WEEKEND

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012

Packing a Political Punch

Will Yalies be the footsoldiers of the 2012 election?

BY AKBAR AHMED, PG 3

D av id

MATRIMONY

B5

HUNGER

B6

Yu

URINE

B11

LOVE WITHIN THE DISCIPLINE

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

‘URINETOWN’ REVIEW

Yanan Wang gives us the low down on married professors in the same field — and reveals their kids’ playdates.

Intrepid WEEKEND writers reveal their strategies for survival. Watch out, tributes.

Joy Shan reviews the latest play at the Off Broadway Theater and finds revolution amidst the comic.

PAGE B2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

// BY AUSTIN BERNHARDT

MADISON & KAHOE

July 15, consider your diem carped!

During a recent visit to the ophthalmologist, I was elated to discover that I would, for the first time in my life, require the use of glasses. Friends of mine who have sported lenses since a young age assured me that this would pass. They may seem cool, they said, but really, glasses are just inconvenient and expensive. However, their four-eyed wisdom was in vain. I had already psyched myself up thinking of all the possible situations in which I would be able to look over the tops of my frames at people who had made less-than-intelligent remarks in my general direction. Some examples: “You want me to lend you HOW much money?”

“You want to go WHERE for dinner?”

“You read WHAT over spring break?”

I bring up this episode not because I think I’m particularly obnoxious or dismissive, though I am certainly both of those things more often than is justified by my height, weight and attractiveness quotient. Rather, what this illustrates to me is that I’ve increasingly adopted a mindset in which I regret not being able to use clichéd expressions and gestures gleaned from T.V. and movies in my everyday life without seeming obnoxious, dismissive or just plain weird.

To be clear, I’m not talking about catchphrases. (If you have a catchphrase, you should unequivocally lose it. Trust me, it’s not working for you.) I’m talking about the requirement implicit in any plot-driven show or movie that stuff happens. As a result, the threshold for discomfort or objection is just a smidge higher than it is in real life.

Contact AUSTIN BERNHARDT at austin.bernhardt@yale.edu .

F R I D AY MARCH 22

// BY CALEB MADISON AND CODY KAHOE

FROM: Coordination Dean of Occupy New Haven TO: All Occupy New Haven Residents SUBJECT: Updated Occupy Housing Procedures All right folks, judging by the increased amount of squirrel in Mindy’s Occupy Stew over at Tent 7, it’s springtime again. That means, time to figure out our new living arrangements for the coming fiscal year. To make this process as fair and painless as possible, we’ve got a few ground rules and guidelines for the tenting lottery, so put down your water-bottle shower and start reading this here leaflet.

As you all know, we’re selecting tents by lottery this year, but there are a few exceptions to the standard policy. First of all, certain options are out of the lottery at this point. Judging by the sounds and smells emanating from Tent 11, Matisyahu’s roadies are not finished with their orgy started way back in September, so

WHERE DO I GET OFF WITH ALL THIS CARPE DIEM CRAP? HOW MANY DIEMS HAVE I CARPED? NOT MANY, I’LL TELL YOU THAT. I’m also, by the way, not talking about ‘bedroom gymnastics,’ as I believe the kids call it now.

But I am, at least in part, talking about romance.

My friends from high school and I have a recurring conversation any time we’re in a subway car together and spot an attractive woman around our age who looks like she might also be an interesting person. It goes something like this: “How about her?”

“Go for it.”

“I would if this were a sitcom.”

“Psh. Exactly.”

“No, really! I’d go up and be like, ‘Hey, I never do stuff like this, but … ’” And so on and so forth. The key for me is the “I never do stuff like this, but” part: the INDSLTB moment. I’d go so far as to say we all have INDSLTB moments, the points in our day when, if the universe’s probability engine broke down, we would totally go for it. We’d ask out the girl, or the guy or the postgendered individual. We’d throw our phone into the river. We’d hop into the back of that pickup truck and start in on a wild, whirlwind adventure.

But most of the time, we don’t. We take a deep breath, shut down the fantasy part of our brains and focus on the task at hand. The INDSLTB moment vanishes, and life resumes as it should.

Now, I’m not saying it’s a good idea to get into the back of that pickup truck. After all, where’s it going? Better yet, who’s driving? In fact, now that I think about it, don’t get into the back of the pickup truck. But all that other stuff is still on the table. It’s a gamble, sure, but all the best stories come from the INDSLTB moments. What are we afraid of? Short of certain death, probably pretty trivial things, that’s what.

I realize all of this sounds at least vaguely selfrighteous. Where do I get off with all this carpe diem crap? How many diems have I carped? Not many, I’ll tell you that. In fact, nine times out of 10, I’m the one saying things like, “I don’t know about this, you guys.”

“Are you sure there aren’t any security guards?”

“No way am I doing that!”

“I’m nauseous.”

So I’m not saying be like me. DON’T be like me. In fact, I’m saying we should all NOT be like me. And since it’s so scary, why don’t we all do it together on, say, July 15? Spread the word: July 15 will mark the first annual INDSLTB Day. Ask him/her/zhim out! Throw that shit in the river!

Still don’t get in the back of that truck, please, but short of that, if you wouldn’t normally do it, do it! You won’t regret it, and even if you do, it’ll make a great story.

Occupy Housing Draw!

// DAVID YU

GRENIER

BERNHARDT

WEEKEND VIEWS

WYBC’S BOOLAPALOOZA

Toad’s // 8 p.m. till the cows come home.

It’s time for WYBC’s biggest show of the year. With Dale Earnhardt Jr.

that option’s out of the picture. Also, Dirty Louie has made it clear that he intends to stay in his teepee. If anyone wants to challenge him on it, feel free, but I would recommend you wear heavy armor and bring along a Hostess Snack Cake tribute of your choice.

These restrictions aside, obviously everyone wants a shot at the PartyYurt and the Tent-Pack, so it’s probably going to come down to a drumcircle-off at a date and time to be announced. I’m thinking every Sunday at 9 a.m., until we can find a nice loud group of Party-Yurters!

More seriously, we have received several noise complaints about the Party-Yurt, so let’s keep it down.

Finally, it has come to our attention that our long-held policy of personal waste disposal is no longer a viable option. Turns out the holes we’ve been digging have been slowly eating away at the foundations of New Haven Green, and it looks like if we keep burying our treasure we’re

literally gonna start sinking into our own poo. So, in addition to running over to use the toilet at Claire’s Corner Copia, we will be providing selected tents with composting crockpots and seven-tiered storage baskets for your toiletries.

That pretty much wraps it up, folks! Remember to write out and sign your tent contracts on the back of a maple leaf (no oak — let’s not repeat last year’s confusion), and submit them to Dirty Louie. Just slip it under the teepee flap. He’ll find it.

Your Tenting Coordinator, N. Ferguson P.S. Be sure to come to Tuesday’s Chant Committee Meeting prepared with words that rhyme with capitalism.

Contact CALEB MADISON at caleb.madison@yale.edu AND CODY KAHOE at f.kahoe@yale.edu .

10 reasons I’m hoping this Spring is temporary // BY ANYA GRENIER

Chances are, if you were having a conversation this week that did not revolve around your break, the Hunger Games or your thoughts on nihilism, you were talking about how great it is that spring is finally here. In no particular order, here is a list of reasons why you were wrong: 1. For girls, having to shave your legs.

I have been dealing with the transition by dressing exclusively in floral skirts so long I might be mistaken for an extra on the set of “Little House on the Prairie.” I recommend you do the same.

2. Suddenly, Yale seems more disorienting than it has since the first weeks of school, when everyone was literally a stranger anyway. Since then, I’ve gotten used to waking up to find the courtyard of Silliman a windblown, deserted wasteland. Now I wake up, look outside and ask myself, who are all these people? Apparently there’s an entire floor of sophomores in my entryway I did not know about. It’s possible they didn’t leave their room for the past four months. With the warm weather, it feels as though the Yale I’ve gotten used to has gotten lodged inside a much bigger school. Walking back and forth to classes all winter long, I got used to seeing pretty much the same strangers day after day. Now it seems as though I don’t recognize anyone, not the guys deeply absorbed in a game of chess outside of

WLH, not the people in the weed circle on Old Campus, not the partially naked, entirely orange girl tanning outside of LC (does she even go here?) and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

3. Allergies. Whether or not you get them, know that they are caused by breathing in pollen, which is basically tree sperm, which is basically really gross.

4. Studying just became that much more unpleasant. I used to race down the stairs into Bass, grateful just to escape the wind tunnel on Cross Campus. Now, going to the library means walking past, not just the occasional Sunday morning Quidditch match, but at least four Frisbee games, a tightrope walking tournament and even the occasional game of croquet. And with such constant reminders of everything else you could be doing, it’s even harder than usual to sit in the library wondering how you could possibly write this art history paper, in which you use words like “peripheral” and “abstraction,” without sounding like a complete asshole.

5. Daylight savings. Except this time the loss of an hour somehow translated to a weeklong feeling of jetlag.

6. I just bought five new sweaters.

7. No longer having a good excuse to not go out at night. If you really just want to spend your Friday night knitting elf clothes or watching YouTube vid-

eos of deep sea creatures (seriously, stop reading this and search “goblin shark” right now) — and if you’re here there’s a good chance you do, in the winter you have an excuse readymade. Unlike polar bears, or Qpac kids, you weren’t born with some sort of natural mechanism that allows you to withstand sub-zero temperatures. Toad’s is far away, and you’re worried about losing your coat.

Now you just sound like a loser.

8. Gradually building up weird sandal tans before summer even starts. While it seems like the sun isn’t actually doing anything right now, it really, really is.

9. Transitional jacket season. Enough said.

10. An increase in the frequency and size of tour groups. This results in a few things: A) Making it extremely difficult to get into Commons when you only have 10 minutes to eat lunch, B) Extreme backpack envy, and C) The nagging fear that somewhere, somehow, a Japanese woman has your picture on her hard drive.

And, now that everyone knows I’m basically a grouchy old lady with a penchant for pioneer fashion, I’m going to go build a blanket fort, watch videos about the mimic octopus and hope for snow.

Contact ANYA GRENIER at anna.grenier@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Before the rain rolls in Saturday, fire up the grill and throw some meat on the barby. Ditch the gas grill and go with charcoal for the sweet whiff of dehydrated plant and animal matter.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B3

WEEKEND COVER

A CANDIDATE OR A CAUSE? SPECIFY AN ISSUE YOU CARE ABOUT:

Y

es, the Students for a New American Politics Political Action Committee is one of those PACs you keep hearing about. Yes, they’ve raised over $200,000 and sponsored 30 candidates since being founded at Yale in 2004. But the way they use their money is less like the vilified Super PACs spawned from Citizen United and more like opportunity creation for young political activists.

“No one else is doing this — we’re operating in a unique way, getting people with incredible organizing talents to work on progressive campaigns, and creating a pool for further campaigns that’s a lot larger,” said Matt Breuer ’14, the executive director of SNAPPAC. What the organization does is simple, explained finance director and former Ward 1 Democratic Town Committee CoChair Amalia Skilton ’13: It endorses progressive candidates across the nation, and then invites applications from college students hoping to be placed with one of their campaigns. The students accepted as SNAP Fellows receive a stipend of up to $5,000, free housing and transportation, and 12 weeks to help

DO YOU THINK YOU WILL BE INVOLVED IN A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN LATER THIS YEAR?

9% 66% 25% YES

NO

MAYBE

F R I D AY MARCH 22

a progressive candidate make it through the polls successfully.

“Our mission is twofold,” said Skilton, who worked on an Iowa Senate race as a SNAP fellow in 2010. “We want to elect better people to Congress right now, and we want a good long-term progressive movement.”

The amount of money SNAP fellows receive is based on their demonstrated financial need, Breuer said. SNAPPAC provides actual campaigns with actual people, he added, donating the maximum PAC contribution of $5,000 per election race by hiring a student field organizer who can work for a progressive candidate without worrying about the pressures of needing to earn money for college. Having such help is worth far more than $5,000 to the campaigns in the sorts of close races SNAPPAC focuses on, Skilton added.

Skilton said that SNAP has received 600 applications for this election cycle. That’s up from 60 in 2010.

“We’ve hired 11 so far,” she added. “We currently have enough funding to hire 14 more, and our goal is to hire 40 people in total.”

Are Yalies interested? Where do they sign up?

According to the numbers, maybe not so much.

A News survey conducted earlier this week revealed that only 9 percent of Yale undergraduates currently plan to work on political campaigns, presidential or local, later this year. Even Elizabeth Henry ’14 — an outspoken member of the Yale College Republicans and the Tory Party — said she finds the prospect of sitting at a campaign field office and making phone calls to voters “boring.” It seems that, amidst the mess of internship applications, Yale Summer Session emails and travel plans, we’ve left political work on the backburner.

