Counterpoint THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE
OCTOBER 2010
JOURNAL OF CAMPUS LIFE
VOL. 33
/ ISSUE 2
H T R O GO F AND WRITE
US
ARTICLES INTERESTED? EMAIL US COUNTERPOINTMAIL@WELLESLEY.EDU
EDITORIAL STAFF Editors in Chief
HANNAH ALLEN ‘12 SARIKA NARULA ‘11
Managing Editor Copy Editor
The Wellesley College Journal of Campus Life October 2010 Volume 33 / Issue 2
CHRISTINA GOSSMANN ‘11 ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12
ARTS & CULTURE
ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11
Webmaster
DESIGN STAFF Layout Editor Artistic Director
MYRIAM TAIBI ‘12 JEAN M. KIM ‘12
BUSINESS STAFF Treasurer
Counterpoint
ANNA COLL ‘12
STAFF WRITERS HANNAH ALLEN ‘12, ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11, ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12, ANNA COLL ‘12 CHRISTINA GOSSMANN ‘11, SARIKA NARULA ’11, RACHEL SALMANOWITZ ‘12, MARGARET VAN CLEVE ‘11
CLAIRE MCCREE
11
MELISSA EVANS
13 Rock Me, Amadeus
LINNEA HERZOG
14
ANNA COLL
17
My time working at a camp for kids with disabilities Life in Vienna
TRUSTEES MATT BURNS MIT ‘05, KRISTINA COSTA ‘09, BRIAN DUNAGAN MIT ‘03, KARA HADGE WC ‘08, EDWARD SUMMERS MIT ‘08
P O L I T I C S CHRISTINA GOSSMANN
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ALEXANDRA CAHILL
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Where We At? Checking in with the Millenium Development Goals
The Race for the Corner Office The MA gubernatorial race heats up
C A M PU S ANTHEA CHEUNG
5
MARGARET VAN CLEVE
6
L I FE
Life at Regis An overlooked experience
Big Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy Advise from a senior
SUBSCRIPTIONS
R E G U L A R S
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Counterpoint, Wellesley College 106 Central Street Wellesley, MA. 02481 Counterpoint is funded in part by the Wellesley Senate. Wellesley College is not responsible for the content of Counterpoint. Counterpoint thanks its departmental sponsors at Wellesley: Economics, Russian, Theatre Studies, and the Newhouse Center for the Humanities.
Catfish A preview for the movie opening this fall
SUBMISSIONS Counterpoint welcomes all submissions of articles and letters. Email submissions to counterpointmail@firstclass. wellesley.edu. Counterpoint encourages cooperation between writers and editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length and clarity.
Our Riotous Defects The indie-pop band from Georgia hits Boston
CONTRIBUTORS JULIA GALL ‘12, JEAN KIM ‘12, ANNA PRENDELLA ’11, KARIN ROBINSON ‘12, VICTORIA ROYAL ‘11, SHARON TAI ‘13, JAMI-LIN WILLIAMS ‘11
Working with Roxy
RACHEL SALMANOWITZ
4
Agenda Democracy
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Agenda CELEBRATION Boston: Sun. 10/31. 12:00 to 2:00 pm “Divas Unleashed” Halloween Pet Parade As part of the 5th Annual Divas Unleashed Halloween Pet Parade, the participating “diva dogs” dressed in their finest Halloween attire will march with their owners from the South End to the Boston Common Bandstand. The parade will start at Doggie Day Play Center at 400 Tremont Street and end at 450 Harrison Avenue where there will be live music. Proceeds from the event will go to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). For more information, contact Doggie Day Playcenter at 617.426.7387 ext. 221 South End and Boston Commons
EXHIBITS Wellesley: 10/27 - 11/11. Why Margaret Fuller Matters Why Margaret Fuller Matters is a series of text-and-image panels designed to reintroduce this 19th-century feminist, transcendentalist, and foreign correspondent. The exhibit will explore Fuller’s relationship with key collegaues (including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne), her views on women’s rights, education (especially female), class, slavery, American Indian rights, religion, transcendentalism, her world view as a transnationalist, and her unique vision of a jut world. The author and designer of the display is Bonnie Hurd Smith. The exhibit is sponsored by the
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october 2010 Office of Religious and Spritutal life and will be on display in the Houghton Chapel from October 27 through November 11. Wellesley community and public can visit anytime. For more information, contact the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at 781.283.2685 or www.wellesley. edu/RelLife Houghton Chapel
CINEMA Wellesley: Wed. 11/10. 6:00pm Screening and Discussion: JeffreySkoller and David Eisenberg Award-winning filmmaker DavidEisenberg and Jeffrey Skoller will participate in a screening of Persistence(1997), followed by a discussion, in celebration of the release of Skoller’s new book, Postwar: The Films of David Eisenberg. Thedocumentary Persistence focuses on Berlin following the fall of the Berlin Wall and during the Cold War. The event is part of the Calculated Risks Film Program, in conjunction with the Davis Museum’s Fall exhibition “Calculated Risks: New Work by Faculty Artists.” For more information, contact the Davis Museum at 781.283.2051 or www.davismuseum. wellesley.edu Collins Cinema
LECTURES Wellesley: Wed. 11/3. 4:00pm Evolution & Religion: From Conflict to Concert A lecture by Francisco J. Ayala, Don Bren
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Professor of Biological Sciences, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Irvine and sponsered by Wellesley’s Department of Religion. Professor Ayala is the 2001 National Medal of Science Laureat and the 2010 Templeton Prize Laureate. He has published many works, including Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion (2007) and Am I a Monkey? Six Big Questions About Evolution (2010) and his lecture will focus on the debate between evolution and creationism. For more information, contact the Davis Museum at 781.283.2051 or www.davismuseum. wellesley.edu Collins Cinema
Wellesley: Tues. 11/9. 4:30pm Distinguished Writers Series: Maryse Condé The Newhouse Center for the Humanities presents its fourth lecture in its Distinguisehd Writers Series this fall, inviting Maryse Condé to speak in the Center, 237 Green Hall. This native of Guadeloupe is known for writings works like I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem; Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood; and Desirada, winning literary honors for these books. This lecture will allow members of the Wellesley community to meet with and hear this accomplished author speak. For more information, contact the Newhouse Center for Humanities at 781.283.2698 or www.wellesley.edu/ NCH The Susan and Donald Newhouse Center for the Humanities, 237, Green Hall
