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Fifth Column November 7, 2008

Where do I even begin? I’m privileged to have the school community’s ear this week. A duty that has been admittedly challenging over the course of the semester is a blessing in light of the monumental moment that occurred on Tuesday. I am overwhelmed with ideas to touch on, all encapsulated by the election of President Barack Obama. So I have a new challenge now – an embarrassment of riches. How to best paint this juncture in American history? Do I focus on the humor of the last few days? The moment on Tuesday night when my companions and I, sitting in my apartment, muted Obama’s televised speech to listen to my upstairs neigbor cry out “We can do it! 45 years! We can do it!” to no one in particular? Being high-fived by complete... [Read more...]

Notes & Asides - November 7, 2008

Guys - it’s almost senior portrait time. Puh-leeze take advantage of this amazing opportunity to immortalize whatever egregious fashion sins you’re currently committing and provide fodder for those Classmates.com ads. Did you know that the English Department is sponsoring Faust on Monday? Don’t get too excited - the Devil himself is not coming to campus. (Darn that pesky, slippery speaker policy!) This is actually a film screening of a puppet-show version of Goethe’s famous play. Cool … OMG, BJ Novak is coming! There is going to be a collective bladder failure at CUA when this dude arrives at school on Tuesday. Hopefully he will bring some Jim cooties with him. Yum. Beer me, as Andy would say. I wonder where we can find the seven... [Read more...]

Student Spotlight: A Conversation with David Sparks

Emily Ruane: You’re from Indiana, right? David Sparks: I did my undergraduate at Indiana University, in Bloomington. I started out wanting to be a director, actually – I always did home movies when I was in high school. I did do a film certificate there and learned film theory. Which is pretty interesting, still, to me. I kind of had the renaissance man experience in college, like anybody. I decided to major in cognitive science, and my focus in that was linguistics – so that’s how my interest in language came about. After I graduated, I decided I was kind of sick of Western culture, and I was just wanted to get out, so I took a job in Korea teaching English for a year. Then I came back. I wanted to be fluent in another language –... [Read more...]

Fifth Column: Stupes in the City: The TV Round-up

For some inexplicable reason, my domestic partner and I have been watching a lot of Felicity recently. After borrowing Season One from a friend (who informed us that the show was “about time travel”), we eagerly loaded the first disc, our excitement at seeing the early work of Lost guru J. J. Abrams barely contained. Well, we’re now on the fourth episode and I feel safe in saying that this show is trippin’! Never before have I seen such a dreamlike, fallacious, and downright misleading portrayal of the college experience. Allow me to assuage any doubts that you may have about my college-experience credentials: I have been an undergraduate for seven (7) years at three different institutions – one large public school, an art school,... [Read more...]

Notes & Asides from October 17th

Dining Services gets this week’s Witty Award with their request for their stuff back on the online announcements board: “Amnesty – Not just for prisoners anymore!!!” They are promising to not bring the hurt in exchange for students returning pilfered “cups, plates, bowls and silverware.” Since we have limited space here, I am going to forgo the point that in this day and age, amnesty might not be for all prisoners and ask a more pressing question: that flatware is about a ½ step above disposable, people. Why are we fighting for it? Sweeney Todd opens tonight! What could be better than a night of sitting in a darkened room on watching your fellow students frighten the bejesus out of you with scary makeup and loud singing? Actually... [Read more...]

My Thoughts on CUA’s Prayernet

Full disclosure, y’all: I am not an actively religious person. Despite being raised in the church, I do not consider myself a Catholic or even a believer in God. I appreciate Catholicism’s cultural heritage and acknowledge the role it had in shaping my life, but it’s not for me, and I have chosen to remain ignorant of spiritual extracurricular activities here on campus. I’m totally ignorant of any of the on-campus faith-related activities, and despite having been a CUA undergrad for three years now, I only became hip to Father Bob, like, two months ago. (Sorry, Father!) I know what you’re thinking: um, thanks but no thanks for the emo autobiography, Emily. Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, it is with this uninformed and agnostic... [Read more...]

5th Column: A Tough Cookie

It happens almost every day.  It creeps up around 11:30, 11:45—a quiet moment between classes when my mind is allowed to wander. I find myself gravitating toward the Pryzblya Center for no apparent legitimate reason: I need to use the ATM or prowl the bookstore for Sharpies. Yeah, right—we all know why I’m there. Eventually, I find myself on the first-floor dining hall, somewhere between the sushi and the bananas, faced with an inescapable conundrum: will there be a Big Cookie in my future today? Who invented the Big Cookie? I am mad at this person. Cookies were entirely sufficient until some renegade baker came along and decided they weren’t. Now, every day is a struggle—I have to force myself to reach for a banana, that boring old... [Read more...]

“I Hope to Scare People” Student Spotlight on Phil Cooke

We recently sat down with senior musical theater Phil Cooke, who on October 17 will take the stage as the lead in CUA’s production of Sweeney Todd. How do you feel about landing this role? The interesting part of this whole thing is that I did my first show at Catholic when I was 13 … I was Winthrop in The Music Man with [Jane Pesci-Tonswend,] the same director for [Sweeney Todd.] I actually met her when I was ten - I took voice lessons with her. She was doing [The Music Man] at Catholic and needed a Winthrop and she knew I could do it. She’s been a mentor to me and we’re close, so this is kind of unreal. And she has a history with “Sweeney” -  she played it at the Kennedy Center and she got rave reviews in the Wall Street Journal.... [Read more...]

5th Column with Emily Ruane

O, October! What a funny little month you are. You lack the frenzied, back-to-work energy of September and the cozy fatitude of November. The quiet middle child of fall, it’s a month where we wear hoodies during the day, and then zip them up and pull the drawstring really tight so that our faces are squished and moan about forgetting our jackets at night. October is a little unpredictable, a little crazy – will it cool down quickly or will summer-like temperatures prevail? Whatever ends up happening this month, I can’t help but notice the number of ethnicities, associations, and vocations that are taking advantage of this sleepy little month to celebrate their awesomeness. If you spend any significant amount of time on campus (which,... [Read more...]

Notes & Asides: October 3rd, 2008

OMG HOMECOMING! We are so excited. There is a lot of fun stuff going on next week in honor of it – penny wars, a decorating contest, and of course, the electing of homecoming king and queen! YESYESYES! We’ve compiled a list of nominees that we would love to see wearing tiaras and crowns or whatever this year (were they CUA students).   Paul Newman for King Why, why, why did Paul Newman have to shuffle off his mortal coil right before homecoming?! He would have made the best date. He was smart, handsome, popular, and polite – plus he ran a thriving non-profit which made delicious foodstuffs. Your friends would totally approve.   Isis from America’s Next Top Model for Queen Tyra and the Js have evicted our beloved hometown hero from... [Read more...]

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