Posts by Connor McGuigan

As impending finals threaten to suck the humor and happiness out of our daily lives, the Brown comedy community is working hard to get in a few last laughs. Starla, Improvidence, Out of Bounds, and Brown Stand Up put on well-attended shows last weekend. The Brown Noser released its final issue of the semester this week. Tonight, the trend continues with a first-of-its kind event-a live show from Brown Barrel Radio.

The Brown Barrel is an umbrella organization that includes most of Brown University’s comedy groups. Every two weeks, members offer up a podcast of off-the-cuff comedy in their Radio Show. The episodes are packed with sketches, routines and–most importantly–jingles. Tonight, the Barrel Radio Show will be bringing their typically recorded antics to a live audience. They’ve never raised the stakes like this. Will we be introduced to a new jingle? Will there be live renditions of said jingle? Come to Wilson 102 at 7 p.m. tonight to see for yourself. And while you’re on the comedy grind, check out Improvidence and OoB’s 2nd Annual Freaky Friday show at 9:30.

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It’s an almost universally agreed upon fact that Facebook changes suck. We like our social networks reliable and unmodified, gosh darnit! So when the cover photo was introduced, we were naturally all a bit hesitant.  Two profile pictures? We initially thought to ourselves. What is this hootenanny?

But Facebook users are narcissistic embraced the cover photo and utilized it as a form of expression, posting awkwardly-sized, rectangular images of everything from their favorite place to their favorite artist.  After some thorough Facebook stalking research, we deduced what each type of cover photo says about you:

The Beyonce: We feel your pain. Other Beyonce fans are tough to find; you’ve got to broadcast your obsession in the off chance you’ll get a couple of likes from some fellow Bey enthusiasts hiding out there somewhere. But seriously, this ubiquitous choice isn’t all that bad. You’ve got good taste in music… and humans. Sadly, you don’t win any creativity points.

The nature scene: “This website is pretty nice I guess,” Zuckerberg worried to himself the night he conceived the cover photo, “but it needs more sweet pics of people standing in front of mountains.” The nature cover photo became an instant staple. Today, you can’t stalk for long without coming across a picture of dirty people standing in front of a lake. For the most part, these send the right kinds of messages. You’ve got an adventurous side, you’ve seen some incredible sights and you know how to take a decent picture. Unless you pulled it off of Google. That’s not okay. [Read more →]

The battle for Spring Weekend glory continues. Late last February, the Brown Concert Agency announced their campaign to choose a student DJ to play between sets on the festival’s final night. After reviewing mix submissions, they narrowed the pool down to three candidates —Nick Melachrinos ’15, Tristan Rodman ’15 and Abe Arambolo ’13—and put the decision in our hands. 

That’s when things got a little messy. Over Spring Break it became clear that some unfair practices were used to sway the results. By the time we returned to school, over three thousand votes had been tallied. The huge vote push could have been the product of a sweeping democratic impulse throughout our vacationing student body. However, the more cynical among us were quicker to attribute it to a few enterprising computer scientists. No one is interested in pointing any fingers — especially BCA — but turns out it’s very possible to rig results for polls like these using a script that automatically votes from open IP adresses. When the BCA came across “evidence” of this sort of vote tampering last week, they shut the thing down and started from scratch.

The new poll can be found on BCA’s blog. They used Google Forms to set up the poll this time, so the only way to vote is to use a legitimate Brown email address. Make sure not to get too tricky or eager; multiple submissions from the same email will void all of that email’s submissions. Listen to the mixes, vote for your favorite, and spread the word!

Earlier this week, a group of students announced the details for “Spring Weekend After Dark,” a party following A-Trak’s set on Friday the 19th. The concert will take place at Lupo’s from 10:45 p.m. to 3 a.m. Discounting the exodus down Westminster, that’s about 8 straight hours of dance (and bounce) music. The lineup, which sports some serious name recognition, promises to make the bodily sacrifice worthwhile.

Topping the bill is James Murphy, the lightly-bearded mastermind of LCD Soundsystem fame. Since that group’s dramatic dissolution, Murphy has kept himself busy collaborating with other musicians, running his record label and playing DJ sets. Here’s a taste of the DJ chops he’ll bring to Lupo’s on the 19th. Judging by the spirited shuffles he elicits from those apathetic Brits, Murphy will surely be a hit in front of more a more intoxicated lively Providence crowd.

