The Amandangle

"New Romans" and IJSA video

2010-05-31T08:04:00.006-05:00

"New Romans" - final thoughts on the city and culture of Rome

Rome may not be the center of the world anymore, but try telling that to the eight million tourists milling around the Vatican. For the number of people here and for the diversity of language and race, it’s easy to forget that all roads no longer lead to Rome. But the bustle of the city also begs the question: Has Rome been too commercialized? Or does it still retain some of the ancient magic that made it a cultural hub years ago? I think the answer is, “both.”

I believe it’s important for people to come here and see the artifacts and sites. It provokes a connection and sense of reverence regarding history that can only be gained in a hands-on way. It’s mind-boggling to picture a group of people more or less like me erecting hundred-foot-tall stone columns at their public forums, or the thousand arches of the Coliseum, not out of aesthetic ambition but for practical use. Just as I walk to the dining hall, the chapel, and the library each day without a thought, the ancient Romans worked, ate, worshiped, played and studied in these majestic structures every day. Imagining a population for whom these sights were ordinary offers a moving peek into history that we are fortunate to have.

Beyond even that, structures such as the crumbling Coliseum remind us that no earthly empire is everlasting, no matter how vast or powerful. I am reminded of the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which tells of a traveler who found the ruins of a huge statue. An inscription reads, “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Ozymandias thought his kingdom would last forever. In the same way, people thought the Roman empire would never fall. Neither is with us anymore. It’s not hard to imagine tourists visiting the United States in a few millennia to see what’s left of the Pentagon or Mount Rushmore. It’s a sobering thought, but I think people need to grasp the transience of all we take for granted – not only so we can appreciate the good things we have, but also so we can learn to hold those things loosely, assigning greater value to the intangible qualities of culture.

Yet on the other hand, the commercialized aspect of the tourist scene is cringe-worthy, and it’s more than the pressing crowds that make me feel that way. It seems somehow wrong to “go see the Vatican,” a place that was built to be holy and honoring to God. It’s not a museum. It’s holy ground (or should be). At least the Pope still used it for his weekly message, and pilgrims still go there to worship. In this way, it is still being used for its original purpose.

On the other hand, I think the builders’ vision for other monuments has been lost. But we have progressed. Maybe it is too much to ask that a new culture in a new millennium cling to the values of a culture so old we can hardly understand it. To the ancient Romans, watching lions eat Christians was quality entertainment. It would turn our stomachs today. For us, it would be sick to reinstate gladiatorial fights in the Coliseum, yet I would argue it is a good thing to use that space as the public arena it was meant to be. There was a concert there shortly before I visited. Surely the designers did not intend for power chords to resonate through the stone arches, but at the same time, this use of the Coliseum holds true to a purpose the architects may not have intended, which is nonetheless as old as the structure itself: spectacle.

The real disrespect is the way vendors and con artists have turned the historical and religious sites into marketplaces and stages for robbery. Walking out of the Vatican, souvenir shop windows display tacky gold souvenirs plastered with the face of the Pope as if he were some flamboyant celebrity. It makes me think of the Bible story about Jesus overturning the tables in the sanctuary. It’s an even greater shame that portions of the city, including some of the most ancient sites, bear the artwork and tags of vandals.

All else aside, the fact that the new Rome reflects aspects of the greater global culture can hardly be pegged as a bad thing. Global culture values green space. One can see this in the city of Rome. As a matter of fact, the Italians have valued green space for centuries more than we have in America. In the center of the city you’ll find the gardens of the Borghese palace, a sprawling grassy space with paths for horseback riders and knolls for picnickers. Trees are scattered about and green and yellow birds fight scrawny brown squirrels for branch space. The gardens have been there for six hundred years, way before the rest of the world had even begun to create the pollution we are now desperate to counteract with our city parks and nature reservations. Rome does not just open a window on ancient cultures; it spotlights today’s in a manner that even the culturally semi-literate can comprehend as a good thing, in spite of what may have been lost in the sweep of time and tourism.

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International Journalism Seminar, Assisi - May 2010

Op-Ed: On Being a Loser

2010-05-22T14:48:00.003-05:00

That does it for the Tartan updates. The last thing I have yet to post is the op-ed I wrote in light of the end of my junior year. You can also view it at the Gordon College News Service blog and on my personal blog, A Silvertongued Serenade.

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Every time I go home from college for the summer, I find myself excavating the closet under the eaves in search of something I’ve lost. This also happens at Christmastime, Easter, Thanksgiving, and on sundry weekends throughout the year. I can’t help it; I’m a loser.

My favorite pants went missing for more than half a year. I haven’t seen my hiking boots since high school. There is a tragic space between Mae and Muse on my CD shelf where Matchbox Twenty should be. Sometimes when I leave my dorm I don’t even know where I parked my car. For the record, I hardly ever lose the keys.

But these things are only misplaced. More regrettable are the things that promise to stay lost: the poem I wrote in fourth grade, the recording of my best friend singing about green tea, the plush bear my birth father gave me when I was born (one of the only mementos I had of him).

Are these important losses? I don’t know. For now, I still have the memories. The poem was less important than how nice it felt to see people smile when they read it. It’s not important that the recording got deleted as long as my friend and I can still scream “green tea!” to each other at random and confuse everybody else at parties. Knowing that my father wanted to be remembered is enough to remind me to remember him.

I think the greater losses are the ones we couldn’t hold to begin with. I lost a best friend once, and not knowing what happened to our friendship was volumes worse than not knowing what happened to the many books and CDs absent from my shelves.

I lost my childhood a few years back, and that was a shame, too. Finally realizing what a blessing I had in spite of stupid bullies at school, I’ve returned to my tree-climbing, Disney-watching days as best I can, but it’s not the same as having no obligations.

With the end of the school year looming, I realize I am about to lose something again. More friends are soon to graduate. In another year, I’ll be the one leaving school behind. Maybe then I will look back on these four years the way I look at childhood now.

But I don’t think we really lose the things we leave behind. I think we carry them forever. They carve themselves into the fleshy pink tissue of our brains and into the caverns of our hearts. We don’t lose them because they are us, and if we do lose them it’s because we meant to, or maybe they didn’t pierce us as sharply as we once thought.

My grandfather is losing his memory to Alzheimer’s. To me this seems the greatest loss of all. Everything I create, writing or otherwise, comes back to the friends who left and the ones who stayed, to the parents who loved me enough to give me up to a better life through adoption, to the songs that served as soundtracks through the high school gauntlet. To the things I carry in the compartments of my mind.

I know how to love because I’ve been hated. I know how to sacrifice because I’ve been shown more than selfishness. These are things I haven’t lost and will never lose, even if I can one day forget where they came from. I can tell that my grandfather still has them, and because of that, I can hope that wherever I may have left my car, there are some things I’ll never lose.

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I have been in Assisi, Italy since Sunday for a two-week journalism seminar. I, along with another student, am in charge of documenting the trip on video. I haven't used video as a journalism medium yet, so I'm excited to see where it goes. Be sure to check back at the end of next week!

Tartan update #6: Providia Studios Makes Pro Video

2010-05-21T14:44:00.000-05:00

[Published 5/7/10]

For sophomores Anders Johnson and Jarin Foster, fathers of the rising Providia Studios, it all started in 2006 with a simple act of providence.

