Remember senior year of high school? Tearing through envelopes upon envelopes, closely reading  looking at pictures of different schools and their unique offerings. Beyond each distinct campus and student body, each college displayed one image that I am sure resonated with you throughout the process — the seal.

Though we have all become familiar with the Brown seal with the sun peaking its creepy face over four illegible books, the design of the seal has come a long way since the University’s establishment in Warren, RI in 1764. As Brown was founded prior to the American Revolution, the initial seal of the college, commissioned in 1765 at the second meeting of the Corporation, depicted the profiles of King George III and Queen Charlotte, an image often seen by students venturing into the Sharpe Refectory in 2012. Though ideas were developed and discussed, a new design was not formally instituted until 1833, almost thirty years after the change of name from Rhode Island College to Brown University. The present day Rhode Island College was not too creative in their choice of name #thatsso1803 (Get on our level). Brown: always the cool kid on the block. [Read more →]

Halloweek is all about the treats, the Halloweeknesses, and, of course, the spooks. Have you ever wondered why some places on campus are so damn creepy? Here’s one blogger’s speculations about places on campus that may or may not be haunted. Curious? Read the list after the jump.  [Read more →]

Despite a rough midterm period, Brown aced the Trojan Sexual Health Report Card. According to the Trojan list (via HuffPo), Brown is the 4th most sexually healthy college in America. Coincidence that SexPowerGod is right around the corner? You decide.

It’s Friday. And not just any Friday — it’s Fall Weekend Friday. For those of us staying in the jolly ol’ Ocean State, there’s not so much to do this weekend since half of the Brown community booked it onto the first MegaBus to New York. So why not make your way down to Providence Place and catch up on new movies?

Specifically, check out the new Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen dramedy (emphasis on the dra-) “50/50“. Why this film (considering that the new non-Twilight Taylor Lautner movie is out, too…)? Maybe because it’s directed by Brown alum Jonathan Levine ’00! Thanks, @BrownAlumniMag, for letting us know. (Yes, they tweet.) So get your iced coffee float at the Blue Room, and walk downtown! It’s beautiful out, so take advantage of the sun. Trust me, freshmen, it might not come back for a while…

According to Buzzfeed, Rhode Island has been deemed one of the hip(ster)est states in the nation, nestled between the District of Columbia and Washington State. The criteria to determine which states had that hip factor was how many times each state searched “hipster look”, “hipster music”, “hipster fashion”, or some other “hipster”-related phrase pertaining to said lifestyle. So, basically: the states that went against the foundation of hipsterdom and consciously tried to be hip.

Regardless, pull out your flannel and listen to some Animal Collective, since GoLocalProv gave Brown students a shout-out for “falling under the banner of the ‘hipster’“.

Level 2, Rock

This week, we are returning to the A floor of the Rock to the same stall we looked at last week.  From there, we’ll progress up two floors to Level 2.

Around a jotting that may look familiar from two weeks ago are two new additions. Both have a decidedly political leaning. “Industrial civilization is incompatible with a healthy planet” seems to be a comment on environmental issues, and “Don’t let the man hold you down. Keep writing!” is a rallying cry to potential graffiti-ists. It references the ongoing interactions between students and Facilities employees, where the stalls undergo a reoccurring cycle of graffiti-ing and whitewashing. The traces of this cycle remain around the starkly blue-penned slogan—faded, partially legible jottings emerging out of and fading into the white paint. This graffiti indicates the importance ascribed (literally) to this forum by some of Brown’s women, but it is significant that it is “the man” keeping us down. This is a common turn of phrase to be sure, but one that points to larger cultural structures where women remain in an inferior position is defined by their non-male status, despite a seeming equality because of our right to vote, laws to prevent employment discrimination, and so on. And maybe we should ask, who is the man? After all, he is not the female employees at Facilities who actually do the whitewashing. [Read more →]

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“Deeply in Love”

“the antelope and ant…eloped!”

“resist”

“Guess what? I broke up with him. Turns out he was not as nice as I gave him credit for. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SINGLE LIFE AGAIN. Finally I can do things for myself and just be happy. I love my life & Brown”

“Start of a new relationship…nervous, curious, excited, scared to get worried that he likes me more than I…”

“…my hopeless idealism”

These snapshots of graffiti in the women’s bathroom on the A floor of the Rock provide an inside look into one of the many forums in which Brown women express themselves. The paint strokes and faded writing attest to the cycles of whitewashing that occur regularly to clean the graffitied wall. For a lot of people, the primary association of this practice is its unattractive history when it was used to suppress women’s communications of sexual assault details in protest of the University’s sexual assault policy during the early 1990s. The scrawled “resist”, although it doesn’t specify what to resist, references this student-institution tension.   [Read more →]

According to best.complex.com, our very own Baja’s Tex Mex is number 33 on the list of ‘The 50 best Late Night College Eats’ in the country! Although neither Nice Slice nor Antonio’s made the list, Providence got another shout out with the Haven Brothers’ food truck parked down by Kennedy Plaza. You’ve probably seen it before, but now that you know it’s one of the best, it might be time to try it! Hmm…we wonder if the Taco Truck will make next year’s list.

There’s Spotted at Brown and Prospect & Meeting, and now, there’s Like a Little. The site is actually a lot like Spotted at Brown. It prompts you to say who you are looking at, what their hair color is, where you are looking at them, and a little comment. The site is apparently hoping to be home to only positive comments, saying, “Offer a compliment to somebody and please no negative messages or real names.” There have been a decent number of posts already on the site for and by Brown students, but will this site take over Spotted at Brown? What do you think? Leave it in the comments!

Book Cover for "Observations Without Daddy: Vivic Evocations of Growing Up in Texas" by James P. White

Book Cover for "Further Adventures in the Restless Universe" by Dawn Raffel

People always say, “never judge a book by its cover.” But when the Huffington Post did just that recently by awarding “21 of The Coolest Book Covers This Year,” they gave two of those awards to Brown alums, according to the Brown Alumni Magazine! The two books are Observations Without Daddy: Vivid Evocations of Growing Up in Texas by James P. White ’73 P’01 and Further Adventures in the Restless Universe by Dawn Raffel ’79. You can read more about the stories behind the cover designs from either The Huffington Post or the Brown Alumni Magazine, but we’ll give you a little taste by saying that both the authors’ sons were involved.