October 10

Counterpoint OCTOBER 2010

VOL. 33 / ISSUE 2

THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE JOURNAL OF CAMPUS LIFE

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Editors in Chief HANNAH ALLEN ‘12

SARIKA NARULA ‘11

Layout Editor MYRIAM TAIBI ‘12

Artistic Director JEAN M. KIM ‘12

HANNAH ALLEN ‘12, ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11, ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12, ANNA COLL ‘12 CHRIS-TINA GOSSMANN ‘11, SARIKA NARULA ’11, RACHEL SALMANOWITZ ‘12, MARGARET VAN CLEVE ‘11

JULIA GALL ‘12, JEAN KIM ‘12, ANNA PRENDELLA ’11, KARIN ROBINSON ‘12, VICTORIA ROYAL ‘11, SHARON TAI ‘13, JAMI-LIN WILLIAMS ‘11

MATT BURNS MIT ‘05, KRISTINA COSTA ‘09, BRIAN DUNAGAN MIT ‘03, KARA HADGE WC ‘08, EDWARD SUMMERS MIT ‘08

Counterpoint welcomes all submissions of articles and letters. Email submissions to counterpointmail@!rstclass.wellesley.edu. Counterpoint encourages cooperation be-tween writers and editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length and clarity.

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Managing Editor CHRISTINA GOSSMANN ‘11

Copy Editor ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12

ANNA COLL ‘12Treasurer

Webmaster ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11

The Wellesley College Journal of Campus LifeOctober 2010Volume 33 / Issue 2

A R T S & C U L T U R E

P O L I T I C S

4 A!"#$%Democracy

RACHEL SALMANOWITZ

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Checking in with the Millenium Development Goals

My time working at a camp for kids with disabilities

R&0( M", A1%$"23Life in Vienna

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An overlooked experience

9 T," R%0" 4&' +," C&'#"' O44)0"ALEXANDRA CAHILL

"e MA gubernatorial race heats up

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O2' R)&+&23 D"4"0+3"e indie-pop band from Georgia hits Boston

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Advise from a senior

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C%+4)3,A preview for the movie opening this fall

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Boston: Sun. 10/31. 12:00 to 2:00 pm“Divas Unleashed” Halloween Pet Pa-radeAs part of the 5th Annual Divas Unleashed Halloween Pet Parade, the participating “diva dogs” dressed in their 6nest Hallow-een attire will march with their owners from the South End to the Boston Com-mon Bandstand. 7e parade will start at Doggie Day Play Center at 400 Tremont Street and end at 450 Harrison Avenue where there will be live music. Proceeds from the event will go to the Massachu-setts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA). For more informa-tion, contact Doggie Day Playcenter at 617.426.7387 ext. 221South End and Boston Commons

Wellesley: 10/27 - 11/11.Why Margaret Fuller MattersWhy Margaret Fuller Matters is a series of text-and-image panels designed to rein-troduce this 19th-century feminist, tran-scendentalist, and foreign correspondent. 7e exhibit will explore Fuller’s relation-ship with key collegaues (including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David 7oreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne), her views on women’s rights, education (especially female), class, slavery, American Indian rights, religion, transcendentalism, her world view as a transnationalist, and her unique vision of a jut world. 7e author and designer of the display is Bonnie Hurd Smith. 7e exhibit is sponsored by the

O8ce of Religious and Spritutal life and will be on display in the Houghton Cha-pel from October 27 through November 11. Wellesley community and public can visit anytime. For more information, con-tact the O8ce of Religious and Spiritual Life at 781.283.2685 or www.wellesley.edu/RelLifeHoughton Chapel

Wellesley: Wed. 11/10. 6:00pmScreening and Discussion: Je!reyS-koller and David EisenbergAward-winning 6lmmaker DavidEisen-berg and Je9rey Skoller will participate in a screening of Persistence(1997), fol-lowed by a discussion, in celebration of the release of Skoller’s new book, Postwar: 7e Films of David Eisenberg. 7ed-ocumentary Persistence focuses on Berlin following the fall of the Berlin Wall and during the Cold War. 7e event is part of the Calculated Risks Film Program, in conjunction with the Davis Museum’s Fall exhibition “Calculated Risks: New Work by Faculty Artists.” For more in-formation, contact the Davis Museum at 781.283.2051 or www.davismuseum.wellesley.eduCollins Cinema

Wellesley: Wed. 11/3. 4:00pmEvolution & Religion: From Con"ict to ConcertA lecture by Francisco J. Ayala, Don Bren

Professor of Biological Sciences, Depart-ment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biol-ogy at University of California, Irvine and sponsered by Wellesley’s Department of Religion. Professor Ayala is the 2001 Na-tional Medal of Science Laureat and the 2010 Templeton Prize Laureate. He has published many works, including Dar-win’s Gift to Science and Religion (2007) and Am I a Monkey? Six Big Questions About Evolution (2010) and his lecture will focus on the debate between evolu-tion and creationism. For more infor-mation, contact the Davis Museum at 781.283.2051 or www.davismuseum.wellesley.eduCollins Cinema

Wellesley: Tues. 11/9. 4:30pmDistinguished Writers Series: Maryse Condé7e Newhouse Center for the Humani-ties presents its fourth lecture in its Dis-tinguisehd Writers Series this fall, inviting Maryse Condé to speak in the Center, 237 Green Hall. 7is native of Guadeloupe is known for writings works like I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem; Tales from the Heart: True Stories from My Childhood; and Desirada, winning literary honors for these books. 7is lecture will allow mem-bers of the Wellesley community to meet with and hear this accomplished author speak. For more information, contact the Newhouse Center for Humanities at 781.283.2698 or www.wellesley.edu/NCH"e Susan and Donald Newhouse Center for the Humanities, 237, Green Hall

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LIFE AT REGISB Y A N T H E A C H E U N G

Every year a number of students remain “un-housed” at the end of the spring semester. Housing

assignments usually get worked out dur-ing the summer months, and the unlucky students eventually receive a room assign-ment, albeit not usually in their dorm of choice. Not so for 39 juniors and seniors this semester, who learned in early Au-gust that they had been assigned to live in doubles at Regis College this semester. On August 4, 2010, a message sent to the O8cial Announcements conference on FirstClass, informed the Wellesley Col-lege community of the inconvenient ar-rangement. 7e message was not sent to any other conference, nor had College Government been previously aware of the news.

