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(09/30/10 4:08am)
Six games. No goals conceded. The 2010 Middlebury men’s soccer team has made a habit of shutouts. In fact, the last goal it allowed was the one that sent it packing in overtime of last season’s NESCAC championship game.
Thanks to a three-win week against opponents Norwich, Bowdoin and Colby-Sawyer, the team pushed its record to 6-0 overall, 3-0 in the NESCAC and kept its zero goals-against streak alive. This impressive, defensive week of play, in which Middlebury outscored opponents 13-0 and outshot them by a lopsided 60-12, had Coach Saward harkening back to the 2007 Panthers squad, which allowed only seven goals in 21 matches.
“I think the success, which feeds on itself, is that the whole team takes pride in its defensive consistency,” said Saward. “The 2007 team was excellent defensively, but it is still early so we shall see with this crew as to how it will ultimately compare.” Goalie Tim Cahill ’12 has been solid in the net for the squad, recording two full-game shutouts against Norwich and Bowdoin (numbers three and four on the season) and one more shutout appearance before being lifted in the Colby-Sawyer game.
“Tim has been steady and has made good strides in all aspects of his game,” said Saward. “All we ask of him is to play within himself and trust his good instincts, which is what he is doing.”
The Panthers opened their week on Wednesday at home against Norwich, handing the in-state rival a resounding 7-0 defeat. Tyler Smith ’14 and Harrison Watkins ’11 each netted two goals, with Sam Peisch ’13.5, Martin Drolet ’12 and Ethan Gallette ’13 each adding one. The scoring did not begin until 30 minutes into the first half, when Smith scored his first, but then the floodgates opened, as the team scored five of its goals within a 19-minute span of the second half.
“The Norwich game was one of those days where everything went well for us,” said Saward. “We scored three or four very good goals, which on another day would not go our way.”
Jake Edwards ’11 turned in the performance of the match, assisting on the team’s first three goals and in the process tying the school record for assists in a game. Edwards, an outside defender and midfielder, won NESCAC player of the week for his efforts, a rare honor for the less flashy positions.
“I think it is interesting that as we look at our stats, almost 50 percent of our goals this year have come from set plays,” said Saward. “That always points to the guy who supplies the delivery, and for us that is Jake. To break any record is an achievement and Jake deserves all the credit.”
The win against Bowdoin on Saturday, however, was by far the most important of the team’s week as it recorded its third NESCAC win and increased its conference goal differential to +4.
The game, played in front of yet another vibrant home crowd, saw Alex Colucci ’12 score off a set piece in the 43rd minute, assisted by Carson Cornbrooks ’11. Smith then added an insurance goal off a feed by Edwards in the 71st minute. Saward was especially impressed by Colucci’s game-winning goal.
“Colucci’s goal was excellent, and typifies Alex’s determination to succeed,” said Saward. “A lot of players would not have gotten their head on that cross but Alex was brave and courageous –– a great goal, scored at a very opportune moment.”
The team secured its final victory of the week downing Colby-Sawyer 4-0 on Sunday. Matt Martin ’12.5, Watkins, Edwards and Tyler Macnee ’12 all scored for the Panters. Zach Abdu-Glass ’13 got some time between the pipes as he relieved the starter Cahill in the 62nd minute.
“Graham Knisley ’14 got the start at left back, performed very well and got the assist on the first goal,” said Saward of the final game of the week. “Watkins was excellent once again, as were Otis Pitney ’12 and Cornbrooks, who simply outwork their opposite numbers every day.”
The team faces NESCAC rival Colby on Saturday as it looks to extend its already impressive winning streak.
(09/30/10 4:08am)
Susan Ray, assistant professor on the Faculty of Health and Sciences at the University of Western Ontario’s School of Nursing, delivered the opening lecture at this year’s Clifford Symposium. Ray first developed an interest in the phenomenon of “othering” while working on her dissertation, which focused on “healing from the trauma of peacekeeping.”
Ray explained that othering takes place as a result of forced migration.When people must suddenly flee their homelands and try to create new lives for themselves elsewhere, they often experience severe alienation from citizens of the host country. The advent of an “us/them” mentality is what she refers to as “exclusionary othering.”
“Othering is a very complex process that shifts depending on how identities are constructed and interpreted,” she said.
Often, these perceived identities are based on the ways in which the concept of immigration is presented to the general public.
“Many times in the media, people write in terms of metaphors that can be perceived as a threat,” she said.
Words like “swarms,” “tides,” “waves,” “swamp” and “overrun” can have a strongly negative impact on the reception of newcomers.
“The media encourages us to interact with refugees and asylum seekers from a point of defense: erecting barriers, screening and deterring, et cetera,” she said. “When added to people’s preexisting prejudices against certain races, classes and other groups, the result is a largely close-minded society.”
In addition to these social challenges, Ray also pointed out the heath problems associated with exclusionary othering.
“Many will have a long history of trauma,” she said. “Many will have come from camps with poor nutrition and hygiene and been exposed to infectious diseases.” In situations like this, seeing one another as opponents can be dangerous for everyone involved. “It sets them and us in conflict over scarce health care resources, reduces access to care, contributes to alienation and undermines health.”
Instead, Ray suggests, people should strive for “inclusionary othering.”
“It is an attempt to utilize power within relationships: not power over, but power with and power sharing,” she said. Such a process requires active engagement and a desire to connect with one another — imagining life in one another’s shoes.
This is not to say, however, that people should ignore what makes them unique.
“The differences and borders of each of our identities connect us to each other more than they sever,” she said. “There’s more of an openness than an opposition.”
When it comes to global health, it is a matter of having trained professionals who have the capacity not only to treat, but also to truly care.
“Health care workers need training in cultural competence and cultural sensitivity,” she said.
As it stands, there is much room for improvement when it comes to working with people who have experienced the trauma of displacement. In all of Canada, for example, there is just one center for specialists in this type of work. However, Ray maintains that anyone in the field — in the world, for that matter — should be making an effort to avoid unnecessary exclusion.
“Knowing differences and particularities allow us to explain the connections and commonalities,” she said. “I don’t think any border or boundary has to be completely rigid.”
(09/30/10 4:08am)
Sarah Willen, assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University, continued this panel’s theme of deservingness by applying it to unauthorized immigrants through what she called “the lens of my own field”: medical anthropology.
“This is a group we are trained not to see,” she said. “There wouldn’t be so many unauthorized immigrants if there weren’t so many people benefiting from their illegality in so many ways.”
After pointing out the low prices of produce and building labor, Willen added that the jobs most often filled by undocumented workers often carry many health risks. She addressed the contradictory attitudes that many legal citizens take toward their presence, benefiting from their work yet vehemently denying them rights to health care.
Meanwhile, for these people, “home can be a place of vulnerability and risk.” While people tend to blame the presence of illegal immigrants for the less-than-desirable nature of the places they often live, she said simply, “Quite frequently it’s the opposite. People are drawn to places where rent is cheap.”
Willen asked those in attendance to think deeply about their own morals and the question of who deserves what. She concluded with some questions for the audience to consider.
“How is illegality produced in the first place?” she asked. “Who benefits? If they’re members of our social and economic communities, shouldn’t they be members of our moral community as well? If they are, what do they deserve?”
(09/30/10 4:07am)
Head football coach Bob Ritter can exhale: his Middlebury Panthers opened the 2010 football season with a 24-21 win over the Wesleyan Cardinals. He may, however, have a few more gray hairs then he did before the game. Leading 24-14 with just over 10 minutes left in the game, the Panthers drove deep into Wesleyan territory and seemed poised to score and all but put the game out of reach. But on third and 13 from the Wesleyan 23-yard line Middlebury quarterback Donnie McKillop ’11 forced a throw into double coverage in the end zone and was intercepted by Wesleyan safety, Justin Freres. Given new life, Cardinals quarterback Matt Coyne led a 16 play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a Vince Miller two-yard touchdown run cutting the score to 24-21.
Having already used all three of their timeouts, the Cardinals were forced to attempt an onside kick, which they managed to recover with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter on their own 43-yard line. Needing a defensive stop to win the game, the Middlebury defense responded, forcing the Cardinals to turn the ball over on downs, ending the game.