Mac Herring ’12, the campaign manager behind the ‘Sarah Eidelson ’12 for Ward 1’ effort last semester, said that she believes Yalies are politically engaged at an intellectual level, but are less interested in getting down to tangible political action.

After working on the Obama campaign in 2008, Evan WalkerWells ’13 arrived at Yale for prefrosh visits in early 2009. What he found, he said, was a campus where “everyone made it seem like Yale really cared about politics; it was in the lifeblood of the campus.”

That impression didn’t last long, he said.

“Yale students are very busy

A TALK BY PETER MINSHALL, CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL ARTIST: ?BLUE DEVILS, BATS, AND FANCY SAILORS? Yale Rep Lounge // 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

A talk by Peter Minshall, acclaimed Caribbean Carnival Artist who designed the Opening Ceremonies for Barcelona and Atlanta Summer Olympics and the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

and this stuff seems like an extracurricular,” Walker-Wells said, adding that misconceptions about what political involvement actually is and how “big and important” a role students can have results in a very small group of Yalies that are actively politically involved.

“Field organizing is something that gives everyone a tremendous amount of responsibility — I spent three to five hours a day writing emails, three to five hours making phone calls and another three to five hours talking to people,” he added. “But there’s a sense at Yale that this isn’t tremendously important.”

While prioritizing other student activities may be one reason political campaigns are neglected, some suggest a lack of passion on campus is also to blame. One senior interviewed, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that she feels many Yalies consider themselves politically involved even if “all they do is read the fucking New York Times.”

“A lot of people at Yale are ostensibly liberal, but they don’t know what they believe — it’s the same with people who consider themselves conservatives and don’t know what they believe,” Henry said.

Yale College Democrats president Zak Newman ’13, after carefully stating that he believes the last fall’s press frenzy about Obama having lost the youth vote “has been proven false,” said that campaigns are very excited to have students work with them.

What Yalies’ political engagement depends on now, he added, is what they feel passionate about and choose to pursue.

He cites examples, ticking them off on his fingers: this kid’s really into youth issues, that one’s starting a HuffPo blog about foreign policy. Students are pursuing what Newman calls their “pet issues.”

But they’re not going to be able to do so using a fellowship from SNAPPAC. Breuer said Yalies have access to enough resources from their school, in terms of financial aid and fellowship support that they do not generally need outside help if they truly feel that they want to work on a campaign.

“It is ludicrous for SNAP to hire someone like me,” Skilton said. “Nothing is preventing Yalies from doing this — they have no loans and few work hours; they can go door to door.

It is silly to argue that it’s hard for Yalies to be involved in politics.”

But, to mangle a phrase from the Occupy Morgan Stanley pro-

tests last fall, what do our peers do with that privilege?

THE BIG, THE STRUCTURED AND THE OFFICIAL

For most students, the most visible and organized platforms to effect any kind of political change are probably the partisan political groups: the Yale College Democrats and the Yale College Republicans. How much these two organizations take it upon themselves to push their party’s candidates both at the Connecticut and national levels could well be a key determinant of Yale’s experience of the 2012 races.

“The Dems absolutely is a platform for people to start getting involved at the national level,” Newman said, though he added that he thinks his organization can have more of an impact at the state level. Lincoln Mitchell ’15, the Dems’ membership coordinator, said that he is planning a large recruitment push during Bulldog Days and the first few weeks of the next academic year, to get the Class of 2016 excited about the polls in November.

“It’s hard for the Dems to mobilize people at the local level because their by-laws don’t allow them to endorse in a primary [ … ] and this is a one-party town,” Herring said. “It’s easier on the national level, where there’s only one Democrat for them to support.”

Once the organization is aware of who the clear Democratic candidate for the Senate may be, however, Newman said he anticipates that they will “pick up the pace” in terms of publicity and outreach to Yale students. From that local point of view, one benefit of last year’s aldermanic race, during which Newman managed the campaign of Vinay Nayak ’14, is that large numbers of Yalies switched their voter registration to Connecticut.

In addition, Newman foresees the Dems taking a strong interest in the race for Ted Kennedy’s former Senate seat in Massachusetts, with Yale volunteers apparently eager to boost support for Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren.

The other side’s plan of action is less clear.

“What do you do as a conservative at Yale?” Henry asks, hair blonde in the sunlight shining through the Starbucks window and Southern twang out in full force.

She points out that the kind of voter registration drives the Democrats run are not helpful for the Republicans, as they are likely to, whether on campus or

out in the city, simply be signing up more individuals who will vote Democratic. Those who can be convinced to join the conservative side, Henry said, make their way into the fold on their own volition: “A vote for anyone but Romney is a vote for Obama, and I’d say at this point virtually all the conservatives at Yale are for Romney.”

“The people who come to our meetings are the ones who think very seriously about Republican campaigns and perhaps the conservative movement, and they tend to support more establishment, safe campaigns,” said Michael Knowles ’12, the chairman of the Yale College Republicans.

Knowles said that he has been approached by Republican candidates running different races across the state, and that he wants to get his group, “the loudest oppressed minority on campus,” involved in helping candidates in contests such as the ongoing U.S. Senate race in Connecticut, in which Linda McMahon and Chris Shays are currently competing for the Republican endorsement.

“A big initiative of the Yale Republicans has been to publish, to come out of the closet,” he added. “That’s the only way we’re going to dispel these unfair mischaracterizations [and] get from 92 percent [for Obama] to even 91 percent.”

Newman said he thinks there is no opportunity for the Republicans to work effectively on the state level in Connecticut. Calling McMahon “unelectable,” he added that he sees value in an organized GOP presence on campus to further a conversation in the run-up to November.

Ben Stango ’11, a former president of the Dems, said that he considered the 2008 elections “unique” and would not expect to see comparable levels of excitement and large-scale organizing this year.

“Campaigning comes down to the fact that Yale students are often really engaged in a variety of things that relate directly to them [ … ] and if the political groups are able to connect abstract national issues with the lives of students,” Stango added.

More and more, it seems, the focus of these large platforms winnows down to individual interests and passions.

“When I try to think about what the Dems can be doing, I’m mostly thinking about what’s good for people in the organization and what’s good for them SEE ELECTION PAGE B8

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: to “Stop Making Sense;” it’s SOUND advice from Mr. Byrne.

PAGE B4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND ARTS

DAVID BYRNE AND JAMES MURPHY: JUST A COUPLE OF GUYS // BY SUSANNAH SHATTUCK

This article is going to make me sound like a total fangirl, but you know what? Sorry I’m not sorry.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up and faced a serious dilemma: What does one wear when she knows that she will be meeting two of her greatest heroes? I quickly abandoned all hopes of looking or seeming “cool;” I concluded that attempting anything other than quiet admiration in front of David Byrne and James Murphy would be futile and foolish.

David Byrne and James Murphy. I didn’t really believe that they were both coming to Yale to have a moderated discussion about two of my favorite things, art and music, until I saw the event posters going up. I felt, for the first time since coming here, that Yale had somehow translated all of my interests, desires and goals into a one-night-only event. (Maybe this is how politically-minded people here feel all the time.)

Allow me to try to explain my excitement. David Byrne was the

WHEN THEY FINALLY ...TOOK THE STAGE, MY HEART WAS PUMPING AT SUCH A RATE THAT, HAD I BEEN BORN WITH ANY SORT OF CONGENITAL DEFECT, I WOULD HAVE DIED.

founding member of the Talking Heads, a band I have been obsessed with ever since learning at age 11 that a family friend, who is a heart surgeon, listens exclusively to the song “Burning Down the House” while operating. The band holds a particularly dear place in my musical memory; the first mp3 I ever bought — on Napster, to give you a sense of the timeframe — was “And She Was” by the Talking Heads. James Murphy was the leader of LCD Soundsystem (rest in peace) and is one of the co-founders of DFA Records. He is the creator of a musical empire that embodies all things good in the world. I am more than just an unabashed LCD Soundsystem fan; I am one of those annoying, loud people who scream when any LCD song comes on at a party and shout all the words, as if we don’t want anyone actually to hear the music. Together, these two men have created or had a hand in the creation of most of my favorite music, but that’s not even the main reason for my admiration for each of them. Both David Byrne and James Mur-

phy have retained complete control over their creative work in spite of their fame and success, two things that have consistently destroyed lesser artists since the advent of public opinion. I really appreciate their ability to sustain an aesthetic vision and to bring that vision to everything that they touch.

The idea of hearing these two King Midas figures speak to these visions made my head spin with excitement. I did everything I could to ensure that I would get a seat at this talk; I reserved a space through the School of Art, I arranged to take photographs of the event for my job as a social media intern for Yale and I agreed to write this article. I still showed up early to the Yale University Art Gallery, eagerly waiting in line outside the auditorium for an hour before one of the event coordinators read my name off of a list and let me inside. Hyperventilating a little bit, I settled into a seat in the fourth row and waited for David Byrne and James Murphy to emerge. When they finally walked past my seat — I was only inches away from them

Greenhouse’s Very Short Introdouction is Very Short — And Very Good // BY SCOTT STERN

When “The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction” arrived in the mail, I initially thought I had ordered incorrectly. It looked too short, too cute — maybe only nine inches tall with barely 100 bitesized pages. Yet after a moment’s pause, I realized that this was what the title had promised: a very short, accessible introduction.

“The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction” is the latest book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse LAW ’78, who covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times for 30 years, and is now the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. It is the latest

F R I D AY MARCH 22

“Very Short Introduction” — part of a series that concisely introduces the reader to topics ranging from Heidegger to hieroglyphs. “The U.S. Supreme Court” is a perfect introduction to the Supreme Court by one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject.

Greenhouse begins by highlighting the Supreme Court’s rather inauspicious beginnings. The Court didn’t hear a case until a year after its first session; indeed, writes Greenhouse, during its first two terms “it had almost nothing to do.”

It wasn’t until 1792 that the 2-yearold Court issued its first opinion. And the early Supreme Court was hardly considered prestigious.

When the first Chief Justice John Jay

ELLINGTON JAZZ SERIES: RON CARTER TRIO Sprague Hall // 8:00 p.m.

Donald Vega, piano; Russell Malone, guitar; Ron Carter, bass.

ran for and won the governorship of New York, vacating his seat on the bench, a newspaper called his victory a “promotion.” John Rutledge initially declined being a Justice on the first Supreme Court in order to sit on the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas. It wasn’t until the venerable John Marshall became Chief Justice that the judiciary was “no longer the stepsister of the other two branches.”

Even after the Court began to gain some modicum of power and prestige, its existence was tenuous.

The Constitution says almost nothing about what the Supreme Court should do all day; it barely alludes to the very existence of the office of a Chief Justice. So the Court had to

— and took the stage, my heart was pumping at such a rate that, had I been born with any sort of congenital defect, I would have died.

Luckily, I survived, and, doing my very best to keep my mouth closed and my chin drool-free, I eagerly focused my attention on David and James. (I feel like we’re on a first-name basis now, we three.) One thing I noticed right off the bat was that John Schaeffer, though equipped with a radio voice of liquid gold, was not a great moderator; he was far too focused on sticking to a question-and-answer format that felt unnatural and uncomfortable. I was grateful (not to mention overwhelmed with joy) when David Byrne bashfully interrupted this stilted oral examination to offer up some adorable anecdotes.

The conversation between David Byrne and James Murphy, with two strange and wonderful video interludes, was a bit different from the one I had imagined in my head. Maybe I expected both men to be more … Distant? Aloof? Artists with a capi-

define its duties over time, through strategic, cautious, historic rulings (like the storied Marbury v. Madison). Even the size of the Supreme Court changed constantly, going from five to six to nine to ten back to seven before finally settling on the current nine. This demonstrates, if nothing else, that the Supreme Court existed in a state of flux.

Yet over time, it would become one of most important components of our government. Abortion, affirmative action, gun control, gay rights, free speech, the death penalty, and the separation of church and state have all appeared in cases on the Court’s docket in recent years. And they are likely to reappear in years to come, especially as the debates over the legitimacy of Obamacare and the constitutionality of gay marriage come to a head.