According to the o8cial announce-ment, Wellesley was unable to accommo-date all of its students this semester as a result of three unrelated factors that arose last spring: a rain-damaged >oor in Tower Court, fewer students studying abroad this semester, and a higher-than-expected percentage of enrollments in the class of 2014. Despite the apparent e9ect that the concurrence of these three factors would have on housing assignments, however, un-housed students were not informed of

the possibility that they might have to live at another college, and learned of their as-signments at the same time as the rest of the Wellesley College community.

Regis College, a small Catholic college in Weston, Mass., is a little over 6ve miles away from Wellesley. Despite its proxim-ity, commuting to Wellesley each day to take classes is not without its frustrations, in part due to several changes in the shuttle that runs between Regis and Wellesley. Af-ter the latest change, the shuttle now runs every 40 minutes, from 6:30 am to 3:50 am, on weekdays. According to the sched-ule, it takes about 15 minutes to drive be-tween the two colleges. Between waiting for the shuttle and actual travel time on the shuttle, the commute between the two colleges easily takes up an hour or more of a student’s regular weekday. And if a student wanted to venture out into Bos-ton or Cambridge during the day on the weekend, the three-leg trip involving the Regis shuttle, the Riverside shuttle, and the notorious Green Line would make all but the most essential activities not worth the time spent in transit.

7e typical student living at Regis takes the shuttle bus to Wellesley for her 6rst class of the day, and does not return until the nighttime, when she is done with all

classes, errands, and activities. Be6ttingly, students at Regis have their own lockers in the Wang campus center, and can eat and use the facilities of both colleges. All Wellesley students live on the same >oor at Domitilla Hall in Regis College, some-what preserving the general residential life atmosphere and same-sex environ-ment that exist in Wellesley dorms. Yo-gha Muwanse, a junior and the Resident Assistant at Regis College, remarked that this arrangement placates worries that some students who chose Wellesley for its same-sex environment would feel un-comfortable at a co-educational school. Encouragingly, she also con6rms that the rooms at Domitilla Hall are spacious, and that the other facilities at Regis College are well-kept.

In fact, living at Regis College does provide some de6nite advantages for students who feel constricted in Welles-ley’s residence halls. Living somewhere separate from where they take classes can potentially provide students with a less stressful environment and allow them to divorce their work from the rest of their lives. Moreover, it places students in a place with a di9erent school culture, which Muwanse says is “more laid-back.” On the other hand, it can also be isolat-ing, since it makes it more di8cult for students to stay connected to the Welles-ley community, especially since a lot of student organizations conduct their meetings in the evenings, when students living at Regis want to go back to their own rooms and rest. Moreover, Muwanse observes Regis College students generally do not interact too much with Wellesley students: “I think [the administration] asked Regis students to give us privacy.”

All things considered, Muwanse be-lieves that the Wellesley administration has tried its best to accommodate stu-dents living at Regis College, especially since they could not have predicted that there would not be enough space for stu-dents to live on-campus this semester. However, the lack of communication between the administration and students

CAMPUS LIFE

Photo / staff art

Anthea Cheung ‘12 ([email protected]) has completed her list of alternative housing for Wellesley college. Email her for details.

has frustrated many, and makes students at Regis College apprehensive of their fu-ture housing situation for next semester. It is especially troubling that the admin-istration did not communicate with any students before their announcement, even when they knew that there would not be enough spaces at Wellesley for all the un-housed students. “All I was told was that the likelihood of getting a single was very low,” recalled Muwanse.

Although students currently living at Regis are supposed to be able to move back to Wellesley next semester, some stu-dents remain skeptical, given the admin-istration’s track record of keeping students out of the loop until the last minute. Mu-wanse says that it is still unclear whether

or not the >oor in Tower will be repaired in time, and she worries that not enough students will be studying abroad next se-mester.

Of late, a stabbing incident that result-ed in the death of a guest and the injury of another, has also raised concerns over the safety of students living at Regis College. Reassuringly, the incident did not involve any Wellesley students, and campus police responded promptly and have taken ac-tions to increase the security of students, by moving the Regis shuttle stop to the front of Domitilla Hall, and requiring stu-dents to show Wellesley ID before board-ing the shuttle. An update from Wellesley College police stresses that the attack was probably not random. Additionally, Regis

College is in general a safe campus, so it is unlikely that the safety of Wellesley stu-dents is signi6cantly compromised from living at Regis College. However, it is still a reminder that some students may be liv-ing in an unfamiliar environment with a student body in which they are not assim-ilated. As it stands now, it is still uncertain whether or not those students will return to Wellesley next semester, but it is up to the administration to be more transparent as new developments emerge.

BIG PIMPIN’ AIN’T EASYB Y M A R G A R E T V A N C L E V E

Advise from a senior

What three (two and a half if we’re going to be o8cial) years of Wellesley have taught me.

1) Don’t have high expectations for the greater Boston college scene.

It seems appealing to go to another school for some rockin’ party, but the re-ality is they’re never as fun as you want them to be. I admit, I’ve had my share

of good times o9-campus, but it’s never been guaranteed. Cambridge and Boston are fun, but they are not the only places to enjoy yourself. Maybe you’ll make great friends at Harvard and get invited to ev-ery Finals Club event, but you probably won’t. I’m not advocating for never leav-ing campus; I do enjoy getting away. I’m just reminding you that sometimes being

here can be enough. Believe it or not, it’s totally possible to have fun on Wellesley’s campus- don’t knock it before you try it. And who really wants to ride Peter Pan that often anyhow?