“We were certainly anxious,” conceded head coach Bob Ritter. “We knew if we got the ball back the game was over. The defense did a great job of rallying when all the momentum was against them and made four great plays.”
The Cardinals opening drive was capped by a 25-yard touchdown run by running back Vince Miller whose 117 yards rushing were only surpassed by his teammate Shea Dwyer who accumulated 119 yards on the ground.
After allowing an opening drive touchdown to the Cardinals, the defensive unit made a terrific adjustment, and spent much of the rest of the game in the Cardinals backfield disrupting the rhythm of Wesleyan quarterback Matt Coyne. Despite allowing 261 yards rushing to the Wesleyan offense, the Panthers defense continually made big plays throughout the game. Coyne, in his first game as a starter for the Cardinals after transferring from Williams, showed his lack of experience in the pocket as the game progressed and ended up making a poor throw that was acrobatically intercepted by Panthers linebacker Andrew Durfee ’11 who had a stellar day –– registering nine total tackles as well as a sack. Equally disruptive was Panthers defensive end Paul Carroll ’11, who constantly penetrated the Wesleyan backfield, finishing with two sacks and another tackle for a loss, and seemingly rushing Matt Coyne every time he dropped back to pass.
“Paul was really inspirational,” Ritter said. “What we ask of our guys is always maximum effort. As well as he played it was really the effort he showed that was eye-opening.”
Carroll made an impression on fellow first-year defensive lineman Bryant Adams ’14 as well. “Paul plays with a lot of heart,” Bryan said. “He’s not even that big of a guy, but he never quits on a play. He was huge.”
The biggest play from the Panthers defense, however, came on another long run from Wesleyan running back Vince Miller. On third and three from the Middlebury 16-yard line, the Wesleyan running back found a hole and not only picked up the first down, but was dragging tacklers into the end zone when he was stripped of the ball on the one-yard line. Defensive back Dan Kenerson l’12 recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchback, keeping the Wesleyan offense off of the scoreboard.
The highest scoring offense in the NESCAC did its job as well, behind a solid performance from quarterback McKillop and a career day from running back Andrew Plumley ’11. Plumley, who has been slowed by injuries during his previous three seasons was impressive Saturday, totaling 85 yards rushing on 19 carries and another 40-yards receiving –– including a nine yard touchdown catch. “It’s great to see him out there playing,” said Ritter. “He played like a senior even though he doesn’t have senior experience. It’s really nice to see him get off to a great start.”
If Plumley can stay healthy, he adds another dimension to this already explosive offense. On a number of plays the Burlington High School product and 2006 Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year carried multiple defenders for extra yards and converted a number of big third down runs. And for once, his health does not seem to be an issue.
“I feel great,” Plumley said. “My knees have been a problem over the last few years, but I feel strong and ready to go. I feel as good as I ever have.”
Meanwhile, his partner in the backfield McKillop threw for three touchdowns and 255 yards while completing nearly 63 percent of his passes. McKillop connected for touchdowns with Plumley, wide receiver Matt Rayner ’12 and Zach Driscoll ’13 who lead all receivers with six catches for 92 yards.
But the Panthers still have areas where they can improve. Multiple times the Panthers couldn’t finish crucial drives with points.
“We have to be more focused in the red zone offensively, and not leave points on the board,” said Ritter. The Panthers squandered multiple scoring opportunities. “We wanted to stay aggressive,” Ritter said. “I have a lot of confidence in our offense. Given the nature of the game and where we were I’d do it again.”
Middlebury travels to Colby to play the Mules (0-1) this Saturday. Colby lost its opener 33-6 at Trinity.
(09/30/10 4:07am)
“Each birth is different,” said Andrew Powers ’11.5.
With nostalgic looks on their faces, five-eighths of the Middlebrow improvisation troupe recapped some of their favorite moments from past performances. While they can’t decide on a favorite show (since each one is its own unique compilation of madness, or an individual birth as they describe it) they can all point to specific moments when they felt the troupe solidify, like the scene when Alie Bornstein ’11 had to ask Ryan Urquidi ’13 out to a big dance and he could just feel the trust between them. Though they’re all jokers, reverent silence descended on the table when we talked about the vulnerability that comes along with their art.
“The best way to have a good troupe is to cut out the censor, and they see me without a censor more than anyone else does,” said Danny Metzger-Traber ’11.
“Working with people in improv is a terrifying thing,” says Bornstein, “You’re totally relying on one another. It’s great because we’ve gotten to that point where we can walk on stage and say anything to anyone and make a scene out of it.”
Born in spring 2008, Middlebrow was “initially a venue for people who weren’t in an improv troupe to get together and play around. And then we decided at the end of the semester to try having a performance and we thought that it went reasonably well and so from there we decided to become a troupe,” said Metzger-Traber, one of the group’s founders along with Ele Woods ’11, Powers and a few alumni. Almost three years later, the group remains committed to providing an avenue for everyone and anyone to experiment with improvisational theater by participating in Open Improv Gym sessions and a Winter term workshop, called Jprov.
The troupe looks for “two main things, which is good listeners and good emoters,” said Powers with nodding agreement from his cohort of actors.
Equally important is aerobic skill and agility and proving that one can keep up with the other members of the troupe during their most beloved game, tag, complete with obstacles. Due to their large size, this semester was the first time that the troupe was unable to take on new members but with three graduating seniors on board, space will be opening up in the rank soon. While the decision to keep their roster as-is was difficult, it gives them “a go-ahead to push the troupe a little bit farther as a whole foundationally and try to develop more maturity and really grow,” said Urquidi.
With a successful season opener under their belts, Middlebrow’s next big show will be Homecoming weekend in homage to a returning founder identified only as the Baron. Though Metzger-Traber reports that “every time the troupe picks a place it’s a different struggle” to decide what they want from the space, the next show will probably take place at Le Chateau, the troupe’s favorite. Everything is a part of the performance because “it’s all done on stage. What you see is the only communication happening between us. There are no scripts or paradigms for any scene,” said Powers.
According to Bornstein, success is, “any show where everyone leaves having had so much fun,” so come laugh with Middlebrow and see what the crazy kids have come up with. For future shows, Middlebrow is toying with ideas such as puppet-prov, murder mystery prov, acapella-prov, and the wedding of Ryan and Alie who will thereafter by known as Ralie. In addition to the upcoming nuptials they would like you to know that their aura is blue, just in case you were ever wondering.
(09/30/10 4:07am)
Turns out they can do more than open shells while floating on their backs.
Whether you had the chance to catch one of their sold-out shows this weekend, or you’ve just seen their characteristic hand-drawn posters up around proctor, it’s hard not to notice that Otter Nonsense is making a big splash. Coming up on it’s 20th anniversary, The Otter Nonsense Players, or just “the Otters,” are the longest standing improvisation group on campus and an essential part of the Middlebury arts scene. Made up of nine members all from different backgrounds (Will Bellaimey ’10.5 John Glouchevitch ’10.5, Ken Grinde ’11, Ben Orbison ’12.5, Cecily Glouchevitch ’12.5, Greg Dorris ’13, Chris De La Cruz ’13, Adam Benay ’13.5 and Alexandera Kennedy ’13.5) the group brings a dynamic kind of funny to the stage. Unscripted and impulsive, the Otters somehow manage to consistently produce scenes that keep audiences laughing because of the ridiculousness, yet blatant pertinence, of their imagined situations. An Otters performance has the wittiness of a Lil’ Wayne freestyle and the presence of a John Wayne character. It’s like real life, except funnier.
“We really look for truth in comedy,” said Bellaimey, who’s been with the Otters since his third week on campus his first semester. “The laughs come from people having some recognition of the characters”
So while shows with titles like “Vincent A. Jones Promotes Old Spice” and “The Decision: Lebron James Reads Sophie’s Choice” may seem outlandish (and maybe are), the Otters can make you say, “Wow, I‘ve never been a court jester during a plague in Athens, but if I had been it definitely would have been like that.” The on-stage fluidity of the characters makes it easy to buy into this twisted version of reality. So how do they do it?
“[You need to] trust your subconscious” Bellaimey explains. “Ideas come from stopping thinking.”
But it’s not just being able to trust yourself. Because of the inherent nature of improv, there’s always going to be an element of surprise between actors off script. Bellaimey attributes the ability of the Otters to go beyond this to the trust between the members of the group.