The members of the Supreme Court matter. The constitutional right to have an abortion, the ability of state schools to use race in assessing applicants and the invalidation of the death penalty for mentally retarded defendants have all hinged on a single vote. These 5-4 decisions illustrate the subjectivity of Supreme Court work — as Greenhouse writes, “the art of constitutional interpretation is far from a paint-by-numbers exercise.” In other words, had one member of the Court been different, our soci-

// VIVIENNE ZHANG

Murphy, Byrne talk art and music.

tal A? Instead, I found that they were both surprisingly personable and genuine. Hearing that James Murphy turned a doodle into the logo for his record label (“Yeah, let’s use that! No, literally, let’s use that. That doodle.

Without changing anything.”) and that David Byrne had to pay for the fabrication of his bike rack designs for New York City rather than the other way around made both men seem less like artistic geniuses and more like two guys, just trying to do their thing.

Even though they didn’t accept the invitation to my house (that I twice extended to them), I left the talk feeling a little bit more optimistic about the future; after all, if David Byrne and James Murphy are just a couple of guys, albeit really awesome ones, then there might yet be hope for the rest of us.

Contact SUSANNAH SHATTUCK at susannah.shattuck@yale.edu .

ety would be very different today. In other words, this stuff matters.

If you know very little about the Supreme Court, there is perhaps no better guide than Linda Greenhouse. In fact, her New York Times coverage was so influential that some critics suggested that federal judges were changing their rulings in order to gain favorable coverage from her (in what is known as the “Greenhouse Effect”). And when Greenhouse writes in her very short introduction, “The behind-thescenes drama remained unknown outside the Court for the next twelve years, until Justice Blackmun’s papers were opened to the public at the Library of Congress,” she neglects to mention that the public’s understanding of Blackmun’s papers is largely due to her own research (as highlighted in her thorough tome “Becoming Justice Blackmun”).

In 87 small pages (plus appendices at the end) Greenhouse cogently illustrates the history, functions, composition and importance of the Supreme Court. In a slim volume that you can literally carry around in your pocket, you will find a wealth of knowledge.

Contact SCOTT STERN at scott.stern@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: “Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze. I’ve got a big fat momma tryin’ to break me. And I love you live so please, live this life of luxury. Lazing on a sunny afternoon.”

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B5

WEEKEND FEATURE

TILL END OF TENURE DO US PART? During one of his “Moralities of Everyday Life” lectures last term, psychology professor Paul Bloom cited research conducted on babies as a way of opening a discussion on the nature of human kindness. What few of the over 400 people in the class knew, however, is that for Bloom, the origins of this research were close to home — literally. Among the dozen academics whose work was presented in the course was Karen Wynn — notable infant researcher, Yale psychology professor and, as it turns out, Bloom’s wife.

“Karen is my favourite scientific collaborator,” said Bloom.

Bloom and Wynn are not the only Yale couple to have academia turn into romance. Under the eaves of the University’s Gothic structures, on the swing sets hung from lofty trees and by the spring-time flowers scattered across residential college courtyards, Yale has seen many a pair find and foster love within its storied walls. And in an institution where scholarship is valued above all, it is no surprise that Yale has attracted many married faculty members who work in the same academic disciplines.

What is it like to share a home with someone who works not only for the same university, but also within the same department? The professor couples interviewed told diverse stories about their romantic beginnings, but there is one thing all of them seem to agree upon: When it comes to marriage, there is nothing quite like having a spouse whose work complements your own. *** In 1998, Yale hosted the International Congress of Assyriology & Near Eastern Archaeology. Held in a different city every year, the conference brings together Assyriology scholars from around the world. Two of the attendants were Kathryn Slanski and Eckhart Frahm, current members of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization faculty at Yale.

At the time, Slanski and Frahm were just young scholars. They met for the first time at a reception in the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, where they exchanged pleasantries about each other’s work.

“I’m sure we talked about the papers that each of us gave,” Slanski said, “because I was impressed by him and he was impressed by me.”

After the conference, they went their separate ways, only having lunch together once at the Paris gathering the following year. They were living in different continents at the time, with Slanski having accepted her first academic post at Tel Aviv University and Frahm working as an assistant professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. Four years later, however, they met up again — this time in New Haven as finalists for an assistant professorship at Yale. Because Slanski is a native of Connecticut, she insisted on taking Frahm out to lunch, telling him that he could treat her to the next meal if he was chosen for the post.

“He’s been buying lunch ever since,” Slanski said in a New York Times article announcing the couple’s marriage at New Haven’s Lighthouse Point Park in September of 2006.

They now work side by side at the University, where they are both teachers of Assyriology.

When two married professors apply for posts at Yale, department chairs often try to hire both partners, economics professor Benjamin Polak told the News in 2010.

While it is clear that the professors’ attraction to each other extends far beyond appreciation for one another’s work, other pairs interviewed agreed that mutual passion helped to create an initial spark. Philosophy professors Tamar Gendler and Zoltán Szabó, who also met at an academic conference, fell in love over pizza and Grice’s theory of implicature.

They met at the Harvard-MIT Graduate Student Philosophy Conference in the fall of 1992, Gendler said, when she was a graduate student at Harvard and he was a graduate student at MIT who had presented a paper at the event. Gendler said that Szabó helped her carry pizzas to the conference dinner, they started dating that weekend, and were engaged within 18 months. That summer, Szabó got his Ph.D., and they were married shortly afterwards.

Gendler said that she initially made conversation with Szabo because she was intrigued by his work.

“Part of the reason we liked each other in the first place was because we admired the way the other person thought,” Slanski agreed. “I think it’s a real privilege to have someone who can appreciate the work that you do.” *** One of the challenges facing academic couples working in the same field of study is preventing their work from consuming their personal lives.

When asked whether she and Szabó talked about their work often at home, Gendler said that they used to discuss philosophy at the dinner table when their older son Laszlo, 14, was a toddler. It might have been “too much,” Gendler said, when they realized that one of Laszlo’s first words was “counterexample.”

“We don’t have sharp boundaries between home and work. We spend a lot of time outside Yale, for instance, talking about research and ideas,” Bloom said. “I suppose this has its pros and cons, but I’m very happy with this sort of life.”

Most couples interviewed said that while they often talk about their work , they seldom argue.

This is the case with p s y -

chology professors Marvin Chun and Woo-kyoung Ahn, who both specialize in cognitive science but have distinct research interests.

For others, being married to an academic within the same field can create ideal opportunities for close collaboration. This is the case with Slanski and Frahm, who have worked together on a variety of projects, such as leading an Assyriology summer program for Iraqi students and scholars.

In 2003, following the United States’ invasion of Iraq, the two of them also drafted a petition to protect the artifacts that had been ransacked from the National Museum in Baghdad. The petition was signed by more than 700 scholars from around the world and presented to the United Nations Security Council.

“We value each other’s work highly.

I’m not sure that you could expect that from a partner who wasn’t an academic and couldn’t understand what it’s like to be in academia,” said Slanski. *** Many of the couples have been immersed in their fields of study for so long that it seems only natural to be married to someone who shares their passion. As Slanski noted, “[Being married to an academic in the same field] is so normal to us that we don’t think about it.”

These professors’ attachment to scholarship goes beyond their commitment to one another, extending to their close social circles. In describing the series of events that led her and Szabó to Yale, Gendler remarked on all the encounters she had with Yale academic couples even before her and her husband became members of the faculty. She noted, for instance, that she and Szabó spent the 2003-’04 academic year on sabbatical in Hungary, where Szabo’s family resides. In the summer of 2004, Bloom and Wynn lived in the same apartment building as Gendler and Szabó in Budapest. As it turned out, Bloom and Wynn played a large role in compelling Gendler and Szabó to consider positions at Yale.

The scholarly connections have extended to the professors’ children as well. The son of Bob Frank and Rafaella Zannuttini, both Linguistics professors, plays in a classical guitar quartet with Laszlo Szabó. When he was in the sixth grade, Laszlo attended Cold Spring School with Zach Bloom as well as the children of three other Yale professors (including the son of professors Michael Della Rocca and Christine Hayes).

“It’s a small town …,” Gendler mused.

Overall, professors said that their experiences as academic couples have been rewarding. It is comforting to be married to someone who can appreciate the challenges of academia, Chun said.

“Being able to communicate and understand each other is a huge plus,” said Chun. “For example, we don’t have to explain the stress involved with having a grant proposal deadline or receiving a rejection letter from a journal or grant agency.”

Slanski agreed. “I find [my husband’s] work very creative and exciting,” she said. “It’s a privilege that I don’t take for granted.”

Ethan Heard ’07 DRA ’13 creates Hades in a basement // BY JANE DARBY MENTON

Basement Hades: Songs of the Underworld, playing this weekend at the Yale Cabaret, reimagines the Orpheus myth through original text and music, multimedia clips, and — yes — even puppets.

The show retells the myth with five different Orpheus’s, each representing one of the five stages of grief. Water sculptures, candlelight and hundreds of yards of web-like yarn transform the basement theater of the cabaret into mythical Hades, with audience and actors connected by the river Styx, painted on the floor. WEEKEND sat down with director Ethan Heard ’07 DRA ’13 to discuss the creative process behind the show.

Q. You directed another show, Trannequin, for the cabaret last semester. What brought you back to direct a show this spring?

A. I’m a directing student here so I look for as many opportunities as I can. I had done Julius Caesar in the fall, so I was looking for something more musically oriented. I come from a music background; I was a Whiffenpoof and one of the Duke’s Men. Musicals are like therapy for me.

Q. What drew you to the myth of Orpheus?

A. We were looking for a story that invites musicality. I’ve directed Orpheus before for [Yale Baroque Opera Project] and I felt I had unfinished business with the story and wanted to develop it more.

Q. How did you transform a familiar myth into a new experience for the audience?

A. It’s a really eclectic mix of music — from the 18th century to last week. We wanted it to be surprising for the audience, for them to not know what would happen next. The audience is very much implicated in the world and the story as well; the river Styx is painted on the floor and weaves through the audience.

Q. What role does music play in ‘Basement Hades’?

A. I would say that 80 percent of the show is music. Hades welcomes us to the world and frames the action, but we try to tell the story with music. And not just with music, also with sound.

You enter and there is water dripping into buckets, a sound which continues to haunt the audience throughout the show.

Q. What difficulties did you encounter in preparing for the production?

A. Scheduling — it’s kind of crazy to get all these people together in the same room. Some people were commuting from NYC, others were traveling on their own. All the pieces kind of came together at the last minute. What was great was that we all really got along with each other and built a trust; everyone was very dedicated.

Q. What do you hope the audience will take away from your show?

A. I hope they can enjoy 45 minutes of beautiful surprising music, outrageous puppetry and stunning visuals. I hope they question definitions of play and concert. I hope they think about their loved ones — what they treasure about them and also what they miss about the ones who are gone. I hope it transports them into a different world — that they enter the cabaret and it is a really immersive, inviolable experience.

Q. By the way, I love your shirt. It’s so colorful!

A. Thanks! It’s my opening night shirt.

Contact A8E< ;8I9P MENTON at jane.menton@yale.edu .

// ETHAN HEARD

Basement Hades at the Yale Cabaret.

Contact P8E8E N8E> at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

// KAREN TIAN

F R I D AY MARCH 22

JG8:< J?<<G 8E @E;<G<E;<EK =8J?@FE J?FN 9P <CC@P G<E># D: É() Morse College Dining Hall // 9:30 p.m.

Three separate collections tell the story of the past, future and present through the perspective of fashion.

N<<B<E; I<:FDD<E;J1 Worship your sun god of choice: Helios, Ra, Surya, Tonatiuh, Shemesh. Utu, Huitzilopochtli, Mithras, Freyr, Amaterasu, Garuda etc. Isn’t that what’s the happenin’ on Old Campus these days?

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND PANDEMANIA

Scott Stern does Peeta Mellark, better the girl can’t make up her damn mind).

If I initially acted as Peeta did — team up with the Careers — but then didn’t save Katniss, my fiercest opponent would be out of the running right there. Problem solved, and I’m one step closer to winning the Hunger Games.

At that point I could abandon the Careers, hopefully taking out Cato and that creepy girl with the knives as I flee.

Then I would hide, allowing my opponents to pick each other off one by one. My strength is in my … well, strength, so I do fare well with close combat. It behooves me to fight as few competitors as possible, however, because hand-to-hand combat is tiresome.

When I finally win, I will bring long-needed pride (and funds) to District 12. Perhaps we can expand the bakery! Oh, I’ll take care of Katniss’s family — far better than Gale ever would. Honestly, Gale … what kind of name is that anyway? Peeta is way more normal. Clearly.

