Feminism is a hot topic on the Ithaca College campus these days. You've probably heard that Top Girls, the first theatre arts show of the year which opens next week, deals with feminism, among other things. There's another "feminist movement" on campus nowadays, however, and that is Dawn Hunter's Spectacle Spectacular show at the Handwerker Gallery.

The artist, who spoke at the Handwerker Wednesday evening, described herself as a "feminist artist", whose show explores the relationship between popular culture (mostly Vogue magazine) and gendered identity. I went to see her speak, and discovered that behind all those fancy-schmancy descriptions of her work, there is a fascinating story, not to mention some compelling art.

Ms. Hunter, who holds an MFA from UC Davis and now teaches at the University of South Carolina, spoke about her past career and how her family history influenced her art, but focused mainly on the evolution of the Spectacle Spectacular show. The idea evolved out of a course she took in graduate school, in which she chose to research Vogue over a space of four years, 1987 to 1991. While Ms. Hunter originally expected the magazine to remain focused on the same issues over the course time, what she discovered was that the focus of articles shifted. In 1987, Ms. Hunter told us, articles about fitness focused on health and longevity. By the time 1991 rolled around, the articles were about sculpting a certain physique. If people couldn't sculpt the right one, Vogue advertisements subtly suggested they get plastic surgery.

Ms. Hunter had been fascinated by this information in graduate school, and she returned to the topic when researching for her current series of paintings. She was most interested in the change that happened in the magazine from 1983 to 1986. She discovered that in this time period, Vogue went from portraying older, successful women as powerful icons, and advertised products that "serviced the body", to courting a much younger audience featuring products that "create the body instead of servicing it, making the body a medium of culture." Ms. Hunter said the change happened because feminism "isn't necessarily that marketable."

Ms. Hunter explored the way the magazine's fashion and advertising layouts changed and how their focus shifted from older women to younger women. She also became interested in the way Vogue's covers evolved from featuring supermodels to featuring actresses, reflecting the fact that the magazine was becoming less about fashion and more driven by the movie industry. These ideas are explored in the Spectacle Spectacular exhibition, which draws from Vogue advertisements and fashion layouts and explores the relationship women have with each other as well as with the audience and the fashion and advertising industries. "There's an ambiguity to the work because there's a sexual aspect," Ms. Hunter explained. "It's feminist [work]," she said, "but I'm not telling you what to do with it. I'm not sending a clear message. I'm not telling you what to think or what's good or bad."

No matter what your opinion of the relationship between women, fashion, and advertising, I suggest you head over to the Handwerker and take a look at Dawn Hunter's exhibition. Her paintings are fascinating at first glance, and become even more interesting when one thinks about the motivation, influences, and research that lies behind them. I know I'll be heading over at least once more to spend some time with the art and try to figure it all out. Maybe I'll run into you there.

Have you been feeling underscheduled? Let Rattle help put some fun in your life!

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Wednesday, Sept 30th - DC Comedy sponsored by SAB Improv sketch group DC Comedy comes to the Pub with the sole purpose of making you snort out your La Vincita panini! 7-10 PM, Campus Center

Wednesday, Sept 30th - Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen Film Series: Excellent film series put on by Ithaca College's LGBT Center. The films focus on the ways people transcend, challenge, and redefine gender as we know it. Textor 101, 7:00 to 8:30 PM

Thursday, October 1st - International Club Social night: Come join the International Club at 5:30 PM in Klingenstein Lounge for a night around the world!

Thursday, October 1st - Pink Ribbon Ball: Brush up on your ballroom skills for this semi-formal dance in support of Colleges Against Cancer. 7PM to 11:30 PM in Emerson Suites

Thursday, October 1st - They Might Be Giants at the State Theater: Geeez, this is going to be such a fun show! America's best and most loved Geek Rock band, bringing their delightfully off-kilter tunes here to Ithaca. Show's on at 8 PM.

October 2nd & 3rd - Rod Serling, Celebrating 50 Years of the Twilight Zone - A full on academic conference, this is. Come pay homage to the most awesome IC student/professor ever (way better than that Disney CEO guy...just kiddin'). Sure to include lots of surprises, guest speakers, and Twilight Zoney goodness!  Starts at 9 am and the party doesn't quit til 11 at night. Events in Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall, and Park Hall.

Saturday, October 3rd - Women's Club Rugby vs SUNY Brockport: Watch our rugby ladies wreck SUNY! 3 PM, Middle Allen Field.

Sunday, October 3rd - Field Hockey vs SUNY Cortland: Club sports are great. Get in on it! 11 PM, Yavits Extension

After seeing The Cove at Cinemapolis this weekend -- another gem from the good folks at IC's very own Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) -- I was stunned. The thing was, I was not stunned in the way I expected to be stunned. Coming into the documentary of Taijian dolphin slaughter in a specific cove, I had expected to be upset. I had expected to be somewhat revolted. I had not expected to be quite so motivated towards change as I was.

