By Paris Gravley
Oberlin, in all its glory, is only a couple degrees away from being the quintessential snow-globe: quaint, beautiful, and heavily contained. It’s easy to forget that this coniferous oasis is only a mirage—a water hole in a desert called America. Hard to believe an entire revolution is taking place a mere nine-hour car ride from Rathskellar’s free coffee. Continue reading
By Quinn Hull
Princess, a beautiful sheep.
Sheep are inconspicuous little ones – smaller than you’d think. Any leaf, twig, bramble or spur that touches their fluffy wools immediately gets caught in them, so sheep can be neatly camouflaged in their environs. It’s not particularly strange, then, that after arriving at the last house on Prospect Street, I didn’t see them at first. They were nestled in between two mid-sized bushes, munching thoughtlessly on grass and staring, it so happens, right at me. Continue reading
By Gabe Kanengiser
The unfortunate dilemma in listening to the new Wilco album, The Whole Love, is that one must first confront the fact that its predecessor, Wilco (The Album) was an immense disappointment. However, after just one track of the new release, the truth about Wilco becomes clear: the band’s 2009 album was a self-indulgent and media-pleasing collection of works, lacking coherence as an album, and sub-par to all of Wilco’s prior albums. Continue reading
By Gabe Kanengiser
Last week, James Blake gave the world an EP to endlessly ponder. Six more tracks of pure musical integrity; twenty-five minutes and thirty seconds of assurance that the direction of music is heading the right way. Continue reading
By Noah Martin
Ten students sat in a gloomy room on the third floor of Wilder, the afternoon sun from what was possibly the last warm day until Spring barely peaking through the dusty windowpane. They were discussing the allocation of the Student Activity Fund (SAF) toward funding the Students for Environmental Sustainability’s (SES) participation in a protest in Cleveland. Continue reading
By Aria Dean
Photo by Paris Gravley.
The crowd at the ‘Sco was unusually hushed as Grouper took the stage on Saturday. Grouper – despite the name, which might suggest otherwise – is a one-woman act, the solo project of Portland native Liz Harris. Continue reading
By Owen Henry
This past Sunday’s plenary was almost entirely spent on the resolution of a single pressing issue: finalizing the wording of a Student Finance Committee survey. While this normally may have been a strictly-SFC issue, Student Senate is the only campus organization with the ability to e-mail the entire student body simultaneously. With Senate controlling the method of distribution, final approval for the content of the survey was up to the senators. The members of the SFC present for the discussion were C.J. Penso ‘12, Abbas Moshin ‘13, Sarah Coco ‘13, and Isaac Yoder ‘13. Also in attendance were students David Ohana ‘12 and Timothy Patch ‘13.
By Owen Henry
While many were busy dancing naked in the ‘Sco on Thursday evening (re: Safer Sex Night), the College’s Board of Trustees met with students in an open forum just one floor above their heads. Board members were in town for one of their four yearly meetings and sought to respond to student questions and concerns. Members in attendance included Thomas F. Cooper, Chelsey Maddox-Dorsey, Kofi Lomotey, Assishana Osho, Patricia Shanks, Susan Troy, and Danette Wineberg. As the event was nominally hosted and moderated by Student Senate, Senators Mandy Hogan, Eliana Golding, Jen Rivera, Meaghan Harty, and Brittany Craig were also in attendance. Continue reading
By Angela Suico
This past Monday, Reverend Irene Monroe discussed how peoples’ lack of awareness regarding the varied sources of their own identities contribute to harmful racial stereotypes, such as the association of black people with homophobia. The reverend explained that in order to battle these and other stereotypes associated with minority groups, people must first acknowledge the intersection of different racial and gendered tendencies in themselves. Rev. Monroe, who blogs about religion for the Huffington Post and is a doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, was invited to speak at Oberlin by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Continue reading
By Nick Perry
Photo by Beowulf Sheehan.
The cacophony of thunderous applause and admiring yells was still dissipating when a stocky, olive-colored gentleman, bald but for the grey wavy mess of Einsteinian hair shooting out around the sides and back of his head, confidently took the Finney Chapel podium microphone from another, fully balded man. After President Krislov’s introduction detailing his many prizes for contributions to literature—including a Best of Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children, twelve honorary degrees from distinguished universities, and admission to numerous countries’ most prestigious academic societies—the softly British-accented Sir Salman Rushdie addressed the Oberlin College community, “You are here to listen to a writer speak. There is no reason why a writer should be able to do this.” Continue reading