Caroline + Peeta = Bliss in Panem // BY CAROLINE TAN

I spent a long time thinking about who I would be in “The Hunger Games,” and was torn between Foxface (in the sense that I don’t know how to hunt and would likely spend my time in the arena stealing from the other tributes while waiting for them to kill each other off) and Katniss (since I’m basically in love with Peeta and want to replace her as his on-screen lover). But Foxface doesn’t work for me because I don’t have red hair and don’t want to be a character without a real name anyway, and Katniss doesn’t work because I don’t have a handsome lover back home waiting for me to return. Unfortunately. So I decided I’d just be

Who cares about glory? Final moments with Alexander Ludwig

myself. Except I’d be a modified version of myself with a black belt and krav maga license — two useful self defense methods that will help in the arena when I face the other tributes and the Gamemakers’ tricks. In this parallel world, my romantic life would also be thriving. Peeta Mellark would be madly in love with me, and the two of us would share a budding romance that even President Snow could not deny. Besides, this arrangement works out best for everyone, as Katniss could continue her relationship with Gale and I could spend my time baking bread with Peeta. Everybody wins. And even better, the four of us could double date.

// BY NICK DEFIESTA Who cares who I am? All I know is that I’d do everything in my power to team up with Cato. Sure, Katniss might be all fiesty and Peeta’s got that whole lovey dovey thing going on, but have you seen Alexander Ludwig? I don’t care if he’d stab me in the back eventually, I just want my final moments in the arena to be spent next to the hottest (and deadliest) tribute in Panem.

Hum like a sewing machine, sting like a bee

A

re you hungry? Because we are. Hungry for victory. Hungry for survival in the fight till the bloody death. Or maybe we’re just hungry for “The Hunger Games.” This WEEKEND, our finest tributes share with us the personas of their fictive Panem counterparts and their strategies for tackling the Hunger Games. This much we know: they may not be strong, but they sure have skill.

For the most part.

// BY SIJIA SONG Children make very unlikely gladiators. But don’t tell that to the orchestrators of the Hunger Games — or to the contestants who enter, “American Idol” style, into a bloody fight to the death.

Given my own recent introduction to the series, it’s probably natural to spin out self-insertion scenarios in my head, to wonder what I would do in the Hunger Games, who I would ally with and what weapon I would use.

The answer to the last: poisonous, genetically-modified wasps.

Why? Because I’ve always wanted to shoot what amounts

to an angry, fuzzy homing missile at someone.

Realistically, it’s a pretty infeasible idea. For starters, I’m afraid of insects. But the actual me — bespectacled, easily distracted and completely non-athletic — would never survive in dystopian Panem anyway, so I may as well suspend disbelief and indulge in the rule of cool.

Of course, the actual Hunger Games run on the same rule. Like reality TV or professional wrestling, the Games operate as much on narrative tropes as on true skill. Viewers have the power to send in “gifts” to the competitors,

influencing the outcome, and the more likable the contestant, the greater the support.

That’s why it would pay for me to be a plucky heroine from District 8 (Textiles) allied with a frail little girl to protect, as opposed to a smug killer with a chronic backstabbing disorder. Of course, this being the Hunger Games, my companion would likely be tragically killed by the others before the end, thus at least sparing me the need to do it myself. Yes, it really is that kind of book.

And then there’s the small matter of revolution, because the Capitol government hasn’t just been using the

bloody spectacle of the Hunger Games as entertainment; they’ve also been oppressing my district. Anyone who thinks textile workers are docile should think again, because after years of inhaling factory smoke and chemical compounds, we’re just about ready for spontaneous combustion. Smash all the looms!

Stab the Peacekeepers with knitting needles! If we burn, you burn with us!

The Hunger Games are coming.

Mason strikes big with pinecones // BY MASON KROLL

Katniss can shoot a squirrel in the eye with a bow and arrow.

Peeta can paint with all the colors of the mud to camouflage himself expertly in the riverbank.

Rue can leap from tree to tree with the agility and grace gained only through years of experience.

Their dire circumstances at home have given them the tools essential to survive in the arena.

My childhood was far plushier, and I seriously worry that it has left me dangerously unprepared. Sure, I had a good education. I learned to play the piano.

But when it comes to things that really matter — survival skills in a post-apocalyptic fight to the death — I come up emptyhanded. How talented is the tribute from District San Fernando Valley? What skills have I picked up from the land of scorching heat and ample frozen yogurt?

// TAO TAO HOLMES

S AT U R D AY MARCH 23

!

IN

If I were a character in “The Hunger Games”, I would be Peeta Mellark. Clearly. I mean, there are really only two options for men, and I don’t even want to get into that other one. For girls, the choices are much more interesting — would you be the obvious choice (Katniss), the youthful choice (Prim), or the interesting choice (Foxface)? If I lacked the Y chromosome, I would definitely go with Rue (who was my favorite from the beginning).

Peeta is honest, smart, and a fierce competitor. He — or rather I — would represent District 12 with pride. But I would have a very different strategy for winning than the Peeta known to “Hunger Games” readers and moviegoers: Screw Katniss … but not in the way you would expect Peeta to. I mean, betray Katniss!

Look, the strategy of pretending to love her will work extremely well in getting sponsors. But it becomes problematic if I actually fall in love with her.

Clearly. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and there is no place for silly romances (especially if

LE T

// BY SCOTT STERN

M E A S G BE E H G T

THE 7TH ANNUAL ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL WHC // All WEEKEND

“Scialla” for some laughs and “Terraferma” for a morally passionate drama about Italian immigration. See the WHC website for showtiems.

Let’s start with archery. At the summer camp I used to go to, we would go as a cabin to the archery range right next to the Ga-ga courts. The goal was to pop a balloon at the center of a bull’s-eye about 20 yards away. Forget about the balloon — I couldn’t even figure out how to get the arrow to stay up without slipping. Plus, the hours we spent learning about archery safety would probably inhibit my ability to lethally shoot someone in the heart.

If my arts and crafts skills are any indication, attempting camouflage would be a disaster. I avoid going to the gym at reasonable hours for fear that people will judge me, so physical strength is out too. One time I went to a class on Tae Kwon Do, but it was just after the dentist extracted one of my teeth and I was a lot more concerned with why the inside of

my mouth felt like silly putty.

The one thing I could bring to the table is some measure of speed. I mean, I ran cross country in high school, so that has to count for something. I would have to specify to my assailant that the exact distance I would be running for my life is five kilometers and that he couldn’t go too quickly at the beginning. Or, if there were hurdles conveniently placed every 35 meters, I’d be golden.

Barring the implementation of some sort of affirmative action system for overprivileged tributes, the only way I might survive would be climbing a tree. From there, I could fling pinecones at my opponents until they moved on to some new target or I ran out of pinecones.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: “The White Savior Industrial Complex” by Teju Cole in The Atlantic.

Tao: Meditation master, mutt — not a fighter // BY TAO TAO HOLMES A few things about the new female tribute from District Six. Keeping with the trends (Thresh, Rue, Clove, Cato), she has a punchy name loaded with all kinds of possible interpretations. Tao as in Dao, as in Tao-Te-Ching, as in Taoism? (The absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order?) That’s deep. And that’s what this tribute draws on to get herself to the final few: a harmony with nature that no other tributes possess. What’s the deal with the meditation skillz? Tao can meditate so hard that she can go for days without food or water, literally floating above her corporeal self into a trace-like, spirit state. Doesn’t need to waste her time and energy scampering around setting traps for rabbits, this one. But what does she do when 21 of the tributes have died out and her meditation isn’t proving very lethal? Well, she doesn’t come from District Six for nothing; Tao knows her medicinal flora and fauna like no other. Being all harmonious and everything, she’s not one for confrontation, so she mortar-andpestles up some not-so-medicinal concoctions, slips them into her com-

petitors’ sources of sustenance, and BAM, they die. Not really bam, but they die. Actually, the Capitol is pretty pissed that Tao cops her way out of a crowd-pleasing confrontational murder scheme. They force her into a final one-on-one and she legitimately learned nothing from the training session, so she gets killed within seconds.

Basically, little female monks don’t make for great reality TV. But — Tao, along with her angsty monosyllabic name, also has another key trait: racial ambiguity. Have you seen the current tributes? Okay, all I’m saying is that in some futuristic North American hinterlandia, wouldn’t we be seeing a little more ethnic intermixing than Peeta, Katniss, and Gale have to show for? Actually, when Tao was looking at the current Guide to the Tributes at the Miami airport, she noticed they were all pretty much white, black, or Asian. What’s with that? Tribute boys from Districts Eight and Ten are a little less clear, but honestly, Panem. The Capitol could have definitely encouraged some more creative breeding.

Get some mutts in the arena! Mutts put up a great fight. I mean, clearly not Tao, but generally speaking.

OSAMA PLAY: WRITTEN BY KENNETH REVEIZ ’12 AND DIRECTED BY GABE DELEON ’13.

JE Theater// 4:00 p.m.

“You came into my life wanting attention and the dissolution of the white, Christian, American, nationalist, capitalist, imperialist hegemony, and all I wanted was to go to the grocery store and consume with the expectation that once I accrued enough capital and power I would be able to sleep with anybody I wanted to and still be publicly straight. A reason to believe.”

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: “Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up,” a remix by Hugh Atkin.

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B7

WEEKEND PANDEMANIA

Scott Stern does Peeta Mellark, better the girl can’t make up her damn mind).

If I initially acted as Peeta did — team up with the Careers — but then didn’t save Katniss, my fiercest opponent would be out of the running right there. Problem solved, and I’m one step closer to winning the Hunger Games.

At that point I could abandon the Careers, hopefully taking out Cato and that creepy girl with the knives as I flee.

Then I would hide, allowing my opponents to pick each other off one by one. My strength is in my … well, strength, so I do fare well with close combat. It behooves me to fight as few competitors as possible, however, because hand-to-hand combat is tiresome.

When I finally win, I will bring long-needed pride (and funds) to District 12. Perhaps we can expand the bakery! Oh, I’ll take care of Katniss’s family — far better than Gale ever would. Honestly, Gale … what kind of name is that anyway? Peeta is way more normal. Clearly.

Caroline + Peeta = Bliss in Panem // BY CAROLINE TAN

I spent a long time thinking about who I would be in “The Hunger Games,” and was torn between Foxface (in the sense that I don’t know how to hunt and would likely spend my time in the arena stealing from the other tributes while waiting for them to kill each other off) and Katniss (since I’m basically in love with Peeta and want to replace her as his on-screen lover). But Foxface doesn’t work for me because I don’t have red hair and don’t want to be a character without a real name anyway, and Katniss doesn’t work because I don’t have a handsome lover back home waiting for me to return. Unfortunately. So I decided I’d just be

Who cares about glory? Final moments with Alexander Ludwig

myself. Except I’d be a modified version of myself with a black belt and krav maga license — two useful self defense methods that will help in the arena when I face the other tributes and the Gamemakers’ tricks. In this parallel world, my romantic life would also be thriving. Peeta Mellark would be madly in love with me, and the two of us would share a budding romance that even President Snow could not deny. Besides, this arrangement works out best for everyone, as Katniss could continue her relationship with Gale and I could spend my time baking bread with Peeta. Everybody wins. And even better, the four of us could double date.

// BY NICK DEFIESTA Who cares who I am? All I know is that I’d do everything in my power to team up with Cato. Sure, Katniss might be all fiesty and Peeta’s got that whole lovey dovey thing going on, but have you seen Alexander Ludwig? I don’t care if he’d stab me in the back eventually, I just want my final moments in the arena to be spent next to the hottest (and deadliest) tribute in Panem.

Hum like a sewing machine, sting like a bee

A

re you hungry? Because we are. Hungry for victory. Hungry for survival in the fight till the bloody death. Or maybe we’re just hungry for “The Hunger Games.” This WEEKEND, our finest tributes share with us the personas of their fictive Panem counterparts and their strategies for tackling the Hunger Games. This much we know: they may not be strong, but they sure have skill.

For the most part.

// BY SIJIA SONG Children make very unlikely gladiators. But don’t tell that to the orchestrators of the Hunger Games — or to the contestants who enter, “American Idol” style, into a bloody fight to the death.

Given my own recent introduction to the series, it’s probably natural to spin out self-insertion scenarios in my head, to wonder what I would do in the Hunger Games, who I would ally with and what weapon I would use.

The answer to the last: poisonous, genetically-modified wasps.

Why? Because I’ve always wanted to shoot what amounts

to an angry, fuzzy homing missile at someone.

Realistically, it’s a pretty infeasible idea. For starters, I’m afraid of insects. But the actual me — bespectacled, easily distracted and completely non-athletic — would never survive in dystopian Panem anyway, so I may as well suspend disbelief and indulge in the rule of cool.