“I was searching Limewire for Usher’s ‘Yeah,’” said Johnson. “I came across this song called ‘Yeah Toast.’ Jarin was mad into toast at the time, like it was all he would eat, which is why he’s so skinny – so I showed it to him and we made a video.”

Ever since the “Yeah Toast” video started getting 2,000 hits a day on YouTube, Providia has been a creative outlet for Johnson and Foster. Now they want to expand it into something a little more like a real studio.

Although Providia is not Gordon’s film studio, nor is it officially tied to the school in any way, the Providia tag has appeared on several Gordon-related projects such as this year’s Gordon Globes entry “Like a Scot” and multiple Golden Goose videos.

“We enjoy producing videos a community can appreciate based on social means and inside jokes,” said Johnson.

The duo just finished a promotional video urging students to take advantage of Finish The Course. Without giving too much away, Johnson said Foster makes an appearance as an encouraging old man. Students will have to go to chapel to hear the punch line.

Johnson and Foster will also team up with the Gordon College Student Association next year. This has led them to consider which projects should get the Providia stamp.

Though they look forward to the partnership, Johnson and Foster are leaning toward selective branding. Only creative projects will come out of Providia; the rest will come out of the goodness of their hearts (and/or the pleas of their pockets).

What Foster calls “our most monumental project yet” falls squarely in the former category. “Reciprokative Contackt” is a 10-minute action/adventure/thriller about two companies that are fighting over a green energy device called the deluge reactor.

Johnson and Foster have always wanted to shoot an action movie like this. Dreaming it up was easy. “We see eye to eye in spite of the height difference,” said Johnson. “But Reciprokative Contackt is really Jarin’s brainchild.”

“But Anders is like the uncle that raised it,” added Foster.

Pulling it off was the hard part. There were more people and more props than the team is used to. They had to ask the Beverly police for permission to use air soft guns in town after the Gloucester police told them “no.” Reciprokative Contackt is the first movie they fully scripted and storyboarded before production, a process that lasted three weeks to a month.

“And we got a [high definition] camera from Laura [Davis, the newest Providia team member], so it’ll be sweet now!” said Foster.

Filming ran eight hours on Saturday the 17th and 15 hours on Sunday the 18th. Foster estimates it will take him 50 hours to edit the 2.5 hours of footage collected over the weekend but still hopes to release the movie the weekend before finals at a premiere event in Ken Olsen Science Center.

“Providia is educational for us,” said Foster. “It’s about building up our skills and our portfolio to get into the industry.”

Elements of that portfolio can be viewed on Providia’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/ProvidiaStudios. Also keep an eye on their new website, ProvidiaStudios.com, as they flesh it out with content.

Tartan update #5: "Punk Goes Classic Rock" can "Dream On"

2010-05-20T14:43:00.000-05:00

[Published May 7, 2010]

A better title for the new Punk Goes Classic Rock compilation might have been “Illegitimate Child of the Genre Formerly Known as Punk Attempts Classic Rock (and Fails).” There are a few diamonds, but it’s mostly rough: an insult to both punk and classic rock.

As a general statement, this is a collection of classics for the computer age. One can practically taste the electronics sparking behind the music. Can you say, “hello auto tune?”

At best, Punk Goes Classic Rock is hyper music. Most of the tracks are sped up and played in major keys, which makes them sound way happier than most classic rock is supposed to sound. This is not necessarily a bad thing if you don’t have any emotional investment in the original songs, but since they are classics, most of us do.

At worst? Either the lyrics are obscured by screaming and whining geared toward angsty teenagers, or the artists tried to stick so close to the original that their shortcomings are eardrum-piercingly obvious.

There’s a steady downhill trend in the quality of these covers. Beyond the sixth track or so it’s easy to lose interest, and the album continues for another nine tracks after that. I am more inspired to purchase the original songs from iTunes than I am to purchase this CD with the exception of three or four tracks.

For instance, Hit the Lights fared well with Boston’s “More than a Feeling.” It is a very happy-making cover with soaring, spot-on harmonies and none of this wavering in search of the right note crap. Granted, Hit the Lights could have been one of the auto tuners (one can never tell these days), but at least it sounds good.

The Almost did some justice to “Free Fallin,” originally by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and We the Kings did well with .38 Special’s “Caught up in You.” The Maine also did a fair job with Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

But things got dicey when people decided to have a go at Queen. Serious attempts to cover Queen should not be made. No good can come of such attempts. Mayday Parade fared decently with “We are the Champions,” but Never Shout Never butchered “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

If these bands had covered these songs live, the reception would have been phenomenal. Everybody loves a sing-along, and everybody can sing along to these songs. Unfortunately, very few will want to if they buy this CD.

Tartan update #4: Godspell actors in the limelight, tech crew shines in the dark

2010-05-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

[Published May 7, 2010]

Gordon’s rendition of Godspell took Jesus out of the clown suit and put him in a soccer jersey. But costumes weren’t the only thing to go through a time warp. While the original production took place in a junkyard, Gordon’s production is a spectacle of lights and video projections – a feat that took quite a tech crew to pull off.

“Usually we have one intense day of tech rehearsal,” said Amy Laing, a junior English/theater double major who has been involved with 16 other Gordon shows and done tech for 12 of them. “This time we had a whole week.”

They needed it. Godspell is Gordon’s first production to use video projections, and it also integrates a live band. Dawn Sarrouf, production manager and technical director, said there were a lot of problems with the projection surfaces because they were so reflective.

Laing, who works lights, added that it was hard to make sure there was enough light to see the actors but not so much that it washed out the videos. She also had to adjust to the faster pace of a musical and learn to synchronize her cues with music rather than actors’ lines.

Laing has more manual control over lights than in any other show she’s done. Usually most of the light show is pre-programmed, but not for Godspell. “There’s one scene where they show an old western film,” said Laing. “I have to keep pushing the button to flash the lights for about four minutes straight.”

Olivia King, a freshman English/theater double major, is responsible for 12 microphones, all of which are constantly on, and has to balance volumes for different actors, singers, and soloists as well as for the live band. Godspell is her first foray into working with sound.

“They gave me a mentor, but learning how to do it was still a really fast process,” she said.

Hannah Baker, a senior English/theater double major, has to keep all the cues in balance in her head because she calls the shots for the whole crew. Baker was stage manager for Gordon’s production of Our Town and assistant stage manager for Love’s Labours Lost and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, but she’s never done anything quite like this.

“Calling the show is hard because we have the video projections as well as the light and sound cues,” said Baker. “It’s a lot of buttons. The actors had three months to figure out their parts, but we only had three days.”

Sarrouf said she would like to do this production again because she already knows exactly what she’d change: the process would start in September rather than December, and the set would be partially complete before the artists started working on projections. Between the time crunch and the scale of the production, the crew had to jump right in.

“It’s ironic that there’s so much technology in the show,” said Laing. “It’s really sort of against technology.” The original production leveled with the audience by touching on the many ideologies of the time that tended to get in the way of people’s lives and relationships, especially to Jesus, but to the 21st century college student, that distraction comes from technology.

