in the Hartford Courant,
and felt it was something students could learn
important lessons from.
“We don’t realize what we’re doing when
we simply say, ‘This person did something, let’s
put them in prison,’ and then we forget about
them,” said Clark. “We don’t realize the impli-
cations of the decisions that we made of them
and I really think prisoners should be heard and
people should come to understand what we’re
doing and interact with our public policy.”
Time In offered students that opportunity,
as the performance was preceded by a brief
introduction to crime and punishment in the
United States and was followed by a question
and answer discussion with the cast and two
former inmates.
Though some students admitted they had
attended to earn extra credit, most said they felt
as if they got more out of the experience than
just a few bonus points.
“I was here for a class, but I’m really glad
that I came out,” said Emma Dzamko, a junior
at CCSU. “The monologues and hearing the
different things that the women in prison had to
say was really an eye opener.”
Jessica Slauson, also a junior at CCSU,
agreed.
“It was very impacting and definitely very
emotional,” she said. “It was captivating all in
itself. You could really understand people’s life
behind bars and what some of the women went
through and the hardships of their lives prior to
incarceration.”
Other students felt the performance was
ambiguous at times.
“Sometimes, it was hard to interpret what
they were trying to convey,” said another CCSU
junior, Angela McHan. She quickly added,
“But when you could tell, it was very powerful.”
Not all found it as moving, as one CCSU
student complained that the piece was boring
and repetitive.
Entertainment was not, however, the goal
of Time In. In a study guide created for the
event, Dworin stated that, “[Time In] attempts
not only to portray who these women are and
have been, but also who they can be…The constant in our lives is change, and if we understand
this, then we must understand that change, in
the sense of transformation and development,
is possible for everyone. In their stories, their
dances and their songs, the York women prove
this. And in my mind, therein lies the hope and
possibility for us all.”
Memorial Hall has recently reconfigured the way food is served and the change
to the setup has left students debating on the
convenience of the new style. Even under
such speculation, the dining hall employees
are quite optimistic about the change.
The school’s dining room, Memorial
Hall, is divided into two sides, the north and
the south. When the spring semester began,
CCSU redesigned the setup of the food in the
service rooms so that most of the hot lunch
was offered in the north side room, leaving
much of the cold lunch in the south side.
This sudden change has left some students
questioning why the school would format the
rooms in such a way.
Some students believe the new setup is
a hassle.
“All the food isn’t on both sides anymore,” said CCSU freshman Russell Clark in
response to the new format. “I have to search
around for which side has the best meal.”
Some students find Memorial Hall’s new
setup to be more convenient in comparison to
how it used to be.
“There are more places to sit now because the new setup leaves more room to find
a seat,” said Brent Closs, freshman, who enjoys the new setup, which leaves more seats
on the south side because people are drawn
more to the north side for hot lunch.
Service Manager George Kurimay commented on the why the change was made.
“A lot of times at around 1:30 p.m., food
would be left out and the food would go to
waste and get cold,” he said. “We just shut off
all the hot lunch food on the north side.”
“No one was really using the north side
and we were trying to basically invite everyone to come to the north side,” said Resident
Dining Manager Bob Hermann. “We had
more options on that side that people were
ignoring. People were coming in on the
south side because it was quicker and easier.
We opened it up so the other students could
see the other items that we had on the other
side.”
The north side holds the main hot lunch
entrees such as pasta, chicken, potatoes and
anything else Memorial Hall serves on a
weekly basis. The south will have cold food
including desserts, salads and other cakes,
although it will contain cheeseburgers and
pizza. This forces students coming from the
south side to walk across the dining hall to the
opposite side to find hot food. The same goes
for north side students trying to find desserts
and cold lunch. According to the students on
campus, this creates inconvenience for some
and much convenience for others.
3
Celebrated Author Junot Diaz Reads Works at CCSU Social Security
Melissa Traynor
News Editor
Junot Diaz, author of Drown and named
one of the top 20 writers of the 21st century by
the New Yorker, read aloud two excerpts and
spoke to an audience in Founders Hall about
his writing style last Wednesday night.
The night began as mostly students shuffled in, along with some professors. Most of the
seats were filled as Diaz walked in, blaming
the traffic on the Merit Parkway for his late arrival.
The writer, who is of Dominican Republican descent, is the author of Drown, which
debuted in 1996, but he chose to read aloud two
pieces from his stories “Alma” and “Nilda.”
The first reading was written in second person,
Diaz said, which expressed all of the thoughts
of a Rutgers college student named Junior.
“He’s kind of my alter-ego,” Diaz said as
he introduced the story “Alma.” Describing
all of the emotions of a relationship between
Junior and his girlfriend Alma, Diaz wrote in
a conversational style and the response of the
audience ranged from quieted giggles to eruptions of laughter.
In between readings he discussed his writing style and how he doesn’t like to “strip” his
friends of material.
“If I did that, then I probably wouldn’t
take a decade to write things. That’s why I’m
the slowest writer on earth,” Diaz said.
The second reading was a highlight from
the story “Nilda,” a first-person account of a
middle-school boy who deeply cares for the
social outcast Nilda, a “guero.” To the boy’s
dismay, Nilda becomes involved with his older,
“almost-a-senior-in-high-school” brother.
Diaz stepped out from behind the podium
and stood directly in front of the seats to take
questions. He also dismissed a few students.
“For all of you who are only here to earn
extra credit in class, this is the time when you
leave,” Diaz said.
He took a question about his book Drown
and was asked to describe his character Ysrael.
“I thought it was just a really bizarre way
to open the book,” Diaz said of the character
who had his face eaten off by a pig. He wanted
the first story to be a warning to his readers.
Answering a woman from the audience
who asked him if he felt pressured to write another novel, especially after being named one
of the top 20 writers, Diaz said that sometimes
“it’s easier to be hard on yourself.”
He cited his childhood with his militaryoriented father as the source of his self discipline.
“My father would teach us how to shoot
and stuff, because he wanted us to be superboys,” Diaz said of himself and his siblings,”
he wanted us to have the masculinity of three
or four men.”
Diaz discussed a narrative voice he often
uses in his stories, which he says mirrors the
way he was in his childhood. When talking
about the difficulties of learning English, Diaz
said “I think everyone is allowed to have just
one genius moment and mine was when I was
real young and realized that I could not speak a
word of English, but I had a 12th grade reading
level. I was advanced, but just because I wasn’t
fluent, people thought I was semi-sapient.
Continued from page 1
themselves by monitoring their financial records. Also if they recognize anything suspicious, they should report them to credit reporting agencies.”
The university suggests that students
contact agencies such as Equifax, Experian
and TransUnion and request that a fraud alert
be placed on their files, after which the company will send them a free copy of their credit
report, according to the follow-up letter.
In regards to complaints filed, “only two
or three students have called in,” McLaughlin
said.
Tiffany Jones, a student at CCSU, offered her opinion.
“If my social security number was shown
and something happened, I’d definitely hold
the school liable,” she said.
The university wrote in its follow-up
letter, “While there is no indication that this
information has been or will be used for identity theft purposes, we are sending this notification to you so that you may take steps
identitytheory.com you deem appropriate” in order to protect
yourself.
Sometimes at first glance, it looks busted.”
“That’s dangerous for those identities,”
When asked about his writing habits, Diaz
Jones said. “You don’t know how many hands
said he tends to work early, around 6-10 a.m.
Diaz said, “I also know some people, those letters passed through and anyone could
though, who just let it cook in their minds for have written down names, addresses and soa long time and then just have this explosion of cial security numbers.”
“Even if people saw the social security
writing for four or five months, writing all day
numbers
and didn’t know who [the students]
and all night. It’s kind of like the immigrant
structure, I guess; working long and hard with are, that’s just not right,” said Jessica Shepherd, a CCSU student.
small pay.”
In the apology letter, CCSU gave out
the following numbers for these credit agencies in the case that students want to monitor
their credit: Equifax (860-525-6285), Experian (888-397-3742) and TransUnion (800-6807289).
Student Loan Company CCSU Professor
Tries to Fight Lender List
Christopher Boulay
News Editor
A New York student loan company is
working with United States senators to try to
get rid of school’s preferred lender lists and encourage students to look for loans from sources
that are in their best interests.
MyRichUncle.com is a student loan website that is dedicated to giving students better
deals on loans. Karin Pellman, the vice president of public relations at myrichuncle.com, is
frustrated with the current state of affairs regarding loans for college students.
“Universities use preferred lender lists
for their own benefits,” Pellman said. “It isn’t
about the students anymore. We want that to
change.”
The Federal Student Act of 1965 was created in order to help students pay for college in
a more affordable, easy way. This manifested
into a system where the school and lender benefited instead of the student. Pellman is not
happy about this and said that the loan company has worked with Senators Ted Kennedy,
Hillary Clinton and others to combat the issue.
Some legislation has been passed in order
to help ease the burden on students, but Pellman believes that it is not enough.
“We need to have preferred lender lists to
be done away with. We want students to shop
lenders. They will have a better experience and
get a better price,” she said. “Once lenders are
not competing for lists, they are competing for
you.”
Pellman relates the possibility of the abolition of preferred lender lists to the time that the
stock website E-Trade came out on the market.
“When E-Trade came into the fold, you
no longer needed the middleman. It will be
the same result when preferred lender lists are
gone,” Pellman said.
When asked what the best thing for students to do when they shop for student loans
and try to get the best deal Pellman said, “Students and parents should shop directly with the
lenders. Don’t take the list for gospel. Shop
around.”
CCSU’s financial aid department does
have a preferred lender list, but the department
says that the list is not a be all and end all for
the loan process. Gladys Colon-Lawson, the
Assistant Director of Financial Aid, says that
the school is very flexible.
“The students are not mandated to use
the lists. Many students use both the list and
outside sources,” Colon-Lawson said. “While
there are three or four lenders that the majority
of the students use, we do not advocate them to
go one way or the other.”
Pellman wants to remind students that
looking for the best loan for them is not the
easiest task. There is not an easy way to do it
through a university.
“Getting a student loan is like shopping
for car insurance,” she said. “You don’t ask the
DMV for the best insurance, you have to shop
around.”
Christopher Mazziotta, a CCSU senior,
receives student loans through Sallie Mae, a
company that considers themselves the leading
provider of student loans. Mazziotta said that
he had no problems dealing with the lender;
one that happens to be on CCSU’s preferred
lender list.
“Sallie Mae is very good in their services.
They have all types of payment plans and I
determine all of the requirements of the loan
through them. Any arrangements that have
to be made [regarding the loan] go to CCSU
through Sallie Mae. I have had no problems at
all,” Mazziotta said.
While Pellman made it clear that she isn’t
just advertising her group for all students to
purchase loans from. MyRichUncle.com offers both public and private loans. Pellman explained that when MyRichUncle.com came into
the market, the universities that planned to add
them to their lists did not care at all what the
loan prices were.
“Universities wanted things that were
good for them, not the students,” she said.
MyRichUncle.com is still working with
the United States Senate in order to put pressure on universities and the Department of Education to get the problem of preferred lender
lists fixed.
“I graduated from CCSU. To come back
to CCSU and influence them is incredibly gratifying,” he said.
The CCSU website has a press release on
the school’s homepage informing web visitors
that Warshauer was recognized in the New
Yorker.
The book was published by the University of Tennessee Press. Warshauer selected
the college publisher because of the volume
of scholars that print with the same or similar
publishers.
“I always tell my students that
professors write just like they
do. But the difference is that
they can get a letter grade, and
for us, it is pass/fail.”
- Matthew Warshauer
“It is very scholarly,” he said. “There are
different degrees of prestige for different university presses. I picked the University of Tennessee because they asked me.”
Warshauer has two main arguments in the
book. The first explains how Andrew Jackson’s declaration of martial law set a precedent
for the use of emergency powers that others
have used. The second is regarding President
Jackson’s character. According to Warshauer,
many people believe that Jackson was insane.
Warshauer on the other hand, disagrees.
“Though President Jackson did some rotten things, I don’t think he was insane,” said
Warshauer. “He was a pretty sharp man and he
was successful in what he did.”
Regarding the book’s success, Warshauer
is very pleased.
“Authors write books, work on them and
hope that they will be well received. I believed
that my topic was important. I had to wait and
see if others thought that it was important,” he
said. “I always tell my students that professors
write just like they do. But the difference is
that they can get a letter grade, and for us, it
is pass/fail.”
Warshauer is planning on releasing a second book that is currently in the works at the
moment. It will be a one volume biography of
Andrew Jackson that is part of a multi-volume
set of all of the United States Presidents. It
is going to be compiled by the NOVA Science
Publishers. It is expected to be finished at the
end of this year.
New Dollar Coin
the U.S. Mint the “Presidential $1 Coin Act
specifies measures to ensure that an adequate
supply of $1 coins is available for commerce
and collectors. It requires Federal agencies
and instrumentalities (including certain nonappropriated fund instrumentalities), entities
that operate any business on Federal property,
the United States Postal Service, and certain
transit systems to be fully capable of accepting and dispensing $1 coins and to display
signs and notices of this capability.”
The U.S. Mint is also working closely
with the Federal Reserve to “ensure that United States Mint officials can make informed
decisions regarding production volumes.”
A widely recognized fault in the handling of the Sacagawea Dollar when it was
first issued for circulation in 2000 was that
it wasn’t accepted in vending machines and
was often hard to get because they were
never distributed in change. To remedy this
problem, on the U.S. Mint’s website it states
that “the United States Mint and the Federal
Reserve are reaching out to, and building relationships with, a variety of stakeholders as
outlined in the Act. This includes entities that
use $1 coins in daily transactions (such as
retailers); coin operator/vending companies;
coin dealers and collectors; and other Federal
Government agencies.”
I was able to walk around campus and
ask people what they thought of this new
program and using a dollar coin. Fifteen out
of 15 people asked were opposed to the idea
and favored the dollar bill. However when
told that they soon would be able to use them
in vending machines, and other things of
the like, their opinions changed drastically.
