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RattleIC shows, events, and all that noise. |
Friday, October 2, 2009
Don't let the weekend pass you by having accomplished nothing more than studying til your eyes bleed and washing your lucky socks in the water fountain down the hall. Get out and do something, Ithaca!
Friday, October 2, 2009
***As of 3:30 p.m., this event has been canceled due to illness (the presenter, not Rod Serling or the Simpson family -- he passed away 34 years ago and they don't actually exist).***
Straight up, The Twilight Zone always creeped me the hell out.
I always found the subtly off-kilter parallel universe it illustrated far more haunting and worrisome than the more out-there slasher flicks and other ghoulish fare, possibly because it seemed considerably more likely to actually take place. When I was a kid the nightly news was rife with stories of "the disappeared" and other seemingly paranormal flights of freakishness that were in fact just products of brutal sadism masquerading as geopolitics, so Rod Serling's vision of a dark reality just around the corner from our own was tangibly terrifying.
I saw the movie version when I was 12, though I can't entirely remember why, since I had actively avoided the endless reruns of the original TV show at a time when at least four of the dozen terrestrial channels we got back then showed them seven days a week. The fact that Vic Morrow and two child actors died in a gruesome helicopter accident during production of the film further convinced me that the whole damned enterprise was simply a standing invitation for Evil itself to waltz in at any moment and thump the everloving bejeezus out of all that was good in the world. Yet there I sat at the old State Theater, enduring the madness with school chums gleeful at the notion of a gremlin ripping the wings off a flying airplane.
Never really trusted my friends after that.
Anyway, fast forward far too many years to mention here, and I confess I'm actually considering attending some events at this year's Rod Serling conference (he taught here up until his death in 1975, further unnerving your humble fraidycat reporter). There's a marathon of classic episodes Saturday night, but that's not really my thing. No, I'm not quite ready for that level of commitment. I need to find neutral ground between my brave new initiative and the timidity of my youth.
Which is why I'll be attending Diana DePasquale's "From Serling to Simpson" this afternoon at 3:30 in Emerson Suites (that's Homer, by the way, not OJ, who wouldn't be any less scary than TZ itself). I always knew The Simpsons frequently used elements from what Homer once called "that show about that twilighty zone," but apparently the connection is even stronger than I thought.
Anyway, you should be there (and at a bunch of the other events too, since so many are free and open to the public). In the meantime, check out my fave Twilight Zone homage, from one of those "Treehouse of Horror" episodes they do after Halloween every year. Submitted for your approval, natch.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
"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.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Last Friday morning, IC's resident assistants were treated to a graphic demonstration of the dangers that fires pose in residence halls.
The Ithaca fire department was on hand to host a controlled burn of what might pass for a typical dorm room. Thanks to a grant from the Ithaca Landlords Association, a special "burn pod" was assembled and stocked with furniture, such as a chair, desk, clothes, a tapestry, and so forth.
After some remarks about the importance of fire safety from Tim Ryan, environmental health and safety manager at Ithaca College, and deputy fire chief Tom Parsons, the real fun began. Parsons dropped a lit votive candle into a garbage can full of papers and newspapers and let nature take its course.
Within a minute, the room had caught fire in dramatic fashion. And within seven minutes, the entire pod was ablaze, top to bottom. City firefighters were on standby from the first moment, ready to step in and hose out the flames.
Check out the photo gallery at right to see a time-lapse series of pictures.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
We here at Rattle are always looking for an excuse to promote chaos and anarchy. So, what better way than by highlighting the annual Dillingham fountain plunge?
Each year, members of the senior class -- sometimes with permission of school authorities, sometimes with the permission of, umm, themselves -- celebrate the end of their formative years with a plunge into the fountains.
This year, the water wasn't TOO frigid, and the sunshine was bountiful. Inflatable dolphins? Cannonballs into the fountain? Yeah ... sounds to us like Senior Week is in full swing.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Been a little quiet here in the Rattle offices of late. I'm sure plenty of fascinating stuff has been going on all across campus. Let's just say we're going to read the cough syrup instructions more thoroughly next time and leave it at that.
Turns out we came out of our stupor just in time. The Parkerati have rekindled that most fabled of IC film endeavors, the Golden Doorknob Awards, for the first time in nearly two decades. All our aspiring Hitchcocks need is a dream...and the creative vision to murder someone with a doorknob without being pedestrian about it.
And you thought college was all about personal development and community service.
Back in the day, when the application of ordinary household items as instruments of death was commonplace, legendary cinema and photography professor Skip Landen started the Golden Doorknob as a way to encourage his students to think outside what had yet to be identified as "the box." The idea was to "challenge the students to make a simple film with a good idea and a good script."
It's a shame Skip never had a sit-down with Michael Bay.
Anyway, every student in the program made a doorknob film (usually silent and in black and white), and even the most famous among them -- including Bill Carraro '81 (producer, The Golden Compass) and Dan Heffner '78 (executive producer, the Saw franchise) -- gets a little misty-eyed/flushed when talking about these golden relics. So much so that Park alums finally made enough noise to bring the tradition back to life, which is why the doorknobs will be swinging tonight at 7:00 p.m. in Park Auditorium. Carraro and Heffner will be on the judges' panel, along with professors Peter Johanns and Cathy Crane.
And just so we're clear, no doorknobs were harmed in the making of these films. A few sophomores lost teeth, and at least one freshman will never be able to wear a hat again. Hey, it isn't art without a little sacrifice.
Golden Doorknob Awards and Screening
Thursday, April 30
7:00 p.m.
Park Auditorium
We hope you enjoy these many tales of murder and intrigue, as well as the final showdown between spring lock and bolt knobs. Tune in next week when we encourage woodwind majors to devise the cleverest plan for sticking up a bank with nothing more than a clarinet and a box of reeds.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Busy week here on South Hill. The slow burn stretch of the semester is over, and with only a couple weeks remaining everyone is working at breakneck pace to finish projects many of us didn't realize were coming due until about an hour ago.
