THE

COLLEGE
HILL

THE BROWN/RISD WEEKLY | SEPTEMBER 23 2010 | VOLUME XXI ISSUE III

4 Twit ter K ills H is tor y

7 Like Fa rm er s ’ M a rket s , B ut B et ter
1 0 M a rk Trib e M a kes Ar t
12 B ea rd Com p etition

“Whatever, I’m just gonna go to law school.

#liberalartsgirl (6:51 PM Aug 9th via web)”
-p. 4
 The
College
Hill Independent
NEWS
contents from the editors When President Obama announced his plan for a $50 billion infrastructure bank on Labor Day, he used
compete et al. four times: compete, out-competed—as in “we out-competed everybody else. That’s how we
2 Week in Review built America”—compete and competition. When announcing the new “Change the Equation” Initiative to
Samuel Levinson, Jonah Kagan, Daniel Stump
improve math and science education last Thursday, President Obama again used various forms of compete,
3 Public Works: F-
Ashton Strait but seven times: compete, competition, competitors, competing, competitions, competition and competi-
tion. He used the word prosperity once: “Our prosperity in a 21st century global marketplace depends on our
OPINIONS ability to compete.”
4 Twitter Apocalypse I like to think that our prosperity is not based solely in our standing within a global market. I like to
Charles Pletcher think that America, and our foreclosed dream still sold around the world, was built on something more than
“out-competing everybody else.” Prosperity means something more. Schools should be for our children and
METRO teachers, and our infrastructure for our communities. This whole thing is supposed to be about people. But,
5 The Gay Divorcee 15 million Americans are out of work, increasingly shut out from government support, and all we can talk
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about is competition. Where is the conversation about how to help our neighbors without a real hope of
FEATURES finding a job and entering shelters in record numbers? Now that the recession is officially over, maybe we can
6 Radio Daze start talking about real economic issues.
Natalie Jablonski When we see our schools and universities, our bridges, airports, and post offices as nothing more than en-
Public Markets: The Comeback gines of economic growth, we do ourselves a great disservice. We forget that it is the economy that is trying
7
Marguerite Preston
to serve society, not the other way around. -GAW + NEJ
SCIENCE
9 Killer Plants, Wisdom Teeth
Nupur Shridhar

ARTS
10 Re[occupation] F A L L 2010
Nathan Bergmann-Dean
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X The College Hill Independent

14 Katie Gui PO Box 1930
#SPXO
6OJWFSTJUZ
Providence, RI 02912
theindy@gmail.com

Letters to the editor are welcome distractions. The College Hill Independent is published weekly during the
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Big Boi Photo by John Fisher

THEINDY.ORG
W  R
CONDOMS FO R CO N V I C T S
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An airline bigwig is now claiming that if
Jail’s San Bruno unit installed 16 con-
dom dispensers for its 750 residents.
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two pilots? Really, you only need one pi-
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ymous Southern California non-profit,
are the latest effort in a campaign for
safe sex in prison. The campaign began
in 1989 when health workers starting
giving condoms to inmates during indi-
vidual visits.
Although sex between inmates is il-
legal, everyone with cable knows it still
happens. Kate Monico Klein of the city’s
Public Health Department said, “If [pro-
viding condoms] saves one or two lives,
it’s worth it.” It will likely do much more
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calls her in,” O’Leary says. “She could
among prisoners is 5 to 7 times that of
the public. In a 2001 study by the De-
partment of Health and Human Servic-
es, the rate of syphilis in California pris-
ons was nearly twice that of the general
population.
Some critics, who appear to have
obtained all of their knowledge about
casual sex from John Hughes movies,
are arguing that providing condoms will
encourage inmates to have sex; however,
numerous studies have shown that giv-
ing people condoms does not increase
the chances of sex occurring. Were ev-
ery prisoner given a Camaro and some
Marvin Gaye albums, it might be a dif-
ferent story. As it stands, the prison did
an extensive study with just one condom
machine in 2007 that revealed no statis-
tically significant increase in sexual ac-
tivity.
Though the San Bruno lockup is
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provide inmates with condoms, many

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“showing that you can administer these
prisons abroad already do so. “It may
be controversial,” says Sheriff Michael
Hennessey, “but I think the larger health
education message is important.
-DS
RIDIN’ S O LO
Doctors have promoted marijuana’s abil-
he had his way, there would be no need
for copilots. “Why does every plane have
bag of Doritos for years, but recent
lot,” says Michael O’Leary, CEO of bud-
get Irish carrier Ryanair. “Let’s take out
the second pilot. Let the bloody comput-
er fly it.” Has he not seen 2001: A Space
Odyssey?
Even if the evil flight computer does
decide to spare the passengers, what if
the pilot has some sort of emergency, or
just gets a little lonely? Clearly O’Leary
has thought this one through. In his vi-
sion, one flight attendant per flight is
trained to land the plane. “If the pilot
has an emergency, he rings the bell, he
fortable and supportive setting,” could
take over.” If O’Leary were willing to
think outside the patriarchal gender
roles in his plan, he could probably save
money by having the co-pilots help serve
drinks.
This is not the first time O’Leary
announced controversial cost-cutting
ideas. He once proposed replacing some
seats with standing room and charging
passengers to use the toilet. Luckily,
these “upgrades,” along with his idea to
instate a “fat tax” for overweight cus-
tomers, never made it past the Irish
Aviation Authority. Loyal passengers
probably wouldn’t have been too fazed
by these new inconveniences, however,
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inspired “no frills” policy includes non-
reclining seats and customer service by
fax instead of email.
In O’Leary’s 19 years in the Ryanair
cockpit, he has made it his mission to en-
sure that the Economy class deserves its
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the 3rd most passengers in Europe. One
can only expect this ranking to improve
once those freeloading copilots are
forced to ride with the common folk at
the back of the Airbus.
-JK
2
News
R ADIATION,CHEMO,
SHROOMS?
ity to compel even the most nauseous
chemotherapy patients to eat the whole
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able to add another illicit drug to the list
of cancer therapies: magic mushrooms.
A group of researchers, headed by Dr.
Charles Grob, conducted a groundbreak-
ing study on the therapeutic effects of
psilocybin (a psychoactive compound
found in certain fungi) on the mental
health of cancer patients. The clinicaltri-
als.gov profile of the study classifies psi-
locybin as “a mood-altering drug with ef-
fects similar to other hallucinogens like
LSD and mescaline” which, in a “com-
improve one’s mood.
The study included male and female
cancer patients between the ages of 21
and 70 whose “potentially life-threaten-
ing” diagnoses have brought on clinical
anxiety or depression. The administra-
tion of psilocybin had a positive influ-
ence on the social lives of the subjects
(after the four hours they spent watch-
ing the iTunes visualizer); patients pre-
viously inhibited by their anxiety began
to communicate with their friends and
family and feel less burdened by the
mental stress of their condition. These
improvements in mood were accompa-
nied only by slight rise in blood pressure,
increased heart rate, and a newfound ap-
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Roland Griffiths, a psychiatry and
neuroscience doctor at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine, thinks the study
has the potential to reduce taboos sur-
rounding medical use of psychedelics by
compounds safely to cancer patients
with anxiety.” Thus, this successful ex-
periment could open doors for similar
research in the future, and one day the
world may look upon psychedelics as
more than just a way to “turn on, tune
in, drop out” in the tradition of every-
one’s favorite doctor, Timothy Leary.
-SL
by Jonah Kagan,
Sam Levison,
and Dan Stump
Illustration by Kah Yangi
3 S E P T E M B E R 2 3 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
News

P
W bucket compared to the 2.2 trillion
dollars the American Society of Civil

D’
Engineers (ASCE) estimates needs
to be spent to repair our infrastruc-
ture, such as roads, bridges, dams,
power lines, and other basic public

W
utilities in the next five years. The
ASCE releases an annual report card
grading the country’s infrastructure
using statistical assessments of sev-
en components: capacity, condition,
H OW OUR COUNTRY S ’ funding, future need, operation
INFRASTRUCTURE IS and maintenance, public safety,
and resilience. In 2009, the total
CRUMBLING BENEATH infrastructure “GPA” given by the
ASCE was a D. In short, we’re fail-
OUR FEET ing.  It should come as no surprise
by Ashton Strait either.  Europe on average spends
Illustration by Annika Finne about 5 percent of its annual gross
domestic product on infrastructure;