“When I first read the script, I was horrified,” said Baker. “I thought it was cheesy and going to be terrible. I didn’t really know what it had to say to the campus.” But she and the rest of the crew are more than thrilled with the final product.

“It’s much less cheesy than secular renditions I’ve seen,” said King. “I don’t think a secular school could do it as well as a Christian school because we have that extra drive to do it well.”

Baker added, “It makes the gospel very personal when you see your friend crucified as Jesus.”

Tartan update #3: Goodbye to Faculty Shepherds

2010-05-18T14:39:00.000-05:00

[Published April 16, 2010]

It’s been a long and victorious run for women’s basketball team head coach, Jeannine Cavallaro, and for Gordon in Boston director, Craig McMullen, but next year both will be running new roads that lead away from Gordon.

“I have been able to coach some amazing young women and have been so blessed by them,” said Cavallaro, who just coached her tenth season with Gordon. “That's the part I will miss most for sure.”

Cavallaro has been coaching for 16 years and hopes one day to make her love for athletics into a Christian ministry. In the meantime she’ll be working with her brother’s company, World Championship Fighting, promoting mixed martial arts events in the New England region.

But she will never forget everything she and her teams accomplished at Gordon or the meaningful conversations she’s had with team members over the years. Cavallaro was more than a coach; she was a friend and a shepherd for her team. Gordon will be hard pressed to replace her, but they will soon conduct a national search for someone to fill her shoes.

McMullen was one of the founding fathers of Gordon in Boston and served as director for eight years. “The intent,” said McMullen, “is to have the program be not just an extension of Gordon but a meaningful presence in the city.”

McMullen has been involved in pastoral work for 30 years and now has an opportunity to reconnect with that calling at the Potters’ House church in Denver. “I was born to pastor,” he said. “I look forward to rejoining congregational life.”

As GIB director, McMullen created a place for students to participate in urban internships, established partnerships with Boston school so students could cross-register there, and brought Selected Topics classes to the GIB program.

This may be goodbye for McMullen, but GIB isn’t going anywhere. Cliff Hersey, Dean for Global Education, will take up McMullen’s mantle. McMullen said, “Urban studies is healthy and alive and open to all majors.”

Tartan update #2: Cuisine Competition

2010-05-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

[Published April 9, 2010]

Rec-IM’s biggest (and yummiest) tournament yet went down on Friday. No, not chess. Not racquetball. Not Super Smash Brothers, either. Bigger than all of the above, and promising to become semi-annual, was the Iron Chef competition.

“I was trying to think of a tournament that non-athletic people could do,” said Alyssa Williamson, recreational coordinator for Rec-IM, who was the mastermind behind Gordon’s Iron Chef tourney. “Recreational things don’t have to be sports.”

Williamson was worried people wouldn’t think to compete because the event was too new, but 13 teams proved her wrong with surprising and scrumptious dishes featuring the secret ingredient, apples, which was announced Thursday night.

The table was laden with everything from salad to strudel to hand-spun sugar. Now the five judges – Austin Bentson (’11), Steven Myhren (’11), Alyssa Baxter (’11), Catherine Damiani (’10), and Williamson (’11) – were faced with the task of trying all the dishes and assigning them scores based on creativity, taste, presentation, and use of the secret ingredient.

“To make apples in a new way is not easy,” said Lydia Luse, ’10, who teamed up with her longtime summer cooking partner Caitlin Snyder, ’10, to make Graduation pie (apples, pears and blueberries). “I was hoping for cilantro, beets, ginger, anchovies – something unexpected and strange.” Luse’s team, Gourmet Graduates, scored second place in the presentation category with their five miniature Grad pies.

“It was fun to collaborate and improvise with what we had,” said Lindsay Locke, ’10, of The Gedney Girls (also Virginia Locke, ’12, and Jessica Kane, ‘11). “It’s scary for a minute not knowing how it will turn out,” said Locke. “But I’d do it again.” The Gedney Girls won best taste, second best use of the secret ingredient, and second place overall with their mountain of stuffed French toast.

Flay-Cora (Fred DiStefano, ‘10, Corrie Hopley, ‘11, and Courtney Prall, ‘11) took first prize with apple and butternut squash soup and turkey apple Brie paninis – comfort food for a fall-like spring day, as the team told judges when they delivered the dish.

Gedney Girls took second prize, and Vitamin E took third with apple chicken hash with won ton chips.

Williamson said to look forward to Iron Chef: round two next fall.

Tartan update

2010-05-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

I've had several stories published in the Gordon College newspaper, the Tartan, this semester, but I've been forgetting to post them here. Now that the year is over it's time to play catch-up.

Dark and Stormy Night - and Day After, Too
February 26, 2010

Blurb: “It was a dark and stormy night” doesn’t even begin to cover it. 40-50-mile-per-hour winds lashed rain against the windows; students sitting nearby kept wary eyes on the glass. Then, around 11 p.m., a tree fell on Grapevine Road near the chapel, taking out some wires and cutting off electricity across campus.

“We’ll definitely be without power until at least the morning,” Gordon Police Officer Peter Cherry said at about 1 a.m. Friday . “National Grid hasn’t even responded because it looks like a bomb went off in Beverly.”

[More pictures on the Tartan website!]

This is the only article that appeared online, so I will be posting the rest of the stories in full as the week continues.

International graduate profile

2010-05-15T14:58:00.003-05:00

Each of the four Gordon College News Service fellows produced a story about a graduating international student on the North Shore. The four stories appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe North on Thursday, May 13. My full story can be found on the Boston Globe website.

Blurb: When Vladislav Minev, 22, first started college, he had no idea how to use a dryer or open a checking account. Such plights are common for American freshmen, but at least they have the home turf advantage. Minev grew up in Bulgaria, where he learned English as a second language. The list of obstacles goes on.

In spite of such challenges, Minev will graduate from Gordon College on May 15 with a GPA of 3.55 and a bachelor’s degree in business with an international concentration. He will receive honors in his French minor and may also graduate with economics and business honors, depending on the faculty’s evaluation of his honors thesis two days before graduation.

Get Rambled for Haiti with local folk rockers, Adam Ezra Group

2010-04-26T18:32:00.001-05:00

(A Gordon College News Service story)

When local folk rock band Adam Ezra Group sold out the Paradise Rock Club for their CD-release-turned-Haiti-benefit show in January, it was not the first or the last time the band would use their music for the good of others. On Sunday, May 2, AEG will play a concert to benefit Haiti through Partners in Health.

PIH is a Boston nonprofit organization that strives to establish working hospitals in Haiti and around the world, thus providing health care and job opportunities for indigenous people. It is the same organization AEG partnered with in January.

“They’re setting a standard worldwide for what you can do with a grassroots organization,” said Adam Ezra, singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the band.

Through his work with other nonprofits, Ezra has seen how difficult it can be to ensure the money goes where it’s needed, but he’s found that isn’t a problem with PIH. The band looks forward to sending all proceeds from their May 2nd show, the Ramble, directly to Haiti for relief efforts.

AEG isn’t the first band to play a benefit show, but the Ramble promises to be an utterly unique experience. In fact, it already is one. The band has been working with fans since winter to rally groups of 20 or more concertgoers. These groups will be shuttled to the venue, Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA, free of charge from all across New England.

