March08

Counterpoint MARCH 2008 VOLUME 31 / ISSUE 5

THE MIT/WELLESLEY JOURNAL OF CAMPUS LIFE

The Counterpoint

Cover Letter Generator

Let us help you get the job of your dreams

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Wellesley’s 24-hour infirmary to close

Administrators face student outcry

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Examining the Iranian nuclear situation

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[also inside: new exhibitis at the DMCC + an interview with Rachael Yamagata]

E D I TO R I A L S TA F F Editors in Chief

Managing Editor

Edward Summers MIT ’08 Kara Hadge WC ’08 Kristina Costa WC ’09 Marion Johnson WC ’09

Counterpoint The MIT/Wellesley Journal of Campus Life March 2008 Volume 31 / Issue 5

D E S I G N S TA F F Layout

Artistic Director

Kristina Costa WC ’09 Hailey Huget WC ’10 Caroline Sun WC ’11 Julie Camarda WC ’08

B U S I N E S S S TA F F Advisor Treasurers

Rebecca Faery MIT F Katie Gosling WC ’10 Sandy Naing WC ’09

Business Manager Publicity

Rayla Heide WC ’10 Jenny Kim WC ’08 Jane Repetti WC ‘09

p o l i t i c s LIZ KIM

M I T C O N T R I B U TO R S Kevin DiGenova ’07, Ken Haggerty ’11, Adam Nolte G, Durga Prasad Pandey G, Vivi Vasudevan ’07, Mike Yee ’08

W EL LESLEY CO NTR IB UTO RS Elana Altman ’11, Alexandra Cahill ’11, May Chen ’10, Eleanor Crummé ’11, Megan Cunniff ’11, Sarah Dickerson WC ’10, Ellis Friedman ’08, Rayla Heide ’10, Cammie Lewis ’09, Elizabeth Pan ’11, Jane Repetti ’09, Caroline Sun ’11, Minying Tan ’08, Alyssa Torres ’09, Shu-Yen Wei ’11, Melissa Woods ’08

c a m p u s JENNY KIM

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Cover illustration / May Chen WC ‘10

SUB SCR IPTIO N S One year’s subscription: $25. Send checks and mailing address to:

Counterpoint, MIT Room W20-443 77 Mass. Ave. Cambridge, MA 02139 Counterpoint is funded in part by the MIT Undergraduate Association Financial Board and by the Wellesley Senate. MIT and Wellesley are not responsible for the content of Counterpoint. Counterpoint thanks its departmental sponsors at Wellesley: Middle Eastern Studies, Peace and Justice Studies, Art, Philosophy, and Africana Studies; and at MIT: Writing & Humanistic Studies.

Just Friends

SARAH DICKERSON & LIZ MCDONNELL

10 You Say You Want a Revolution

ELEANOR CRUMMÉ & NATASHA ROULE

12 Fighting Back!

Students for a Democratic Society stages a comeback.

An interview with the Wellesley chapter of Relay for Life.

a r t s EB BARTELS

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c u l t u r e

14 Larger Than Life

Jem Southam photos and Durer prints come to Wellesley.

AMI LI

16 Can I Be Your Love?

Talking with musician Rachael Yamagata.

r e g u l a r s /etc

CATHERINE H.S. LEE

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VICTORIA ROYAL

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STAFF

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SUB M IS SIO N S Counterpoint welcomes all submissions of articles and letters.

Email submissions to counterpoint@mit.edu. Counterpoint encourages cooperation between writers and editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length and clarity.

l i f e

Can guys and girls have strictly platonic relationships?

TR U S TE ES Matt Burns MIT ’05, Brian Dunagan MIT ’03, Minying Tan WC ’08, Vivi Vasudevan MIT ’07

How I Learned to Love the Bomb Why Iran should be allowed to continue its nuclear program.

S TA F F W R I T E R S E.B. Bartels WC ’10, Julie Camarda WC ’08, Veronica Cole WC ’09, Kristina Costa WC ’09, MaCherie Edwards WC ’11, Kara Hadge WC ’08, Ouqi Jiang MIT ’08, Marion Johnson WC ’09, Ami Li WC ’10, Jenny Kim ’08, Itamar Kimchi MIT ’08, Sarika Narula WC ’11, Edward Summers MIT ’08, Barrett Strickland MIT ’08

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Wellesley proposes eliminating orvernight infirmary services.

Agenda Events at MIT, Wellesley, and in Boston for the month.

The Automatic Cover-Letter Generator!

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Hazardous for our Health Administrators dodge student questions on proposal to close 24-hour infirmary

{ by catherine h.s. le e}

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leaked information in the original Community post. Disappointed and angry, students began organizing themselves to make the administration pay attention.

First, a group assembled a petition with over 1,100 student, parent and alumnae signatures. Then College Government announced that Interim Dean of Student Life Michelle Lepore would be at the next Senate meeting, along with Director of Residential and Campus Life Kris Niendorf and Vanessa Britto, Clinical Director at Health Services.

The room was at 90% capacity; accord-

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he controversial plan to close Wellesley’s overnight infirmary has developed into a bona fide scandal with news leaks, secrecy, petitions and our very own angry mob. Highlights of the plan were posted online on Community by a student who had heard about it from a House President who had left a meeting with the administration concerned about the proposal. Condemnation followed immediately after the news went public, as every student who participated in the online discussion made arguments in opposition. Unlike most

Education was substituted for actual care in many answers. You won’t get the flu if you know how to avoid it! We won’t have binge drinking if we tell everyone how bad it is!

Community firestorms, this wasn’t just entitled whining about nothing. Students described health problems that required immediate medical care such as severe asthma attacks. These students made the case that waiting for a ride to a hospital 15 minutes away would not suffice. The other main line of argument concerned the need to have a space for quarantine, as the odds of spreading contagious disease are high in our densely populated dorms.

It was a day before the administration replied. Their note addressed none of the student concerns and provided only a shade more information than the 4

on par with a pointless committee meeting on burnt popcorn in dorm kitchens.

A student asked what happens when someone exhausts her time for psychiatric care. All Dean Lepore said was that the hospital wouldn’t let a psychiatrically unstable person back on campus. The student rephrased the question to make it about cost: “If a psychiatrically unsound person found out they have to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills, is that really contributing to their improvement?”

Silence.

Silence was doled out equally with non-sequiturs.

Someone asked how this would change the Good Samaritan policy, whereby intoxicated students can receive medical attention without risk of trouble for underage drinking. “Good Samaritan only works if people are willing to take care of each other,” said Niendorf, explaining that folks who make Good Samaritan calls are generally intoxicated themselves and not thinking clearly, and that better education about alcohol use will be enough.