“Improv is all about trust,” Bellaimey says. “You have to know that when you say something the person on stage with you will have your back.”
Creating a convincing and funny scene is not just about acting. In fact, even though there are members of the group with strong theater backgrounds, some had never tried any sort of acting before being in Otters. Dorris, who joined the group last year, is one of them. To him it’s not a question of technical experience, but about how you approach the situation.
“[I] just play to my strengths,” Dorris said, adding that it helps when there’s inspiration all around him on stage. “Everyday I see someone bring something hilarious to a scene that I file away somewhere in my head for future reference.”
No matter your background though, being able to put on a 40-minute show still takes a lot of practice. The Otters keep themselves in top improv shape by doing what they do on stage two times a week and sometimes specific scenes take more prep than others. For the one act Shakespeare pieces they did the past weekend, the group not only read up on a bit of Will himself, but also devoted time to just making up plays from scratch to “get a feel for what it’s like to be doing a Shakespeare play.”
Moreover, because it draws so much from the everyday, improv for the Otters is not necessarily something that’s just left on stage. In fact, for Bellaimey at least, the skills he works on in practice have had lasting impressions.
“Always saying yes, jumping into things and trying and being willing to fail,” Bellaimey said. “Those are things [taken from improv] that are so valuable to me in my regular life”
The end result is not only refreshingly raw comedy, but a tight-knit group of people that can really turn impromptu banter into something worth watching.
(09/30/10 4:06am)
“OK, Ryan, don’t blow her up there!” shouted the loudspeaker, barely audible above the revving of the ’66 Mustang’s engine.
The engine is weak, though, in comparison to the two cars at the end of the row, a ’67 Camaro and a ’23 Ford T-Bucket. Bristol’s Better L8 Than Never Car Show, on Saturday Sept. 25th, attracted a large crowd. The spectators, perched above the contest on the baseball field bleachers, struggled to pick a winner for the Muffler Rap contest. In the end, the announcer presented the Camaro, a consistent contestant at the show, with the trophy.
The trophy presentation was followed by yet another competition, the Tuner Rap. The loud, powerful American muscle cars competed against the imported vehicles, driven by a younger generation of car enthusiasts. A team, who calls itself Matchbox Heaven, dominated this contest.
The Matchbox Heaven drivers, John Goodman and Chris Parent, have signature stickers on the right side of their windshields. The two are not a team in and of themselves, but are part of a 25-member car club, comprised of individuals from upstate New York.
Parent said that despite the shifting preferences of American car lovers from American muscle vehicles to what the older generation believes are “toylike, inflated Hot Wheels from Japan,” a vibrant car culture still exists in America
“We’re trying to keep it alive,” he said.
In hopes of perpetuating America’s car show culture, Matchbox Heaven has two clear rules: “don’t start drama and don’t start things with other clubs.” Spreading goodwill, even outside of the car shows, is an important goal for Goodman and Parent. They participate in car shows for church benefits, and in ones that raise money for cancer victims and for kids with diabetes. While Bristol’s show boasted free admission, donations to Camp Ta-Kum-Ta were suggested.
Bristol’s car show, for both the young and the old drivers, is less about the cars and more about the people who get to show off their cars. Diane Adam, a semi-retired Addison County native, said that she’s been going to car shows regularly for years, and sees the same general crowd at every Vermont show. She loves traveling around the state to each of the different car events.
“You’ll meet someone along the way and before you know it you’ve got 10 cars going someplace,” she said.
Most enjoy the small-scale shows, like the one at Bristol. At larger shows, of up to 3,000 cars, people from as far away as Indiana participate and they bring their quarter-million dollar cars. Bristol’s show only has 200 cars, so locals have a better opportunity to win in one of the 27 classes to which the cars are registered.
Many spectators also ventured down to the Bristol Harvest Festival, which complemented the car show. Blues harmonica player Mark Lavoie entertained crowds and played a song about migrant farm workers. The clear morning and summery weather suited all festival-goers, who sampled fudge and apple cider.
“We live in this sheltered part of the U.S.A,” said Lavoie. “The only thing we have to deal with is cold weather.”
The Harvest Festival, sponsored by the Addison County Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol Recreation Department featured a DJ, raffles and a flea market for all attendees.
Over 75 vendors sold locally grown food and artistic masterpieces with local images. The National Guard recruitment tent talked to festival-goers, while children enjoyed pony rides and apple pie. Food from various Bristol restaurants was also available for all to taste.
However, Sarah McGrath, a Bristol farmer, said that the stands don’t sell as much fresh produce as one would expect. People tend to gravitate toward the tents selling art and spend more of their money on the samosas at nearby restaurant, Euro Restaurant, than on bundles of kale leaves.
“Most people are here just to mozy around,” she said.
Vendors Sue Record and her daughter Jennifer Lavigne hoped this year’s festival would be as successful as the last one. Newcomers to the Vermont festival circuit, the mother and daughter team learned to make fruit preserves at a class in Burlington’s city market. Since then they have traveled to summer and winter markets around the state, garnering new ideas for recipes, like their famous spicy mustard. Last year at the Bristol Harvest Festival, the two sold all their goods. They enjoy the opportunity and the encouragement that small festivals like this offer locals to participate and sell their food.
The wide variety of vendors at the Harvest Festival, who offered anything from massages to homemade jam to art made from acorns and wood pellets, maintained a relaxed and easy rhythm to accent the riveting car show next door.
(09/30/10 4:06am)
Sometimes, the game comes down to a matter of inches. In Saturday’s 2-1 overtime victory, the Panthers women’s soccer team proved they had that extra determination to bring home a goal just 1:06 into the first extra period, and earned their first NESCAC win of the season.
The game featured two evenly matched and competitive teams, yet Rowell’s toe-poke golden-goal finish proved to be the difference maker, and the contest concluded in Middlebury’s favor. The goal was initiated by a Katie Ruymann ’11 free kick, which sent the ball into the box only to be dished back out to Caroline Downer ’11. Downer swung in a cross that Annie Rowell ’11 collected amidst a scrambling Bowdoin defense, and Rowell managed to drive the ball into the left corner of the net. Game over, Polar Bears.
The tenacious O.T. goal provides ample evidence of the renewed vigor that the Panthers have demonstrated in the past two games, as the team appears resolute in their commitment to turn their season around after a rocky first few games.
“After a slow start, it was relieving to get our first win in the NESCAC and prove to ourselves that we could win, even in overtime,” said tri-captain Katie Ruymann ’11.
Saturday’s contest was a timely moment for the under-achieving Middlebury team to regain some respect in the NESCAC, as their Maine opponents represented a formidable threat in the division.
“Bowdoin was aggressive –– tenacious through the midfield and fast up top,” said coach Peter Kim. “Their back line was anchored by one of the dominant defenders in the conference, so the team knew it had to win its battles.” Right from the start, the team proved equal to the challenge, shutting down Polar Bear attacks while collecting several goal-scoring opportunities of their own.
Middlebury’s first strike came just 12 minutes in, off of a 20-yard rocket by Nora Tomlinson-Weintraub ’11. The veteran’s goal was “first-class” according to Kim, and marked the first time all season that the team has been able to find the net in the first half. With a little help from the wind at their backs, the Panthers dominated possession during the opening 45 minutes, playing a fast, organized game that left the Polar Bears little chance to catch their breath and mount a serious offensive challenge.
The second half, however, brought the wind and the possession in Bowdoin’s favor, as the Polar Bears turned up the heat and threatened Middlebury’s back line. Tri-captain Lauryn Torch ’11 remained steadfast in goal, however, turning away several Bowdoin attacks to preserve the lead. Torch’s concentration and poise in goal have consistently helped to anchor the new defensive line.
“There were some good times and some bad times,” Torch said in describing how she approaches the game. “I pretty much try to block out whenever we are doing badly.” The keeper’s focus held strong for much of the second half; however, Bowdoin managed to put in the equalizer as the final minutes were winding down.
“We failed to manage the game properly in the second half, allowing an unnecessary counterattack goal late in the match that drew Bowdoin level in a match that we had largely dominated,” said Kim. Nevertheless, the Panthers soon put the game away, and there was much rejoicing on the fondly named “Field of Dragons” that Saturday afternoon.