“
It looked like hell on several people in the neighborhood have ed dated from 1924. Even worse, the in- UIF
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earth. I have never come forward testifying to the fact that cident was not unique. There have been states on it’s report card website, “years
seen a ball of fire that they reported smelling gas in the area over a dozen similar explosions in New of delayed maintenance and lack of mod-
huge,” Bob Pellegrini of in the weeks and months before the :PSL
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ernization have left Americans with an
told reporters in the explosion, and Pacific Gas and Electric one of the worst of which killed 3 people outdated and failing infrastructure that
aftermath of the recent September 9 gas is reported to have received notification in Gramercy Park in 1989.   cannot meet our needs.”
line explosion in San Bruno, CA. The fire of these possible gas leaks, but took no The steam pipe that exploded recently While pushing for the $787 billion
caused by the blast killed four people action. Pacific Gas and Electric owns and JO
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stimulus bill last year, Obama described
and injured 52 others in addition to de- operates 42,141 miles of natural gas dis- which operates 105 miles of pipes that grand plans for, “building a 21st-century
stroying 37 homes and damaging over a tribution pipelines and provides natural service most of the city. Con Edison and infrastructure,” citing previous times
hundred more. The explosion occurred gas to around 4,300,000 customers. UIF
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when “a generation of Americans seized
when a 30-inch steel pipeline carrying litigation after Con Edison sued the city, the chance to remake the face of this na-
natural gas ruptured, blasting a 28-foot U N D E R P R E S S U R E pinning the failure on faulty sealant in- UJPOw
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section of the pipe nearly the length of “My car is going down!” the woman jected into the pipeline by a contractor spending provides just that: a face-lift.
a block and leaving a crater big enough screams in the 911 call, “I’m going down! working for the local government. The Most of the public works projects ac-
to swallow a tank in the street. Residents Please! I’m going down!” This woman is city maintains that the pipe’s failure was counted for in the bill are short-term
describe feeling their houses shake, and trapped helplessly in her Honda Accord the result of the company’s poor main- projects, designed to create jobs quickly
calls began pouring into 911 minutes af- as frigid water rises around her—the re- tenance of its underground infrastruc- and to be completed within three years.
ter the blast, describing a fireball rising sult of a water main break in Bethesda, ture, though Con Edison inspectors had Three-quarters of the highway projects’
almost 100 feet into the air. MD on December 23, 2008. She was air- examined the pipe the morning of the funds, for example, will go to refurbish-
Initial suspicions were that an air- lifted out of the car some time later, as explosion and alledgedly found no cause ing existing roadways. This distribution
plane had crashed due to the neighbor- were two other drivers.  She and many for alarm.  The official cause of the fail- makes sense from a political perspective,
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the fire burned between 15 and 20 acres driving on was suddenly and inexplica- water causes steam to condense in the eral Highway Administration, by which
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bly flooded with quickly-rising water. In pipe, creating a condition called “water time Obama will be long out of office.
attempting to contain the blaze were total, firefighters and rescue crews saved hammer” or “hydraulic shock” that re- However, no amount of infrastruc-
seriously injured. Soon it was discov- nine people trapped in eight cars, leav- sults in a wave of high pressure build- ture spending will have an effect if the
ered that the blaze was started by the ing no fatalities. The incident came on ing up in the pipe. Newer, high-pressure local governments and private corpora-
gas from the pipeline, but quickly spread the heels of a similar water main rup- pipelines are far less susceptible to this. tions who own our public works contin-
to houses both from the surface and via ture in Maryland in June 2008 that shut ue to fail to properly maintain and police
lesser pipelines connected to neighbor- down hundreds of restaurants and left P U T T I N G A CO R K I N I T these systems. Privately owned utilities
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residents without clean drinking water. Pipelines aren’t the only public works cannot escape the problems inherent in
heat from the fire reached 1200 degrees The Washington Suburban Sanitation showing their age in the last few years. any bureaucracy: the lack of cooperation
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UBJM Commission (WSSC), who was responsi- Who can forget the footage of the I- among different sectors; the inability to
lights on cars parked hundreds of feet ble for the pipeline, had warned prior to 35W bridge collapse in Minnesota in take precise, definitive, and timely ac-
from the primary blaze. The explosion both disasters that its aging sanitation 2007? The bridge, which carried roughly tion; and the subjugation of the public
also damaged a critical water main, so system, which serves nearly 2,000,000 140,000 vehicles daily, came crashing interest to those of the organization.
firefighters had to truck in water, slow- customers, was underfunded. WSSC down into the Mississippi River during 6OGPSUVOBUFMZ
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ing suppression efforts. spokesman Jim Neustadt told local re- rush hour traffic on August 1 of that ity requires the bureaucratic institutions
The National Transportation Safety porters, “we are working on long-term year. The main causes of the collapse of the public and private sectors to work
Board (NTSB) has begun investigations plans to try to repair or replace those were cited as the unusually heavy load on together, they encounter these prob-
into the precise cause of the explosion, pipes… and we need the funding to do it. the bridge due to the weight of construc- lems two-fold. Perhaps a good portion
but documents obtained by CNN from It gets to be a very difficult situation.”  In tion equipment, as well as the failure of infrastructure spending should be
Pacific Gas and Electric, the company 2007, the system had a record-breaking of fatigued and stress-fractured gusset spent to create a better system of federal
that owns and operates the pipeline, 2,129 breaks or leaks, though most were plates that joined the main trusses of the regulation, so that the national govern-
state that the pipe had a “relatively high relatively minor incidents. structure. Government inspections in ment could have a more definitive and
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more, because the pipe was located be- that are experiencing failures in their ag- the bridge as “structurally deficient” and porations and their utility systems. City
neath a highly populated neighborhood, ing public works.  On July 18, 2007, New it was scheduled to be replaced in 2020.   governments and national corporations,
“the risk of a failure at this location [is] :PSL
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President Obama has pledged many it seems, make strange, if not dysfunc-
unacceptably high.” The pipe was in- that rocked midtown Manhattan, killing times to help rebuild the country and tional bedfellows, and since no one yet
stalled in 1948, and as Mark Toney, the one and injuring 30.  The 40-story plume save the economy by spending money on seems willing to take accountability for
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“this was an area that was old, that was the street and rained down dirty water, ture renewal bank that would be used to
at risk, that they [Pacific Gas and Elec- pieces of piping, and asbestos onto the GVOE
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tric] identified as high risk.” Indeed, surrounding area. The pipe that explod- fortunately, 50 billion is a drop in the es.
THEINDY.ORG 4
Opinions

Twitter and the End of the

Historiography by Charles Pletcher
Illustration by Adela Wu

O
n April 14, 2010, the growth of that audience the user’s to preserve their actions more visibly emplum of September 19, 2010. Even
the Library of Con- only goal—Twitter disrupts not only and permanently than ragged memory among the tens of thousands of tweets
gress announced on one’s sense of self but also one’s sense allows. This impulse causes the erosion sent at the same moment, what could
their blog that they of community. Twitter followers become of privacy (on and off Twitter) at the this tweet mean?
would be archiving something to cultivate for amusement. core of Twitter’s threat to history.
“every public tweet, This characterization doesn’t ignore Built for the mobile masses, Twit- TWITTER WANTS GOOD STORIES
ever, since Twitter’s the prevalence of self-parody on Twit- ter doesn’t present much in the way of Twitter revels in disjointed and incoher-
inception in March ter. When @liberalartsgirl tweets some- flashy technology nor does it offer its ent communities. Each Twitter commu-
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thing like, “Whatever, I’m just gonna go best experience through a web browser. nity revolves around a definite center,
they write, “Twitter is part of the his- to law school. #liberalartsgirl (6:51 PM Rather, Twitter still works most elegant- the user. Oddly, communities don’t con-
torical record of communication, news nect when they respond to each other,
reporting, and social trends—all of because such responses often take the
which complement the Library’s existing form of small conversations. Rather,
cultural heritage collections.” Twitter, Twitter communities arrives from dis-
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tory. This decision preserves ephemeral ence, though, does not mean a bad com-
“Sitting on the porch” tweets of Twitter munity. Twitter missteps by using these
virgins alomg with tweets breaking news differences as tokens of individuality:
of natural disasters. Twitter’s indiscrim- each group of followers spins around a
inate history undermines all previous single tweep.
conceptions of narrative. The mix of per- A friend (154 following, 192 follow-
sonal and global histories presents raw, ers) recently tweeted, “why do people
unmediated presence where nothing is keep adding me on Twitter? & does this
supposed to exist, privileging virtual involve an obligation to be interest-
reflections of ourselves over our flesh, ing now?” (1:09 AM Sep 19th via web).
blood, and ink. In this paradigm, our his- This tweet points to Twitter’s infamous
tory is no longer story, but status. black hole: self-reference. As mentioned
above, all tweets point back to their us-
TWITTER WANTS TO BE A MIRROR ers; tweets reflect rather than project.
The observation that Twitter is a channel Twitter centers on the publication of os-
for modernity’s narcissism is so obvious tensibly private thought; it confuses the
that it borders on inane. Social media personal and the universal, it obscures
in general act as beautifying mirrors for the individual and the community, and
the self: Twitter with status updates and it inverts the quotidian and exceptional.
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bums and friend groups. I won’t bother most mundane parts of our days thanks
to address social media’s narcissism. I to 140-character snippets sent to cyber-
want to talk about why such narcissism space, we no longer have the gaps that
is dangerous. I don’t necessarily want provide space for personal narrative.
to understand how Twitter works, but Our personalities derive from what we
I hope to clarify what makes Twitter so Aug 9th via web),” she makes no effort ly through a simple text exchange with come to believe about ourselves through
hard to understand, namely its appropri- to hide the self-deprecation that signals 40404. No fancy web pages, no filters— what we have done, thought, or said—
ation of our personal narratives. Twitter parody. At the same time, the cycle of just follow/unfollow, tweet, and be mer- personality is an outward reflection of
is not simply a tool for texting a large entertainment for entertainment snags ry. Twitter asks for unmediated status, internal decisions. Twitter coaxes the
number of “followers.” Twitter runs on the account’s tweets and turns them into TP
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internal out of us; it renders each of our
our mundanities, depriving us the ability the audience-grab that permeates Twit- its users give up their personal histo- narratives public and so external.
to weave our details into personal narra- ter. Perhaps unwittingly, tweets from ries. Twitter encourages the impulse to Externality is an ancillary concern,
tives. Twitter doesn’t simply narrate for the accounts of celebrities like Kanye tweet constantly by making tweets feel however. Twitter has fragmented our
us; it brings narrative alarmingly close to West do the same thing: “Hotel bath- similar to text messages, only intended notion of community by advocating for
history. robe got me feeling like a king! (1:58 PM for a larger audience. Twitter has fewer its indiscriminate history. No narra-