2) Share your class notes.We are all aware of the grade de>ation

policy that plagues every 100- and 200- level class with unnecessary stress and


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encourages detrimental competition. 7is shouldn’t discourage collaboration among students, but it seems to do just that. I do not believe this policy should be enough reason to refuse to help a classmate. 7ere will be times when you are sick, or can’t understand a problem on your problem set homework and you will want the help of someone in your class. Be that person. Sharing your notes is not going to give someone an unfair advantage; in-stead it will probably just earn you some good karma. Academic teamwork doesn’t happen enough here. Next time you can work with someone you should do it, you might make a new friend! - And remem-ber, you never know when you’re going to need someone to do the same for you. Just remember to help a sister out.

3) Hoop food is always a good idea. It’s a little-known fact that calories

don’t exist in the Hoop. 7ey actually don’t. None of those bagels or croissants will contribute to your hips. With that information, there is no reason not to partake in midnight munching of nutel-latillas and nachos. Even if you want a pre-dinner snack, or you have nothing to do on the weekends, the Hoop is always available for some tasty treats and qual-ity people-watching. Why eat dining hall food when you can have Hoop food? I also highly encourage the consumption of El Table food and do not want them to be ignored. Student co-ops are unique to college and really do provide the students with great resources (read: unhealthy food that’s accessible at convenient times). But you should always remember to pay your tab!

4) Don’t get so o!ended.Its easy to get upset about things peo-

ple say, but in reality, Wellesley is one of the most PC schools. Let’s think about things to o9end in the world outside of Wellesley. For example, many women in our generation refuse to identify as femi-nists because they dislike its ‘connotation.’ What kind of perspective do we have when we get upset about the syntax of an email sent to Community? We waste en-

ergy creating such a fuss over comments that are so irrelevant, they will be forgot-ten next week. Yes, Wellesley is imperfect, but it’s quite a bit better than what awaits us upon graduation. If you choose to take o9ense to everything everyone says, you will never be happy. You don’t know how great it is here; wait until you work in a male -dominated o8ce, then you can talk about insensitivity towards women. Until then, celebrate the gift we have of going here, and focus on the positive, not the negative.

4) Stop freaking outSeriously. Its not worth stressing over

work. Discussing whatever 2,184,901 as-signments you have due tomorrow over the dinner table won’t make them go away, so change the subject, please. Being anxious probably won’t help you do any-thing better either, it will just make you, and those around you, unhappy. We all have due dates and long assignments and commitments, so don’t behave as if yours are the only ones- chances are, you won’t 6nd a receptive audience. You made it to Wellesley so you’re clearly capable of get-ting it all done. You will 6nish that paper on time and you will be able to 6gure out that equation, so don’t panic. Please ladies, calm down, it’s going to be 6ne.

5) Make friends with your neighbors.You never know what potential friend-

ships await you down the hall. In high school, friendships are de6ned by ephem-eral matters like what you wear and what sports team you are on. In college, guess what? None of that matters! 7e cattiness of cliques and social hierarchies doesn’t have to de6ne socializing here, and for the most part it doesn’t. 7ere is no award for homogeneity or exclusivity in friendship groups, so be friendly. You will be sur-prised how much you have in common with people you never thought you would like. Your future bridesmaid could be sit-ting next to you in your economics class, and unless you extend that olive branch, you will never know!

6) Don’t talk about your GPA, ever. Unless you’re telling your mother

about your grades. Actually, even then it’s totally ok to lie about a couple of decimal points. Nobody actually wants to know that number. No matter what, someone is going to get hurt when dirty details like those are divulged. 7ere are some things better left unsaid and those are grade point averages, so keep them to yourselves.

7) Chicks before Di***I know what it feels like to be jog-

ging around the lake and pass multiple couples strolling romantically, hand-in-hand, while you continue on your soli-tary way. Yeah, it is lousy to feel alone and everybody wants a boytoy, boyfriend, girl-friend, signi6cant other, 6ancée, or what-ever. It’s great to be in a relationship, but balance is important. But is said person really worth ditching your girlfriends for? When push comes to shove, the people who have your back are, and always will be, your friends. 7ink about it: after ev-ery break-up, who’s been there to pick up the pieces? Another frat boy? NO! Your friends. Remember the one who brought you cookies and stayed up late with you all night, just to make sure you were going to be ok? 7at’s a real friend, and one you would be silly to let go of. Your friends are forever and your boy/girlfriends, for the most part, aren’t. So don’t drop your friends when you 6nd a special someone, you’ll want them back again. 7ey are, after all, your ladies. 7e friendships you can make here will last you for the rest of your life, and your relationship might not last the semester. Your classmates are not only amazing, but they’re probably going to be amazingly successful in the future, so friend making could actually be potential networking. If you have a boy-friend, make him get his ass over here and appreciate Wellesley women for all their splendor. Be a Wellesley woman who will prioritize sisterhood.

Margargaret Van Cleve’s ‘11 ([email protected]) doin’ big pimpin’, spendin’ cheese.


Two-thirds of the time is up. It was back in 1995 when the United Nations set up the eight Millen-

nium Development Goals (MDGs) that target poverty, hunger and education. At the end of September 2010, political leaders from 140 nations assembled for a three-day summit to review the progress.

Je9rey Sachs from Columbia Univer-sity (where Stiglitz and Bhagwati are still intertwined in their eternal battle on glo-balization) is the director of the UN Mil-lennium project. He strongly supports the feasibility of ending extreme poverty, globally. 1.1 billion out of 6.5 billion live on under one dollar a day. Using 1990 as the base year, Sachs argues that extreme poverty can be halved by 2015, entirely eliminated by 2025. Absolutely possible, Sachs says, as long as rich countries con-tribute 0.7 percent of their GDP in the form of aid, which is double of the pre-vious amount. Naturally, the aid, going towards major infrastructure projects, cli-mate change mitigation and post-con>ict

reconstruction, would have to be closely monitored. Sachs suggests giving it direct-ly to local groups.