The movie was beautiful, in a terrible way. It showed the secrecy of the slaughter, and let us follow the filmmakers through the espionage that brought the terrible practice to light. The real gem of the experience though was the discussion that took place after the screening with Christopher Clark and Todd Schack, professors at Cornell and IC, respectively.

Between Clark's knowledge of dolphins and bioacoustics and Schack's experience in investigative journalism, they offered an insight into the experience of The Cove that would have been almost impossible to glean otherwise. Through all their academic knowledge, though, the most important thing that they emphasized was that horrible practices such as these are not at all beyond our control. With the proper motivation and exposure, things can and will change.

Want to know what you can do to help?

One of the reasons I'm such a fan of the city of Ithaca is that it puts on some great community events. Applefest, Ithaca's three day festival of things red and delicious, is my favorite of those. Stalls and stands pack the Commons and the surrounding streets, and crowds line up to see what they have to offer. Apples abound, of course, but even if you don't like apples themselves, Applefest offers incredibly tasty apple-flavored food (apple pie, apple tart, apple-pretty-much-anything-you-can-think-of), as well as delicious food from various restaurants on and off the Commons (Thai food, Chinese food, deep fried Oreos, etc.). Activities abound, and the people watching is amazing.

This year's Applefest lived up to the hype, despite being plagued by (the also annual) rain. A ridiculous number of people crowded the Commons to enjoy the festivities and activities, which included shopping...

people watching...

rides on the ferris wheel...

and visits from performers like our very own IC Circus.

I spent hours wandering the Commons and enjoying the uniqueness of Applefest, and I went home satisfied and happy. Of course now that it's behind me, I find myself craving apples. If you'll excuse me, I think I have a caramel apple hidden somewhere around here...

The brief yet harsh cloudburst Wednesday night did nothing to deter the crowd of eager ticketholders at Castaways door from their goal: one of the most amazing shows in one of the smallest venues that Sufjan Stevens has played in years. Buzzing with anticipation, the crowds came early and eagerly to claim their front row spots for this uniquely amazing show.

Kicking off the show was Cryptacize, a band that's been personally nurtured from the beginning by Sufjan himself. Signed to his label Asthmatic Kittie, they've been accompanying him on this recent tour, and complimenting his music style perfectly. Playing a sunny and charmingly off-kilter pop rock, Cryptacize and lead singer Nedelle Torrisi set the tone perfectly for the evening. Highlights for me were a beautiful Beach Boys cover ("Because we're from California" Nedelle chimes in) and "Constant Sing-Along," their disarmingly charming set-closer.

Coming onstage to set up his impressive array of pedals, Sufjan took a minute to chat with the almost frighteningly enthusiastic fans in the front row before launching into a set front-loaded with brand new songs. Sporting a slightly electronic edge, Sufjan's new songs were alternately beautifully soothing and shockingly epic (the epicness mainly due to his horn player, one of the best I've seen lately) and though they weren't his most well-known songs by any stretch, proved just as enjoyable in a "You never know what kooky awesome hi-jinks Sufjan will get up to next" kind of way.

While these new songs were thoroughly entrancing, as Sufjan and his band launched into his best loved material the energy in the room definitely kicked up a notch.  "Casimir Pulaski Day," "The Dress Looks Nice On You," and "To Be Alone With You" were met with nothing short of a rapturous response from the audience, as Sufjan showed definitively the sunning strength that somehow comes through the fragility of his music. No one though, was prepared for the awesome that was "Chicago." Played in the worn wooden room of Castaways, the warmth of the song was amazing, and it truly seemed as if we were hearing it in a way that was very rarely heard, but was really the way it should be. Remarkable. Finishing off the night with two separate encores, The first new and the second "John Wayne Gacy Jr.," Sufjan left Ithaca dazed by his unique brand of amazing.
 

You'd think that after a year at Ithaca College, I'd stop being surprised at how much talent this campus holds. But whenever I go to something like SAB's Open Mic Night, I'm always amazed at what my fellow classmates can do.

Last night in the Pub, many of IC's students showcased their skills in front of their peers. I was thrilled to see a lot of fellow students struttin' their stuff on stage. I never have a problem with boys and guitars, and the "boys with guitars" demographic were out in full force on Thursday night. My favorite was a fellow from Sri Lanka, a junior named Oshan Gunawardana who graced us with my favorite John Mayer song, "Why Georgia." Dan Licata and Joe Pera offered up a short play called "A Captain's Desire: Yours Truly From Across the Sea" (also starring Katie Henly), the highly entertaining content of which I cannot describe in this parent-friendly blog. (Ed.: Aw, c'mon, parents are grown-ups too!) Musical groups Drinking Party, Passing Through, and the Jam Burgers also gave quite a show, but my favorite was a band of three freshman called Two Weeks In. This delightful trio did an acoustic version of the infamous 3Oh!3 song "Don't Trust Me," complete with (get this!) trumpet. Oh, Ithaca College, how I love you...