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Sep 22nd via web).” Twitter’s propensity class preferences than its technological tive derives from tweets. They chronicle
paragraphs, let “history” mean any nar- for caricature is not a benign side-effect kin: ostensibly, one only needs an inter- a history of selves without observers.
rative based on actual events. Twitter of its users’ goal of building large audi- net connection for initial account setup, Twitter asks us to remember only our-
seems to be changing how individuals ences. Thanks to the Twitter platform, after which Twitter functions perfectly selves, and it aids in preserving our most
see themselves, the importance they all tweets, even those oriented entirely well thanks to the ubiquity of mobile fleeting thoughts. At the same time,
ascribe to their opinions, and how they towards the audience, refer back to their phones. Twitter solidifies the the self as an indi-
understand a community. Twitter erodes authors; and bearing in mind Twitter’s Twitter’s omnipresence permits us vidual apart from a community—except
a person’s sense of self and presents him use of “@,” one might even say that all to forget our own stories. Twitter re- insofar as that community serves his or
or her with a “timeline” (Twitter’s word) tweets refer “at” their authors. solves the inconvenience of having to her needs. Worse, Twitter accounts ex-
of who he or she has been. The timeline remember what we had for breakfast last ist only as virtual selves within virtual
grows estranged from its author as it TWITTER WANTS PERMANENT Wednesday; Twitter even takes on the communities—an account cannot be
becomes entangled in the Twitterverse, TRANSIENCE EVERYWHERE responsibility of letting us know the last separated from its followers or it ceases
until a person’s tweets present an overly I have a Twitter account because my job time we were on Twitter—tweet about to function as a Twitter account. Twit-
flattering reflection which replaces an requires it: eleven Twitter accounts fol- it, and Twitter records it for all posterity ter numbs its users to its individuating
element of that person’s character. That MPX
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(truly, thanks to the LoC). communities, asking the users to forget
is, Twitter influences how we see our- should not constitute history. “Trend- Tweets are based on events, and as their living selves for their virtual reflec-
selves. Its self-aggrandizement allows ing topics” assume their ephemeralness, such Twitter ought to exist solely in the tions. By easing our forgetfulness, Twit-
people not only to manufacture but also but recording tweets and treating them present. Tweeted observations ought to ter hardens our isolation, and we forget
to preserve (and preservation is the de- as historical artifacts suggests a purpose epitomize pith and transience—some how to tell a story.
parture from normalcy) images of them- other than in-the-moment commentary. PG
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selves that have no basis in reality. Twit- The ease of self-preservation offered by beating his wife (10:33 PM Sep 19th via
ter encourages this flattery through the Twitter appeals to more than just Twit- Twitter for iPhone (anonymous user)).”
mere publicity of tweets. By giving one’s ter’s users. Twitter’s massive user-base This tweet has no context. It is nonsense C H A R L E S P L E TC H E R B ’ 1 1 . 5 is
thoughts, activities, and inclinations a of ephemera-producing “tweeps” en- outside of its moment, but Twitter has just gonna go to law school. #JKLOL
readymade audience—and by making sures that even non-users feel the need preserved it publicly as a minute ex-
5 S E P T E M B E R 23 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Metro
DIVORCÉE WHATTT?!
THE DISSOLUTION OF GAY MARRIAGE IN RHODE ISLAND
F
or gay and les-
bian couples in
Rhode Island
wishing to marry,
a legal ceremony
is a short drive
to Massachusetts
away. What may
prove more diffi-
cult than forming legal unions, warns di-
vorce lawyer Lise Iwon, is breaking them.
“People get married without knowing
the law,” Iwon says. The Wakefield, RI
lawyer has known eight clients who tried
in vain to legally break ties with their
spouses; under state law, Rhode Island
courts cannot dissolve same-sex mar-
riages performed out of state. To obtain
a divorce, couples must move to a state
where gay marriage is legal and establish
residence for one year.
This law was established by the 2007
landmark court case, Chambers v. Orm-
iston, which marked the first time a gay
couple that married in Massachusetts
filed for divorce in another state. The

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Rhode Island legislature has repeatedly
contested that decision. Two identical
bills—one proposed to the Senate Judi-
ciary Committee in 2009 and the other
proposed to the House Judiciary Com-
mittee in May of 2010—attempted to
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overturn the Chambers v. Ormiston rul-
ing and allow any legally married couple
to divorce in Rhode Island. However,
neither bill ever came to a vote. The 2010

of legislators, there might not be a need
bill is currently “being held for further

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study.”
“[The bill] wilted away in the com-
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mittee,” said State Representative Peter
Martin, who heard testimony on the

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2010 bill as part of the House Judiciary
Committee.
As the House of Representatives is
currently in recess, the bill must be re-

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hearing. When that bill was abandoned
introduced in January when the new
session begins, Martin said. In the
meantime, Iwon’s clients remain in legal
limbo.
CIVIL RIGHTS DEFENSE OR
A S SAU LT O N M A R R I AG E ?
Supporters of the bil—which include gay
rights organizations, the Rhode Island

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posed and dropped, she said, “I’ll still be
Bar Association, and several members of
the House Judiciary Committee—argue
that same-sex divorce is a matter of civil
rights, not gay rights.
The issue of debt counts among the
most mundane—and most compel-
ling—reasons to legalize gay divorce,
said Karen Loewy, an attorney at Gay
and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders
(GLAD). In Rhode Island, spouses are le-
gally responsible for each other’s debts.
If a couple separates, and one spouse de-
velops a drug problem, for example, the
results could be financially ruinous, she
said.
Supporters also point out that Rhode
Island recognizes other kinds of mar-
riages that aren’t legal within its bor-
ders. If two underage Rhode Islanders
married in another state then returned
to Rhode Island, the state would recog-
nize that marriage even though under-
age marriage is illegal in Rhode Island. If
an underage couple can obtain a divorce
from Rhode Island family court, why not
a gay couple?
Martha Holt, an attorney at the
Rhode Island-based Lawyers for Equal-
ity and Diversity (LEAD), admits that
Rhode Island might not be ready to tack-
le the gay marriage issue. Concerns over
the budget deficit are more important in
the eyes of legislators, she says. But gay
divorce should be among those press-
ing concerns, says Holt, who obtained
a same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
The legislature must act fast to rescue
gay couples from the “legal limbo” im-
posed by the Chambers v. Ormiston rul-
ing, adding, “this bill is about divorce,
not marriage. Let’s not muddy the wa-
ters.”
In contrast, opponents of the bill
view the issues of gay divorce and gay
marriage as inseparable. Religious orga-
nizations and social conservatives view
legalization of gay divorce as a backhand-
ed way to allow gay marriage in Rhode
Island. Executive Director for National
Organization for Marriage, Rhode Island
Christopher Plante said at the hearing in
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you don’t recognize in the first place.”

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of Providence, same-sex divorce comes
down to personal responsibility. If a cou-
ple marries in Massachusetts, it’s their
responsibility to return to Massachu-
setts for a divorce, he said.
But the one-year residence require-
ment for divorce makes this solution
infeasible, Loewy and Holt counter.
Many gay couples own houses and have
children. It is “simply unfair and unjust”
to force these couples to uproot them-
selves, Holt said.
The day of the May 2010 hearing,
Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick
by Juliana Friend
Lynch wrote a letter to recently unseated
State Representative David Caprio (D-
Narragansett), chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, expressing strong
support for the bill.
The ruling in Chambers v. Ormiston
created an “absurd result,” Lynch wrote,
and placed gay couples in a “legal conun-
drum” if the marriage failed. This bill
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and opens its doors to gay couples seek-
ing divorce.
“Because the Rhode Island Supreme
Court has spoken on this legal quanda-
ry, the General Assembly ought to act,”
wrote Lynch in the letter. “It is an issue
of fundamental fairness for our citi-
zens.”
A LT E R E D S TAT E S
Since the December 2007 ruling, states
nationwide have been grappling with
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with constitutional bans on same-sex
marriage, same-sex divorce isn’t on the
table for debate. However, in states like
Rhode Island that neither ban nor allow
same-sex marriage, the legality of gay di-
vorce can prove murky.
As in Rhode Island, courts in Oklaho-
ma and Texas have ruled that same-sex
couples cannot file for divorce in their
state of residence. Along with New Jer-
sey and a handful of other states, New
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Drager ruled that a lesbian couple that
married in Canada could file for divorce
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same-sex divorce case in the state, and
set the precedent for legalizing same-sex
divorce in states that have not legalized
same-sex marriage.
law is silent on the issue of same-sex
marriage and does not explicitly de-
fine marriage as between a man and a
woman. But unlike Rhode Island’s Su-
preme Court justices, Drager found this
silence to be sufficient proof that same-
sex divorce did not oppose state policy,
and granted the couple their divorce. In
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Court also ruled to recognize gay mar-
riage in the case of divorce.
LO O K I N G A H E A D
Months before the new legislative ses-
sion, members of the House Judiciary
Committee are unsure whether Rhode
Island will follow suit.
The bill has faced resistance in the leg-
islature, said Representative Peter Mar-
tin, a member of the House Committee
on the Judiciary, because representatives
confuse the issue of gay divorce with
marriage equality. Opponents of the bill
conflate the issues of gay divorce and
marriage equality, Martin said, so “this
bill doesn’t get judged on its own merit.”
Representative Amy Rice, who also
heard the 2010 bill and said she will
continue to support it until it passes,
explained simply, “There are too many
democrats in this blue state.”
Representatives Peter Palumbo and
Roberto DaSilva, members of last year’s
House Judiciary Committee who have
records of conservative voting on social
issues, could not be reached for com-
ment.
The Representatives hesitated to pre-
dict how the new composition of the
House Judiciary Committee___ may
affect the fate of gay divorce. However,
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sponsored the 2010 gay divorce bill, is
optimistic.
With a governor who has publicly
supported the National Organization
for Marriage, 2010 “just wasn’t the right
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gay representative spoke of a culture
change beginning in the legislature.
With a new governor, and a new group
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Next season, legalization of gay mar-
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said.

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ues for Providence resident Lisa Lunt,
who has been trying to divorce her wife
for over a year. She testified at the 2009
and a successor proposed, she returned
in 2010 to share her story.
“When I married I married for life.
Then life happened and my marriage
ended,” she began at the May 2010 hear-
ing. Born and raised in Providence, she
said that moving is not an option. No
matter how many times the bill is pro-
here.”
JULIANA FRIEND B’11 can prove
murky.
THEINDY.ORG
Airwave Renaissance
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vember 25,
1960, radio
drama died.
Goodbye, Ma
Perkins
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well, Amos ‘n’
Andy. It was
the end, too, for Have Gun, Will Travel.
On this day, three of the last important

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fiction writer can’t access, but it’s a heck
daytime dramas were cut from the sound
waves, a day that most radiophiles con-
sider to be the beginning of the end for
the ‘golden age of radio.’