7e Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s helped many countries in the far East rise from extreme poverty and perform extraordinarily well in terms of growth. High yield grains, irrigation and fertilizers were introduced and led to a trend towards urbanization. When people move to the city, they are more likely to attend school and receive healthcare. As a result, the overall living standard in-creased. Unfortunately, this same revolu-tion did not take place in Africa, where the poverty trap reins. Geographic factors and lack of appropriate infrastructure are the reasons for high transportation costs and tropical diseases associated with high mortality. In order to make the African boom come true, Sachs explains, the gov-ernments of rich and poor countries must collaborate to invest a total of 110 dollars per person a year.

Economic literature on the relation-

ship of aid and economic growth, how-ever, doubts a direct conversion from foreign aid into growth. Even strict monitoring and close work relationships with local groups will not guarantee aid to go one to one into investment. Inter-estingly, in contrast to the general per-ception of corruption being the major reason behind vanishing aid, governance makes a di9erence but is not the sole de-terminant of economic growth. In fact, surveys by Transparency International show that business leaders perceive many fast—growing Asian countries to be more corrupt than some slow-growing African ones. It is not corruption, but urgency of short run matters that explains where for-eign aid goes to. Governments of develop-ing countries tend to address immediate issues instead of investing in long term economic growth.

Critics agree that the MDGs are of-ten placed above historically best per-formances. For instance: it took the US 100 years to reach full school enrollment,

WHERE WE AT?Checking in with the Millennium Development GoalsB Y C H R I S T I N A G O S S M A N N

P O L I T I C S

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Christina Gossmann ‘11 ([email protected]): sometimes, negative Nancies are necessary.

while Burkina Faso, currently with a net primary school enrollment of approxi-mately 40 to 45 percent, has to live up to the expectation of full primary school enrollment by 2015. Predictions say the best it could do is 60 percent, an extraor-dinary achievement, just not according to the Millennium Goals. Such imaginary failures might take away incentive and inspiration.

In their paper “What is Wrong with the Millennium Development Goals?” research fellows at the Center for Global Development Michael Clemens and Todd

Moss suggest “broad-based, sustained, moderate engagement” rather than “emo-tional, moralistic, centralized big bangs” such as the MDGs. Moderate engage-ments could take the for of opening mar-kets to developing courtries and establish-ing creative arrangements.

7e UN summit in September con-cluded that two goals will most likely be achieved: poverty will be halved and the population target with access to drinking water will most likely be exceeded. One might add that China has managed to de-crease its poverty rate from 60% to spec-

tacular 16% since 1990 which might have skewed the overall data to look like the world’s rather than China’s poverty rate was brought down – but one does not want to be a negative Nancy.

7e UN summit also adopted a global action plan “to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date.” It can be hard to give in.

Individual liberty and free markets are back in vogue. Not since 1994 has the political atmosphere been more favor-

able to conservatives. Tea party primary victories in Delaware, New York, and New Hampshire in early September rein-

forced the notion that at both the state and national level, an anti-incumbency and anti-big government mood prevails.

Here in the Bay State, it’s no di9er-ent. Call it the “Scott Brown e9ect.” After Massachusetts’ primary elections on Sep-

tember 14, the Boston Globe reported: “Democrats have a more than 3-to-

1 registration average statewide, but in Tuesday’s primary, in which independents could cast ballots for either party, Demo-crats outpolled Republicans by only about

THE RACE FOR THE CORNER OFFICE"e MA gubernatorial race heats up

B Y A L E X A N D R A C A H I L L


Photo / masslive.com

Disclaimer: Alexandra Cahill ‘11 ([email protected]) is a Students for Baker Cam-pus Coordinator. And no, she is not related to Tim Cahill.

2 to 1. 7at’s the narrowest spread in the past 24 years.”

7e Globe added, “7e turnout in traditionally Democratic cities and many liberal areas, by contrast, was low to abys-mal.”

Such turnout does not bode well for incumbent Democratic Governor Deval Patrick who owes much of his 2006 vic-tory to these areas.

Since taking o8ce, Patrick’s unpopu-larity has soared and he faces tough op-position for re-election in November. According to a poll conducted by Demo-cratic Party a8liate Public Policy Polling, Deval Patrick’s disapproval rating stood at 59 percent as early as January 2010.

A 59 percent disapproval rating is no small wonder. First there were the taxpay-er funded Cadillac Escalade and $10,000 drapes for the new o8ce and a $1.35 mil-lion book contract for the publication of a self-important autobiography. 7en there were controversial cabinet appointments, a failed, high pro6le push for the con-struction of three casinos, and a 25 per-cent increase in the state sales tax during the worst economic recession in recent history.

Fortunately for Patrick, Massachusetts’ numbers on jobs, the economy and edu-cation are above national averages. Many pundits argued early on that Patrick would win reelection thanks to a three-man gov-ernor race splitting the anti-incumbency vote.

But Patrick’s reelection in November is becoming more and more of a distant pipe dream. According to a September 26 Boston Globe poll of likely voters con-ducted by the University of New Hamp-shire, Republican candidate Charlie Baker narrowly trails Patrick 34 to 35 percent. Independent Tim Cahill falls far behind, making up only 11 percent of the vote.

7e race that had for months been classi6ed as “Leans Democrat” suddenly became a “Toss-Up” on "e New York Times and Real Clear Politics websites. 7e highly competitive three-man race is swiftly shaping up to be a statistically tied two-man race.

Charlie Baker, Patrick’s closest com-petitor, is the very de6nition of an elect-able Massachusetts Republican. Baker is a 6scal conservative but is liberal on social issues; he supports gay marriage and his running mate, state senator Richard Tisei,

is openly gay. As the former chief execu-tive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Baker is running on his transformation of the bankrupt company into the country’s highest ranked heathcare provider for 6ve consecutive years.

Despite endorsing Governor Patrick in 2006, State Treasurer Tim Cahill left the Democratic Party in September 2009 and is currently running as an independent. Cahill remains the wildcard in the race. 7ough poll numbers place him a distant third, he pulls enough votes from Baker and Patrick to deny them a majority.