CAMPUS LIFE
LIFE AT REGIS
BY ANTHEA CHEUNG
E
Photo / staff art
very year a number of students remain “un-housed” at the end of the spring semester. Housing assignments usually get worked out during the summer months, and the unlucky students eventually receive a room assignment, albeit not usually in their dorm of choice. Not so for 39 juniors and seniors this semester, who learned in early August that they had been assigned to live in doubles at Regis College this semester. On August 4, 2010, a message sent to the Official Announcements conference on FirstClass, informed the Wellesley College community of the inconvenient arrangement. The message was not sent to any other conference, nor had College Government been previously aware of the news. According to the official announcement, Wellesley was unable to accommodate all of its students this semester as a result of three unrelated factors that arose last spring: a rain-damaged floor in Tower Court, fewer students studying abroad this semester, and a higher-than-expected percentage of enrollments in the class of 2014. Despite the apparent effect that the concurrence of these three factors would have on housing assignments, however, un-housed students were not informed of
the possibility that they might have to live at another college, and learned of their assignments at the same time as the rest of the Wellesley College community. Regis College, a small Catholic college in Weston, Mass., is a little over five miles away from Wellesley. Despite its proximity, commuting to Wellesley each day to take classes is not without its frustrations, in part due to several changes in the shuttle that runs between Regis and Wellesley. After the latest change, the shuttle now runs every 40 minutes, from 6:30 am to 3:50 am, on weekdays. According to the schedule, it takes about 15 minutes to drive between the two colleges. Between waiting for the shuttle and actual travel time on the shuttle, the commute between the two colleges easily takes up an hour or more of a student’s regular weekday. And if a student wanted to venture out into Boston or Cambridge during the day on the weekend, the three-leg trip involving the Regis shuttle, the Riverside shuttle, and the notorious Green Line would make all but the most essential activities not worth the time spent in transit. The typical student living at Regis takes the shuttle bus to Wellesley for her first class of the day, and does not return until the nighttime, when she is done with all
classes, errands, and activities. Befittingly, students at Regis have their own lockers in the Wang campus center, and can eat and use the facilities of both colleges. All Wellesley students live on the same floor at Domitilla Hall in Regis College, somewhat preserving the general residential life atmosphere and same-sex environment that exist in Wellesley dorms. Yogha Muwanse, a junior and the Resident Assistant at Regis College, remarked that this arrangement placates worries that some students who chose Wellesley for its same-sex environment would feel uncomfortable at a co-educational school. Encouragingly, she also confirms that the rooms at Domitilla Hall are spacious, and that the other facilities at Regis College are well-kept. In fact, living at Regis College does provide some definite advantages for students who feel constricted in Wellesley’s residence halls. Living somewhere separate from where they take classes can potentially provide students with a less stressful environment and allow them to divorce their work from the rest of their lives. Moreover, it places students in a place with a different school culture, which Muwanse says is “more laid-back.” On the other hand, it can also be isolating, since it makes it more difficult for students to stay connected to the Wellesley community, especially since a lot of student organizations conduct their meetings in the evenings, when students living at Regis want to go back to their own rooms and rest. Moreover, Muwanse observes Regis College students generally do not interact too much with Wellesley students: “I think [the administration] asked Regis students to give us privacy.” All things considered, Muwanse believes that the Wellesley administration has tried its best to accommodate students living at Regis College, especially since they could not have predicted that there would not be enough space for students to live on-campus this semester. However, the lack of communication between the administration and students
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has frustrated many, and makes students at Regis College apprehensive of their future housing situation for next semester. It is especially troubling that the administration did not communicate with any students before their announcement, even when they knew that there would not be enough spaces at Wellesley for all the unhoused students. “All I was told was that the likelihood of getting a single was very low,” recalled Muwanse. Although students currently living at Regis are supposed to be able to move back to Wellesley next semester, some students remain skeptical, given the administration’s track record of keeping students out of the loop until the last minute. Muwanse says that it is still unclear whether
or not the floor in Tower will be repaired in time, and she worries that not enough students will be studying abroad next semester. Of late, a stabbing incident that resulted in the death of a guest and the injury of another, has also raised concerns over the safety of students living at Regis College. Reassuringly, the incident did not involve any Wellesley students, and campus police responded promptly and have taken actions to increase the security of students, by moving the Regis shuttle stop to the front of Domitilla Hall, and requiring students to show Wellesley ID before boarding the shuttle. An update from Wellesley College police stresses that the attack was probably not random. Additionally, Regis
College is in general a safe campus, so it is unlikely that the safety of Wellesley students is significantly compromised from living at Regis College. However, it is still a reminder that some students may be living in an unfamiliar environment with a student body in which they are not assimilated. As it stands now, it is still uncertain whether or not those students will return to Wellesley next semester, but it is up to the administration to be more transparent as new developments emerge. Anthea Cheung ‘12 (acheung@wellesley. edu) has completed her list of alternative housing for Wellesley college. Email her for details.