“Overall, the performance was a good step for the team as it continues to solidify into a group that consistently outworks its opponents,” said Kim. Middlebury has collected a two-game win streak at home, and will look to continue their winning ways in far-off Waterville, Me., where they travel on Saturday to take on the Colby Mules. Their opponents will need more than stubbornness to repel the ferocious Panther attack that the team has been bringing in the past two games.
(09/30/10 4:06am)
This is a shout-out to the make-out.
Last weekend I had some friends over for a rousing round of “Spin the Bottle” in the context of a “Come as your eighth grade self” party. Have you ever seen college students given license to kiss each other with total abandon in front of a room full of people? Of course you have, if you’ve been to Sketchcullough or the (now defunct) Bunker. But when the permission to make out is a game (as opposed to copious amounts of alcohol), and players are meant to kiss multiple other players, two things become clear: 1. College students really, really enjoy getting physical with each other, and 2. There are some key differences between college students and eighth graders.
When young adults go out on the weekends, whether we are single or in a committed relationship or somewhere in between, the most common measure I’ve heard of the success of the evening is whether or not we “got some.” I could say that not everyone wants some to be politically correct, but I think that’s patently false. We’re young, we’re hot, we’re talented and smart — and we’ve got the stamina to stay up all night (among other things). We are designed, and I really think we all want, to touch each other. But as much as we mutually want to get in each other’s pants, so many of us go home alone! Why is that? Why do we need alcohol or a silly game to make it permissible to walk up to each other and offer the opportunity to do some heavy petting when it’s clear we’re all in it to win it?
I think part of the answer to that question lies in one of the ways we are different from eighth graders. Let me explain:
When I was in elementary school, holding hands with my crush made my palms sweaty and my heart clatter around inside my ribcage.
When I was in middle school, holding hands was just a step on the way to kissing, which was the new thing to make me giggle and blush.
Halfway through high school, kissing was still great but pretty routine — it was my boyfriend wanting to take my shirt off that made me all nervous and warm in fun places.
In college, where all you have to do to see someone naked is work in the library during exams (yay streakers!), we need still more to get our pulses pounding. We’re still holding hands and kissing lips and touching breasts, but they feel like the early levels of a video game — there is a greater prize to be won if you keep moving up (or moving down, as the case may be). So the pressure is on when we approach each other on the dance floor or in the dining hall. We’re not just offering each other leisurely cuddling or passionate kisses, here. We want those things, but I think there’s the expectation that we want more. We are supposed to be adults, and don’t adults just want sex?
I propose that we don’t. Sex is awesome, but I think sometimes we push ourselves to that point because we feel like we’re supposed to — like that’s the ultimate goal, so if we can achieve it, we should. Lord knows we’re all overachievers. But it’s not settling to stop at second base, or even first. In fact, I think it takes so much of the pressure off and leaves more room for us to feel satisfied and enjoy ourselves. For the same reason that playing “Spin the Bottle” made me really anxious in the eighth grade (that’s back when kissing was the thing), going out to Sketchcullough hoping to pick somebody up makes me nervous because supposedly sex is on the line. Based on my friends’ reactions to playing “Spin the Bottle” in college, however, it seems that kissing, when that’s all that’s expected, is still quite titillating. Maybe calling next weekend a win could be a simple as saying, “Hey, do you want to (just) make out?”
(09/30/10 4:06am)
“Whistling” 。
“You don’t need an instrument.
No money, no teacher, no room, no audience.
Anywhere, whoever, it’s the music for any ordinary person.
The melody just flows out from your body…
That is whistling.”
— Yuki Takeda
With the arrival of every first-year class, a great diversity of fresh voices, talents and backgrounds are added to the Middlebury community; the campus is bursting with new world travelers, newspaper editors, volunteers, poets, photographers, scientific researchers … and this year championship whistler. Yuki Takeda ’14, of Tokyo, Japan, won second place overall in the Japanese National Whistling Competition this year, and placed first for teens in the worldwide competition.
This whistling bears little resemblance to the pretty little tunes that some can recreate when they find themselves in a happy mood. Imagine instead a melody clearer than any human voice, and capable of flitting rapidly between notes and reaching unbelievably high pitches.
Takeda whistles classical, jazz and his favorite, café music, and he also plays the alto saxophone, guitar, flute, piano and drums.
While competitive whistling is most popular in Japan, Takeda still had never met another whistler before he discovered the talent. Surprisingly, this discovery sprung from normal pre-teen boredom; rather than entertaining himself with Nintendo or MySpace, Takeda decided one day to google “whistling.”
Through an incredible amount of dedication and practice, he taught himself a number of new whistling techniques which he found on the internet, such as teeth whistling, tongue whistling, hand whistling — which makes a sound somewhat like a bird call — and wolf whistling. He even invented his own style of whistling, in which he rolls up his tongue and whistles through it.
A year later, he saw a man featured on television for his amazing ability to reach the breadth of three octaves with his whistling. Takeda realized that he himself already possessed this remarkable range.
Takeda’s vast musical repertoire draws upon his unique life experiences. In addition to Tokyo, he lived in both Canada and Holland with his family, learning to speak English, Dutch and some French, on top of Japanese.
He discovered his love of languages and began to teach himself Spanish from a radio station, and then decided to move to a small town in Mexico for a year, despite the fact that studying abroad is not especially popular among Japanese high school students. In Mexico, Takeda became friends with a musical family, who, it turns out, was also the most famous band on the Pacific coast of the country. He was faced with the opportunity to travel and whistle with the band across Mexico.
Each new culture and language Takeda experienced added to his sense of music. And when four languages weren’t enough, he became intrigued by a type of Brazilian music called Bossanova, so he taught himself Portuguese as well!
Upon returning from Mexico, Takeda thought, “I was seen as a weird person,” because of his whistling abilities. Through his music, however, he began to find great friendship and even fame. During the summer before he arrived at Middlebury, he attended a university in Tokyo where he found himself to be “popular.” He was, after all, the second best whistler in the country.
Whistling has given Takeda a voice. As many of us turn to our favorite bands to heal us when we feel hurt, Takeda turns to his whistling. Drawing upon his knowledge of five languages, four countries and five instruments, he expresses himself through his beautiful music wherever he goes. Now, at Middlebury, he now shares his talent with a whole new community.
The title of “the championship whistler” doesn’t bother Takeda here in college. He sees the fact that he is already so well known in the Class of 2014 as an advantage at getting started here.
“I think it’s very nice that everyone talks to you,” he said.
The only drawback he sees to his innumerable new acquaintances is that, “I sometimes feel guilty that I can’t remember all their names.”
Following in the footsteps of the indie/rock band Dispatch, which began in Battell basement, Takeda and other talented first-year musicians, mainly from Battell, have already formed a band that played at the Grille last Saturday night.
“It’s really fun playing music,” said Takeda of performing in front of his peers.
The band played again at the Grille on Tuesday night and will perform at 51 Main from 8-10 p.m. tonight. Check it out — you might see history in the making.
(09/30/10 4:05am)
If you are interested in comedy, you are attending Middlebury College at the right time.
Both of our college’s improv comedy troupes — the nearly two-decade-old Otter Nonsense Players and the younger Middlebrow, founded in the spring of 2008 — are enjoying high levels of popularity and exposure (we’re running two articles on them in this issue of The Campus, after all). And Middlebury may not have the stand-up comedy scene that other colleges and universities (mostly bigger ones) do, but comedians of a less spontaneous inclination now have a brand-new sketch comedy group as an outlet.
Any performance-based group on campus has to make a splash in the first few weeks of the semester in order to attract new members. But both improv groups really came blasting out of the gates this year — Middlebrow with a tight 30-minute show in the jam-packed Chateau Grand Salon on Sunday Sept 19, and the Otters with four sold-out performances over three nights in the Hepburn Zoo, reprising a similar run over Halloween weekend last year.
Middlebrow’s hilarious performance showed that they have really cohered over their past couple of semesters; they are a well-oiled machine, and have come a long way since their humble beginnings some two-and-a-half years ago. Stylistically, their current inclination is for improv as pared-down as possible — asking for only one word from the audience (“watermelon”), they embarked on a surprisingly entertaining free-association brainstorm, the ideas from which fueled the entirety of their unbroken “longform” performance.