Education was substituted for actual care in many answers. You won’t get the flu if you know how to avoid it! We won’t have binge drinking if we tell everyone how bad it is! Many students muttered comments such as, “You can’t educate away a sprained ankle.” Perhaps Wellesley also means to have doctors hold classes on winter walking techniques.

Finally, a student asked if the Dean of Students office had any compunction about ignoring student opinion on matters that greatly affected the student body. There wasn’t a real answer, just nonsense about encouraging more dialogue between students and administrators.

If this plan has been in the works for two years as the administrators claimed, it’s shocking that the nuts and bolts – insurance, transportation, accountability – are still in the air. Then again, it’s no surprise that they’re giving the silent treatment to the most important things.

ing to the Parliamentarian, the speakers’ list had over 40 names on it when the first motion to extend time was made.

The administrators handed out a document saying that the proposal included free transportation to the hospital (but they had not worked out who would be driving us), payment by the College for three days of psychiatric hospitalization beyond your insurer’s allowance and longer hours for primary care appointments with more access to a nutritionist and health educators.

It was the Q&A session that infuriated students. Evasive answers were presented condescendingly, as if student health were

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Catherine H.S. Lee ’08 (clee@wellesley.edu) is buuying stock in Emergen-C.

Agenda CELEBRATIONS Boston: Sun 3/16. Parade steps off at 1:00 PM. Boston’s St. Patrick Day Parade Join the green-clad thousands who turn up annually for this celebration of IrishAmerican culture in South Boston. The parade will feature more than a dozen Pipe and Drum groups hailing from across the country, along with colorful floats and other spectacles. They’ll be plenty of green beer to go around. Free and open to the public.

Information/reservations: Call the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau at 888-SEE-BOSTON. More information available through the parade’s official website: http://www.southieparade. org/ South Boston: Parade route starts at Gillette Park, runs the length of Broadway and ends at Southampton Street in Andrew Square.

PERFORMANCES Boston: Thu 3/6 – Sun 3/9. Showtime on 3/6: 7pm. Showtime on 3/7: 8pm. Showtime on 3/8: 2pm and 8pm. Showtime on 3/9: 2pm and 7pm.

The Boston Ballet Presents Next Generation This show provides a unique opportunity for audiences to see the latest in innovative ballet choreography. Next Generation will be divided into four acts, each featuring dance created by a separate choreographer, creating a vibrant variety of dance, song and style. $20 Student rush, $45$110 Adult, $20 Children.

Information/reservations: Purchase student rush tickets w/a college ID at the Wang Theater Box Office (270 Tremont Street, Boston) two hours before the performance. Adult/Child tickets can also be purchased at the Box Office, online at http://www.telecharge.com/ or by phone

March 2008 at (800) 447-7400.

The Wang Center, 270 Tremont Street, Boston.

MIT: Fri 3/14. Show starts at 7:30pm.

Footwork 2008 Don’t miss this exciting collection of modern dance hosted by Mocha Moves and RiDonkulus, two of MIT’s finest dance ensembles. A dozen college and professional dance troupes from across New England bust out their best dance moves for one night only. Proceeds will benefit the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing the arts to inner-city youth. $7 presale tickets, $10 tickets at the door.

Information/Reservations: Purchase presale tickets at MIT’s Lobby 10 3/10 – 3/14, or reserve tickets through http:// web.mit.edu/ridonk/ and pick them up on 3/14 from 5pm-7pm. Call Tarikh Campbell at (617) 959-0379 for more information.

Morss Hall, Walker Memorial (Bldg 50).

LITERARY Wellesley: Tues 3/11. Lecture begins at 7:00 PM. “Social Justice: Within and Beyond Our Borders” Lecture with Harry Belafonte.

Harry Belafonte, an award winning actor, musician and social activist, gives a lecture on Social Justice in the United States and abroad. Balafonte, who has a vocal social advocate for civil rights, world poverty, and diplomatic foreign policy for the US, will provide a remarkable perspective on the current state of the world. Free and open to the public.

Information/Reservations: Email Paula Wagner at pwagner@wellesley.edu.

Tishman Commons.

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Wellesley: Thur 3/14. Lecture begins at 4:15 PM. Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwitz Professor Millecent Marcus, from Yale University’s Italian Department, visits Wellesley to discuss her new book Italian Cinema in the Shadow of Auschwitz. The lecture will profile the only recent trend in Italian cinema to depict the horrors of World War II, a topic the nation’s cinema has shunned for the previous five decades.

Professor Marcus explores the underlying cultural causes of the avoidance of World War II’s realities in Italian art. Free and open to the public.

Information/Reservations: Sergio Parussa at sparussa@wellesley.edu.

Pendleton West 212.

MIT: Tues 3/18. Lecture begins at 7pm.

The True Story of the MIT Blackjack Team

Online Calendars: https://calendar.wellesley.edu/ wv3public http://events.mit.edu Events listed here are subject to change. Readers are advised to check with organizers ahead of schedule.

Submitting an Event to Agenda: Send title, date, time, duration, location, brief synopsis, organizers/ sponsors, frequency of event (if applicable), contact information and admission and ticketing requirements to: cptevents@gmail.com Promotional pictures (of at least 200 dpi resolution) strongly encouraged but not required.

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A lecture with Mike Aponte and David Irvine, two members of the infamous MIT Blackjack team that used card counting to outsmart Las Vegas casinos out of millions.

The team’s extraordinary story has become fodder for both the New York Times Best Seller Bringing Down the House and the upcoming major motion picture 21.

Aponte and Irvine will discuss the art of card counting, their experiences as student card counters, and their lives after the team disbanded. Free and open to the public.

Information/reservations: Contact the MIT Lecture Series Committee at (617) 253-3791.

EXHIBITIONS Boston: Thur 3/6. Showtime at: 7:30pm.

Hearts and Minds at the Museum of Fine Arts This 1975 Oscar-winning documentary on the Vietnam War was an unflinchingly powerful portrayal of the Vietnam War and its disastrous consequences. The director of Hearts and Minds, Peter Davis, will be visiting the Museum of Fine Arts

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to show the film and lead a discussion about Heart and Minds’ relevance to our own society. $9 General admission, $8 MFA members, seniors, and students.

Information/reservations: Call (617)3693907 for ticket information.

The Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston Wellesley: Wed 3/19. Opening: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM. Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Durer and Titian The Davis Museum will host this world-class exhibit, featuring 16th century woodcuts, engravings and etchings from across Europe. While European printmakers in previous centuries were constrained in the size of their work by the crude technology of the day, advances in the printing technique in the 1500s allowed artists to create far larger and grander prints. These one of a kind works will be on display for both Wellesley and the public until June 8th.