BIG PIMPIN’ AIN’T EASY Advise from a senior
W
hat three (two and a half if we’re going to be official) years of Wellesley have taught me. 1) Don’t have high expectations for the greater Boston college scene. It seems appealing to go to another school for some rockin’ party, but the reality is they’re never as fun as you want them to be. I admit, I’ve had my share
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of good times off-campus, but it’s never been guaranteed. Cambridge and Boston are fun, but they are not the only places to enjoy yourself. Maybe you’ll make great friends at Harvard and get invited to every Finals Club event, but you probably won’t. I’m not advocating for never leaving campus; I do enjoy getting away. I’m just reminding you that sometimes being
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here can be enough. Believe it or not, it’s totally possible to have fun on Wellesley’s campus- don’t knock it before you try it. And who really wants to ride Peter Pan that often anyhow? 2) Share your class notes. We are all aware of the grade deflation policy that plagues every 100- and 200level class with unnecessary stress and
Staff Art /Jean M. Kim ‘12
B Y M A RG A R E T VA N C L E V E
encourages detrimental competition. This shouldn’t discourage collaboration among students, but it seems to do just that. I do not believe this policy should be enough reason to refuse to help a classmate. There will be times when you are sick, or can’t understand a problem on your problem set homework and you will want the help of someone in your class. Be that person. Sharing your notes is not going to give someone an unfair advantage; instead it will probably just earn you some good karma. Academic teamwork doesn’t happen enough here. Next time you can work with someone you should do it, you might make a new friend! - And remember, you never know when you’re going to need someone to do the same for you. Just remember to help a sister out. 3) Hoop food is always a good idea. It’s a little-known fact that calories don’t exist in the Hoop. They actually don’t. None of those bagels or croissants will contribute to your hips. With that information, there is no reason not to partake in midnight munching of nutellatillas and nachos. Even if you want a pre-dinner snack, or you have nothing to do on the weekends, the Hoop is always available for some tasty treats and quality people-watching. Why eat dining hall food when you can have Hoop food? I also highly encourage the consumption of El Table food and do not want them to be ignored. Student co-ops are unique to college and really do provide the students with great resources (read: unhealthy food that’s accessible at convenient times). But you should always remember to pay your tab! 4) Don’t get so offended. Its easy to get upset about things people say, but in reality, Wellesley is one of the most PC schools. Let’s think about things to offend in the world outside of Wellesley. For example, many women in our generation refuse to identify as feminists because they dislike its ‘connotation.’ What kind of perspective do we have when we get upset about the syntax of an email sent to Community? We waste en-
ergy creating such a fuss over comments that are so irrelevant, they will be forgotten next week. Yes, Wellesley is imperfect, but it’s quite a bit better than what awaits us upon graduation. If you choose to take offense to everything everyone says, you will never be happy. You don’t know how great it is here; wait until you work in a male -dominated office, then you can talk about insensitivity towards women. Until then, celebrate the gift we have of going here, and focus on the positive, not the negative. 4) Stop freaking out Seriously. Its not worth stressing over work. Discussing whatever 2,184,901 assignments you have due tomorrow over the dinner table won’t make them go away, so change the subject, please. Being anxious probably won’t help you do anything better either, it will just make you, and those around you, unhappy. We all have due dates and long assignments and commitments, so don’t behave as if yours are the only ones- chances are, you won’t find a receptive audience. You made it to Wellesley so you’re clearly capable of getting it all done. You will finish that paper on time and you will be able to figure out that equation, so don’t panic. Please ladies, calm down, it’s going to be fine. 5) Make friends with your neighbors. You never know what potential friendships await you down the hall. In high school, friendships are defined by ephemeral matters like what you wear and what sports team you are on. In college, guess what? None of that matters! The cattiness of cliques and social hierarchies doesn’t have to define socializing here, and for the most part it doesn’t. There is no award for homogeneity or exclusivity in friendship groups, so be friendly. You will be surprised how much you have in common with people you never thought you would like. Your future bridesmaid could be sitting next to you in your economics class, and unless you extend that olive branch, you will never know! 6) Don’t talk about your GPA, ever. Unless you’re telling your mother
about your grades. Actually, even then it’s totally ok to lie about a couple of decimal points. Nobody actually wants to know that number. No matter what, someone is going to get hurt when dirty details like those are divulged. There are some things better left unsaid and those are grade point averages, so keep them to yourselves. 7) Chicks before Di*** I know what it feels like to be jogging around the lake and pass multiple couples strolling romantically, hand-inhand, while you continue on your solitary way. Yeah, it is lousy to feel alone and everybody wants a boytoy, boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other, fiancée, or whatever. It’s great to be in a relationship, but balance is important. But is said person really worth ditching your girlfriends for? When push comes to shove, the people who have your back are, and always will be, your friends. Think about it: after every break-up, who’s been there to pick up the pieces? Another frat boy? NO! Your friends. Remember the one who brought you cookies and stayed up late with you all night, just to make sure you were going to be ok? That’s a real friend, and one you would be silly to let go of. Your friends are forever and your boy/girlfriends, for the most part, aren’t. So don’t drop your friends when you find a special someone, you’ll want them back again. They are, after all, your ladies. The friendships you can make here will last you for the rest of your life, and your relationship might not last the semester. Your classmates are not only amazing, but they’re probably going to be amazingly successful in the future, so friend making could actually be potential networking. If you have a boyfriend, make him get his ass over here and appreciate Wellesley women for all their splendor. Be a Wellesley woman who will prioritize sisterhood. Margargaret Van Cleve’s ‘11 (mvanclev@ wellesley.edu) doin’ big pimpin’, spendin’ cheese.
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POLITICS
WHERE WE AT?