What better time to inaugurate a new College president?
Yep, they're giving TR the big hammer this afternoon, so if pomp and circumstance float your boat, you should get your free tickets from the rec office in the Campus Center and make your way to Ben Light by 3 p.m. for the rully big shoo.
As entertainment goes, maybe it's not quite that Pavement reunion you've been waiting for. But still, this is only the eighth time since 1892 that we've thrown this sort of party. Pretty impressive when you consider that since the last time we inaugurated a new president Cornell has had four of 'em (one even came back for an encore). You should go today so that years from now when people ask "Where were you when...?" your answer won't be "accidentally locked out of my room dripping wet and unaware of the enormous tear in the back of my robe."
Or worse still, "what's a Rochon?"
After the ceremony, President Rochon will be buying the rounds down at the Chanti. (I kid. He's more of an Ale House kinda guy. Kidding again. He has presidential stuff to take care of. You, however, are free to do whatever.)
Can't get away from your desk? No worries -- we're webcasting the whole megillah. Check it out: http://www.ithaca.edu/inauguration/coverage/.
Happy inaugurating!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Surely you stay 'til the bitter end of every movie to read the credits, right? RIGHT? Well, after a long week, we think the FLEFF staff deserve a round of applause!
There are so many concurrent FLEFF screenings and events this weekend, it’s almost hard for us to keep track of them all! We can’t possibly cover all of the worthy events here, but here goes nothing …
Saturday’s Highlights
1:00 p.m.: Ice Bears of the Beaufort -- This film shows the plight of polar bears near Alaska’s Beaufort Sea, who are in danger of losing a critical habit due to offshore oil drilling. This is the first feature film from director Arthur C. Smith III, who has contributed footage to National Geographic and Discovery Channel films. With directors Arthur and Jennifer Smith. (Cinemapolis, 55 minutes; with additional showing Sunday at 3:00 p.m.)
View the Trailer
2:30 p.m.: The Black Pirate -- In the second of three "Silent Films/Live Music" events, Fe Nunn and Friends and local poet Michelle Berry will perform during a screening of Albert Parker's 1926 swashbuckling classic. Will the Black Pirate (played by Douglas Fairbanks, who also wrote the story) save his love Isobel from certain doom? (Cinemapolis, 88 minutes)
FLEFF: Silent Films/Live Music
3:00 p.m.: A Class Apart -- This film, by Carlos Sandoval and Peter Miller, follows a team of unknown Mexican-American lawyer who took a 1951 Texas murder case all the way to the Supreme Court, and in the process challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans. The panel discussion will include Tompkins County legislator Kathy Luz Herrera. (Fall Creek Pictures, 60 minutes)
4:35 p.m.: Nuestros Desaparecidos (Our Disappeared) -- Filmmaker Juan Mandelbaum will be on hand for the screening of his documentary, which traces his efforts at discovering a long-lost girlfriend’s fate after the Argentine military’s 1976-1983 reign of terror. (Cinemapolis, 99 minutes; screens again at 9:00 p.m.)
8:30 p.m.: FLEFF After-party with Toivo and No Radio DJs (Lost Dog Lounge)
Sunday's Highlights
1:00 p.m.: At the Top of My Voice -- Set against the backdrop of the 2007 crackdown on democracy in the Republic of Georgia, the film follows activists Irakli Kakabadze and Anna Dolidze as they return to their native country to shine a light on the violence and corruption of President Saakashvili's regime and take part in monitoring his controversial reelection. The screening will feature live poetry readings and performances by activists Kakabadze and Dolidze. (Fall Creek Pictures, 60 minutes)
2:00 p.m.: Steve Tropiano reading -- Tropiano, IC television and radio professor and director of the College's program in Los Angeles, reads from and signs copies of his new book, Obscene, Indecent, Immoral, and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned, and Controversial Films. Our guess is that nothing could shock Tropiano after writing this book. (The Bookery)
More on Tropiano's Indecent Book
7:00 p.m.: The Wildcat -- In an "exploration of cinematic and sexual spice" (spice being one of this year's programming streams), this 1921 silent film from Germany will be accompanied by live music from Robby Aceto on guitar, Peter Dodge on percussion and keyboards, and Chris White on cello. Considered to be one of Ernst Lubitsch's best films, this playfully subversive satire of military life is a forerunner of later films like M*A*S*H, Dr. Strangelove, and the work of Monty Python and Woody Allen. (Cinemapolis, 82 minutes)
8:30 p.m.: Korova After-party – Come toast the end of a long, busy week of FLEFF with staff, fans, and members of the local community. (Korova, on the Ithaca Commons)
Trailers and Clips
Clip from The Black Pirate
BostonLatino.tv Interview with Our Disappeared Director Juan Mandelbaum
Dream Sequence from The Wildcat
Friday, April 3, 2009
Individual Tickets
Adults: $8.50
Saturday/Sunday Matinees: $6.50
Students with ID (Sunday night only): $6.50
Festival Passes (for 5 screenings)
Adults: $40
Students with ID: $32.50
Today marks a day of FLEFF transition of sorts -- the last day of FLEFF events on IC's campus, and the first day things start to shift downtown. There's still tons more happening this weekend, so stay alert!
And remember -- why pay individually for each downtown screening when you can buy a festival pass? That you can share with your friends?? A five-screening pass is $40 (only $32.50 for students with ID) and can be purchased at Cinemapolis, Fall Creek, or the IC Bookstore. (As always, events on the IC campus are 100% free.)