“We’re empowering students and fans who care about not just the music but about doing good things,” said Ezra. “The show is less about the money we’re raising and more about the community we’re building.”

In the spirit of community, a pre-amble will take place on the beach outside of the venue starting at 4:00 PM. The Hall will serve inexpensive meals and the bar will be open for drinks to those who are over 21. Ezra hopes other local nonprofits will set up camp on the beach so fans can get informed and get involved.

There is even rumor of a fan-run cookie contest. Anyone can enter and anyone can try the cookies for free, but they must make donations to vote for the winner. Whoever raises the most money for Haiti will be declared the winner.

650 people packed out the Paradise Rock Club for the January benefit show, but Ezra’s hopes for the Ramble are still modest. “It’s an experiment,” he said. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen. But it will be a success no matter what.”

Charlene Bemis, Ramble coordinator, said that more than a dozen buses are already lined up. She estimated there would be about fifteen the day of the concert.

More information is available at GetRambled.com and on the Ramble’s Facebook page. Ezra hopes everybody will think about joining the party, and only marginally out of self-interest. It seems his real goal is to make friends with everybody in the greater Boston area while fighting together for a cause.

“If you love music and you love the beach and you love people and you love doing good things for other people, then you should check it out,” said Ezra. “And I can’t think of too many people who don’t fit one of those categories.”

All that Glitters is... Goose?

2010-04-20T19:22:00.003-05:00

All that Glitters (featured in the Gordon College Tartan) - a review of our annual all-male variety show (also known as a pageant...)

Photo by Paul Wright

Blurb: This year’s Golden Geese flew in tight formation. Friday night marked the tenth birthday of the pageant, and it seems the event has really spread its wings and grown this year.

In the past, each goose flew solo with his own video production and his own stage performance, but this year saw lots of collaboration between the classes, bringing a little more camaraderie to a night that is always thick with class rivalries.

Twist and Shout

2010-04-15T09:32:00.002-05:00

Beatlejuice and Fans Twist and Shout at Melrose Knights of Columbus Benefit Show

This story was featured in the Boston Globe Melrose Edition.

Blurb: John Muzzy, drummer for the local Beatles tribute band Beatlejuice, smiles inside when he hears songs like “Good Day Sunshine” on the radio, even while he’s getting a root canal.

Muzzy, 54, of Woburn couldn’t have been happier about playing the Melrose Knights of Columbus food drive benefit concert for the fifth year running. The event is all music, all Beatles, all night.

Photos by Mike Angelo of the Melrose Weekly

Food Fights in Local Schools

2010-04-11T12:49:00.002-05:00

Somerville and Hamilton-Wenham Schools Ahead of the Pack
This article was featured by the Boston Globe on the Somerville regional edition!

Blurb: Michelle Obama has just declared war on child obesity and Naked Chef Jamie Oliver did his best to start a healthy eating revolution in schools, but some schools in Massachusetts, particularly Somerville and Hamilton-Wenham, started fighting years ago.

“The obesity issue started in the ’70s,” said Mary Jo McLarney, a registered dietician who has been a food service director for Somerville schools for eight years. “But now it’s mushroomed. Everybody is making changes. The most important thing to remember is that change is slow; it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Chilling with Samchillian

2010-03-23T15:55:00.002-05:00

Tufts Students Chill with the Samchillian
This article appeared in the Brookline and Medford regional editions of Boston.com!

Blurb: For Leon Gruenbaum, Brookline-reared inventor of an instrument called the Samchillian tip tip tip cheeepeeeee, it all started with an Amiga computer and a standard, black-and-white piano keyboard. Well, that and a Harvard degree in math, childhood piano and clarinet lessons, a little avant-garde jazz, and a move to New York.

“I wanted to merge my interests in math and music,” he said simply. On Monday, March 15, Gruenbaum brought the product of these forces, his “musical instrument digital interface” (MIDI) Samchillian, to Professor Paul Lehrman’s Electronic Musical Instrument Design class at Tufts in Medford, where students are learning to do just what Gruenbaum did.

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Click here to experience Leon's most recent collaboration featuring the Samchillian, Genes and Machines.

Daddy Evolution

2010-03-23T15:49:00.002-05:00

This one's kind of an oldie:

Is Charles Darwin Ready for his own Holiday?
This article was featured by BioLogos!

Blurb: Charles Darwin turns 201 this Friday, February 12, 2010, and schools and churches across the Bay State are gearing up to celebrate. Salem State College and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Falmouth, MA, devote entire weeks to evolution’s daddy. If the International Darwin Day Foundation has its way, the 12th of February could even become an official holiday.

Not everyone, though, is ready to party. Some local scientists aren’t convinced there’s a need for such a holiday and don’t think it will happen. Karl Giberson (pictured here), a professor of physics and engineering at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA, and author of the best-selling book “Saving Darwin,” doesn’t see the point.

Note: The article should say that 483 church leaders from Massachusetts have signed the Clergy Letter, not 43. Also, the Unitarian Universalist Church in Falmouth is in fact tied to the Clergy Letter Project and has proudly signed the letter.

Building Ships and Traditions

2010-02-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

Building Traditions: Family Fun Day Weathers the Snow at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum
This article appeared in The Gloucester Times.

Blurb: The art of shipbuilding has been a tradition in Essex since shortly after the pilgrims settled in. So it wasn’t exactly a surprise when over 30 Cape Ann residents braved the snow for the Essex Shipbuilding Museum and Wellspring House’s Family Fun Day on Tuesday, February 16.

“Our forefathers built ships and went fishing in the snow,” said Barbara Johnson Low, head of the museum’s education and group tours departments. “We can, too.”

21st-century Abolitionists

2010-02-18T12:47:00.000-05:00

Melrose Church Spotlights Modern Day Slavery with Freedom Sunday (co-written with Alysa Obert)
February 17, 2010
This story appeared in the Melrose edition of the Boston Globe.

Blurb: "Sotelo and fellow members of Hope Alliance Church will join hundreds of other congregations throughout the country this Sunday, February 21, as they shine a spotlight on modern day slavery in the first ever Freedom Sunday. Organized by the international movement known as Not For Sale, a global campaign that fights to free modern slaves in our own backyards and around the world, Freedom Sunday will expose the atrocities of modern day slavery and invite members to participate in the emancipation process. And in the next few months, many Jewish and Muslim communities will follow suit with their own versions of Freedom Sunday."

Gordon College News Service Update

2010-02-15T22:43:00.000-05:00

This semester, I have an internship with the Gordon College News Service, a group of writers who produce news stories "from the next generation" for local media partners in the Boston/North Shore area. Since the Amandangle is something of a portfolio, I'll be sharing links to my News Service articles, which you can view in full at the GCNS blog. I'm playing catch-up today (so sorry for neglecting you, Amandangle).

Local Band Sharing the Spotlight with Haiti
January 19, 2010.
This story appeared in the Somerville section of the Boston Globe Regional.
Until Tuesday, the upcoming CD release party for local band Adam Ezra Group (AEG) was scheduled to be just that: a release party. But when disaster struck in Haiti, the Boston-based musicians changed their plans.