T
wo-thirds of the time is up. It was back in 1995 when the United Nations set up the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that target poverty, hunger and education. At the end of September 2010, political leaders from 140 nations assembled for a three-day summit to review the progress. Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University (where Stiglitz and Bhagwati are still intertwined in their eternal battle on globalization) is the director of the UN Millennium project. He strongly supports the feasibility of ending extreme poverty, globally. 1.1 billion out of 6.5 billion live on under one dollar a day. Using 1990 as the base year, Sachs argues that extreme poverty can be halved by 2015, entirely eliminated by 2025. Absolutely possible, Sachs says, as long as rich countries contribute 0.7 percent of their GDP in the form of aid, which is double of the previous amount. Naturally, the aid, going towards major infrastructure projects, climate change mitigation and post-conflict page 8
reconstruction, would have to be closely monitored. Sachs suggests giving it directly to local groups. The Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s helped many countries in the far East rise from extreme poverty and perform extraordinarily well in terms of growth. High yield grains, irrigation and fertilizers were introduced and led to a trend towards urbanization. When people move to the city, they are more likely to attend school and receive healthcare. As a result, the overall living standard increased. Unfortunately, this same revolution did not take place in Africa, where the poverty trap reins. Geographic factors and lack of appropriate infrastructure are the reasons for high transportation costs and tropical diseases associated with high mortality. In order to make the African boom come true, Sachs explains, the governments of rich and poor countries must collaborate to invest a total of 110 dollars per person a year. Economic literature on the relation-
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ship of aid and economic growth, however, doubts a direct conversion from foreign aid into growth. Even strict monitoring and close work relationships with local groups will not guarantee aid to go one to one into investment. Interestingly, in contrast to the general perception of corruption being the major reason behind vanishing aid, governance makes a difference but is not the sole determinant of economic growth. In fact, surveys by Transparency International show that business leaders perceive many fast—growing Asian countries to be more corrupt than some slow-growing African ones. It is not corruption, but urgency of short run matters that explains where foreign aid goes to. Governments of developing countries tend to address immediate issues instead of investing in long term economic growth. Critics agree that the MDGs are often placed above historically best performances. For instance: it took the US 100 years to reach full school enrollment,
Photo /unmillemiumproject.com
Checking in with the Millennium Development Goals BY CHRISTINA GOSSMANN
while Burkina Faso, currently with a net primary school enrollment of approximately 40 to 45 percent, has to live up to the expectation of full primary school enrollment by 2015. Predictions say the best it could do is 60 percent, an extraordinary achievement, just not according to the Millennium Goals. Such imaginary failures might take away incentive and inspiration. In their paper “What is Wrong with the Millennium Development Goals?” research fellows at the Center for Global Development Michael Clemens and Todd
Moss suggest “broad-based, sustained, moderate engagement” rather than “emotional, moralistic, centralized big bangs” such as the MDGs. Moderate engagements could take the for of opening markets to developing courtries and establishing creative arrangements. The UN summit in September concluded that two goals will most likely be achieved: poverty will be halved and the population target with access to drinking water will most likely be exceeded. One might add that China has managed to decrease its poverty rate from 60% to spec-
tacular 16% since 1990 which might have skewed the overall data to look like the world’s rather than China’s poverty rate was brought down – but one does not want to be a negative Nancy. The UN summit also adopted a global action plan “to achieve the eight antipoverty goals by their 2015 target date.” It can be hard to give in. Christina Gossmann ‘11 (cgossmann@ wellesley.edu): sometimes, negative Nancies are necessary.
THE RACE FOR THE CORNER OFFICE The MA gubernatorial race heats up BY ALEXANDRA CAHILL Photo / masslive.com
I
ndividual liberty and free markets are back in vogue. Not since 1994 has the political atmosphere been more favorable to conservatives. Tea party primary victories in Delaware, New York, and New Hampshire in early September rein-
forced the notion that at both the state and national level, an anti-incumbency and anti-big government mood prevails. Here in the Bay State, it’s no different. Call it the “Scott Brown effect.” After Massachusetts’ primary elections on Sep-
tember 14, the Boston Globe reported: “Democrats have a more than 3-to1 registration average statewide, but in Tuesday’s primary, in which independents could cast ballots for either party, Democrats outpolled Republicans by only about
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Fortunately for Patrick, Massachusetts’ numbers on jobs, the economy and education are above national averages. Many pundits argued early on that Patrick would win reelection thanks to a three-man governor race splitting the anti-incumbency vote. But Patrick’s reelection in November is becoming more and more of a distant pipe dream. According to a September 26 Boston Globe poll of likely voters conducted by the University of New Hampshire, Republican candidate Charlie Baker narrowly trails Patrick 34 to 35 percent. Independent Tim Cahill falls far behind, making up only 11 percent of the vote. The race that had for months been classified as “Leans Democrat” suddenly became a “Toss-Up” on The New York Times and Real Clear Politics websites. The highly competitive three-man race is swiftly shaping up to be a statistically tied two-man race. Charlie Baker, Patrick’s closest competitor, is the very definition of an electable Massachusetts Republican. Baker is a fiscal conservative but is liberal on social issues; he supports gay marriage and his running mate, state senator Richard Tisei,
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Disclaimer: Alexandra Cahill ‘11 (acahill@ wellesley.edu) is a Students for Baker Campus Coordinator. And no, she is not related to Tim Cahill.
