Posts from — April 2010

Presumably aboard a T3 Motion Scooter, Brown DPS just sent an e-mail this afternoon to the campus about safety during reading period/finals. While I know they’re just trying to be helpful, I can’t help but think that some of their advice will be misconstrued:

Trust your instincts.
If your head says no, but your body says yes, just go with it.

Pay attention to your surroundings.
If you’re walking to the V-Dub, don’t forget to stop at Spiritus on the way.

Stay in populated, well-lit areas.
Raves are good.  Libraries, not so much.

There is safety in numbers.
If somebody else is doing something, it’s OK. Remember, it’s not illegal if an entire posse is violating the law.

Brown Stand Up Comics Present: THE END Show

9:00 p.m. MacMillan 117, free

If you have not yet caught this year’s stand-up comics in performance, this is your last chance to hear routines from graduating seniors and a surprise professional guest comedian. Comedy shows are always fun, but especially so when you can relate to what the comedians are burning and satirizing.

No Comment

7:00 p.m. George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space, Churchill House

The Department of Africana Studies’ Rites and Reason Theatre presents a story of news, the media, sexual assault and power, written by Kathleen Braine ’11 and directed by Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Connie Crawford. The play will show again tomorrow at the same time and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Brown University Orchestra concert

8 p.m. Sayles Hall, $2 w/ Brown or RISD ID

According to some ancient Mayan mythology, we are living in the fifth world. Five is also the fifth Fibonacci number. In addition, it is the number of many famous symphonies, which has served as inspiration for this year’s orchestra selections. The orchestra’s final performance will feature Debussy’s “Iberia,” Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1″ and the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony.”

And for the sake of May Day, remember to say “rabbit rabbit” at midnight. Yeah, it’s a superstition, but I wouldn’t take any chances.

Rhode Island’s own Deborah Gist — the state’s education commissioner — was named as one of Time’s top 100 most influential people of the year. Listed as one of the “Thinkers,” Gist was named because of how she has been handling the fallout of the Central Falls High School firings.

The state’s Republican party welcomed the Log Cabin Republicans, a group consisting of gay and lesbian conservatives, as a new caucus on Wednesday. Though Republican candidate for governor John Robitaille, who spoke at the event, has opposed same-sex marriage laws in the past, he said he welcomed the group to the GOP and expressed an interest in making civil unions available.

A Providence businessman is hoping that the city and state will, in the midst of its highway relocation project that is shaking up the Jewelry District, consider establishing a museum that would pay tribute to the neighborhood’s history as an industrial center. But neither the city nor the state are considering something of the sort at the moment, officials say.

The Brown Daily Herald editorial page board is looking for new members for next fall. The board is responsible for formulating and writing The Herald’s editorials and meets once a week on Sunday to discuss ideas and potential positions. Board members work together closely to present thoughtful, well-researched stances on school and local issues. The board is a great chance to work with a small group of experienced writers and have an impact on campus discourse. Students with no prior Herald experience are welcome to apply.

The application is available here. It’s due Monday at 5 pm, but if you think you’re going to have trouble meeting the deadline, contact me and we can come up with an alternative.

Matt Aks
Editorial Page Editor
Matthew_Aks@brown.edu

“At Snoop’s Behest” by Natan Last ’12.

Look for “Across to Bear” — crosswords made by Brown students for Brown students — Thursdays in the Brown Daily Herald and here. Send ideas, comments or complaints to brownpuzzles@gmail.com, view this week’s solution here, and archives here.

Okay folks, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: the dirt on how and why Snoop Dogg showed up onstage in a Brown Hockey jersey at Saturday’s Spring Weekend show. Apparently, someone — either Athletics or Snoop’s people — decided it’d be cute if the Doggfather showed his Brown pride by wearing a jersey. He was originally going to have a jersey that had a number 1 and “Snoop Dogg” sewn on the back of it.  But because he’s 6’6″, he couldn’t fit into the jersey that they made for him. As our well-connected tipster tells it,

The jersey was a size 58 — in other words, 4XL. It was a goalie jersey — in other words, it’s designed to be worn with a ton of pads and such underneath! He was originally given a size 54 (3XL), but his people involved with getting the jersey said it was too small. Baggy is still very much in for Snoop I guess — it somehow still worked didn’t it?