North Shore Christian Schools Weather the Economic Storm
January 26, 2010
If a handful of Massachusetts’s Christian schools have weathered the economic crisis, it’s not because the storm didn’t hit. “We’ve had to batten down the hatches,” said Tom Stoner, headmaster of Covenant Christian Academy in Peabody.

Dwight & Nicole Signing On with New Release
February 2, 2010
This story appeared in the Somerville section of the Boston Globe Regional.
Local drivers may complain about the lack of street signs, but for Nicole Nelson, 31, and Dwight Ritcher, 34,—aka, Dwight & Nicole—Somerville has been full of signs. Now they’ve arrived at their long-awaited debut album, appropriately dubbed “!Signs,” whose release the blues duo will celebrate Friday, February 5th at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square as a thank you concert for their fans there.

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My co-interns have some really fun stories up, as well, so for my readers who are bored at work, I recommend taking a peek. I mean, no! I would never suggest reading blogs when one ought to be working! Never. But you really should. When you get home, that is.

One last thing: I'd like to thank the talented and benevolent Stephanie Faris (of Steph in the City) for the lovely "You're Going Places" award. Here's hoping she's right!

The rules say I have to pass this on to ten other bloggers, but I don't follow very many blogs, so I'm just passing it on to one - another fledgling writer like me who's off to a pretty good start. Godspeed, Katie McCoach.

A Minute Before Friday

2009-12-05T15:57:00.000-05:00

As much as I want to make this next piece a little less about The Elements of Journalism and a little more about the item I’m actually reviewing, I can’t deny that Jo Kadlecek’s A Minute Before Friday is an ideal companion to Kovach and Rosenstiel’s text.

K&R have a thorough and valuable philosophy of journalism between the covers of their book, but what good is theory if it cannot be applied? Kadlecek’s novel celebrates K&R’s philosophy in a way that is practical and entertaining.

Minute provides great insight on the discipline of verification. I will be brief in this section, as my review of All the President’s Men addresses this topic thoroughly. Suffice to say that Jonna Lightfoot MacLaughlin’s persistence in chasing the story down dead end after dead end embodies the discipline as K&R envisioned it.

Jonna might be flawed – she can’t pull it together and quit smoking, she can be a real space case at times, and her sense of style is nothing short of hopeless – but if there’s one thing she’s got right, it’s her dedication to the truth. Fledgling and jaded journalists alike should follow her example.

Minute also shows how journalism can fulfill its watchdog duty. In their top ten elements of journalism, K&R include “Journalists must serve as an independent monitor of power.” Jonna learns that the Ivy League school Regal University is laundering money and immediately recognizes the story’s importance.

It’s bigger than her friend/love interest David Rockley’s job, which he lost for investigating these claims. It’s bigger than her own job at the Clarion, which she risks by pursuing the story even after her editor urges her to kill it. It’s bigger than her reputation, which she jeopardizes every time she chases down an informant who has already refused to inform her.

But most importantly, Minute confirms K&R’s fears that “independent journalism may be dissolved in the solvent of commercial communication and synergistic self-promotion: corporatism.” This is precisely the process that begins at the Clarion when Walter Wood arrives from the media firm and takes over.

Jonna’s roommate and coworker Hannah X. Hensley, an even more principled and prodigious reporter than Jonna, is furious when Wood tells her, “The more colorful your stories become, the more likely New Yorkers will pick up the Clarion.”

“The only thing he cares about are dollars, not news,” she rants. Sadly this is the state of affairs in many newsrooms today, whether the medium is print or television. What our culture craves is not news but entertainment. If it’s not sensationalized, no one wants to read or watch it, and therefore no one in news wants to run or air it.

Reporters and news people like Jonna and Hannah exist, but they seem to be few in number. Therefore we must take it upon ourselves to be the kind of journalists we ourselves would trust to tell a story. As Jonna told her subway worker friend, Emma, "There are some big mountains to tackle." But as Emma told Jonna in reply, "That's why you're there. . . . This city needs you."

Non-Christians Live and Unplugged at Gordon College

2009-12-01T13:30:00.000-05:00

Photo: Freshman math major Caitlin Schwanda shows how going against the mainstream evangelical trend at Gordon can make some students feel disconnected.

Sarah Grimes hasn’t been to chapel this semester. Even when she used to go, she said it was like being force-fed a Bible; now it just doesn’t seem relevant. Grimes, a senior sociology major from Terryville, CT, was raised by a Christian family in a Christian sub-culture and studies at a Christian college, but she considers herself a “Christian agnostic” at best.

Students in similar positions pepper the Gordon community, though sparingly. Most of them prefer to keep under the radar. Gordon may be a liberal arts institution, but the non-believers of this evangelical community say they feel a lot of social pressure.

“It’s hard to feel plugged in, even though I love people,” said Grimes. “I feel different. [But] I’m very good at playing the game.” She doesn’t talk about her beliefs with many of her peers, not for fear of judgment but because she doesn’t want them to feel sad for her.

Grimes isn’t the only Gordon student questioning, doubting, or even distancing herself from her childhood faith. “It doesn’t really add up for me,” said a senior philosophy major who asked to remain unidentified. He began to see Christianity as “an emotional substitute for something for which there is no evidence.”

As he excavated his faith in search of answers, the back-burner doubts of his adolescence flared into unpalatable problems. Six months ago he admitted to himself that he wasn’t a Christian anymore – but, like Grimes, he’d rather keep this knowledge to himself.

“[When they know you’re not a Christian,] people already have their minds made up about you and you don’t even know their name,” he said.

This is not to say that non-Christians are utterly alienated at Gordon. The student handbook says this school is to be “an atmosphere of free inquiry,” and students agree that it is. They said most professors allow – indeed, invite – faith-related inquiry in the classroom.

“Gordon is liberal enough,” said Grimes. “It’s not all fire and brimstone. But a lot of people could stand to be more open-minded.”

According to Professor of Christian Ministries Mark Cannister, listening should be the priority in interactions with peers who have different denominational backgrounds or no faith at all. The conversation should not begin with an accusation, but with a question.

“It shouldn’t go, ‘You can’t believe this and that at the same time,’” said Cannister, “but ‘help me understand how you can believe these two things at once.’ People want to be heard. You get a lot more mileage out of asking a question back.”

Zach Capalbo, a sophomore computer science/philosophy major, invites Gordon students to ask a lot of questions. Capalbo, who considers himself a Christian, co-founded the “Atheist Society” to provide a forum where beliefs not normally explored at Gordon can be discussed.

“I’m not even sure what truth is a lot of the time,” said Capalbo. But he is sure that a surprising number of students have expressed interest in the Society. The group is not comprised of atheists, as the name suggests, but of students interested in dialogue – students who want, as Cannister suggested, to listen.

The Society hopes to engage Muslim, Wiccan, neopagan and other beliefs, not by subscribing to them but simply by understanding them. The point is acceptance, not agreement.

Refusal to converse about other beliefs tells those who are different, “there are some people we believe God doesn’t love,” said Cannister. This attitude is the inverse of the gospel evangelicals claim to believe.

The question of world religions is not new to Christians. The query behind the query, according to Cannister, is not “are there other ways to God?” but “are you always right about everything?” The Atheist Society accepts that they might be wrong by engaging other perspectives.