Of course, the actual Hunger Games run on the same rule. Like reality TV or professional wrestling, the Games operate as much on narrative tropes as on true skill. Viewers have the power to send in “gifts” to the competitors,

influencing the outcome, and the more likable the contestant, the greater the support.

That’s why it would pay for me to be a plucky heroine from District 8 (Textiles) allied with a frail little girl to protect, as opposed to a smug killer with a chronic backstabbing disorder. Of course, this being the Hunger Games, my companion would likely be tragically killed by the others before the end, thus at least sparing me the need to do it myself. Yes, it really is that kind of book.

And then there’s the small matter of revolution, because the Capitol government hasn’t just been using the

bloody spectacle of the Hunger Games as entertainment; they’ve also been oppressing my district. Anyone who thinks textile workers are docile should think again, because after years of inhaling factory smoke and chemical compounds, we’re just about ready for spontaneous combustion. Smash all the looms!

Stab the Peacekeepers with knitting needles! If we burn, you burn with us!

The Hunger Games are coming.

Mason strikes big with pinecones // BY MASON KROLL

Katniss can shoot a squirrel in the eye with a bow and arrow.

Peeta can paint with all the colors of the mud to camouflage himself expertly in the riverbank.

Rue can leap from tree to tree with the agility and grace gained only through years of experience.

Their dire circumstances at home have given them the tools essential to survive in the arena.

My childhood was far plushier, and I seriously worry that it has left me dangerously unprepared. Sure, I had a good education. I learned to play the piano.

But when it comes to things that really matter — survival skills in a post-apocalyptic fight to the death — I come up emptyhanded. How talented is the tribute from District San Fernando Valley? What skills have I picked up from the land of scorching heat and ample frozen yogurt?

// TAO TAO HOLMES

S AT U R D AY MARCH 23

!

IN

If I were a character in “The Hunger Games”, I would be Peeta Mellark. Clearly. I mean, there are really only two options for men, and I don’t even want to get into that other one. For girls, the choices are much more interesting — would you be the obvious choice (Katniss), the youthful choice (Prim), or the interesting choice (Foxface)? If I lacked the Y chromosome, I would definitely go with Rue (who was my favorite from the beginning).

Peeta is honest, smart, and a fierce competitor. He — or rather I — would represent District 12 with pride. But I would have a very different strategy for winning than the Peeta known to “Hunger Games” readers and moviegoers: Screw Katniss … but not in the way you would expect Peeta to. I mean, betray Katniss!

Look, the strategy of pretending to love her will work extremely well in getting sponsors. But it becomes problematic if I actually fall in love with her.

Clearly. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and there is no place for silly romances (especially if

LE T

// BY SCOTT STERN

M E A S G BE E H G T

THE 7TH ANNUAL ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL WHC // All WEEKEND

“Scialla” for some laughs and “Terraferma” for a morally passionate drama about Italian immigration. See the WHC website for showtiems.

Let’s start with archery. At the summer camp I used to go to, we would go as a cabin to the archery range right next to the Ga-ga courts. The goal was to pop a balloon at the center of a bull’s-eye about 20 yards away. Forget about the balloon — I couldn’t even figure out how to get the arrow to stay up without slipping. Plus, the hours we spent learning about archery safety would probably inhibit my ability to lethally shoot someone in the heart.

If my arts and crafts skills are any indication, attempting camouflage would be a disaster. I avoid going to the gym at reasonable hours for fear that people will judge me, so physical strength is out too. One time I went to a class on Tae Kwon Do, but it was just after the dentist extracted one of my teeth and I was a lot more concerned with why the inside of

my mouth felt like silly putty.

The one thing I could bring to the table is some measure of speed. I mean, I ran cross country in high school, so that has to count for something. I would have to specify to my assailant that the exact distance I would be running for my life is five kilometers and that he couldn’t go too quickly at the beginning. Or, if there were hurdles conveniently placed every 35 meters, I’d be golden.

Barring the implementation of some sort of affirmative action system for overprivileged tributes, the only way I might survive would be climbing a tree. From there, I could fling pinecones at my opponents until they moved on to some new target or I ran out of pinecones.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: “The White Savior Industrial Complex” by Teju Cole in The Atlantic.

Tao: Meditation master, mutt — not a fighter // BY TAO TAO HOLMES A few things about the new female tribute from District Six. Keeping with the trends (Thresh, Rue, Clove, Cato), she has a punchy name loaded with all kinds of possible interpretations. Tao as in Dao, as in Tao-Te-Ching, as in Taoism? (The absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order?) That’s deep. And that’s what this tribute draws on to get herself to the final few: a harmony with nature that no other tributes possess. What’s the deal with the meditation skillz? Tao can meditate so hard that she can go for days without food or water, literally floating above her corporeal self into a trace-like, spirit state. Doesn’t need to waste her time and energy scampering around setting traps for rabbits, this one. But what does she do when 21 of the tributes have died out and her meditation isn’t proving very lethal? Well, she doesn’t come from District Six for nothing; Tao knows her medicinal flora and fauna like no other. Being all harmonious and everything, she’s not one for confrontation, so she mortar-andpestles up some not-so-medicinal concoctions, slips them into her com-

petitors’ sources of sustenance, and BAM, they die. Not really bam, but they die. Actually, the Capitol is pretty pissed that Tao cops her way out of a crowd-pleasing confrontational murder scheme. They force her into a final one-on-one and she legitimately learned nothing from the training session, so she gets killed within seconds.

Basically, little female monks don’t make for great reality TV. But — Tao, along with her angsty monosyllabic name, also has another key trait: racial ambiguity. Have you seen the current tributes? Okay, all I’m saying is that in some futuristic North American hinterlandia, wouldn’t we be seeing a little more ethnic intermixing than Peeta, Katniss, and Gale have to show for? Actually, when Tao was looking at the current Guide to the Tributes at the Miami airport, she noticed they were all pretty much white, black, or Asian. What’s with that? Tribute boys from Districts Eight and Ten are a little less clear, but honestly, Panem. The Capitol could have definitely encouraged some more creative breeding.

Get some mutts in the arena! Mutts put up a great fight. I mean, clearly not Tao, but generally speaking.

OSAMA PLAY: WRITTEN BY KENNETH REVEIZ ’12 AND DIRECTED BY GABE DELEON ’13.

JE Theater// 4:00 p.m.

“You came into my life wanting attention and the dissolution of the white, Christian, American, nationalist, capitalist, imperialist hegemony, and all I wanted was to go to the grocery store and consume with the expectation that once I accrued enough capital and power I would be able to sleep with anybody I wanted to and still be publicly straight. A reason to believe.”

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: “Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up,” a remix by Hugh Atkin.

PAGE B8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

RED STATE, BLUE STATE. WHOSE STATE?

THESE ELECTIONS MEAN A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS TO PEOPLE...THE STAKES ARE HIGH FOR MANY OF US. “My time on campus has introduced me to others who pursue their causes with a similar level of passion to my own — these elections mean a lot of different things to people, and I am constantly impressed with the level of commitment to issues that I see in other students here,” said Diana Enriquez ’13, who is involved with the campus Chicano advocacy group MEChA de Yale. “The stakes are high for many of us.”

Enriquez believes that the recently proposed DREAM Act,

to a larger concern across the nation could be effective. Harrison Monsky ’13, co-president of the Yale chapter of Global Zero, an organization that seeks to cut nuclear weapons spending and proliferation, said that he wants to include the nuclear question in candidates’ arguments about maintaining strong defense systems while reducing government spending.

“We are going to ask why we are holding on to a bloated nuclear arsenal two decades after the end of the Cold War,” Mon-

4%

MO

THE BEATEN PATH

Even as individuals fragment and select their own issues to focus on, the traditional grassroots methods are, for some Yalies, still the favored path.

Knowles, who worked with Congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R-NY), co-led the student effort to recruit Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as a Republican presidential candidate, and volunteered for the Jon Huntsman campaign for the Republican nomination, said that he feels young people have an opportunity to have their voices heard when working on campaigns, particularly with for Republicans, who attract fewer youth volunteers.

Still, proponents of heavyduty political involvement face

5.85

6.39 5.73

5.27

S AT U R D AY MARCH 24

2ND ANNUAL EVENING OF IMPROV COMEDY WITH ANDI ZHOU AND THE JUST ADD WATERS Calhoun Cabaret // 10:00 p.m.

An evening of surprising, exciting and hysterical improvisational comedy!

EDUCATION

FOREIGN POLICY

ECONOMY

IMMIGRATION

ENVIRONMENT

HEALTHCARE

ENERGY

SOCIAL ISSUES

4.58

GOVT REGULATION/REFORM

6.26

32%

as rooted in high-school experiences that prioritized for future Yalies the importance of “seeming unique and different from everyone else.”

8.42 6.85

14%

ELY T A DER

ON A SCALE OF 1-10, HOW IMPORTANT ARE THESE ISSUES TO YOU IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS?

6.70

SLIGHTLY

ELY M E R T X E

20%

Y R VE

30%

backlash. “When I talk to people about moving to, say, Iowa, for the campaigns, they go ‘why the fuck would you ever go there?’ ” Walker-Wells said. “That’s very far from the track people have been working on and talking about.”

He added that, based on his experience on the Obama campaign and conversations he has had with other students, even the group that ardently supported the Democratic candidate in 2008 “ended up being a small community.”

To Walkert-Wells, who took two months off from his senior year of high school to work on the Obama field operation in Pennsylvania, being willing to take time off to completely dedicate oneself to a candidate is just as “legitimate” as the idea of being ‘on-track’ that he said his classmates enshrine. Even the fieldwork the Dems do, he added, is “pretty small” compared to the extent some students are willing to go for campaigns.

Perhaps no one knows that better than the SNAPPAC organizers, who have spent much of the last school year receiving applications and extensively interviewing the candidates for the fellowships they award. Skilton said that the PAC is now making a specific effort to only recruit students from state universities, and to include students who can help change the demographics of campaign staff, the leadership of which she described as “still pretty white.”

“The big thing for me is seeing what people are doing on their own campuses and what they can do with the opportunities we give them,” she said of the selection process.

Skilton added that she was particularly excited about being able to offer a fellowship to a minority student from the University of California at Los Angeles, who is pursuing a major in political science and is currently on the honor roll. The student activist also works two jobs so that he can send his family $3,000 a year and travels regularly to Sacramento to work on student and immigration reform within the state. That is the sort of candidate SNAP seeks to provide with the opportunity to work on progressive political campaigns, she said.

“This person shouldn’t be getting $2,000 from me — he should be getting a Rhodes scholarship,” she said.

READY AND ABLE?

T? MEN RN VE GO

Yale students may not be queuing around the block to sign up for positions on campaigns, but they are, it seems, going into 2012 with clear priorities about what they care about. If Yalies aren’t working to elect public officials, they certainly wish to inject their values into national policy debate.

One clear example of this were the 30+ comments in the News survey that mentioned women’s reproductive rights as the respondent’s top political priority, and the recent flurry of Republican comments and legislation concerning similar legislation. Other individuals interviewed are determined to make their issues matter on the national stage this election year, even if they are not currently hot-button issues.

ERICAN POL M A ITIC U IN O SA Y E N AR

D

POLITICS, THE SPECIALIST WAY

sky said. “Strategists at the Air War College have said we only need 311 nuclear weapons to fulfill our current security needs.

Why are we planning to increase our nuclear weapons budget by more than $185 billion over the next decade as funding everywhere else — from financial aid to healthcare to police forces — continues to get cut?”

This election year is especially critical for Global Zero, he added, because leadership and major decisions on arms control have historically stemmed from the highest level.

“We’re going to make a strong case that this is an issue the next President should stake his legacy on,” Monsky said.

Bringing attention to these issues can be challenging. Newman said he prioritizes education policy, particularly the reauthorization and “complete reworking” of the No Child Left Behind act. Since he believes, as do much of the media, that the economy is going to be the dominant topic of conversation during this election cycle, he said he feels a responsibility to make education part of the conversation as well, whether through political advocacy work over the summer or helping with attempts at policy reform.

Making education more of a focus for the Dems has been an effective way to mobilize more students behind his cause, Newman said.

It takes strategizing to garner that kind of support for more niche issues. Monsky said that, being aware that “nuclear weapons issues haven’t always been a top priority for college students,” Yale’s Global Zero chapter has focused on training activists capable of bringing the facts about unnecessary nuclear weapons expenditure to people’s attention.

“At Yale, and at our 100 college chapters around the country, we’re going to be applying all kinds of grassroots strategies to bring the issue to the forefront,” he added.

