Posts by Connor McGuigan

Last semester, Brown students voted on their dream lineup for Spring Weekend. The BCA managed to snag just one act that made our wishlist — not suprising considering our lofty expectations. In these tight times, we can’t go shelling millions of dollars to book Taylor Swift. How would we explain that to Mayor Taveras? Luckily, Brown Student Radio has got those lusting for more marquee names covered. Its Spring Cover Band show is going down tonight, and the lineup is pretty jaw-dropping on paper. Come by The Underground tonight at 9 to catch some of Providence’s best bands covering the likes of Beirut, Neil Young, Prince, Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Each group’s set will last about twenty minutes, but expect T-Swift’s to be cut a little short…

Then, if you’re craving more student music — or just an excuse to go to Whisco in the afternoon — the BCA is hosting a Battle of the Bands this Sunday at 1 p.m. Four student acts will be competing for the chance to win eternal fame and glory (and free Spring Weekend tickets). Head on over to everyone’s bayside watering hole to kick your Spring Week off right.

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While we may be told to manage our expectations, stories of alums hittin’ it big in the real world tend to keep aspirations for life after Brown very high. Still, even the most Commercial, Organized and Entrepreneurial of us don’t necessarily envision a future of outfits that require their own security and a salary that makes Mitt Romney look like Joe the Plumber.

But one enterprising recent alum figured out a way to try out just such a life. Kevin Roose ’09.5 , a New York Times reporter and published author, recently spent a day living like a billionaire in order to investigate America’s obsession with the super wealthy. He spent his day cruising around in a Rolls Royce Ghost (and a private jet) doing rich people things with a private security detail at his side — all for the sake of journalism (huzzah!). Check out the story here for more details from Kevin’s swagged-out day (and a glimpse into the future of aspiring Brunonian journalists?).

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BCA has the difficult job of trying to please everyone. It has the lofty task of accommodating to the music tastes of as many Brunonians as possible. As a result, the lineups tend to be pretty eclectic — it’s almost as if they pressed shuffle a few times on a library compiled from every Brown student’s iPod.

So naturally when we got our hands on Stephen Poletto ’12‘s mashup featuring the performers of Spring Weekend 2012, we were a little skeptical. Cam’ron’s Bar Mitzvah-era jams on top of What Cheer? Brigade’s Balkan grooves isn’t exactly the recipe for a floor-filler. To our amusement and surprise, it actually pretty awesome. You can cop the mp3 by (alt) clicking HERE.

Chocolate/Vanilla frosting and shamrock sprinkles. Not pictured: plain chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

Happy St. Ratty’s day! Say what you want about its everyday fare, but everyone’s favorite refectory never fails to pull out all the stops on special occasions. Go on over and decorate your own edible arrangements while supplies still last – you’ll need something in your stomach if you plan on making it through the day.

If you’re involved with or interested in Brown student productions, this week’s true holiday event has yet to come (sorry, Leap Day William). Starting this Friday, two separate student-created theater pieces will be taking their respective stages. We’ve already hyped up one of them — Deepali Gupta ’12 and co.’s We Can Rebuild Him — and we thought it’d only be fair to give the other, Guests, some well-deserved spotlight.

Guests is a movement piece that premieres TONIGHT (3/2) at Production Workshop’s downspace in T.F. Green (7 Young Orchard Avenue) at 8 p.m. PW only chooses seven shows a year to put on in its downspace, so it’s bound to be good. If you needed more convincing (or you don’t feel prepared for back-to-back shows this weekend), we’ve got three reasons why you should go see Guests after the jump.

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Sushi Mountain

It’s Spicy Manhattan time, ladies & gents. Sushi’s back at the Blue Room. It’s gonna be a good weekend…

We know the Super Bowl halftime show is prone to mishaps and malfunctions, so when a geeky dude named Andy Lewis started wobbling on a rope last Sunday, Americans collectively held their breath. Thankfully, the toga-clad man nailed his routine by sticking a backflip as the camera panned to move on to the next spectacle. It was LMFAO’s moment, but many viewers were still fixated on the other curly-haired dude and his rope acrobatics. The fledgling sport of slacklining had been introduced to America.