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Before television, radio dominated
national media. Supplying news, mu-
sic, and entertainment—radio was all
there was. In this age of smart phones,
3-D movies, and high-speed internet,
we forget there was a time before all this
existed, when the exciting new technol-

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ogy was something much simpler: the

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humble radio. Most forgotten of all is
the genre of radio drama, which included
everything from full-length radio plays,

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characters’ internal dialogues to become
comedy shows, adaptations of
classic plays or stories, as well as
soap operas that ran up to five
times a week. At the time, radio
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late ’20s—were a dime a dozen.
Ranging from the comedies of
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the suspenseful CBS Mystery
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The Green Hornet, radio dramas
held the attention of the nation
through nothing but sound.
Radio soaps populated the air-
waves with well-loved series like
Ma Perkins, which aired 7,065
episodes over 27 years—second
only to The Romance of Helen
Trent. Perhaps the most famous
use of radio theatre was Orson
Welles’s The War of the Worlds, a
1938 one-time fictional broad-
cast announcing an alien inva-
sion that was so realistic, many
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actually under attack.
By 1948, television was steamrolling
over radio like a monster truck over a
bicycle. Networks like CBS and NBC—
which began as radio networks —start-
ed cutting their radio budgets, and show

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after show got the axe. Network execu-
tives saw money in the future of visuals.
Listeners—after they got over their ini-
tial trauma at the death of their favorite
soap opera characters—were soon glued
to the screen. The change wasn’t un-
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as a distribution opportunity for work people love horror programming.”
popular show Allen’s Alley was one of the
first to go off the air, jibed angrily at the
new technology: “Television is a triumph
of equipment over people, and the minds
that control it are so small that you could
put them in the navel of a flea and still
have enough room beside them for a
network vice president’s heart,” adding
mournfully, “Radio was abandoned like
the bones at a barbeque.”
6
Features
RADIO DRAMA’S TENUOUS
REVIVAL IN A DIGITAL AGE
by Natalie Jablonski
Although the effects of this transi- were young, and those who are just ex- Plains, Missouri for a week of workshops
tion were felt on all genres of radio, the cited about a different kind of podcast. and performances. The listserv Audio
greatest casualty of the takeover was Greenhalgh, who also produces his Drama Talk has almost 1500 members.
American radio drama. Today it’s be- PXO
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1SPEVD But compared to the state of the genre
come almost completely esoteric, a for- tions, says he likes radio drama because in other countries, these numbers and
gotten relic. What’s left seems corny, as an artist, “It opens up a market that a handful of organizations seem paltry.
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The new age of online streaming and
few robust shows—like NPR Play- of a lot easier than film.” podcasts is clearly a new opportunity for
house and Earplay— survived through It’s clear why accessibility is part the radio drama medium to rise from the
the 1980s, featuring innovative works of radio’s appeal. The simplicity of the dead, but it hasn’t quite caught on yet.
by renowned playwrights like Harold technology and medium can allow for 'PS
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Pinter and Samuel Beckett. But even a sophisticated sound without the ob- how to make buckets of money through
these have since gone by the wayside, stacle of complicated sets and costumes. podcasting. And it can be surprisingly
short of funds and not prioritized by Although radio drama has nothing on tricky to listen to radio dramas online.
networks. Meanwhile, in Britain, ra- television in terms of visuals, its limi- The BBC, for example, airs hundreds of
dio theatre remains a familiar concept: tations may also be its strengths. The dramas each year, but only makes them
the BBC still produces hundreds of new voice, standing alone, can convey an available for a week or two for online
plays every year for its channels Radio extraordinary range of emotion. There’s TUSFBNJOH
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3 and Radio 4, including the soap op- an intimacy created through listening, 'PVOEBUJPO
era The Archers that has run since 1950. and radio drama often uses stream- available only by purchase. In contrast
As the outlets for radio drama shrank of-consciousness narratives that allow to the vast archive and user-friendly de-
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64
sign of popular nonfiction radio shows
like This American Life, radio dra-
ma sites are fraught with broken
links and unavailable content.
Although part of radio’s
strength is its technological sim-
plicity, it can also make for some
tiresome listening. “The vast ma-
jority [of drama producers] are
people on a laptop, plugging in a
64#
NJD
go along,” Greenhalgh explains.
Even Susan Loewenburg—head
of LA Theatre Works, one of the
foremost audio theatre groups in
the country—was quoted in the
Wall Street Journal, saying that
podcasting combines “twenty-
first century technology with
eighth grade content.” Since
more people have access to tech-
nology than ever before, there
are fewer barriers to simply re-
cording and uploading—which
means there’s less of a filter cre-
no audience, there was even less incen- another layer of the play. Also, since the ated by technology, and it can be hard to
tive for stations to support those proj- only cues as to what’s going on are audi- know where to find the good stuff.
ects—there was just no money in it. tory, the potential actions are unlimited. Even when the technical quality of
While on stage it would be a tricky feat an amateur work can be problematic—
STIRRINGS OF LIFE to have a character go to the moon or “sounds like they recorded in the bottom
Despite its mounting obscurity in the drive a racecar, on the radio it can seem of a well”—Greenhalgh says the quality
64
of the story can still come through and
least not according to a few devoted Greenhalgh points out, “There’s an op- appeal to listeners. That is, after all, the
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portunity as a producer to use imagina- point—to experience a good story. And
a weekly podcast and blog called Radio tion for all your special effects.” On a at a time when we are bombarded with
Drama Revival. He started the project related note, Greenhalgh has observed ever-more-stunning graphics, gruesome
in 2007 on the airwaves of Portland, a trend in popularity: “Horror is one of visuals, and two-second frame rates,
Maine’s community station WMPG, the genres best-suited for radio drama… maybe a good story is just what we need.
With podcasts becoming commonplace,
that didn’t have a lot of other outlets. and the audio book industry on the
Greenhalgh says that once he posted the A LO N G R OA D A H E A D rise—people are starting to listen again.
call for submissions on a few listservs, So is there, in fact, a revival? Several Perhaps radio drama’s stripped-down
he started receiving a steady stream strongholds remain: LA Theatre Works storytelling is just the rest we need for
of content. “It’s remarkable how much is a company devoted entirely to audio our tired, twenty-first century eyes.
new work is being produced,” he says. UIFBUSF
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His podcast boasts 10,000 downloads a ducing work, specializing in sci-fi and NATALIE JABLONSKI B’10.5 is
month, and he says that his audience is fantasy, for forty years. The National listening to Harold Pinter’s A Slight
an “eclectic mix” of those nostalgic for "VEJP
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the old time radio they heard when they hundred enthusiasts each year in West
 I N   P U
W e have not always shopped in gro-
cery stores. We have not always
pushed shopping carts down
fluorescent-lit aisles, past shelves
and shelves of bright packaging and brand names.
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the rise of long-distance transportation, and all that
19th Century Markets
21st Century
which constitutes modern consumer culture, every
city had a public market. The public market was a
place of activity and abundance. It was full of shout-
ing and the reek of fish, full of unwashed heaps of veg-
etables and cuts of meat darkening in the air. Every
food producer and purveyor in the region—farmers,
butchers, bakers—came to the public market to sell
their goods. Each vendor had his own stall and in the
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attle, these stalls could sprawl for blocks, making up
an entire market district. Markets usually were held
near waterways, next to bridges and ports, and on
ferry landings. The market was where the city rubbed
shoulders with both neighboring farmland and travel-
ing merchants, and where city dwellers could congre-
gate to buy everything they needed. The cities over-
saw the public market, but much of the regulation
came from within. With so many merchants, compe-
tition was fierce and customers picky, keeping prices
low and quality high. The social nature of the market
also established trust between buyers and sellers.
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meat from the man who butchered it, and bread from
the man who baked it.
But with the rise of the supermarket in the 1920s,
the public market all but disappeared. What had once
been farmland became suburbs, and what had once
been brought to the city by farmers was brought by
train. People began to buy their food the modern way,
in packages and in stores. They no longer put their
trust in the familiar faces and knowledge of their lo-
cal producers, but instead in the familiar lettering and
enthusiastic advertising of name brands. In certain
cities, however remnants of the market districts have
remained, even to this day. Borough Market in Lon-
don has been in existence at the south end of London
Bridge since 1756. Pike Place Market in Seattle, La Bo-
queria in Barcelona, and Reading Terminal Market in
Philadelphia are also still standing. All are versions of
their former selves, some closer than others to what
they once were. Many are mainly tourist attractions
now, and cater more to visitors seeking souvenirs and
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most part, these once-sprawling, chaotic epicenters
of economic activity are smaller, more streamlined,
more commercial. They are no longer a place where an
entire region congregates to do business with the city. deeper and deeper scrutiny by the public. If farmers’ A NEW OLD MARKET
Instead they are a place where the city does business markets pose at least a partial solution to some of This, at least, is the idea driving one new public mar-
with its visitors. those problems, public markets can do so even more. ket, New Amsterdam Market, which is now emerg-
Recently, however, some public markets are return- The public market offers what the farmers’ market of- JOH
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ing to their old form. Borough Market, for example, fers—a direct connection between farmer and buyer, market took place in 2005, followed by monthly mar-
began renovations in 2001 that have restored focus an assurance of responsible, sustainable production kets last winter and this past summer. But this Sep-
on regional vendors. It provides more real, basic foods practices—but in a broader scope. The farmers’ mar- tember it became a weekly market, and will now take
than specialty items. In recent years the market has ket only allows farmers, but public markets include place every Sunday until the middle of December.
become a bustling center of activity for farmers, ar- distributors as well: people like grocers and butchers Despite its newness, New Amsterdam Market has its
tisans, locals and visitors alike. This growing interest who may not grow the food themselves, but can be roots firmly planted in the historic public markets
just as integral to responsible food sourcing. By al- UIBU
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in revitalizing public markets is emerging out of the
lowing the same access to these people who supply the founder of New Amsterdam Market, calls it a re-
same roots that have seen the explosion of farmers’
the rest of our food, advocates say a traditional public vival. To him, this market is more of a continuation
markets in recent years. It is hardly news by now that
market offers a more complete alternative to our cur- than a beginning, an effort to sustain an institution
the local food movement is rapidly gathering speed,
rent food system. that was an integral part of both culture and economy
and that our current food system, from its regulation
for so much of the city’s history.
to its safety to its accessibility, has been subject to
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UBLIC complexion: dark hair and deep-set eyes under heavy
For the eyebrows, olive skin, and the kind of beard so dark
it leaves a five o’clock shadow even freshly shaven.
His family is Italian and he grew up in a market cul-
ture, visiting relatives in Rome and shopping with his
by Marguerite Preston grandparents at little Italian delis, groceries, and bak-
Design by Joanna Zhang eries on the Lower East Side. It would be easy to say
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public market, invested in creating a market the way
it used to be. He has a soft, almost childlike voice, and
can talk at length with clear reverence about old New
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century showing engraved scenes of the market. He
has books that catalogue the contents of the market,
and maps showing Brooklyn as farmland. He is also
very particular about keeping the market true to its
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in a historic market district, and given it a name that
recalls the original Dutch colonists who traded there,
but he also insists on an old-fashioned uniformity in
the market itself. He supplies the merchants with un-
imbellished materials to furnish their tables, forbid-
ding the vinyl signs and displays that appear at many
farmers’ markets. He also discourages synthetic pack-
aging and tries to get vendors to use wooden crates
and baskets instead of plastic boxes. But it is not
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More than his love of the history, he sees real value
in the public market alternative as a way to reinvent
the system for the present day and to create a more
sustainable, equitable, and accessible alternative to
the current food system.
New Amsterdam Market takes place at South
Street Seaport in lower Manhattan, where the East
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lyn Bridge crosses over the river at its narrowest
point. Close to the ocean and what used to be farm-
land, it should be no surprise that the seaport sprang
up where it did, and that where it sprang up there has
almost always been a market. In the nineteenth cen-
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ducers and merchants from the surrounding region
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ers and small producers don’t have the time, resourc-
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nant was moved to the Bronx. Now the fish market
building stands abandoned, and the seaport’s main
attraction is the enormous mall built over parts of
the old market. Most of the visitors are tourists com-
ing to eat a hamburger and shop at Abercrombie &
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lic market. Right now the market is still new. It is
to revive the Seaport as a destination for the city it-
self and for the region immediately surrounding it.
He envisions market-goers coming from Wall Street
and Tribeca on one side of the market and from the
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a permanent fixture at the seaport. “I want this to be
be beyond 500 miles, and most will be from within
100 miles.
A public market is essentially a local market. His-
torically, of course, this was by necessity: food could
only travel so far and still remain fresh, and there was
enough diversity in the farms and producers that sur-
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rounded the city that there was no need to travel far.
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get so much around here,” he says, “and if you can
get it from here, why would you get it from some-
where else? Why do you need to make chocolate chip
cookies? Why can’t you make some sort of fruit pie
instead?” Though it’s not always easy to turn people
away, or even define the criteria for the vendors, La-
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will support the growth of small businesses and the
development of the regional economy.
The public market could provide significant sup-
port for small businesses. The way a public market is
structured, vendors can sell their products with very
little investment. Instead of having to pay for a store-
front, they can pay just a small fee for a stall for the
day. In the case of New Amsterdam Market, vendors
pay a stall fee that varies depending on how valuable
the product is (farmers pay the lowest fee, restaurants
selling prepared food sell the highest). The fee goes
toward things such as renting the parking lot where
it’s held. In return, each vendor gets two tables, one
in front and one behind, as well as a sign with their
name and a chalkboard to use. All they have to do is
show up.
Better than the stalls themselves, however, are the
market crowds. Thousands of potential customers
show up to see the market. The public market is as
much about interaction as it is about making money.
It gives customers a chance to meet and talk to the
people who produce their food. “Different vendors
keep saying that the crowds here feel different,” La-
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terested in learning about this stuff.” Customers can
feel comfortable knowing not only where, but also
who, their food is coming from, while vendors can use
it as an opportunity to teach as they sell. Shopping
turns into conversations, like “how are you supposed
to cook this kale?” or “what kind of cheese should I
get?” or “what exactly is kimchi?”