According to the Globe poll, 14 per-cent of likely voters were undecided. 7ese votes are likely to determine the ultimate victor.

New Jersey o9ers a useful lesson in predicting the outcome of November’s election – on Election Day, voters will choose the most likely winner. Incum-bent Governor John Corzine faced two-way opposition from Republican Chris Christie and Independent Chris Daggett. Fall polling from the 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial campaign mirror current numbers in Massachusetts. 7e 6nal vote came down to 48.5 percent for Christie, 44.9 for Corzine, and 5.8 for Daggett. 7e anti-incumbency mood was so strong that undecided voters realized a vote for Christie was the most e8cient means of ousting Corzine.

Recent polling and the resignations of the campaign manager and senior aide from the Cahill campaign are making the anti-incumbent vote in Massachusetts all the more evident. But Tim Cahill remains in the race and Governor Patrick won’t go down without a 6ght. 7e mudslinging is just about to hit full-force. Hold onto your hats, it’s going to be a wild October.


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About a year ago, I began my 6rst day of working at a camp for kids with disabilities. Nervously, I

waited to meet Roxy (name changed for privacy), the camper that I’d be working with one-on-one for the next six weeks. Counselors who had worked with her before kept pointing out that she loved music and dancing. Something about the way they said it suggested they needed to 6nd something positive to say in order to reassure me, and I wasn’t sure what they weren’t telling me. I wondered what Roxy would be like, and whether she would like me.

When I met Roxy, I was struck by how incredibly small she was: her arms and legs were so thin and delicate that they made

her wheelchair look oversized by compari-son. She wore rhinestone-studded jeans, a pink 6tted tee, a high side ponytail with pink scrunchy, and cute pink-striped knee socks. Roxy looked absolutely adorable in her perfectly coordinated out6t, like a little girl. But when it came time to start our 6rst day together, she began to hit herself and pull at her hair. I was horri-6ed. I’d been warned she threw tantrums, but no one had told me that she would purposely hurt herself. She refused to par-ticipate in any activity, and so for most of the day I sat with her o9 to the side while she wailed, pulled out her cute side ponytail, and bit herself. I felt helpless. Other counselors came over and tried to calm her down, telling me to play with

her or to ignore her behavior or to take her for a walk. I was so confused – what was I supposed to do? 7at night, I went home and cried. What could I possibly do for this girl?

I soon learned that Roxy could act as adorable as she looked when she was in a good mood. 7ough she couldn’t talk, she had an impressive repertoire of funny sounds she could make with her mouth, and loved it when others made sounds back at her. She would blow kisses to say hi to someone. When she heard music, she would immediately begin bobbing to the beat. 7e other counselors and camp-ers loved to come over and play with her. 7e summer had some high points for me: I felt wonderful when I could make


WORKING WITH ROXYMy time working at a camp for kids with disabilities

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Photo / queensburyschool.org

Roxy laugh. Even I had to admit she was cute when she sneezed, giggled because it was such a funny noise and strange sensa-tion, and beamed up at everyone around her as if to say, “Look at what I just did!”

But for the most part, I was miserable. Every day after lunch, Roxy would throw a violent, screaming tantrum lasting ten to 6fteen minutes. During the rest of the day, I would be completely stressed out from trying to avoid more meltdowns. Sometimes nothing I did could cheer her up, and anyone else could walk up and make her laugh: I knew she just wanted the novelty of someone new to play with, but it really hurt. Because she couldn’t talk, screaming was the only way she could communicate with me: so should I be sympathetic and appease her when she was upset? Or should I be 6rm, and try to teach her that she couldn’t always have her own way? I was constantly torn be-tween the two, and convinced that I had to be doing something wrong because she threw tantrums so frequently. At the end of a long, tough summer, I left camp thinking that I had accomplished very little.

At the beginning of summer this year, I went home convinced that I would never work at camp again and took a job picking produce for a local farm instead. But because an injury to my wrist made it too painful to continue, I had to quit, and desperate for a job I ended up at camp. I was paired with Roxy again because I

was the only person stubborn enough to have lasted more than two weeks working with her. I told myself that I would give it a try, but ask to work with a di9erent camper after the 6rst week. But this year, things were completely di9erent. When Roxy saw me in the morning, she would smile and reach out for me. She no longer threw the dreaded after-lunch tantrum. I don’t know if a better situation at home or with her health contributed to this trans-formation. But I realized that I was at least partially responsible for the change: now that she knew me and was done test-ing me, she trusted me and behaved much better.

Roxy’s grumpy moods still challenged my patience, but no longer my self-con6-dence. I learned to relax a little more, and discovered that ignoring her negative be-havior was the fastest way to make it stop. Last summer when she tried to pinch or scratch me, I used to instinctively retreat and she would continue to grab at me each time I came near, making it almost impossible for me to lift her. But this sum-mer, once I stopped pulling away from her attempts to hurt me, she lost interest and would stop because I didn’t react. I no longer felt guilty for not intervening when she started to hit herself because I knew that trying to stop her would only make her 6ght back harder. I realized that she only grew more de6ant when I raised my voice, so I spoke quietly and calmly. And since Roxy knew that I wouldn’t give her

attention for acting out, she didn’t act out as much. I also learned that she loved be-ing out of her wheelchair, and so I adapt-ed as many activities as possible to allow her to sit in a regular chair. We were able to stay in camp activities most of the time.

Now that I wasn’t so stressed, I began to really enjoy working with Roxy. I be-came very accomplished at faking sneezes to make her laugh. I loved dancing with her at camp parties. She could stand with my support, and she would be so excited by the music that she would swing her en-tire torso back and forth in time with the music. Some of her behavior even began to strike me as funny: one day, while we were waiting for her mom to pick her up, I was sitting on the ground next to her star-ing o9 into space. I was abruptly brought back to the present when she emptied her water bottle on me and turned to look at me with an expression that clearly read “Yeah, I did just do that. What now?” A year ago, I would have been frustrated and upset, but now I was just mildly annoyed and amused. Of course, in Roxy’s mind, a drenching was exactly what I deserved for not paying attention to her.