Check out pictures in the gallery to your right, and keep your eye out for SAB's next Open Mic Night for more talent and fun.

One of the things I love most about IC is the weird and crazy stuff our on campus clubs get up to. My favorite so far this year is actually an established tradition, but it surprises me every time. Habitat for Humanity's annual "Flamingo Flocking" fundraiser raises money to support their trips to help eliminate poverty housing.

Habitat volunteers run around at night with 75 plastic flamingos and stake them on the ground in front of various places on and off campus. They leave behind a note describing who they are and asking for a donation, and after the "flocked" building gives them an address of a family member, friend, or co-worker, Habitat picks the birds up and moves on to their next flocking place.

Earlier in the week, Habitat flocked the Peggy Ryan Williams building, and it drew all sorts of attention. I love this fundraiser, mostly because it's totally random and apparently, totally effective. Way to go Habitat!

Be one of the first 50 people to bring your student ID to Cinemapolis for The Cove screening this Friday, and you can be one of the chosen few to receive a free ticket to the documentary that the New York Times called  "one of the most audacious and perilous operations in the history of the conservation movement."

The Cove, easily one of the most revolutionary documentary films made recently, follows Ric O'Barry on an expose of the heinous activities going on in an otherwise scenic cove in Taiji, Japan. Protected by barbed wire fences and armed guards, a six month-long slaughter of thousands of dolphins takes place every year. Dolphins are herded into the cove by local fishermen; for them, it's the killing of competition, as the dolphins represent a rival for daily fish consumption.

O'Barry and his crew infiltrated the operation using divers and high-definition cameras camouflaged as rocks, as the local police and fisherman provided tight security at the site of the brutal slaughter. An espionage film as well as an environmental documentary, it's not a screening to miss. The Cove has already won many awards, including the Audience Award at the 2009 Sundance, and the Best Feature Film at the 2009 Nantucket Film Festival.

See the sidebar for deets on screening times and prices.

Unbeknownst to much of the Ithaca College community, for the past year or so students Marlee Rutberg, Emma Hileman, and Taryn Hubbard have been conducting one of the coolest operations on campus: a giant, fully functioning, crop-producing, organic garden. If you're thinking "Oh, like the little garden out in front of Mac's?" I'm thinking in reply "Oh no, so much more epic".

Tucked away in a clearing behind the composting and recycling facilities (just off the little twisty road to Rogan's), the Organic Gardening Club has created a 40x40 foot plot packed with tomatoes, carrots, squashes, flowers, and the occasional baby rabbit. In it's incumbent year, the garden has been a roaring success, with crops beginning to be harvested as fall comes marching in. It's been a lot of work for everyone involved, but the rows and rows of healthy green veggies that are cropping up as the seasons begin to change are all the reward Taryn, Emma, and Marlee need for the many hours of work they put in this summer.

The garden in its early stages, courtesy Taryn Hubbard

As I'm sitting here mooching some of Taryn's salsa made from fresh, home grown tomatoes, I know I'll be down in the clearing behind the composting facility helping out at the next work day.

If you're interested in getting involved, shoot the organic garden an e-mail at gardenIC@gmail.com. I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

What's up this week? Let Rattle inform you of the best events on campus and off!

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Tuesday, Sept 22nd - Graduate and Professional School Fair: Representatives from a huge range of schools and disciplines will be here to meet with you, 5:30 to 7:30 PM in Emerson Suites!

Wednesday, Sept 23rd - Sufjan Stevens at Castaways: If you were lucky enough to get tickets to this show, this will doubtless be one of the most amazing Wednesdays you've ever experienced. Ever. Castaways (sold out) Doors at 7

Thursday, September 24th - SAB Open Mic Night - SAB's always fantastically entertaining Open Mic Night, in IC Square from 7 to 10 PM. Come watch your friends and other students be amazingly talented/hilariously absurd!

Friday, September 25th - Thom Hartman broadcasts live: Thom Hartman, one of the nations best progressive talk show hosts, will be broadcasting live from Emerson Suites with you potentially in the live audience! It's free, but tickets are necessary. Click here, follow the Thom Hartman link, and fill out the ticket request form to get in on the live broadcast, which runs from 12 to 3 PM.

Friday, September 25th - Ithacapella Block 1 concert: Hear them do what they do best for the first time this year in Emerson Suites, from 7 to 10 PM!

September 25th - 27th - Ithaca Applefest: Always a favorite, the 27th annual apple fest will run this Friday To Sunday in the Ithaca Commons. Hours are 12:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The festival is free and open to the public. Come on down to get your fill of apple sauces, apple ciders, apple pies and enough apple-themed fun and games to last you through the encroaching winter.