Open to Public and Wellesley Students

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free of charge.

Information/reservations: Call (781) 2832051 or visit the Davis Museum webpage at www.wellesley.edu/DavisMuseum/index.html.

Chandler Gallery, Davis Museum.

MIT: Ongoing.

Flashes of Brillance: The Work of Harold Edgerton An exhibit paying homage to the legendary MIT Professor Harold “Doc” Edgerton. Edgerton’s invention of the electronic stroboscope revolutionized photography, allowing exceedingly fast, slow and dim images to be captured on film. His work, depicting children at play and hummingbirds in flight, among others, is a remarkably valuable addition to our understanding of the world and its beauty. $7.50 adults, $3 Students, Seniors and Youth under 18, Free for children under 5 and MIT students.

Information/Reservations: Send questions to MuseumInfo@mit.edu.

MIT Museum

How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb Iran and Nuclear Proliferation

{ by liz kim}

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ukes. Iran. World War III. What do those words have in common?

A lot according to our esteemed current president, who bluntly stated that a nuclear Iran would start a third world war.

Those are some scary words, but we’ve come to expect that from President Bush. What is more surprising are the posters scattered across campus by the Wellesley chapter of Hillel. Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s face is superimposed over an ominous red

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formation provided to us by the Executive Branch of our accountable and democratically elected government. Most people don’t know what the capital of Iran is or how their government functions or how recent historical events have shaped the direction of Iranian politics and public opinion. Well, the capital of Iran is Tehran; the government is a theocratic republic and the U.S. has a long and sordid history of interfering in Iranian internal affairs and failing miserably to

is it surprising that the Iranian government is distrustful of America?

Back to the present day. The current Supreme Leader is Ayatollah Ali Khameni, not to be confused with the first Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranian government has both a Supreme Leader and a President. The Supreme Leader is the highest religious and political authority in the country, and the President is the second highest political authority. Anyone who watches SNL knows that the President of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Enter the third force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council (IRGC). The Revolutionary Guard is an elite unit of the Iranian military, but it is also a powerful political force, whose presence informs the rhetoric and decisions made by both Ahmadinejad and Khameni. The IRG exists separately from the Iranian military and was established to protect the revolutionaries in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution,

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POLITICS

It’s much easier to divert people’s attention away from the fact that your government has wasted billions of dollars in oil revenue when you can point to the latest speech given by the American President declaring Iran as a part of the “axis of evil” and threatening to use military force.

mushroom cloud with “No Nukes in Iran” in large block letters, informing us that stopping a nuclear Iran is tied to stopping human rights abuses and defending Israel.

That our security is imperiled by this foreign enemy state possessing the same weapons that we ourselves refuse to disarm. What is it about a nuclear Iran that scares the heebie jeebies out of us? Is Iran any “worse” than the U.K., France, Israel or Russia? Is there something about the Iranian psyche that makes them more dangerous with nuclear weapons?

To answer these questions, you need to know more about Iran than just the sketches from SNL or the ever-so-dependable in-

engender good will. Hey, that sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it? Back to the four letter country that starts with an “I.” The Republic of Iran was founded in 1979 after a popular rebellion that overthrew the Shah-the same Shah who was put into power by the United States after we removed Prime Minister Mossadegh from power because he nationalized Iran’s oil reserves and we couldn’t let him threaten our oil security, let alone begin creating the social and political infrastructure necessary for a well functioning civil society and economy. The Iranian (also known as the Islamic) Revolution of 1979 brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power as the Supreme Leader. Given this history,

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and the IRGC is charged with protecting the goals and tenets of the revolution. So what does this history lesson have to do with whether or not Iran is going to precipitate a nuclear WWIII? More than most people would like to admit. Iranian leaders are not “terrorists” or irrational or stupid. They are well aware of the limits of saber-rattling and the risks involved with going toe to toe with the United States on a sensitive issue like nuclear weapons. What we often forget is that like any other government, Iran has two levels of political games to play: the international and the domestic.

Iranian leaders are constrained by domes7

tic political realities, such as an armed and organized Iranian Revolutionary Guard that could easily stage a coup and a stagnating economy.

Iranian leaders have taken advantage of American hypocrisy regarding the nuclear question, as well as our demonization of Iran. It’s much easier to divert people’s attention away from the fact that your government has wasted billions of dollars in oil revenue when you can point to the latest speech given by the American President declaring Iran as a part of the “axis of evil” and threatening to use military force. The threat of regime change makes nuclear weapons that much more appealing to the public and government of Iran. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad have to balance the conservatism of Islamic clerics and the IRGC with the more liberal wants of the people of Iran, the point being that Iranian leaders are fairly pragmatic and realistic in the foreign policy arena. Ideology may dominate in their rhetoric against Israel and the United States, but the actual decisions they make have been strategic and calculating (e.g., the recent surge in positive relations between Iran and Russia). Iran has also cooperated with the United States in providing Iraqi border security. The Iranian government wants to survive and wants to remain in power. So put away the apocalyptic stories of an Iranian first strike on the Israeli homeland or American cities; Iranians are hardly suicidal.

I ask again, what is it about the thought of a nuclear Iran that scares us so much? Are

we afraid that Iran will give nuclear weapons to terrorists? That’s highly unlikely given that the weapons would be under the control of the Revolutionary Guard and are a matter of national pride and security. There’s also the fact that if Iran had wanted to arm terrorists, they could have given them biological and chemical weapons – but chose not to. Will Iran wipe Israel off the map? Again, not likely, given that Iran is aware of Israeli second-strike capabilities and the Samsonoption (where Israel launches all of its nuclear weapons in a last ditch effort to stay on that map, thank you very much). Are we afraid that Iranian proliferation will spark a wave of proliferation across the Middle East? Well…Shouldn’t India and Pakistan have already done that? One could defend that nuclear proliferation is a good thing, and if you’re interested I highly recommend the works of Kenneth Waltz. Again, why are we so afraid? What drives our fear? Why do we assume that Iran is any less capable of having nuclear weapons than the other nine countries that do?

Maybe it’s because author and critic Edward Said wasn’t totally off the mark when he questioned our obsession with constructing the Orient as irrational and dangerous. Why is it ok for Russia to have nuclear weapons and not Iran? Is it really about whether or not democratic governments are more accountable? Russian authoritarianism has reached new heights but no one claims Russia will launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike for no good reason. Or is it because it might endanger Israel? Did it occur to anyone else

that maybe Iran wants nuclear weapons BECAUSE Israel has nuclear weapons? Perhaps it’s because we just don’t want any more nuclear weapons on the planet than we already have, you know, because they’re dangerous.