Though most countries around the world use
a dollar coin, Americans have rejected all
dollar coins for the most part beginning with
the Eisenhower dollar, which ran from 1971
to 1978. The peace dollar, which ran from
1921-1928 and 1934-1935, was the last dollar in coin form that was widely used by the
American public.
There’s no doubt that this coin will be
a hit will collectors of all ages. But in terms
of it being in circulation, one thing’s for sure,
only time will tell how Americans truly feel
about carrying an extra coin in their pockets.
Opinion/Editorial
4
Editorial
Before anything else is said, we must make clear to our
readers that, as we write this, the news has just broken. Nothing has been proven, substantiated or confirmed. It very well
may or may not be proven, substantiated or confirmed before
The Recorder hits stands on Wednesday. Nonetheless, the Iranian government has announced that their scientists have discovered a cure for AIDS.
According to the admittedly suspect Iranian Fars news
agency, “After seven long years of arduous work, Iranian scientists here on Saturday introduced a medicine which cures Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.” Fars went on to report,
“The drug named ‘IMOD’ is completely effective and safe with
no proved side effects.”
In fairness, Fars also recently reported news that a UFO
crashed in Iran and claimed that Israel was practicing genocide
against their Lebanese neighbors with poison-filled birthday
balloons, so their claim that Iranian scientists have discovered
a cure for AIDS must be taken with a grain of salt. Even so, if
this claim is proven true, serious questions will be raised.
Will our opinion of Iran and the Middle East in general
change for the better if Iranian scientists have indeed discovered a cure for AIDS? Would such an important medical discovery be grounds to overlook Iran’s nuclear aspirations, or
pardon Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s declaration that the
Middle East would be better off, “Without the existence of the
Zionist regime” and other saber-rattling that call for Israel’s
destruction?
More importantly, if this news is true, what will Tehran’s
next step be? Will they openly offer this medicine to the world
in hopes of fostering goodwill towards their nation? Or will
they hold the cure hostage, using it as leverage in future diplomatic negotiations? In the same line, would they use it as
a “shield” of sorts to prevent future American or Israeli air
strikes? Even if they did, would the American or Israeli government let this influence their foreign policy?
Also, if a cure for AIDS was indeed discovered, might
that discovery bring about a new sexual revolution? This in
itself would raise new problems. Will teenage birthrates rise?
How about abortion rates? How will society as a whole adapt
to confront these already contentious issues if their incidents
increase?
Would the United States maintain favorable relations with
African nations forged by America’s help in their fight against
AIDS, or would those nations abandon our trade in favor of
China and the economical development it promises to bring to
the continent?
Clearly, an Iranian discovery of a cure for AIDS raises
more issues and may possibly cause more problems than it resolves. Still, we cannot deny that if this does in fact prove true
the world will be far better off. Imagine a world where this
awful disease was eradicated. Imagine all the people saved
from a painful death and the money saved on contraceptive
movements and interventions. All the benefits would never fit
in this editorial. As such, we feel it is imperative of our government to not only give the Iranians the benefit of the doubt
on this issue, but to take all steps possible to reach an accord if
their claims do prove true.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
I was glad to see news editor Christopher
Boulay take note of the rampant media demonization of Hugo Chavez in the recent op-ed,
“Modern Day McCarthyism” (Jan. 23).
What gets lost in nearly all media perspectives, including yours, is historical perspective.
It wouldn’t take long for The Recorder, or The
Washington Post, for that matter, to lay out a
concise history of American capitalist imperialism in Central and South America over the
last half-century:
* Democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz
took vast uncultivated lands for redistribution
among poor citizens—while compensating the
previous landowners—and was victimized by
a CIA coup that led to more than 40 more years
of violent government suppression of the poor
and indigenous, with a death toll estimated at
200,000.
* When Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua in 1979, they instituted democratic
elections, a national constitution and sought to
make inroads into education assistance and national health care. Sadly, they did it with Marxist ideology including land redistribution, so
the United States trained and funded the Contras, a raping, torturing and murdering force for
destabilization. Their work, combined with the
crippling affects of an economic embargo, led
to the fall of the efforts to bring Nicaragua out
of subservient poverty a decade later.
* When financing opposition could not
prevent the popular election of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1970, the United States was
quick to act. Allende sought to bring Chile out
of poverty by nationalizing copper mining and
banking to fund healthcare and education. The
CIA, which had funded opposition and chaos in
the country during Allenede’s efforts, claimed
If you have any questions or comments
concerning The Recorder, please feel
free to send a letter to the Editor at
[email protected]
Letters must include a name and
should not be much longer than 200
words. The Recorder reserves the
right to edit letters.
to play no role in the military coup that killed
Allende in 1973 and led to thousands of citizens being killed or “disappeared.” The copper
mines stayed under United States control.
* Jose Figueres Ferrer was elected by Costa Ricans three times. He nationalized banking, granted women the right to vote, enacted
welfare and guaranteed public education. But
he was a socialist, and despite his opposition to
communism and willingness to work with the
CIA, the United States attempted to overthrow
his government, and attempted his assassination twice. Why? He was a social democrat who
criticized American imperialism.
* Joao Goulart was president of Brazil in
1961. He took over oil refineries and uncultivated land, and nationalized a subsidiary of
U.S. telecom giant ITT. Naturally, a violent and
authoritarian military coup backed by the U.S.
followed. The CIA called it a “democratic rebellion.”
Given the long-term U.S. imperialism
in these and many other countries in the region (Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Colombia)
throughout our American iron curtain, it’s not
difficult to extrapolate what the CIA is planning to do in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Profits must not be sacrificed in the name of
human rights and national sovereignty. We will
pour billions of dollars into funding opposition
and spreading disinformation. Should this fail,
the United States will directly finance military
coups in these countries, at a terrible loss of life
and liberty.
The reforms in South America should be
viewed with hope, as an effort to free impoverished nations from the bonds of economic
imperialism. But that hope should be tempered
with a knowledge of history.
Philip Medeiros
CCSU grad, ‘04
Christopher Hutchinson / The Recorder
War is Over (If You Want It)
Christopher Hutchinson
Staff Writer
The sun was shining down on more than
100,000 antiwar protestors who gathered
on Saturday, January 27 to collectively say
“NO!” to the United States occupation of Iraq.
Washington, D.C.’s streets buzzed with the
enthusiasm of a growing antiwar movement
that is just beginning to mobilize the more
than 70 percent of U.S. citizens who oppose
the Iraq war.
Families, celebrities, women’s organizations, unions, peace groups, radical and
revolutionary organizations convened in our
nation’s capitol for an antiwar march issued
by United for Peace and Justice, a national antiwar coalition.
For those who are experienced or new
to the antiwar movement, January 27 was an
affirmation to our belief that despite political differences we can all come together in a
united front to oppose the injustice of the Iraq
war.
Antiwar activist and CCSU graduate
student Erin Kenney said, “The experience
of being at the antiwar demonstration was life
changing. Too often we disconnect ourselves
from what is going on in the world outside of
our own and we need to connect to that.”
“It was good to see people realize that
there is a cause that needs immediate action,”
Kenney continued. “It was heartwarming to
see people from all over come together for
this cause and recognize that this war is immoral, inhumane and it needs to end now!”
This antiwar march was in many ways
a response to the escalation of the war by our
government. The attitude of those in attendance was enthusiastic. However, many were
dismayed by the lack of action taken by the
Democrats who now hold a majority in both
the House and Senate.
In the 2006 November elections, Republicans were ousted by Democrats who prom-
ised to work towards an end to the Iraq war
and right the wrongs made by Republican
legislators. The best they have done so far is
argue over the semantics of a resolution that
denounces President Bushes planned troop
increase.
While legislators argue semantics, U.S.
soldiers, most all of them college age, are
maimed or killed daily in combat. This does
not even begin to assess the havoc wreaked on
Iraqi citizens with a death toll reaching well
over 600,000.
Even if it seems as though there is no
end in sight to this war, the antiwar movement
is essential in creating a space where people
can safely assemble and voice their opinions.
Most importantly is the addition of active
duty G.I.’s to the movement.
John Hutto, an active duty officer in the
Navy, helped found Appeal for Redress, an
organization of 1,200 active-duty personnel
and veterans who favor a U.S. withdrawal
from Iraq.
According to the North County Times,
“Hutto said more than 200 officers have
signed on to his organization. ‘This is a very
huge step for an active-duty member to step
out this way,’ he said.”
The North County Times continued,
“Hutto said members of the military have to
‘make a distinction between following orders
and having misgivings about those orders. I
show up every day. I’m a hard worker. I was
just promoted.’”
“I’m not an insubordinate sailor, but I
am a sailor who is challenging tradition, challenging the culture.”
John Hutto will be flying to Connecticut
from his base in Norfolk, Virginia to speak
at an event held by Connecticut United for
Peace on Sunday, February 18. The location is Church of the Holy Trinity, 381 Main
Street, Middletown, Conn. For more information contact Christopher Hutchinson at
(860) 324-7899.
5
Army For Hire
Burke A. Downer
Staff Writer
Blackwater USA is the world’s foremost
militia for hire. It’s based out of the United
States, and while we must legally allow it to exist, should we support it? No. Should we be their
number one employer and benefactor? No.
Currently, Blackwater has bases in North
Carolina and Illinois, and recruiting posts country-wide, including one here in Connecticut.
Blackwater was founded as a private security
group in 1996 and has grown into a small army.
The United States hires Blackwater to go into
Iraq and other countries and perform security
detail and other missions just as our actual military would. They’re well-armed, well-manned
and ready to fight. The United States contracts
out to Blackwater for multiple reasons: they believe we don’t have enough military units without them, they come cheaper than the actual U.S.
military, and they don’t count against the death
tolls.
That’s right. These men, whom the United
States license to kill, are not held to their actions
as a soldier is. They can kill civilians as well as
soldiers, and to the U.S. government it doesn’t
matter if they get the right man or not because
it’s not their problem. In addition to their kill
count not going against U.S. military numbers,
neither does their death count. Any man on the
Blackwater security team killed doesn’t get
counted toward the U.S. military death toll. This
is troubling. The United States is willing to hire
non-military units just to make their numbers
look better.
Additionally, when a Blackwater employee
is killed in action it doesn’t have to be, and almost
always isn’t, reported. Earlier this week you may
have heard that two more U.S. helicopters were
shot down. On January 23, in one of the crashes
five members of Blackwater USA were killed.
They will not be remembered by the army except in a passing mention by U.S. Ambassador
to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, during his January
24 press release, “They represent the best of
America, showing valor and courage in the work
they did each day.” If we hire private armies to
do our bidding, they should be considered and
regarded as members of the U.S. military.
Blackwater has had its share of trouble
back home too. Many people, like me, see the
wrong in a private army. Blackwater recently
announced they were ready to provide brigadesize units for U.S. “humanitarian efforts.” Giving such decision-making power to a private
company is wrong. It’s almost as if the U.S. government is saying, “What momma don’t know
won’t hurt her.”
They’re willing to look the other way, and
disregard their responsibilities and control in
order to get what they want. They’re willing to
throw a broken arrow and spit in the face of all
U.S. military personnel who have dedicated their
lives to service. They’re willing to spit in the face
of the American public by hiding their numbers
and thus the truth from us. That the U.S. is willing to contract out killing and not own up to it is
despicable. I’m not mad at Blackwater USA for
existing; I’m mad at the U.S. government for being so cowardly that they use their services. Man
up, United States.
The True Path to Equality
John Petroski
Opinion Editor
February, also known as “Black History
Month” ever since 1976, is the time of year
when we Americans get together and talk
about how important it is to finally achieve
racial equality in our nation. It is also the
month when some people do all they can to
ensure that racial equality will forever remain
a dream.
What is amusing is that many of the people who scream for equality are the very ones
who support policies that make a mockery of
the term.
Before I step on my soapbox, however, it
may be prudent for me to clear a few things
up. I am a white male who does not agree with
affirmative action, reparations for black citizens or even banning the “n-word.” Nonetheless, despite what some people would like you
to think, being white and having such beliefs
does not make me a racist.
Indeed, I’d argue that the true racists are
those who argue for affirmative action or for
limiting freedom of speech, for they are the
ones who continue to insist that a man continue to be judged based on the color of his skin,
rather than the content of his character.
That muffled sound you hear is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rolling over in his grave,
beset with horror at the way his followers have
failed to understand his words, but many peo-
ple won’t see it that way. These are the types
that fail to see the great hypocrisy in affirmative action. They fail to see this injustice, because they fail to understand what “equality”
truly means.
Equality means hiring the best candidate
for a job. Equality does not mean hiring the
best candidate to fill a quota based on superficialities. Equality means filling universities
with the brightest minds and hardest workers,
not the scarcest races or genders. Equality
means living in a society where all men are
judged, ranked, graded, hired, fired, sought
after and ignored based solely on their merit.
Equality does not mean that certain persons
are given certain privileges and advantages
simply because of what they look like.
In short, equality means that you have
to make it on your own and that you will be
judged by the same exact standards as your
neighbor.
For if we allow blacks and other racial
minorities an advantage in getting into colleges or being hired for a job, what are we really back to doing? Judging people based on
the color of their skin and nothing more. Just
because it happens to work in the favor of minorities for a change doesn’t make the practice
any less racist than a non-merit-based judgment that hinders them.
Naturally, that’s not a very popular way of
looking at things. It’s much easier to play the
victim and ask for certain advantages to “even
up the score.” But make no mistake about it—
black and other minority leaders that support
affirmative action take that stance not because
they seek equality, not because they seek to
“even up the score,” but because they seek an
edge. They wish for their particular groups in
society to get a boost while insisting that other
groups must do without one.
It is sad that affirmative action exists and
enjoys such popular support, as it is an affront
to all those who truly believe in equality, and
it is, in the long run, a detriment to all society.