Friday's Highlights: Ithaca College
10:30 a.m.: Toxin Lab -- "Brainjam" on Mexican and Latin American films with directors Juan Mandelbaum and Alexandra Halkin, facilitated by Cornell's Cecelia Lawless. No sign-ups are required for any of today's FLEFF Labs … just show up! Each lab is based on one of four FLEFF 2009 themes: toxins, spice, syncopation, and trade. (Park Hall soundstage, 90 minutes)
1:00 p.m.: Spice Lab -- Another "brainjam," this time regarding the Sticky Content online new media exhibition. With cocurator Dale Hudson. (Park Hall Studio A, 90 minutes)
More on "Sticky Content"
2:30 p.m.: Syncopation Lab -- This FLEFF Lab will investigate tactical media, sound design, and emergent technologies. With Nick Knouf, Claudia Pederson, and Arzu Ozkal Telhan. (Park Hall Studio A, 90 minutes)
2:30 p.m.: Trade Lab -- Get an inside look at the international art cinema business with Rodrigo Brandao. (Park Hall soundstage, 90 minutes)
4:00 p.m.: "How to Get Your Break" -- Moderator Steve Gordon is joined by screenwriter Julie Blumberg, agent Leslie Daniels, financier Steve Hays, producer and IC professor Mustapha Khan, and directors Juan Mandelbaum and John Valadez. Learn from the pros how to break through into the crowded world of independent film! (Park Auditorium)
Friday's Highlights: Downtown
7:00 p.m.: Nosferatu with live music -- In what could be one of the festival's most popular events, the 1922 German vampire silent classic will be accompanied by live music by Richard Faria, John Stetch, and Nicholas Walker. Get to this one early, folks! Use your festival; otherwise admission is $8.50 for each downtown screening. (Cinemapolis, 84 minutes)
7:00 p.m. Call and Response -- Justin Dillon's 2008 documentary goes deep undercover, from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of India, to reveal the dirtiest secrets behind the human slave trade. Celebrity interviews from the likes of Nicholas Kristof, Cornel West, and Ashley Judd are combined with performances by Moby, Cold War Kids, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and other musical luminaries. (Fall Creek Pictures, 86 minutes)
Read about Call and Response on the FLEFF Blog
7:00 p.m. Che -- Bring a friend, a comfy pillow, and some No-Doz … Steven Soderbergh's epic, two-part, four-hour-plus biography of the Argentinian revolutionary will screened in its entirety with one intermission. You can buy tickets for both parts for a reduced price of $12. If you can't make it tonight, Cinemapolis/Fall Creek will run Che through at least April 9. (Fall Creek Pictures, 257 [!] minutes)
And don't miss tonight's after-party at the Lost Dog Lounge at 8:30 p.m., with the Upson-Loveall Duo and DJ Tico!
Lost Dog Cafe Website
Trailers and Clips
The silent classic Nosferatu is in the public domain -- so check out the entire 1922 film and see how its music compares to tonight's live performance!
Call and Response trailer
Steven Soderbergh's Che
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Capsule Descriptions of Each Film
Advance Look at this Weekend's Screenings
Some of you might have noticed that the power went off for about 15 minutes Wednesday afternoon. Let's just say it's going to take more than a temporary cut in electricity to slow down the FLEFF locomotive! Thursday ramps up the action with the usual broad assortment of screenings, plus several artists' events and an evening concert downtown. But get this -- the unbelievable amount of happenings this weekend is going to make Thursday's program look like Romper Room.
If you like what you're seeing at FLEFF this week -- or if you have suggestions for next year -- feel free to comment on this or any Rattle post using the comment section at bottom.
Thursday's Highlights
9:25 a.m.: Tulia, Texas -- Through its scrupulous investigation of a landmark legal case, Cassandra Herrman and Kelley Whalen's documentary convincingly shows how the "war on drugs" has become a war on due process, waged against African Americans. With faculty facilitator Todd Schack. (Park Hall 285, 54 minutes)
1:10 p.m.: The Route of the Chontaduro -- This film documents the life cycle of the chontaduro, an exotic and supposedly aphrodisiac fruit that is transported from deep to the jungle to the biggest cities in South America. Filmmaker Alexander Gonzalez Tascon and IC professor Stewart Auyash will be on hand to lead a discussion in this FLEFF Lab presentation. (Hill Center 57, 50 minutes)
2:35 p.m.: Health for Sale -- The 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world accumulate $205 billion in pretax profits -- more than the combined profits of the 490 other Fortune 500 companies. Are these companies, paradoxically, presenting a collective obstacle to global public health? With faculty facilitator Karen Edwards, assistant professor of health promotion and physical education. (Hill Center 53, 53 minutes)
2:35 p.m.: The Carbon Connection -- This film focuses on two locations on opposite sides of the world both suffering from side effects of the "emission trade." In Brazil, a company uses carbon credits to "outsource" their industrial pollution; while in Scotland, an oil refinery faces few constraints in its ecological plunder after paying its "carbon bill." (Park Hall 270, 40 minutes)
5:00 p.m.: FLEFF Artists' Reception -- Installation artists Ray Ghirardo and Megan Roberts, whose "Water Theory" exhibition runs at the Handwerker Gallery through April 5, will be present at this opening reception, as will Pamela Mei Leng See. (Roberts and Ghirardo will also host a talk earlier in the day at noon, also in the gallery.) (Handwerker Gallery, Gannett Center)
Read more about "Water Theory"
Handwerker Gallery Website
8:00 p.m.: Sheherazade Trio -- IC faculty members Jennifer Hayghe (piano), Elizabeth Simkin (cello), and Susan Waterbury (violin) named their trio after the mythical "Arabian Nights" storyteller who told 1,001 beguiling tales to save her own life. The trio takes on Paul Schoenfield's 1987 work, "Café Music," as well as Maurice Ravel's Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1914) against a backdrop of ambient media projections from Microcinema International, mounted by Ann Michel, Phil Wilde, and Tom Nicholson. (Unitarian Church, corner of Buffalo and Aurora Streets, Ithaca)
Read More about the Concert
Trailers and Clips
Tulia, Texas
Health for Sale
The Carbon Connection
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Greetings, FLEFF fans of all ages! You've done it ... you've made it through two brain-draining days of the best darn film festival around. Now you know why Ithaca College has approximately 57,000 coffee stands on campus!
