Ithaca College senior Aaron Terkel stood over his creation. Countless hours of monkey-wrenching and accidentally-inhaled spray paint had finally yielded the most beautiful fusion of school spirit and practical transport that could be imagined. He had created...

...the Bomber Bike!

Perhaps the only photograph of The Bomber Bike in existence.

Finished just in time for the Cortaca Jug game, the bike represented much more than one student's handicraft. Painted in the deepest of blues and most shimmering golds, the BB was a beacon of hope in the quickly descending fog that was SUNY Cortland's presence.

On the morning of the game, bolstered by a breakfast of pancakes and IPA, Terkel rode up the hill amongst loving calls of "BOMBER BIKE!" shouted from cars and pedestrians alike. Fastening his bike to a small tree, Terkel joined his friends and classmates in the crowded stadium to urge his favorite team on to their rightful victory.

But, mischief was afoot. Perhaps the Cortland team had brought something more sinister than poor sportsmanship with them that day, or maybe local miscreants lacked school spirit -- whatever the case, it seems that one individual had been poisoned by evil.

Thrilled with the success of his team, Terkel left the Cortaca Jug game hoping for an evening of Ithaca Beer, fried things, and riding the Bomber Bike triumphantly all over the South Hill. However, a terrible wrench had been thrown into his bucolic plans:

The Bomber Bike had been stolen.

This symbol of school spirit and goodness had been snatched away mere feet from the entrance of the Cortaca Jug game. Blinded by a haze of depravity, the perpetrator had snapped the tree that the bike was attached to in order to steal it away. Breaking our trees, stealing our bikes... what more do they want from us?

And so, the Bomber Bike is MIA. The spirit of our school, hauled away by agents of evil.

If you see the Bomber Bike (it's pretty recognizable), or have any information that could lead to it's return home, please contact Aaron Terkel aterkel1@ithaca.edu.

Let's all do our best to make sure the Bomber Bike lives to see another Cortaca.

Sometimes IC strikes me as a quirky juxtaposition of sights. Take, for instance, the brief walk I went on this weekend. I only ventured to the athletic quads and back, and I wasn't out for more than an hour. But I ran into the oddest juxtaposition of people and things.

Take, for instance, the totally hilarious flock of birds I saw. These birds flew over the athletic quad in a huge circle, over and over again. I'm sure there was something scientific behind their behavior, but it struck me as funny. Plus, they were pretty.

When I managed to tear myself away from the birds, I discovered that there were kids with Nerf Guns running around the quad.

This phenomenon stems from a game called Humans vs. Zombies. It's played by students on the IC campus and, apparently, by students on college campuses across the country. It's widespread enough on the IC campus that it deserves its own blog post, so I won't spoil it now. But suffice to say lots of people are into it.

Chillin' on the steps to the quad, I glanced to my right and was struck by how gorgeous the construction for the Athletics and Events Center s.

Someone pointed out to me recently that this tower looks suspiciously like the tower in the Season 5 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I must admit (proudly!) that I am Buffy fan, and this person is right. I can't find a decent photo of that tower for you, but trust me, they're quite similar.

In the space of about half an hour I ran into some weird and cool birds, some kids playing a game involving zombies, and the tower from Buffy. I love this school.

Fall is my favorite time of year in Ithaca. I'm from Southern California, so I find the whole leaves-changing-color thing totally fascinating. It makes Ithaca College freaking BEAUTIFUL right around now. I took a walk this morning to enjoy the foliage, and here's what I found...

See? Ithaca really does deserve its "gorgeous" reputation!

As a current student, the best part of alumni weekend was seeing how awesome I'm going to be in 30 years. This was cemented at the Big Bash, Alumni and Homecoming Weekend's great coming-together of new and old students in the name of having a blast and eating great food.