When we start hiring less-qualified people for
jobs simply because of their skin color or last
name, we aren’t helping our nation at all—unless, of course, our goal is to create a gilded
class, void of all true substance.
That is not what America stands for and
that should not be our goal. This is a land
where all men are created equal, not kept so by
artificial means. This is a country that values
competition, tenacity and drive; not handicaps, callowness and complacency. This is a
nation that values merit, not birthright.
As such, we should, as a nation, refuse to
judge a man by what color he was born, and
instead make our judgments based on what for
our nation he has borne forth.
We should, as a nation, throw away the
discriminatory and racist practice of affirmative action.
We should, as a nation, remember our
creed: “Liberty, Justice and Equality for All.”
Everyone Hates Russia, But Not Me.
Christopher Boulay
News Editor
Everyone hates Russia. That is what the
media tell us, it’s what our parents tell us and
it’s what the entire western world tells us. Even
China hates Russia. One would ask, “Why?”
Why does everyone hate one of the most beautiful and scenic nations in the world? Well, it is
because of the Soviet Union. No one, besides a
few socialists and some nostalgic hockey fans,
really likes the former world power, mainly
because of the Cold War. Granted, the Soviets
have been out since 1991, but it almost seems
like the world is pretending they are still there.
But, seriously, what was wrong with them?
Granted, they took part in a Cold War
with the United States for nearly a half-century, but what did they do that we didn’t? I
will never excuse the actions of Stalin, and I
completely agree that he was one of the worst
tyrants to ever walk the earth, but people need
to understand something: the Soviet Union is
not about Stalin. Most people that show a liking towards the union of republics know this
and are vocal about it. Socialism isn’t about
Stalin either. So why do people get so on edge
about it? Why is the Soviet Union or Russia or
socialism such a touchy subject? It is because
people do not understand it and are afraid to
understand it. It seems to me that people like
being uneducated about things that they are
afraid of.
I am not saying that all people should
hang the Soviet flag in their room or become Socialist (though that would be nice). I
am saying that people need to open up their
view on things that they don’t understand. It
is more than frustrating to have a person who
has no idea what the Soviet Union was other
than what their anti-Russian parents have told
them. College is supposed to be a time to expand your knowledge and become a better and
smarter person before going into the working
world. It would also be nice if people learned
a little bit of history.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the
second president of the Russian Federation,
following Boris Yeltsin in 1999. He is one of
the most powerful people in the world. He is
a former KGB member who was stationed in
Dresden, Germany. He has nuclear weapons.
Because of all of these factors, he is thought
of as a bad guy in the media and in the minds
of many people that live in the United States.
It is understood that he is a former member of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who
tried to bring back the Soviet Flag in his first
term of office. Some people found this terrible, and people began saying that the Soviet
Union was going to be reborn under his reign.
Putin’s reasoning for attempting to bring the
flag back was because his family and the rest
of Russia’s families lived and fought under
that flag. Here is a question: would regular
flag-waving Americans like to have their flag
changed? Probably not. And regarding bringing back the Soviet Union, why is it that big
of a deal?
Another thing that does not bode well for
either the United States and Russia is their relationship. It is well publicized that Bush and
Putin have a good relationship and do meet
with each other often. But the problem lies not
with them, but with other members of Bush’s
cabinet. Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice have bashed
Russia’s foreign policy on many occasions.
Cheney even had the gall to call out Russia
in Vilnius, Lithuania. This is the same place
that sparked the initial fight for gradual independence of all surrounding former Soviet
Republics. Why would you do that? You are
in a nation meeting with their leaders and you
tear open a wound between the two neighbors
that has just started healing. Rice has also
called out Russia many times for various reasons regarding Russian foreign policy. Does
the American government want another Cold
War? Or do they want to make nice and give
Russia their space? Sometimes the actions of
the U.S. government amaze me. They also disgust me.
The topic of Russia really leaves me
with more questions than answers. I just cannot comprehend why our government would
do this. I really would like to know what the
readers think about Russia. I would like some
feedback. Am I just stabbing in the dark here,
or does everyone really despise the country?
What kind of country would America be without borscht and vodka? Not one that I would
want to live in.
6
Guarding the Guards Rule Britannia, Britannia Saved the Day
Matthew Clyburn
Staff Writer
You know those online scams? The kind
of scams that you always think will benefit you
in the end, but never do? “Just send us $99.95,”
they say, “and in five years you’ll get twice
your money back in what you’ll earn.” Sound
familiar?
What makes a bank, a bank? Trust. When
you drop $1,000 into a savings account, you
trust that the bank is going to put your money
to good use in their best interest, thereby earning you interest, in cash, in the form of a small
percentage. You can be certain that a bank will
give your money back to you whenever you
want it, plus interest for the amount of time you
have held the account. Banks make money for
everyone by acting in their best interest; thus,
everyone is happy. We trust a bank to do this
because it is enforced by a department of the
federal government known as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC keeps
banks in check by saying, “Hell, if the bank
closes tomorrow because they’ve run out of
money, we’ll even insure your money up to
$250,000.” The invocation of such a policy is
rarely required, however, due to the circle of
trust the bank has initiated and perpetually
honors. Even so, the government keeps an eye
on the banking process to ensure the safety and
security of you, the account holder.
I ask you then, who keeps an eye on the
government? As the saying goes, “who will
guard the guards?”
Oh great, Joe freakin’ Lieberman. And
John Kerry-Heinz. And Dick Halliburton
Cheney.
Social security is the biggest scam in the
history of the world. First, the government takes
your money via a program that is supposed
to help you after retirement. Then, they use
your hard-earned money on some pretty nifty
things: a war no one wants to be in, midnight
basketball and other government programs that
don’t help anyone (with the alleged exception
of the African-American community, which
continues to insist that Republicans simply do
not care about them due to their protest of such
programs). Where is your money going to be
when it is returned to you as promised? In a
lockbox? Well, when you open that lockbox
when you turn 65, guess what you will conveniently discover.
An IOU from Ted Kennedy.
The government is a bank that cannot be
trusted; they take your money and run to Mexico (or Washington, as it was). Instead of fixing
the problem and figuring out a way to rebuild
the circle of trust, they continue to patch it up
with pieces of gum, scotch tape and small social security checks.
Dear liberals 18 to 64: we are paying social security, when they should have paid it off
years ago. We are behind in our system, and we
are getting ripped off.
Social security, then, should be optional,
and thereby privatized. People that opt out of
it and do not properly plan and save for their
own retirement—for their own futures—will
likely starve to death in their children’s guest
houses. In addition to social security becoming an optional program, the American government should be kept in check by our votes.
We should “guard the guards.” And pigs should
fly.
John Petroski
Opinion Editor
As a history major there is one fairly
common phrase uttered by Americans that
truly irks me, “If it weren’t for us, you’d be
speaking German.” This chide is often directed at our British friends by Americans
who are either overly patriotic or woefully
misled about how the events of the past century transpired.
When it comes to the Second World War,
we like to think of ourselves as knights in
shining armor who rode in on a magnificent
steed to save a damsel in distress, Britain,
from the evil clutches of that sinister dragon,
Hitler. I say it’s the other way around. We did
not save Britain. Britain saved us.
World War II did not begin when the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941. It began when Hitler’s Wehrmacht
smashed across the Polish border on September 1, 1939. Two days later, Britain and
France finally stood up to that Teutonic horde
and threw their hats in the ring, determined to
stop it. Meanwhile, America stuck her head
in the sand like a cowardly ostrich.
Some nine months later, Hitler stood victorious before the Eiffel Tower. His armies
had crushed all before them, conquering Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, The Netherlands and France. Germany
had complete and total control of the European continent, and there was little reason to
suspect that Britain would not soon seek terms
and come under Hitler’s domination as well.
Luckily for the free world, a great man—
perhaps the greatest man to ever grace the
pages of history—found such a reason. His
name, of course, was Winston Churchill.
After the fall of France, there were many
respectable persons in England—some very
high on the totem pole—who felt that reaching an accord with Germany was the only
available option left. Churchill would have
none of that, declaring, “Nations which go
down fighting rise again. Those who surrender tamely are finished.”
He rallied his people and inspired them
to do the great deeds and brave the great perils which lay ahead, warning that, “If we fall,
then the whole world, including the United
States, including all that we have known and
cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new
Dark Age.”
He brushed off Hitler’s calls for an armistice, instead roaring like a defiant lion, “We
shall defend our island, whatever the cost may
be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in
the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in
the hills; we shall never surrender.”
And in doing so, he saved the world.
Imagine for a moment that Britain fell.
Would America have finally taken her head
out of the sand and tried to do something
about it? I highly doubt it. We didn’t, after
all, do anything to help save the French. But
even if we did finally get involved, what good
could we have done without having the British Isles as a staging base? It was a tight-run
affair just crossing the English Channel to invade Normandy. Imagine for a moment what
a disaster a transatlantic invasion could have
been. One brief sighting by a single U-Boat,
and the game would have been effectively up.
What if the Royal Navy had fallen into
Hitler’s hands as part of a peace treaty? What
should have become of us then? Faced with
the combined naval might of England, Germany, Italy and Japan, are we really so brash
to believe we might still have prevailed?
Well, we are Americans, so yes, I suppose we are so brash to believe that, but it certainly doesn’t make it true. Imagine any strategy you like. The more you think it through,
the more you’ll realize that we could never
have won that war without Britain. Indeed,
think it through long enough and you’ll realize that had Britain fell, we Americans would
have awoken one morning to find ourselves
alone with no friends or hope, sinking in that
dark abyss Churchill prophesized.
Yet we didn’t have to face that tragedy.
The British people and those of the Commonwealth held their ground steadfast against the
Nazi juggernaut. They weathered the fierce
gale of defeat time and again and withstood
the terror of nightly bombing raids against
their hearth and home. They displayed tenacity on par with the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, and by doing so they saved the free world
from the clutch of the wicked. They are truly
deserving of our everlasting gratitude.
So the next time you feel like explaining to a Brit how, “We saved them,” perhaps
you should pause and reflect on something
Churchill was very proud of, “How the British people held the fort ALONE ‘til those who
hitherto had been half blind were half ready.”
If you do that, perhaps you’ll realize the truth.
That if it weren’t for the British, we’d be
speaking German.
Thank you, Britain.
7
Rape Only Hurts If You Fight It
John Petroski
Opinion Editor
Barbaro was put down last week as our nation’s leaders sat in silence.
upenn.edu
Horses Are People Too
Mark T. Rutkowski
Staff Writer
Last week Barbaro, the American thoroughbred that won the 2006 Kentucky Derby
and was considered by many to be the next
Secretariat, was euthanized following months
of unsuccessful surgeries resulting from a lifethreatening ankle fracture.
Little effort was made to preserve the animal’s life, albeit one of perpetual pain and agony. This is just another example of our society’s
willingness to interfere with God’s divine plan.
I for one am outraged that while Barbaro passed
peacefully and relatively painlessly from this
world, our national leaders made no attempt to
stop it.
Where was renowned surgeon and Tennessee senator Bill Frist during all this? In
2005, he successfully managed to diagnose
Terri Schiavo after merely viewing what he told
the Washington Post was, “An hour or so,” of
the family’s home videos from his Capitol office. From this scant footage alone, the senator
concluded that Schiavo was in fact not in a persistent vegetative state and paved the way for
federal intervention.
So what if his medical training is in cardiovascular physiology and not neurology? Parts
are parts. If my dentist says the lump on my
neck is benign, who am I to question him? Senator Frist may claim not to know if HIV can be
transmitted through tears, but the man knows
a persistent vegetative state when he sees one.
By the way, the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention says that, “Contact with saliva,
tears or sweat has never been shown to result in
transmission of HIV.” I’ve just saved you a trip
to the clinic. Shouldn’t we treat horses at least
as well as we treat our women?
Where was the outcry from pro-life advocates? My guess is they were still reeling from
all the excitement caused by this year’s March
for Life demonstration. The event is held annually in protest of the 1973 Row versus Wade
decision. Sister Suzanne Gross, coordinator for
pro-life activities in the Archdiocese of Hartford and MoL attendee, recently told the Catholic Transcript, “There is a growing awareness
among young people that they see the unborn
as the unprotected in our society.” Pardon me,
Sister, but has a fetus ever beaten 6-to-1 odds in
a full field of 20 horses? (Don’t bother looking
it up, I already have and the answer is probably
not.)
Shame on you as well, President Bush! In
a March 2005 press conference, you told the
New York Times, “Where there are serious
questions and substantial doubts, our society,
our law and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life.” Only someone who, as
Governor of Texas, presided over more executions (152) than occurred in all other U.S. States
combined can speak with such authority on a
person’s right to life. Mr. Bush, if you can give
the Presidential Metal of Freedom to George
Tenet and Paul Bremer, couldn’t you also you
also offer an executive pardon to Barbaro, the
horse that had the largest margin of victory in
the Kentucky Derby in 60 years?
How can we be so careless with a life?
This animal had many long years of heavy
medication and agonizing physical treatment
to look forward to. I suppose in our modern
society, with its iPods and hybrid cars, no one
has the time to nurse an indisposed horse for 30
years. Readers, the next time you’re brushing
your teeth, feeding your dog, eating a bowl of
Jell-O or just gluing together a broken teacup,
think of Barbaro, won’t you?
Most people today would claim that rape
is a terrible crime almost akin to murder, but I
strongly disagree. Far from a vile act, rape is
a magical experience that benefits society as
a whole. I realize many of you will disagree
with this thesis, but lend me your ears and I’m
sure I’ll sway you towards a darkened alley.
If it weren’t for rape, Western Civilization might not exist as we know it today.
When the Romans were faced with a disproportionate ratio of women to men in the early
kingdom, they had to do something, lest their
fledgling society die for lack of sons. To solve
their little dilemma, they did what any reasonable man would do: they threw a festival
for their Sabine neighbors, and then stole and
raped their women. It’s quite logical; in fact I
don’t understand why the settlers at Plymouth
didn’t do the same to the local Indians—it certainly would have saved on shipping costs.