With a calmer outlook and armed with new strategies for dealing with dif-6cult behaviors, I no longer felt power-less or overwhelmed by my job. 7ough my reward for an exhausting day might sometimes be a soaking courtesy of Roxy’s water bottle instead of a smile or a thank-you, I began to feel that my work with her really made a di9erence. One of the most tangible experiences of having helped Roxy came when I sang to her. I saved this tactic for the most desperate situations, when she was starting to act up and nothing else worked. My rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” certainly wasn’t anything special. But it was mi-raculous to watch her reaction: her frown would evaporate, and she would just stare at me in fascination, and then start to smile.

Claire McRee ‘12 ([email protected]) is up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.


Phot

o /g

m.tv

Deciduous forest, cookie cutter suburb, baseball-diamond- my last glimpses of America out of

the airplane window. At the security gate for international >ights there was another college girl, and she was sobbing hysteri-cally and clutching her parents. I spent a good 6ve minutes trying to 6gure out how her behavior was even possible. My Mom and I were pretending to blow kiss-es to each other despite my brother’s ex-aggerated eye-rolling. However, when the plane was taxiing on the runway and I saw the grass being blown back by the motor I thought of the “Sound of Music” and then I had a moment of panic, accompa-nied by a vision of myself clinging to the lights on the side of the runway refusing to leave.

When I 6rst arrived I was sure that

every person who I passed on the street knew that I was American because every-one stared. Shortly thereafter I came to the realization that staring is culturally acceptable. It’s hard to miss this phenom-enon because it is literally staring you in the face. Generally, Austrians just stare at people whom they 6nd attractive. From what I’ve gathered, it’s considered essen-tial that if you 6nd someone attractive you glare at them in an appreciative, but also inquisitive fashion. If they stare back then they return your sentiments. 7e amount of staring indicates that Europeans must constantly be copulating. 7e physical distance between the two of you is ir-relevant; if you’re two inches away from an-attractive-someone’s face, you can, and must, still stare at them. 7is addendum was proven by a man who stared at me

while passing on a narrow escalator.7e Austrian relationship with food

doesn’t take on a negative aspect as I feel it often does in America. When you or-der at a restaurant you receive the same huge portion of food that you receive in an American eatery. Being Austria, it’s likely something involving potatoes and Wurst; the complete opposite of dainty rabbit food. I had expected this type of hearty fare, but what I wasn’t prepared for was how shocked Austrians are when you don’t clear your plate. Waiters are always shocked, sometimes angry, and usually concerned that you didn’t enjoy whatever they brought you. Once, after eating two impossibly large Wiener Schnitzel and an equally impressive mound of potatoes I got the infamous question of concern “Schmeckt?” (Did it taste good?) because


ROCK ME, AMADEUSLife in Vienna

B Y M E L I S S A E V A N S


Photo / Melissa E

vans ‘12

of one lonely quarter of a potato.Austrians also drink during the day and

it is entirely respectable. During a three-hour bus ride back to Vienna from the mountains our bus driver announced that we would be taking a ten-minute break in a small, adorable mountain town. While many people got o9 to go to the bath-room, the bus driver left the bus as well, to get a Wurst and a beer. 7e fact that he was driving didn’t seem to be a hindrance. Austrians go out any night of the week that they wish and have no regrets, re-gardless of whether or not they have to get up early the next morning. After working hard all day we all deserve a little amuse-ment, and have de6nitely earned it. En-

joying life, a little bit at a time, is clearly a much higher priority in Austria than it is in America. 7e overarching theme for their way of life is similar to that of an im-portant Austrian 6gure, Pippi Longstock-ing. In the German chorus of her song it states that, “she does that which pleases her.” Austrians may work hard, but they also do what pleases them: they unasham-edly stare at whom they want to stare at, eat small delicious desserts frequently, and spend time drinking with the people who are important to them.

I’m enjoying myself as well, and after only a week everything is starting to fall into place. Of course I’m still committing plenty of language accidents. Most of the

Melissa Evans ‘12 ([email protected]) is going to kiss both your cheeks, whether you like it or not.

time they’re rather comical, even when I’m making an idiot out of myself. While reading “Little Red Riding Hood” I was very puzzled as to why the Wolf wanted Red to give her Grandma an ostrich. As it turns out, ostrich and bouquet are the same word. Additionally, just yesterday I mistook the word “bike” and “car” when asking my German roommate how she got to Austria. I really don’t have much of an excuse for this mistake, considering that the word for car is “Auto.”


OUR RIOTIOUS DEFECTS"e indie-pop band from Georgia hits Boston

B Y L I N N E A H E R Z O G

Metal-limbed, gun-slinging ro-bots in orange-6sh headdress-es. Minions parading around

in silver bodysuits and giant sequined-

lobster claws. Smirking pigs that might have emerged from the pages of Animal Farm, No, this isn’t an episode of Torch-wood— it’s indie rock 6ve-piece of Mon-

treal, live and in concert at House of Blues Boston.

Four years ago, of Montreal was best known for selling the rights to their song


!"#$#%&%'(")#*+,-#.

“Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” to the international restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse, who reworked lyrics like “let’s pretend we don’t exist/let’s pretend we’re in Antarctica,” into market-able buzz lines: “let’s go Outback tonight/life will still be there tomorrow.”

“We thought it would be totally amus-ing to hear their take on one of our songs as a jingle,” of Montreal front man Kevin Barnes later con6ded in an interview with Stereogum.com. Some fans were under-standably less than enthused. “If by ‘to-tally amusing’ he meant ‘totally insulting to our few remaining fans,’ then he’s [sic] right on the money,” commented one anonymous Stereogum reader.