Saturday, September 26th - Women's Club Rugby vs. Syracuse University: Come on out and watch our ladies kick Syracuse into oblivion, and rightly so! 3PM, Middle Allen Field.

Saturday, September 26th - Men's Club Soccer vs. Syracuse University: Come watch our men do the same! 12PM, Middle Allen Field

1. The set in Emerson Suites this past Friday was nothing short of a life-changing experience. Playing a solo show consisting mainly of "ancient s**t," (his words) John Darnielle managed to lull hundreds of normally boisterous college students to a haunting silence during one of the most beautiful, raw performances I've ever seen.

2. The new songs he played were amazing! He debuted at least two songs for the first time ever for us, and they met every expectation. "Deuteronomy 2:12" and "Genesis 30:3" were the most memorable for me, with the latter being a far-and-away favorite. Something about the simplicity of the chorus line -- "I will do what you ask me to do because of how I feel about you" -- just gave me shivers. Can't wait to hear them on the upcoming album The Life Of The World To Come.

3. John was wearing a Farm Sanctuary shirt! Supporting one of the greatest organizations in the Ithaca area is always a good thing. When I met him before the show he even had a pocketful of Farm Sanctuary flyers he was passing out. Check it!

4. Dude really and truly loves his fan base. The set was the definition of a "fans' set," with John playing the best, oddest selections from the whole breadth of his recording career. Tuning his guitar once, he prefaced the song with "I wrote this back when I didn't really know how to play guitar, so even if it still sounds like that, at least it'll be in tune!" In addition to these old, rough gems, he delivered the best and most loved songs from Zopilote Machine, Sunset Tree, and Heretic Pride, pleasing the old and new fans alike. I don't think anyone was left desiring anything after firey impassioned singalongs such as "Dance Music" and "This Year."

5. He closed with "Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton," complete with the whole crowd shouting along with a frightening ecstacy to the ending lines "Hail Satan! Hail Satan, tonight!" Geez, what a way to end a show. Amazing. (Ed.: I particularly like the contrast here with the whole Bible theme of his new stuff -- JD's got both sides of the equation covered.)

Hit the gallery for some delightfully snarly pics from the whole affair!

The IC Bureau of Concerts, along with the ubiquitous Dan Smalls, presents Mountain Goats tonight at 8 at Emerson Suites. Tickets cost something in advance, something more at the door (whaddya want from me, research?).

Here are five things you should probably know:

1. The name "Mountain Goats" remains plural whether or not core member John Darnielle is playing with a band or alone. One assumes this is because no one would pay good money to see "Mountain Goat," though it's also likely that Mr. Darnielle is continuing along the same American indie thread of names styled to befuddle audiences (Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Akron/Family, Al Roker Death Cult Wind Ensemble).

2. Mountain goats as we know them in the U.S. are called oreamnos americanus, and are unique to North America. They differ from the "true" goat species found elsewhere on the planet. The sort of real goat that might live on a mountain falls under capra aegagrus; in essence, wild goat. They live in packs of up to 500 and inhabit mountainous regions from southern Europe through central Asia and across the Indian subcontinent. Little is known about their taste in music.

3. John Darnielle at one time worked as a psychiatric nurse, which no doubt came in handy while on that Barenaked Ladies cruise ship gig a while back.

4. Mountain Goats love to create song cycles, the most robust of which is the "Going to" series of nearly 50 songs ("Going to Bangor," "Going to Bogota." etc.). Which I suppose kinda makes MG the Hope and Crosby of the musical underground.

5. Darnielle has written more English-language songs about the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatal than anyone else ever has or will, unless Rush decide to crank up the concept album machine one last time.

 

Here's a clip of Mountain Goats doing "Woke Up New" -- enjoy the show!

Father Roy Bourgeois, the Maryknoll priest who founded School of the Americas Watch and has championed human rights in Latin America for decades, will be speaking at I.C.'s Handwerker Gallery. Bourgeois's remarks will include discussion of the recent military coup in Honduras, led by an SOA grad.

From Intercom:

"The School of the Americas, now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in Fort Benning, Georgia, is a US taxpayer-funded institution that trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills. Many brutal Latin American dictators who have ordered and committed brutal killings were trained in these facilities.  In 1990, Father Roy’s founded the School of the Americas Watch to actively keep tabs on the SOA, as well as championing other social causes in Latin America and within the Catholic faith."

Father Roy Bourgeois
"The U.S. and Latin America: Recent Events in Honduras"
Handwerker Gallery
Thursday, September 24 from 10:50 a.m. to noon

Read the Intercom story.

It had been a quiet morning on the IC campus before shouting broke out by the Textor Ball on Thursday afternoon. Students on their way to and from class were surprised by a group of students who appeared to be protesting -- not abortion or gay rights -- but the popular nickname for IC's famous Textor Ball, "The Fish."