Perhaps, then, the United States should abide by its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations and begin the long process of disarming the stockpiles of weapons scattered across the globe. In the end, we’re just whining hypocrites. We want our friends to have the fun toys that we do, but not our enemies. We’re not afraid of Iran having nuclear weapons: we’re afraid of Iran. We’re afraid of confronting our own xenophobia and our underlying assumption that the Western world is more rational, trustworthy and worthwhile than any alternative.

To pre-empt the angry replies I will get to this article, I want to clarify that I am not arguing that a nuclear Iran would be a good idea (I am saving that article for next month), but rather that we need to think critically about the reasons why we’re so afraid of a nuclear Iran. Take ten minutes to read American media reports on Iranian nuclearization over the last few years and you’ll notice a slant that you didn’t want to notice before. Compare those American reports to other international news sources and see how different their account of Iranian politics is from our rather simplistic conception of an irrational Islamic republic whose sole purpose for existence is to eradicate the Israeli state. What gives America the moral authority to cherry pick who gets to have the bomb and who doesn’t?

I can already hear someone saying, “Well, Iran commits human rights abuses,” or, “Ahmadinejad said he’s going to erase Israel and that there are no gays in Iran!” But those are not arguments; they are ad-hominems that at best distract us from the central question of why we care about human rights abuses in Iran but not in Chechnya, and at worst reinforce our misconceptions about Iran. As for Ahmadinejad and his inflammatory statements? I have three words for you: George W. Bush.

Liz Kim ’09 (ekim3@wellesley.edu) once held an opponent’s wife’s hand in acid. At a party.

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CAMPUS LIFE

Just Friends If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, can they keep things platonic on Earth? { by jenny kim} “That’s not true!” my friend blurted out one night in my room. My two friends had spent most of the night chatting when the ever so timeless topic of platonic guy-girl relationships came up. It’s a classic When Harry Met Sally dilemma. Can a guy and a girl remain friends without developing feelings for each other?

And while the two friends stared at me for an answer, my friend’s statement got me thinking. Is it really impossible for a guy and a girl to remain just friends without a hint of attraction to each other? Hollywood certainly doesn’t seem to think so. After all, popular films such as My Best Friend’s Wedding, You’ve Got Mail, Keeping the Faith, and When Harry Met Sally all involve the two friends getting together at some point during the movie.

In response to the question, my first instinct was to say yes. After all, I, the naïve idealist, would like to believe that even in this sex-crazed world, the purity of friendship can remain untainted by romantic complications.

I decided to delve deeper into this matter not only for the sake of this article but also in an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity. I began this process by asking my close guy and girl friends for their opinions. The responses were diverse and interesting, to say the least. The overall consensus was that although platonic friendships are possible, in most cases, there is going to be one person who has a soft spot for the other. Charles Cho, UC- Davis ’09 sums it up nicely. “Ideally, it’s possible, but even in every good female-male relationship, I think it’s only natural for

one person to have some feelings for the other.”

Meanwhile, quite a number of Wellesley students, particularly the freshmen, firmly believed in the possibility of a friendship without any romantic strings attached. Some even related instances of being best friends with the opposite gender—and no, gay guy friends don’t count. My conclusion was that it was either the naïveté of the freshmen I interviewed or, according to Emily Betz, WC ’09, “not being attracted physically to their guy friends.”

But, then, how do you explain the phenomenon in which best friends become lovers? Most people interviewed for this article said that they could never date their best friend of the opposite sex simply because it’d feel like dating their sibling, to which I must wholeheartedly agree. However, it does happen. Incestuousness aside, the inevitable attraction seems to come from none other than the comfort factor.

After all, we humans are creatures of habit and find comfort in the familiar.

Among close friends, it’s only natural to let our guard down, revealing what we truly think and feel. Add in a little “sexual tension” as Mike Johnson, Colorado College ’05 puts it, and you get a recipe for a couple in the making.

While most of the respondents were optimistic in their response, some were quite the opposite. “The lust factor always kicks in,” said one Wellesley student who wishes to remain anonymous.

“For the guy or the girl, it’d require a lot of control, which most people don’t have. There’s no such thing as sexless

friendship.”

Does this mean that most platonic friendships are doomed and that we females should surround ourselves with gay guy friends? My Korean grandmother certainly thinks so. According to her, a man and a woman, if left alone, will ultimately become romantically involved regardless of the platonic nature of the friendship. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take, for instance, my good friend Tim. Over the summer, he and I decided to take a trip to Beijing for a few days. Going on a trip with a guy would’ve been considered scandalous my grandmother. After all, this is the Confucian-Orthodox lady who firmly believes that I should have only supervised contact with the opposite sex, and who certainly does not believe that guy-girl friendships are possible. According to her, traveling with a guy would mean I would be losing more than just my money…

I can, however, say that the only action we got was trekking across the great plaza of Tiananmen Square. And while we took pictures, ate Sichuan food, observed the early-morning taichi sessions and spent close to half the day on a cramped bus amidst old Asian men, I did not think of him as anything more than a friend—a comfortable guy comrade who is like a brother to me.

So while the trip did not culminate in the way my grandmother had feared, it did bring us closer together as friends.

So what is my conclusion? I believe that, yes, it is possible for two friends to maintain a platonic relationship without things turning sour. It just takes a certain amount of control on the part of both parties and an honest understanding of the nature of the friendship early on. At least, that’s what I’ll tell my two friends the next time they question their male friends’ motives.

Jenny Kim ‘08 (jkim8@wellesley.edu) is secretly in love with her best friend.

CAMPUS LIFE

You Say You Want a Revolution The reincarnation of SDS on the college campus

{ by sarah dickerson & elizabeth mcdonnell}

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a new financial aid policy for the university. We grabbed signs of protest, dropped banners, handed out leaflets and started jamming in a mini-band using makeshift drums made of empty barrels. We marched around the campus in support of accessible education, chanting, “Our education…will not be run by a corporation, that’s bullshit!

Get off it! This school is for profit!”

It didn’t matter that we weren’t Brown students; solidarity is exactly what SDS is all about. Amusingly, members of the Board came one by one

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processes to the Academic Council’s decision-making body in the midst of the Wellesley College grading policy review. Without taking a stance on the policy itself, we argued that students have a right to participate in the decisions that affect them, and as subjects of an anti-inflation experiment at this school, certainly have a right to some authority in this case, as we are affected by the policy and by the outcome of its review by faculty and administration.

As it stands, there are two students who hold positions on this commit-

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lmost a year has passed since Wellesley started its own chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, which as a national organization has grown to thousands of members over the last two years. Like the SDS of the 1960s, we are united by a common vision of society as participatory and egalitarian, and SDSers across the country have organized direct actions around campaigns as varied as anti-war, anti-gentrification, accessible education and anti-oppression. Here, you will find no hierarchy, as SDS is an organization in which you will never hold a position of power (there aren’t any). In fact, SDS is something you probably cannot write down on your resume, and something you could get in trouble for (at your discretion).