Nowadays, of Montreal—particularly, Barnes—is better known for its displays of outlandish theatrics than any linger-

ing predilection for a good steak. At an October 2008 concert in New York City in support of his band’s latest studio ef-fort, Skeletal Lamping, Barnes took the stage in an orange >oor-length robe that he eventually peeled back, quite noncha-lantly, to reveal a pair of shiny gold briefs before making a quick exit and returning to the stage on a white horse. Coinciding with the release of 2007’s verbosely titled Hissing Fauna, Are You "e Destroyer? was Barnes’ adoption of the personality Geor-gie Fruit, a “black man who has been through multiple sex changes,” Barnes revealed in an interview with Pitchfork. “He’s been a man and a woman, and then back to a man. He’s been to prison a cou-ple of times.” At last, a perfect explanation of how a Caucasian man in his mid-thir-ties could come up with lyrics like “I’m

just a black she-male.”Musically, of Montreal boasts a rep-

ertoire of stylistic quirks that seems im-pressive even when taken apart from the band’s onstage antics. 7e back of a typi-cal of Montreal album hosts a share of rambling, discursive song titles that refer-ence Greek mythology and appear to have nothing to do with the lyrical content of the song (eg. “Heimdalsgate Like A Pro-methean Curse”). It probably features cover art depicting fractals or the Gar-den of Eden gone wrong. Other de6ning characteristics include upper Barnes-on-Barnes harmony, frequent gong crashes, and albums that >ow so seamlessly that it is impossible to tell where one song ends and the next begins. 7e band is actually of Athens, Georgia, not Montreal.

On September 16, of Montreal came


Photo / kickinthepeanuts.com

to Boston to play a show that would take place just 48 hours after the release of their new album, False Priest. Given that the group’s most recent Boston appearance involved band members in animal masks, feathers blasted into the audience, and an encore ending in Barnes’ cruci6xion and rebirth, anticipation was futile. 7e only sensible thing to do was to abandon all expectation and let the show unfold.

And unfold it does. Plaid-shirted boys and scene girls stand speechless as guitars and keyboards illuminate the aforemen-tioned gun-slinging, 6sh-adorned robots slinking somberly around the stage in a single-6le line. Kevin Barnes emerges in aqua leather boots, sheer gray-purple leg-gings, a little polka-dotted apron, and a Fair Isle sweater over a matching balloon-sleeved, deep turquoise blouse. Bangs peek out from a hippie-style headband, obscuring one blue-smeared eyelid. He is carrying a tambourine and means busi-ness.

7e following hour and a half docu-ments a progression into uncharted ter-ritories of peculiarity. Relationships are recalled and eulogized in “Coquet Co-quette” and “Our Riotous Defects.” Sil-ver lamé is utilized in copious amounts. In “Like a Tourist,” an auto-tuned Barnes half-sings, half-pleads, “don’t treat me like a tourist,” while four men in skintight black and white checkered bodysuits pro-ceed to do just that. 7e guitarists crowd-surf and throw picks into the audience. Older songs like “7e Party’s Crashing Us” and “Gronlandic Edit” elicit cheers, screams, and crowd-wide synchronous jumps. “Everything about you screamed of godly intersex,” Barnes croons, lifting his apron and straddling a backup dancer e9ectively disguised as a pig.

Midway through the show, two road-ies wheel out a huge screen that has been

fashioned to look like an old black-and-white television. A family of Tim Burton-esque skulls in footie pajamas watches with rapt attention as Barnes delivers a solo piano performance of Sibylle Baier’s “Tonight.” Without further explanation or development, the skulls exchange ap-prehensive glances and 6le o9 the stage.

Cut to the ominous-sounding piano intro of “Casualty of You.” Barnes is wear-ing a gigantic plastic bag that covers his entire body and face. 7e TV on stage has been replaced by an almost as large rectangular box covered in brown paper. Barnes walks into the box while the rest of the band plays on. As the instrumentals come to a close, the paper is dramatically torn o9 to reveal the opening act, Janelle Monáe, along with Barnes, who is now wearing tight red pants and a large ru?e of the same shade.

Monáe’s buttoned-up funk poses a stark contrast to Barnes’ unabashedly over-the-top psychedelia. Together, the performers radiate chemistry and confu-sion. Earlier in the night, when Barnes and Monáe shared a microphone over “Enemy Gene,” one of the two songs on False Priest that features Monáe, it was unclear whether Monáe’s playful dance of “I’m not touching you!” would triumph over Barnes’ more, um, liberal gyrations. In the cage, this much is clear: it doesn’t.

Bongos preface a 6ttingly victorious performance of “For Our Elegant Caste” (sample lyric: “We can do it soft-core if you want/but you should know that I go both ways”) that melts into a pulsing rendition of 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You "e Destroyer?’s 12-minute center-piece “7e Past Is A Grotesque Animal.” 7e band exits and reemerges to play a three-song encore that pays homage to chemicals, Norwegian cities, and Michael Jackson. If only all homages were this

danceworthy.

Of Montreal: 7e Hit Parade“Oslo in the Summertime” (from "e

Sunlandic Twins, 2005): Synth-bass hooks and bird-like “ba-ba-ba”s underlie this ode to the Norwegian city where parts of the album were recorded.

“She’s A Rejecter” (from Hissing Fau-na, Are You "e Destroyer?, 2007): “7ere’s the girl that left me bitter. Want to pay some other girl to just walk up to her and hit ‘er…but I can’tIcan’tIcan’tIcan’tIcan’t!”

“Women’s Studies Victims” (from Skeletal Lamping, 2008): An impeccably rendered pastiche of choral harmonies, chanted couplets and synth organ that also name-drops Betty Friedan.

“Plastis Wafers” (from Skeletal Lamp-ing, 2008): Never before have lyrics like “I want you to be my pleasure puss” been intoned with less self-consciousness or morti6cation.

“Famine A9air” (from False Priest, 2010): Funked-out guitar leads back this danceable lament to a relationship gone wrong.

Linnea Herzog ‘12 ([email protected]), she’s a rejecter.