Wednesday's Highlights
Noon: Breast Cancer: The Estrogen Connection -- Filmmakers Ann Michel and Phil Wilde join IC faculty member Julie Boles, coordinator of the preprofessional program at the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, for a FLEFF Lab screening and discussion. The documentary examines how ingredients in a wide array of consumer products can mimic the hormone estrogen, thereby increasing cancer risk in women. (Center for Health Sciences 202, 11 minutes)
4:00 p.m.: New World Water -- Codirector William O'Marra will be on hand for a post-screening talk on his film, which uses colorful images and crisp narration to document how the nation of Madagascar is proactively coping with water-related issues. Stewart Auyash, associate professor of health promotion and physical education, will facilitate the discussion. (Hill Center 56, 40 minutes)
4:00 p.m.: Prometheus's Garden -- underground animator Bruce Bickford, perhaps best known for his collaborations with '70s prog-rock icon Frank Zappa, crafted this feature inspired by the Greek myth about Prometheus, the Titan who created the first mortals from clay. The medium for his film? Clay animation, naturally. (Park Hall 219, 58 minutes)
7:00 p.m.: Blood on the Flag: Local Civil Disobedience -- The living members of the "St. Patrick's Four" -- Clare Grady, Teresa Grady and Daniel Burns -- and other special guests will pay tribute to SP4 member Peter DeMott, who passed away earlier this year. IC writing professor Fred Wilcox and local activist Mary Anne Grady will also be in attendance, and IC politics professor Beth Harris will serve as moderator. (Friends Hall 309)
Read More about This Event
7:00 p.m.: High Stakes Testing -- Director John Valadez will appear to discuss his documentary, which is a examination of the far-reachign implications of the No Child Left Behind Act, one of the Bush administration's signature educational reforms. Professor of strategic communication Gordon Rowland will facilitate the discussion. Valadez continues his FLEFF appearances with a Spice Lab on Friday morning, a "How to Get Your Break" seminar Friday afternoon, and screenings of his Tejano music doc La Onda Chicana Saturday and Sunday at Cinemapolis and Fall Creek, respectively. (Location TBD, 60 minutes)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Well, you did it. Somehow you made through a long day of running between Williams Hall, CNS, CHS, Textor Hall, the business school, and the Park School to catch all those FLEFF screenings. Only six more glorious days to go!
Tuesday’s Highlights
9:25 a.m.: Made in L.A. -- Traces the efforts of three Latina garment workers who face an uphill battle in attempting to hold an American retailer accountable for poor labor conditions. (Smiddy Hall 325, 70 minutes)
12:05 p.m.: Children of the Amazon -- Follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed 15 years ago. (Friends Hall 210, 73 minutes)
1:10 p.m.: Dispatches 4 -- A collection of short films reporting from Falluja, Umm Qasr, Sadr City, and other locations in Iraq that mainstream media dare not tread. (Park Hall 277)
2:35 p.m.: She’s a Boy I Knew -- An "auto-ethnography" that traces Steven/Gwen Haworth's male-to-female gender transition, using archival family footage, interviews, phone messages, and hand-drawn animation. (Center for Health Sciences 208, 70 minutes)
6:50 p.m.: We Feed the World -- A film about food and globalization, fishermen and farmers, the flow of goods and cash … about scarcity amid plenty. How is that close to a billion of Earth's 7 billion citizens go hungry? (Hill Center 56, 96 minutes)
Trailers and Clips
Children of the Amazon
Made in L.A.
She's a Boy I Knew
Monday, March 30, 2009
Happy Monday! Or, we should say … happy FLEFF-day! Today kicks off the annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), which runs through Sunday, April 5.
For those not in the know, FLEFF is "a one-week multimedia interarts extravaganza that reboots the environment and sustainability into a larger global conversation." For those whose response might be "say huh?" let's just say that it's a week chock-full of excellent, thought-provoking movies, concerts, galas, workshops, and other events that you just can't find anywhere else.
The festival spends most of its time on the Ithaca College campus now through Thursday, then mostly shifts to downtown with tons more screenings at Cinemapolis and Fall Creek Pictures. And did we mention that just about every screening and event is absolutely free?!
Monday's Highlights
10:00 a.m.: Gimme Green -- A humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. (Park Hall 281, 28 minutes)
4:00 p.m.: Blue Gold in the Garden of Eden -- As the world enters the 21st century, "progress" and "development" compete with the greater good in the cradle of Western civilization as countries and other groups clash over uses of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. (Friends Hall 309, 58 minutes)
4:00 p.m.: Traces of Trade: A Story from the Deep North -- Hear the story of how one woman uncovers her New England family's deep involvement in the Triangle Slave Trade and, in so doing, reveals the pivotal role slavery played in the growth of the whole American economy. (Williams Hall 218, 51 minutes)
4:30 p.m.: FLEFF Lab: Brown Cloud Paper Cutting -- Artist Pamela See is among Australia's foremost emergent talents in the visual arts. An Australian born from Chinese descent, See uses the traditional folk art of paper cutting to narrate the migrant experience. In the spirit of the ready-made, her application of paper cutting technique to found objects breaks with art and also crafts conventions. See returns for another FLEFF Lab at noon Tuesday in the Handwerker Gallery; she also gives a gallery talk with fellow new media artist Jolene Rickard Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in Park Hall 279. (Handwerker Gallery)
8:15 p.m.: "Wood That Sings" live concert with film projection -- This FREE concert features the premiere of a new work for marimba, percussion, and violin by IC music professor Gordon Stout and explores "syncopation," one of FLEFF 2009's programming streams. The performers will play against a backdrop of projections of ambient media curated and DJ'ed by Ann Michel and Phil Wilde of Insights International.
More Info on "Wood That Sings"
Get the Full Schedule of Events
Capsule Descriptions of Each Film
And what is "syncopation," you ask? Perhaps our trailer can answer your question -- or at least tease your brain for a minute and five seconds:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I tell ya, nothing cramps the campus life and events section of the web quite like spring break. We thought about auctioning off your stuff while you were away, but in the end that would have involved leaving the office for more than a mad frozen dash to the coffee cart, and we just weren't ready for that level of commitment.
