Tag Archives: wesleyan in the news

MUSIC
“When In Doubt, We Follow Braxton”: Music Prof Featured in Tri-Centic Festival

“Were it not for his tenured post at Wesleyan, where he has taught for more than 20 years, ‘maybe I would be driving a taxicab or something,’ he said.”

With Professor Lucier’s long anticipated retirement finally taking effect, who takes up the mantle of the avant-garde in the Wesleyan music department? Who leads the way, towards seniority and distinction and towards the Arts pages of the New York Times?

“When in doubt, we follow Braxton,” comes the reply—from Taylor Ho Bynum ’98, MA ’04, cornetist, composer, bandleader, and former student of Braxton. He is conducting the group of vocalists that comprise the Syntactical Ghost Trance Music Choir; they are rehearsing Braxton’s “Composition No. 256,” preparing for a four-day festival of Braxton’s career and works that begins today in Brooklyn. “Encompassing unorthodox works and concepts from across his prolific career,” NYT‘s Nate Chinen writes, the festival is to be “as broad a survey of Braxtonia as has been presented in this country.”

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AP Discovers Wesleyan’s Fancy Cheesiness

While The Onion has always subtly recognized Wesleyan’s appetite, it looks like the Associated Press has now caught a whiff of the cheese co-op:

Some, like Wesleyan University junior Nica Latto, prefer wedges of locally produced artisanal cheeses added to the mix, perhaps a gouda with a slightly nutty undertone or a Gruyere for a fondue party while studying with classmates.

So to satisfy palates that lean more gourmet than grub, Latto and several friends organized a co-op in which fancy cheeses from a nearby Connecticut farm are delivered each week to the Middletown campus and distributed to students, many of whom line up with baguettes — and meal cards — in hand.

While universities nationwide have updated their dining hall menus to meet the increasingly epicurean expectations of students like Latto, many students are also taking things a step further and bringing fancy fare to campus on their own.

Aside from using the word fancy four times, the article also quotes Nica and the president-elect:

“I think our generation or just people in general are becoming more conscious about the quality of what they eat, where it comes from and if it’s sustainable,” said Malter, 20, a sophomore from Irvington, N.Y.

BAMCO, meanwhile, is portrayed as a generous entity whose only wish is to appease student desires:

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Unlocked on Late Night Local News

Unlocked is blowing up in the local media. Last night both Fox 61 and NBC 30 interviewed the editors of the Wesleyan sex magazine, Yannick Bindert ’10, David Wolovsky ’10, Karla Suarez ’11, and Shannon Sun-Higginson ’10, for the 11 o’clock news.

NBC’s spot (not embeddable) shows a group of happy-go-lucky college kids on a sex magazine publishing adventure, while Fox’s is all “is it art or is it PORN???” and tries to muster shock at Wesleyan’s financial support of the apparent ravishing of America’s youth.


Ride the wave, guys.

NBC 30: One Sizzling College Mag

Fox 61: Wesleyan Sex Magazine

And now that you’re interested, Unlocked is holding interest meetings this week. Anyone who wants to model or photograph for the upcoming issue should show up at Usdan by the couches on Thursday (3/26) at 5, and for those interested in writing an article a meeting is at the same time and place on Friday (3/27) .

Unlocked Interest Meetings
Date: Thursday 3/26 and Friday 3/27
Time: 5 pm
Place: Couches in Usdan lobby

Unlocked Makes Courant Feel Sexy; Is On Gawker

Unlocked coeditor Yannick Bindert ’10 contemplates Jacob D‘s body.

Perennially Wes–bashing (More here. And here. And here.) Manhattan gossip blog Gawker, failing to do any sort of journalistic footwork on its own,* commented on an article in the Hartford Courant about Wesleyan’s (unofficial) sex magazine, Unlocked.

Obligatory copy-pasted excerpt here:

“We note that Wesleyan, the most annoying liberal arts school in the US, has launched a new sex magazine called…wait for it…Unlocked. Uh, unless this is like Wesleyan’s 267th different sex mag, may we just say about time, kids? Despite the fact that almost nothing in all of collegedom could be more tritely predictable than a sex magazine at Wesleyan (pictured: a photo shoot), this news was enough to warrant credulous coverage in the Hartford Courant“

(Picture of Jacob D ’11 Via Gawker, Via the Courant)

Of course, there’s a variety of anti-wes comments for you to read. My personal favorite comment is one by Mount Prion:

 

Mount_Prion 2:13 PM

I assumed that picture was cover art for a new MGMT album before I read the article.