Photo / media.nj.com
2 to 1. That’s the narrowest spread in the past 24 years.” The Globe added, “The turnout in traditionally Democratic cities and many liberal areas, by contrast, was low to abysmal.” Such turnout does not bode well for incumbent Democratic Governor Deval Patrick who owes much of his 2006 victory to these areas. Since taking office, Patrick’s unpopularity has soared and he faces tough opposition for re-election in November. According to a poll conducted by Democratic Party affiliate Public Policy Polling, Deval Patrick’s disapproval rating stood at 59 percent as early as January 2010. A 59 percent disapproval rating is no small wonder. First there were the taxpayer funded Cadillac Escalade and $10,000 drapes for the new office and a $1.35 million book contract for the publication of a self-important autobiography. Then there were controversial cabinet appointments, a failed, high profile push for the construction of three casinos, and a 25 percent increase in the state sales tax during the worst economic recession in recent history.
is openly gay. As the former chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Baker is running on his transformation of the bankrupt company into the country’s highest ranked heathcare provider for five consecutive years. Despite endorsing Governor Patrick in 2006, State Treasurer Tim Cahill left the Democratic Party in September 2009 and is currently running as an independent. Cahill remains the wildcard in the race. Though poll numbers place him a distant third, he pulls enough votes from Baker and Patrick to deny them a majority. According to the Globe poll, 14 percent of likely voters were undecided. These votes are likely to determine the ultimate victor. New Jersey offers a useful lesson in predicting the outcome of November’s election – on Election Day, voters will choose the most likely winner. Incumbent Governor John Corzine faced twoway opposition from Republican Chris Christie and Independent Chris Daggett. Fall polling from the 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial campaign mirror current numbers in Massachusetts. The final vote came down to 48.5 percent for Christie, 44.9 for Corzine, and 5.8 for Daggett. The anti-incumbency mood was so strong that undecided voters realized a vote for Christie was the most efficient means of ousting Corzine. Recent polling and the resignations of the campaign manager and senior aide from the Cahill campaign are making the anti-incumbent vote in Massachusetts all the more evident. But Tim Cahill remains in the race and Governor Patrick won’t go down without a fight. The mudslinging is just about to hit full-force. Hold onto your hats, it’s going to be a wild October.
ARTS & CULTURE
WORKING WITH ROXY My time working at a camp for kids with disabilities
A
BY CLAIRE MCREE
Photo / queensburyschool.org
bout a year ago, I began my first day of working at a camp for kids with disabilities. Nervously, I waited to meet Roxy (name changed for privacy), the camper that I’d be working with one-on-one for the next six weeks. Counselors who had worked with her before kept pointing out that she loved music and dancing. Something about the way they said it suggested they needed to find something positive to say in order to reassure me, and I wasn’t sure what they weren’t telling me. I wondered what Roxy would be like, and whether she would like me. When I met Roxy, I was struck by how incredibly small she was: her arms and legs were so thin and delicate that they made
her wheelchair look oversized by comparison. She wore rhinestone-studded jeans, a pink fitted tee, a high side ponytail with pink scrunchy, and cute pink-striped knee socks. Roxy looked absolutely adorable in her perfectly coordinated outfit, like a little girl. But when it came time to start our first day together, she began to hit herself and pull at her hair. I was horrified. I’d been warned she threw tantrums, but no one had told me that she would purposely hurt herself. She refused to participate in any activity, and so for most of the day I sat with her off to the side while she wailed, pulled out her cute side ponytail, and bit herself. I felt helpless. Other counselors came over and tried to calm her down, telling me to play with
her or to ignore her behavior or to take her for a walk. I was so confused – what was I supposed to do? That night, I went home and cried. What could I possibly do for this girl? I soon learned that Roxy could act as adorable as she looked when she was in a good mood. Though she couldn’t talk, she had an impressive repertoire of funny sounds she could make with her mouth, and loved it when others made sounds back at her. She would blow kisses to say hi to someone. When she heard music, she would immediately begin bobbing to the beat. The other counselors and campers loved to come over and play with her. The summer had some high points for me: I felt wonderful when I could make
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was the only person stubborn enough to have lasted more than two weeks working with her. I told myself that I would give it a try, but ask to work with a different camper after the first week. But this year, things were completely different. When Roxy saw me in the morning, she would smile and reach out for me. She no longer threw the dreaded after-lunch tantrum. I don’t know if a better situation at home or with her health contributed to this transformation. But I realized that I was at least partially responsible for the change: now that she knew me and was done testing me, she trusted me and behaved much better. Roxy’s grumpy moods still challenged my patience, but no longer my self-confidence. I learned to relax a little more, and discovered that ignoring her negative behavior was the fastest way to make it stop. Last summer when she tried to pinch or scratch me, I used to instinctively retreat and she would continue to grab at me each time I came near, making it almost impossible for me to lift her. But this summer, once I stopped pulling away from her attempts to hurt me, she lost interest and would stop because I didn’t react. I no longer felt guilty for not intervening when she started to hit herself because I knew that trying to stop her would only make her fight back harder. I realized that she only grew more defiant when I raised my voice, so I spoke quietly and calmly. And since Roxy knew that I wouldn’t give her
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Claire McRee ‘12 (cmcree@wellesley.edu) is up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.
