NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 40, No. 18
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
nyunews.com
New attraction for Staten Island
Liquor scandal spurs ban in Prague By SAMI WONG
PRAGUE — On Sept. 12, after 16 alcohol-related deaths, the Czech Republic banned street vendors from selling hard alcohol. The liquor responsible for these deaths was apparently tainted with industrial methanol, and the company labels on the tampered bottles appear to have been forged. However, the number of victims kept climbing despite the ban. There is now a total of 27 deaths with many others hospitalized and some blind. The ban has since been partially lifted. The ban specifically prohibits the sale of all beverages with a 20 percent or higher alcohol content by street vendors and stall owners. Hypermarkets like Tesco have also been forced to suspend their sale of alcohol until further notice. Bars and restaurants are already
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By BENNETT WATANABE
RACHEL KAPLAN/WSN
Macy’s reveals newest space of its four-year makeover Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square recently debuted a reconstructed shoe floor and accompanying cafe area. The reconstruction will add 100,000 square feet to the store by the scheduled completion date.
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Mountain Goats reach great heights with latest album
By JASON BOXER
The Mountain Goats’ newest album, “Transcendental Youth,” doesn’t come off as a grand experiment. Every song is pretty much what you would expect: minimally produced, narrative-heavy and decorated by John Darnielle’s flowery lyrics. But even after 21 years and 13 albums, “Transcendental Youth” doesn’t feel stale or sluggish. It is simply too lively to rub you the wrong way. The song “Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1” delivers some delightful sincerity right out of the gate. The song starts with a big smile and a clicking tambourine, and before long, Darnielle’s starry-eyed words have picked up right where they left off in the last album: “People might laugh at your tattoos/ When they do get new ones in completely garish hues.” For every upbeat Mountain Goats action, however, there must be an equal and opposite reaction. Cue track number two, “Lakeside View Apartments Suite.” Darnielle’s gloomy piano
chords carry each verse without a sophisticated rhythm or chord progression, leaving room for the lyrics to paint the image of a nostalgic look back at a used-tobe hometown. “Transcendental Youth” does hit a rough patch with three negligible songs in the middle of the album. The shortcomings of “Night Light,” for example, can be traced to its percussion line. Darnielle tiptoes on his snare drum for almost all four minutes, depriving the song of any release. The song is motionless, and it takes a few effortful listens to even recall how it sounds. The payoff finally comes with “The Diaz Brothers.” This song, like so many indie-folk rockers before it, writes its own history: You can’t resist contagious, energized piano hooks. You scream right along with Darnielle’s exhilarating vocals; you repeat it dozens of times. But after a while, you get over it and chuck the song in the occasional in-car-rock-out pile. “Counterfeit Florida Plates” and “In Memory of Satan,” two
In an effort to boost tourism in New York City’s “forgotten borough,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the city’s plans last Thursday to construct the world’s largest ferris wheel at the St. George waterfront on Staten Island. The $230 million New York Wheel will stand 625 feet in height, surpassing the Singapore Flyer, the London Eye and the planned Las Vegas High Roller. Its 36 capsules would elevate 1,440 passengers to picturesque vantage points of the Statue of Liberty, the New York harbor and the lower Manhattan skyline. Below, a 470,000-squarefoot complex, dubbed Harbor Commons, would host 100 designer outlet shops and a 200-room hotel. The combined projects are expected to garner $480 million in private investments, creating 1,200 construction jobs and 1,100 permanent jobs within the Staten Island
Experts emphasize impact of Latino voters By JULIE DEVITO
COURTESY OF MERGE RECORDS
mid-tempo numbers, help wind down the final third of the album into its eventual title track closing song. Darnielle comes full circle with more romantic youthfulness: “Try to explain ourselves/ Babble on and on/ By the time you receive this, we’ll be gone.” The Mountain Goats have done it again. While it isn’t groundbreaking, “Transcendental Youth” is still sincere, infectious and moving, and that makes it worth a listen. John Darnielle is an important artist, and it feels to good to know he is still here. Jason Boxer is a contributing writer. Email him at music@nyunews.com.
Experts on Latino politics gathered on Tuesday night at a roundtable discussion about the importance of the Latino vote in the 2012 election. Cristina Beltrán, moderator of the panel and director of Latino Studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, said she wanted to highlight the growing importance of Latino voters through this event. “I hope that the panel reflects the diversity in interpretation and scholarship among Latino political scientists, [since] the scholars on this panel differ in their views regarding the Latino electorate, and that those debates reflect the richness of the field of Latino politics,” she said. Panelists discussed immigration, the idea of Latinos as a swing vote, the role of Latina voters and topics that are considered Latino issues for the election. Rodolfo de la Garza, a professor of international affairs at
Columbia University, spoke first and stated that the growing number of Latinos in the states translates into a rise in electoral votes for the state. The problem, however, is that not all of these new Latino citizens head to voting booths during election season. This, he said, skews the results. De la Garza also talked about how political views vary depending on generations and how long an immigrant has been living in the United States. “Latino ethnicities are distinguished as a community around the issues of a big state,” de la Garza said. “They think the government should provide health care. They think the government should help you if you’re looking for work. And they think the government should provide a guaranteed income if you don’t have any.” Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, a senior analyst for Latino Decisions at the University of
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