Obviously, in the case of the Rape of
the Sabines, rape was a tremendous help to
society. The Sabine women, for their part,
didn’t seem to mind so much, as they threw
themselves between their brutish old Sabine
husbands and their charming new Roman
ones to prevent bloodshed when the Sabine
men came to reclaim their wives. Yet even
when society was totally against a rape, the
raunchy act has benefited society too. Where
would the Romans be, after all, if it weren’t
for the Rape of Lucretia infuriating the people
to the point of overthrowing their last king,
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus? If it weren’t for
that event, the world might never have had the
Roman Republic for a pristine example of a
flawless government.
Rape’s glorious advantages are not, however, exclusively found from 2,000-year-old
examples. In actuality, rape’s advantages can
very much be seen today. Take ugly women,
for example. If it weren’t for rape, how would
they ever know the joy of intercourse with a
man who isn’t drunk? In a society as plasticconscious as our own, are we really to believe
that some man would ever sleep with a girl resembling a wildebeest if he didn’t have a few
schnapps in him? Of course he wouldn’t—at
least no self-respecting man would—but there
in lies the beauty of rape. No self-respecting
man would rape in the first place, so ugly
women are guaranteed a romp with not only a
sober man, but a bad boy too; and we all know
how much ladies like the bad boy.
Ugly women are not, however, the only
people who benefit from rape—prisoners enjoy its many perks too. What, after all, could
possibly be more boring than spending years
of your life confined to some tiny cell 23 hours
a day? The answer, of course, is spending
years of your life confined to some tiny cell
23 hours a day and never getting some hot action. With rape, prisoners never have to worry
about that. Instead, they merely need worry
about treating their rapists with enough love
and respect to earn a quick reach-around.
But if there is one bread and butter reason
for why rape should not only be accepted, but
even endorsed, it is because our news editors
are in dire need of interesting stories for our
front page. Bookstore stories? Fossils? One
dollar coins? Please. Now, some saucy circlejerk rape action? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
‘Interview’ with Hanoi Jane
Richard Alexander
Staff Writer
Richard Alexander: Hello, Jane. It is
very nice of you to take some time out of your
busy schedule to meet with me. I’d like to
start by commending you for your role in Barbarella. I still have dreams where I’m an angel
and you are playing with my ruffled feathers
oh so seductively. I just feel like screaming
and making loud noises!
Jane Fonda: “A good many dramatic
situations begin with screaming.”
Alexander: Yes, indeed. Very possible
indeed…So, how did you get the mug shot?
Jane Fonda: “No Comment.”
Alexander: Well, I read that you were
arrested for “smuggling unidentified pills”
back in 1970. What was that all about?
Jane Fonda: “They were vitamins.”
Alexander: Vitamins? Who gets arrested for taking vitamins on an airplane? I guess
it must have been a common occurrence back
then. Jane, how did you feel about the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam and how did
you get the pseudonym, “Hanoi Jane?”
fortune of falling into the hands of a country such as the United States and becoming
a colony.”
Alexander: And what about today?
Jane Fonda: “We cannot always control
our thoughts, but we can control our words,
and repetition impresses the subconscious,
and we are then master of the situation.”
Alexander: I know exactly what you
mean about repetition; I still cannot seem to
forget that damn, “Head-On: apply directly
on the forehead,” commercial. In any case,
do you think that Nixon was a liar?
Jane Fonda: “I want to publicly accuse
Nixon of being a new-type Hitler.”
Alexander: Alright then. Now, Jane,
what is the meaning of treason? Treason is
the crime of disloyalty to one’s nation or state.
And what was the penalty for treason in the
1970’s and up until 1998? Death. Is there anything you’d like to say about that, Jane?
Jane Fonda: “I took some pictures on my
visit to Vietnam next to an NVA anti-aircraft
gun that was used to shoot down American
planes. I addressed the military saying, ‘To
the U.S. servicemen who are stationed on the
aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin, those of
you who load the bombs on the planes should
know that those weapons are illegal. And the
use of those bombs or condoning the use of
those bombs, makes one a war criminal.’”
Jane Fonda: “I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New
England, but to men who were in Vietnam,
who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen
because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but
there were times when I was thoughtless and
careless about it and I’m very sorry that I hurt
them. And I want to apologize to them and
their families…I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft
gun, which looks like I was trying to shoot at
American planes. It hurt so many soldiers. It
galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was
just thoughtless.”
Alexander: Ouch Jane. Talk about kicking them when they’re down. So, I guess you
were against the war then? What were your
exact words to describe yourself back then?
Alexander: Oh well, since you apologized so nicely, I guess it would be alright,
if you didn’t do it again. So, I have to ask,
what’s up with your anti-war bus tour?
Jane Fonda: “I’m not a pacifist. I understand why the Vietnamese are fighting...
against a white man’s racist aggression. We
know what U.S. imperialism has done to our
country so we know what lies in store for any
third world country that could have the mis-
Jane Fonda: “I can’t go into any detail
except to say that it’s going to be pretty exciting.”
The preceding article was a piece of
satirical fiction.
8
Connecticut Shows!
Metal Shows
2/09 – Kittie @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ Walls of Jericho & Dead to Fall
2/09 – Life In Your Way @ El N Gee in New London
2/16 – Cold World @ American Legion in Wallingford w/ One Three & Colin of Arabia
2/16 – Mastadon @ Toads Place w/ Converge & Priestess in New Haven
2/16 – Hot Cross @ Masonic Temple in Hamden w/ Transistor Transistor & They and The Children
2/19 – Byzantine @ Daniel St Club in Milford
2/23 – Sevendust @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ Diecast
3/03 – Unleashed @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ Krisiun & Belphegor
3/04 – Bane @ El N Gee in New London w/ Ambitions
3/05 – Daughters @ American Legion in Wallingford w/ Chinese Stars
3/15 – WFCS METALFEST!!!! @ Alumni Hall – CCSU w/ ISIS, TORCHE, MORE TBA
3/29 – Hella @ Daniel St Club in Milford w/ Dirty Projectors
4/10 – Norma Jean @ Toads Place in New Haven w/ A Life Once Lost & The Chariot
6/02 – The Fucking Champs @ American Legion in Wallingford w/ The Parasprinter
Alternative Shows
2/08 – The Tom Sartori Band @ The CCSU Student Center w/ Emerald City & Steinbeck
2/12 – Over It @ Webster Underground in Hartford w/ Monty Are I
2/15 – Sonic Youth @ Toads Place in New Haven w/ Wooden Wand
2/16 – Murphy’s Law @ Webster Underground in Hartford
2/22 – The Matches @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ MC Brash
2/22 – The One AM Radio @ American Legion in Wallingford w/ Quiet Life
2/23 – Patti Smith @ Toads Place in New Haven
2/24 – Kevin Devine @ The Space in Hamden
2/25 – Suburban Legends @ Webster Underground w/ MC Lars, Patent Pending, & Steinbeck
2/25 – Glorytellers @ BAR in New Haven
2/28 – Lemonheads @ Toads Place in New Haven
3/01 – Jello Biafra Spoken Word @ Torp Theatre in CCSU Davidson Hall
3/01 – Against Me! @ Toads Place in New Haven w/ Riverboat Gamblers & Fake Problems
3/01 – Mad Caddies @ Webster Theatre in Hartford
3/02 – The Ataris @ Webster Theatre in Hartford
3/02 – The Slackers - @ Trinity on Main in New Britain w/ King Django & Soul Merchants
3/10 – John Ralston @ The Space in Hamden w/ The Quiet Life, Titles
3/10 – Sparta @ Toads Place in New Haven w/ mewithoutyou & Aloha
3/14 – Whole Wheat Bread @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ Against All Authority
3/16 – Black 47 @ Toads Place in New Haven
3/18 – The Appleseed Cast @ Trinity on Main in New Britain w/ By the End of Tonight
3/22 – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus @ Webster Theatre w/ Emery& Scary Kids Scaring Kids
3/24 – Halifax @ Webster Theatre in Hartford
3/26 – Rocky Votolato @ Masonic Temple in Hamden w/ Owen & Drag the River
4/05 – Low @ Trinity on Main (seated room) in New Britain w/ Loney Dear
4/12 – The Early November @ Toads Place in New Haven w/ The Rocket Summer
4/14 – Plain White Ts @ Webster Theatre in Hartford w/ Boys Night Out
4/18 – Rick Johnson (of Mustard Plug) @ St Casimir’s in Windsor w/ Dan Potthast (of MU 330)
4/21 – Cute is What We Aim For @ Webster Theatre w/ Circa Survive & As Tall As Lions
4/29 – Acid Mothers Temple @ BAR in New Haven
5/06 – Hot Rod Circuit @ Webster Underground in Hartford w/ Limbeck & The Forecast
5/24 – Brand New @ Webster Theatre in Hartford
Alum Visits Class,
Tells a Tale of Journalism
Samantha Sullivan
Staff Writer
As an English major at Central Connecticut State University in the early 1990s,
journalist Bill Weir did not expect his career after college to include attempting or
succeeding to pluck out the first few bars of
Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” on a
ukulele.
But in January 2007, he found himself
doing just that as part of his research for a
widely-read feature story about ukuleles
published in the Hartford Courant.
The ukulele is easy to learn and even
simpler than a guitar, “Once you get used
to the tuning,” Weir praised. As unexpected
as the story was, it allowed him to view an
aspect of both music and life he had, until
then, not observed.
He returned to his alma mater this
week, 13 years after his graduation, to discuss journalism as a career and his journey
from student to staff writer, with Professor William Leukhardt’s feature writing
classes.
Weir told the class that while enrolled
in various courses at CCSU, journalism being one or two of them, he was still discovering what he wanted to do with his life. It
was not until the time came to make a decision on his major that Weir “realized that
journalism was what [he] kept gravitating
toward,” he said.
Although it took him some time to
get used to writing as a lifestyle, he settled
into it nicely. Weir knew something about
the newspaper life already—his father had
been a reporter in Topeka, Kansas before
he moved east to be a spokesman for the
Southern New England Telephone Co. in
New Haven.
The younger Weir worked on The Recorder, the university’s student-run newspaper, during his final years at Central. It gave
him the clips and experience needed to land
his first paid news job.
Weir was working a part-time job as a
journalist for a weekly newspaper in Durham when he graduated from Central in
1994. His first story for The Durham Gazette was about the validity of a storm sus-
pected to be a tornado, which had caused
damage to a local bar. Weir worked his
way from writing for a small-town paper to
writing for the Hartford Courant, the largest
newspaper in Connecticut, an accomplishment he may never have imagined.
Weir seemed nervous and in a state
of unease during the discussion, although
his responses came out both intelligent and
concise. He spoke of journalism in high
regards, including the importance of deadlines; the lack of unappealing subjects; even
the possibility of journalism rewards, which
he has received in the past. He explained
that feature writers read each other’s pieces
to get ideas, and that one reporter in particular, Hank Stoyver of the Washington Post,
is one of his favorites.
A reporter for the Courant since 1998,
Weir has written for many sections, all of
which have included diverse topics and stories. He started off writing the “beat,” which
encompassed local police activity such as
arrests and crimes, and made his way to
writing feature stories over the years. His
pieces have ranged from comedy in politics
and its appeal to college students to one of
his latest articles, the recent growth in popularity in the ukulele. And while he is quite
content in his genre, he said that he would
consider writing for different sections.
“I would try business; I would try
sports,” Wier said, “Anything, really.”
Weir said that he had never experienced a position he has disliked and that
he has enjoyed both learning more about
the art of writing and gaining a familiarity with the business. Ten years from now,
with much hope, Weir expressed his desire
to maintain his occupation in the newspaper
industry.
“I’d like to think that there will still be
[newspapers] in 10 years and that I will be
writing for them,” he stated.
With years of experience under his belt
and a wide array of knowledge concerning
journalism, what could he give as advice for
young writers?
“Realize that you will make many mistakes along the way,” he said, “but not to let
that stop you. [And] be aware of what you’re
in for.”
Sports
9
Lady Blue Devils Lose Heart
CCSU falls to Sacred Heart 77-49
Michael Krafcik
Staff Writer
Basketball at CCSU is in a state of flux.
On one hand, the outstanding performance of
Central men’s team is garnering significant attention around the region. On the other hand,
the Lady Blue Devil’s uninspiring performances this season are disappointing fans night in
and night out.
The Lady Blue Devil’s woes continued
last Saturday afternoon; losing to Sacred Heart
77-49 in Fairfield, Conn. The Lady Blue Devils
have now lost seven of their last eight games
dropping the Lady Blue Devils to 5-18 overall
and 3-8 in conference play. The team is in 8th
place in the NEC.
The Blue Devils only lead lasted for the
first three minutes of play, as the Blue Devils
jumped to an early 6-4 lead. From that point,
the Pioneers of Sacred Heart proceed to go on
an 11-0 run capped off an Amanda Pape layup.
Pape was the game’s leading scorer finishing
with 21 points.
However, the Pioneer’s 11-0 run was just a
sneak preview for things to come. The Pioneers
proceeded to go on a 20-0 run that rendered the
Blue Devils scoreless for an 8:11 span. A jumper by Abi Tairu finally stopped the run, but at
that point the Pioneers led 35-12 and stretched
the lead to 40-14 at the half. The Blue Devils
were plagued by missed shots in the first half,
shooting a woeful 23.1 percent in the first half.
The Blue Devils picked up the pace in
the second half, scoring 35 points in the second half. Unfortunately, the Pioneers scored
37 points in the second half and stretched their
lead to as many 33 points. One bright note for
the Lady Blue Devils was freshman P.J. Wade,
who scored 17 points in the game, all in the second half.
Pioneer center, Kaitlin Sowinski, terrorized the Blue Devils with five blocked shots
while adding eight points and five rebounds.
Sowinski was able to shut down the Blue Devil’s leading scorer Gabrielle Guegbelet. Guegbelet was held to eight points and a shot 3-for14 from the field.