Many of the students who, like Grimes, are questioning their faith grew up in Christian settings. Cannister noted that this seems to be the pattern: students who became Christians in high school tend to be on fire for their faith, while those from Christian homes begin to question it.

“The new Christians are shocked by the complacency of those who grew up Christian,” he said. “There’s diversity of what it means to be Christian.” All of the different histories, denominations, and questions that shape this campus can create tension between the burning and the burnt out.

“I appreciate the Christian setting [at Gordon] because I don’t want to give up the faith,” said Grimes. “Talking about faith is an opportunity here. I don’t want to lose hope. . . . I want to remain in Christianity without necessarily subscribing to it.”

"All the President's Men"

2009-11-30T23:44:00.000-05:00

Alan J. Pakula's 1976 movie All the President's Men is a good and bad example of how to do journalism. It is a great testament to the discipline of verification mentioned by Kovach and Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism as it highlights the importance of persistence, preparation, and asking the right questions. The movie also wrestles with journalists' "obligation to exercise their personal conscience," another element of journalism discussed by Kovach and Rosenstiel, but in this area the heroes do not always excel.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are flawlessly disciplined in the art of verification (the "essence" of journalism according to K&R). They track thousands of tips, leads, and names to break the Watergate story, following trails one would only expect Sherlock Holmes to find. Librarians and old acquaintances from social events become valuable sources of information. Woodward risks his own safety to meet with his informant, Deep Throat, who gives him specific instructions to keep their contact a secret, while Bernstein is unafraid of tarnishing his reputation by acting pushy if it means tracking down the truth. Together they sort through a year's worth of library records in search of one man's history to confirm that he did research on Senator Kennedy. Although many informants turn them away and the editor wants to kill the story, Bernstein recognizes that "this is a goddamn important story!" and perseveres.

We can also glean from this film the value of preparation. Woodward perpetually has a notepad ready and records even the minutest details in case he should need them later. When the two journalists visit informants at home, they arrive with background knowledge of names, professions, connections, and other relevant information. They never waste time on basic questions; this would be disrespectful of the people whose stories they cover and, especially in the midst of a scandal like this, would fail to get them through the door. Revealing that they have some knowledge prompts some people, such as Kenneth Dalhberg, whose $25,000 check ended up in one of the burglars' accounts, to reveal more information.

Woodward and Bernstein also show us the value of asking the right question. I often find myself going into interviews with a list of questions, thinking it may be a contrived conversation, but at least I'll have something to write about later. Woodward and Bernstein have a knack for choosing just the right question, often on the spot. Sometimes that question can even be the leverage that opens further discussion. "You're a lawyer," Woodward says to Markham in the courthouse. "If no one asked you to be here then why are you here?" Later, when a woman tells Bernstein "people sure are worried," he instantly responds, "which people?" The questions seems so logical and obvious coming from another reporter's mouth, yet I know in the same situation I would not say such a sensible thing.

But the heroes of the film are flawed journalists, too. They both persist in asking questions of informants who insist, often multiple times, that they have nothing to say. This appears to be good reporting until one considers the feelings of the people being questioned. They are uncomfortable and even afraid to reveal their knowledge. Which is more important, respecting the people you cover as you yourself would want to be respected, or serving the greater public by getting the story no matter the cost? K&R say a journalist's first responsibility is to the citizens, but does that eliminate the need for personal sensitivity? K&R also say that "practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience." It seems Woodward and Bernstein err on the side of insensitivity, as a coworker tells them "I don't have the taste for the jugular that you guys have."

Woodward and Bernstein are also guilty of listening in on phone conversations via a second line and bluffing to get informants to confirm information. They even outright lie, telling one person's wife that their questioning is for her husband's own good. She and they knew that wasn't the case and she called them on it. Both of them draw conclusions very quickly, and while they may be logical and wise conclusions, they're still hastily made. As their editor pointed out, they need facts; the newspaper can't simply print deductions made by reporters based on people's refusals to speak.

Yet overall, these two reporters go far beyond the requirements of the profession (or perhaps just set a standard for the rest of us) in the way they "serve as an independent monitor of power" - yet another essential element of journalism by K&R's standards. In the end they've got more going for them than strikes against them... and one can't forget the fact that they broke one of the biggest stories in journalism's history.

Oh, and everything else aside... the cinematography is really something, so I definitely recommend this film if you have an artistic eye!

Ain't no Passim craze

2009-11-01T00:46:00.000-05:00

When I first walked into Club Passim, located in a cobblestone back street of Harvard Square, I was skeptical. Sitting room only? Can this truly be a club? The Passim experience may not be your typical night on the town, but therein lies the charm of this established “folk music and cultural center.”

From its size, you’d think the place was a basement – not to mention the floor and one wall are made of bricks. But the atmosphere is anything but cold. Soft yellow lighting invites patrons to come and enjoy an evening of music and food together. Square tables and mismatched chairs, soon to be replaced, are arranged Tetris-style to accommodate the greatest number of guests possible.

If you want to sit at a table, buy your tickets in advance or get there early. You’ll be obliged to order at least $5 worth of food from Passim’s daytime alter ego and nighttime sidekick, Veggie Planet, whose menu is one hundred percent vegetarian. Entrees can be ordered on white rice, brown rice, or pizza dough.

Even carnivores will enjoy snacking on doughy garlic knots or fair trade brownies with regular or soy ice cream. If you’d rather just get a drink, there’s coffee and organic soda. Though it has traditionally been an alcohol-free setting, Passim recently started offering beer and wine to patrons at tables.

“It’s a nice service to offer,” said manager Matt Smith. “Of course we want to maintain the listening room atmosphere – there’s no open bar – but it helped keep the doors open when the economy fell apart.”

The listening room atmosphere is definitely still there. Passim isn’t just a place people go to see a show; it’s a place they go to be in community with one another. They often know the artists’ music from previous shows at the club since a lot of artists cycle through, playing one or two shows there each year.

There’s a connection between the address, the artists, and the audience that you don’t find in most venues. Singers take song requests from patrons and converse with the crowd as if they were old friends. And, in some way, they are. Passim has been a cultural crux for music lovers since 1958, when it was called Club 47. It makes a point of nurturing new artists from openers to headliners.

Even though the club panders to the folk folks, Smith said, “People shouldn’t be afraid of the word folk. They’ll be surprised if they come with an open mind toward something they wouldn’t normally experience.”

The blend of personalities and generations seated around the tables show Smith’s theory holds water. So, if you’re looking for a cozy, coffee-shop kind of setting some night, I encourage you to be open to the Passim experience, which you’ll find at 47 Palmer St. in Cambridge. You might be surprised.

Sleeping at Last

2009-10-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

How many bands do you know that can play close to an hour’s worth of music without touching a standard six-string guitar? Sleeping At Last can, and they do it well. Though it was more packed than at 12:30 on a weekday, the dark side of Lane was utterly silent while the three-and-a-half-man ensemble played last Friday night.

Singer Ryan O’Neal began the set with a ukulele in hand. Dan Perdue alternated between keys and bass, while stand-in drummer Aaron Mortenson kept the beat for his first ever live show with Sleeping At Last.

