Contrary to popular opinion, the winter crowd at Ithaca College does not go rampaging through the dorms while students are on break. We take the occasional shower, perhaps. Maybe jump on the odd bunk bed from time to time. And of course there's the fizzball league that meets every Tuesday and Thursday in Terrace 2. But other than that, we pretty much keep a low profile over the holiday season.

Suffice to say with campus closed for the better part of the next two weeks, Rattle will be quietly soaking up the holiday romance and good cheer, which may or may not be a euphemism for an eggnog-fueled 3 a.m. escapade of snow golf at the Trumansburg mini putt.

But when we come back, duck.

Next semester promises to be the most exciting four months in the history of Ithaca College, at least for those of you who can put down the Warcrack long enough to get outside from time to time (a good idea in any case if you ever plan to get an actual job). Big stuff will be happening, shows will be spectacular, people of astonishing importance and jaw-dropping influence will be talking at length about stuff you can't possibly comprehend unless you do the bloody reading first. Remember folks, events on campus are only as good as the people who show up to see 'em.

Oh, and there's the small matter of inaugurating our new College president. Perhaps not the strain on the local hostelry that Obamafest promises to be in DC, but a big deal nonetheless. The last time we had one of these parties, "blog" was just a typo.

We're still working out the kinks at Rattle, but our biggest hope has remained unchanged: we want to hear from you about life at Ithaca. If you see a great band, we want to know it before you fall asleep with your ears still ringing. If you shoot a video of some totally off-the-hook performance art piece, we want to scare the hell out of your classmates with it before breakfast tomorrow. In short, whatever shapes your Ithaca experience, we want to know about it. Odds are we're not the only ones.

Enjoy the break. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with a Louisville Slugger and a case of Natty Light in Terrace 2.*

*Just kidding. It's actually Milwaukee's Beast.

I received an invitation to a faculty family's Chanukah Christmas Kwanzaa party with the message, "Chanumus will soon be uponamus.  Rejoice!" -- It's not everybody's new year in this multicultural society of ours -- but all of this cultural blending gets me excited and it's ok by me if you work in your LGBT black hispanic plural identity whenever you welcome the new year.  Nevertheless, for a lot of us, the traditional New Year's celebration is coming, and in the words from my Edge of Christmas CD -- with apologies to 80s rockers the Payolas -- Christmas is coming, it's been a long year, I wish it were here.  So about the invitation -- it's a private party, some faculty might get angry if I go digging in the dirt, which they get paid to do anyway -- but maybe if I get many pleas from the peanut gallery I will post a pic from the wild soirée.

Event Details

Jane Doe and family
Private Chanumas Party
2001 Mulholland Drive
Southfield, NY
December 18 or 21 at 7:33 p.m.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (downtown Ithaca), there was a commercial building boom. On every vacant (and not-so-vacant) corner of the town, giant brick erections (heh heh, shut up, Beavis) sprang up to house all manner of automobile, brokerage house, business traveler, and ersatz Hibernian drinkery. Throughout the land, people marvelled at the sudden upward growth of the once low-rise town and collectively wondered aloud:

"When the hell are they gonna fill all that empty space with something we actually want?"

Not sure about the long term prospects, though the rumor about Urban Outfitters continues to brew without being dismissed out of hand (it did start on an Ivy League campus, after all, so it isn't that far-fetched). Tonight, however, the cavernous monument to the fickle nature of our boom-and-bust economy at the corner of Cayuga and Clinton will burst to life with IC's senior photography workshop show, "I Feel, When You, I Want."

The opening reception goes from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., and vittles and elixirs will be on offer. If the TiVo is on the blink and you can't make it tonight, further viewing hours are Friday and Saturday, noon to 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6:00 p.m. Which is fine, but tonight's the night for all you scenesters and scenestresses who want to slip on your finery and hobnob with the Bomberatti. Just be sure to bring a wrap for that little cocktail dress, because empty concrete commercial space tends to double as a meat locker this time of year.

Each year this show seems to get better, so be sure to get yourself way down down down in this subbacultcha (sorry, got the Pixies on really loud right now).

One of the things I most enjoy about working at IC is the universality of the college experience, regardless of age, era, or location. Since time immemorial the week following Thanksgiving has meant one thing:

"What do you MEAN there's only a week left of classes? What do you MEAN I have seven papers due and a final in every subject? What the #@$&!?"

Yes, like your ancestors before you, you're about to discover the great anomaly of academic physics: work is multiplied by the speed at which time increases during the last week of classes (mathematically, we state it thus: holycrap x howthehellisitfridayalready = helpmemommy). You can read all the time management books you want (which is a bit silly, since not having enough time to read is what got you in this mess in the first place), but ultimately there is only one answer to your woes:

Go to the movies.

And not just any movie. The folks at FLEFF (Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, for the abbreviation-challenged among you) are leading a forum on Trouble The Water, a documentary made by two woefully unlucky New Orleans residents who filmed their impending demise on the business end of Hurricane Katrina three years ago. The film won the Grand Jury Award at Sundance and has been shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar, so in addition to seeing people exponentially worse off than yourselves ultimately survive, you'll get good value for your entertainment dollar.

FLEFF honchos Patty "The kid stays in the picture" Zimmermann and Tom "Vote or else" Shevory will lead a post-screening discussion on politics and aesthetics of the film. Showtime is 7:00 p.m. this Saturday (Dec. 6) at Cinemapolis on the always colorful Ithaca Commons. Their popcorn comes straight from Heaven's own feed bag.

And fear not -- no one's head has ever actually exploded from too much school work. You'll be fine.

I attended the Scahill talk last night.  Standing room only, and it led to a standing ovation.

I spoke to one audience member, associate professor of sociology Rebecca Plante, who said, "Make sure you write it was an amazing and inspiring talk."  After we parted ways, I overheard her say to her companion, "Scahill said nothing about theology, nothing about theocracy."  Curious, I looked it up.

What Scahill did say, at the climax of his talk (as if the climax easily could be judged, since Scahill speaks quickly and loudly all the time), was a troubling criticism of the administration of president-elect Obama for bringing back "a kettle of war hawks."  Chief problem is that corporations have too much power--one audience member asked what we should do when our 200 news corporations of the past have been reduced to five today.  Scahill argued that issue-based organizing will be the wave of the future.  He said, and I paraphrase, "There's a big mess, and we each have to find our own small part of it and tackle it."

In a poignant moment, Scahill recalled a woman he admired, whose name I forget, with apologies, of whom it was said, "She lives as though the truth were true."

Scahill amazes, and inspires to action.