The Lady Blue Devil’s woes continue to
mark the historic struggle of the Centrals women’s basketball program. Since the program’s
beginning in 1971, Central has a record of
332-523. Central has had not a winning season
since the 2000-01, finishing 14-13 under former coach Kim Foley. Central’s current coach,
Yvette Harris, has a 35-123 record since taking
over as head coach in 2002-03.
The Blue Devils will continue league play
on Monday, Feb. 5, hosting Mount St. Mary’s
at 7 p.m. in Detrick Gymnasium. After that,
they will host Quinnipiac at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10 in a men’s and women’s basketball
double-header.
Freshman P.J. Wade finished the game with 17 points, all of which were scored in the
second half
Blue Devils King of The Mount
Heads-up plays and a sense of urgency combined to bury the Mount. In the first half of action CCSU shot over 55 percent from the floor
and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Conversely, the Mount struggled from the floor shooting only 40 percent while hitting only 1-of-6
3-point shots.
Perhaps the greatest factor in the Blue
Devil arsenal Thursday night was Central’s
ability to persevere through the comeback attempts of Mount St. Mary’s. On the last play of
the half, junior guard Tristan Blackwood dribbled past mid-court before launching a shot between half court and the 3-point line. Though
he was flanked by two defenders, Blackwood
sunk the Mounts’ hopes of entering the second
half down by only 10 points. Throughout the
game there was only one tie, as CCSU maintained the lead for the entirety of the game.
In the second half, Mount St. Mary’s managed to score in a more efficient manner connecting on 13-of-27 field goal attempts. The
Mount was able to connect on field goals in
the second half, however, their 3-point shooting continued to suffer, making only 1-of-9 attempts. Mount St. Mary’s guard Jeremy Goode
was also held to only three points on the night
as Blackwood shadowed Goode’s every move
and disrupted the Mounts offensive execution.
“I thought [Tristan] was terrific with nine
assists and one turnover, and the other thing
that I thought was great about it was the fact
that last time we played them I told him ‘Jeremy Good lit you up and he’s a freshman and
he had 20 points against you,’” revealed Dickenman. “The last game he played he had 10
rebounds, nine assists and no turnovers and
I said ‘what are you going to do’ and Tristan
swallowed him up.” Blackwood would also
score 15 points in the contest.
Chipping in with big games alongside
Blackwood were seniors Javier Mojica, Obie
Nwadike and freshman Joe Seymore. Seymore
finished with a career-high 16 points while
knocking down big shots and taking care of
the basketball. Nwadike got into the action by
posting 11 points and claiming 11 rebounds in
posting his 11th double-double on the season.
Mojica helped to jumpstart the game with a
high level of intensity and emotion. Feeding
off of his own willpower and the 2,156 fans
who gathered in support; Mojica and the Blue
Devils never relented.
CCSU is currently 13-10 overall with a
10-1 NEC record. The team will hit the road
Monday to face Long Island at 7 p.m. before
returning home Saturday February 7 in a rematch versus the rival Quinnipiac Bobcats.
Photos by Conrad Akier / The Recorder
Left: Blue Devils head coach Howie Dickenman expresses his dissatisfaction with a call
made by officials in the second half.
Right: Senior Obie Nwadike protects the ball from Mychal Kearse of The Mount. A foul
was called on Kearse during this play.
10
Reigny Night in Miami
Burke A. Downer
Staff Writer
Let the reign begin! In a crazy, exhilarating and truly super Superbowl XVI, Peyton
Manning and the Indianapolis Colts finally got
theirs. After excising his demons against New
England two weeks ago in the AFC Championship game, the best player in the league was
finally part of the best team in the league.
The game started off with a bang as
Devon Hester of the Bears returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a TD, the first time
in Superbowl history the initial kickoff was
returned for a TD. The impact of that return
was felt all night as on the next Colts kickoff
they chose to squib kick in order to keep the
ball out of Hester’s hands. In fact the Colts employed the keep-it-away-from-Hester strategy
on their second, third, fourth and fifth kickoffs
as well as while punting. Hunter Smith, the
Colts’ punter, did well to keep the ball away
from the Bears’ playmaker, twice downing the
ball inside the 10-yard line.
Aided by the downpour of rain, the biggest story of the night was turnovers; four in
the first quarter, and six in the first half, three
by each team. Twice in the first half there
were fumbles for turnovers on consecutive
plays. However, of those six turnovers only
once was the offense able to take advantage
as the Bears managed a Muhsin Muhammad
touchdown. The turnovers only continued in
the second half for the Bears. With 11:44 to
go in the fourth quarter, substitute defensive
back Kelvin Hayden of the Colts intercepted
a pitifully thrown Rex Grossman pass and returned it 56 yards for a touchdown and sealed
the victory for the Colts. If that interception
didn’t seal the victory it could have been the
interception Grossman threw on the next possession or the Bears’ fumble on the possession
after that. The Bears simply self-destructed in
the fourth quarter.
The true turning point in the game may
have come in the first quarter when on his second run, Cedric Benson was knocked out of
the game with an injury to his right knee. The
Bears’ offense is dependant on its ability to run
the ball. The importance of the run-game was
only amplified by the rainy conditions. Bears
head coach Lovie Smith admitted before the
game that it was their intent to win the game
by running the ball. He stated in an interview
before the game, “You [want to] know a secret
about our game plan? We’re going to run it.
We’re going to line up with a full-back and run
it straight at them, and if they stop us we’re going to just keep on doing it.”
With that mindset losing half of their
running back duo early in the first quarter
crippled the Bears. In fact it was the Colts,
not the Bears, running back duo that was the
difference in the game. Joseph Addai had 77
yards rushing and 10 receptions for 66 yards.
Dominic Rhodes had his first 100-yard rushing game since 2001 with 113 yards on 21 attempts.
Ultimately the Bears’ fourth quarter turnovers, along with the rain, washed away any
hope for victory and the Colts won their first
Superbowl since 1970. It’s taken 37 years for
the Colts to win their second Superbowl, it
shouldn’t take that long for them to win their
third, or even fourth. With the best player in
the game, Superbowl MVP Peyton Manning,
the Colts will keep winning, and we should be
able to look back on this night as the beginning
of Peyton’s Reign.
AP
Top: Superbowl MVP Peyton Manning led the Colts to their first Superbowl win since 1970.
Bottom: Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman was grossly unprepared to face the
relentless Colts defense.
Shaun Best/Reuters
Blue Devil
Shorts
Devils Finish Fourth at URI
Sophomore Leesa Mullins won the triple jump and long jump
to help lead Central Connecticut to a fourth place finish at the
URI Invitational. In the team’s final tune-up prior to the Feb. 1011 Northeast Conference Championships, Mullins landed a 11.14
meter leap in the triple jump and a 5.17 long jump for Blue Devil
victories. Freshman Mary Stocking added a victory in the 400 meters, crossing the line in 59.62.
(credit: CCSUBlueDevils.com)
Men’s Track at URI Mega Meet
Sophomore Sean Smith posted first place and second place
finishes to lead Central Connecticut to a fourth place showing at
the URI Mega Meet. The Blue Devils scored 82 points, finishing
ahead of five schools. Senior Jonathan Stakley added two second
place finishes, while classmate Markio Williams had two fourths.
Freshman R.J. Simeone, meanwhile, claimed one first place finish
for Central. CCSU’s next competition is scheduled for Feb. 10-11 at
the Northeast Conference Championships.
Jurzynski Honored
After garnering her second Northeast Conference Swimmer
of the Week award earlier this afternoon, Kristen Jurzynski picked
up an ECAC Division I Swimmer of the Week honor. The junior set
two individual pool records (500 and 1000 free) and a Central Connecticut State varsity record (1000 free) in the Blue Devils 135-125
win over NEC rival Wagner on Saturday, Jan. 27. She now holds the
conference’s top times in the 500 and 1000 free events. Jurzynski
also anchored a record-setting 400 free relay team in the victory.
Central Connecticut, which ended its dual meet season with a 13-2
record, will be back in the pool beginning Thursday, Feb. 15, at the
Northeast Conference Championships.
Riding the Mustang
Chris DeMorro
Staff Writer
Over 40 years ago, Ford introduced the
Mustang as a sporty, affordable coupe with
a penchant for performance. Now in its fifth
incarnation, the first completely redesigned
Mustang since 1979, this retro car tugs on the
heart strings of nostalgia with its round headlights, smooth lines and sleek interior. But
after 40 years, there are still some things that
remain an issue, especially in the base model
V6 Mustang, which is the only “stang” available under $20,000.
A ravishing mix of classic meets contemporary, the exterior lives up to all expectations
in person. The low profile and fluid lines lend
the Mustang a menacing look, harking back to
its heyday when they dominated the streets.
The circular headlights and fastback style is
a clear throwback to the original, while the
flared fenders and tinted windows are a bit
more modern. The base wheel package is 16inch polished aluminum wheels, and for no
additional charge you can add a low profile
spoiler. The car tested was a burnished Redfire Metallic that accented the lines of the car
exceptionally.
Once inside the Mustang, the feeling of
nostalgia is no longer a subtle hint, but a smack
in the face. From the chrome trimmed gauges
to the race-inspired steering wheel, this is what
a Mustang should feel like. The cloth bucket
seats are relaxed and comfortable, providing
an at-ease feeling as one drives the car. The
five-speed shifter is positioned perfectly, without need to overstretch ones arm, and shifting
is crisp and precise.
The standard CD player is also wellplaced and within reach, and the sound is
fresh. If so inclined, the sound system is upgradable to six-disc changer in the dash, as
well as doubling the speakers from four to an
eight speaker ‘Shaker’ system for a hefty $700.
There is a lingering, Spartan feel to the interior
in the base model, however. Interior upgrade
packages are available for a fair price, and they
certainly spruce up the interior with a leather
wrapped steering wheel, polished aluminum
door handles and upgraded gauges.
The biggest disappointment, nonetheless,
is the rear seats; this is not a car made for car-
rying more than two people long distances.
Entry and exit into the rear is a challenge for
the average-sized man, as there’s plenty of opportunities to get your feet hooked or caught.
Once seated in the rear, it becomes painfully
obvious how little room there is. While headroom is more than adequate, legroom is anything but. It was a veritable obstacle course
to exit the car, so if you have plans on driving
your friends around frequently, you may want
to look elsewhere. Trunk space is a similar
issue, although less dramatic, offering about
13 square feet of cargo space, some finagling
may be required in order to pack in everything
needed to live on campus.
On the road though, the stallion is truly at
home. Handling is superb and taking corners
has never been easier. Braking is fluid but responsive, and the stopping power is on tap. The
steering is instantly responsive and silky, and
navigating the long car is a breeze. The car is
powered by a 4.0-liter SOHC V6, pumping out
a respectable 210 horsepower and 240 poundfeet of torque, which is just a stomp of the
pedal away. Throttle response is exceptional;
although, up-top the power tends to dissipate
rather rapidly. It won’t throw you back in your
seat, but nor will you have difficulty merging
or passing. The surprisingly “torquey” V6 was
a pleasant surprise, and the exhaust provides
a deep growl that will almost deceive you into
believing the 300-hp 4.6-liter V8 is under the
hood. Claiming 19 mpg in the city and 28 mpg
on the highway, the “stang” is a respectable
contender on the gas mileage front.
For a base model, the Mustang does offer a fair amount of standard features, such as
power windows and locks, CD player and air
conditioning. There are numerous appearance
upgrade packages offered with spoiler, chrome
exhaust tip and more. Interior upgrades are
also available, helping offset the frugal feel.
Out the door, a base V6 can be had for about
$19,500 with a minimal amount of haggling.
The new Mustang will certainly help you
stand out from the crowd, as long as the crowd
doesn’t try to come along for the ride. Overall,
the V6 Mustang receives a respectable three
out of five stars. While not the best choice for
the average student, it is still a well defined car
in its own right.
Engine Specifications
Engine Type
4.0L SOHC 12V V6
Displacement
4.0L (245 cu. in.)
Engine Electronics
11
EEV-V
Horsepower (SAE net @ rpm)
Torque (lb.-ft. @ rpm)
Compression Ratio
Bore and Stroke (in.)
Main Bearings
Valve Lifters
210 @ 5250
240 @ 3500
9.7:1
3.95 x 3.32
4
Hydraulic with Roller Finger Followers
Fuel Delivery
Sequential Multi-port Electronic Fuel Injection
Recommended Fuel
Unleaded Regular
Exhaust
Single, Stainless Steel
Fuel Economy
19 city/28 hwy w/manual; 18 city/26 hwy w/automatic
Transmission Type
Engine block material
Cylinder head material
T5 5-Speed Manual (std); 5-Speed Automatic (opt)
Cast Iron
Cast Aluminum
Chassis Specifications
Front Suspension
MacPherson Struts with Reverse “L” Lower Control Arms, Stabilizer Bar
Shock Absorbers
Hydraulic Gas-Pressurized, Outboard-Mounted
Rear Suspension
Brakes
Steering
Constant-Rate Coil Springs, 3-Link Design with Panhard Rod
Power 4-Wheel Disc; Available Anti-Lock System with Traction Control
Power Rack-and-Pinion
Exterior Dimensions
Wheelbase (in.)
107.01
Height - empty (in.)
54.4 (Coupe); 55.7 (Convertible)
Length (in.)
Width (in.)
Tread Width - front/rear (in.)
Interior Dimensions
73.9
62.8/63.0
Head Room - front/rear (in.)
38.6/34.7/Sky’s the limit*
Hip Room - front/rear (in.)
53.6/46.8
Shoulder Room - front/rear (in.)
Leg Room - front/rear (in.)
Photos: Dieselstation.com
187.6
*Convertible top down.
