Author Archives: izmasterflex

EVENT
Learn to Build a Theremin Tonight with the DIY Collective

The DIY collective writes in:

Tonight at 8 pm, we’ll be gathering in the UOC fun for some DIY fun and finals stress-relief. Mr. Anne Goose McDonald’s will be leading a workshop to build a basic theremin controlled with light! And then we’ll plug them all into a mixer and try to broadcast a brief performance with our baby fm transmitter on 103.5 fm. It’s gonna be awesome.

Full schedule

7:30: Get there early! Help set up! Get a head start on your theremin
8:00: Official workshop start time
9:00: Broadcast performance! Tune in on 103.5 if you can’t make the workshop
Tooth Pun and Miss Chef

Date: Tonight, May 14
Time: 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Place: UOC, 190 High Street

EVENT
Workday at Long Lane Farm

Cat Walsh ’16 writes in:

Hello, you!

Now that the weather is getting nicer and the soil remediation process is coming to a close, I’ll bet there are an awful lot of you with spring fever for some casual farming. Well, you, farmer, are in luck! Some exciting things are happening this week at the farm, and we want you to be a part of them.

So, you are hereby invited to our Saturday workday (it’s great! you should come! bring all your friends, pets, mommas and poppas, visiting siblings, pre-frosh, roommates, ex lovers!) out at Long Lane Farm. Come play in the sun n dirt with us!!

Date: Saturday, May 4
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Place: Long Lane Farm
Cost: Free
Contact person: cmwalsh@wes, and/or the farming listserv (farming(at)lyris.wesleyan.edu)

EVENT
Music Festival on Washington Street

The residents of Washington street and several student bands want you to know:

There is going to be a party on Washington Street tomorrow afternoon! We have got a whole lot of music coming–there will be two stages divided between Farm House and Buddhist House, and 15, that is right, 15 acts between the two. Tomorrow is 72 degrees, and sunny, pretty perfect for some outdoor music.

Buho backyard:
2:00 Deep Future
2:30 Anaphylactic Shock
3:15 Featherwood Bee
4:00 Sky Bars
4:45 New School
5:30 Lets Party Hats! Hats! Hats!
6:00 Bakshi

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FEATURED
Majora Carter ’88, Commencement Speaker, Accused of Turning Corporate

Joss Whedon ’86 won’t be the most controversial honorary degree recipient at Commencement this May.

A recent New York Times article, Hero of the Bronx is Now Accused of Betraying It, details the rise of our very own (and this year’s lesser-publicized Honorary Degree recipient) Majora Carter ’88. Carter founded the program Sustainable South Bronx, supporting local food production and urban revitalization in the South Bronx. Now she is consulting for corporations like FreshDirect, which has recently occupied a huge lot in the South Bronx, but serves clients mostly in Manhattan and none in the neighborhood around it. That’s not to mention the $500 fee Carter reportedly charges for initial consultations. Journalist Winnie Hu gives the overview:

Ms. Carter’s meteoric rise also made her a polarizing figure. Many former allies and neighbors say that Ms. Carter trades on the credibility she built in the Bronx, while no longer representing its interests. They say she has capitalized on past good deeds in the way that politicians parlay their contacts into a lobbying career, or government regulators are hired by the companies they once covered.

“You can’t have it both ways,” said Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. “Either you’re an honest broker and accountable to the community, or you’re working for a business interest and accountable to that.”

Carter is accused of betraying her ideals and becoming a fallen hero of sorts. (When Wesleying tweeted out a link to the article, South Bronx Unite and other critical parties were quick to weigh in on the situation as it’s perceived. Carter herself briefly joined in with a YouTube dedication of her own.) Some fellow alumni are making the connection to Wes:

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FEATURED
WESU brings Zammuto, Snowblink and The Japanese to Eclectic

Zammuto’s play with sound and sonic possibility makes you go “Aww!” Sound-smithing and experimentation create perfect musical spirals with creative sampling and synthesizing. Zammuto is the Nick Zammuto half of The Books, with a new live backing band. If you don’t know about the now-defunct Books, they scavenged for sound bits (like family videos from Goodwill, or the contents of the blog Everything is Terrible) to knit together into sampledelic folk-inspired musical pieces.

Zammuto records all of its music in an idyllic house in the woods of Vermont. They are basically awesome. Projected visuals, like finger skateboarding or rushing wooded landscapes, were all a part of the sensory concert experience. The crowd gobbled up the surreal juxtapositions of images, cheering at an image of a hardboiled egg getting sliced in half and returning the gesture when one video featured a bunch of middle fingers. When they were called back onstage for an encore, Sean Dixon started out with an epic drum solo, which turned into the drum rolls of the Paul Simon classic “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” with a funky, syncopated rendition of the chorus. On top of Christopher Owens covering “The Boxer,” it’s really too bad former student Adrian Simon, formerly ’15 hasn’t been around to hear his dad’s tunes and get all embarrassed.

