Clyde Lawrence ’15, the soulful musician behind “Wake Up” and a filthy cover of “Toxic” (really though), is at it again. This time, he’s debuting his soon-to-be-viral music video—take notes, BuzzFeed et al.—titled “Welcome Back Emma” right here on BlogDH.

Without giving too much away, it seems like a certain sophomore was really, really, really looking forward to a certain British actress’s return to Providence this January. The guy put together a super romantic dinner in the basement of Olney House (!!) and even feels a little bad that we made Emma cut her hair. We particularly like the idea of renaming the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies after a Watson with a little more… name recognition. Maybe someone who has a bit more “magic” to her.

Clyde also has a new album out titled Homesick. You can check it out on Spotify or on his YouTube channel. “Emma,” you should check him out too.

With BTV’s spring slate of shorts ready to premiere tonight, BlogDH sat down with Yotam Tubul ’14, the director of Afterlife Sentence, the longest of the four films. He had plenty to say about life, love, and movies (minus life and love).

Kevin Kelly ’15 in Afterlife Sentence

BlogDH: Tell me about the BTV Premiere and why people should go.

Yotam: It’s Monday night in Salomon, which is really cool because it’s the biggest venue we’ve had for it and it’s a big screen and it’s right on campus. [Then he talked a lot about BTV logistics, info you can probably find somewhere on this website.] It’s a lot of people’s work over the course of a semester gone into one night, four short films. It’s a testament to really cool group efforts and hopefully really good filmmaking.

[Read more →]

Brown’s well-known association with philanthropy is about to receive a digital upgrade.

Welcome to iFlip4, a charitable startup created by Brown student David Ellmann that “wants to start conversations about topics that go untouched on most days, to bring the world of philanthropy to young people, and have them confidently enter it alongside their peers.” The startup, which launches May 3rd, promotes charitable causes in two ways: via its clothing brand, which will donate half of its profits to charities determined by the buyers (for reference, Blue State Coffee donates two percent of its profits), and by operating a social network dedicated to promoting philanthropy among users. The site will be accessible to both everyday users and charities wishing to promote their work.

Interested in finding out more? The project has received funding via the Swearer Center’s prestigious Starr Fellowship and will celebrate its launch on May 3 with an event on the Main Green. Students will be able to sign up for the service, make donations, receive t-shirts, and even enjoy a game of capture the flag. The event is slated to make Brown the ambitious startup’s launching point among college campuses, which is only fitting for a school at which philanthropy and entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly intertwined.

Check out the startup’s nifty beta website here.

Image via. 

As we speak, Lily Ricci and Vic Bartash, both ’13, are walking on treadmills in the Nelson Fitness Center. They’ve been doing so since 8 a.m. to raise both awareness about lack of accessibility of clean water and money for their brewery startup. Cape Commons Beer Company, Ricci and Bartash’s project, aims to produce great beer while raising money to invest in clean water resources. So far, they have raised over $4,000 in their Indiegogo campaign, but still have a ways to go in the next three weeks to reach the $35,000 dollar goal necessary to get their signature Cape Commons Lager produced commercially.

So, how can you help? Well, Ricci and Bartash are hitting the treadmills to get your attention. Donate $30 while they’re walking (until 8 p.m. tonight), and you’ll score a free Cape Commons Beer tank. You can also comment a song on their LiveStream (link here) and they will dance to it for 30 seconds while on the treadmill. In other words, they are willing to work pretty hard for your money. Oblige them.

Since the publication of Moneyball (now a major motion picture!), there has been no shortage of armchair baseball statisticians ready to proclaim their candidacy for Yankees Director of Baseball Operations because they understand what an On-Base Percentage is. But the ranks of baseball statistics gurus operating on the same level as Billy Beane (that’s the guy Brad Pitt plays in the movie) have remained thin. Leading the pack of future Brad Pitts, though, is none other than Lewie Pollis ’14, an economics concentrator and Cleveland Indians fan.

Pollis has been a fixture on the baseball statistics–aka sabermetrics–circuit since the debut of his Indians blog, “Wahoo’s On First.” But he took his game to a whole new level by winning the SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Commentary. The award specifically recognized Pollis for his post on the blog Beyond the Box Score refuting the suggestion that Hall of Fame voters should have seen a player in action in order to cast a vote on that player’s enshrinement. Receiving the honor capped a memorable weekend for Pollis at the SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix, AZ, which he describes as the first time in his life he has been able to have in-depth, in-person conversations about the complexities of baseball analysis. [Read more →]

Last Wednesday’s Whisko was just any other Wednesday night rager at the bar on S. Water Street: drinks, dancing, townies, lots of leather, etc. The game-changer? An opportunity to tweet to win a trip to Vegas was thrown into the mix.