Neon Indian, the cerebral synth-pop project of Mexican-born Alan Palomo, is also booked to play a DJ set. Palomo has shown a knack for crafting unique and accessible electronica in his two full-length releases as Neon Indian. He also has considerable experience as a DJ; he once dabbled in producing more traditional dance music, and he often plays DJ sets under the Neon Indian moniker.

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Vine, a social media app launched by Twitter last January, is causing quite the stir on campus. The premise is simple. Your homepage is a feed of your friends’ looping six-second videos. To make your own, you just touch your finger to the screen in the video interface to record.

Some users take its often-used descriptor to heart and treat the app as an “Instagram for videos.” Brown students don’t fall into this category. From documenting pranks at the Blue Room to crafting elaborate scenes amongst friends, they have taken the craft of Vining to awe-inspiring and laugh-inducing levels. Every day the creative community of Brown Viners grows larger and stronger–so we thought we’d hop abroad the Vine train.

We recently dispatched two of our most available capable “journalists”  to get the scoop on the growing trend–and document their results on Vine. Their educational Vines are posted below, among which are student takes on the app and depictions of Brown’s most-common Vine prototypes. Click the sound logo on the top right when you’re ready to watch one. And if you haven’t already, make sure to join Vine and follow BlogDailyHerald for more informative updates down the road.

It seems like a lot of students are “Vining” these days…

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Sofia Coppola, the prodigal daughter behind Lost in Translation and The Virgin Suicide, has a new movie on the way. The Bling Ring is the sort-of true story of a group of teenagers that robbed homes of celebrities. Above is the just-released teaser, complete with shots of betch-ed out Emma Watson applying lipgloss and fast cuts of strip clubs. Exciting! Provocative!

Eat free or dine trying.
________

MES Luncheon Seminar
12:00-1 p.m.
Watson Institute, Mckinney Room

Visiting professor of Judaic studies Katharina Galor will give a talk entitled “Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology between Science and Politics.”

International Relations Open House
5 p.m.
Watson Institute, North Common Room

Prospective and declared concentrators alike are invited to join the concentration advisor and DUG members for an hour-long info session. Kabob and Curry will be provided.

Pixar Animation Studios Information Session
6-7:30 p.m.
CareerLAB

Contrary to yesterday’s morning mail, turns out Pixar will be at the CareerLAB TODAY. Head over to learn about internship opportunities and enjoy some free Kabob & Curry. 

Last Tuesday, as the sun peeked through fading February clouds, dorms across campus went dark. March 1st marked the beginning of the third annual Brown Unplugged competition, a battle for energy savings between 14 dorm clusters. For three weeks, dorms will be pitted against each other to see which group can best reduce their energy consumption. Last year, students saved 23,000 kWh, knocking $3,000 off of Brown’s bill. Things are moving a little more slowly this year, but the competition is sure to fire up as more students power down. You can check on the current standings here.

EcoReps, a student group that seeks to make our campus greener, seems to be using a three-pronged strategy to mobilize dorms to reduce energy consumption: sexual innuendos, free pizza and Christina Paxson. The slogan for the contest is, “Do it in the Dark” and its advertising campaign has used the promotional slogan, “I remember to pull out.” As if that wasn’t enough to entice students to participate, the winning group gets a free pizza dinner with the President Paxson.

Brown could use a little more inter-dorm competition, and this one’s for a good cause. Register here if you’d like to commit to conserve.

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“Craze.” “Trend.” “The new Harlem Shake.” These are terms that have been used to describe the practice depicted above. Some see “gallon smashing” as immature and disturbing. Others are a little more amused. We’ll let you judge for yourself.

On Wednesday, New Dorm residents received this email:

This isn’t your garden variety case of urine misplacement. Some individual, or group of individuals, has gone to extreme lengths here. In their quest to avoid the toilet, they’ve gone straight for the trash can and followed a more…indirect route. Also, the culprit has hit both New Dorm A and B. This isn’t some drunken prank; it’s a systematic attack.

From the beginning, M-Lo made clear the severity of the issue at hand.  He raises two important points: this behavior is unhealthy, and it raises concerns about the student responsible for it. We feel your concern Marc, but let’s not forget about the intrigue. It’s not every day we have a serial pee-er on our hands. Good luck, New Dormers. Stay dry safe.