Surrealist Circus 2013 — Apocalypse of Light
photos by Jason Krinsky
Fashion Fashion Fashion
By Kimberly Sargeant and Soraya Cain
The Fashion Committee (TFC) at Bard College was started in Spring 2011 by two first-year students, Kimberly Sargeant and Keila Brown. Brown had the vision of bringing a fashion show to Bard, and Sargeant wanted to start a fashion magazine, so the two teamed up to create a committee together. The committee’s mission is to show that fashion means more than just the clothes you wear: it’s also the individuality that you bring to the clothes, they said. The club brings together students with a passion for fashion, film, photography, writing, modeling, acting, and event planning to organize events throughout the semesters.
Putting the Time in: Perry Scheetz & Tytravia Riley
by Tom McQueeny
Perry Scheetz and Tytravia Riley are some of the greatest athletes Bard has ever had, and Bard doesn’t even know it.
CCE Grants Grants
by Leela Khanna
The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) is awarding over 50 Community Action Awards to Bard students who are pursuing civic engagement work locally and abroad this summer.
Profiles of Grant Winners
by Leela Khanna
Lucy Flamm—CCE Community Action Award
Free Press: Can you tell us a little about yourself? What is your year, major? What are your interests at Bard?
Lucy Flamm: I was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am a sophomore and am hopefully moderating into Historical Studies this semester with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies. At Bard, I am part of the Community Arts Collective and the New Orleans Project.
Digging Up Old Bard: Punk Rock Prom
By Lucas Opgenorth
On May 6, celebrities and fashion insiders dressed in their finest and most expensive attire for a “punk”-themed version of the annual Met Gala in New York City. Punk rock icons such as Kim Kardashian posed for paparazzi and rubbed elbows in an awkward collision of punk culture and red carpet decadence. But on May 10, Bard students gathered to celebrate a less shitty combination of “punk” and “events-associated-with-unnecessarily-expensive-outfits.”
A Soothing Morning Gone Terribly Wrong
by Naomi LaChance
On Tuesday, May 15, at 7:45 a.m., the residents of Old Robbins were evacuated due to a fire alarm. Groggy students clad in boxers, pajamas, even bunny slippers, congregated in the chilly morning. The Tivoli volunteer fire department arrived and determined that the alarm in room 285 was set off. A shower set off the heat-detecting alarm but was determined not to be a threat. Earlier that morning, junior Will Anderson woke up feeling sick.
Study Drugs Falling Short
by David Goldberg
*This article was written in response to last month’s FP article titled “What Does it Mean to be a Human (On Adderall).”*
I object to the idea that drugs somehow *enhance* us. Perhaps they do enhance our ability to stay awake or focused, but the idea that we are enhanced or that drug use is required of us completely defeats the purpose of a liberal arts education and, to some extent, threatens the entire enterprise.
In four years at Bard, I don’t think I have learned a single practical skill. Rather, I have languished in the Thoroughly Impractical—a world of abstract terms preceded by “the.” I have written many urgent ideas that my teachers claim to understand but about which not a single other person cares. It’s not that nothing I’ve done doesn’t matter; it’s that it only matters to me.
Letter to the Editor: A Cautionary Note on Swimming Holes
Fellow Bardians,
Thanks for your recent “suggestions” series in the online version of the Bard Free Press. There is nothing like “best and worse napping locations on campus,” to fuel my alumnus nostalgia. If only I had been privy to that kind of information during my most exhausted days! I was particularly excited about the post on swimming holes—they are after all, the Hudson Valley’s best kept secret , and there is nothing more refreshing than spending the day at one during a prized day off from summer work. I was, however, disconcerted that the author chose to shortlist Kaaterskill Falls in Palenville, where a Bard student, Abraham Mendoza, slipped and died in August 2010 while exploring the “separate trail to the top of the falls which [he hasn’t] figured out.”
Bernanke at Simon’s Rock, via WSJ
The Wall Street Journal published the following today on Bernake’s commencement address at Bard College at Simon’s Rock:
Bernanke Optimistic about Innovation
The current recovery may be middling, but count Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as an optimist about our economic prospects in the decades to come. He offered graduates of Bard College at Simon’s Rock an upbeat assessment of the power of technological and scientific developments to fuel significant economic growth and change over time, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
Tour De Franzia
by Will Tilghman
The annual events of Spring Fling—Holi celebration, Bardapalooza, the Beer Gardens, and the very anticipated Tent Block Parties—are characterized by a usually unseen communal euphoria in the community, as huge masses of students, many of them wasted, convene to participate in the campus festivities. Yet during this infamous weekend of events, a small community of students embarks annually on their own created escapade, which goes greatly by the campus community.
Interview with Julian Koster of The Music Tapes / Neutral Milk Hotel
By Lucas Opgenorth
Julian Koster is a member of indie rock legends Neutral Milk Hotel as well as several other projects associated with the Elephant 6 Collective, namely Chocolate USA, Major Organ and the Adding Machine, a solo project of Christmas music, and, his most recent and consistent project, The Music Tapes. Among the various musical instruments he plays are the banjo, mandolin, accordion, and singing saw (think the high-pitched wobble that comes in with the drums in “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”). The Music Tapes were recently part of the Live Arts Bard program and used Bard’s Fisher Center as a venue to build their Traveling Imaginary Tour, which consists of games, magic tricks, storytelling, and a giant circus tent. The tour comes on the heels of their excellent September 2012 LP “Mary’s Voice.” On April 29, the band performed their show at the Fisher Center’s Sosnoff’s Theater. Incidentally, on the same day, Neutral Milk Hotel announced their first shows in 15 years (singer Jeff Mangum reportedly was in attendance at the Bard show). Alas, (and perhaps appropriately), the recording of our interview began to cut out while Julian discussed the Neutral Milk reunion. The gist of what he was saying seemed to be that it was simple and practical; something that made sense. The Free Press talked to Julian while he and his band drove down the West Coast’s I-5, between shows in Seattle and San Francisco, with brief interruptions by their tour van’s erratic behavior, a gas stop, and passing sirens.
Winners of Student Elections on New Constitution
by Anne Rowley
The old constitution was described by sophomore Alex D’Alisera, who was recently re-elected to Chair of the Peer Review Board, as an “ungrammatical, nonsensical, 60-some page mess.” The document was over 50 years old, directly contradicted itself in parts and, according to D’Alisera, was a “disincentive for students to participate.”
I have a Bone to Pick with Y’all: Bard’s Recycling Crisis
by Sonya Avsyuk
On April 12, I saw the results for this year’s Recyclemania, a national recycling competition for college campuses: Bard came in 205th out of 270 participating schools, i.e. in the bottom quartile, with a recycling rate of 20 percent. The contest went on for eight weeks from February to April. A percentage of recycled material was weighted against total waste output, by volume, each week. The winning schools had recycling rates approaching 90 percent. I was dismayed, and I was left asking myself, how can a college with a liberal, progressive, and very much eco-friendly image perform so poorly in a competition such as this?
Down the Road Creations
By Anna Daniszewski
Here at the Free Press, we know there’s little to review when it comes to Bard’s cuisine. And yet, it’s high-time that someone began to compile a list of the sometimes magical, sometimes sickening creations that Bardians come up with. And, hey, the Free Press hasn’t done one of these in, like, a year.