Parading some of the best talent IC has seen, the Big Bash featured performances from IC Circus (leotards, slightly awkward; skills, beyond reproach), past and present bands Bombermania and Caution Children, IC Comedy (it would be a crime here not to mention that Joe Pera kills, and could hold his own against any professional comedian), and some of the best damn food I've had catered on campus in my stay here.

Other than a place to show off how wildly talented Ithaca College students are, the Big Bash was a great place to connect. The lovely "man handshake with back slap" could be seen far and wide, connecting old classmates, current students, and mixes of the two in a beautiful harmony of useful networking and jolly guffawing.

Whether you graduated in 87' or were born in 87', it was a good time all around. Benn Bartishevich and Tom Walker provide some insight on what made their Alumni Weekend great.

In the midst of this war, financial worry, and fish moniker protests, it's nice to see an organization out and about Ithaca College whose sole purpose is positivity. No matter how small the gesture, the Do Anything Nice organization is striving to inject a little joy and spontaneity into what would be your otherwise mundanely college day-to-day.

I caught up to Do Anything Nice this Thursday out on the Campus Center quad. Their esteemed president, Sam Langberg, was there along with three fellow D.A.N. members to distribute free hugs (and complimentary video interviews -- see below) at their monthly Hug Station. Offering a hug to any and every student who walked by, they were met with varying levels of "ummm...?" and "Absolutely!" Joyfully though, the "absolutelys" were in the overwhelming majority. The hugs were of a high quality; firm, yet comfortably yielding, and I didn't see one customer walk away unhappy with their purchase.

The Do Anything Nice organization at IC is actually a part of a larger, nationwide D.A.N. With chapters in California, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York, these folks heard the Beach Boys ask "Wouldn't it be nice?" and answered with a resounding "Heck yes!"

If you want to get on board with the Ithaca College chapter, shoot them an e-mail at ithaca@doanythingnice.org.

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!

***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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

I know it was nigh on impossible to tear yourselves away from a summer full of awkward moments with high school friends who think "you've changed, man" and repeated explanations to your parents about the sociopolitical significance of assorted piercings and tattoos, but in time I suspect you'll be glad you returned to Ithaca.

In fact, since this is probably the last weekend (sprits willing) many of you will see your parents for many moons, I think it would be sweet if you shared a little local culture with them this evening. Think of it as family bonding, Ithaca-style.

I'm referring, of course, to the SufferJets roller derby bout at Cass Park tonight. First jam starts at 7:30; first dental projectile at 7:31.

Having traveled the world in pursuit of the finer things in life, I can say without hesitation that few artistic endeavors offer so poignant an encapsulation of humanity's beautiful potential than 10 rough-and-tumble gals -- many working on graduate degrees between blood-lettings -- whomping the ever-loving snot out of one another while skating in a big oval. Ithaca is easily one of the smallest cities in the country with its own roller derby team, which is a testament to our collective will to excel...or a damning indictment of a morally dubious band of rogues masquerading as an enlightened community. To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.

Anyway, think of this as an unofficial welcome back to all that is weird and wonderful about life at Ithaca College. Our community may be a little different, but then who wants to be ordinary?

Little known fact: all illustrious Ithaca College alums were once champion jumpers of rope. Well, maybe not all. I'm pretty sure Bob Iger was more of a kung fu guy. But other than Bob, twine hoppers all.

Okay, okay. As far as I know, Liz Butterfield stands alone among jump rope legends at Ithaca. She just won the 2009 Grand National Championship in women' freestyle single rope, and I'll bet if George Foreman had practiced Liz's moves (or laid off the barbecue between meals), he'd still be champion .

Check this out:

Every day people at Ithaca College amaze us. Smart, creative people doing interesting and fascinating things is pretty much the norm here. But that was even more spectacular than usual. Here's to you, Liz!

Time to step up, hula hoopers.

Students at Ithaca College, past and present, can tell you that this town does things with a certain style.