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market differs from farmers’ markets. “The Green-
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can’t sell anything there if you haven’t grown it your-
self. But we have distributors as well as farmers.” The
distributors at New Amsterdam Market are still from
They also help bring products that might otherwise
never make it to customers in the city. Plenty of farm-
FT
day at the market. But if a distributor can take their
products for them, they can still reach thousands of
potential customers.

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these, and to creating a community out of the pub-
just gaining its footing as a weekly market, and still
has no permanent location--only a parking lot that
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sions it becoming a complete system, the way public
markets used to be. He hopes to eventually move into
a market district,” he says. The market itself would
be the center, with everything from farmers, cheese-
makers, and butchers to grocers, bakers, and other
artisans. Branching out from here would be wholesal-
ers, shops, and restaurants. “It would be a destina-
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ers the market a “public asset,” a place that fosters
culture and community as well as commerce. And
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is that this and other public markets will reemerge as
a viable alternative to the food system we are now in.
Marguerite Preston B’11 spent this past summer in-
terning for New Amsterdam Market.
9 S E P T E M B E R 2 3 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Science
Bio Battles
FIGHTING FOR FARMLAND, SWAMPS, AND TEETH
by Nupur Shridhar
Illustration by the author
C H A S I N G PA R A S I T E S
In order for Africa to develop, it must be-
gin feeding itself. Difficult, considering
its large and disperse population, and its
dearth of natural resources—aside, of
course, from what foreign nations have
extracted from the soil: oil, uranium,
gold, and diamonds. On top of all this,
African farmers have struggled for de-
cades to save their crops from witchweed,
or Striga, a genus of parasitic plants that
has infected roughly two-thirds of sub-

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Saharan Africa’s arable land.
The parasite itself is an evolutionary
marvel—growing plants release a hor-
mone called strigolactone. When a plant
is near a dormant Striga seed, the para-
site releases a hormone that causes ger-
mination and attaches to the growing
host, which is very quickly leached to
death. In order to disinfect their fields,
farmers (those who can afford to) often
treat the soil with ethylene gas, which
stimulates germination in the absence
of hosts, causing the Striga seedlings to
starve. But one Striga plant can scatter
tens of thousands of tiny seeds in a field,
and seeds often survive the disinfection

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process.
Since it’s impossible to fully disinfect
a field, scientists have begun looking for
alternative ways to protect crops—and,
by extension, to create sustainable bio-
logical niches wherever people need to
eat. According to a study published in
last week’s Nature Chemical Biology, re-
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used the popular plant model Arabidop-
sis to identify the genes responsible for
strigolactone production. They were also
able to grow mutants that released less
strigolactone—and so were more resis-
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genetic manipulation of plants in vivo,
cross-breeding with wild type alleles,
and hopefully, the beginning of some-
thing delicious.
S WA M P M O N S T E R
Last month, the Rhode Island Depart-
ment of Health announced the season’s
first human case of Eastern Equine En-
cephalitis (EEE), a viral parasite com-
monly referred to as sleeping sickness.
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mitted to humans by infected mosqui-
toes and, like every other incurable brain
parasite, is not a pleasant way to go:
symptoms include fever, aimless wan-
dering, personality changes, and finally
seizures ending with collapse into coma.
Approximately 33% of those infected
die, and survivors often experience sig-
nificant brain damage. No word yet on
the 20-year-old Newport County local,
currently unconscious and in critical
condition, who likely encountered an in-
fected mosquito population while hiking
through woods in southeastern Massa-
chusetts.

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non-embyronic tissue. Most cells, how-
partment of Health has known for years
that the hardwood/freshwater swamps
found throughout New England are per-
fect breeding grounds for Culiseta melan-
ura, the mosquito species that transmits
the EEE virus from birds to humans. “The
mosquitoes lay their eggs in root cavities
that go down into the water level, where
there’s plenty of stagnant swamp water
and plenty of space for eggs,” says Dr.
Alan Gettman, the RI Department of
Environmental Management’s mosquito
abatement coordinator. Gettman has
helped establish a mosquito surveillance
program that captures mosquitoes from
trapping pools throughout RI and tests
them for EEE and a handful of other
high-risk diseases, including West Nile
virus. “The folks up in Massachusetts
actually noticed infected mosquitoes in
higher rates, and so early in the season,
they launched a large-scale aerial spray-
ing of the entire southeastern area.” says
Gettman. “They hardly do that.”
In general, about 200,000 counties
do some truck spraying annually, but it’s
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fund mosquito testing sites, more of us
ry about EEE. “It’s a good thing we had
data that told us to step up the spraying
this year,” Gettman adds. “It wasn’t until
after the spraying in MA had wrapped up
that we heard that someone had tested
positive for EEE.” It could have been a
swarmy summer, but as Gettman points
out, “It’s important for people to know
that the most effective way for them be
safe is to take responsibility for their
safety.” The RI Deparment of Health
warns that Chapman Swamp, in West-
erly, has tested positive for EEE and en-
courages people to avoid stagnant water,
wear protective clothing, and use insect
repellent that contains safe levels of
DEET. One more reason to look forward
to the fall.
G R OW I N G W I S D O M
In a study published in this month’s Jour-
nal of Biological Chemistry, researchers
from Japan’s National Institute of Ad-
vanced Industrial Science and Technol-
ogy show that tissue from wisdom teeth
can be transformed into stem cells. Since
2006, scientists have been able to side-
step the ethical debate concerning stem
cells by inducing “stem-ness” in im-
mature skin and blood cells and other
ever, do not transform easily, and some
researchers believe that the soft pulp in
the center of wisdom teeth (found in all
teeth—the root of every tooth ache),
which are often extracted anyway, might
be the next best way to market stem cells
to the public: each of us is born with our
very own cache of potentially life-saving
cells, already genetically compatible with
our bodies, unlike most organ replace-
ment therapies currently available. No
entrepreneurial biotech companies of-
fering to store our just teeth yet, but it’s
a nice excuse to avoid going to the ortho-
dontist.
NUPUR SHRIDHAR B’11 lays her
eggs in root cavities.
THEINDY.ORG
MISSING THE
MARK
S
tudents at The New
School for Social Re-
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City occupied the
cafeteria of the stu-
dent center in December of 2008. About
a hundred occupiers from a coalition of
student groups made demands that in-
cluded the resignation of the President,