Alas, today isn't much of an improvement. For me the jury is out on tangentially Irish endeavors on St. Patrick's Day. Wegmans certainly goes to some lengths to seasonally represent; their corned beef/cabbage/soda bread/Guinness/Bewley's Coffee/Irish Drinking Songs CD display is nothing if not widely varied in its stereotypical portrayal of Irishness. All they need is a dear old Mayo mammy in an Aran sweater beating an English soldier to a bloody pulp with a sack of potatoes and they'd be cooking with diesel.
Both local McDonald's outlets ran out of Shamrock shakes before lunch today. I just think that's a sign.
So I'm not entirely heartbroken that there isn't anything particularly plastic Paddy happening on campus. Suffice to say elsewhere in town the bon mots and beer will be flowing like the broad majestic Shannon tonight, but if you were hoping for something a bit more highbrow, dream on.
Of course, you could just pretend you're living in a Beckett play where absolutely nothing happens. That's about as Irish as it gets.
* * *
Simple fact is IC is saving up its event mojo for the "Sport, Sexuality, and Culture" conference this Wednesday to Friday. In the interest of promoting a healthy dialog about sexuality in what could well be the last great bastion of entrenched bigotry on college campuses and the workplace, this conference is free and open to everyone in the Ithaca community.
I'll take a wild guess and presume it doesn't blow your minds to find out the sporting world hasn't always been the most gay-friendly corner of American life. Invariably homoerotic with all that butt slapping and sweaty rolling around in tandem, yes. But queer positive? Survey says "noooo."
Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that the first player to come out in the almost cartoonishly macho NBA was English, and thus already an anomaly in the league. Conference keynote speaker and former NBA player John Amaechi is many things, but "typical" is not among them. Despite having once turned down $17 million to play for the Lakers, Amaechi seems to be doing just fine as a media pundit, author, high profile public speaker, and advocate for LGBT youth. He'll be speaking in Emerson Suites Thursday at 7:00 p.m.
Don't miss this one; lots of good stuff comes to Ithaca year round, but this is a pretty special event even by our robust standards.
Of course John Amaechi is only part of the conference. Lots of other stuff going on, covering topics like
Check it out and tell us what you think. This is an adventurous and high profile event for Ithaca College, so we expect a lot of chatter.
And to warm you up, check out John Amaechi telling Ann Coulter where she can stick it:
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Because even making stuff up as you go is now Web 2.0-enabled.
It's not all fun and games here at Ithaca. For instance, at least five people have been dumped on campus since I started this post (some of whom have yet to actually hear the bad news -- my lips are sealed). But aside from those miserable few, yes, it is all fun and games.
To wit, the Acahti Players (fiddle with the name, you'll get it) will be doing their improvisational best to amuse you on the red carpet in Dillingham at 7:00 p.m. this Friday evening. It's free, it's (potentially) funny, and you might even meet the love of your life guffawing Snapple through his/her nose while there (yes, you too have been dumped in the last two lines).
And if you find yourself just completely overwhelmed with funny, Achati hosts an open improv session for the laugh-seeking among you every Sunday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., again on the infamous tapis rouge. Oy, if that carpet could talk....
Friday, February 13, 2009
Valentine's Day is upon us once again (like a biblical plague, the lovelorn might suggest). To celebrate this holiest of Hallmark holidays, I heartily recommend you spend tomorrow evening (7:00 p.m. - ?) snuggled up with your sugarpie at Cinemapolis watching a movie about sectarian hatred and slaughter.
No, not the film version of my ex-wife's diary -- last I heard that was still in post-production.
The flick in question is Ari Folman's surrealist documentary Waltz with Bashir, an account of his time in the Israeli army during the Lebanon war in the early eighties (historical spoiler: it was bloodier than a Cosa Nostra dinner theater production of MacBeth). Reunited with images of a horror he had tried to forget, Folman animates his tale -- one assumes because the stark reality is a little too, well, real.
Does it work? Hell if I know, I'm just the guy with the blog. I do know it's up for an Oscar, and the distributor is sufficiently psyched that they're allowing FLEFF just the one sneak peak before hustling off to butter up the Academy (or whatever it is distributors do -- they're so mysterious).
Until Oscar night this is a one-off, so go check it out for yourself. Get there early -- the place will be nuts -- and stick around after for the panel discussion. Just a guess, but I reckon you'll be able to roast marshmallows on the opinions in that room. So play nice and, to paraphrase Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, everybody be cool.
Oh, and be on the lookout for the FLEFF staff. They'll be blogging about this event and all things Finger Lakes, environmental, film, and festival related right up through the big event itself (March 30-April 5, if you're booking ahead). They'll also embrace Twitter like the forward-thinking brilliant minds of the new generation that they are. Ain't it tweet? (Oy.)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Fellow by the name of John Carlos will be speaking tonight at Emerson Suites (7:00 p.m. for those interested; 11:30 p.m. for those who aren't).
If you're an obsessive track and field fan, you may recall seeing the name Carlos in the "1968/200 meter dash/bronze" column of your copy of the Ginormous Compendium of Track and Field Minutiae (79th edition). Not to diminish the accomplishment of placing third in one's Olympic event, but if that's all John Carlos ever did he probably wouldn't be talking to a bunch of college students 41 years after the fact (unless it was to yell at them to get off his lawn).
No, what John Carlos did was to evoke both a passion for justice and (quite frankly) reactionary hysteria among his countrymen by silently raising his fist and looking downward at the medal podium as "The Star Spangled Banner" played, a gesture born of the frustration, sadness, and anger felt by Carlos and millions of others about the blight of racism and the economic misery of people around the world. (For those of you too young to remember or unfamiliar with this episode in history, let's just say 1968 wasn't exactly a banner year for humanity.)