55.4/53.4
42.7/30.3
Lifestyles
12
Seven Most Common
Workout Mistakes
José Feliciano
Staff Writer
A common New Year’s resolution involves
exercising, whether it is to lose those extra holiday pounds or to lead a healthier life. Yet, it
is difficult to sometimes keep a commitment to
exercising if you fail to look at it realistically.
Much of the time being unable to keep up
with exercising a month after making your resolution is just a matter of poor time management.
Get past that hurdle, and there are still seven
common mistakes that many people make when
creating exercise plans. Avoiding simple mistakes like these and your exercise will become
less like work and more like fun.
1. Skipping the warm-up:
You should take a few minutes to gently
walk, cycle or whatever you choose to prepare
the body for heavier activity. Breaking a light
sweat will get your blood pumping, warm up
muscles and greatly reduce your risk of injury.
Overall, you will increase the effectiveness of
your workout.
2. Skipping the cool-down:
Due to time constraints, many people head
straight to the showers after exercising. Instead,
take a few minutes to lower your heart rate close
to its resting rate. This will reduce your risk of
injury and give you a few minutes to incorporate
some relaxation into your routine. Relaxing after the workout will ensure exercise is good for
the mind and soul, as well as the body.
3. Not eating correctly:
Eating balanced meals is a still an excellent
way to keep healthy while you exercise. You
have already cut down on the Christmas cookies, so there is no need to starve yourself before
or after your workout to help you get fit. Food
will keep you energized throughout your workout. Just take care not to over eat.
4. Not drinking enough water:
Only camels can go without water, and
even they cannot do it indefinitely! Don’t wait
until you feel thirsty because you are already
dehydrated at that point. Drink plenty of fluids
before, during and after your workout. If you
don’t like the “taste” of water consider getting
flavored water or buying individual packets of
flavoring to make your own.
5. Over-resting:
Make sure to spread workouts out, but
not so much that you end up not exercising for
a week between workouts. You must be consistent with your workouts, and you must be
consistent within your workout. While working
out, make sure to keep your heart pumping by
taking short breaks during your workout instead
of long ones.
6. Over-exercising:
Fitting a week’s worth of exercise into one
afternoon is only going to overwork you and increase your risk for injury. Forty-five minutes
of moderate exercise spread out over the week
is better than an intense power workout once a
week.
7. Doing too much, too fast:
If you have not been running three miles a
day twice a week before the New Year, then you
can’t expect to be able to accomplish so quickly.
Allow your body to adjust to the new things you
are having it do. Taking small steps will still get
you to where you need to go and without risk of
injury. It is the same with exercise. Start off
with smaller weights or shorter distances. This
is better than pushing yourself to the breaking
point.
With all of that said you can start applying these steps and create a healthier and happier
outlook for your exercise program. Remember
to stay safe, and take care of your mind and soul,
along with your body.
Can’t Afford Designer Bags? Borrow One.
Ariel James
Lifestyles Editor
There are many times when I’m thumbing through a magazine, whether it is Vogue
or Elle or even Jane, and I find myself growing
envious of the women in the ads.
It’s not because they’re skinnier than me
or that their hair is so shiny it can give a reflection. I’m not insecure about the way I look.
Hell, I think I’m picture perfect. (Read: gorgeous).
What makes me green are the accessories that are hanging from their limbs.
Those bags.
Those clutches. Those totes.
I want them.
Not that I can afford them anyway. All
that I could do is look at those ads and just
wish that I will one day be able to buy such
luxury items as a Chanel, Michael Kors or
Marc Jacobs handbag.
I know I’m not the only one who can’t
buy these magnificent bags. I’m also not the
only one who has traveled to Canal Street in
Chinatown to buy the latest, eh, faux “it” bags
for $25.
And with my dream to get that look for
less, a website was born. BagBorrowOrSteal.
com allows fashion-inspired, frugal-minded
shoppers rent high-end bags for as little as
$20 a month.
Here’s what you do: become a member
and choose the bag that you want to rent. The
bag arrives in the mail. You tote it around and
get tons of compliments for as long as you’d
like—keep it for a few weeks or even a year!
When you’re through with that bag, go back to
the site to borrow another, and send in the first
one. It’s all very simple.
There are four collections to choose
from. There’s Trendsetter, which costs $20 per
month. This category has bags from Dooney
& Bourke and Juicy Couture. You know, the
cutesy, colorful bags. Princess is available for
$40 a month and offers bags from BCBG Max
Azria and Betsey Johnson. These bags are
more quirky than the Trendsetter bags. Next
is Diva, and that costs $90 per month. It has
everyone’s favorite, Louis Vuitton and others
such as Luella and Marc Jacobs.
For those big spenders, Couture, which
can be rented for $175 to $275 a month—a
mere fraction of the price one would pay for
Chloe, Balenciaga or the heavenly quilted
bags of Chanel.
Some people are skeptical to buying
things online, especially if their credit card
will be billed each month. Don’t fret! Bag Borrow or Steal offers deals to “special guests.”
It’s free to be a guest, but renting bags cost
a little more than a member. For example, a
Trendsetter bag costs $35 instead of $20.
Let’s say you rented a Marc Jacobs bag,
and you don’t want to give it back. You may
have an opportunity to “steal it.” The website
will provide you with a quote in your account
if you wish, depending on the bag’s age, condition and availability. If you agree with the
price, your credit card will be billed. It should
be noted that all bags cannot be stolen.
Whether you choose to go to Barney’s
New York and buy the shell out the $750 right
there, or rent online, at least the real thing can
be yours—even if it’s only for a moment.
Ariel’s Celebrity Gossip
Ariel James
Lifestyles Editor
Retired supermodel Tyra Banks is busy
trying to take over Oprah’s job as the queen of
all media, but in the process she’s also trying to
keep up with the big O’s waistline by gaining a
whopping 30 pounds! According to E! Online,
Banks is tired of people making fun of her recent weight gain. She said that she found out
people were talking about her by typing “Tyra”
and “fat” in Google. Isn’t a mirror a model’s
best friend? She had to learn that she was fat
from Google? Tabloids published stories about
the former svelte star under headlines such
as “America’s Next Top Waddle,” “Thigh-ra
Banks” and “Tyra Porkchops.” On her official
website she wrote, “I couldn’t believe what I
was reading.” She’s not letting the comments
get to her. In fact, she’s telling everyone to
“kiss” her “fat ass.”
Actress/dancer/fashion
designer/so-so
singer/wedding addict Jennifer Lopez is set
to release her first Spanish-language album on
April 3, according to Vibe.com. The album will
be titled Como Ama Una Mujer (How a Woman
Loves). This is her first all-Spanish album and
it is a “five-part mini-series” that will be aired
on Univision. She will sing a song at the end
of each episode. Now, this might sound a little
harsh, but she can’t sing! Not in English, Spanish or even sign language! I was once a naive
girl, and I was fooled by her duet with Marc
Anthony when they sang “No Me Ames.” But
then I cleaned my ears and heard them again at
the Grammys a couple years ago. What a tragic
mess that was! Good luck to her. And for all
the people that actually buy her album, just remember: when the CD skips, it will probably be
an improvement.
Attention: Harry Potter fans! J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final installment in the series,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be
released on July 21, according to her official
website, jkrowling.com. (Mark your calendars!)
According to People, the newest book will
make the 10th-anniversary of the Harry Potter
books, “which have sold 325 million copies internationally.”
Lindsay Lohan is still in the news. Hey,
shouldn’t she be in rehab? Yes, she should, but
she’s too busy having fun and going out with
her friends back in Hollywood according to E!
Online. She has, however, said that she needs
to pay more attention to her recovery, and, in
doing this, Lohan has dropped out of a film that
she was supposed to star in, A Woman of No Importance. She is still filming her current project
I Know Who Killed Me. Let’s just hope she has
a speedy recovery—but I doubt it.
13
Samantha
Speaks
Getting up at
the Crack of Nine
Andrea Obaez
Staff Writer
Samantha Sullivan
Staff Writer
Dear Samantha,
I recently broke up with my boyfriend,
and lately I’ve found myself crushing on his
roommate. What should I do?
Sincerely,
Torn
Dear Torn,
It is never an easy situation to be in when
you find yourself attracted to your partner or expartner’s friend (especially when they’re roommates!), and it is certainly not always something
that can be predicted or prevented. The only
thing you can do in this situation is to be honest
with your ex, as well as with the boy you are now
eyeing.
If your ex has any compassion and understanding, he will find it in himself to be okay
with your little crush. If the boy you now like has
a heart, he will understand how difficult it is for
you to tell him how you feel, considering your
past with his roommate.
If your crush evolves into something more
over time and your ex is uncomfortable with that
situation, there are two things you should do:
1. Understand where your ex is coming from
and be sincere. Follow his wishes, as long as they
are not demanding or absurd, and be respectful
of him and his room. After all, it is still his room
and you may be spending a lot of time there with
his roommate. Don’t make things uncomfortable
for him by bringing up your past relationship.
That is possibly the WORST thing you can do.
2. If your ex continues to give you trouble
about your relationship with his roommate, tell
him that you have established something with
his friend, and, at this point, he has to deal with
your relationship. You need to do what’s right for
YOU, and not for anyone else. In this case, if being in a relationship with your ex’s roommate is
what makes you happy then pursue that path at
all costs. Don’t let this guy control your life even
after your breakup.
Do your best to be happy with yourself and
with your ex-boyfriend. Keep a healthy relationship with him and with the boy you are interested
in and be completely honest!
Microsoft Vista’s feature “Flip 3D” makes navigating between windows easy.
mircosoft.com
Microsoft’s New Operating System
Adapts Mac’s OS X Features
Christopher Klett
Managing Editor
At last, after five years of the current
Microsoft operating system, Windows XP,
Microsoft’s new OS, Vista, has finally hit the
streets, but is it worth it? After being a Windows user my entire life, I started to fall in love
with the Mac OS X when working on projects
in the communication department (I worked on
everything from video editing to digital photography), and I felt the urge to switch over to
the other side.
Before crossing over to the Mac world,
I decided to give Windows Vista a test drive.
It seems Microsoft somewhat stolen a lot of
the looks and design aspects from the Apple
operating system. Windows Vista features a
sleek design similar to that of the Apple. The
new graphic look is called Windows Aero, and
it brings a cleaner and clearer, but, more importantly, user-friendly environment to any PC
user. It features a lot of 3D effects along with
some pretty cool new features.
One of the new features is a better Start
menu. It makes finding applications and documents much easier for everyone. The desktop
icons and menus are redesigned to engage the
user in a more 21st century feel, along with a
cool new system font called Segoe UI.
Another feature that resembles the Mac’s
F9 key is the new Flip 3D feature. By pressing
Windows and the tab key, all the existing windows turn into a rolodex allowing you to easily navigate between multiple windows. Also
Please email any questions or concerns to within the Start menu, is the new instant search
[email protected]. I’m happy to try to feature. It allows you to find anything on your
solve any issues you may have!
computer in a quick instant without having to
dig through the Windows explorer of the past.
The Sidebar is a new addition to Vista.
This mimics the Apple OS dashboard almost
completely, by allowing you to put “gadgets”
on the sidebar for easy use, such as the calculator, the analog clock, weather, contacts and so
many more handy tools. One handy feature is
that it allows to you to instantly get RSS feeds
and tasks right on the desktop.
Along with the “easier than ever” slogan
that Vista is looking to achieve, Microsoft has
put a lot more security functions into Vista. Integrated already into the new Internet Explorer,
it features phishing software which prevents
unwanted sites from getting into your system.
It also features stricter parental controls, which
allows parents to filter and monitor their child’s
online and computer activities. The Windows
Defender helps provide scanning and blocks
unwanted spyware and software.
The new Windows Media Center features
a new Media Player to combat the Apple’s iTV.
It lets you download and watch your television
programs right on your PC along with connecting easy to your X-Box 360 system to bring
media onto the video game console from your
computer.
Overall, I really enjoyed the new features
and enhancements to Windows Vista and have
decided to give it a chance on my laptop. It
makes navigating and working on my computer a much better experience. It also runs a
bit faster than Windows XP. However, before
upgrading one must check the system requirements it needs. In order to fully experience the
new Windows Aero technology in Vista you
must make sure you have a fast processor (1
GHz or higher) and tons of memory, at least
1GB minimum. Also, a lot of software is still
not compatible with Vista at the moment, so be
forewarned.
When the alarm clock went off at 9 a.m.,
I could only stare at it, wondering why that
annoying sound was interrupting my chess
game with Harry Potter. True, it had been a
dream, but I was winning. Then I remembered: class.
Yes, I am one of those: the student who
don’t even know the professors’ names until
finals and to be completely honest, I’ve never
done all of the required reading.
This semester however, is going to be
different. I’m going to read the texts and do
the homework. I’m going to apply myself
and focus! And most importantly, I’m going
to be on time for class—if I can only find my
keys.
“Ma! Where are my keys?” I shout.
She’s on the computer upstairs.
“In the kitchen!”
“Oh, hey, any idea where my boots
are?”
“Elizabeth is wearing them.”
And sure enough, Elizabeth, my nextdoor neighbor’s three-year-old daughter
who’s too smart for her own good, is wearing one of my boots and sitting on the other,
watching Dora the Explorer. She thinks it’s
a game. Me? Not so much.
I put on my boots and look at the clock,
its 9:53, which means my boot search and
seizure has made me miss the bus, thus making me late for my 11 o’clock class. Such is
the life of the license impaired.
Guiltily, I call Slim, who probably
has had three hours of sleep and has no responsibility toward me except being my
ex-boyfriend’s best friend. Slim works late
nights and isn’t a college student, two good
reasons why he could easily decline helping
me. Knowing this, I limit my ride requests to
emergencies only. I figure one day he’s gonna get fed up and stop taking my calls, but he
always shows up. Twenty minutes later he’s
sitting in my driveway, and I’m almost home
free. Almost. My mom blocks my exit.
“Are you coming home tonight?” she
asks.
“Yes, ma. I’ll see you later, okay? Bye.”