In spite of the absence of a guitar, the band achieved a sound reminiscent of the Fray or Coldplay. O’Neal explained after the show that his love for Hawaii inspired him to include the uke on the band’s third album, Storyboards, released Sept. 15. “It’s the most exciting instrument I’ve picked up since guitar,” he said.

The Wheaton, IL natives say they’ve “never been happier with a record.” They branched out with Storyboards, adding new instruments like banjo and mandolin to a more acoustic album than their two previous national releases. “It’s about the craft of songwriting,” said O’Neal. “We want to write music people can relate to.”

Sleeping at Last was joined by solo artist Jeremy Larson, who filled in the gaps where the band couldn’t cover all the needed instruments. Larson also opened the night with his own one-man, five-instrument set, looping tracks and building to a hypnotizing climax on each song.

In addition to guitar, drums and vocals, Larson incorporated violin and cello, two instruments he’d never played live before. “I learned to play them out of necessity,” he said. “I wanted strings on my album and didn’t know anyone who played.”

Larson ended up contributed strings to MuteMath’s most recent album, Armistice, and Eisley’s upcoming release. For him, making music is all about collaboration, so he contacted Sleeping at Last and asked if he could play strings for them. You can hear him on Storyboards track “Chandeliers.”

Larson’s work with the band led to them touring together. They spent two days in a car (three in Larson’s case) to arrive at Gordon and had a ten-hour drive to their next venue. “We really wanted to come here,” said Larson with a shrug.

Why? “Because you guys are awesome,” said O’Neal. “Super awesome.”

Civil writes

2009-10-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Consider the role of the media in the civil rights movement.

The media, especially television media, made civil rights the problem of people at home - people living in homogeneous sections of society and regions for whom segregation may not have been a legal reality. Not only did it illustrate the actions of those involved in the movement, it also demanded action from those who were not involved. By showing the individuals and incidents shaping the civil rights movement, the media handed other citizens the information they needed to decide who was right and who was wrong, thus enabling them to be responsible and self-governing Americans.

So let's discuss. How can we use the media for the same purpose today? Can the same media even be used? What are the wrongs in our society and how can we expose them? Is racism really gone, or do we as journalists - and moreover, as citizens - need to continue fighting racial injustices? Tell me what you think.

The Elements of Creative Writing

2009-10-26T11:15:00.001-05:00

It’s not every day you see wordsmiths gathered in a science building. But then, it’s not every day you see chemists relishing the written word, either. The backwards “celebration of words and letters” took place at the Ken Olsen Science Center on Tuesday, October 20, when the national day on writing converged with national chemistry week.

“It’s not too many times we’ve been able to say, ‘hosted by the departments of chemistry and English,’” said Dwight Tshudy, associate professor of chemistry. At “Of Poetry and Periodic Tables,” students and faculty read their original poetry and CoNTeST entries – patchwork stories, poems and proverbs constructed from only the letters found in the periodic table.

From sophomore Ariel Guiguizian’s story about “BAtBOY Y FISH LaDy” to freshman Joshua Meister’s “PErIODIC PUN” on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, CoNTeST entries revealed a wealth of wit on the writers’ parts and even greater wealths of patience.

CoNTeST winner Rachel Otto’s “AlAs, THe CHOICe” was the longest entry. While the rest of us were taking quad finals, Otto (’12) was piecing together a full-page parody of Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy.

“I actually got the idea one day when I was… debating whether or not to go to chemistry class,” said Otto. Although she almost gave up when she realized the periodic table would not allow her to spell “or,” Otto pressed on, hoping to win first prize: a periodic table blanket.

“I was getting kind of cold at night because I hadn’t brought extra blankets,” she admitted. Ulterior motives aside, Otto said she welcomed the chance to combine creativity with classic literature under the CoNTeST’s constraints.

Irv Levy, professor of chemistry and computer science, agreed with Otto: the blanket is perfect for “protecting yourself from the elements with the elements.” Judges waited until mole day, or 10/23 – thus named because the scientific quantity of a mole is 6.022 times 1023 – to declare Otto the winner.

“I take my hat – no, I take my whole head off to her,” said one judge.

Susanna Sousa’s “TReAsURe MoUNTaIN” took second prize, a 550-piece periodic table jigsaw puzzle. Guiguizian and Meister earned honorable mentions along with junior Elise Nedzweckas and senior Rachel Shirron.

255 Grapevine Packs the Pews

2009-10-13T10:13:00.000-05:00

Shelves outside of the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel were crammed with canned food last Saturday night, and the pews inside were just as packed with the Gordon students, alumni, friends and family whose donated cans had purchased admission to the new Homecoming variety show, 255 Grapevine.

255 Grapevine claimed the time slot formerly filled by faculty talent show, nodroG, which will now take place in spring. The new event was the brainchild of theater professor Norm Jones and theater/English major Amy Laing ’11 who was also stage manager of the show. Laing said she hoped the show would have “more audience involvement and form… a stronger sense of community between departments.”

255 Grapevine’s 14 acts and 100 performers pulled the audience into the show like no Gordon show had before. Talents ranged from country music to Broadway farce to a four-person piano face-off modeled after the popular Guitar Hero video games, and the audience was supplied with props to participate in each of these.

Alumna Noni Mason (’92) and her husband choreographed one of the main attractions, “Stomp,” which invited the crowd to click their pens in time with the beat. Assistant professor of music Michael Monroe’s four Piano Heroes played the 1812 Overture on two grand pianos. “We asked you to bring cans,” said Monroe. “But we forgot to ask you to bring cannons.” Instead, the audience was given brown paper lunch bags and cued to inflate and pop them when the theme sounded.

The beloved Dr. Marv Wilson told everyone about his wild goose chase after a stolen Gordon van in New York City. “How good it was to come home to 255 Grapevine,” he said. Jenifer Hevelone-Harper, a student turned history professor, shared her experiences as a student and as a faculty member. She, too, considered 255 Grapevine her home.

Students agreed that the message of the interviews was good, but they seemed long and somewhat out of place, disrupting the energy created by standing-ovation acts like “Stomp.” Even so, people walked out with smiles on their faces.

Two days after the show, Laing was still beaming. “I am so happy with the way it went,” she said. “It was fun and created the sort of community experience we were looking for.”

*Alysa Obert contributed to this article.

Good Night and Good Luck: A Benediction for Journalists

2009-09-29T11:57:00.001-05:00

Good Night and Good Luck (dir. George Clooney, 2005) will be a lighthouse to meandering generations of journalists to come – at least, after watching it, one would hope so.

The film is a cinematic well from which those of the fourth estate may draw wisdom, guidance, and inspiration. It showcases both ends of the journalistic spectrum: those yellow news people motivated by financial and popularity factors, and those morally sound gems dedicated to none but the audience. Good Night dares modern news institutions to follow the example of the ethical reporter.

There is a very thorough book by Misters Kovach and Rosenstiel called The Elements of Journalism, which addresses what ought to be (but rarely are) the building blocks of a noble trade. These elements are played out in Good Night as if the book and film were scripted by the same party.

Like the authors, Edward Murrow, hero of Good Night, recognized that “television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us,” citing Americans’ “built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information” as a cause for journalism’s plunge into some form of mass “reality” entertainment.