The image of Carlos and U.S. teammate Tommie Smith, heads bowed almost mournfully and those gloved fists aloft, is widely considered to be among the defining icons of the 20th century, as much for the violent reaction that followed as the gesture itself. Both Smith and Carlos were cast out of the U.S. team and ostracized upon returning to the States. The usual healthy debate of death threats and racial invective followed. Even Australian Peter Norman (he's the other guy on the podium) took it on the chin for his support of the two Americans; he was banned from 1972 Olympics and eventually sank into depression and booze, dying in 2006.
And if you're sitting there thinking how lucky you are that you live in an era when peaceful protest is no longer met with violence and hysteria...well, you just cling tightly to that little delusion as long as you can, friend.
Anyhoo, Carlos will probably have a lot to say on this subject and more tonight. He's led a fascinating -- if frequently tragic -- life, and we could all learn something from a man who made one of this country's most resonant statements without uttering a single word.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Some time in the mid-'80s or so, after the Oakland Raiders stopped winning championships with tactics so violent as to make the Marquis de Sade blush, the Super Bowl ceased to be a sporting match and graduated to the far grander status of American Cultural Moment (brought to you by British Petroleum). Bucking the long-standing convention of the participants determining (by dint of their team affiliations) the composition of the fan base, the Super Bowl stopped concerning itself with Your Team versus My Team and began to focus on that which truly defines us as a nation.
Namely softcore pornography and two-minute online pet store commercials.
Having abandoned the old prerequisite of having something emotionally invested in one team over another, the big game is now simply a spectacular excuse to eat dodgy fried poultry remains, wear your jammies in public, discuss half-time beer advertisements with a level of metacritical analysis rarely brought to bear in one's philosophy classes, and consume onion dip as if it might cure obesity.
To that end, the good folks at IC After Dark are hosting the Super Bowl party to end all Super Bowl parties (well, at least those Super Bowl parties hosted by student organizations at IC). Check 'em out on that Face-type book the young people are always going on about.
All the essential elements of football viewing will be in place, including
The shenanigans kick-off (oh, the cleverness!) at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday at Emerson Suites. They're even raffling off tickets for next year's Cortaca Jug, which is a much better prize than tickets for last year's Cortaca Jug, which really won't do you much good at this point.
Bring me back a wing. From a chicken, if possible.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Let's cut to the chase: the inauguration today of Barack Obama as the President of the United States is likely to be the biggest event-generator on a Tuesday for some time to come. And even if you didn't vote for the guy, you'd be hard pressed not to marvel at the outpouring of hope and commitment to the ideals of this country. When was the last time people got this excited about Inauguration Day? Or, for that matter, the business of government?
It's safe to say that Ithaca, more than almost any city in the country, is by and large a land of very happy campers today. As the only community that voted for Obama in the NYS primary, it's not surprising that more than a few people feel vindicated and validated by today's events. And as Ithacans often do, they're going to get a bit rowdy because of it.
You
I won't lie to you, I've seen a few things of note in my time, but this is right up there with the biggest. Where once people would ask "where were you when Kennedy was shot/Armstrong walked on the moon/Cheech met Chong?" -- insert other cultural ephemera as you see fit -- people will spend the next 60 years wondering aloud about what you were doing when Barack Obama became president. If you're lucky, the answer won't be "I was in line for the can at Starbucks because my phone was off and my watch stopped and I thought the damn thing wasn't happening until later."
Whatever you end up doing, make sure you tell us about it using the comments tool. We want to know how the IC community spent this historic day, especially if it's likely to make us laugh so hard the Guinness comes out of our noses. What can I tell you, we like the jokes.
Day
Much to the chagrin of tavern owners in blue state communities across the country, the actual swearing-in ceremony happens not during prime drinking hours, but rather at noon. There are countless opportunities to share this historic moment with friends and strangers alike, including
Whatever you do, if you really want to see President Obama (wow, just...wow) try to avoid watching online. As much fun as it potentially could be to interact via various social media gizmos and such, the simple fact is bandwidth is being crushed today. So far today the web is crawling like a red-nosed drunk the morning after the night before, and it promises to get a lot worse. Good old fashioned TV is your best bet for clear pictures and resonant Zeitgeist.
Night
Inauguration balls will be raging throughout the night, and our little satellite of democracy seems hell bent on behaving in kind. There are parties galore tonight, including
There are probably numerous booze-free events going on as well, and if you find them please let us know. Let's just say some of us (who are of age, natch) can't quite envision this event without a stiff drink and a lot of hollering.
Alright, enough of my yakkin'. Go forth and embrace democracy, and if you can, let us know how it goes. Pictures are welcome, as long as they include enough fabric to sew a loin cloth if need be.
Friday, January 16, 2009
I used to live in Washington, D.C. Had a little hovel at 14th and N, right in the middle of what had been the open wound left in the wake of the riots that followed the 1968 murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. (more on him in a minute).
33 years after that nightmarish series of events, life in the neighborhood was, in many ways, only just turning around. Unfortunately I arrived just in time to see a pretty horrific (if temporary) backslide. During my brief tenure a mere eight blocks or so from the White House, I lived through 9/11, the anthrax attacks (as opposed to the Anthrax reunion tour, which would have been fun), a sudden and violent downturn in the job market, and the sale of my apartment out from under my sorry broke self.
So, you know, fond memories all around.
I'm a big believer in the pendulum theory of life -- the farther it goes in one direction, the more dramatic the back swing. And babies, I am hard pressed to imagine anything more dramatically different from that dire autumn of 2001 than what we're about to witness in our capital in the next four days.
Before we can get to the business of the inauguration, there is of course the small matter of celebrating the life and hard work of the man who played a key role not only in making the 2008 election result possible, but also in several of the most pivotal moments in Washington's (and the nation's) history. When Martin Luther King Jr. introduced "I have a dream" to the American idiom, I'm not sure even he imagined that a little two-year-old boy living in Hawaii that day would take that dream and run with it. Yet here we are, 80 years after the birth of one of our most inspirational leaders, staring the living drama of U.S. history square in the mug.