In improv comedy, the key structural division is between shortform and longform styles. One might be more inclined to call shortform performances “games”; think of the content on Whose Line Is It Anyway? — prewritten quotations pulled from hats and the like. Shortform games have a much more predetermined element to them and thus, from an improv purist’s standpoint, are not as noble a pursuit as the challenging open-endedness of longform.
The current incarnations of both Middlebrow and the Otters have drifted away from shortform. I have a soft spot for the stuff — it has something more of a built-in laughter guarantee, and I suppose this cheapens those laughs, but I think there’s real potential for innovation and subversion of expectations within the boundaries of shortform. Personally, I wish our improv troupes would integrate some shortform with the longform in their shows, but it’s simply common sense that the stylistic tendencies of these groups change and shift as their membership does; several years ago, Otters shows often consisted of several short-form games followed by a long-form skit.
The Otters’ Zoo performance that I attended on Friday at 11 p.m. mirrored this structure only in that it was broken into two parts. The first half-hour consisted of standard longform riffing similar to Middlebrow’s show earlier in the week. Then, as advertised, the Otters used the second two-thirds to improvise an entire Shakespearean one-act given nothing more than a title from the audience, with varying degrees of adherence to the restrictions of iambic pentameter.
As could be expected with the challenges of creating a story with arcs and resolution for nine separate characters, one-act felt a bit long at an hour, but the fact that they managed to create and resolve a cohesive story in this time at all is quite impressive. And overall, the performance was still excellent, with especially strong turns from the eldest members of the troupe (Will Bellaimey ’10.5, John Glouchevitch ’10.5 and Ken Grinde ’11) and plenty of hilarious one-liners (among them “This goes way beyond Web MD, dude,” and “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the … roommate competition.”)
I am hesitant to make any comparisons between the two groups other than the most innocent ones — that the current Otters seem more interested in higher-concept shows than Middlebrow, and that they play across gender much more often. Offering critical assessment of any sort of student performance at a college of this size is a dangerous game, and doing so for two similar groups in the same article just seems like asking for trouble, so I can’t deny it: writing this article makes me nervous. Because there might be latent, even unintentional rivalries between the two groups — such feelings are simply unavoidable when two groups are doing roughly the same thing on a small campus (just look at the mass of acapella groups).
But what is especially admirable is that they are all friends, and they are mature enough to set aside that competitive urge — which is natural, however slight — to do good work. Last spring, both groups participated in the First Annual Middlebury Improv Festival, which brought in troupes from other schools and the real world (a four-person group from Tufts stole the crowd’s hearts with some well-executed shortform, I might add). And members from both groups collaborated on a Hepburn Zoo tribute to the cult-beloved HBO sketch-comedy legend Mr. Show with Bob and David.
It is a core group from Mr. Show’s creative team — Ele Woods ’11, Brad Becker-Parton ’11.5, Andrew Powers ’11.5 and Ben Orbison ’12.5 – that has gone on to form the sketch comedy club, which should hit campus with a performance sometime this semester. Unlike the improv groups, you don’t have to audition to attend the meetings, and it is certainly not too late to get on board. Along with the Otters and Middlebrow, it will hopefully not only make us laugh, but fulfill an equally necessary role; that is, encouraging us to let down our guards, lose some of our inhibitions and let our weird, observant inner comedians take over.
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When it becomes too cold for chlorophyll, tourists flock to Vermont. According to the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, tourists spend over $370 million in the fall.
“We’re on track for another spectacular fall season,” said Ginger Anderson, Chief of Forest Management for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. “Most parts of the state had good summer moisture, and early color can already be seen in some places.”
Behind all that breathtaking beauty, however, lies an interesting science. With the onset of autumn come longer nights. Leaves are able to sense this change, and as a result, a layer of cells called an abcission layer forms near the stem of the leaf, blocking transport of vital nutrients like carbohydrates. The production of chorophyll, the pigment responsible for giving leaves their green color, stops relatively quickly. Other pigments such as xanthophylls and carotenoids (which provide the leaves with yellow and orange color, respectively) now show, giving leaves beautiful bursts of color. When these pigments eventually freeze, tannins are left. These pigments are responsible for the brown color of leaves after the great foliage season has ended.
If this phenomenon occurs in deciduous trees all over the world, why is Vermont such a destination location?
“If you look at the map of the United States and figure out where the places are that have a foliage tourist industry, it’s very closely related to where there are maples,” said Andrea Lloyd, Professor of Biology. “It makes a very big difference to have a landscape that’s got red in it… As the leaves turn those conifers really pop out, and you get this amazing moment when the reds and oranges are at their peak and those conifers just look so dark green in contrast.”
The Green Mountains in particular showcase this well because trees in higher elevations change earlier than lower elevations, making the turning of colors gradual. From many places on campus you can look at a mountainside and see most of Vermont’s trees in a single collage. It can look as if someone is sprinkling color directly on the summit, and it gradually trickles down until it is replaced by snow.
Tree diversity is key to the beauty of Vermont’s foliage, and New England’s climate gives the state a broad mix of trees. As described by Lloyd, brown-turning oaks are more prevalent as you go south, and red-turning maples disappear as you go north into Canada. Vermont has the best of both worlds.
Middlebury College students take note, says Kristen DeGraff ’13.5 who has been living in Middlebury for her entire life.
“I love the smell of fall, and I love the colors of fall, but I kind of take it for granted,” said DeGraff. “I really have to stop and remember that this is beautiful, and when I do, it blows me away.”
Thanks to Tim Parsons, the Middlebury College Horticulturalist, trees from outside Vermont also enhance the tree diversity on campus.
“In Middlebury, there’s a broader pallet of colors that you don’t see up in the hills,” said Parsons. “[Here on campus] there’s a greater variety of oaks. There are certainly ornamental trees that you don’t see out in the woods, and there are a handful of trees that aren’t even supposed to live this far north. There’s even a pecan tree.” It’s on the left as you walk up the sidewalk from McCullough to Hepburn.
When Mother Nature strokes her brush across the tops of the Green Mountains, the campus peaks with beauty, with temperatures perfect for outdoor trips and activities. Autumn traditions such as apple picking, cider donuts and corn mazes are popular. Outdoor enthusiasts also enjoy hiking and boating especially.
“As soon as the leaves change, they’re not taking up water anymore,” said Christian Woodard ’10.5, resident extreme kayaker. “All the water that falls can go straight into the rivers. It’s higher water. It’s better boating.”
Other students enjoy the changing of seasons regardless of their preferred activities.
“Everyone appreciates the landscape around here,” said Anoushka Sinha ’13. “It’s not so cold that everyone wants to huddle up and hibernate. I feel much more active and lively in the fall.” Gabriela Juncosa ’13 compared the fall in Middlebury to where she grew up in Ecuador.
“Some of the trees lose their leaves, but it’s not an event,” said Juncosa.
The event, however, doesn’t simply end when the leaves drop. What happens to the foliage when it gives this season its name?
Usually, Parsons and his team pick up fallen leaves and combine them with food waste from the dining hall to produce compost. This year, they will try a new program. Instead of raking and removing the leaves, Parsons and his team plan to mow them and leave them on the ground.
“It chops them up real fine, and we just leave them right where they are and over the winter they will either break down, or the earth worms will come and drag them down,” said Parsons.
The fruits of this program will be healthier trees next spring and even more beautiful foliage in fall 2011.
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In Middlebury’s second matchup against a top-10 nationally ranked team in as many weeks, the Panther field hockey team came up short against the NESCAC rival Bowdoin Polar Bears, losing 1-0 in a defensive standoff uncharacteristic of the Panthers potent offense. The game was a close contest, as it came down to the final minutes of play for the third straight week in a row.
“We have a really big history with [Bowdoin],” commented Liz Gerry ’12 on the teams’ rivalry. (They met two years ago in the NCAA Championships, from which the Polar Bears emerged victorious.)
After last week’s offensive flurry –– tenth-ranked Middlebury (2-2) pulled off an incredible 4-3 overtime victory over the previously seventh-ranked Trinity Bantams –– it was surprising to see the defensive battle between the Panthers and newly seventh-ranked Bowdoin (5-0) early on in the game. Throughout much of the first period, it seemed as if both teams would not even get a chance to score, as the ball stayed clear of either side’s scoring zones while being heavily contested in the middle of the field; Liz Gerry’s ’12 defensive save being the only big highlight early on.