Enter Catherine Gross ’13, a Brown student with serendipitously good luck. She’s not a usual Whisko patron, but after spending the day in New York at some “really fun and not-at-all stressful job meetings,” which, in reality, were neither fun nor not-at-all stressful, her friend’s ”Wishco tonight?!” inquiry was surely welcome. She originally had planned to spend the night in the city, but then the Vegas gods intervened—she decided to come back to the glorious PVD on a whim. “As I’m not a freshman girl, I don’t frequent the ‘Co, but something of the YOLO-variety took over and I grabbed the Acela back for what I thought would be a pretty standard night at the Whiskey Republic: dancing and late-night Spicy Withs.”

And yeah, sure, it would have been pretty standard…until she learned of that night’s Vegas contest. [Read more →]

Have you ever gone to the Ratty incredibly hungry, only to find that there seems to be nothing to eat at all? Do you walk through those heavy doors ready to put your gastronomical skills to the test, but leave uninspired and unsatisfied? Enter Connie Wu ’12.5 and Annie Wu ’12.5, the twins who have elevated your Ratty experience from one of whining to one of fine dining.

Connie and Annie have incredible vision, creativity, and culinary skills; they’re the masterminds behind Ratty Gourmet, a comprehensive blog that catalogues their various Ratty creations with accompanying photographs and recipes. Needless to say, these two have most definitely changed the Ratty game for hundreds of Brown students.

Let these two master chefs walk you through the steps to whip up this Ratty delicacy and teach you the tricks of their trade. Cajun Chicken Broccoli Pasta is on today’s menu. Watch, learn, and become inspired to culinary action.

Here’s a quick quiz: Do you like Brown? Do you like Bill Clinton? Do you like the idea of Bill Clinton recognizing Brown? I bet you answered ‘yes’ to all three. Also, gotcha – the time you spent taking that quiz could’ve been spent taking one of these quizzes and directly contributing to the prospect of the whole Bill Clinton recognizing Brown thing actually happening.

Some of you may already be familiar with Common Sense Action, a student organization led by Samuel Gilman ’15, Andrew Kaplan ’15 and Heath Mayo ’13 (maybe you read our post on it last month). The group has led Brown’s participation in the Up to Us Competition, and has us close to the top of the leaderboard (University of Texas is currently in the lead) with only a few days left. Clinton will meet with the leaders of the winning school’s campaign and publicly recognize the school as a whole. If you want to help Brown edge out University of Texas, make sure to check out Common Sense Action’s Causes page and sign its petition or take any of its many quizzes – every action counts.

But on a larger scale, Common Sense Action is just getting started. Its marquee event, the Rhode Island Fiscal Summit, brought together student leaders from five colleges in the state for a discussion about approaches to the debt and deficit that focus on the well-being of our generation. The conference was co-sponsored by both Brown Democrats and Republicans, as well as many other campus groups – the Swearer Center, the Taubman Center, UCS – in a remarkable display of Common Sense Action’s ability to bring together all sides of the issue to work toward pragmatic solutions.  [Read more →]

Imagine a world where you could go online, find an object, buy it, and have it specifically printed for you. Three-dimensional printing, a method of additive manufacturing, has been on the rise for the last decade. This technology uses a digital model to recreate a 3-D object layer by layer. The cool thing about this method, besides the fact that you are basically downloading a real object from the internet, is that it can replicate any geometric shape or surface. Literally any object can be made, which allows for more flexibility and artistic expression when designing practical objects like furniture. Though 3-D printing has become more accessible recently, it can still be hard to find the exact model of the object you want and have it printed. This is where Azavy comes in.

Azavy is a company founded by Lucas Eggers ’13, Tyler Benster ’13, Mark Fischer and Michael Anderson. It allows designers of digital models to upload their work so that consumers can purchase and recreate them. For every digital model, bids can be requested by people who own 3-D printers to print that object and distribute it. Azavy then decides the most efficient bidder, which ensures that people get the most value. The whole idea is to create an integrated network of digital model designers and owners of 3-D printers, so that they can be utilized to their maximum potential. In essence, Brown students are making the future. Typical.

If you’re interested in social action and community involvement, a GOOD opportunity has just emerged on the Brown campus. GOOD, initially founded as a publication highlighting individuals engaged in projects that in someway better the world around them, is an online forum for people to post ideas, find causes to pursue, promote ventures and connect with others. The content of the website is both diverse and varied in its content. It covers issues including food, politics, the environment, culture, lifestyle, urban planning, and technology. The website currently receives about two million unique views per month and is actively updated to reflect trends and pressing issues. GOOD currently has offices in both New York and Los Angeles.

Haley Scott ’15, a recent transfer from UNC, became involved with the organization in its early stages and is now the Brown Campus Ambassador for GOOD. Scott has contributed a number of posts for the website and is incredibly excited about the prospect of the organization gaining significant traction at Brown. Scott currently has around 50 followers and has written posts that truly cover the entirety of the spectrum — from Philanthropic Action to Eco-Friendly Engineering to eating vegan. As one of 30 campus ambassadors, Scott believes that the college campus presents the perfect market for an organization of this nature and will allow the facilitation of the sharing of ideas. Scott is currently working with the Swearer Center to coordinate and organize efforts amongst service groups on campus and promote GOOD as a means by which to share and communicate. [Read more →]