Needless to say, we are not recognized as a constituted organization by College Government (and kind of like it that way). Although not the typical WC Student Organization, the coalition-building between SDS and other social justice organizations on campus is critical to reaching our final goal – a thriving culture of student empowerment.

On February 23 and 24, SDS chapters from across New England met for the N.E. Action Convergence, a two day-long conference on political action organized entirely by students from regional participating schools and hosted by Brown SDS. The weekend started off with a bang (literally). We met Brown SDS and other participating chapters at Brown just in time for the Board meeting that would vote on

Amusingly, members of the Board came one by one to the window to look down at our rally as we sang into a megaphone, “We know you see us, we know you see us, it’s like damn, man we just want some--of that free--education.”

to the window to look down at our rally as we sang into a megaphone, “We know you see us, we know you see us, it’s like damn, man we just want some-of that free--education.” The Board sent a messenger to say that they would “reflect” on the delivered petition, but they “had a full agenda.” We circled the building several more times and moved inside to begin the workshops, chapter-report backs and campaign planning that would fill the rest of the weekend. As each chapter successively reported their recent victories and future goals, my palms got sweaty.

What were we supposed to say?

Last semester, Wellesley SDS focused its efforts on bringing democratic

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tee, whose power is granted directly by the committee itself, and who report to the committee. At an Academic Council meeting, we questioned the authority of any representation that is legitimated by and reports to the committee on which it sits, rather than receiving power from the students and by extension reporting back to the students. How can this be truly representative? To our great frustration, student response to our public statement opposing the grading policy, posted to the online forum “Community,” can be described as no less than violent.

What was once a uniting issue among students suddenly drew heated debate, and students began arguing, essential-

ly, that they did not want a say in the decisions that affect them. Even members of the faculty suggested that students would not make a well-informed decision, and thus should be barred from making one at all. Nevertheless, the bulk of our support came from the faculty, and the bulk of our derision, from the students. How could we be so impudent to suggest that we have rights and, further, to offer a vehicle for demanding and reclaiming them? I was baffled and horrified, and frankly, lost a little faith in humanity that day.

During report backs, we had to stand up and say that filling our SDS meetings with enthusiastic activists and organizers was like pulling teeth.

By contrast, the Harvard, Brandeis and Boston College chapters have been successfully working on CORI reform (the Criminal Offender Record Database), and on the expansion of Harvard into Allston as part of an anti-gentrification campaign. Brown students have started one of the first (of course, unrecognized) undergraduate private student unions in the country, which have historically been ruled illegal by the courts but which serve as an important vehicle for directly drawing authority from the students, not from the committees on which they sit.

Finally, and perhaps the most universal SDS campaign to date, is the Iraq Moratorium, adopted by representatives from chapters across the coun-

try at the National SDS Convention in Detroit in July 2007. Iraq Moratorium is a day of action on the third Friday of every month, with escalating actions until the war is over. Wellesley’s first Iraq Moratorium will be held this March, on the fifth anniversary of the war. M20, as we call the campaign, will be led by chapters across the country hosting direct actions to protest not only the Iraq war, but its perpetuation by their institutions, which are supported by, and inversely support, the military-industrial complex through military research, recruiters and much more. Wellesley SDS will be hosting discussions about the war as well as a rally and march, during which students will have a chance to sign the National Registry for Conscientious Objection.

A student-led workshop that focused on the concept of accountability followed report backs. One particular phrase in the definition of accountability was especially controversial: People who are in a community which oppresses another community must be willing to take guidance and receive feedback from the people and communities that have been traditionally and historically oppressed. People who are in a community which oppresses another community need to work within their own community first. I discussed this at length with an eloquent and intelligent Brown student whose perspective was necessarily influenced by her

background as an African American working-class woman from Harlem.

She explained that this clause applied to organizations such as the “Third World Center” (TWC) at Brown University, created by and for people of color. She described the tension between white students who wanted to be involved with the Center and people of color who were active members of the Third World Center but who preferred it remain closed to develop its role as a support group for themselves.

Although this concept was foreign to me, she patiently talked me through its necessity: “The TWC is about empowering this group of people of color.

I’m not distancing myself from white people, it’s more like I’ve been alienated and this is the place I’ve found. If white people want to bridge the gap, they need to create their own organizations for people of color based on their own white privilege.” Finally, I understand; How do you build an open-space coalition that doesn’t have to be one way or the other (segregated either culturally or politically)? Can it be SDS? As the day trickled on, student speakers, community organizers, and lawyers talked about immigration rights, organizing and campaign strategy. Throughout the weekend, the bonds we developed as a group of organizers across New England grew tighter. We will surely meet again for M20 actions, for the Northeast SDS Conference held in Boston in April, or at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions later this year.

So what did we top-off this intense, powerful, impassioned, unremitting, uninterrupted 24-hour long political weekend with? A dance party. After all, we’re just college students.

Sarah Dickerson ’10 (sdickers@wellesley.edu) and Liz McDonnell ’09 (emcdonne@wellesley. edu) prefer quiet nights in with their knitting and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

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11

CAMPUS LIFE

Fighting back Relay for Life works to beat cancer

{ by eleanor crumme & natasha roule}

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ancer is characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. Therefore, to fight cancer we must become our own “cancer” – an uncontrolled, raging but enthusiastic growth of education, advocacy, research and service. And what better place to spread our own cancer than in the college town, inundated with brilliant, young minds capable of finding a cure.

For the first time, Wellesley College has formed a planning committee for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life All University, an all-night event that will

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be held at Harvard’s Gordon Track from April 11 to April 12. Relay For Life, held all night to symbolize the fact that cancer never sleeps, is a time to remember those lost to cancer and to celebrate those who have survived it. Last year’s Relay For Life had almost 100 teams participate; teams averaged about ten members each. Teams are expected to have one member on the track at all times. In 2006 Relay For Life All University teams raised $149,000 for the American Cancer Society.

The actual Relay For Life event is intended to remember those lost and cele-

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brate survivors and the cause of fighting cancer, with special moments like a survivors lap, several speeches from cancer survivors and various games, activities and music. At this year’s event, MIT students will be primarily responsible for activities and entertainment for team members and off the track to enjoy during the night. However, all schools are working together to provide food and prizes to be auctioned at the event. Working together on the two-day event’s theme, “Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back,” are Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern and Wellesley. Wellesley’s committee is specifically in charge of the recently-developed “Fight Back” ceremony. The “Fight Back” ceremony, which occurs at the end of the Relay event, encourages participants to make specific pledges to fight cancer in the upcoming year, such as quitting smoking, doing Relay again and eating more healthily.