Photo /gm.tv
Roxy laugh. Even I had to admit she was cute when she sneezed, giggled because it was such a funny noise and strange sensation, and beamed up at everyone around her as if to say, “Look at what I just did!” But for the most part, I was miserable. Every day after lunch, Roxy would throw a violent, screaming tantrum lasting ten to fifteen minutes. During the rest of the day, I would be completely stressed out from trying to avoid more meltdowns. Sometimes nothing I did could cheer her up, and anyone else could walk up and make her laugh: I knew she just wanted the novelty of someone new to play with, but it really hurt. Because she couldn’t talk, screaming was the only way she could communicate with me: so should I be sympathetic and appease her when she was upset? Or should I be firm, and try to teach her that she couldn’t always have her own way? I was constantly torn between the two, and convinced that I had to be doing something wrong because she threw tantrums so frequently. At the end of a long, tough summer, I left camp thinking that I had accomplished very little. At the beginning of summer this year, I went home convinced that I would never work at camp again and took a job picking produce for a local farm instead. But because an injury to my wrist made it too painful to continue, I had to quit, and desperate for a job I ended up at camp. I was paired with Roxy again because I
attention for acting out, she didn’t act out as much. I also learned that she loved being out of her wheelchair, and so I adapted as many activities as possible to allow her to sit in a regular chair. We were able to stay in camp activities most of the time. Now that I wasn’t so stressed, I began to really enjoy working with Roxy. I became very accomplished at faking sneezes to make her laugh. I loved dancing with her at camp parties. She could stand with my support, and she would be so excited by the music that she would swing her entire torso back and forth in time with the music. Some of her behavior even began to strike me as funny: one day, while we were waiting for her mom to pick her up, I was sitting on the ground next to her staring off into space. I was abruptly brought back to the present when she emptied her water bottle on me and turned to look at me with an expression that clearly read “Yeah, I did just do that. What now?” A year ago, I would have been frustrated and upset, but now I was just mildly annoyed and amused. Of course, in Roxy’s mind, a drenching was exactly what I deserved for not paying attention to her. With a calmer outlook and armed with new strategies for dealing with difficult behaviors, I no longer felt powerless or overwhelmed by my job. Though my reward for an exhausting day might sometimes be a soaking courtesy of Roxy’s water bottle instead of a smile or a thankyou, I began to feel that my work with her really made a difference. One of the most tangible experiences of having helped Roxy came when I sang to her. I saved this tactic for the most desperate situations, when she was starting to act up and nothing else worked. My rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” certainly wasn’t anything special. But it was miraculous to watch her reaction: her frown would evaporate, and she would just stare at me in fascination, and then start to smile.
ARTS & CULTURE
ROCK ME, AMADEUS Life in Vienna B Y M E L I S S A E VA N S
D
Photo / Melissa Evans ‘12
eciduous forest, cookie cutter suburb, baseball-diamond- my last glimpses of America out of the airplane window. At the security gate for international flights there was another college girl, and she was sobbing hysterically and clutching her parents. I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out how her behavior was even possible. My Mom and I were pretending to blow kisses to each other despite my brother’s exaggerated eye-rolling. However, when the plane was taxiing on the runway and I saw the grass being blown back by the motor I thought of the “Sound of Music” and then I had a moment of panic, accompanied by a vision of myself clinging to the lights on the side of the runway refusing to leave. When I first arrived I was sure that
every person who I passed on the street knew that I was American because everyone stared. Shortly thereafter I came to the realization that staring is culturally acceptable. It’s hard to miss this phenomenon because it is literally staring you in the face. Generally, Austrians just stare at people whom they find attractive. From what I’ve gathered, it’s considered essential that if you find someone attractive you glare at them in an appreciative, but also inquisitive fashion. If they stare back then they return your sentiments. The amount of staring indicates that Europeans must constantly be copulating. The physical distance between the two of you is irrelevant; if you’re two inches away from an-attractive-someone’s face, you can, and must, still stare at them. This addendum was proven by a man who stared at me
while passing on a narrow escalator. The Austrian relationship with food doesn’t take on a negative aspect as I feel it often does in America. When you order at a restaurant you receive the same huge portion of food that you receive in an American eatery. Being Austria, it’s likely something involving potatoes and Wurst; the complete opposite of dainty rabbit food. I had expected this type of hearty fare, but what I wasn’t prepared for was how shocked Austrians are when you don’t clear your plate. Waiters are always shocked, sometimes angry, and usually concerned that you didn’t enjoy whatever they brought you. Once, after eating two impossibly large Wiener Schnitzel and an equally impressive mound of potatoes I got the infamous question of concern “Schmeckt?” (Did it taste good?) because
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of one lonely quarter of a potato. Austrians also drink during the day and it is entirely respectable. During a threehour bus ride back to Vienna from the mountains our bus driver announced that we would be taking a ten-minute break in a small, adorable mountain town. While many people got off to go to the bathroom, the bus driver left the bus as well, to get a Wurst and a beer. The fact that he was driving didn’t seem to be a hindrance. Austrians go out any night of the week that they wish and have no regrets, regardless of whether or not they have to get up early the next morning. After working hard all day we all deserve a little amusement, and have definitely earned it. En-
joying life, a little bit at a time, is clearly a much higher priority in Austria than it is in America. The overarching theme for their way of life is similar to that of an important Austrian figure, Pippi Longstocking. In the German chorus of her song it states that, “she does that which pleases her.” Austrians may work hard, but they also do what pleases them: they unashamedly stare at whom they want to stare at, eat small delicious desserts frequently, and spend time drinking with the people who are important to them. I’m enjoying myself as well, and after only a week everything is starting to fall into place. Of course I’m still committing plenty of language accidents. Most of the
time they’re rather comical, even when I’m making an idiot out of myself. While reading “Little Red Riding Hood” I was very puzzled as to why the Wolf wanted Red to give her Grandma an ostrich. As it turns out, ostrich and bouquet are the same word. Additionally, just yesterday I mistook the word “bike” and “car” when asking my German roommate how she got to Austria. I really don’t have much of an excuse for this mistake, considering that the word for car is “Auto.” Melissa Evans ‘12 (mevans@wellesley.edu) is going to kiss both your cheeks, whether you like it or not.