“It was a back and forth game,” said Gerry. “They played a defense that we weren’t used to.”
It would be the Polar Bears who first came alive offensively in the later moments of the first period, with three consecutive trips into scoring territory resulting in three shots on goal. Yet the game still remained scoreless going into the half thanks to two spectacular saves from goalie Madeline Brooks ’12.5 off of Bowdoin penalty corners as well as a missed opportunity by the Polar Bear’s Ella Curren that clanked off the Middlebury goal post.
The first 29 minutes of the second half played out much like the first, with both teams jostling for possession in the middle of the field and the occasional shot saved by Brooks (seven saves in the contest) or Bowdoin’s Emily Nielson (four saves), who would go on to earn the shutout later in the game. Nielson also had a spectacular save as she stuffed a power shot by Panther Emily Gardiner ’12 in the middle of the period, arguably Middlebury’s best scoring chance of the game.
Finally, after 64 minutes of tough, relentless defense and little to no offense, the Polar Bears broke the scoreless tie with only six minutes remaining in regulation. The score, one that would prove to be the only point of the game, came off of yet another Bowdoin penalty corner. The Polar Bears Elizabeth Clegg injected the ball to Michaela Calnan who set up the game-winner for Curren, gaining redemption for her missed opportunity in the first half.
In a reversal of fortune from the previous two weeks, it would be Middlebury in need of a late game rally down 1-0 with only minutes remaining on the clock. Despite entering the Bowdoin scoring zone multiple times as well as earning two penalty corners within the final minute of play, none of the shots taken in the Panthers’ late offensive flurry resulted in a goal scored. As the clock ticked away, Middlebury’s two-game win streak came to an end and the Polar Bears earned the shutout.
“We start off our season playing some of the best teams not only in the NESCAC, but in the nation,” said Gerry. “Everyone is still very excited about the rest of our season and really positive looking forward.”
Despite the loss, however, the Panthers proved that they could defensively keep up with the nation’s best, holding Bowdoin to only one goal that came off a penalty opportunity.
The Panther offense, as well as the entire Middlebury team, will look to rebound this Friday in a non-conference game at Skidmore.
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As students from the Class of 2014 arrived on campus this August they met their residential life staff (Res Life), first-year counselors (FYCs) and Commons residential advisors (CRAs), who said quick hellos, picked up their luggage and ushered them into their new home away from home. In the weeks that followed FYCs presented themselves as experts on the goings-on of Middlebury; they led hall meetings, answered questions and tried to explain the ways of the campus.
Many FYCs however, are sophomores who underwent first year orientation themselves just last fall. These students are excited to help the first-years adjust to college life, but they admit that making the transition from untried first year to knowledgeable upperclassmen has been a peculiar experience.
When asked about being an FYC Anna Esten ’13 said, “I find myself living vicariously through my freshmen sometimes — wanting to be able do my freshman year all over again”.
Tori Anderson, a sophomore and FYC in Coffrin said, “it has been a little strange watching my freshmen and realizing I went through that last year.” When she looks back on the last few weeks however, Anderson added, “It has been really great to see how much I have grown myself in order to be this person that helps them.”
It is at times daunting to live on a hall where 30-plus underclassmen are looking to you for advice and several new ResLife members admit to emulating the FYCs, RAs and CRAs they have known during their time at Middlebury. Last year Esten lived on Hadley 5 where Brittany Carlson ’11 and John Yanchek ’12 served as her FYCs. She reveals that her memories of the pair have influenced the way that she and her co-FYC, Gwen Cook ’13 have interacted with their own first-years this fall.
“Gwen and I both looked up to Brittany and John so much” Esten said. “I still remember a lot of the things they said to us during our first hall meeting — things that I wanted to tell my first years.”
Stephen Lammers ’13 is an RA in Pearsons Hall and acts as an advisor to the friends and acquaintances he lived with last year in Battell Hall.
“My biggest concern was trying to find that balance between being a RA but at the same time having a social life with my close friends,” he said. For guidance, Lammers looked to the example set by Cook CRA Emily Picciotto ’09.
“She understands what it is like to be a student in a Res Life position, but not with freshman.”
Lammers is coming to realize that he can speak candidly with his friends and has appreciated the respect they have shown him and his co-RA.
As a senior, Rafael Velez ’11 is three years removed from his first year at Middlebury. Despite the time that has passed and the changes he has undergone since the fall of 2007, Velez is able to look to his first months at college and draw upon that experience to help the students on his floor. He has liked answering the questions his first-years bring him in part he said, “because I remember so clearly what it was like to be confused in this new environment.”
Esten has also enjoyed assisting her first-years, but has been surprised by their persistent inquiries.
“I feel like the group this year has a ton of questions,” she said. “It gets a little interesting when they ask about the more night life kind of things. They try to tip toe their way around the question instead of asking me straight up what’s going on.”
Many of this FYCs and RAs praise their Commons and their Res Life team.
“It’s comforting to know it’s not just me,” said Velez. “It’s me and Gregg [Miller] and really the whole Brainerd Res Life staff.”
When talking about the better aspects of his job Lammers said, “Everyone who works in the Cook Commons office is amazing and being a part of Res Life you get to know them so well.” It seems then that both first-years and Res Life staff members alike are looking to the commons system for guidance and support.
The Class of 2014 exhibits many of the behaviors that upperclassmen succumbed to during their first months at college. The first-years walk into the dinning halls in groups of 10 and are somewhat terrified of Public Safety. Velez chuckles over how the students in his dorm have begun to form relationships.
“Watching first-years pair off is funny,” he said. “It’s such an ‘aww’ moment because I remember that happening my freshman year.”
Some things have changed however. Esten claims that the reputations of the first-year dorms have shifted and hallways that were once eerily quiet have become destination spots on the weekends. The underclassmen dorms have already begun to bond and form identities for themselves. The boys of Stewart 4 have been playing the original Super Mario Smash Brothers together while the first-years in Coffrin have organized trips into town to celebrate birthdays. It seems that, with the assistance of this year’s Res Life staff, first-years are gradually making Middlebury their own.
(09/30/10 4:04am)
While the world can sometimes be harsh and unwelcoming, there is a place where life is always sweet: 750 Pine Street in Burlington, Vt.
Founded in 1983, Lake Champlain Chocolates makes chocolates from simple Vermont ingredients. The butter, cream and maple syrup come from local farms, yet the factory imports all chocolate from Belgium.
To make Champlain Chocolates’ sweet treats, the chocolate is first melted, then cooled and finally heated again, which creates a smoothly textured and shiny looking desert. Next, the chocolate is molded into different shapes to complement the season or upcoming holiday. This tempered chocolate is also sent to the factory’s own chocolate waterfall, known as the enrober. This is a constant stream of melted chocolate that is poured over the truffles before the treats enter the cooling tunnel.
All Champlain Chocolates’ chocolates are made without additives or preservatives, guaranteeing an intense and fresh taste.
As customers enter the store, they are offered free samples of the seasonal treats. Since autumn is the season between the “sweet summer” and the “fresh winter” chocolates available include both Honey Caramel Milk and Dark Evergreen Mint. Employee Logan Bouchard said chocolates are sold in different packages to appeal to a wide audience. Some are in little bags, which offer more chocolates, and others are in boxes.
Bouchard does say the boxed chocolates are nice to give as a present, as the packaging is designed for the season by a local artist.
There is an enormous range of specialty chocolates at the shop. Dark, milk and white truffles of unique flavors and ganaches are made with sweet Vermont butter. Organic chocolate truffles are also a favorite. Handcrafted specialties include chocolate-covered ginger and orange peels, butter crunch and coconut laced chocolate. Nut lovers will also find much in the Clusters and Barks section, as pecans, cashews, almonds and macadamia nuts sit drenched in caramel, dark and milk chocolate.
Bouchard’s fellow employee, Emily Jones, said she has been working for Champlain Chocolates for eight years. After graduating with an Art degree, she followed her passion for chocolate to the company.
“It is a really nice company to work for,” she said.