I kiss her on the cheek and duck under her
arm. I want to avoid any discussion about my
direction in life or lack thereof. My mom, she
worries, and most of the time I understand.
I’m 23 after all, and if we lived in the land of
stereotypes at this point I should have three
kids from two baby daddies, one of them in
jail.
But right now, my only direction is facing Central.
Slim drops me off at DiLoreto. I run
up the stairs and into the classroom, out of
breath.
I made it! With five minutes to spare! I
feel so good about myself, sure that this semester is looking up for me. And the feeling
lasts until I notice the empty seats and the
little green paper next to the door.
Class is cancelled.
Entertainment
14
Lily Allen
Alright, Still
Bloc Party
A Weekend in the City
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Some Loud Thunder
Fall Out Boy
Infinity on HIgh
Lifestyles Editor
Editor-in-Chief
Staff Writer
Dan Gray
Nick Viccione
“When you first left me, I was wanting
more / but you were fucking that girl next door
/ what’d you do that for?” Breaking up may be
hard to do, but for Lily Allen it makes for a hit
song.
In her breakout single, “Smile,” Allen
seeks revenge on her cheating ex-boyfriend by
hiring people to, for lack of a better phrase, fuck
him up. But because of all the la-la-la’s make it
infectiously catchy, you can’t help but smile at
her ex’s misfortunes too.
Her debut album, Alright, Still, is rather
impressive. She fuses together ska, reggae,
R&B, punk and rap, which were her musical
influences while she grew up in London. On
her official website (lilyallenmusic.com), she
said she “absorbed all the music around” her,
and that was mostly “courtesy of her parents’
record collection.”
This 21-year-old is far different from her
other British counterparts (Joss Stone, Natasha
Bedingfield, Corinne Bailey Rae) who sing love
songs dripping with sap and repeat that everything is just peachy. About those singers, Allen
said, “A lot of female artists… are boring singers who don’t say anything… most of the music
that I listen to is by outsider figures, which is
where I feel happiest.”
Allen is happy—just at the expense of others. Her weapon of choice just happens to be her
dirty mouth. In “Knock ‘Em Out,” she turns
down every man that approaches her (“Just get
out my face / Leave me alone / and no you can’t
have my number / because I lost my phone”).
Can’t this chick keep or make friends?
No, not when she’s calling everyone she meets
“mental” (“Everything’s Just Wonderful”). I
see a trend.
And finally we reach what seems like an
“uplifting” song of London (“LDN”) since she
says, “Sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would
I want to be anywhere else?” But then at Allen’s
second glance, she says she sees “A fella looking dapper / but he’s sittin’ with a slapper / Then
I see it’s a pimp and his crack whore.”
Maybe there’s no hope for this girl. She
does show that sometimes she wears her heart
on her sleeve. In “Littlest Things” she thinks
of another ex that she can’t seem to get over.
How tragic.
Anyway, no matter what Allen is saying,
or how she says it, Alright, Still is a great album that you’ll want to listen to non-stop. Put
on repeat: “LDN,” “Littlest Things,” “Knock
‘Em Out.” Tracks to skip: “Shame for You” and
“Take What You Take.”
If you like your bands putting out the same
album three times than you should probably
stop reading here and pick up the next tiresome
flavor of the week. With that said, Bloc Party’s debut Silent Alarm was one of my favorite
albums of 2005 and I would be lying if there
wasn’t a part of me who wanted to hear more
of that post-punk UK rock that I came to know
as Bloc Party, but A Weekend in the City it not
Silent Alarm 2 and I would like to thank Bloc
Party for avoiding releasing such a sequel.
A Weekend in the City is a deeper, darker,
more powerful, more developed and an allaround better record. Silent Alarm had substance, but it was hard to take in Kele Okereke’s lyrics when one was too busy using the
catchy guitar work and danceable drumming
on party mixes. On this album the band gives
you no choice but to take these words in and
now that they have your attention Bloc Party
delivers something even more significant.
If you can’t tell by the name of the album,
Bloc Party attempts to capture different voices
of a typical metropolis. The voice on track one
is not the same that is speaking on track two,
and that’s what makes this album so engaging.
The record touches on being engulfed by work
in “Waiting for the 7.18” and feeling a lack of
identity as a black person in Britain on “Where
is Home?,” among other subjects.
Then skip to “I Still Remember” and you
essentially have a love song, but give it another
listen. Okereke sums it up best on blocparty.
net, “The idea of two straight boys having an
attraction, or there being an attraction that’s
unspeakable. When was the last time you heard
an interesting pop song that actually tried to
give you a different perspective on desire?”
With that said and lyrics like, “You should have
asked me for it / I would have been brave.” and
Bloc Party just blew my mind.
“Sunday” is the closest we get to a real love
proclaimed on A Weekend… as the protagonist
says, “I love you in the morning / When you’re
still hungover.” While not nearly as potent as “I
Still Remember,” this track will win the hearts
of all as it finds it way on mix-tapes.
The closest song that dwells in Silent
Alarm territory, and if you’re just joining us I
mean swift, attractive riffs and dance-inspired
drumming that you would expect from UK indie rock, is “Hunting For Witches.” With lyrics
like, “The newscaster says the enemy’s among
us / As bombs explode on the 30 bus / Kill your
middle-class indecision / Now is not the time
for liberal thought” one can tell that there is
more to this than the instrumentals lead you
to believe. The song is reflecting upon a terrorist attack on London; however, it is a theme
Americans can easily relate to with the last line
“Fear will keep us all in place.”
If you fell in love with Bloc Party two
years ago you’re going to initially find yourself
disappointed with their newest release, but if
you sit down with the lyrics in hand, listening
to it for a second time and still find yourself
disappointed than you have failed. I’m sorry,
but this album is a luminous piece of work and
everyone who said 2007 has been mediocre so
far has just been woken up.
Some Loud Thunder is the much anticipated sophomore album from Clap Your Hands
Say Yeah. It has been building up significant
expectations ever since the band’s self-titled
debut album made a huge splash in 2005.
The first track is titled after the album
and sets a perfect example for how the listener
should approach the album as a whole: with
your undivided attention and an open mind
knowing in advance you’ll need at least two to
three listens before formulating your opinion.
The song will make you think the needle keeps
slipping on the record, but after playing around
with different media devices you come to realize the annoying distortion is there on purpose,
covering up a poppy melody and well thought
out lyrics that could have been used as a successful radio single. After time, this will become one of your favorite tracks. Trust me.
Following is “Emily Jean Stock,” an infectious song with a continuing beat throughout
that gets briefly interrupted by distorted drums
every once and a while. It’s a romantic tale that
creates solid imagery with lines such as “There
is no one quite so perfect, when you’re foreign
bound I am the coin in your pocket,” in which
Ounsforth’s unique and light voice adds a special feeling to this promise of security.
Following this, we have “Mama, Won’t
You Keep Those Castles in the Air and Burning?,” which continues the vibrant and springlike feeling of floating on a cloud. It holds more
introspective lyrics where Ounsforth details his
change in philosophy and attitude towards self
by proclaiming, “So now I’m out for political
favors / A salary that corresponds with labor /
Big house and a morning paper / Good fences
that make good neighbors.”
A puzzling change in the album comes next
in “Satan Said Dance” where it feels CYHSY
threw an electronic synthesizer and keyboard
down the stairs and recorded whatever various
beeps and screeches came out of it. Throughout
this track Ounsforth drags his voice over lyrics
that depict his image of what hell is really like.
At one point, Satan talks directly to him, and,
after that, we get a good minute of obnoxious
horn sounds.
The last three tracks of the album are worth
the strange ride this album takes you on. “Yankee Go Home” is a tale about a drifter making his way through the Western Hemisphere
where the time period is never clearly defined.
After this track is a five minute romantic ode,
persuading a lover to follow him through outerspace and eventually ending up in a watery getaway. The album ends with an almost too long
instrumental that is calming and fitting for the
overall tone of work
Most critics will say this band has taken
a step back with this record, but the truth is it
just takes a while to discover the improvement.
Some Loud Thunder will be making it on a lot
of lists for “Best Albums of 2007” when all is
said and done. If you like your music to be a
challenge, requiring you to experience it rather
than just listen, then this album should provide
you with a great escape.
Once upon a time, circa early 2003, I took
a stroll into my local record store in Wallingford. To be more precise it was the good ole’
Merle’s Record Rack (RIP). I was browsing
around the stacks of CDs and I made a mental
decision that I was going to buy an album from
a band that I had never heard of before. So
as I was plodding along, I came across a blue
CD case that caught my eye. I read the band
name and title: “Fall Out Boy – Take This To
Your Grave.” Being a fan of The Simpsons,
from where they lifted their band name, I made
the choice that this was the record I would be
buying on a whim that afternoon. I was a fan
instantly. This record rolled along churning
out power chords culminating into pop-punk
songs with lyrical melodies that were catchy
with lyrical content ranging from sappy to sarcastic.
Fast forward to the present, I see myself
as four years older than I was that day, and my
musical taste has matured leaps and bounds. I
have very few “pop-punk” albums in my CD
collection. So why do I smile and bob my head
like a 12-year-old girl when I listen to the new
Fall Out Boy CD Infinity on High? It could be
the nostalgia factor. It could be the fact that
Infinity on High is actually an all-around better album then their last full-length, From Under the Cork Tree, which gained them critical
acclaim (as well as the hearts of every middle
school girl in the world). It could even be the
fact that 2007 has been such a dismal year for
new music so far, that I don’t know what to do
with myself.
With that being said, it is obvious where
I stand when I listen to this album. Aside from
a couple tracks here and there that slightly get
on my nerves, the kings of high school breakup
mix tapes prove right from the get-go on this
record that they have not lost their capability
to write the catchiest vocal melodies and guitar
hooks I’ve heard come out of radio-played poppunk in a long time. There is at least one chorus or bridge in each of the first 10 or 11 tracks
that made me repeatedly check my pants to see
if my testicles were still there. This album is
fun and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
Infinity on High is a record that has a lot
of faces. The first vocals you are introduced to
are that of a Jay-Z sound clip, which introduces
the album. In response to the rising popularity
of bands like Panic! At Nabisco and My Chemical Boremance in the past year, Fall Out Boy
took a page from the books of those bands and
there are a couple tracks in which you can hear
their influence.
All in all, I hate to admit that I, this big
bad metal dude, was crippled by the likes of
Fall Out Boy. If you can listen to this whole
album and not bob your head, you obviously
take music too seriously. Buy this album and
remember what it was like to be a teenager.
Ariel James
Mark Rowan
Staff Writer
15
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Ten Days Out (Blues From the Backroads
Alkaline Trio
Mnemic
Remains
Passenger
Samuel Martinez
Nick Viccione
Ten Days Out: Blues From the Backroad
is the most recent release from blues guitarist
Kenny Wayne Shepherd. This release is a DVD
documentary with an accompanying live CD,
or the other way around, depending what you
listen to first.
The album is Shepherd collaborating with
many blues legends and veterans. The first
track, “Prison Blues,” features Cootie Stark
and Neal Pattman. This song draws you into
the music with the vocals followed by the harmonica and guitar.
There are several standout tracks on this
album beside the opener, such as “The Thrill is
Gone” and “U-Haul,” which feature B.B. King
and Cootie Stark respectively. “The Thrill is
Gone” brings back memories and images of
movies from the 80’s that I can’t seem to remember the name of right now. Meanwhile,
“U-Haul” is very similar to “Prison Blues” in
how it slowly lures you in. The next thing you
know you are moving around.
The one drawback, that can also be considered a great quality, is that the album features many different styles of the blues. The
CD and DVD feature many musicians, each
with a distinct sound and style. Ten Days Out:
Blues From the Backroads requires several listens before you are able to place a musician to
his or her style, but that is only a concern if you
listen to album before watching the documentary on DVD.
The documentary is the journey of Shepherd throughout the Midwest and the title of
album is a reference to this journey. Along this
trip, he meets the blues musicians that he idolizes. The documentary provides background
information about the collaborating artists, as
well as providing you a better understanding of
the distinct styles of the blues. The documentary also serves a memorial for several of the musicians. For example, Etta Baker, featured on
“Knoxville Rag,” was 93years old at the time of
the recording. She is one of several musicians
to pass away before this album was released.
I will be the first to admit that I can’t predict how true blues enthusiasts will react to
this, but I believe it is gateway for those, who
are just getting into blues like me, to develop
an appreciation for the blues and its diversity
in styles. In short, the documentary provides
a building block to become a blues fan, while
the CD satisfies your blues urges until you build
your collection.
Staff Writer
Edward Gaug
A Day to Remember
For Those Who Have Heart
Duncan Sanford
Staff Writer
There are times when I run into an issue
reviewing albums. I have taste in such a wide
variety of music that it bothers me when I truly
can’t get into a band’s style. And it should be
noted that when I say “wide” variety of musical taste, I don’t mean the same type of “wide”
variety you see when you are stalking the
Myspace or Facebook page of that chick you
like sitting behind and smelling in your English class. Unfortunately that consists of, and
I’ve seen it a million times because sometimes
I am that guy, “I like everything! Nickleback!
My Chemical Romance! And even some rap!”
This example of musical taste is pigeon-holed
to whatever is on the radio. Now, I’ve got nothing against the music that is played on the radio, but there are times when I will listen to an
album and think to myself, this doesn’t suck,
it’s just not my cup of tea.
That short rant leads me nicely to the main
reason of this article. I was tapped out of ideas
as far as album reviews go for this issue, so I
went in to the WFCS radio station next door
and asked a couple of the guys there if they had
any new release albums that they wanted me
to review. I was handed a CD by a band called
Mnemic.
I had never heard of this band, but my first
impression was promising. Nuclear Blast is
the label releasing the album. There are guest
appearances from members of Napalm Death
and ex-Carcass. They had just finished a tour
with Soilwork and Darkest Hour, and they were
about to embark on a tour with God Forbid,
Goatwhore and Arsis. Arsis, Darkest Hour,
Goatwhore and Napalm Death are all staples
on my iTunes library, so I got excited to review
this album simply by association.