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EVENT
Big Tusk, Marathon, and Petunia @ Farm House

Ana Clare Smith ‘15 wants you to know:

Big ~~Husk~~ Tusk, with Sam Long ’12 and Howe Pearson ’12, are coming back to the motherland, and particularly back to Farm House this Thursday. Check out what they have been up to. Opening for them are ~~Friendship~~ Marathon, and Petunia. The show starts at 9:30, and Farm House is located across the street from Indian Hill, on Vine and Wash. More scoop here on the facebooks. See ya’ there!

love,

Farm House

Date: Thursday, February 28
Time: 9:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.
Place: Farm House
Cost: Free

FEATURED
Photos: Leaves of Green Come to Earth House

Leaves of Green, photographed by Rachel Pincus ’13.

This happened last night at Earth House. The living room was as packed as it has ever been, and squished bodies erupted into moshing ones several times throughout the night, while people spilled out into the other two adjoining rooms, making for a full house throughout all three acts.

Blackbird & the Cherry Tree began the night with their bluesy soul-rolling tunes. Recently graduated songstress Mel Hsu ’13 cradled us with her cello, Jess Best ’14 with her keyboard and powerful voice, Sam Friedman ’13 on harmonica, and Mark Bennett ’13 on drums. The music contained elements of Hsu’s own collaborative work with Josh Smith ’11, with added soul elements.

They were followed by O Presidente, a San Francisco-by-way-of-Wesleyan based band, including Tobias Butler ’13, Andrew Zingg ’13, and Charlie Ellis ’13, who recently came out with their debut album, Club de Futebol. After WESU ranked them No. 2 in their top 30, CMJ “discovered” them, too. Audience members coined their sound “surf punk”, “a little bit of Clash”, or as someone else put it, just “fun-awesome.”

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FEATURED
Valentine’s Day Post-Mortem, Part One: In Defense of Valentine’s Day

Or, “Why You Are Actually In Love and Just Didn’t Realize It”

Yes, that’s President Roth ’78 gazing up at Clark Hall longingly in 1977.

Valentine’s Day seems to have gone out of fad. It’s a day to bemoan, moan, eat chocolate, buy into or cynically quip about commercialization of holidays, and generally feel bad about another year having gone by without finding that special someone.

But it’s time to give Valentine’s Day the justice it deserves.

Wesleyan is awash in couple celebration today. Wesleyan University Facebook posts like this, for “Love Bugs” alumni to tell their couple story, and Argus articles like this and this, about what to do if you are single or in a couple on Valentine’s Day, or Argus polls about nominating the sexiest single are symptoms of obsessive culture around a single/couple dichotomy. At a campus where we like to toss around words like “messing up the heteronormative patriarchy,” maybe we could turn an eye to the relationship one.

Because even if you’re not in love with someone, or even if your love is missing reciprocation, Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate all of the love—all of it. It can be a day to honor, celebrate, and proudly blast the stereo over your head for the love that does not fit perfectly into the typical monogamous couple picture we all seem to be myopically stuck on. If your life does not match coupledom, you have not failed—you can still be happy, and it does not mean that you are out of love. If your life does, there are still some unconventional love valentines to be given out this year.

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Call For Old Screennames

tumblinhottie05 (aka Yatta Zoker ’14) wants your screenname.

Because, OMG I JUST REALIZED I DONT HAVE YOUR SCREENNAME.

As part of a photo project, she is collecting (1) your screen name, (2) why you chose it an, (3) a picture of you from that time. Check it out on Facebook, or you can send her an email at yzoker@wes.

That haircut, those braces, those hats and pimples and generally painfully awkward moments, bring ’em out to shine. And reveal the early digital alias your tween year old self chose as the perfect fit for it all.

Contact yzoker[at]wesleyan[dot]edu.

FEATURED
Spotted: Finals Fairies on the Loose

You may see them flitting around, spreading candy and good cheer. They are a few decked out fairies, in tutus, bunny ears, glitter, and beads. Catch them fast, because they only stay for a second. They seem to come visit libraries and various study nooks. They just might make you smile. And mostly, even though the stress is mounting, the blank page is still blinking, and the end won’t ever come—it will. (And you could even get a visit from a finals fairy!)

Wesleying’s Goatmilk grabbed some photos of the Finals Fairies as they made their way through Olin’s silent fourth floor (thesis carrel central) an hour or two ago:

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