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investment transparency, increased stu-
dent control over campus decisions, and
the opening of an autonomous student
space. The occupation was the peak of
a long process in which the groups had
been organizing, petitioning, holding
demonstrations, and building a move-
ment towards these same goals. There
was a sustained presence of supporting
demonstrators outside, as well as na-
tional and international statements of
solidarity. After over 30 hours of physi-
cally defending the space from security
and the police, the students succeeded in
pressuring the administration to yield to
many of their demands.
The occupation was a crucial force
towards shifting school policy, but also
constituted the creation of an autono-
mous space in and of itself. Sometimes
spontaneously and sometimes through
conversations lasting until a consensus
was reached, students made decisions
about how to utilize the space and pro-
ceed with the occupation and nego-
tiations. The events at the New School
helped spark a series of similar actions
the following year, on campuses in both
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recently commissioned Mark Tribe, a
professor in the Modern Culture and
Media department at Brown, to create

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iteration of the very systematized alien-
an installation for the “Shape of Change”
exhibit, pertaining to speech and differ-
ent forms of dialogue. To this end, on
September 18, Tribe reserved a room
in Brown’s Student Center and staged
a reenactment of the 2008 New School
occupation, with the help of 15 or so stu-
dents. Ariel Hughes B’10 and Mark Tribe
scripted the initial dialogue and the
major developments of the occupation
based on archival footage. The rest was
intended to be improvisational theatre,
lead by the participant’s role-playing of
students in the original New School oc-
cupation. The entire event was captured
on film by professional videographers
for the exhibit, which opens October 30.
FETISHIZING THE R ADICAL
Tribe’s project was conceived as a per-
formance, but also as a space to explore,
“occupation as a political tactic and uto-
pian strategy, the state of student activ-
ism, and the ways in which reenactment
can blur the boundaries between arti-
fice and everyday life,” as put by Tribe’s
group.
If Tribe’s aim is to complicate the
REFLECTIONS ON A STAGED
OCCUPATION
by Nathan Bergmann-Dean
Photography by Patrick Free
boundaries between art and politics, he
succeeds only in depoliticizing a political
act and appropriating it for his artistic
purposes. Two basic layers of appropria-
tion occur: first, the event is a staged,
scripted, centrally organized, university-
sanctioned reenactment of a political
occupation that was in actuality autono-
mous, unsanctioned, and decentralized.
The actual occupation was one product
of students’ organizing around issues
immediate to their lives, a response to
a situation in which something concrete
was at stake. Tribe’s reenactment capi-
talizes on the original occupations’ in-
tensity while ignoring the political con-
ditions from which it emerged.
The second level of appropriation
is the video capture of the fruits of the
improvisation. The potentially genuine
creative and intellectual activity of the
participating students is turned into an
image of itself, to be presented as a to-
ken of Tribe’s art piece. Displayed in the
gallery, the event becomes the stuff of
spectacle—to be engaged with passively,
despite the participatory nature of the
reenactment itself.
According to Julian Park B’12, one
of the participants of the project, both
Tribe and the students quickly realized
that pretending to be the New School
occupiers was not working. Adrian Pio
B’12, another participant, described this
initial portion as feeling “disingenuous.”
After giving up on the script, the stu-
dent participants themselves decided to
move out of the sanctioned room Tribe
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lowed by the cameras, they migrated to
another room on the other side of the
building, continuing discussions about
what it meant to take space and use it as
they chose. All participants interviewed
agreed that the process of choosing to
move and the conversations that fol-
lowed were politically transformative
on an individual level, and that going
through this process together created a
community where one hadn’t existed be-
fore. In this way, the students succeeded
in creating something genuine and po-
tentially useful, in spite of the premise
of the project.
I N C H A R AC T E R
Despite some ambiguous wording on the
project’s blog, this was in no way an oc-
cupation. They did not take or defend
a physical space that they were not al-
ready free to use in whichever way they
wished. Some participants were unsure
of the consequences of moving to the
other side of the building, but Park and
another anonymous participant agreed
that there was never any real risk of a
confrontation with campus authorities.
Though Park speculated that they
occupied the “artistic space” by reject-
ing the script and moving to a different
room, Tribe still sanctioned all of those
decisions. Tribe started the conversation
10
Arts
about abandoning the script and then use occupation are not understood.
left to let the students decide for them- Any characterization of this week-
selves, though the videographers contin- end’s events as analogous to a real oc-
ued to film. They rejected the premise of cupation romanticizes the tactic while
the reenactment, undoing the first layer ignoring its actual meaning: occupation
of appropriation, but the second aspect is a site of contestation—there exists an
of appropriation was still present. Had opposing force that is directly resisted.
the participants chosen to remove them- At no time during Tribe’s “occupation”
selves from Tribe’s project by not allow- EJE
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is no indication that
“Displayed in the gallery, the event connections were
drawn with existing
becomes the stuff of spectacle – to political organiz-
ing taking place at
be engaged with passively, despite Brown. This is not
to say that an occu-
pation’s only rele-
the participatory nature of the vance lies in achiev-
ing the demands
reenactment itself.” of a movement. A
sustained practice
of taking over space
builds collective
power across move-
ments. The more
people take and de-
fend space, the more
power they build to
shape their world.
It is a chal-
lenge to the student
participants of this
event to bring the
insights and inspira-
tion they generated
this weekend into
practice. It is here
ing it to be filmed, they could have fully that art has the potential to become po-
taken the project into their own hands. litical: when it is used as a creative and
However, as long as their conversations liberatory tool.
were on camera, they became part of Contrary to what was likely well-
Tribe’s artistic domain. intentioned, Tribe’s art piece was an

4UVEFOU
9
that it is Tribe who now controls the way ation that occupying students intend to
the events will be presented to the pub- overturn. Occupying students forcefully
lic. Though he expressed his desire for claim a space to gain autonomy, to fur-
the students to be involved in choosing ther their ability to self-organize, and
how to use the footage, the final video to transform private space into public
piece coming out of the event remains space. While the students participat-
under Tribe’s name and ultimate control. ing this weekend realized the hypocrisy
Any input that the students will have inherent in the piece and attempted to
on the final presentation is a privilege transform it through improvisation, cre-
granted by Tribe. ating a space for an exploration of the
concept of occupation, this very trans-
M A K I N G TOYS O U T O F T E C-­ formation was again captured and depo-
9’S liticized by Tribe’s cameras. In spite of
Tribe’s piece is objectionable not only the individual and collaborative creativ-
because he is co-opting both sets of stu- ity so fertile in the space, Tribe’s project
dents’ genuine political action for an art re-appropriated the practice of occupa-
piece under his name. It also delegitimiz- tion—that of public and self-organized
es and depoliticizes the tactic of occupa- resistance—into private social capital.
tion itself, undermining its potential to
be used in an actual struggle. When oc- NATHAN BERGMANNDEAN ’13
cupation becomes associated with empty pulled down the posters y’all put up out-
theatrics, it is more likely to be decon- side.
textualized when employed in political
struggle. The news media frequently
delegitimizes occupations and similar
tactics, calling them purely dramatic and
failing to report on the buildup of politi-
cal tension preceding the action. As a re-
sult, the factors pushing the students to
11
Food
BREAKFAST OF
CHAMPIONS
OR, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR
EGGS IN THE MORNING?
by Josh Moses
Illustration by Isabel Khoo
W ith her best love-
you-no-matter-
what face on, my
mother told me, “girls love a guy who can
cook.” This display of motherly under-
handedness was her way of conveying
that I could potentially salvage my repu-
tation with women, despite a free-throw
percentage something like what Stephen
Hawking puts up and a musical talent
that extends only as far as Guitar Hero.
I grew up with the warm smell of
spiced apples stewing, the hiss that a
jar of homemade jam makes when you
crack it open, the buttery flakes of a


piecrust perfected with experience. My
mother was always in the kitchen, and
I was always there to enjoy the fruits
of her labors. As a result, I learned how
to cook from observation, picking it up
piecemeal as I licked the batter off cookie
-dough-covered spatulas, stole fingerfuls
of fresh whipped cream, and snuck away
with spoons laden with fresh applesauce
about to be canned.
My cooking experience remained
solely observational until, as the final
days of summer ticked slowly down, I
came across a loaf of Portuguese sweet
bread. The loaf sat mushroom shaped,
golden brown and pillowy soft, unex-
plained on my kitchen counter (I would
find out later that it came from the Silver