The statue, which stands between Muller and Friends on the roof of Textor, is a large ball made of silver medal. Some IC community members call it "the fish" in reference to the design on the front of it. The students protesting this Thursday apparently did not agree, as they circled the statue for about half an hour yelling things like "Fish are friends, not balls!" and "Fish have fins, duh!"

Ithaca College students all have their idiosyncrasies, but really? Protesting a nickname? This blogger wonders if it was protest, or prank. Only time will tell...

In an informal lecture Wednesday in Park Auditorium, documentary filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin sat down with an audience of mainly Ithaca College students and staff to discuss the trials, tribulations, and triumphs that come from a career on the grittier side of movie making.

Deal and Lessin, whose projects include Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Capitalism, a Love Story are perhaps most well known recently for co-directing the stunning film Trouble The Water, a documentary largely about those trapped in New Orleans at the time Hurricane Katrina hit. Talking about the concept of documentary film, Deal said "most movies and news networks and television shows are one way outlets; people can watch and listen but they can't really have much influence over the product. Documentary filmmaking," he said "is a form of media from the people, for the people. That's why it's often so controversial."

Having worked with Michael Moore on many films, Deal and Lessin are no strangers to controversy. "We make our films to, hoepfully, try and make some change" Lessin said, "and usually change, even when it's almost universally recognized as a change for the better, faces opposition."

Showing short clips of their selected works, the two noted that most things they do are connected by a common thread. Deal said "I think that the way I measure success for one of my films is, how many people are walking out of the theater thinking 'how can I help?'. The higher that number, the prouder I am of that film"

I have a disclaimer to make: I’m a bit of a literary geek. In elementary school, I used to get yelled at for reading during recess. The yard aids used to tell me that recess wasn’t the time for reading. Why didn’t I want to get up and go play? I thought it was obvious -- reading was playing. 

I still think like that, although I no longer have the luxury of recess in which to indulge my literary geekdom. Instead, I enjoy my literature during classes and in snatches of free time on buses, while waiting for friends, and, occasionally, at poetry readings.

Tuesday night held a particular treat for the literary geek in me. I went to the first reading of IC’s Distinguished Visiting Writers Series, where I had the opportunity to hear Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz read from his latest book Failure and his soon-to-be-published book The God of Loneliness.

When I first arrived at college, I thought I would be going to events like this all the time. But as every college student knows, what you thought you'd be doing when you got here is rarely what ends up happening. I've gone to a lot of great events in my past year at IC, but this was my first poetry reading.

As IC writing professor Jerry Mirskin said in his introduction of Schultz, “There’s a special quality of air that hangs around a poetry reading.” He’s right -- there’s something magical about the atmosphere. I found myself drawn not only to Schultz's poems, but also to the absolute quiet that occurred as he paused between poems. All I could hear was page turning and the quiet breath of the people next to me. (Remarkably, I heard very few coughs over the course of the evening. Perhaps the writing department has a secret formula for staying healthy that the rest of Ithaca College has yet to discover. Ideas, anyone?) The silence was, to quote a poem of Schultz's that he read that night, "a scintillating and perplexing music I did not expect to hear." The poems themselves were, of course, fascinating, partly because of the anecdotes that Schultz told during breaks between. My favorite story was one he told about the inspiration for the title poem for his next book, God of Loneliness. Schultz told us that the poem came from standing in line to buy his sons a Wii, back when they first came out. I was delighted to find out that if I ever become a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, I too, can participate in the popular technology crazes.

I came out of the reading feeling like I had given my parents one more good reason to keep paying for my college education. Hopefully, I'll be giving them even more reasons by attending the next two readings in the Distinguished Visiting Writers Series.

Charles Baxter
National Book Award Finalist in Fiction
Public Reading
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
7:30p.m., Clark Lounge, Egbert Hall

Jo Ann Beard
Acclaimed Essayist
Public Reading
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
7:30p.m., Klingenstein Lounge, Egbert Hall

I hope to see you all there.

"Never awake me when you have good news to announce, because with good news nothing presses; but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately, for then there is not an instant to be lost."

          -- Napoleon Bonaparte

They love the Little Corporal in New Orleans, despite the fact that he sold their wondrously unique Creole universe to the Americans in 1803 for the modern day equivalent of a six-pack of Natty Light and a used Katy Perry CD. At the corner of Rues Chartres and St. Louis in the French Quarter there is a building that, upon Napoleon's exile to St. Helena, was said to have been augmented to include living quarters for the former emperor upon his Creole-assisted escape. (It is worth nothing that New Orleanians have perennially been trying to bust people out of somewhere or other since the first French tents were pitched along the Mississippi in 1718, and would have done so again had Napoleon not been so rude as to die before they could make the effort.)