The dedication each of these Elis shows to their cause represents not just their own interests but the way they function in the community they’re part of. Walker-Wells, said that he believes it can be problematic for Yalies to become excessively focussed on one aspect of their lives or one issue, a trait he sees

LL NOT AT A

in the future,” Newman said. “If someone’s really interested in an issue, we should help — if it’s some issue or thing [they] really know about and care about, it’s more interesting and they have more of an impact.”

and state legislation such as Arizona’s SB 1070 helped reignite interest in the immigration debate. She added that she hopes to get her fellow students more interested in issues such as racial profiling, and the image of immigration even beyond the Latino community.

“I collect stories. I share stories about my family, the communities we’ve worked with in New Haven and people I worked with at home. We talk about students like us who face uncertain futures because their immigration status puts them or their families at risk of deportation,” Enriquez said. “The human interest story is always a powerful one, and my role as a student activist is to remind other students how real these issues are for the people around them.”

Getting discussions going, she added, is a vital first step. Recent issues surrounding the implementation of the Secure Communities program, which has been attacked for the precarious position in which it places illegal immigrants, will help stimulate continued interest, Enriquez said.

For another breed of advocate, hitching their key issue

HOW IN TER ES TE D

ELECTION FROM PAGE B3

The political Yale student is not the fiery student organizer staying up all night to place door-

hangers on every door on Old Campus. What delving into the realm of the politicized instead reveals is a campus on which the majority of students who want to have an impact are doing that with specific issue advocacy more often than actively supporting a political candidate..

On that kind of landscape, those seeking to garner support for national political structures must be aware of who they’re working with. Stango said that, when he sought to register Yalies and win their support for Democratic candidates, he and his team specifically identified ways to show the Democratic ticket supportive of the issues different individuals and groups considered pertinent to their mission statements.

“There are a lot of people at Yale who would be more interested in political campaigns if someone would just talk to them about it,” said Herring, referring to her experience spreading the Eidelson message last semester.

But why these students aren’t already thinking about the importance of activism and building grassroots support remains unclear. One reason Walker-Wells specified is an assumption that the majority of students at Yale interact with peers who share their political beliefs.

“A good example is the ongoing conversation about the Republican presidential nomination,” he added. “I think one reason I haven’t had that conversation with my friends yet is because I think they agree with me.”

The idea of Yale as a liberal bastion, in the midst of the bluest of blue states, may, then, be behind a sense of complacency that leaves Yalies feeling little sense of urgency to work with campaigns or to push for change at the party level.

But Stango thinks there’s still untapped potential on campus.

“It’s absolutely possible for students to have an impact New Haven’s a small city and Connecticut’s a small state,” said Stango, a grizzled veteran of the Democratic scene in the state. “If you care and are willing to work extremely hard, you can have a major impact. It just can’t be about casually signing up to volunteer a couple times and putting New Haven campaign work on your resume.”

Maybe there’s something to be said for being a cog in the political action machine.

Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: the pastel hair trend. Who doesn’t want to have coiffure like melting ice cream?

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B9

WEEKEND BLOGS

YALE BLOGGERS REDEFINE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE // BY JACK LINSHI

Full stop. Post. Where are these words going?

For Elizabeth Henry ’14, author of the blog “Southern Belle At Yale,” her words were meant to go back to her home state of Mississippi, so that her parents, friends, relatives and teachers could hear about her college experience at Yale, as few people around her knew more about the school than what one could glean from “Gossip Girl.” But fast forward a few semesters, and “Southern Belle at Yale” is clearly not only read by Henry’s hometown, but also by many of her peers, many of whom she hasn’t ever met and might not understand the blog’s original intent.

“I honestly wasn’t sure anyone but my mom and the ladies from my church would read it,” Henry said. “It is hard for me to believe that it is so well-known.”

Yet Henry’s experience with blogging at Yale begs a larger question: When we send our words into the vast expanses of the Internet, what becomes of them?

has led to a slew of followers and questions that Guzman did not expect.

“I get [questions about how to get into Yale] a lot,” Guzman said. “Those questions get annoying after awhile — it’s like I have more to offer Tumblr than the fact that I got into Yale!”

When the Yale name gathers attention for a blog predominantly not about Yale, it can be vexing for the blogger. This is a familiar experience for Carolyn Lipka ’14, who mostly blogs about fashion and bad reality television on her Tumblr, yet has also identified as a Yale student. Like Guzman, Lipka also receives “a ton of questions about Yale.” Lipka is a staff reporter for the News.

“I don’t want to think my online identity is defined by the fact that I’m a Yale student,” Lipka said, “although I’m sure that it contributes to the people who choose to follow me.”

The issue of the unintended audience runs further than visitors who don’t appreciate the blog — or the blogger — for its intentions.

“IT’S FASCINATING TO SEE HOW DIFFERENT STUDENTS, SOME OF WHOM I HAVE NEVER EVEN MET, CAN HAVE VASTLY DIVERGENT EXPERIENCES AT THE SAME INSTITUTION.” THE ISSUE OF THE AUDIENCE

Blogs from Yale almost inevitably reach an audience beyond what was asked for — Henry mentioned that a lot of her visitors are random people who had Googled something about Yale. Naturally, these blogs attract people and feedback that weren’t anticipated.

Heidi Guzman ’14, who runs a Tumblr, started a blog last winter in an attempt to show people outside of Yale what her Yale experience has been like as a student of color. Yet just the simple Yale tag on a Tumblr post

There are two kinds of stranger: the stranger living thousands of miles away and the stranger in your residential college. Both of these strangers want to read about your Saturday night antics, but only one will take it personally. At a school as relatively small as Yale, bloggers all agree that there might be more of an interest in following a fellow Yalie just because he or she is a Yalie. On some level, uninvited Yale readership represents a strange kind of privacy breach. It might seem counterintuitive, but the closer

one is to the blogger, the easier it is to judge the blog.

For Larissa Pham ’14, whose public Tumblr has over 1,000 followers, keeping her blog shaded from Yalies she does not know is especially important.

“I don’t really advertise my blog at Yale because it’s more personal and that proved to be problematic in high school,” Pham said. “I write about my thoughts and life so there’s a safety in anonymity.”

But Pham, like other bloggers at Yale, knows that keeping a public blog private is impossible. Students talk to other students, and eventually the blog reaches an audience that one doesn’t purposefully write for.

Bloggers must subsequently assume responsibility and accept praise and criticism for all that is written.

BLOG CULTURE AT YALE, OR LACK THEREOF

Bloggers at Yale generally agree that there isn’t a blogging culture per se.

For Vlad Chituc ’12, blogging culture isn’t something he thinks about, despite following a few Yale blogs, writing for his own blog and contributing to another.

“It’s not that I don’t care or don’t dig the ‘scene’ or whatever, it’s just nothing I’ve ever been aware of,” Chituc said.

Ultimately, a quick survey of the blogs reveals that across private and public spheres, vast ranges of subjects and different blogging platforms yields that blogs are too dissimilar for there to be a “scene.” Some blogs are just simply pictures and links, such as a blog run by Demetra Hufnagel ’14, who collects small tidbits that are aesthetically appealing to her on her Tumblr.

Hufnagel also believes that Yale blogs are both too few and too diverse to become a culture.

“I only know of maybe three or four other blogs that are maintained by Yalies,” Hufnagel said. “They certainly run the

...and then I said

gamut of possible subjects and themes.”

Hufnagel remarked, “It’s fascinating to see how different students, some of whom I have never even met, can have vastly divergent experiences at the same institution.”

But for the most talkedabout of blogs, such as Henry’s “Southern Belle at Yale,” criticism and hype create a culture of their own on Yale’s campus.

“Someone told me that the first time her picture was on my blog, she got a couple emails from people saying ‘Omg you’re on Southern Belle at Yale,’ ” Henry said.

Yet Henry, who writes from a conservative point of view, must also face the inevitable criticism of those from the other side of the political spectrum, even though her blog is mainly a retelling of her activities and adventures at Yale. Chituc also notes that if anything, unproductive comment sections on Yale blogs and other publications form their own subculture.

“I’ve had a few blog posts get some moderate attention, and there are some thoughtful responses,” Chituc said. “But most of the comments are just kind of irrelevant or stupid.”

In the end, blogging at Yale is, in short, a strange environment that crosses lines between

private and public, self-indulgent and thoughtful — which often times, as evidenced, leads to a lessthan-ideal experience. Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate, and many bloggers agree.

“When we stop writing for an audience,” Lipka said, “only then are we able to produce content worth reading.”

Contact JACK LINSHI at jack.linshi@yale.edu .

Sic Inc Preview SiC InC presents SIC TRAN$iT this weekend in the Calhoun Caberet on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The show features student composed pieces, disco lighting that pulses to the music and violin jamming that is a little bit virtuoso, a little bit rockstar.

// ZO

EG

AN ORM

c Sic In

S AT U R D AY MARCH 24

at the

un Calho

ret.

Caba

JAMESTOWN KICKSTARTER KICKOFF CONCERT WITH NO WE’RE NOT! BD House // 10:00 p.m.

They got bills to pay and songs to play.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Watching Katy Perry join the army in “Part of Me.” Best way to stick to your ex-boyfriend is to find yourself in the military industrial complex.

PAGE B10

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

CLASS AND CLASSIC ACTORS: A DISSECTION The big winner from the 84th Academy Awards, “The Artist,” was a perfect Oscar movie: a feelgood work that was entertaining and engaging. And safe. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a neat idea for a film — a cute, attractive, clean story predicated on its novelty, which it played to the tune of five Oscars. But it hardly took risks.

I bring this up not to make a grand point about the failure of the Hollywood voting system. (That’s for a later column.)

Rather, I want to look at why “The Artist” won Best Picture and what this tells us about the industry. It’s really simple: Hollywood loves nostalgia.

They don’t make movies like they used to — that much is certain. Actors today are plainer, rougher. Better? Perhaps. But the stars aren’t like they used to be. They aren’t the true stars that commanded shock, awe and respect. We don’t regard Brad Pitt the same way our grandparents bowed before Charlton Heston.

And even he (though I love him) was nothing compared to the great classical American actors, the ones that defined starpower, that carried the greatest film studios of all time on their very backs while never (publicly, at least) resembling anything other than true gentlemen.

Sure, the classic actors were products of a different time. With censorship boards screening all of Hollywood’s prereleased films and American social conserva-

MICHAEL LOMAX CINEMA TO THE MAX tism breathing down everyone’s necks, you had to be subtle and discreet. The classical films were thus built on understatement and grace. Anything less and the movie wasn’t getting released.

In a lot of ways, it was this cool, calm approach to filmmaking that defined the era. Actors were completely in control of themselves and their characters, both living within and acting outside of the plot. You listened to what they said to pick up on what was not said. And you enjoyed the hell out of the show because of it.

That was class.

So, with that exposition out of the way, I suppose there’s not much more for me to do than to run through a short list of the very actors that embodied classon-screen, in every sense of the phrase, keeping in mind that without these 10 men, you have nothing.

10. Gregory Peck Peck was a fine actor and a complete gentleman, capable of playing any part presented to him. (My evidence: He starred in “Moby Dick” and “Designing Women,” back-to-back.)

See: “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) — Best. Father. Ever.

9. John Wayne In a career stretching 50 years, Wayne appeared in well over 100

films, kicking asses and not bothering to take names all along the way.

See: “The Searchers” (1956) — Only John Wayne could make you sympathize with a racist, genocidal ex-Confederate soldier.

8. Gene Kelly What gets me the most about Kelly is how effortless he makes it all look. He just performs. No faltering, no fatigue, no focus. It all comes straight from the heart.

See: “Singin’ in the Rain” (1954) — Quite simply, the best musical ever made.

7. Joseph Cotten The most underrated American actor ever. When you talk about the great names in American cinema, Cotten’s is always passed over. Why? I blame Orson Welles, with whom Cotten collaborated on many of his best projects, a name that overshadowed Cotten’s legacy.

See: “The Third Man” (1949) — One of my top five favorite films.

6. Cary Grant Before Sean Connery, Alec Guinness and Russell Brand, there was Cary Grant, the quintessential English actor. Always a leading man, Grant exuded charm like incense exudes strong odors — overpowering but hardly overwhelming.

See: “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) — The definition of doubleentendre.

5. Laurence Olivier There’s never been a Shake-

A Genethic Assessment In 1953, James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. Since then, science has continued to flex its control over life’s building blocks by creating DNA forensics, sequencing the human genome and, yes, cloning a sheep.