In its inaugural year the Wellesley committee has found that fighting cancer creates a sense of purpose and community support.

Unfortunately, it is the one disease to which nearly everyone can connect. Working to fight it helps us remember those who have lost their battles with cancer; gives hope to those who live with it; and educates others on how to minimize their risk of developing it. Relay For Life provides an outlet to work towards maximum levels of cancer prevention in America and, eventually, a worldwide cure. These are the broad motivations of the Wellesley Relay Committee. Several committee members offered personal motivations that also inspired them to get involved with Relay.

The Wellesley College community has the chance this year to touch an international group of people. As Sonrisa Cooper, 18, Team Development Chair, says, “Relay is an incredibly uplifting experience. It makes me feel like there is hope. I love Relay.” Not only does it give hope to those who are suffering from cancer, but it rewards every individual who participates in the ceremony….Cancer affects people from all walks of life, and Relay is one of the most effective ways to make an impact.”

If you would like to join a Wellesley Relay For Life team or make a donation, please contact Eleanor Crummé at ecrumme@ wellesley.edu or sign up at http://main.acsevents.org/rflMAALLUniversity.

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he father of first year Hannah Kenary, 20, Survivorship Chair, lost his personal battle with cancer last year. Undaunted after spending a gap year caring for her father, Hannah is fighting back.

When and why did you decide to join Relay?

Last year my father passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. Relay is my way of remembering him and carrying on the fight for a cure. I also think that Relay is a way of sharing support and hope.

How would you describe your Relay experience thus far?

Relay has been a great way for me to meet new people and connect with them outside of the classroom.

I have fun working with the Wellesley RFL team and am excited to meet other students from Wellesley and other schools who are involved in Relay.

For whom are you Relaying?

I am Relaying for my dad. I plan on buying a Luminaria Bag [Anyone can purchase a Luminaria bag for $5 from the Wellesley Relay For Life committee to be inflammably lit during the commemorative Luminaria and placed along the track to represent a loved one lost to cancer during the commemorative Luminaria ceremony; the bags can are normally decorated by the purchaser.] so that I can remember him with every lap that I take. I am also Relaying for anybody who has been affected by cancer. I believe that a cure is waiting to be discovered, and Relay is one way for me to help in the effort.

How do you hope your Relay experience will support those you know who have cancer?

I hope that my Relay experience will show others that they are not alone in their fight against cancer. There are so many people who care about the patients, family, friends and medical staff who are dealing with the realities of cancer every day.

Why is Relay is important?

Cancer affects many people in America and throughout the world. Relay is a way

to show that you support all of the people who are facing or have faced cancer and its harsh realities. We students are the future and it is up to us to do all we can to fight cancer together.

would be great to have a lot of Wellesley support. I hope that people will remember those whom they have lost and will feel as if they have done something to help others and get hope for the future.

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irst year Eleanor Crummé, 19, Event Chair, a cancer survivor who underwent treatment from ages two to 10, feels equally strong about the event.

When did you join Relay? Why did you decide to start a planning committee at Wellesley?

I first joined a Relay team as a sophomore in high school at Oregon State Relay. This is the first year that I have participated in the planning component. I wanted to continue Relaying in college, and upon investigating which Relay For Life I could get involved in, I realized that there was no Relay accessible for Wellesley students. So, I decided to bring the Wellesley Community into the event with me; I knew that a lot of people would want to get involved if they could.

How does your personal experience with cancer contribute to your role as an event chair?

Being so heavily involved in cancer support groups and activities has made me truly appreciate the fact that I spent most of my childhood as a cancer patient. Previously, I never really thought about it, or the impact it must have had on my mom and sister, but now I am realizing how much they went through and what experiences cancer can bring to any group of people.

I now have a better appreciation for support systems, and I realize that this is a great way to create support systems for others. I feel that a lot of people don’t know how to deal with cancer, so it’s good to have an institutionalized way of helping people. I also want to help survivors commemorate their experiences, because cancer is something that has an extensive impact on a person’s life.

What do you hope participants will take away from this year’s event? What is so special about Relay?

irst Year Natasha Roule, 18, Public Relations Chair, joined Relay for the first time this year.

How did you get involved in Relay?

I heard about the event from Eleanor and thought it would be fun to get involved in something new. I like getting the experience of working with a planning committee, and I think that volunteering with the ACS is a great way to give back to everyone whose lives have been affected by cancer.

How has Relay changed your perspective on issues related to cancer?

When I first joined Relay I didn’t think that cancer had really touched my life; I thought Relay would be like any other service activity. However, after a close family friend died of cancer last December, I suddenly realized that cancer actually has impacted my life; two of my cousins have suffered from brain tumors and my greatgrandmother was just diagnosed with a form of skin cancer. Cancer is a pressing issue in everyone’s lives, but I’m happy to realize that there is a very large network of people working to fight it.

How has the Wellesley community responded to your public relations initiatives?

So far there has not been a ton of support and interest in the Wellesley community. It is difficult to get people at Wellesley interested in something so new. The students are already so involved in classes and other activities and it’s difficult to unite a significant portion of the community behind one cause.

For more information about Relay for Life, contact Eleanor Crummé ’11 (ecrumme@ wellesley.edu) and Natasha Roule ’11 (eroule@wellesley.edu). It should be noted that they both put the bop in the bop-shubop-shu-bop.

I hope that a lot of people participate; it

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13

A R T S & C U LT U R E

Larger Than Life Art on a Grand Scale in two new exhibits at the Davis Museum { by e.b. bartels}

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he Davis Museum and Cultural Center had an exciting fall reopening after a year of construction, and the exhibits opening this spring only increase in energy and enthusiasm. Just because the controversial Global Feminisms exhibit is no longer installed, that does not mean that things at the Davis have quieted down. It seems things may never return to normal at the new and improved DMCC, as each new exhibit opening has more and more excitement surrounding it.

On Wednesday, March 19, two new exhibits will open at the Davis, both running through June 8. Jem Southam: Upton Pyne, an exhibit of color photographs taken of one pond over the course of six years by British photographer Jem Southam, will open on the second floor, just downstairs from phase one of the reinstalled permanent collection.

Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian will be on the ground floor in the major rotating exhibit hall.

The photographs in Jem Southam: Upton Pyne were first presented in the fall at the Yale Center for British Art and last spring at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, and they now come to Wellesley’s Davis Museum already established as masterpieces in the study of the relationship between man and nature. The pond that is the subject of Southam’s three-part series was on the site of an eighteenth-century manganese mine. “Over the years the pond itself had become a dumping ground, full of discarded washing machines, cars, garden and farmyard waste and fall trees,” described Southam in his artist statement.