ARTS & CULTURE
The indie-pop band from Georgia hits Boston BY LINNEA HERZOG
M
etal-limbed, gun-slinging robots in orange-fish headdresses. Minions parading around in silver bodysuits and giant sequinedpage 14
lobster claws. Smirking pigs that might have emerged from the pages of Animal Farm, No, this isn’t an episode of Torchwood— it’s indie rock five-piece of Mon-
counter point / october 2010
treal, live and in concert at House of Blues Boston. Four years ago, of Montreal was best known for selling the rights to their song
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OUR RIOTIOUS DEFECTS
Photo / kickinthepeanuts.com
“Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” to the international restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse, who reworked lyrics like “let’s pretend we don’t exist/let’s pretend we’re in Antarctica,” into marketable buzz lines: “let’s go Outback tonight/ life will still be there tomorrow.” “We thought it would be totally amusing to hear their take on one of our songs as a jingle,” of Montreal front man Kevin Barnes later confided in an interview with Stereogum.com. Some fans were understandably less than enthused. “If by ‘totally amusing’ he meant ‘totally insulting to our few remaining fans,’ then he’s [sic] right on the money,” commented one anonymous Stereogum reader. Nowadays, of Montreal—particularly, Barnes—is better known for its displays of outlandish theatrics than any linger-
ing predilection for a good steak. At an October 2008 concert in New York City in support of his band’s latest studio effort, Skeletal Lamping, Barnes took the stage in an orange floor-length robe that he eventually peeled back, quite nonchalantly, to reveal a pair of shiny gold briefs before making a quick exit and returning to the stage on a white horse. Coinciding with the release of 2007’s verbosely titled Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? was Barnes’ adoption of the personality Georgie Fruit, a “black man who has been through multiple sex changes,” Barnes revealed in an interview with Pitchfork. “He’s been a man and a woman, and then back to a man. He’s been to prison a couple of times.” At last, a perfect explanation of how a Caucasian man in his mid-thirties could come up with lyrics like “I’m
just a black she-male.” Musically, of Montreal boasts a repertoire of stylistic quirks that seems impressive even when taken apart from the band’s onstage antics. The back of a typical of Montreal album hosts a share of rambling, discursive song titles that reference Greek mythology and appear to have nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song (eg. “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”). It probably features cover art depicting fractals or the Garden of Eden gone wrong. Other defining characteristics include upper Barnes-onBarnes harmony, frequent gong crashes, and albums that flow so seamlessly that it is impossible to tell where one song ends and the next begins. The band is actually of Athens, Georgia, not Montreal. On September 16, of Montreal came
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to Boston to play a show that would take place just 48 hours after the release of their new album, False Priest. Given that the group’s most recent Boston appearance involved band members in animal masks, feathers blasted into the audience, and an encore ending in Barnes’ crucifixion and rebirth, anticipation was futile. The only sensible thing to do was to abandon all expectation and let the show unfold. And unfold it does. Plaid-shirted boys and scene girls stand speechless as guitars and keyboards illuminate the aforementioned gun-slinging, fish-adorned robots slinking somberly around the stage in a single-file line. Kevin Barnes emerges in aqua leather boots, sheer gray-purple leggings, a little polka-dotted apron, and a Fair Isle sweater over a matching balloonsleeved, deep turquoise blouse. Bangs peek out from a hippie-style headband, obscuring one blue-smeared eyelid. He is carrying a tambourine and means business. The following hour and a half documents a progression into uncharted territories of peculiarity. Relationships are recalled and eulogized in “Coquet Coquette” and “Our Riotous Defects.” Silver lamé is utilized in copious amounts. In “Like a Tourist,” an auto-tuned Barnes half-sings, half-pleads, “don’t treat me like a tourist,” while four men in skintight black and white checkered bodysuits proceed to do just that. The guitarists crowdsurf and throw picks into the audience. Older songs like “The Party’s Crashing Us” and “Gronlandic Edit” elicit cheers, screams, and crowd-wide synchronous jumps. “Everything about you screamed of godly intersex,” Barnes croons, lifting his apron and straddling a backup dancer effectively disguised as a pig. Midway through the show, two roadies wheel out a huge screen that has been page 16
fashioned to look like an old black-andwhite television. A family of Tim Burtonesque skulls in footie pajamas watches with rapt attention as Barnes delivers a solo piano performance of Sibylle Baier’s “Tonight.” Without further explanation or development, the skulls exchange apprehensive glances and file off the stage. Cut to the ominous-sounding piano intro of “Casualty of You.” Barnes is wearing a gigantic plastic bag that covers his entire body and face. The TV on stage has been replaced by an almost as large rectangular box covered in brown paper. Barnes walks into the box while the rest of the band plays on. As the instrumentals come to a close, the paper is dramatically torn off to reveal the opening act, Janelle Monáe, along with Barnes, who is now wearing tight red pants and a large ruffle of the same shade. Monáe’s buttoned-up funk poses a stark contrast to Barnes’ unabashedly over-the-top psychedelia. Together, the performers radiate chemistry and confusion. Earlier in the night, when Barnes and Monáe shared a microphone over “Enemy Gene,” one of the two songs on False Priest that features Monáe, it was unclear whether Monáe’s playful dance of “I’m not touching you!” would triumph over Barnes’ more, um, liberal gyrations. In the cage, this much is clear: it doesn’t. Bongos preface a fittingly victorious performance of “For Our Elegant Caste” (sample lyric: “We can do it soft-core if you want/but you should know that I go both ways”) that melts into a pulsing rendition of 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?’s 12-minute centerpiece “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal.” The band exits and reemerges to play a three-song encore that pays homage to chemicals, Norwegian cities, and Michael Jackson. If only all homages were this
counter point / october 2010
danceworthy. Of Montreal: The Hit Parade “Oslo in the Summertime” (from The Sunlandic Twins, 2005): Synth-bass hooks and bird-like “ba-ba-ba”s underlie this ode to the Norwegian city where parts of the album were recorded. “She’s A Rejecter” (from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, 2007): “There’s the girl that left me bitter. Want to pay some other girl to just walk up to her and hit ‘er…but I can’tIcan’tIcan’tIcan’tIcan’t!” “Women’s Studies Victims” (from Skeletal Lamping, 2008): An impeccably rendered pastiche of choral harmonies, chanted couplets and synth organ that also name-drops Betty Friedan. “Plastis Wafers” (from Skeletal Lamping, 2008): Never before have lyrics like “I want you to be my pleasure puss” been intoned with less self-consciousness or mortification. “Famine Affair” (from False Priest, 2010): Funked-out guitar leads back this danceable lament to a relationship gone wrong. Linnea Herzog ‘12 (lherzog@wellesley.edu), she’s a rejecter.