Take the untimely demise of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson (the deviant among you might suggest his death untimely because it happened 20 years too late -- don't be impolite). Did fans weep while clutching funeral bouquets and citing various spiritual tomes?

Fool, don't waste my time. This is I-Town -- we had a party!

Part of the Ithaca experience is making your own fun. The dude was strange beyond words, but his beats remain solid, and in any case part of living in close quarters as one does in a college town is making the best out of every situation. Can't study every minute of the day -- gotta make time to dance, yo.

Near as we can figure it kicked off in front of Viva Taqueria around 6 p.m. By 10:30 or so the crowd was easily 100+, shakin' their bodies down to the proverbial ground in the middle of the State Street construction site. Then it moved down the Commons in front of Korova, where the thirsty moved inside and the rest just kept dancing out front.

That's right, not one but TWO spontaneous MJ parties happening right next to each other. Off the hook.

I shot video, but the thing about phones is no matter how fancy they get, they're still mostly for talking to people who aren't there. If you turn it way up, you can hear "Don't Stop til You Get Enough" rockin' the Commons.

Original Video

For something far more visually rich (if obviously lacking in spontaneity) check out what IC alum Mark Romanak '81 did for Mike's "Scream" video (our boy won a Grammy for it, in fact).

I have absolutely no idea why anyone would go to school anywhere else. This place has it all.

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.

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.)

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?

All around the country last night, Republicans, Democrats, and others gathered to watch the election returns pour in -- and Ithaca College was no exception.

However, most of those parties weren't featured on the home page of CNN.com like Ithaca's!

Chloe Scutt, a sophomore from nearby Dryden, New York, shot some video of the celebration that took place on campus last night. She uploaded it to CNN's "iReport" section; within hours, it was being seen by thousands of CNN.com readers. Chloe tells how it happened: 

"I was sitting in my dorm lounge with friends watching the election coverage and as soon as news broke Obama won, screaming from everywhere started! So my first instinct was to grab my little Casio Exilim camera that I have ... So I take it outside with me to find a huge mob forming around the terraces. Who ever brought out the bagpipes was a genius; everyone followed him down to the Quads, where more and more people joined in. We marched all the way to Textor and just celebrated with chants, singing, etc. ... There HAD to be at least close to 1000 students there all gathered around and watching. As for how long the celebrations lasted, I left around midnight, one AM. I still woke up to screams and celebration though all last night."

Is Chloe one of those diehard Obama supporters that the media loves to play up? Hardly: 

"If I can be completely honest, I did not vote for Obama. I voted for the underdog. Yes, I voted for McCain. No, I am not a registered Republican. I honestly fell right in the middle. I don't like Obama's ideas on Healthcare and welfare programs. I HATE McCain's views on how the economy should be handled, and I do not like Palin, but I love Biden. I was not convinced on either side."

"As for last night, I was so proud to be a student at Ithaca College, no matter who won. I participated with the chants last night. And I believe there were even McCain supporters there too. I'm ready for change, ready for a new era and I think most of the students here on campus are too!"

An integrated marketing communications major in the Park School, Chloe says she wants to work for CNN someday. Looks like she just got a jump start!

Update (5:15 p.m.): While she was in an advertising class today, Chloe got a call from a CNN reporter who interviewed her and other "iReporters" about last night's event. Not bad for someone who's never even uploaded a video to CNN before ...

Read the CNN Article

In any other town the image below would be pretty easy to interpret.

Is it an end-of-season camping goods sale? An encampment of newly unemployed Wall Street traders? Scalpers drooling over themselves in anticipation of tickets for the oft-rumored Led Zeppelin reunion? The latest solution to dorm overcrowding?

Not in Ithaca, baby. That there is a queue for buying used books. The diehards sleep rough for days to get the best $1 copies of Ulysses and Horton Hears a Who.

The Friends of the Library Book Sale begins tomorrow. You simply will not qualify as an Ithacan until you've witnessed the spectacle.

Read all about it.