The atmosphere in the store is serene and employees stay calm, even during busy business hours.
Jones ensures there is “no secret” to the company.
Yet, she encourages all to take a tour of the factory. She remembers one time during a tour, the machines broke down and chocolate began spilling all over the floor.
“You are the first person to ask me for one of every kind of chocolate in the store,” Jones said.
Most customers have their favorite treat that they choose each time they visit the store. Open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., Lake Champlain Chocolates will please all taste buds.
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This weekend’s tournament at Williams College proved to be a challenging early season test for the Panthers, coming off a week of rest and a glowing set of victories at the Middlebury Invitational. The men’s squad made significant runs in both the singles and doubles brackets, but no Panther was able to capture a title amidst tough competition from other NESCAC schools.
The tournament’s number one seed, the Panthers’ own Andy Peters ’11, advanced in impressive fashion to the semifinals after coming off a straight set title run at the Middlebury Invitational. In the semis he met Matt Bettles of Bates, a player that he downed just two weeks earlier, but Peters was unable to strike on some key points and ended up falling to Bettles 7-5, 7-6 (2). Bettles would go on to lose to Williams’ Felix Sun for the title. Derrick Angle ’12, Chris Schlabach ’13 and Teddy Fitzgibbons ’14 all advanced to the round of 16, racking up a pair of victories each before being ousted by various other competitors.
In doubles play, Brantner Jones ’14 teamed up with Andy Peters ’11 and made a promising run to the semifinals before losing 8-3 to the Amherst duo of Kahan and Rattenhuber. Jeronimo Riefkohl ’11 and Mike Malhame ’11 also made an impressive dash to the quarterfinals, where they were ousted by Williams’ Chow and Micheli by a score of 8-3.
“Overall it was a fantastic tournament,” said Williams head coach Greenburg, obviously excited by Sun’s victory in the singles tournament. “We were lucky with the weather and fortunate to have the best players from seventeen New England schools compete on campus. It was a privilege to host.”
As for the Panthers, the lack of a title at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Tournament does not mean the end of their season. Rather, the tough semi-final losses are bound to send the squad firing on all cylinders at next weekend’s Dartmouth Invitational.
“It was great to see the competition and realize where we are in the mix,” said head coach Rob Barr to his team. “We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and March. If we can continue to improve our games, I think we can make another strong run.” These encouraging words from Coach Barr have left the team hopeful about the future.
“This weekend was a good test for us,” offered Zach Bruchmiller ’14 . “We know where we stand now and we know what we have to do to improve. I think fans can expect a great showing at next weekend’s tournament.”
The Panthers are not a team to dwell on a non-exemplary performance. Expect great things next weekend and in the tournaments to come.
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Many people picture an organic, sustainable piece of clothing as the staple of the stereotypical Rastafarian: a ratty, hemp getup fit for a hippie.
Aside from British company People Tree, there exist only a handful of large, mainstream clothing corporations that engage in sustainable, fair trade fashion — a set of ethics outlined by the World Fair Trade Organization that, according to their charter, promote practices that use local, biodegradeable material, foster a “safe and heathy working environment” and implement “payment of a fair price.”
“There are so many chain stores like Forever 21 that utilize sweatshop labor [and] cause a lot of environmental damage,” said Marcella Maki ’14. “It’s a real problem because there aren’t a lot of sustainable options.”
A fashion enthusiast from East Longmeadow, Mass., Maki was granted a space at the Old Stone Mill — a collective of students pursuing independent creative endeavors in a renovated Mill in the town of Middlebury — to design and create a collection of clothing both beautiful and sustainable.
Largely due to the influence of close family members, Maki’s precocious interest in fashion took root in elementary school.
“When I was in sixth grade my sister got a subscription to Vogue, and I guess you could say that it all started there,” she said. “Fashion is ... interesting because it’s a form of art, and even though everyone doesn’t always see it that way there is that very artistic aspect to it.”
Maki plans to utilize local recycled and organic fair-trade base fabrics as well as vintage clothing to create a cohesive collection of six to eight pieces.
“I went to a thrift store in town called Neat Repeats and there were things there that I would look at and say ‘I would never, ever wear this’ — it would be just horrible — but then I would [realize that] a fabric was beautiful and a [certain] line was really nice,” said Maki. “I would [wonder] how I could bring [out] those features and make [the clothes] into something that a college student would really love.”
Although Maki intends to use her time at the OSM to improve upon her technical skills, she has experience sewing basic dress patterns, one of which she used to make her own prom dress.
“It was a vintage pattern from 1952 that had been resized. [It had] a fitted bodice [and] a full skirt — sort of a classic silhouette. I actually wore a petticoat to prom,” Maki said.
Maki worked on the project from late April until early June.
“My mom had to help me with the hem because we didn’t have a dress form, so I became the dress form,” she said. “I had to stand very still while my mom went around and fixed the entire hem, and since it was a circle skirt it was about eight to 10 yards of fabric. I was sewing my dress the day before prom for probably a good eight hours [trying] to finish it. It was definitely a project.”
Generally, Maki approaches a design in one of two ways, citing designer Zac Posen, Marchesa dresses and Gossip Girl as a few sources of inspiration.
“Just like writing a paper, there are a lot of drafts,” she said. “Sometimes I know right away what I want to make, [and] sometimes I’ll just have an idea in my head about a dress and see fabric somewhere and say ‘Oh, well, if I alter this part of my design then I can use this fabric.’ Sometimes you have to [revise] when you’re sewing because you realize [something] is technically impossible to [execute].”
A self-proclaimed “not-very-trendy” fashionista, Maki has decided to focus on the environmentally-friendly aspect of her project.
According to the Sustainable Cotton Project, the fiber footprint — the combined analysis of a material’s land, water, and carbon footprint — of conventional cotton per bale is more than two times that of the fiber footprint of basic cotton.
“I’m not going to become a famous fashion designer,” she said. “That’s not my goal in life; this is definitely just a hobby for me. The real reason I’m doing this is for awareness. There’s sort of this general environmental trend: people using more fuel efficient cars, using metal water bottles, and we need to do that across the spectrum, not just in the most obvious ways. You can make beautiful clothing that is also sustainable.”
Maki said that she might hold an exhibit or fashion show in the gallery space at the OSM with the finished collection.
“I would really love to have a little gathering to talk about [my collection]...and get people excited,” she said. “Other than that, I feel like [the clothes] will probably end up being gifts. But, I will definitely have to keep one [outfit] for myself.”
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Stocked with pies, crumbles, syrups and nearly every kind of apple you could ever want, the Champlain Orchards farm shop is as Vermont as Vermont gets. Go upstairs, though, and you’re in Jamaica.
Bill Suhr, the owner of the Shoreham orchard, opened the door to the Jamaican immigrant workers’ second-story apartment in front of me, letting loose a wave of steamy hot air.
“It’s hot up here, and they keep it that way,” Suhr said. “Welcome to Jamaica.”
Suhr employs Jamaicans each year through the H2-A program, a government initiative that allows nonimmigrant foreigners to work in the agricultural sector for one season per year. This year, Suhr has employed 25 Jamaicans to maintain the orchard and help with the apple harvest.
I had walked right into the middle of dinner. The kitchen was a beautiful chaos: sizzling meats and vegetables, a blaring TV, a warm barrage of Jamaican, English and Creole and about a dozen Jamaicans each preparing their own massive masterpiece of a feast. They had just finished a 12-hour day, so a hefty tub of pork, potatoes and dumplings seemed appropriate.
“It’s hard to get used to your food, man,” Utneil Hines said to me. “Foodkind, you can’t get it as easy as you can get it in Jamaica. There, you can just step over and pick your food. Here, you go to the supermarket.”
Hines, 22, is a first-year worker at Champlain Orchards. He’s three weeks into his stay at Shoreham. (“Vermont is very, very cold,” he said. I apologized in advance for January.)
Hines is from St. Elizabeth Parish, one of the Jamaica’s most popular tourist destinations, as he was quick to let me know. He is a farmer, a self-employed car mechanic, and a cab driver. He heard about the H2-A program from his father and brother, veteran apple pickers at the orchard who are also working there this season.