Suffice to say it's always important to breathe new life into King's dream of peace and justice, but this year the timing is almost cosmic.
Thus, to kick off what promises to be one of the more festive Monday-Tuesday combos we'll see for some time, IC presents "A Day On, Not a Day Off" -- a celebration of service to honor the spirit of Martin Luther King. Eat breakfast, watch movies, and dive into topics so hot they'll make you forget all about this weekend's sub-zero temperatures. Cap it all off with the third annual School of Music MLK Day celebration concert at Ford Hall. Maybe even break into a round of "Happy Birthday."
And then get some sleep, because Tuesday promises to be entirely off the chain. More on that soon.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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).
Friday, December 5, 2008
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.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Assistant professor Sean Eversley-Bradwell is going to give a lecture with one of the most provocative titles that's come across the Rattle desk in quite some time. It's "Freedom Ride or Die: Barack or the Bullet."
From the Intercom announcement:
"Post racial." "Racially transcendent." "Beyond race." These are just some of the media phrases that have been used to discuss the election of Barack Obama. By examining the one-drop rule and double-consciousness, the talk will map the racial realignment of the 2008 U.S. elections.
Ultimately, the concluding event of the fall DIIS discussion series presents questions about the racial legacy of the U.S. Civil Rights movement and the future of 'race' in the U.S. Please join us for the dialogue.
Event Details
Sean Eversley-Bradwell
"Freedom Ride or Die: Barack or the Bullet"
Klingenstein Lounge, Egbert Hall
Thursday, December 4, at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
AIDS Quilt to Be Displayed
Today, the World Health Organization says 39.5 million people around the world have AIDS, yet somehow here in the states it's as though AIDS is only discussed as a tragedy of the 1980s and early 90s to be "commemorated," as though history had locked it safely in the past and had given it symbolic closure.
This quilt exhibition is called a tool for education in the present moment and for the future.
If you want to understand the powerful forces behind this work of art and activism, ask yourself, "Why a quilt? Why AIDS?" If you can answer those questions, you yourself are ready to shake the world.
Event Details
Ithaca College Action for AIDS Group
AIDS Memorial Quilt Display
Emerson Suites
Monday and Tuesday, December 1 and 2, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 3, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Jeremy Scahill, Scourge of War Profiteers, Coming to Ithaca December 2
One man who has been shaking the world is Jeremy Scahill, correspondent for the Nation and Democracy Now!, whose best-selling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army led to congressional investigations into private military contractors working for the United States government. Catch him leading a discussion on "The Importance of Independent Media in the Era of Conglomerates" in Park Auditorium.
Event Details
Jeremy Scahill
"The Importance of Independent Media in the Era of Conglomerates"
Park Auditorium
Tuesday, December 2, at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Make that the station for elation: 92 WICB has won the mtvU Woodie award for best college radio station in the U.S.
Hells yeah! Props to all the ICB DJs and staff on the big win. May your cups runneth over with rock and/or roll for all eternity.
Check out the glee:
Kinda makes you wish you'd signed up to be a DJ instead of going on that miserable blind date with the shut-in you met on World of Warcraft, eh?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Tis the season for the Cortaca Jug, the gridiron classic between IC and Cortland State that Sports Illustrated once took time off from bikini peddling to call "the biggest little game in America." This year's edition has been sold out since roughly the mid-1970s, so don't even think about going to Cortland without a ticket, lest the local constabulary beat you senseless with your own tinfoil replica trophy.
As the frosh among you may have noticed, the Cortaca Jug is the athletic, social, and (ahem) festive event of the season at Ithaca. Sometimes we win, sometimes it's how we play the game. Since the contest began in 1959, we've won 32 times to their 17, and last year we whomped the everloving snot out of 'em. Then we chased them naked through the Commons while making them sing "Ithaca Forever."
(Okay, I made that last part up. They sang a medley from "High School Musical 2.")
Suffice to say, when Cortland wins it's invariably because the wind was blowing the wrong way, or because our quarterback had rabies, or because the entire IC defensive line was mysteriously imprisoned off the coast of Venezuela for the duration of the game. By default, we're winners, which means they're...well, you can figure it out.
If you're lucky enough/sufficiently insured to already have a ticket in hand (we cannot emphasize this enough), here's what you can expect prior to kickoff on Saturday:
Also, pretty much everything except the shirt on your back and (maybe) the song in your heart is prohibited. No booze, no banners or signs on poles, no backpacks or bags, no umbrellas, no coolers, no chihuahuas, no Gummi Bears, no flame throwers, no Lucky Strikes, nada. If it ever seemed essential to the enjoyment of football, just assume you can't bring it into the stadium.
For more information, see the Intercom story.
You'd think with all the rules and hassle that folks would lose interest in the Cortaca Jug, but no. In fact it seems to get more popular every year. At the end of the day, people love hating Cortland as much as they love loving Ithaca. Sure, there's a little pillaging and plundering after the game (mostly at the press box buffet), but Ithaca fans are generally the respectful, decent sort. The game is exciting and the friendly banter between fans makes for an entertaining day out.
So have fun, be respectful toward our hosts (don't break anything but their hearts), play safe, and when we win, remember: it's a long walk back to Ithaca, so don't get lippy with the SUNY parking attendants until you're clear of the lot, and don't flash anything you don't want to show up on Facebook an hour later.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Busy as you are, you might want to take a few minutes to check out the Veterans Day celebration in Ford Hall today at noon. President Rochon will be there and he'll be taking names (okay, I made that up). But he will be speaking, and there will be music, and you can even send a message of appreciation to the vets old and young at the Bath (NY) VA Medical Center.
Check it out: http://www.ithaca.edu/veterans/
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voter Vans
9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Vans will shuttle students to and from the Ithaca College Circle Apartments Community Room, the local polling place for students who registered to vote using their campus address. Vans will stop at the Textor flagpole and the Smiddy Hall parking lot entrance on their way to and from the polling place.