Indeed it did. And moreover,

It’s worth noting that the men’s hockey is one of the few Brown jerseys without any red in it. You’d think as a guy that’s so heavily involved in youth football, he’d want to wear a football jersey. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked for a jersey to wear, but specified that it not have any red in it — he is a crip after all, and I think he still doesn’t wear any red for that reason.

Intrigue!

VISIONS release party

8 p.m. Salomon 101

This celebration of another successful issue of “VISIONS,” Brown’s Asian and Asian American literary and visual art magazine, will include musical entertainment from Harmonic Motion and Archipelag-a, poetry readings by contributers and free food from Thayer Street eateries.

Take Back the Night

9 p.m. march outside Faunce, 10 p.m. speak-out Smith-Bunano 106

Today’s “Take Back the Night” events are part of an international movement to spread awareness of sexual violence and protest its disturbing prevalence and large-scale invisibility. The issue of sexual assault, though a solemn one, is all too relevant to college students and others across demographics. A march around campus will take place, followed by a discussion including those who want to share their stories, as well as those who want to listen to others and gain a fuller understanding of their experiences.

Can Mindful Consumerism reverse the Ecological Meltdown?

8 p.m. MacMillan 117, free w/ Brown or RISD ID

Internationally recognized psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of “Emotional Intelligence,” just may have the answer to this profound question about consumerism and the environment. Goleman also will sign copies of his recently published book, “Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything.”

Or spend some time doing something else to improve the environment — it’s the least you can do in honor of Japanese Greenery Day. The Spring “Weekend wars” may be over, my friends, but this is a cause any tree-hugging hippy will find worth fighting for (please excuse my compulsions to pun).

With the end of both the semester and The Herald’s regular production schedule — and as your adoring editors attempt to get their lives back together and, um, pass their classes and graduate and stuff — we may be slowing down a bit over here at BlogDailyHerald, but never fear! We’ll still be updating regularly and doing our damnedest to give you all the news that’s fit to print put on the internet.

As we wind down and reflect on our first few months of bloggage, it’s time for a few much-needed — if entirely self-indulgent — shout-outs to all those who have made this thing possible:

First, none of this would be possible without our readers. When we started this thing, we had no idea whether it would catch on at all. Now, just a few months later, we’ve been lucky enough to find at least a handful of you who appreciate lowbrow humor, cereal fetishism, drug innuendo and Lady Gaga enough to keep coming back. Thanks for sticking with us, and as always, we encourage you to drop us a line at blog@browndailyherald.com and let us know what’s working and what’s not, what you’d like to see more of, and what we can do to make this a space for everyone. (And if you want to write for us, holler!!) [Read more →]

Wondering why today’s paper weighs you down like a ton of bricks? (And no, not just because the content is so solid…)

We normally deliver you 8 to 12 pages of Herald goodness, but this day is different than all other days: it is the last day. With the end of classes comes the end of publication, and so today’s issue was, well, a fire sale.

And so we bring you 24 pages (plus post- magazine) of all the news that’s fit to print. Or rather, let’s just leave it at ‘all the news.’

Dear reader, it has been real. Though so many of you have transitioned to the online world (and look! So have we!), there’s just something about that darn print edition that we can’t get over. And we’re glad you still like it too.

We’ll see you in September, but don’t you worry — the blog ain’t going anywhere. Keep us as your home page; we promise to update you, entertain you, waste your time, make your time worthwhile and tell you everything you never knew you wanted to know…

The Interior Department’s approval of Cape Wind, an offshore wind project that will be located between Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, may stall that Rhode Island’s own wind energy ambitions for the time being.  The new project will likely bring economic benefits to the Ocean State, however, thanks to plans to build the wind turbines at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingston. And the Cape Wind project will be a boost to alternative energy development in New England and the country, experts say.

Amber Rose Johnson, a junior at Classical High School in Providence, won the national Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night. Johnson took home a $20,000 prize after beating eight competitors in the final round. Johnson said she will save the money for college–Brown maybe?

It’s been two weeks since the state Senate rejected a supplemental budget passed by the House, an unusual move that flouted a 30 year precedent of the House having final control of the state’s money matters. Rhode Island still has a $220 million budget deficit that needs to be filled–a gap that could balloon by over $20 million if the General Assembly fails to reach a consensus in the next two days.