Everyone knows that in The Future, we’ll test everyone at birth for genetic predispositions. Those who show aptitude for math and science will be put in the best schools on the fast track to developing the teleportation technology of The Future’s future. Those who show aptitude for athletics and strategy will run our intergalactic military. And those with genetic disorders will be killed at birth in what we’ll call an “Assessment” or some other neutral phrase. Oh, and there will also be some sort of futuristic gladiator matches as well, probably with some of those beefy military guys, maybe fighting against a genetically enhanced super-rhino with two heads. Pretty much your typical, ho-hum dystopia.

IN THE FUTURE, WE WILL HAVE THE SUPREME POWER PREVIOUSLY POSSESSED ONLY

BY DR. FRANKENSTEIN THE POWER TO CREATE LIFE. The social striations this Future advertises — citizens being evaluated on genetic test results for college admissions, job applications, romantic partner selection and everything in between — pose serious ethical concerns. Imagine trying to get medical insurance when your public test records indicate a life expectancy of 27 years.

“But,” you say as I write this column, “won’t the scientific advances that allow widespread complete genetic testing also lead to medical discoveries that cure many of these problems?” Good question, concerned citizen.

Yes, this science will bring about miraculous medical solutions. But how? The better we understand how genes work, the better we can work with them to find cures. Just like your dad with his childhood ham radio, scientists learn by tinkering. Only this time they’ll tinker with life itself.

Scientists have already created many hybrid animals, some for food (the beefalo), some for personality traits (the cama: part camel, part llama) and some out of pure curi-

S U N D AY MARCH 25

JACOB EVELYN THE FUTURE osity (the liger, the largest cat in the world).

But this hybridization doesn’t always work out so nicely. Two bee species were crossbred in the 50s to try to produce tamer bees for honey production and agriculture, but the resulting colony wasn’t quite what was expected. That new species is now called “killer bees.”

In The Future, we won’t stop just at combining species. We’ll pick and choose traits from different animals to create superorganisms, and we’ll blur the line between organisms and technology to create true cyborgs.

We’ll have bioluminescent monkeys (by adding jellyfish DNA), computer chips will use living animal neurons instead of silicon, and we’ll use cartilage cells to grow replacement human body parts on the backs of rodents.

These new technologies will also allow us to keep simple animal brains alive outside of their host bodies, so that we can transplant real minds into our robots. The same principles will let us control insects via transmitters to chips in their brains. Eventually, implanted chips will control much larger animals like rats, birds and sharks, creating living robots with the elimination of free will.

Finally, in The Future, we will have the supreme power previously possessed only by Dr. Frankenstein — the power to create life.

We will be able to write a DNA sequence with a computer, place it in a cell and invent our own completely new synthetic organism.

Take note, concerned citizen: these technologies aren’t products of The Future at all.

Every single experiment listed in this article (growing human ears on the backs of mice, putting a lamprey brain inside a robot, controlling sharks via remote control and creating the first ever synthetic reproducing cellular organism) has already been successfully completed.

Of course, in The Future, remote-controlled rodents won’t just be in labs; they’ll be household pets! What could be better than having a moonwalking mouse? “But we’re taking away free will,” you say. “What’s to stop us from making remote-controlled humans?”

If you’re concerned about the ethics of it all, well … aren’t you due for an Assessment soon?

Contact JACOB EVELYN at jacob.evelyn@yale.edu .

“WHEN ART EXCEEDS ITS BOUNDARIES” YUAG // 3:00 p.m.

Angles on art with Angie Shih BR ’14

// CREDIT

Hollywood loves nostalgia

spearean of such talent on screen before or since, and Olivier’s adaptations of the Bard’s best plays do something that many films are unable to do: become Olivier’s personal products, not just simple rehashings.

See: “Hamlet” (1948) — The best screen adaptation of a Shakespearean drama.

4. James Stewart The sweetest man who ever lived. Jimmy Stewart’s career is unmatched — he’s appeared in nearly every iconic American film you can think of, from Frank Capra romcoms to Hitchcock thrillers to John Ford Westerns. Stewart is also universally considered a consummate professional, a soft-spoken nice guy who never let anyone down.

See: “Vertigo” (1958) — Jimmy Stewart could be quite dark, if you let him.

3. Humphrey Bogart Bogie is probably the most famous American actor, and deservedly so. The epitome of noble, hardboiled cynicism,

Humphrey Bogart milled around Broadway and Hollywood for nearly 20 years, accepting supporting roles and hunting for a breakthrough performance. He finally found one in “The Maltese Falcon” in 1941 — Bogart never looked back.

See: “In a Lonely Place” (1950) — Bogie’s finest role is also his most sinister.

2. Fred Astaire Simply put, without Fred Astaire, the entire history of dance on film vanishes. But unlike Kelly, what made Astaire so inspiring was not his energy but rather his extreme precision and grace. He was smooth, not frenetic; artistic, not passionate; economic, not gimmicky. That was his beauty. Unelegant elegance.

See: “Top Hat” (1935) — This famous Astaire film is admittedly not his best, but “Cheek to Cheek” is one of the most graceful numbers in American cinema.

1. Clark Gable Suave. Arresting. Masculine.

All Man. And then some. He was the King of Hollywood. No one before or since defined starpower quite like Clark Gable, who practically gift-wrapped careers for his female co-stars and made his studios millions upon millions upon millions (remember, this was the 1930s).

See: “It Happened One Night” (1934) — The film made Gable’s career and influenced the creation of Bugs Bunny. Enough said.

That’s that. I’m thinking about doing a retrospective of classical actresses next. (How the hell did we go from Audrey Hepburn to Lindsay Lohan? I blame Marilyn Monroe.) In the meantime, check out totalnotebook.me for more commentary on the above screen legends.

Stay classy, my friends.

Contact MICHAEL LOMAX at michael.lomax@yale.edu .

YOUR SPRING BREAK IS OVER (and so is your childhood) This past week no one asked me about my spring break.

For starters, I technically have no vacations at all.

“But Jordi, isn’t a gap year, like, 12 whole months of pure recess?”

No! While I do get some time to sunbathe on weekdays, I still work, take classes and learn new languages (eu estou aprendendo o português!). Then why talk about spring break? Because I had one anyway, and IT’S NO MORE. Before you roll your eyes, I promise there’s a life lesson bundled inside this story; stick around or skip right to the third to last paragraph.

Now let’s ask the question: What did you do over break, YALE? SPRNG BRK 2k12 was fun, right?!

“Way to cure blindness in a Malawian village, Sharon. Of all people, I always knew you would be the one do it in less than 14 days.”

“You got sloshed in Hawaii?

You go Karl Donovan, you go Karl Donovan.”

My spring break, or rather, a few of my friends’ breaks, partly consisted of visiting me in my tropical empire, la República Dominicana. Here’s a bowdlerized version of what went down, with some pointers squeezed in for good measure: N\ jXe^ bXiXfb\ Æ Xik`jkj kf honor should include Gwen Stefani, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and LCD Soundsystem.

You know, the Greats.

N\ jljkX`e\[ \iiXk`Z YcfkZ_\j of sunburn; the noon sun is the worst (add something about buying spray-on aloe vera; let Lauren know she didn’t steal my T-shirt (my mom did)).

N\ jkXp\[ Xk X _fk\c `e GlekX Cana. Tips for a potential séjour: -Make buddies with waiters.

-Bring tinfoil, bathing suit(s).

JORDI GASSÓ INTERMISSION -Always opt for the all-inclusive hotel package. A-L-W-A-YS. -Peaches can be appropriate beach music if no one else is listening. #teachesofpeachesinbeaches -Enunciate. “Gift shop” could be misconstrued as “gay show.”

-Steer clear of Cuban strangers with no visible friends.

N\ Xk\ YXiifnj f] ;fd`e`ZXe food, which is to say, plantains, plantains, plantains and red soda.

I hear you can do the same in East Haven!

N\ ]\[ fli d`e[j n`k_ k_\ wisdom of 30 Rock, RuPaul’s Drag Race and America’s Next Top Model. We hope you did too.

N\ nXkZ_\[ ÇK_\ ;\jZ\edants” while eating Nutella with our fingers, despite the option of bringing in a plastic goblet of wine inside a movie theatre.

If ever watching “The Descendants,” I recommend you do so too. Everyone will stare at you and you will not give a single fuck.

N\ Xcjf Zli\[ jfd\ Yc`e[ness and someone got sloshed (I didn’t do the latter because I was the designated driver, so take that, future employers).

Dp PXc\ ]i`\e[j d\k dp Dominican high school friends and somewhere in the universe, a black hole devoured a planet. As the Mayans predicted.

T i re s s c re e c h !

Mo ra l approaching! Third thing!

Back when I was a teenager, many older peers warned me about the fickle bonds formed during high school. That I was going to lose most of my friends, that the glue holding us together was the quotidian scenario of our

interactions. After all, education has been a categorical expectation since birth. Whether it’s primary school or Yale, they all form part of the same blueprint. The prognosis came true: I can now count the number of high school friends I care about with 10 fingers or less.

The difference when it comes to higher education is both cultural and behavioral: (a) The American model of college usually implies living where you study. (b) I once paid an expert to tell me that our individual personalities fully congeal after high school, when the umbilical cord shows signs of rupture and autonomy begins to weigh over our choices.

If you share a toilet with five other people or make dinner dates with classmates, all while you become the person you will arguably be for the rest of your existence, you have to admit, that’s a powerful development.

It’s golden, man!

So when my Yale and Dominican buds converged, a fascinating estuary of common interests and friction took place. I realized my college pals, with only three years of friendship under our belt, know me better than many of my loved ones at home. I can try to prove it on Facebook or Google+, but my social Venn Diagram has expanded, and with it, trust and priorities have shifted. Sad truth?

Nope, just another classic spring break lesson. It is what it is.

My only regret: not partying with the Delta Kappa Epsilon bros who were in town. Punta Cana next year, you guys?

Contact JORDI GASSO at jmgj11@gmail.com .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Learn to ride a bicycle. You will not regret it.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B11

WEEKEND THEATER

LIFE IS A PARODYWHEN YOU’RE IN‘URINETOWN’ // BY JOY SHAN

Not too far from the Occupiers camped out on the Green, another insurgency has risen at the Off Broadway Theater — in this case, within the musical “Urinetown.” In “Urinetown”, a drought has descended, and private toilets have been eradicated to combat the water shortage. In the midst of the crisis, an empire called Urine Good Company (UGC) has emerged: the company charges high fees to use “Public Amenities,” or public bathrooms, causing strife and unrest among the poor. Citizens who cannot afford the fee and instead relieve themselves in, say, the bushes all face one punishment: exile to a mysterious destination called Urinetown.

Thus the musical comedy sets up its challenge: to treat the banal topic of urination with the heady melodrama of a revolutionary tale. The result is a buoyant stream of irony and self-

deprecating humor. But the fun leaves room for the audience to ask new questions about musical theater as a convention.

Much of the show’s satire stems from its parade of complete caricatures — characters who are unblinking cliches of typical Broadway stock. The hero, Bobby Strong (Kyle Clark ’13), is a strong-willed youth with a dash of naiveté. Bobby works at Public Amenity #9 under the employment of Miss Pennywise (Lucie Ledbetter ’15), whose embittered snark and sneering glare render her a perfect exaggeration of the jaded, weary old woman familiar to Broadway. Miss Pennywise works beneath the UGC empire, controlled by CEO Caldwell B. Cladwell (Carter Michael ’15).

Cladwell, too, is a hyperbole: the slimy, dictatorial villain who, in his own words, merely wants to know, “Where’s my dough?”

After Bobby’s father gets taken

to Urinetown for urinating on the sidewalk, distraught Bobby meets Cladwell’s daughter, Hope (Catherine Chiocchi ’15). Hope is as every bit an unwavering caricature as her father; and with each doe-eyed smile and pert hair flip, she pushes the common concept of the kindhearted and pure heroine to newer, more absurd levels — with hilarious results. Bobby, inspired by Hope’s croons about the power of love, incites a rebellion among the poor, causing a spiral of events that anger UGC. The actors never stop for breath in their quest to fulfill their exaggerated roles — from Cladwell’s smug glances to the rebels’ lunatic twitches, the minutest detail receives 100% investment, and the farce succeeds. But while sustaining the sheer ridiculousness of their roles, each character remains blissfully unaware that he or she

lives inside a parody.

“Urinetown” does not stop here in its complexity, for the play takes a turn towards selfawareness with its two narrators: Officer Lockstock (Jesse Kirkland ’12), who is Cladwell’s man, and Little Sally (Clio Contogenis ’14), a local street urchin. Lockstock and Little Sally step outside the scenes to examine the play as the fictional production that it is. These moments of lucidity satirize the convention of musicals even more. When Sally complains about the musical’s subject matter, Lockstock answers, “Sometimes — in a musical — it’s easier to focus on one big thing … the audience tends to be happier … and it’s easier to write.”