“I became fascinated by this eyesore in the middle of a small agricultural and dormitory village,” continued Southam, 14

“It challenged the notion of what a village pond should really look like.”

Dabney Hailey, Linda Wyatt Gruber ’66 Curator of Painting, Sculpture and Photography, who curated Upton Pyne, described the large-sized photographs in the exhibit as “deceptively simple.” Each photograph is packed with immense detail due to the medium format camera Southam used to make the image, and each detail reveals part of a story of the life of this little pond and the people who tried to save it, tame it or ruin it. “This work fits well into concerns about the environment, especially ones we have here at Wellesley,” said Hailey. “You can find these resonate [with] stories in your own backyard.”

The Davis Museum felt these images spoke so strongly about issues at Wellesley College that two of the pieces in the show, July 1996 and March 2000, were purchased for part of the permanent collection. One of Hailey’s favorite pieces in the exhibit is March 2000, because of how strongly it reflects John Frederick Kensett’s Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway (1851) in the permanent

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collection. The Upton Pyne exhibit is also especially exciting for the Davis because it continues their newly reborn mission to involve more members of the Wellesley community who are not part of the art department. Southam is really more than just a photographer. He is slow and observant. Hailey said that Southam “will go for a six hour walk and take one picture, that’s how careful he is.” In this way, he is very much an environmentalist and observer of the natural world, and, as Southam stated himself, “Pictures also contain many other layers of history, and running as threads through the work are myths and stories that pervade our imaginations and motivate so many of our actions.” It is with this attitude that Wellesley’s Environmental Science department and the Wellesley Energy and Environmental Defense (WEED) will be hosting a walk across campus with Southam to talk about how he personally observes, enjoys and appreciates nature. Perhaps such an exhibit will promote more discussion and action about environmental issues on the Wellesley College campus.

The second upcoming exhibit, Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian, has been a grand project in the making for quite some time. When Elizabeth Wyckoff, Assistant Director and Curator of Prints and Drawings and the curator of Grand Scale, arrived at the DMCC three and a half years ago, this project was already waiting for her. The images in Grand Scale are large-scale prints from Renaissance Europe, ranging in type and materials in basically every avail-

upcoming events Tuesday, March 18: Lecture by Jem Southam. Presented as part of Art Department Professor Patricia Berman’s History of Photography class. 11:10 am - 12:20pm. Collins Cinema. Open to the public.

March 19, Wednesday: Walk and Talk with Jem Southam. Walk across campus with Jem Southam followed by hot drinks at the Wang Center.

1:00 – 3:00 pm. Walk begins at the Davis Museum lobby. Open to interested students.

Photo courtesy of the Davis Museum

Southam’s July 1996 is a new addition to the DMCC collection. able printing medium in the sixteenth century. What the exhibit really focuses on is the massive size of such prints and the extensive amount of work put into creating them. The largest piece in the exhibit is Albrecht Dürer’s The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I (1515), a print made from almost 200 printing blocks that arrived at the DMCC from the New York Public Library in 44 pieces and took a full week to assemble. What Wyckoff really wants viewers to take away from the exhibit, though, is “the sense of what these prints were made for and how they were used.” The Triumphal Arch of Maximilian I was used as political propaganda, while other prints were used for scientific, artistic and even decorative purposes ranging from murals and wallpaper to being pasted on bed frames.

Prints were an exciting phenomenon in their time as they made art more accessible; one may not have been able to afford a mural painted by Dürer in one’s house, but one could afford a copy of a print of his. Despite the ability of prints to be reproduced, because the prints represented in Grand Scale were so popular at the time and so used, the majority of them have dissolved into dust.

It was only through luck that some cautious collectors decided to preserve their prints in albums, protecting them so we can view

them at the Davis this spring. “Because these prints were put to use in the sixteenth century, they deteriorated or were destroyed after use, and are therefore rare today. Grand Scale presents an unusual opportunity to see them all together,” said Wyckoff. The last show of this nature was in 1976 in Germany, making Grand Scale, which will travel on afterwards to the Yale University Art Gallery and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a new and unique creation of the Davis Museum.

The excitement surrounding these two upcoming exhibits was evident in everyone I talked to at the Davis. Between the energy of an exhibit incorporating non-art departments and organizations on campus and a brand new exhibit, a creation of the Davis itself, finally coming together after so many years of effort, spring at the DMCC promises to be just as exciting as the fall was, if not more so.

At this rate, I cannot even imagine what they have in store at the Davis for the upcoming fall to complement the opening of phase two of the reinstallation of the permanent collection. Whatever is planned, I am certain, promises to be exciting and full of energy.

EB Bartels ’10 (ebartels@wellesley.edu) goes by Margot Tenenbaum on the weekends.

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March 19, Wednesday: Opening Reception for Jem Southam: Upton Pyne and Grand Scale. 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Davis Museum. Open to the public.

March 20 Thursday: Grand Scale: Symposium. Speakers from the U.S., Canada and Europe will expand on the new perspectives provided in the Grand Scale catalogue on oversize prints and initiate the next generation of research.

Eva Allan, Yale University; Michael Bury, University of Edinburgh; Tom Conley, Harvard University; Christopher Heuer, Princeton University; Louis Marchesano, Getty Research Institute; Thomas Schauerte, Universität Trier; Ashley West, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Bronwen Wilson, University of British Columbia. The symposium is free and open to all but as space is limited, registration is required.

9:30am – 5:30 pm. Collins Cinema.

Visit the Davis Museum web site to register at www.davismuseum. wellesley.edu.

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A R T S & C U LT U R E

Can I Be Your love?

An interview with Rachael Yamagata { by ami li}

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achael Yamagata is an acclaimed Japanese-American singer-songwriter. She started out her career in Chicago while a student at Northwestern University, as the lead singer for the funk-fusion band Bumpus. She left the band in 2001 to pursue a solo career, releasing a self-titled EP in 2003 and her full-length album, Happenstance, in 2004.

She has collaborated with Rhett Miller, Ryan Adams, Jason Mraz and Ray LaMontagne. She sang backup on six tracks of Bright Eyes’ 2007 release, Cassadaga. Her songs have appeared in movies including Elizabethtown, Prime, In Her Shoes and The Last Kiss and televsion shows such as One Tree Hill, E.R., Nip/Tuck, and The O.C. In February, for Asian Awareness Month, the Wellesley Asian Alliance brought her to play a show at the College.

I had the privilege to sit down for a phone interview with her before the show.

What can we expect from the new album?

New album, oh god. It’s a bit darker than the first one. There are two sides to it.