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Little House on the Prairie.
Stars Bakery on Ives Street). It was prac-
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toast.
I called a fellow bored-and-broke col-
lege student, and we decided to plan a
breakfast. He quickly appointed himself
my sous chef, and we began to work on
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ballooned into a three-course meal. Our
guest list, comprised of—conveniently
all female—old friends planned to arrive
at noon. I danced around the kitchen in
Billy -Elliot-meets-Muhammad- Ali
welter, mixing and sautéing in a cook-
ing frenzy, emulating what I had seen in
all-night Iron Chef marathons. As our
guests arrived, our first course hit the
blender.
T H E S TA R T E R
We served melon-mint, apple-cinna-
mon, and strawberry-Nutella smoothie
shots. These smoothies date back from
high school, when, in order to combat
the 7:35 a.m. first bell, I developed a
morning routine that got me from the
bed and out the door in just under seven
SEPTEMBE3R 23 2010 THE COLLEGE HILL INDEPENDENT
minutes. My mother took this as a chal- cheese melted and the croissant crisped, the slices come off the pan gold—like
lenge to make breakfast totally portable and served. Lil’ Jon’s grillz—and so soft that they al-
and started making these delectable most crumbled on the plate. We topped
breakfast smoothies. DESSERT this with the peach compote and gar-
The melon-mint was made with two The final course was the most important. nished it with real maple syrup and pe-
parts frozen bits of honeydew, one part Summer in New Hampshire is peach sea- cans. The smell of the peaches reached
fresh mint leaves, a splash of limejuice, son, and for the month of August my the table before the food, and when my
and ice. The apple-cinnamon was apple mother turns our kitchen into a halfway sous chef and I arrived brandishing the
cider, frozen in ice trays and blended with house for peaches fresh off the tree and 'SFODI
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a pinch each of cinnamon and nutmeg. on their way into pies, cans, tarts, and there were more flitting eyelids and
The best of the three, in my opinion, was jams. Always looking for a way to dimin- twirled hair than at a Jonas Brothers
the strawberry-Nutella, a combination ish the peach surplus that perpetuates inconcert. At the first bite, their eyes lit up
of frozen strawberries, a few spoonfuls our home, my mother suggested peach like I’d just served them Brad Pitt’s abs
of Nutella, and a scoop of vanilla fro- compote. on a platter.
zen yogurt. In a style reminiscent of my It sounds fancy, but it is deceptively It was a ‘mission accomplished’ mo-
mother’s cooking, these were combined simple to make. Six ripe peaches boiled, ment, more G.I. Joe than George W.
based on taste and texture, in no partic- peeled, sliced, and tossed in a pot with Impressed girls and satisfied friends sat
ular ratio. As we served the drinks to our some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon with us while my sous chef and I ate what
guests, however, their nods of approval and a dash of lemon juice combine to was left of the meal. My mom came home
and soft mmm’s indicated our success. make something I had believed only the to a kitchen in which I had used just over
likes of my mother could produce. Once two dozen eggs (most sacrificed to the
ENTRÉE combined, the mixture should be left poaching), spilled cinnamon, cream, and
I discovered our second course while simmering until the peaches shrink and smoothie on three separate surfaces and
hungrily wandering the streets of Tel most of the liquid is absorbed. As the dirtied just about every dish we owned.
Aviv at some untold hour of the night. mixture boiled down the whole house But while she threatened to strangle me
Expecting the late-night snack litany started to smell like something out of if the mess wasn’t cleaned up within the
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hour, I couldn’t help but infer a distinct
ushered into a tiny café and served a As it began, the meal ended with the note of pride in her scolding tones.
croissant, perfectly crisp and warm, Portuguese sweet bread. I soaked the
topped with Gouda cheese, salami, and a soft, spongy bread in a mixture of egg, JOSH MOSES B’13 sounds fancy, but
poached egg. I tried to replicate the dish heavy cream, and cinnamon before fry- is deceptively simple to make.
as faithfully as possible. Once I had slices JOH
JU
JO
CVUUFS
UP
NBLF
B
'SFODI
UPBTU

of aged Gouda and fennel salami neatly Two or three minutes on each side made
stacked onto open-faced croissants, I re-
alized that I had no idea how to poach an
egg. Panicked, I stopped everything and Breakfast of Champions:
ran to the computer, and the wisdom of
:PVUVCF
*
XBUDIFE
BOE
MFBSOFE
BT
(PS
don Ramsey explained how to place the
egg gently in boiling water, and spin the Melon Mint Smoothie Shot
pan just right so the white of the egg
wraps delicately around the yolk. I set
Apple Cinnamon Smoothie Shot
the water to boil, and when the time Strawberry Nutella Smoothie Shot
came, I stirred it furiously, creating a
small vortex into which I dropped egg Open Face Croissant
after egg hoping for a positive result.
Then, as instructed, I spooned the eggs Sandwich with poached
from the boiling water and placed them
in cool water to stop the cooking and al-
egg, Gouda, fennel salami
low them to firm up. If I served my eggs Portuguese Sweet Bread
in Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant he would
have punched me in the mouth before French Toast
LJDLJOH
NF
Pê

IJT
SFBMJUZ
57
TIPX
/FW
ertheless, I topped the croissants with Peach Compote
my poached eggs, broiled them until the
THEINDY.ORG 12
Sports

The World’s Manliest Sport

How Americans Are
5HGH´QLQJD(XURSHDQ
Tradition
by Abe Pressman
Illustrations by the
author
West,” and an “Alaskan Whaler” Natural
competitors choose to represent a par- Beard variant was added. Historically,
ticular beard club, which functions like Natural Beard is the one category consis-
fast rubric for judging; dimensions and
a sponsorship without financial incen- tently won by Americans.
quality of hair are often cited as deciding The 2009 WBMC marked a turning

T
tives. While the German beard clubs tend
factors but so are style and sportsman- point in the world of competitive beard
he year was 2009. ship. Many contestants are known for to boast fierce rivalries, every American
HSPXJOH
'PS
UIF
ë
STU
UJNF
PWFS

DPO
On a cold week- wearing eccentric costumes or accesso- member, regardless of local affiliation, is
testants registered for the competition,
end in May, they ries, especially in some of the quirkier B
NFNCFS
PG
#FBSE
5FBN
64"
#564"

nearly 90 of them from America. Alas-
arrived by ship, DBUFHPSJFT
TVDI
BT
'VMM
'SFFTUZMF
XIFSF
Some of the associated organizations,
kans, of course, made up a large portion
by plane, and by the truly surreal beards come to light such as the Handlebar Club, limit mem-
of the American team. The Southcentral
car to the Alaskan and the best-groomed compete for glory. bership to persons possessing a specific
city of Anchorage. TUZMF
PG
GBDJBM
IBJS
CVU
#564"
XFMDPNFT
Alaska Beard & Moustache Club hosted
It’s not easy to maintain a beard like the contest not too far from its head-
They had anticipated this day for two Weisser’s. Before each competition, the any and all beard-appreciators. Techni-
quarters, and its members managed to
years, since the 2007 World Champion- German champion works for hours with cally, anyone—regardless of gender—
take home eight medals.
TIJQT
JO
-POEPO
'PS
UIF
ë
STU
UJNF
JO
IJT a stylist, wrangling his beard into shape. can compete in the WBMC, although to
Sure, Alaska has something of a fond-
tory, an American team stood poised to And for many serious beard growers, date there have been no female competi-
ness for beards; in the words of long-
take home the most medals, confident in simply wearing and maintaining a foot- tors.
their home-field advantage and in Ger- to three-foot-long beard can become a The German beard clubs, which to- time competitor David Traver, “beards
and Alaska just go together.” But the
many’s lack of elite competitors, such daily chore. Natural Beard medalist Bob gether have sent more competitors to
Alaskans weren’t the only Americans to
BT
GPSNFS
'SFFTUZMF
DIBNQJPOT
&MNBS
Gengler has stated in interviews that the WBMC than any other country, had a
compete; California managed to snag
Weisser and Willi Chevalier, who were he has learned to drink beer through a heavy influence on the formation of the
six medals, and seven other states were
nowhere to be found. This was the World straw to avoid getting “covered in foam,” contest itself. The most obvious example
represented among the medalists. Even
Beard and Moustache Championships, while Michael Attree, Chairman and of Germany’s role is the Championship’s
Canada got in on the action, winning its
the greatest beard-growing contest in organizer of the 2007 competition, has “Imperial” moustache category, named
first medal ever (a bronze in the Natu-
the world, and Elmar Weisser’s absence admitted to wearing a protective mous- after German Kaiser Wilhelm II (but
SBM
'VMM
#FBSE
8JUI
4UZMFE
.PVTUBDIF

particularly reverberated throughout tache snood (a hood that fits over the known in the rest of the world simply as
a “handlebar”). category). Germany had a good showing
the event. As the sport’s signature star, moustache) at night.
Weisser is, quite simply, the World The 2007 London Championships XJUI
(FSIBSE
,OBQQ
UIJSE
JO
'VMM
#FBSE

Perhaps the most impressive person-
Champion of Beard. brought the WMBC a bit closer to the 'SFFTUZMF
JO

OE
JO


BOE
TUJMM

ality is Willi Chevalier, another cham- took home 15 out of 54 medals.

:PV
NBZ
OPU
LOPX
&MNBS
8FJTTFS
CZ
pion hailing from Germany, whose sig- spotlight. Media coverage of the compe-
The 2009 Championships also fea-
name, but you might have seen his intri- nature beard—stylish but not overly tition was more present than ever before,
tured an Overall Best Beard award, an
cate facial hair on the internet, posted ostentatious—is often said to resemble perhaps in part due to the efforts of the
honor not given most years and perhaps
with captions like: “There is a windmill in a pretzel, spider, or octopus. Like many Handlebar Club. Photos of the event and
representative of an American drive to
my beard,” or the catchy “Don’t razor me, other veterans of the competitive beard the competitors can be found in blogs
always have a clear-cut number one. This
bro.” He burst onto the scene at the 2005 world, he is quite the showman, often and newspapers across the internet.
prize went, unsurprisingly, to an Ameri-
World Beard and Moustache Champion- dressing for the competitions in dramat- The best of these beards have been pub-
ships (WBMC), when he won the gold ic black-and-white patterned suits. lished in photographic volumes, such as can—David Traver, of Anchorage—who
wove his foot long auburn beard into
medal for a beard sculpted into a model
"GUFS
XJOOJOH
ë
STU
JO
'VMM
'SFFTUZMF
Michael Elsden’s A Gathering of Extraor-
something halfway between a fishing net
of the iconic Brandenburg Gate, a tribute in 2001 and 2003, Chevalier was forced dinary Gentleman: The World Beard and
and a snowshoe. Not quite as flashy or
to his native Germany. Even more im- to sit out the 2005 championships due Moustache Championships 2007 which
inspirational as some of the classic Ger-
pressive, for the 2007 Championships in to an accident in which his beard got features men with beards down to their
man beards, Traver’s facial hair would
London, his beard was a two-foot-wide caught in a tangle drill, tearing a third of waists, moustaches so long they curled
have undoubtedly been an underdog to
model of the city’s Tower Bridge, com- the hair off his face and sending him to back into themselves in perfect circles,
Chevalier or Weisser’s, had they attend-
plete with tiny suspension cables made the hospital for a week. At the WBMC in faces that sprouted grotesque horns and
FE
:FU
5SBWFST
WJDUPSZ
TIPXT
UIBU
UIF