The Jamaicans’ work schedule is extraordinarily demanding, by their own design. They work throughout the day filling large bins called jacks with 13 sacks of apples each, completing about 11 jacks a day. Although they do have the option to take time off or finish work while the sun is still out, they rarely choose to do so.
“It’s from 7 until we say when, sometimes even later,” Hines said. “We just do our stuff, normal. We don’t really force it. It’s fun, because we’re all here. We get along quite well.”
Suhr takes the Jamaicans into Middlebury on Tuesday nights to go shopping, but that’s their only scheduled break off the orchard.
“I don’t really get to know this place a lot, don’t really get a clear view of the place. We just go (to Middlebury) for one food stop and then we go back,” Hines said.
Curtis Barclay, 35, shared this point of view.
“It’s cool so far. The only thing is we don’t get to go out a lot. The only thing we know is Hannaford. Or T.J. Maxx,” he said.
Barclay is a native of Portland Parish and a father of three children. He said he isn’t frustrated about the self-imposed constraining hours of his work schedule, however. After all, he has been working at Champlain Orchards for four years now. “Really we come here to work and we need the money, so that’s where it comes from. Work the 15 hours,” he said.
“This is my vacation. I work and make some money and I bring it back. Yeah, it’s no problem,” Ken James told me.
James, 54, has picked apples through the H2-A program in Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida and Vermont. He lives with his wife and two children in St. Elizabeth Parish when he’s not in Shoreham.
“I do a little bit of everything in Jamaica: carpentry, farming, I drive for a funeral home,” he said.
The day-to-day isolation of this Jamaican microcosm is somewhat inevitable given the demands of the apple harvest and their own financial goals. There’s just no time to experience Vermont off the orchard. Interactions with Americans who aren’t fellow workers are also rare.
“Down in Jamaica we actually socialize with Americans more. Sometimes we are out (in the orchard), and they are like scared of us,” Hines said, a big smile contrasting this somber observation. I asked him why and he shrugged, nonplussed.
“I don’t know. Maybe the color,” he said, laughing lightheartedly. “I’m just doing my job. It doesn’t really matter. I don’t live here so I don’t have to get used to it.”
This cheery levity in the face of an exhausting work regimen and an isolating foreign environment was both humbling and inspiring to witness. A subtle nostalgia seemed to underlie this overarching “no problem” attitude, though.
“I’ll be even more excited that that is home,” Hines said when I asked him about his return. “That’s home. We’re just staying here because of work. In Jamaica, that’s our home. Here is your home. Home is everything.”
Hines, Barclay and James all said they feel very welcome here and would love to come back next year, continuing a Champlain Orchards tradition of over thirty years. After such a long history, the Jamaicans are an integral part of the business and family at the Shoreham orchard.
“Bill is constantly in touch with these guys everyday, and they give him a lot of feedback every year.
“They are a key part of what runs our business,” said Andrea Scott, Suhr’s wife. “They’re just wonderful people. We love them.”
I asked James and Barclay if there was anything they’d like to tell the students who’d be reading this article. After some thought, Barclay said, “I would want all the college kids to take a trip to Jamaica.” I told him that visiting his country is one of my dreams, to which James replied, “You should sleep more often.”
(09/30/10 4:03am)
Artist |Frankie Rose & the Outs
Album |Hollow Life
I was surprised listening to the first track off Frankie Rose’s most recent project — surprised that perhaps Frankie is past the stylized lo-fi noise that has defined her storied yet short musical career.
In fact, I felt that “Hollow Life” might lead to a new dream pop vision for the ex-Vivian Girl and Crystal Stilt. Indeed, the lo-fi style — defined by its ability to retrofit the essence of ‘60’s psychedelic pop, early punk, and highly affected shoe-gaze into something progressive — is bloated with too many acts. So, as an artist, I thought Rose might try to break away from now derivative sounds and try something innovative. Unfortunately, the album does not work hard enough to distance itself from the subset of a subset of a genre that I think is going out of vogue.
Right after their slow, breathy, harmonically driven opener, Frankie Rose and the Outs charge into “Candy.” The melodic “oh’s” carry into this tune, making for a soft and epic chorus, though the rest of the song subscribes to 60’s girl-band pop — didactic lyrical delivery, deliberate guitar strums and aggressive drums.
I don’t mean to say that girl-band pop is boring or unwelcome; rather, this particular song borrows too much from one style, and, in the process, loses originality. “Girlfriend Island,” however, distorts guitars to shoe-gaze fuzz, and, coupled with the adrenaline from Rose’s beats and the melodic lyrics, the song works as a fresh pop anthem.
Other songs break from the more formulaic pop structure, using layering to achieve mood changes. For example, “Memo” starts with a drippy, reverb laden, and delayed guitar only to transition to a choral croon drowned in roaring guitar effects, organ dreaminess and rumbling bass and drums. Though the build-ups are simple, the tune shows off some artistic vision. Other songs, however, like “Little Brown Haired Girls,” don’t achieve these build-ups as effectively with the technicalities of the songwriting lost in lo-fi noise.
Some of the more successful songs on the album include “Don’t Tred.” Starting with a sonorous frontier blues riff, the tune reeks of pure badass angst. And the lyrics are drowned in reverb, emphasizing the wall of sound — the large presence, the apathetic yet horrifying attitude. Another highlight, “Lullabye for Roads and Miles,” with its inaudible whispered lyrics, is one of the most beautiful songs on the album. The organ, simple percussion, and gentle guitar mix well with the soft harmonies — creating an ethereal, dream-pop sensation.
Though Frankie Rose and the Outs experiment with melodic harmonies to add dreaminess to Rose’s previous lo-fi tendencies, the self-titled debut album is too heavily stylized to listen to repeatedly. That is, on a first listen, the noise — the 60’s, garage-rock ethos — sounds cool and retro. However, after a few spins, the excitement of the girl-band pop wears off. In fact, the artful haze only works to initially catch the listener’s attention, but after a few tracks, I find myself longing for more careful songwriting that isn’t drowned out in the wall of sound. For this reason, I go back to the simple, beautiful tracks — “Hollow Life” and “Memo,” for instance — over the fast paced 60’s pop jingles.
(09/30/10 4:03am)
Women’s volleyball traveled to Amherst, Mass. this past weekend for the Amherst Classic, where the squad won one game but lost the other two, making their current season record 8-3. They opened the tournament with a loss to Coast Guard Friday night (3-1), and lost again to Brandeis on Saturday afternoon (3-2).
The team rallied later in the day to finish up with a decisive victory against Wesfield State (3-0). Despite the somewhat disappointing weekend, the team can take comfort in knowing that none of the games were conference matches so they will not affect NESCAC standings.
After an impressive past few weeks, the Panthers showed up at Amherst on Friday lacking the enthusiasm witnessed in previous games. Facing tough competition from a scrappy Coast Guard team, Middlebury caved and conceded a seven-point lead in the first set to start the game. After losing the second set, the Panthers managed to take the third before giving up the fourth set by only two points.
Jane Handel ’12 attributed much of the team’s collapse to the players’ overconfidence coming into the weekend.
“When it came to actually fighting for a game, we just gave up,” Handel reflected. “We were riding high and then we didn’t come out with passion or a will to win.”
The next day, Middlebury took on Brandeis and Wesfield State, winning the latter after losing another close game to Brandeis. Despite pushing the game to a fifth set, the Panthers were unable to pull off a comeback against Brandeis and went down 6-0 to begin the 15-point fifth set.
“We let Brandeis dictate the game and gave up a lot of unforced errors,” said Handel. Teammate Elissa Goeke ’12 added, “We didn’t play up to our standards.”
The final game of the weekend was more like what we’ve come to expect from this team. They made quick work of Wesfield State, winning 3-0 after recovering their focus a bit from the previous two games. The team found their rhythm in this game and returned to Middlebury with a 1-2 record on the weekend.
“Things hadn’t been going well so it was good to try new things out and get a lot of people playing,” explained Caroline Cordle ’12 about the game against Wesfield State. Handel added, “We have a really deep team so we were able to change things up successfully”.
In general this weekend served as a wake up call according to the players. Hopefully they will implement what they learned this past weekend when Middlebury travels to New Hampshire to take on Colby-Sawyer Tuesday night. This weekend the Panthers will see some more NESCAC play when they make the trek to Maine to take on Bates and Colby.