I couldn’t have been more disappointed
with Passenger, which hit streets February
6 and is Mnemic’s third full-length. What I
thought was going to be a fairly decent death
metal album, turned out to be nothing short
of a barrage of nu-metal vocal styled singing
and poorly written guitar licks. Aside from the
annoying singing and weak guitar work, the
drumming is nothing but normal throughout
the entire record.
I may be making this album out to be terrible, but like I said before, sometimes there
are types of music that don’t suit my fancy.
Passenger is a perfect example of one of those
types. Let me take the time to set all my biased
opinions aside and keep it real. If you are a fan
of this type of music, the vocal combination of
brooding singing and aggressive yelling, the
dark undertones and the nu-metal lyrics, then
this album is for you. If you enjoy bands like
Slipknot and Disturbed, then completely disregard my opinion that those type bands are
worthless and go buy this album. I promise
you’ll like it. In the meantime I’ll be contacting Mnemic’s tour manager as well as Nuclear
Blast records and asking them how they were
able to snag a spot on a couple of good tours.
What do you do when your band has been
around for 11 years, you already released an
album in the past two years and two members
have gone on to do above average side projects?
Release a collection of b-sides, split releases
and international exclusive songs, of course.
Remains includes songs from Alkaline
Trio’s early days, before Derek Grant joined the
band and as recent as the release of Crimson
back in May of 2005. The songs on the album
seem to be arranged in chronological order, yet
still manage to feel as if they have coherent
flow. For aged Trio fans, this is the second compilation they have released, the first being their
self-titled back in 2000. Both comps are geared
mainly towards the groups’ older fans, due to
their overwhelming amount of earlier songs
that hold the original Alkaline Trio styling of
pop and punk with dark lyrics and darker subject matter. Not to hate on the newer Alkaline
Trio, but Crimson wasn’t any sort of good.
The Chicagoans start off Remains with a
song that was first released back 2001 on their
Hell Yes single. In true A3 fashion, the band
starts off slowly with a single guitar and then
explodes into their power punk mixture of
catchy hooks and quick tempos. With lyrics
describing their mutual feelings that God has
let them down and Satan has always been there
for them, they reject normal religion and embrace their Satanic sides (FYI: Both front man
Matt Skiba and drummer Derek Grant are confirmed members of the Church of Satan.) With
lyrics like “Bless me dark father I have sinned
/ I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again / Cause
it keeps me warm, and makes you smile / Been
beneath me all the while / Hell yes,” it makes
you think like they might be on to something.
Okay, enough with the religious bullshit,
let’s move on to the song that first made me start
listening to Alkaline Trio back in high school:
an overall great song, “Jaked on Green Beers.”
Made purely as a “break-up” song, it is done in
perfect fashion. Most of us at this age can recall a moment in which “There was a time that
I thought you were a friend to me / I think those
times I was probably just drunk / And if they
offered a test about being a good friend / I’d put
money down that you’d surely flunk,” make a
whole lot of sense.
Other songs on the album that stand out are
“Old School Reasons” from the Good Mourning b-side and a personal live show favorite,
“We Can Never Break Up,” a b-side from Crimson; it’s a catchy song that shows off the Trio’s
newer style very well. To close up the album,
Skiba and company included three live tracks
from their concert in Los Angeles. While the
audio quality isn’t great, the choice of songs is,
and believe me, they sound amazing live. The
only lame thing is they repeat “My Standard
Break Form Life” as a live song.
My advice to you is to go check this album out as soon as you can. While most comp
albums are dumb, this one shines as one of the
Alkaline Trio’s best albums behind Goddamnit
and From Here to Infirmary. It’s a great pick
up if you are either a card-carrying member of
The Blood Pact or just a casual listener to punk
and alt-rock.
Like sit-ups and fat people, some things
just weren’t meant to be mixed. A Day to Remember’s combination of pop and hardcore has
the same effect. For Those Who Have Heart is
an album that really butchers a musical pairing
that shouldn’t be repeated.
The songs on this album all follow a fairly
similar pattern: mediocre pop-rock eventually
switching to over-the-top hardcore screaming.
No segue in the world can make that good, and
A Day to Remember certainly isn’t capable of
pulling it off. The fact that there is nothing
particularly interesting or impressive about either element alone doesn’t really help the band
either.
Furthermore, this album really lacks any
sort of hit. It doesn’t utilize any catchy pop
hooks to really drag you in, and the hardcore
elements are just so out of place that they fail
to really stir anything either. From the opening of “Fast Forward to 2012” to the end of
“Start the Shooting,” this album is completely
uninspired. A Day to Remember really has put
forth an album to forget.
Part of what soured me to this album may
have been a dislike of hardcore in general. A
Day to Remember has certainly taken a novel
approach with their genre defying sound, and
they deserve credit for being original. Some
of their pop melodies are interesting, and they
certainly seem to pack a lot of energy with
their hardcore element, but I just find the result
of the two together completely off-putting. It
might just never work, or it might just need a
lot more refining and maturing, but as it is now,
it is a catastrophe.
Let’s take a look at the band’s brilliant
press release for just a second. “It would be
almost too easy and obvious to describe A
Day To Remember as the creators of one of
the unforgettable rock albums of 2007, but that
wouldn’t make it any less true.” It would also
be too easy to say that a week into the second
month of the year that a band has produced an
unforgettable album of 2007. It would then be
too obvious that this is a lie when one actually
listens to it.
Then we have the gem, “A Day To Remember aren’t exactly the new kids in the pit.”
This quote would only be true if there were a
good band by the name of New Kids in the Pit,
as A Day To Remember sucks.
A Day to Remember might be one of those
bands to avoid for now. They might have some
talent and original thinking, but their current
album, For Those Who Have Heart, just isn’t
worth listening to. Maybe someday down the
road they’ll be a beloved band, and we can all
look back and laugh at how far they have come
from this one, but that someday is a long way
from now. Forget this album and listen to your
pop and hardcore separately for a while.
16
Burke A. Downer
Staff Writer
On the first Monday night of every month
this semester the Central Activities Network will
be sponsoring an Open Mic Night in Semesters
located in the Student Center. The first open mic
of the year on January 29 showed promise.
The event was originally scheduled for 8
p.m., but a lack of attendance pushed back the
start until 8:30 and with 22 people in the audience, coordinator Steven “Bubs” Fabius began
the show. After a few minutes of posturing, the
first act, a rapper named Complex, finally made
his way to the stage.
The second act was a poet/songwriter
named Sabrina. Of the four artists that took
the stage Monday night, she was, without question, the best. Though it was clear Sabrina
lacked stage experience or the polish that others had, her performance outshone the others
and moved the audience. The poem she recited
first was improvised particularly for the Open
Mic Night, and on a whim she was able to write
and perform incredibly well. The theme behind
her performance was thankfulness for religion.
Even though the topic can sometimes be hard
to discuss and inspire an emotion that’s hard to
harness, Sabrina was able to do both. Her first
poem was an emotional crescendo peaking and
bursting with the line “The Lord’s my Master,
my Man, my Best Friend who’s after my whole
heart to mend.” The emotion dropped and then
built again, and again. Sabrina was incredible.
Hopefully she and more like her will continue
to come and make appearances at Open Mic
Nights in the future.
The next act was another rapper, MC Brash. Brash, the most established performer of the night,
brought energy to the stage and
maintained an amplified stream
of hip-hop and rap throughout
his three song set. That constant
energy was enjoyable though the
setting may have been wrong.
Perhaps if there had been more
of an audience the crowd
could have echoed his vibrant
emotion, but there wasn’t. It
seemed as though most of the
audience was disinterested.
Following another soulful reading by Sabrina, the
last act of the night was
Jonathan Peter, who sat
down with his guitar and
declared, “I’m John and
this is gonna be a little bit
different than anything
else you’ve experienced
tonight.” Jonathan, playing acoustic guitar, kicked off his set with
Radiohead’s “Karma Police” and sung it well.
His nonchalant style and soft voice, think Ben
Harper meets Joshua Radin, made for an apt
ending to the short but enjoyable opening night
of open mic.
Again, on the whole, the first open mic
proved itself promising. All the performers were
worth hearing, and according to “Bubs” Fabius,
we should only expect bigger and better things
Steinbeck to Play Semesters
Ed Gaug
Alright, so I haven’t listened to anything
that one would consider pop music in the past
few years, mostly because I go through phases
of what types of music interests me. Lately,
most of you can tell by reading my album or
show reviews that the majority of the bands that
reside in my iPod are more than likely low-key
indie bands, experimental metal bands and the
occasional punk band. Over the course of this
past week I have gotten to listen to some other
bands based purely on the words of my fellow
writer Nick Viccione and Editor-in-Chief Mark
Rowan. The first was the new Fall Out Boy album that Nick has reviewed for this issue and
the second was Steinbeck, a New Britain-based
power pop band that has its roots planted firmly
here at CCSU.
While I don’t know if the guys in Steinbeck would like me talking about them in the
same breath as Fall Out Boy, it happens to fit
due to their common use of catchy guitar hooks
and upbeat instrumentals. When Steinbeck
was mentioned to me, all I knew was that they
were playing a show here on campus on February 8 and that they were from around the area.
After listening to the small collection of songs
that reside on their MySpace page, I knew that
this would be something I could get into and
after listening again, I still am.
I got a chance to sit down and bullshit with
the band’s lead singer and songwriter Adam
Morgan this week and talk about how the band
is doing and what is on their horizon. He mentioned that the band will be playing a small
show on campus tomorrow and hopes that his
D.I.Y. approach to promoting shows will help
get the word out and all you people on campus
will come check them out. If all works out like
he plans, you will be seeing posters for this
show around campus. I assure you that this
show will prove to be a great time if you like
a mix of pop, rock and slight elements of ska
and punk.
When listening to their music, I can recall all the bands that I used to listen to back in
high school and even some I still do. I hear aspects that call up band names like MxPx, Saves
the Day, Piebald and Motion City Soundtrack.
All of these are due to a poppiness that most
in the future.
“Open Mic usually draws a bigger crowd
and it always grows throughout the semester,”
he said.
If the talent level of the performers has
any effect on the size level of the audience than
Bubs should be right. Open Mic Night’s 2007
debut was a success.
Photos by Conrad Akier / The Recorder
Left: Poet/songwriter Sabrina moved
the audience at open mic night at
Semesters last Monday.
Right: Jonathan Peter played a cover of
Radiohead’s “Karma Police” to open up
his set at open mic.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Review
Stephanie Bergeron
Staff Writer
steinbeckrock.com
Adam Morgan, Steinbeck frontman, will be
playing Semesters this Thursday with his band.
bands are starting to shy away from in order to
use shitty breakdowns and screaming vocals.
That’s not what these guys are all about and I’m
glad it’s that way.
Morgan, bassist Dan Derks and new drummer Carlos Brantley are here to make fun music
and play shows when time permits. I say that
because Derks spends the majority of his time
out of state at college and the band doesn’t get
to practice and play all that much. According
to Morgan, the band gets to practice more often
when Derks is home, but doesn’t feel hindered
by it because they have been playing together
for so long that they can just pick it up again
when they need to.
This brings me to right now and Steinbeck
is getting ready to play two shows in the next
couple of weeks that include their gig tomorrow night in Alumni Hall in the Student Center
and their show on the 25th at the Webster Theater Underground in Hartford with Suburban
Legends and MC Lars. Both shows should be
a great time to go out and see what Steinbeck is
all about and just have some fun.
Pan’s Labyrinth is an unorthodox mix
of fantasy, history, violence and imagination.
Set during Francisco Franco’s rule after the
Spanish Civil War, the movie tells the story
of a young, imaginative girl and her mother.
Ofelia, played by the young and very talented
Ivana Baquero, is forced
to move into her new
fathers’ home after her
real father died fighting in the war. Worried about her sick and
pregnant mother, her
questionable new stepfather, Ofelia enters a
world that she creates
for herself to keep her
innocence alive.
Three quarters of
the movie takes place
outside of Ofelia’s
dreamland, leaving a
quarter of the movie in
the hands of gorgeous
fantasy settings. The
fantasies themselves
are more welcoming
than the real world she
lives in, though they
are still very eerie and
gothic. Going back and forth between the real
world and her world, the two collide to exist
as one. The creatures start to appear in her
bedroom and outside of Pan’s Labyrinth.
Ofelia is then faced with many tasks and
problems in her fantasy world that coincide
with the tasks and problems Spain is faced
with in the real world. Also during these
crossroads come some of the most surreal
parts of the movie. Ofelia is able to fix her
own battles while the realities of the adult
world in Spain cannot fix its own—displaying that the innocence of a child can prevail
over evil.
The magic of the movie lies within the
fact that this wonderfully inventive world
can exist within such a violent world. Many
scenes contain bombing, violence and bloodshed making the movie unsuitable for young
children. The movie in and of itself is the perfect adult fantasy. It doesn’t go into the imaginary world and stay there; instead it weaves
in and out, allowing us to see from adult
and children’s eyes.
When we are in Ofelia’s world, we aren’t
there with pink bunnies hopping around
everywhere. When
we are there, we are
faced with grotesque
creatures that make
you question what
they are.
The film is great
for all tastes. It has
lots of history, a few
heartfelt moments
between mother and
child, extraordinary
costumes and lots
of blood and torture that appeal to
a wider audience.
The film, up for six
Oscars, was directed
by Guillermo del
Toro who also directed Hellboy, Mimic and
Blade II. The acting overall was very realistic; Baquero had an outstanding performance
for a 12-year-old.
The movie definitely deserves all the
nominations it is getting for just the concept
and storyline alone. The Spanish with English subtitles demands for an attentive viewer, yet adds to the overall feel of the film. Had
it been dubbed in English, I find the movie
would not have achieved its intimate realism.
Check it out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Blue Devils King of The Mount

Transcription

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