NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
washington square news Vol. 40, No. 21
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012
nyunews.com
Jewish community acquires new site
NYU celebrates first spirit week
By Julie DeVito
By Nicole Gartside
Students will be able to participate in 100 hours of NYU-themed fun this year. The Student Senators Council, the 1831 Fund and the Inter-Resience Hall Council are partnering for NYU’s first-ever spirit week, the Violet 100. “We wanted to create the Violet 100 in an effort to respond to student call for programming similar to that which exists on more traditional campuses,” IRHC president Olivia Baackes said. Violet 100 kicks off with Ultra Violet Live, the annual university-wide talent competition that is sponsored by IRHC. It will take place tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Friday at 4 p.m. is the All-University Games, in which undergraduate and graduate schools within NYU compete against one another. “We always have the All-University Games around this time of year,” said Mariam Ehari, external
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Rachel Kaplan/WSN
Men’s volleyball team remains undefeated in the UVC after their victory last night.
Alum’s serendipitous film receives Oscar nomination
By Nicola Pring
When Andrew Bowler began writing the script for a short film, he never imagined it would land him on
the red carpet. Bowler, a graduate of the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts, worked as a television pro-
courtesy of Sebastian Piras
A lucky idea turns “Time Freak” into Oscar nomination.
ducer on reality and cooking shows for several years before beginning his film, “Time Freak.” Working on set for an NBC reality show called “Home Delivery,” Bowler met his wife Gigi Causey, who would later produce “Time Freak.” Bowler and his wife liked working in television but always knew they wanted to transition to film. “[Television] was fine, but it wasn’t where our hearts were,” Bowler said. The idea for “Time Freak,” a comedy about time travel gone wrong, came from a joke Bowler had shared with
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Every Friday night, several hundred students flock to Chabad at NYU, a Jewish organization. Up until now, it has occupied only a small room on the corner of Washington Square North. Within the next few weeks, the NYU Jewish community will have a new space to call home: a newly constructed 8,000-square-foot building on the Bowery. “Chabad on campus is a massive, growing institution,” said Rabbi Don Yavah Korn, director of Chabad at NYU. “We were creating Jewish life in the area, and we realized that at NYU there is just so much more to be done. I want to create a Jewish future that’s exciting and vibrant and not typical. Something that has spice and flavor to it.” Korn said it will take Chabad to a whole new level. It will enable the organization to have a kitchen, offices and a library for learning, lecture and
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Apatow’s ‘Wanderlust’ traveling to success By Cole Riley
There’s something about Judd Apatow’s unmistakable touch that turns most of his projects into gold. His latest film “Wanderlust,” which he produced, is a prime example. A plotless, joke-driven comedy starring Apatow’s go-to likable male lead Paul Rudd — along with Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux — “Wanderlust” remains consistently hilarious and endearing. Writer-director David Wain (“Role Models”) centers his plot on New York City couple George and Linda (Rudd and Aniston) after George loses his job. The two are forced to move out of the city and down to Atlanta to live with George’s over-the-top, wildly successful brother Rick (Ken Marino). On their travels south, they make a pit stop at Elysium, a hippie commune that is
part nudist colony — as evidenced by resident Wayne’s (Joe Lo Tuglio) ever present genitalia — and part joyful bohemia where free love, hallucinogens and sharing rule. Displaced from their high tech New York lifestyles, George and Linda fall in love with Elysium’s laid-back community and move in permanently, joining other residents including Seth (Theroux), who is the apparent leader and chief free spirit of the settlement. With this stale premise, audiences may expect an overdrawn and dull film similar to Apatow’s past flops like “Funny People,” but “Wanderlust” takes a unique path. Rudd, Aniston and Theroux take an improvisational approach, crafting natural dialogue and countless hilarious scenes.
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