CATFISHA preview for the movie opening this fall

B Y A N N A C O L L

The trailer for the documentary Cat!sh opens with a scene in which young, New York-based

photographer Nev Schulman makes his 6rst call to Megan, his captivating, blue-eyed love interest, whom he has met over Facebook. As a cover of 7e Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” plays in the back-ground, Nev claims that he “really cares about this girl.” Determined to meet Me-gan in person, Nev and the 6lmmakers,

his brother Ariel Schulman and friend Henry Joost, drive to Michigan to visit her at her farm. When they arrive there, the happy music is cut and things appear to take a turn for the worse. 7e farm is deserted, leading the men to become in-creasingly jumpy and uncomfortable. In the 6nal twenty seconds of the trailer, re-views declaring the 6lm’s ending “bizarre,” “unpredictable,” and “Hitchcockian” >ash across the screen. Undoubtedly, the twist

implied by the trailer was what sold many people on seeing the movie. For me how-ever, it did just the opposite; as someone who avoids horror 6lms as a rule, I knew that I would not be seeing this movie.

Around mid-September, however, a friend stumbled upon tickets for an ad-vanced screening of the 6lm and invited me to go along with him. I refused his invitation immediately, but looked up early reviews of the movie out of curios-


Photo / collider.com

ity. While many of the reviews shied away from revealing the 6lm’s conclusion, they did make one thing clear: Cat!sh was not a horror movie. With a newfound interest in the 6lm, I e-mailed my friend back and agreed to go with him.

In the 6lm’s early scenes, we learn that Nev’s online friendship with Megan actually develops from an initial virtual friendship with Megan’s younger half-sis-ter Abby, a talented, eight-year-old artist who has been sending Nev paintings of his published photos. 7rough Abby, Nev has also become Facebook friends with Angela, the girls’ “hot” mother. While Nev maintains contact with all three of the women, however, his relationship with Megan soon takes center stage. As the two increase contact with one another over the phone and instant messenger, Nev learns more about her skills as a sing-er-songwriter and dancer. Before long, the two are “sexting,” calling each other “babe” and have fallen e9ortlessly into an uno8cial long-distance relationship.

At this point, I should issue a spoiler alert to those of you that are interested in seeing the 6lm, which had a limited re-lease on September 17th. In perhaps the most unsettling scene of the 6lm, Nev and the 6lmmakers sit at a table in a hotel room as Nev chats online with Megan. As she has done before, Megan asks Nev for a song request that she will record for him immediately and send to him. Nev places the request, and within twenty minutes, she has sent him a link with the recording, which the men listen to. Eager to com-pare Megan’s version with other acoustic covers of the song, they search for other recordings online. 7e 6rst link they 6nd on YouTube turns out not to be just an-other cover, but rather the exact version that Megan claims to have sung. In a nervous and frenzied online search, Nev, Ariel, and Henry subsequently discover that all of the songs that Megan has sup-

posedly recorded and sent to Nev are You-Tube versions recorded by other people. As it turns out, Megan’s lies regarding the MP3s are only the beginning.

While the trip out to Michigan to un-ravel the mystery of the “Facebook fam-ily” Nev has grown so close to hardly cul-minates with an encounter 6t for a horror 6lm, it is nonetheless eerie. When the at-tempt to meet Megan at her farm is fruit-less, the group resolves to catch the family at their weekend breakfast at the home where Angela lives with her husband and Abby. With the glimmering hope that the members of the family are who they have claimed to be, Nev brings >owers- just in case. However, it becomes immediately clear when Angela, a far-cry from the woman in her pro6le photo, answers the door that the group’s skepticism is justi-6ed. In the consecutive scenes, the fam-ily’s extensive virtual facade melts away.

As the truth was uncovered, I wasn’t quite sure who to feel (most) bad for. An-gela, we learn, turns out to be the painter, and has led her unsuspecting husband to believe that her interactions with Nev, whom she has contacted under the guise of Megan, have occurred because Nev is some sort of power-player in the New York art world who has taken an interest in her paintings. Without a doubt, she is a compulsive liar; even as Nev deconstructs her fabrications with her in person, she does not come completely clean about Megan’s non-existence. To her defense, Abby is real, yet she has no idea who Nev is; in one unsettling scene when Nev asks Abby about the artwork he believes is hers, Abby exclaims, “You’re confusing me!” Despite Angela’s betrayal of Nev and exploitation of Abby, however, a deeper look into Angela’s family situation helps the audience better understand her need to escape. Perhaps the person whom I felt bad for the most is Nev, and not sim-ply because of the truth about Megan (it

stinks enough to be misled by a real-life lover let alone one who does not exist), but rather because he’s a New Yorker! Isn’t online deception to this degree only sup-posed to happen to under-age kids in the ‘burbs? Someone clearly hasn’t done his reading about the “dangers” of virtual re-lationships.

Certainly, Cat!sh is not a documentary that reveals to the audience an unknown phenomenon; anyone involved with so-cial networking understands to some de-gree the implications of immersing one-self in a digital world. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Cat!sh, therefore, is not the general series of events it covers but the 6lmmakers’ luck in capturing the development of Nev’s relationships with Abby, Angela, and Megan from such an early stage so thoroughly. Furthermore, regardless of how naïve Nev is at times, he is an ideal subject for a documentary focusing on relationships. 7ough he periodically complains to the camera of how uncomfortably intrusive the 6lming of his private life has become, he allows himself to be vulnerable. In one scene, for example, he admits how little he actually knows about Megan; in another, he reads aloud a series of racy texts that he and Me-gan had exchanged as he hides bashfully under the covers. Even if we don’t believe that the 6lm’s poignancy derives from the notion that any of us could 6nd ourselves in a position like Nev in this complicated digital world, we can still identify with the stages of curiosity, infatuation, betray-al, and acceptance that he experiences so openly on 6lm.

Anna Coll ‘12 ([email protected]) won-ders: What is the di#erence between a cat!sh and a lawyer? Please contact her with any clever responses you may have.


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