entirely of hair. Weisser competes in the Carson City later that year, fans printed tentacles of hair that stretched over a
world of competitive beard growing is
'VMM
'SFFTUZMF
DBUFHPSZ
XIFSF
BOZUIJOH
t-shirts with images of Chevalier’s beard foot in every direction, and of course,
spreading out from the strictly defined,
HPFT
DPOUFTUBOUT
JO
'VMM
#FBSE
DBUFHP on them to show support. In 2007, he Weisser’s infamous bridge beard.
ordered beards of the original German
ries grow facial hair everywhere they can, returned to the competition in London,
competitions. The beards, they are a-
XIJMF
UIF
'SFFTUZMF
DBUFHPSZ
TFUT
OP
TUZMF
showing off a new look: his sideburns A N E W E R A O F CO M P E T I T I O N
changing.
restrictions, allowing free use of styling shaved and his beard, thicker than ever, The Germans did not actively boycott the
aids such as moustache wax or hair gel. 2009 WBMC in Alaska; while Chevalier
)PXFWFS
JO
B
#PCCZ
'JTDIFSMJLF
SF
now fully white. He went on to receive turn, Chevalier re-emerged on June 5,
Typically, between 15 and 20 cat- UIF
HPME
NFEBM
JO
1BSUJBM
#FBSE
'SFFTUZMF
and Weisser did not release official state-
2010, to show he was a cut above the
egories of moustaches and beards are making Chevalier competitive beard- ments explaining their absence, plausi-
judged in the WBMC. These categories growing’s greatest comeback story. ble reasons abound. Most of Germany’s SFTU
"U
#564"T
/BUJPOBM
#FBSE
$IBNQJ
range from the nondescript, such as the contestants are in their 50s or 60s, and onships (a competition created by—but
Natural Beard, where competitors are A B E A R D E D T R A D I T I O N contestants have to pay for their own not restricted to—Americans), he won
ë
STU
QMBDF
JO
'SFFTUZMF
BT
XFMM
BT
CFJOH

not allowed to use any styling aids, to The WBMC has been held every other airfare and lodgings. Alaska is a labori-
voted audience favorite. Now that Che-
UIF
SJHPSPVTMZTQFDJë
FE
7FSEJ
BOE
(BSJC year since 1991. It finds its roots in a Eu- ous and inconvenient trip for men used
valier has finally made it out of Europe,
aldi categories, which specify maximum ropean history of beard clubs and com- to competing in Europe.
beard lengths of 10cm and 20cm respec- petitions. London’s Handlebar Club, the And perhaps the Germans had other he has proven he can win on foreign soil
and shown that at least one German can
tively. Most moustache categories vary oldest of the twenty or so beard clubs SFBTPOT
UP
CF
SJMFE
'PS
ZFBST
NFNCFST

still give the Americans a run for their
only by the degree or shape of the styl- that compete in the tournament, was es- PG
#FBSE
5FBN
64"
#564"

DPNQMBJOFE

money. The 2011 WBMC will be held in
ing, while partial beard categories tend tablished in the 1940s as a gentlemen’s that the beard categories unfairly favored
to cover a distinct region of the face. German beard styles, and the Americans Trondheim, Norway. The big question is
club for men with large moustaches. In whether or not America can continue its
Beards and moustaches are generally the ’80s and ’90s, “beard clubs” began to set up new categories in 2009. The Impe-
winning streak on enemy turf.
scored by a panel of judges chosen from spring up in countries all over Northern rial Beard and Imperial Moustache, two
respected members of the beard commu- Europe. By 1991, many of these clubs categories traditionally dominated by
ABE “LIGHTNING BOLT SIDE
nity, including past competitors, beard were hosting local or national beard con- Germany, were rumored to be combined
club organizers, and occasionally minor tests. into a single category (but at the last BURNS” PRESSMAN B’12 is a card-
hirsute celebrities. There is no hard-and- minute were kept separate); the Hun- DBSSZJOH
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PG
#FBSE
5FBN
64"

In the World Championships, many
garian Moustache was renamed “Wild
13 S E P T E M B E R 23 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Literary

BROTHERS OR US

LET’S START A FAMILY BAND

There’s a dog barking somewhere
in the novel you’re reading

imagine an ice sculpture of the Titanic being

thrown at a mountain
all conceptual people are running away from
something

I thought the cigarettes and poetry would rise

and fall with each other but it’s an inverse rela-
tionship like rival brothers or us

DREAMCATS
I can understand how women’s menstrual
cycles sync up
I mean, why not?
And I can understand being passionate about
politics
:FBI
TVSF
HP
GPS
JU
I can understand why I’m appealing to a cer-
tain kind of girl,
NANCY MEYERS MOVIES but
'PS
UIF
MJGF
PG
NF
*
DBOU
VOEFSTUBOE
XIZ
*

When I think my life is boring I sometimes have dreams about cats that press against my
imagine a steel spike legs like unstoppable forces herding me
pegging me to the bed or whatever Cats don’t herd, right?
like Bam, really fast What’s with these dream cats then?
pinning me like a butterfly back into myself
through the winglike undershoulder muscle

A nice steel railroad spike

Simple, timeless, clean
The impulse might be minimalist or anti-entro-

POEMS BY SAM ALPER.

pic or sick or nothing

I fucked up my teeth
for no good reason
I got lazy about my retainers and now they’re
a little crooked
My mom bought me tooth whitening gel in
syringes in case I ever wanted one of those
white teeth jobs
I really liked holding those syringes, oh yeah,
but
I got lazy about those too

I had a framed case of pinned butterflies on my

wall for years
they were lucky little guys and we got along
until a woman got between us
That’s morbid. Those things are dead.
and I just oh yeah yeah yeah

I have dreams with a granite basin of water in a CATALINA

kitchen like a
Williams-Sonoma kitchen Where mothers and father go to act cruel to pic-
It clears up all my acne and also works as a tures of their children and
decongestant smoke long thin cigarettes
That’s probably the dream I have the most to look each other in the eye, for once
stepping off the boat saying They say the island’s
My mom laughed all through It’s Complicated small but look how much there is
and I just thought I miss you Joanna, before we’ve met
It is it is it is. I see you in the library pretending to read
you gorgeous illiterate
it’s so easy to forget the shitty things you vid-
eoblog
when you make such good eye contact
I’m afraid of chickens and my memory because I
can’t tell how much of them there is
under the feathers
Oh god what if I keep this beard forever?

ILLUSTRATIONS BY GILLIAN BRASSIL.

FRIDAY | 24
8:10 PM K Ci & Jojo at Twin River Casino, Lincoln. $48-$68. I
thank G-d that I finally found you. // 9 PM Chifferobe Presents
“The Tropicale.” It wouldn’t be a tribute to Carmen Miranda
without fruit headdresses. At Cuban Revolution, Providence.
$15.

SATURDAY | 25
2 PM Brown alumna Anna Fields reads from Confessions of a
Rebel Debutante.  Coming out, indeed. At Brown University
Bookstore, Providence. FREE. // 6 PM Brown Football vs.
Harvard. First Night Game in our home stadium history.
Win or lose, at least we’re prettier. And we fuck more.
At Brown Stadium, Providence. $20 or FREE with Brown
ID // 7:30 PM Art of Attack. A play about chess, battles
of wills, brinkmanship, sibling rivalry. Bunch o’ squares,
suitable for ages 16 and up. At Mixed Magic Theatre, 171
Main St. Pawtucket. $15. // 8 PM The Ultimate Michael
Jackson Experience. This is it? A tribute show put on by an
impersonator? Thrilling. At Stadium Theatre, 28 Monument
Square, Woonsocket. $26

SUNDAY | 26
11 AM – 5 PM Fall out of Summer Arts Festival. Street and
human art, theater games, pony rides, raffles, ice cream.
At Artists Exchange, 50 Rolfe Sq. Cranston. $1. // 1:30 PM
Wickford Harbor Kayak Tour. Rock the boat, don’t tip it over.
Includes refreshments. At The Kayak Centre, 9 Phillips St.
North Kingstown. $40. // 9 PM Japanther. Dump your body
in Rikki Lake. At AS220, 115 Empire St. Providence. $6.

MONDAY | 27
10 AM – 9 PM “Cheers Through the Years,” the story of the
Patriots Cheerleaders. Your school has no gymnastics team,
this is a last resort. Through September 30. At the Hall at
Patriot Place, Foxboro, MA. Adults $10. // 6 PM How to Sit:
A Meditation Workshop. Next week: how to shake, play
dead, and roll over. At Shambhala Meditation Center, 541
Pawtucket Ave. Pawtucket. FREE.

TUESDAY | 28
5 PM Media Madness: Multiple Identity (Dis)orders in Mad
Men. A lecture by MCM Associate Professor Lynne Joyrich.
Period costume optional, reception to follow. Pembroke
Hall, 305, Brown University. FREE.

WEDNESDAY | 29
6:30 PM – 7:45 PM Collectible Comics. Get your collection
appraised by professional collectors at Lincoln Public
Library (or come for the free comics). 145 Old River Rd,
Lincoln. FREE. // 9 PM Magic Lantern Film Series at Cable
Car Cinema, Opening Day! All films and videos deal with
underwater life—which is great because how often can
you watch sexy submersion shots of Olympic swimmers
in action? 204 South Main Street, Providence. $7/ $9.

THURSDAY | 30
7 PM An Evening with Maya Angelou. Hear Dr. Angelou
speak about her own experiences with adversity and
success; a fundraiser to raise awareness about sexual
abuse. At the Providence Performing Arts Center, 220
Weybosset St # 2. Call 401-421-ARTS for tickets, $35 –
$250. // 8 PM “A Lie of the Mind,” a play by Sam Shepard,
presented by TAPS and S&B. Starring some serious
hotties. More Morgan Ritchie wrapped in Americana,
pls. Leeds Theater, Brown University. $7/$12/$17.