The legend may or may not be true. His death mask is kicking around town some place, that's for sure. And when the flood waters that followed the levee failures in New Orleans began to rise four years ago, his maxim about bad news was spot on. Time got pretty tricky for those left behind.

Such is the premise of the Oscar-nominated documentary Trouble the Water, a film by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal which builds on raw footage shot by Kimberly and Scott Roberts in and around their Ninth Ward home before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina made land (I'll let you decide if that's a "right place, right time" scenario). The good folks at FLEFF screened the film this past spring, but tonight Lessin and Deal themselves will be showing Trouble -- 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Suites -- and will respond to your Q's with their A's afterward.

As it happens, I just got back from New Orleans last week, and while considerable progress has been made it should be pointed out that a significant portion of a major American city still looks like a bad day in Bosnia four years after lousy weather, dodgy engineering practices, and the sort of infrastructural shortcuts bean counters adore conspired to drown it. New Orleans still needs help -- lots of help -- and Trouble the Water goes a long way toward illustrating why these problems linger.

Plenty of Ithacans have been involved with recovery efforts in southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in the past four years, whether spending an alternative spring break building homes with Habitat for Humanity, working in the hard-hit Seventh Ward with local samaritans Love Knows No Bounds, taking in displaced pets and college students alike, and (for the construction-hapless like myself) spending every last vacation day gorging on beignets and gumbo ya-ya in New Orleans. Trouble the Water offers a sometimes inspiring, often enraging portrait of one community's near destruction, the tireless efforts of locals and visitors from around the world to save it, and the appalling confederacy of government failure, embedded racism, and insurance company greed that actually managed to make things worse -- which is saying something when the starting point was a city 80% under water.

Check it out and let us know what you think. It's not every day the most unique city in America is threatened with extinction, and thus not every filmmaker who happens to capture that horror first-hand. Maybe you'll be inspired to visit and help the recovery process, or at least grab a muffuletta at Napoleon House Cafe, served hot...just the way Bonaparte liked 'em.

Just as the nights are starting to get a bit chilly here, IC After Dark, a group who puts on a lot of awesome on-campus social events throughout the year, brought a little southern warmth to campus with Urban Cowboy.

Walking into the room, a sea of (free!) cowboy hats bobbed about, migrating from the buffet table of wings to the free root beer to the always-hilarious mechanical bull and back again. The place was packed with students of all ages, and it was one of those great beginning of year events where everyone tends to see each other for the first time since Spring, and there's hugs and handshakes all around. The high point for me though, was the pretty constant level of joyfully ridiculousness. Between the mechanical bull, line dances, and potato sack races everyone was having a great time looking totally absurd. My favorite were the two kids who fearlessly stepped out on to the carefully avoided dancefloor and made everyone else comfortable enough to join them and start a rather respectable square dance.

It was a great way to let loose after the oh-so-long labor day week, and any event with cases upon cases of Ithaca Beer Root Beer being wheeled in free for the taking is excellent in my book.

Hit the gallery for some pics from the boot and bandanna affair!

It's official: I have a new favorite Ithaca tradition. It's Porchfest, a festival of musicians playing on porches and front lawns in Ithaca. I spent Sunday blissfully wandering around Ithaca, following the music. My first stop was to see The Small Kings, described as "Post-pop Funk-daddy rockers on Bluegrass" on the Porchfest website.

Members of the Small Kings.

I was instantly drawn in, not just to the music, but to the whole atmosphere of the event. It seemed like all of Ithaca was there, from college students like me to families with babies and couples galore. Already psyched to see who else was playing, I wandered away down the street. I ran into quite a few wonderful musicians in the next couple hours.

Johnny Zachman charmed audiences with music and a smile.

Nate, of folk pair Nate & Kate.

Members of the Fall Crikkers.

Not only were the bands wonderful, but the people watching was some of the best I've ever participated in.

My favorite pair of the day- learning to play ukulele with Ukuelelese as a Second Language.

A fan of the Yardvarks.

I even spotted two IC professors out enjoying the day! Yes, apparently they do have lives outside of the classroom. Who knew?

By the end of the day, I was exhausted but happy. Community events like these are some of my favorite parts of living in a town like Ithaca, and Porchfest was an example of a community gathering at its best. I walked away humming one of the many tunes I'd heard that day, already excited for next year.

If you were lucky enough to catch Ra Ra Riot's show at Castaways Thursday night (and so many people were! The place was packed to the gills) your head's probably still buzzing from the radiant indie-pop that was positively brimming from the venue. Hailing from Syracuse, they're easily one of the best bands to come out of the upstate area in recent memory, and they proved it with a passion at this show.