I realize you're probably overbooked today, what with classes, studying, clubs, team practice, work, and mournful drooling over your unattainable lust object of choice, but I must insist that you consider taking a few minutes to participate in a little thing called democracy. It's easy, it's empowering, and it beats the hell out of not having any choice at all. The Rattle staff all managed to get in and out of their respective polling stations in a matter of minutes today, so don't worry too much about the panic-stricken headlines bemoaning four-hour queues. For some reason the state of New York has figured out what Ohio and Florida can't -- the old lever voting machines work fine, confuse no one, and keep the crowd moving.
This election is historic in so many ways we tend to lose count. But like every election, it offers us the chance to actually cast fortune to the wind and commit to something more significant than the daily "foam or no foam on your latte" decision that haunts every hypercaffeinated American. It's not every day you get to affect the course of world history, but every election in this country has that potential, and perhaps this one more than most. Sure, it's a bit silly that 300 million people can only muster two choices for the highest office in the land, but that's still one more than dozens of national constituencies around the world will ever have. Inform yourself, make a choice, and then bask in the glow of participatory democracy.
Passions tend to run high in a town where political apathy is virtually non-existent, so try to be nice to one another regardless of opinion. If you're looking for constructive stuff to do, Ithaca College is offering all sorts of diversions throughout the day, including voter vans to and from the polls.
Come on, people. No excuses.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Political pundits at Rattle believe a few people in Tompkins County (home of Ithaca College and Cornell University) may trickle out to vote for Barack Obama, given that this county was the only county in New York State to choose Obama in the primary on February 5. There even may be a few voters for another candidate whose running mate is pop star Sarah Palin, but we can't remember the name of the candidate or the party. Can we afford some fact-checkers around here? Or even some fact-finders?
Earlier today Rattle reached Steve Seidman, commentator-in-demand on NPR, by e-mail. Seidman, who will lead a discussion at the Handwerker Gallery on Election Day, argues that business marketing tactics are becoming more important in political campaigns around the world. These tactics, familiar to marketers for decades, are being used to attract a wider audience to politics. This development is a detriment to public policy, according to some scholars. However, Seidman also mentions Pippa Norris and others, who argue that these tactics have not had an adverse effect on cause activism, because younger people are less apathetic than their elders. He cites examples from the campaigns of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in Britain, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in South Africa, and Bill Clinton in the United States.
"The trend is toward an increase in image management, with an emphasis on personality, rather than emphasizing issues," Seidman says.
Event Details:
Steve Seidman
Election Day Salon, "Political Marketing and the 2008 Campaign"
Handwerker Gallery, Gannett Center, Ithaca College campus
Election Day, Tuesday, November 4, 4:00 p.m.
Friday, October 31, 2008
The idiot who edits this blog was supposed to tell you all about how Tom Wolfe was coming to speak last night at Emerson Suites. Said moron was going to enlighten you as to the oeuvre of the man many call "America's only public intellectual," since anyone who saw the film adaptation of Bonfire of the Vanities would have naturally assumed it had been written by a committee conscripted entirely from the head trauma ward.
Alas, as often happens when cold medicine and bile convene, our dimwit-in-chief forgot to actually post the story he wrote in a timely fashion. Thus, we're left with this pitiful post-game analysis. Which, as it happens, is rendered even more pathetic by the fact that none of us actually attended the event in question.
There was an incident with pumpkins -- that's all I'm going to say.
Anyhoo, we'd love to hear what people thought of the Man in the Eternally White Suit, especially since he went all Bushie these past few years. In the meantime, check out this podcast from the New York Times and listen to TW tell all about an ancient and strange time clandestinely known as "the sixties" (we Rattlers prefer "the Great American Weirdness"):
http://readingroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/the-man-in-full/
Thursday, October 23, 2008
We hear a rumor that there's going to be a massive pillow fight at 5:30 p.m. today in the Fitness Center. And that they want 1,000 kids to show up! Truth? Fiction? Who knows?
We put the Rattle Reseach Team on the case and discovered that the pillow fight world record was once set in nearby Albany when, in 2005, over 3,600 University of Albany students staged one. They even brought the Guinness people into the act.
The following year, a conference in Atlanta claimed to set the record with 10,000 participants:
But, world record or no, we're looking forward to seeing whether this rumor pans out.
If any of our dedicated readers happen to attend and take a photo, send it to cpollock@ithaca.edu and we'll consider publishing it here. We've seen our share of strange workouts at the Fitness Center, but nothing like a thousand kids smacking the stuffing out of each other.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
For whatever reason I'm terribly sentimental about the "golden age" of television (which ended about half an hour before I returned my cable box in disgust last year). I love those grainy shots of Edward R. Murrow, chain smoking while propped on the edge of his desk, telling us how we were pretty much doomed. I love the one where Lucy and Ethel get the job in the chocolate factory, or the fact that the woman chosen for the Westinghouse appliance TV ad campaign became a sex symbol in an age of nearly Victorian social repression. There's a certain kitschy "ye olde" quality to television in the 50s, possibly because I wasn't actually there to endure it in real time.
We have in our midst a treasure from that age, and it shows no signs of slowing down. ICTV went on the air March 3, 1958, which makes it the oldest student-run television station in the state.
In the country.
In the western hemisphere.
In the world, people -- the world!
Even the Sputnik-era Soviet edu-factories couldn't top the mighty Ithaca College. My pobedim! (We will prevail!)
Anyway, on Oct. 18 ICTV is putting on an all-day shindig, complete with tailgating BBQ, studio tours, cocktails, and more. Watch some football, eat some grub, and if you're lucky, watch some REALLY old student TV.
Read all about it: http://www.ithaca.edu/rhp/community/ictv50/
Oh, if you're an alumni planning to attend, you might want to sign up today. October 8 is in fact the deadline for registration.
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