Clooney and the authors would agree on the roles of transparency and bias in the newsroom. Kovach and Rosenstiel wrote about honesty regarding not only what is known, but also what is unknown. “Acknowledging what is not known is a claim to more authority, not less,” they said.

Good Night tells the story of broadcast journalists wrestling with the controversies surrounding Joseph McCarthy, a scenario fraught with unknowns. The station’s honest treatment of the issue inspired the nation to trust Edward Murrow more than any other American.

Other members of the CBS team would make skyscrapers out of sandcastles just to get something on the air. Co-producer Fred Friendly said, “There’s no news, boys, so go out there and make some news.” But Murrow didn’t want to abuse the privilege of being on TV by broadcasting drivel.

Kovach and Rosensteil argue that “bias is not something that can or should be eliminated,” and this is clear from the newscasts shown in Good Night. Murrow’s opinion was obvious every time he stepped in front of the camera, a technique that would be quarantined today as a breach of people’s freedom to believe what they choose. In fact, it ultimately cost Murrow his job.

But Murrow never told audiences “this is what you should believe.” In spite of his bias, he presented a balanced account of the facts, presenting evidence from outside sources alongside his interpretation so that viewers could make informed choices.

That is responsible journalism. Kovach and Rosenstiel wrote that “objective” reporting “is more than mere accuracy.” It’s not facts presented without meaning; there is a “sorting-out process” on the part of the journalist. “Mere accuracy can be a kind of distortion,” they said.

The purpose of journalism is to reveal, not to hide. Murrow believed TV had the potential to teach, illuminate, and inspire if used toward those ends. “Otherwise,” he said, “it is merely wires and lights in a box.”

Excavations of the Psalms with Rabbi Baruch HaLevi

2009-09-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

Baruch HaLevi is in the excavation business. In mid-September, he encouraged Gordon College students to search for “what’s beyond the text” of the Bible. The most challenging part of his call? It came from someone not typically embraced by those of the proverbial Gordon Bubble.

HaLevi is a rabbi at Swampscott’s Congregation Shirat Hayam. He was the first of a series of rabbis and Jewish scholars invited to explore the Psalms with the Christian students of Gordon. Even though the audience’s beliefs didn’t match HaLevi’s Jewish perception of Jesus, he boldly proclaimed his message.

“The Psalms are alive,” he said. They are truths that, laid bare to the ravages of time, have come out victorious. The rabbi was a portrait of Jewish openness to ambiguity in holy texts. “We are not turning there for historical truths, but for human truths,” he said. God always chose unlikely candidates to do his work. HaLevi highlighted the truth in this theme.

“God wants an individual who… is going to define himself by his deeds,” he said. God needs us to be people who will stand up for those made in His image and say, “Yes, I am my brother’s keeper.” HaLevi said the patriarchs and matriarchs were imperfect just like us, so we should follow their lead and act as the messiah in his absence.

Though his truth and ours were far from identical, HaLevi’s challenge is worth remembering: “Speak up and speak out, act up and act out – for goodness.”

Newcomers: Naarita ArnoldAvila

2009-09-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

Gordon’s first Bolivian student, Naarita ArnoldAvila, is thrilled to be here. “I’m glad that God opened doors,” she said. ArnoldAvila grew up near the city of Tarija with her extended family, all Pentecostal Christians. She came to America to make her faith real and personal by leaving that comfort zone.

“When you’re listening all the time to faith, it’s hard to know what it is,” said ArnoldAvila. She has already learned a lot from students of other denominations and looks forward to learning more.

When ArnoldAvila got on the plane to come here, it was her first time leaving Bolivia and she didn’t know what to expect. She said the people here have shown genuine interest and concern for her. It has been like home, where her family often gathered to pray, celebrate, or fellowship through activities like camping.

Pop culture has been the greatest barrier. “I don’t know about music or about shows,” she said. “Some things that they talk about I don’t understand.” As a community, let us recognize that many students on campus are in the same boat and love them by letting them in on the secret.

30 Years Later, Zinsser’s Book About Writing Still Inspires

2009-09-10T10:12:00.001-05:00

“It’s called classic for a reason,” said Erika Diaz, a senior communication arts major from Napa Valley, CA, of William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. The book has been on shelves for thirty years, longer than the students reading it have been alive – but they agree that its advice remains relevant. “Anybody who’s gonna put a pen to a page should read it,” Diaz said.

On Writing Well certainly runs the gamut. “It’s about learning to deal with people,” said Steve Fletcher, a junior communication arts major from Maine, “which lends itself to journalists more than anyone else.” Zinsser speaks specifically to journalists in sections that map the anatomy of articles and interviews.

But all writers will benefit from Zinsser’s counsel to write clearly, concisely, and without exhaustingly polysyllabic words that only obfuscate the point – what Zinsser calls “clutter.” Diaz said the book transformed the way she approached writing – more specifically, revision.

“I dreaded cutting until now,” she said. Zinsser taught her that there’s freedom in leaving some material on the cutting room floor. Diaz felt these words of wisdom made her a stronger writer.

The book’s success comes down to two words: user friendly. Fletcher said it was the most readable book he’s been assigned in his college career, and Diaz compared it to a coffee shop conversation with a “grandfatherly figure… [who’s] sitting down and telling me everything I need to know about writing.”

“The person on the other side of the page had a passion,” said Fletcher. Zinsser’s subtle humor keeps the reader coming back for another lesson, and another and another. Fletcher felt that Zinsser wanted writers to infuse their writing with that same “human feel.”

On Writing Well is a fun and friendly classroom text. Diaz said, “I sold back all my books last year except for this one!”

College Students Mixed about Online Journalism

2009-09-03T09:07:00.000-05:00

By Amanda C. Thompson

With many newspapers waving goodbye to paper and hailing an era of virtual reporting, the world of journalism stands at a crossroads. Some readers are disconcerted, but many welcome the possibilities offered by online journalism.

One cannot deny the convenience of Internet-based newspapers. “I get my news online because it’s easy and quick,” said Jessica DeVivo, a student at Gordon College.

Additionally, virtual publications mean writers can adhere to the journalistic ideal of timeliness in a way that was never possible before, and they can cater to an audience that thrives on immediacy.

But traditionalists aren’t convinced. Maggie Lafferty, another Gordon student, said, “print is better!” She added, though, that she appreciates the accessibility of paperless journalism. While attending school in Massachusetts, she can keep up with events at home in Pennsylvania because her local paper, the Lancaster Mariner, is available online.

The Gordon College newspaper, The Tartan, is going exclusively online for the first time this fall. Many students are not aware of the change and expect to find a stack of printed Tartans in their usual place at the bottom of the stairs in the dining hall.

One of these students is Chelsea Lucas, a junior at the college. When she heard the Tartan was going online, her immediate response was, “I don’t like it.” She explained that she only read the paper if she found it lying around. Now she probably won’t read it at all.

Lucas speculates that updates sent by e-mail will end up in virtual recycling bins amid daily Student News posts from the Center for Educational Technologies (CET). The Tartan’s best hope, she said, is to include lots of features on the homepage alongside sports updates so non- athletes will have a reason to keep reading.

But she’d still prefer a hard copy.