ARTS & CULTURE
CATFISH A preview for the movie opening this fall BY ANNA COLL
T Photo / collider.com
he trailer for the documentary Catfish opens with a scene in which young, New York-based photographer Nev Schulman makes his first call to Megan, his captivating, blueeyed love interest, whom he has met over Facebook. As a cover of The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” plays in the background, Nev claims that he “really cares about this girl.” Determined to meet Megan in person, Nev and the filmmakers,
his brother Ariel Schulman and friend Henry Joost, drive to Michigan to visit her at her farm. When they arrive there, the happy music is cut and things appear to take a turn for the worse. The farm is deserted, leading the men to become increasingly jumpy and uncomfortable. In the final twenty seconds of the trailer, reviews declaring the film’s ending “bizarre,” “unpredictable,” and “Hitchcockian” flash across the screen. Undoubtedly, the twist
implied by the trailer was what sold many people on seeing the movie. For me however, it did just the opposite; as someone who avoids horror films as a rule, I knew that I would not be seeing this movie. Around mid-September, however, a friend stumbled upon tickets for an advanced screening of the film and invited me to go along with him. I refused his invitation immediately, but looked up early reviews of the movie out of curios-
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ity. While many of the reviews shied away from revealing the film’s conclusion, they did make one thing clear: Catfish was not a horror movie. With a newfound interest in the film, I e-mailed my friend back and agreed to go with him. In the film’s early scenes, we learn that Nev’s online friendship with Megan actually develops from an initial virtual friendship with Megan’s younger half-sister Abby, a talented, eight-year-old artist who has been sending Nev paintings of his published photos. Through Abby, Nev has also become Facebook friends with Angela, the girls’ “hot” mother. While Nev maintains contact with all three of the women, however, his relationship with Megan soon takes center stage. As the two increase contact with one another over the phone and instant messenger, Nev learns more about her skills as a singer-songwriter and dancer. Before long, the two are “sexting,” calling each other “babe” and have fallen effortlessly into an unofficial long-distance relationship. At this point, I should issue a spoiler alert to those of you that are interested in seeing the film, which had a limited release on September 17th. In perhaps the most unsettling scene of the film, Nev and the filmmakers sit at a table in a hotel room as Nev chats online with Megan. As she has done before, Megan asks Nev for a song request that she will record for him immediately and send to him. Nev places the request, and within twenty minutes, she has sent him a link with the recording, which the men listen to. Eager to compare Megan’s version with other acoustic covers of the song, they search for other recordings online. The first link they find on YouTube turns out not to be just another cover, but rather the exact version that Megan claims to have sung. In a nervous and frenzied online search, Nev, Ariel, and Henry subsequently discover that all of the songs that Megan has suppage 18
posedly recorded and sent to Nev are YouTube versions recorded by other people. As it turns out, Megan’s lies regarding the MP3s are only the beginning. While the trip out to Michigan to unravel the mystery of the “Facebook family” Nev has grown so close to hardly culminates with an encounter fit for a horror film, it is nonetheless eerie. When the attempt to meet Megan at her farm is fruitless, the group resolves to catch the family at their weekend breakfast at the home where Angela lives with her husband and Abby. With the glimmering hope that the members of the family are who they have claimed to be, Nev brings flowers- just in case. However, it becomes immediately clear when Angela, a far-cry from the woman in her profile photo, answers the door that the group’s skepticism is justified. In the consecutive scenes, the family’s extensive virtual facade melts away. As the truth was uncovered, I wasn’t quite sure who to feel (most) bad for. Angela, we learn, turns out to be the painter, and has led her unsuspecting husband to believe that her interactions with Nev, whom she has contacted under the guise of Megan, have occurred because Nev is some sort of power-player in the New York art world who has taken an interest in her paintings. Without a doubt, she is a compulsive liar; even as Nev deconstructs her fabrications with her in person, she does not come completely clean about Megan’s non-existence. To her defense, Abby is real, yet she has no idea who Nev is; in one unsettling scene when Nev asks Abby about the artwork he believes is hers, Abby exclaims, “You’re confusing me!” Despite Angela’s betrayal of Nev and exploitation of Abby, however, a deeper look into Angela’s family situation helps the audience better understand her need to escape. Perhaps the person whom I felt bad for the most is Nev, and not simply because of the truth about Megan (it
counter point / october 2010
stinks enough to be misled by a real-life lover let alone one who does not exist), but rather because he’s a New Yorker! Isn’t online deception to this degree only supposed to happen to under-age kids in the ‘burbs? Someone clearly hasn’t done his reading about the “dangers” of virtual relationships. Certainly, Catfish is not a documentary that reveals to the audience an unknown phenomenon; anyone involved with social networking understands to some degree the implications of immersing oneself in a digital world. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Catfish, therefore, is not the general series of events it covers but the filmmakers’ luck in capturing the development of Nev’s relationships with Abby, Angela, and Megan from such an early stage so thoroughly. Furthermore, regardless of how naïve Nev is at times, he is an ideal subject for a documentary focusing on relationships. Though he periodically complains to the camera of how uncomfortably intrusive the filming of his private life has become, he allows himself to be vulnerable. In one scene, for example, he admits how little he actually knows about Megan; in another, he reads aloud a series of racy texts that he and Megan had exchanged as he hides bashfully under the covers. Even if we don’t believe that the film’s poignancy derives from the notion that any of us could find ourselves in a position like Nev in this complicated digital world, we can still identify with the stages of curiosity, infatuation, betrayal, and acceptance that he experiences so openly on film. Anna Coll ‘12 (acoll@wellesley.edu) wonders: What is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? Please contact her with any clever responses you may have.
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