Of course, both articles fail to take into account that nobody really believes Unlocked is “edgy,” but rather, simply falls into the category of “another student magazine that focuses on things students like to do”… in this case, each other.

Hartford Courant: Wesleyan Sex Magazine Features Nudity
Hartford Courant: Behind-the-scenes Unlocked photo shoot
Gawker: People Still Care About College Sex Mags

*Of course, i’m not doing much better by simply posting a link to the blogpost itself. Pot, meet kettle.

Middletown Youth Radio in Christian Science Monitor

Wow, and more great WesU stuff…

There’s a fantastic story today in the Christian Science Monitor about the Middletown Youth Radio Project, through which preteen local residents of T-Square host their own radio shows at WesU:

Every Friday night, two 10- to 12-year-old DJs put on their headsets in the WESU radio studios at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., and host their own half-hour radio show.

Kid DJs Clayton Smith and Ayanna Perez, both seventh-graders, write stories, poems, and songs for their weekly show. The program, “The Middletown Youth Radio Project” (MYRP), partners 12 elementary and middle-school students with eight Wesleyan University (WU) student mentors.

Every week, mentors help the young DJs edit their songs and stories at DJ workshops. Mu Abeledo, a WESU DJ and a senior at WU, and Jessica Jones, a former WU student, started the program in 2007.

Before the young DJs host their shows, each makes up an on-air name. For example, Clayton is DJ C-Dog and Ayanna is DJ Strawberry Shortcake.

These youthful DJs also have a chance to conduct interviews with people in the community. Recently, fifth-grader Chris Madera and his mentor, senior Eli Scherer, visited Marco’s Italian Deli to interview its owner. This was the first time Chris had interviewed someone. He used a handheld recorder to record the interview. Afterward, Chris edited the interview and played it on the air.

Read more.

Michael Bennet ’87 Is Colorado’s Senator


It’s official! Last week, Michael Bennet ’87, son of former Wesleyan President Douglas Bennet ’59, was appointed to the Senate. Bennet takes over for Senator Ken Salazar who is now Obama’s Interior Secretary.

In a recent Washington Post article, Bennet reflects on his father’s influence.

“He said find things that interest you, that compel you, and when it’s time to move on, something else will present itself,” Bennet said. “In the end, it doesn’t matter what job a person ends up in if it’s an opportunity to make a difference.”

MUSIC
NME on Wesleyan: a "Nest of Noise"

The latest periodical to cover Wesleyan as a hotbed of entertainment talent is British music magazine NME, which devoted a two-page spread this week to investigating our “nest of noise” which “has spawned artists such as MGMT, Amazing Baby and Santogold – and there’s a lot more to follow.”

It was clear that NME had a thing for this school and its products (for good reason), but damn, way to blow up Wesleyan’s uniquely hip legacy!

From all that’s visible from the linked page, there’s a picturesque photo of North College, a map indicating the distance between Middletown and New York City, a quote from Ben Goldwasser of MGMT about Wesleyan’s instrumental place in the chronology of his life, some pictures of Wes-graduated acts, and an inset about British schools which have supposedly reached a comparable level cool.

If anybody’s got their hands on a copy of this week’s issue and can send us a scan (is NME even distributed here?), it’d be much appreciated.

[edit, 10/24 11:30 am] The Wes homepage put up a full-page scan of the article, read the whole thing here.

It’s pretty effusive about the Wesleyan students’ creative potential, though some details are somewhat inaccurate – “The place is strewn with flyers advertising bands, films, plays and other artistic endeavours cooked up by bored students trying to entertain themselves in this largely rural part of the world.” Um, right.

Media relations director David Pesci calls Wes a “crucible of creativity”, where live music permeates the air in warmer months, and due credit is given to past professors of experimental music and ethnomusicology for building up the Music Department.

Santogold and members of MGMT recount their college experiences, and shout-outs are given to recent/current campus favorites Red Wire Black Wire, Bear Hands, and Bottle up and Go as examples of the wide range of musical styles formed here. Overall, not bad publicity at all.

NME: A Different Class
Full Article PDF