Slacklining started with a group of rock climbers who decided to kill some downtime by balancing on inch-wide nylon webbing. Needless to say, it’s come a long way. People like Andy Lewis (whose messiah-status amongst slackliners was cemented after his Super Bowl performance) constantly further the sport by developing new tricks that involve jumping and balancing on the slackline. Over the years, it’s grown from an obscure hobby to a full-fledged sport with competitions across the country, and it’s only getting bigger.

Naturally, Brown students were ahead of the curve in terms of slacklining. The Brown Slackline Club, founded by alum Kyle Cackett ’11, has been setting up lines on the Main Green for over a year now. Since then, the club has been growing at a rapid pace. BlogDailyHerald decided to have a chat with the club’s president, Hannah Varner ’14, to get a better sense of the quickly rising sport and how it’s done at Brown. Check it out after the jump.

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Angel's deficit-busting game face

With our national dialogue dominated by talk of economic recession and the GOP circus primaries, it’s often easy to overlook what’s going on behind the scenes in our beloved city. Well, rest assured — things are going to shit here too. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Mayor Angel Taveras stated that Providence is in danger of bankruptcy. The city’s deficit stands at $22.5 million. If the current budget stays on track, Providence could be out of money by June.

Things are looking bleak, but  Taveras — who already significantly cut the projected deficit for 2012 — has a plan. He intends to cut benefits for retirees, specifically the compensations for cost of living increases in their pensions. He’s also looking to the city’s nonprofit organizations (read: this University) to pay up. Brown doesn’t pay any taxes to the city (as some parkgoers politely pointed out last month), and Taveras stated Thursday he would support legislation that would force us to give money to the city. Seeing as our total property tax would be over $30 million, this isn’t exactly music to Ruth’s ears.

You could say Providence has run out of Flex Points and is calling up Mom for extra declining balance Bear Bucks. Taveras’ own apt metaphor is that Brown is in the middle of a “Category 5 hurricane.” And we thought the climes were calmer this year…

The Brown Concert Agency is pretty much the closest thing we have to a secret society (considering we’re not sure Pacifica House counts). We truly appreciate the awesomeness they make possible, but they tend to keep their internal affairs close to the chest. Kind of like Brown’s own Skull and Bones, with more skinny jeans and less historical racism.

A couple of months ago, the BCA conducted a couple of polls — one via Facebook and one via UCS — that solicited student suggestions for Spring Weekend 2012 performers. Naturally, the BCA kept the results of these polls private. Considering our intense love affair with Spring Weekend, this was a bit of a disappointment. So we conducted a full-scale investigative report (i.e. one email to the head of the BCA—thanks!) to get you the poll results you deserve to see. Then we arranged them according to their poll popularity on a familiar poster  because we’re cruel, cruel people.

Check out which artists Brunonia voted for  (alongside our favorite unique suggestions), as well as commentary, after the jump: [Read more →]

It’s been a rough news week for a few choice Brown alums. We’re barely past hump day, and we’ve already got two unfortunate (but still juicy) scandals to report:

Alums Who Do Not-So-Cool Things
It’s over, ladies and gentlemen — Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno ’50 was fired Wednesday night in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that went public earlier this month. For you Ashton Kutchers who are out of the loop on this one, Paterno reportedly turned a blind eye to former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s repeated sexual molestation of young boys in the Penn State football facilities.

Alums Who Report Not-So-Cool Things
This week’s other unfortunate Brown-related scandal saw an alum on the reverse side of things. In an update on the Herman Cain sexual harassment case, Karen Kraushaar ’78 was identified as one of the women with whom Cain settled. Despite having paid the settlement, Cain still maintains that none of this went down. Cain allegedly harassed, Rick Perry stumbled  and Mitt Romney shattered … it’s looking like a good year for Ron Paul!