As political rhetoric zeroes in on higher education, Barry Mills calls for a more considered and thoughtful approach.
Continue reading Barry Mills: In Defense of Higher Education
Brunswick ME May 21, 2013, 9:10 pm  50°F wind speed: 0 mph N |
The Ebony Ball attracted the best dressed on campus last Saturday night. Out were the jeans, sweatshirts and slippers students sometimes shuffle to class in — and in were the glittering earrings, high heels and glamor. The Ebony Ball, an annual event put on by the African American Society for all students, is a campus tradition over 20 years old. This year the theme was Hollywood and the movies, and students even placed a red carpet down the Moulton Union staircase so they could enter the scene like stars amid the flashes and pops of cameras.
Continue reading Ebony Ball Competes with the Oscars for Best Dressed
As soon as historical keyboardist Henry Lebedinsky began playing the clavichord, his small audience sitting on nearby chairs leaned in to listen. The clavichord produces soft, delicate and expressive music, a surprise for those accustomed to the more forthright piano. Through the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the clavichord was commonly found in people’s living rooms, salons or even bedrooms, Lebedinsky explained, because its quiet notes were suited for intimate spaces. Lebedinsky, who graduated from Bowdoin in 1997, was giving a pre-performance talk and demonstration on the clavichord in Studzinski Recital Hall before his evening performance last Friday. His concert was one of a series of keyboard performances at Bowdoin this semester that will culminate with the Bowdoin Klavierfest, April 12-14. Lebedinsky spoke about the instrument’s history and explained how the clavichord eventually came to be overshadowed by the piano. He also showed the best way to make music with a clavichord: rather than pound out chords, you roll them, pushing firmly down through the keys. He invited audience members to try out the black-keyed instrument, which led to several impromptu performances. (After the jump are photos and five short, edited audio clips from the talk, one of which includes both Levedinsky and student Allen Wong Yu ’14 playing two different pieces.) Continue reading Listen: Henry Lebedinsky ’97 Shows Off the Soft Clavichord Though her work is in miniature, Rori Cremer has big ideas — and a lot of them. With funding from a Maine Arts Commission Good Idea Grant, Cremer’s works have been on display at Portland’s Space Gallery as part of the Free For All exhibition that wraps up this week.  Rori Cremer '11, (l. to. r.:) "Denied," "Capped," "That Girl and This Girl." A physics and visual arts major, and former president of Bowdoin Women in Business, Cremer works in mixed media, including oils, graphite and classical materials, and shot photos for a GQ magazine spread that spotlighted Portland Dry Goods and its sister store, Barbour by David Wood, which she manages.
A recently launched website aims to bring catharsis to the brokenhearted by providing a marketplace for the unwanted objects that remain after a break-up. Annabel Acton, a 28-year-old business consultant and recent single, launched NeverLikedItAnyway.com in December after she was left with artwork and two unused plane tickets from a failed relationship. When she surfed the web looking for solace, she found only “depressing blogs” and “miserable advice from relationship experts,” she tells Huffington Post. “Starting the site was an opportunity to come in with a voice that was a bit cheeky and irreverent and kind of fun,” Acton says. “It just kind of reminds everyone that this does happen to everyone, because when you do break up, you kind of feel like you’re the only one in the world who’s gone through it.” Plus, the site might turn a profit while it helps people move on. Acton says the interaction between buyers and sellers usually results in some kind of comforting email exchange, such as, “‘I’m interested in buying your item, but I just want to tell you I’m so sorry — I read your story and I’ve been there,’” Acton says.  Belinda Kong
Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and English Belinda Kong has written the first full-length study of fictions related to the 1989 movement and massacre at Tiananmen Square. In a recent interview, she discusses the effects of censorship and the importance of diasporic writers in shaping global understanding of Chinese history. “Tiananmen has often been talked about as a movement targeting political corruption and expressive repression,” said Kong, “but it was also catalyzed by precisely the types of socioeconomic problems motivating the Occupy movement.”
Bowdoin is pleased to announce the launch of a new one-year pilot program to make available to Bowdoin alumni the Journal Storage (JSTOR) electronic journal collection. This pilot, offered through a select number of colleges and universities worldwide, gives Bowdoin alumni free online access, from their homes or offices, to over one thousand academic journals.  Students at the myJourney luncheon
If you were charting a student’s progress through Bowdoin, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a straight line. The gift of a liberal arts education is that freedom to zig and to zag. Last week, more than 40 first-year students got firsthand advice on ways to connect the dots to maximize the impact of their Bowdoin education. The so-called “myJourney” luncheon brought first years to the table with a group of nine student facilitators, many of them upperclassmen, who shared their personal stories of negotiating a pathway through Bowdoin.
Bugs might also keep us fed in the future as our exploding population, the worsening climate change and diminishing farm land continue to strain our planet. Researchers in the European Union are studying insects — what kind, they won’t specify — as a potential supplement to the continent’s food supply, according to Good Magazine.  2012 Polar Bear Run photos by Michele Stapleton On Saturday afternoon, in between the women’s and men’s hockey games, a blur of colorful, hollering, half-dressed Bowdoin students sprinted around campus for no particular reason other than to have fun on a chilly winter day. The horde of runners — some in body paint, others in costumes or bathing suits — took off from the Watson Arena, ran down Coffin Road, and then barreled their way through the Smith Union and Druckenmiller Hall before running around the quad and back to the hockey rink. “We startled some studiers, who then joined in,” Sam Hanson ’11 said. Clearly, books were no match for the infectious spread of the runners’ “passion and cheer.” | |||
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