Following stellar and thoroughly groove-able sets from Princeton and Maps And Atlases, Ra Ra Riot took to the stage and treated the packed house to the soaring orchestral dance-pop that made their debut LP "The Rhumb Line" one of the best albums of 2008. Sawing away at their various instruments (violin and cello included) they energized that Thursday night like rocket engine strapped to a Buick, sounding something like a mix between the Arcade Fire, Passion Pit, and Vampire Weekend. The best part of the show, though, was that you could tell that the band was having just as fun a time as the audience. Singing along with the crowd to their own songs, it was a magical night for all involved.

Well kids, it's about that time again. A couple of weeks have passed, and I don't know about you, but I am starting to feel the grind of school kickin' in! Homework, studying, just plain work -- where did the fun go?

Not far from my dorm room, apparently. The fun makes a reappearance tonight and Saturday night at two pretty sweet events SAB and IC After Dark are putting on.

Tonight is SAB's first Open Mic Night of the year, 7 to 10 p.m. in the Pub (officially titled IC Square, but who calls it that, really?). I know I'll be chillin' at a table, drinking my habitual Coca-Cola and investigating what talented musicians, comedians, and performers have to offer on campus. Maybe if the attendees are lucky enough, I'll make my way onstage and stun them with my yet-to-be-discovered-secret-talent. What's it for: jokes, songs, or spoken word? Even I don't know, but I'm psyched to find out!

Saturday night, IC After Dark presents its most popular event of the semester, Urban Cowboy, held in Emerson Suites from 8 to 11 p.m. Get there early and get a free cowboy hat (that in itself makes the night worth it, at least for me)! Word on the street is there's a mechanical bull, square dancing, and general revelry. A chance to watch IC students pretend they're cowboys and girls for the evening, eat free food, and then risking stunt man-style injury on a bucking box of bolts (or at least tossing up the aforementioned grub)? I'm ready to put the books down for that!

The School of Music's "Recitalist Extraordinaire" series this year is, to put it mildly, a stellar lineup of musicians. Kicking off tomorrow in Ford Hall, the series boasts three performances featuring some of the most amazing internationally known artists in the classical sphere today.

Tomorrow starts off the concert series with performances by Zuill Bailey and Awadagin Pratt, playing cello and piano respectively. Bailey is an avid chamber musician, and has appeared in concert with many acclaimed musicians including Itzkah Perlman, Janos Starker, and the Juilliard String Quartet. Here, he and Awadagin Pratt will play side by side, delivering a performance that is sure to turn everyone's mind to strawberry Jell-O in the best way possible. Pratt, acclaimed for his intensely involving performances, is the only musician ever in the history of Peabody Conservatory Of Music to receive diplomas in three performance areas (piano, violin, and conducting). He's performed twice at the White House at the invitation of the president, and is a strong advocate of music education.

Look forward to the entire concert series. All shows start at 8:15 pm in Ford Hall, and prices are $26.50 for Ithaca College students, children, and senior citizens, and $53 for the general public.

Towards the end of the Hold Steady's set at Stewart Park yesterday, my body just wanted to sit down. It needed water, shade, food, and a stretch of a few minutes wherein my guts were not being shaken about by a bass drum. My mind, though, wanted none of these things. As a mark of how great the show was, I ignored my physical necessities for the sake of rock, and that is why the Hold Steady rules worlds.

The show started off great, with IC favorites Caution Children bringing their own wonderfully spastic brand of indie-rock-with-saxophone, starting at around 1:00 p.m. The highlight had to be the closing tune, "Lites Lites." Starting out with solo vocals and a single mandolin, the song slowly exploded until all band members and instruments were screaming in an awesome catharsis of beards and flannel. 'Twas a good time.

IC band Caution Children

Next up was the Rural Alberta Advantage, a fantastic newer band that I think is best described as "Neutral Milk Hotel meets old-school punk." I had the chance to see them earlier this year at the SXSW music festival in Austin, where they played one of the best sets of the festival in a dimly lit cathedral with no microphones. It was quite a religious expereince. This set was no less remarkable, and you could tell the difference that the sunshine made. They delivered a set filled with the almost-contained passion that makes their debut album, Hometowns, so amazing. The crowd loved the music, and it didn't hurt that every guy in the audience thought that multiinstrumentalist Amy Cole was a "total babe."

Rural Alberta Advantage

After that came what Dan Smalls deemed the "dirty section" of the Positive Jam, featuring two of the most awesome and filthiest (literally -- the dudes just don't shower) bands in folk rock today. Deer Tick was up first, still touring on the strength of their amazing new album, Born On Flag Day. The new songs were killer live, and delivered in the furious raspy way that only lead singer John Joseph McCauley III could really pull off. And, oh, how he pulls it off! New tracks such as "Easy" were a joy to behold, and older songs were, if anything, even more amazing. The audience ate up the fan favorites, and the band fed off the crowd's energy to make the show truly incredible.