Sally is perhaps the plotline’s most lucid character, and Contogenis skillfully fills her character with the necessary precocious humor. Her most memorable line, “Urinetown isn’t so much a

place as it is a metaphysical place … it’s the town wherever people learn to live in fear” is an example of how she helps add another layer of meaning to “Urinetown.” Beneath its experiments with standard theater convention, the play also successfully questions the standard idea of “heroism” and the gray nature of government corruption. The play’s ending, which startles the audience while shattering theater stereotypes, also incites new questions: among them, whether or not the people or the dictator is to blame for society’s ills.

The play’s choreography was a continual high point: the versatile actors kept pulling out different dance forms, from standard show tune numbers to gospel revival. Laura Bass ’15, the choreographer, said that the wide range of dance makes the show timeless. “[The dance] doesn’t restrict [itself] to a certain time period … the show will be relatable twenty years from now,” she said.

Throughout the transitions, actors never let on that there is anything less than serious about their actions. Besides the quips between the narrators, the dancing is what allows the musical’s parody to shine. In the synchro-

nized dance numbers, the actors make use of exaggerated theater techniques that audiences normally take for granted: extending dramatic entrances for much longer than is comfortable, for example, or breathlessly portraying a choreographed fight between Bobby and Lockstop using plungers and toilet scrubs as weapons. All the while, their grins never fade, and the joke is only elevated.

“Urinetown” escapes classification. With its dreamy hero/ heroine duo and colorful dance numbers, it is a textbook version of musical tradition, but also a perfect mockery of this tradition. The play satirizes the melodramatic fare of many famous shows, but it, too, ends on a haunting note. But apart from all this, “Urinetown” is fun — and, as Lockstock would remind Little Sally, just a play, after all.

Contact JOY SHAN at joy.shan@yale.edu .

// JOY SHAN

“Urinetown” treats the banal with the heady melodrama of a revolutionary tale.

‘The Physicists’ explores the science of madness // BY YANAN WANG

Historically, scientists have not had the best reputation for being well-adjusted. In books and movies, they are generally depicted as eccentric recluses with pale skin and crazy, bespectacled eyes. They spend most of their time in laboratory dungeons, or so we’re told, conducting experiments with strange substances whose names no one can pronounce. As kids, we watched cartoons like “Pinky and the Brain” and “Dexter’s Laboratory” with a detached fascination — those genius scientists were interesting, but we could not imagine adopting their lifestyles for ourselves.

In “The Physicists,” showing tonight at the Saybrook Underbrook, three renowned physicists housed in an insane asylum add a new dimension to the age-old notion of a “mad scientist.”

The central characters — “Newton” (Alec Joyner ’14), “Einstein” (Maxwell Ramage ’14) and Mobius (Sesenu Woldemariam ’14) — are patients in a “sanatorium” run by the highstrung Doktor von Frahnd (Harriet Weaver ’13) and her team of nurses, composed of a Judo champion and a noted woman wrestler. Between them, the scientists have murdered three nurses in three years, whilst insisting that they are not mad and that they are truly the renowned academics they claim to be. Einstein plays the fiddle and says that he is Albert Einstein. Newton wears a large white wig and claims to be masquerading as Sir Isaac Newton to conceal his true identity as Albert Einstein. Mobius believes that King Solomon’s spirit has entered his

S U N D AY MARCH 25

body and is responsible for his miraculous scientific discoveries.

This cast of characters makes for a powerful, farcical trio.

However, sometimes the humour falls flat and the chemistry dies away. For instance, when Newton’s character speaks didactically in his slight British accent, there is a missed beat before anyone responds. Statements such as “[Engineers] treat electricity as a pimp treats a whore” attempt to be both funny and striking, but instead stagnate and confuse the otherwise flowing dialogue.

Likewise, Einstein’s character is a nervous, fumbling man whose words seem incongruous with his frail physical presence. When he stutters, “In all the world there is nothing more disgusting than a woman’s frantic desire for self-sacrifice,” we don’t know whether to laugh or be offended.

The true value of the play lies in its weaving of a philosophical debate into the comical elements of the madhouse. In the show’s climactic scene, it is revealed that Mobius is a true genius who is simply remaining within the institution to protect his groundbreaking discoveries from falling into the wrong hands.

“Our knowledge has become a terrible burden,” Mobius says to the other two scientists. “Only in the madhouse can we remain free! Only in the madhouse can we think our own thoughts! Outside, there is dynamite.”

The play skillfully leads the audience through a psychological journey that questions what it means to be mad. Each turn of the plot creates more uncertainty surrounding the scientists’ sanity, and at times it appears

that the other characters are more mentally unstable than the patients themselves. The police inspector, Richard Voss (Patrick Cage ’14), is prone to sudden angry outbursts, for instance, and Doktor von Frahnd’s nervous twitches hint at her own psychosis.

Beyond this psychological quandary lies an ethical one.

“The Physicists” asks whether a scientist’s duty is to unleash all known wisdom to the world or to keep it secret, lest someone with bad intentions use their intelligence to perform evil deeds.

Written in the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, the play also sends a pertinent message to present generations who reside in a world that can be destroyed with the flipping of a few switches.

“Let us be madmen once again,” Newton says. “Let us be mad but wise.”

“Prisoners, but free,” says Einstein.

“Physicists, but innocent,” follows Mobius.

Despite some moments where characters’ movements are poorly orchestrated, “The Physicists” is both entertaining and enlightening. It is filled with plot twists and unexpected moments of insight that reveal depth beneath its comical veneer. With the scientists’ decision to remain in the asylum, we are warned that sometimes knowledge is best kept locked away

“The Physicists” weaves a philosophical debate into the comic of the madhouse.

Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

IMPROVISING ON JAZZ: ELLEN PRIEST’S PAINTINGS ON COLLAGED PAPER Institute of Sacred Music // All Day

Seems synesthesiaic.

// KAMARIA GREENFIELD

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Playing with an Etch-A-Sketch. Why? Not everyone can be pals with Mitt.

PAGE B12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND BACKSTAGE

GREGORY CREWDSON Photographer, Swimmer, In Search of Lost Time // BY AVA KOFMAN

// ZOE GORMAN

T

hrough constructing elaborate sets, as in films, Gregory Crewdson ART ’88 photographs scenes of mourning and melancholy. Despite, or perhaps because of, his use of sublime twilight, Crewdson captures the surreal just below the suburban surface. Crewdson speaks about David Lynch as one of his major influences. And one can feel a lot like Jeffrey Beaumont, Blue Velvet’s weirdbeat hero, when looking at Crewdson’s images of the strange but all too familiar — “I’m seeing something that was always hidden. I’m in the middle of a mystery. And it’s all secret.”

A: Photography has a different relation to narrative than [do] other narrative forms — say, film or literature — in that it is a frozen moment in time. So any story that a photograph can tell is, by definition, a limited one, but I think that’s what draws me to photography is that the story never completely resolves itself. That it always remains a kind of mystery. When I’m making my pictures, I really never think about what happens before or after. I really just think about a single image and try to make a picture as beautiful and mysterious as I can. And I think one of the central ways that I attempt to do this is through light — to try to tell a story through light, to try to create meaning through light.

Q: In interviews you talk about this magic hour of twilight as a sort of perfect time. Rick Moody’s essay describes your dusk as the “poetry of retrospection.” I’m wondering if the story of how light functions in your work — and the search for light — is somehow related to memory.

A: One thing I’m always so tempted to do is to try to find what I would call an uncanny sensation. And that is this sense that I’m trying to find the intersection between the familiar and the strange. So taking ordinary life and things that feel ordinary and familiar and transforming them through light and color to make them feel mysterious. Or even terrifying, in a certain way. Or unsettling.

The way Freud described the uncanny is that sense of looking into the familiar and then having that unexpected sense of terror.

Which he would argue is related to some repressed memory of sort. For me, I don’t know how much my work deals as literally with the history of my own memory, but I certainly want the viewer to have a kind of connection to a memory of the past, or something. But I think all photographs do that. I think all photographs have a link to the

past. That’s the nature of what pictures are.

Q: Why photos? Could you see yourself making a pure image through painting, if you had existed in a pre-technological era?

A: No, I don’t. Although my work is very connected to film or painting or other things, I think, in the end, my pictures are very photographic. They feel linked to a very photographic form in terms of light and framing and focus. They play off the history and tradition of photography.

And of course all photographs have this strange relationship to truth and reality that I’m interested in, you know. All photographs, on one level or another, are documents. They are evidence in a way. And I like that about pictures.

Q: With regards to this history, what photographers do you see yourself citing in your work?

A: My pictures definitely relate to a long history of photographs.

You could almost say that my pictures are in a way ‘pictures of pictures’ in a certain sense, you know. That part of my experience has been mediated through the tradition of the medium. So I always have a deep connection to Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld, William Eggleston, Jeff Wall. A number of artists.

And painters, and writers, and filmmakers. I think photography is the currency of our culture in a certain way. How we relate to photographs can feel very effortless.

Q: I was wondering if music and music videos — and how they too evoke uncanny moods without explicit narrative — also influence your work?

A: Sure, that’s one of the reasons I organized the music panel [with David Byrne and James Murphy at the YUAG] yesterday because there’s a great intersection between art and music generally.

I feel that personally I’ve been very influenced by music and video and art. Even before I was

a photographer I was in a band when I was a teenager called the Speedies. We had our moment.

We had a single called “Let Me Take Your Foto.” (You can google it). It was one of the first videos on MTV. Q: Going back to the idea of film, you’ve cited “Night of the Hunter” (1955) as influential.

That connection really struck me for how the movie feels so wrong because of how right the way light is used.

A: For me, what I love is any work of art that transforms or transports you into another world. That, as you say, it’s all wrong but right. And when you’re in a convincing world — whether it’s a painting or movie or photograph — and you just enter it willingly, you become sort of a participant in that world in a certain way.

I always responded to “Night of the Hunter” because it’s absolutely stunningly beautiful and hypnotic how you enter into a children’s view of the world. That’s both beautiful and terrifying in some sense.

Q: When you enter the world of your photos, how do you prepare before going on set?

A: Yeah, well you know I work with a lot of people to make my pictures and I think that can be really stressful and intense work on location. And there’s always sort of things that can go wrong so there’s always a level of anxiety making my pictures. But when it all comes together and the light becomes exactly right, and there’s this perfect balance between the ambient light of the sun and the artificial lighting, all of that stuff recedes. All of that preparation, all of the anxiety, all the complications recede, and what you’re left with is this sort of calm and stillness. And that’s why I make pictures. It’s that.

It’s a search for that sense of order … and stillness.

Q: Is that magic light related to the passing of time or the manipulation of space? Are they the same thing?

A: For me, it’s none of those.

It’s that time ceases in a certain way. I’ve said many times before that I’m always in my pictures searching for the perfect world, I think, and also about the impossibility of doing so. So those two things come together, but, for a moment, there’s this beautiful event that occurs almost outside of time.

Q: But in that perfect moment, the subjects are struggling. Under the weight of that … perfection? Our misguided perception?

A: For me, there’s clearly always an underlying sadness in my photographs. Or loneliness, you could even say. I think my pictures are about attempts to find connection — the search for meaning. And again, the search for meaning through light, you could say.

Q: So the subjects are going through something similar to your own search?

A: Oh yeah, that’s definitely the autobiographical part. The subjects are in a certain way definitely surrogates for my own sense of estrangement, you could say. Which I think all photographers have in a different way. There’s a loneliness to the medium.

“

Q: To ask you back the question you asked James Murphy and David Byrne yesterday about their songwriting process, what’s the process you go through for making an image?

A: I usually drive around location scouting and through that process I’ll come across something I feel could occupy one of my pictures and through that an image will just come up in my mind. And then, I’ll also do a lot of swimming and think about an image while I’m swimming. Once I’m pretty clear on it, then I start bringing in my assistant, and my location manager, and my Director of Photography, and then we’ll start working out the logistics of the picture. The lighting and whatever else needs to happen.

And months later, we’ll make the picture. And the picture will end up becoming something else than what I originally imagined it to be.

Q: Does the final product ever match up with that first image in your head?

A: If it matches up then it sort of fails because art in the end has to be about mystery and you have to be surprised about what you make. So something unexpected has to happen.

Contact AVA KOFMAN at ava.kofman@yale.edu .

I’VE SAID MANY TIMES BEFORE THAT I’M ALWAYS IN MY PICTURES SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT WORLD, I THINK, AND ALSO ABOUT THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DOING SO.

“

Q: How do you build narrative into a single image without having a before or after?