There are these beautiful, lush, cinematic songs on it, and then there’s this new grittier rock element that I’ve developed through touring and some more guitardriven melodies. I think we’re going to try to split it into a side A and side B since the two halves are so different. Some of the stuff I’ve played live before, so I think it will be like trying to capture the spontaneous live energy on record. There’s more guitar on this record but the same dark, beautiful ballads as well.

Do you have a specific date for the release yet?

It’s going to be a May release. We haven’t 16

nailed down a specific day yet, but definitely hoping for a release in May. How do you feel like you’ve grown, musically or otherwise, between the records?

Lyrically, my writing has become more poetic.

There will be more metaphors and subtext. It takes more risks in terms of instrumentation.

We weren’t afraid to go into the areas that could harken to the musical stylings of Tom Waits or Nick Cave or PJ Harvey.

What has been your favorite non-musical experience or endeavour recently?

Good question! I traveled to the Dominican Republic for a month, got back into crazy horseback riding—no safety precautions taken there at all. I rode down there and explored and did everything for myself. This sounds really creepy, but I just did kite flying and horseback riding and scooter driving and exploring the towns and running on the beaches. I guess that’s been my favorite experience, just taking my own solo adventure to a place I had no insight on; learning Spanish and I popped my right eardrum in a diving experiment…Does that count?

Now, kind of going off that island paradise you had the privilege to experience, what would be your desert island all-time top five in CDs, records, any sort of auditory media?

Roberta Flack, First Take; Jeff Buckley, Grace; anything from the Stevie Wonder catalog; Joni Mitchell, Blue; Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars.

Those are definitely some solid choices for an eternity spent with the coconut palms and sea turtles. Now, time

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for more favorites, and I apologize for making you make more decisions! But, some recent “favorites?” Favorite film, favorite new release, favorite anything at all, really.

I loved The Departed. Favorite new release of music… Shelby Lynne’s new covers record of Dusty Springfield songs, yeah, put that on there, she needs the press…

Now, speaking of movies, your songs have been featured in a wide swath of movies and movie soundtracks. Did you have a particular movie in which you felt like your music or that song really fit?

Yes. This is a cop out in a way because it’s a cover. I did this cover of “I Wish You Love” for this movie Prime, and I thought even though it was just at the end of the film, it was during this really sentimental scene, and I just loved the placement of it.

I got a lot of fan response to it, which to me shows that even with it being a cover, it still had the same kind of power.

In the same vein, if you could cover any song, what would it be? Something that you haven’t covered that you really want to.

I’m always in search of a good cover song….

[A]t the Philly show, I announced that I would be covering “Freedom” by George Michael soon, and I was dying to do it because I knew it could be amazing. Of course, two weeks later I turn on the TV and Alicia Keys is covering “Freedom” at some awards show or other. I was completely pissed off.

She did a great job of it, though. Now I’ll have to pick a new George Michael song.

Or maybe I won’t, since he’s in that new TV show [Eli Stone ] and all overexposed and everything. It’s on after Lost, that why I watched it… Oh, wait, I thought of one.

Roberta Flack has this song called “Ballad of a Sad Young Man” that’s insanely beautiful.

I’ve always wanted to cover that. You can put that one down.

You’ve collaborated with many musicians in the past. Who would you like to work with in the future?

I would love to do something with Elton

At left, Rachael Yamagata jams on her keyboard in Tishman Commons; at right, Yamagata with her band.

John—he’s amazing. I would love to do something with Emmylou Harris, I think that would be really cool. In a weird way, I would love to do something with Timbaland. Let’s see… I did a little work with Ryan Adams but we’ve never like, written a song together, that would be cool. He’s a great writer.

Staff Photos / Ami Li ’10

Sounds like a pretty sweet list. I definitely think you should be giving Timbaland a call in the near future, a lot of people would probably be really into that.

Oh yeah, and I always kind of wanted to work with Danny Elfman, too. I think he’s a great producer.

What was the last book you read? Did you like it? If you didn’t, what was the last book you both read and liked?

[Laughs] My reading is all over the place.

I just finished a book about Darfur, which was terrible, of course. Of course, the book wasn’t terrible, but what is going on there definitely is. Right now I’m reading one of those Suze Orman books, something like “Women and Money” which is helpful mainly because I have no money.

I’m in the middle of A New Earth, which is that book that Oprah’s been touting.

I like the metaphysical books, like the ones about how to approach life and stuff like that. I’m fascinated by business and money but I think I’m only in that stage because I’m broke now and I’m trying to figure out ways to not be broke anymore.

So, somewhere between trying to manage my finances and be a better person and fulfill my universal destiny, that’s where I am right now.

That, my friend, is a good middle ground to settle for. So, where are your favorite places to be on tour? Do you have a favorite city or venue or memorable incident from a particular show?

Japan. I loved playing Japan. I loved playing France. They are probably my favorite international locations. In terms of the U.S., I love Seattle; I love New Orleans.

Chicago and Philadelphia are home. New York’s always very exciting but equally anxiety-ridden. There’s no space to just breathe in New York, that’s the only thing. It’s amazing in terms of excitement and vibrancy and all of those things, but it’s either really inspiring or incredibly exhausting, kind of both at the same time.

I lived there for a little while and I just needed to crawl away into a hole whenever I could get away.

All right, last question. During interviews, what is a question that you hoped the interviewer would ask but that he or she never did? Would you like to answer this perpetually unasked-question?

Yes, yes I would. That’s a good question!

Usually I hated to be asked anything so I don’t know if there is anything I would want to be asked. How about this: do you feel like you can contribute to alleviating heartache with your music? Because everyone always

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asks me if I’m really depressed, since I tend to write depressing, darker songs, but everyone’s always asking me, if I’m that depressing in person, and I always like to look at the positive side of life. I met this girl last night who was a fan who told me that my music had helped her a lot. It’d be nice to be asked once in a while, if my going into this stuff actually has a positive effect, and I’d say, yes, it does.

I suppose this is a good a time as any for a best friend anecdote… My best friend goes to Northwestern [coincidentally, Yamagata’s alma mater] and when she was going through a bad patch a couple of years ago she listened to “Be Be Your Love” pretty much on repeat for a solid month, and your song did have a very cathartic effect on her. So know that your music can and does have a positive effect on your listeners!

Thank god. I just don’t want to be spreading misery in the world [laughs].

Well, thank you very much for the interview. We’ll make sure to make it to the show at Wellesley this Friday, the 29th.

Even though it sounds like I covered this with the last question, is there anything else you’d like to say?

Hmm… the boys in the band are for sale to the highest bidder, how about that?

Ami Li ‘10 (ali@wellesley.edu) is i-l-l-i-n-o-i-s.

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