Deer Tick

The Felice Brothers were up next, an upstate favorite that's just as amazing and perhaps slightly more dirty than Deer Tick. Pulling up to Stewart Park in a Winnebago that can't have been street legal, the brothers proceeded to apply war paint to their faces and be way more intense and punk-rock than any band labeled "folk rock" has ever been.

The Felice Brothers

The audience sung along with gusto to favorites "Whiskey in my Whisky," "Run Chicken Run," and "Penn Station," showing quite clearly that though the Brothers have come through town three times in the last year, Ithaca can't get tired of a live show that good. Appropriately, the show ended with an insanely epic dive into the drum kit that was thoroughly worthy of being described as "Iggy Pop-like"

The Felice Brothers

As for the Hold Steady, I'm kind of at a loss for words. Every time I see them, I love them so much more. They spat out songs of hood rats, drugs, blood, and resurrection, drinking their way through more beer than anyone can count while bringing one of the best rock shows Ithaca has ever seen. They did all this while collectively looking like the guy in the cubicle next to your dad. Yes. So much yes.

The Hold Steady

Surprisingly, they played a total of four new songs and, not so surprisingly, they're still in my head this morning. "Goin' on a Hike" and "Separate Vacations" were definite high points, and I can not wait to hear them on record. As at any Hold Steady show though, the far and away most memorable parts were those sing-along songs. Those songs like "You Can Make Him Like You," "Stuck between Stations," or "Constructive Summer," where you and your friends are like the drums on "Lust For Life," and you know you're going to have lost your voice after screaming all the words but you don't care. The Hold Steady is one of those rare bands that can make you live completely in the moment, and for an awesomely long set at Stewart Park this weekend, hundreds and hundreds of people were living in that moment together.

Can't wait to jam positively again next year.

In Ithaca this fall, the concert lineup is straight up absurd. Between St. Vincent, the Meat Puppets, Ra Ra Riot, Gov't Mule, Built to Spill, Sufjan Stevens at Castaways (Still. Can. Not. Believe. It.), and Dan Deacon and the Mountain Goats brought to us by our own Bureau of Concerts (BOC), I doubt there has ever been a fall before in which students and residents alike have had such plentiful opportunities to get so thoroughly up to the neck in the blissful sweatiness that is live music.

The Hold Steady

The icing, of course, on this cupcake of aural awesomeness has to be the Positive Jam. Aside from the fact that it's named after a Hold Steady song, this music fest on the shores of Stewart park (willow trees are SO rock 'n roll) can't NOT be a killer party considering the lineup. Starting off is Caution Children, an IC band that has been described as "Bruce Springsteen with bipolar disorder." They're followed by Deer Tick, the Rural Alberta Advantage, and the Felice Brothers, three bands whom I've had the total pleasure of seeing this year, and can say with complete conviction are amazing live.

Deer Tick

Topping off the festival lineup is the indisputably (I guess you could dispute it, but I would dispute it right back with a FERVOR) amazing Hold Steady. That's right; Craig Finn and the boys are back for the second time in three months because, apparently, they just love Ithaca that much. This July they came to Castaways (a nice underplay, after having opened for Dave Matthews Band all summer) and played a show that no one who was there will soon forget, as everyone's faces were rocked clean off.

Get ready for a set packed with stupendous sing-alongs, the best modern rock 'n roll out there, and one of the greatest mustaches in the music world.

The Hold Steady at Castaways this summer

The Jam starts at noon this Sunday -- a perfect Labor Day weekend treat. I'll be there from the very beginning, gathering concert photos, videos, and probably stories of failed attempts at socialization with the bands for your viewing pleasure here on Rattle! Come out for yourself, though, as you'll never find a better way to start out the new year.

As for the Hold Steady, don't be afraid to get up to the front during their set. Sometimes it hurts a little bit, but it's worth it.

If you've been wandering the Ithaca College campus and stopped for a minute or two in front of Campus Center in the last couple days, it's probably not because you're wondering whether or not the yogurt place would be the perfect place for an afternoon snack. Instead, you've probably been pondering these...

Take a closer look and you'll find out what's up -- these 300 empty chairs are part of an effort by the IC Counseling Center and Active Minds to "stomp out the stigma" of mental illness and suicide.

So next time you wander by, take a moment to stop and get a reality check.

If you're feeling somber afterward, the IC Environmental Society's organic garden might brighten up your mood!

Another story making the rounds is that the incoming class is jammed into the dorms like something out of a Jacob Riis photo. It might be a little snug, but certainly not so bad that you need to take it outside.

Sleep indoors, bro. After all, there's wireless in your dorm.

At least bring a pillow.

To hear the chatter going 'round you'd think the ice age had arrived in Ithaca. Much musing about snow sightings and the like. Apparently sunny days in the mid-70s are some great hardship -- just look at all the suffering:

Buck up, campers. I think we'll survive.