THE

COLLEGE
HILL

THE BROWN/RISD WEEKLY | OCTOBER 21 2010 | VOLUME XXI ISSUE VI

3 CHANGING RHODE ISLAND’S NAME FOREVER?

8 WHAT REALLY CAUSED THE FLOODING IN PAKISTAN
9 FRANCE CRACKS DOWN ON ROMA, EU CRACKS DOWN ON FRANCE
16 STOP WORRYING AND MAKE YOUR OWN GRANOLA BARS

DMT IS THE MOST POWERFUL HALLUCINOGEN

ON THE PLANET. USERS OFTEN REPORT MEETING
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL BEINGS.
-p.6
 The
College
Hill Independent
contents from the editors “There’s no success like failure,” Bob Dylan sang, “and failure’s no success at all.” So it was this past
Saturday when the Independent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in our semesterly kickball
NEWS game against the Brown Daily Herald, giving up four runs in a final inning that had started with a 10-6
2 Week in Review lead. Beers had been shotgunned, chants lobbied (“Baby Dick Head”; “Kill the dweebs”), bases stolen.
Deepali Gupta, Jonah Kagan, Tarah Knaresboro, Natalie Villacorta
Jordan Carter had nearly mowed down George Warner in a two-run in-the-park homer. The air was
9 Sarkozy Persecutes Roma, Pats Self on Back crisp on Pemroke Field and our Four Loko arsenal was still untouched.
Emily Gogolak
The Indy’s athleticism couldn’t disappoint; instead, we were stricken with victorious ennui. What
METRO was there left to do in the bottom of the seventh but overthrow to first base? Even after such fielding
3 Should our state be called Providence Plantations? had subtracted two of the runs separating the two papers, how could we worry? We got this.
Eric Johnson And then we didn’t. Whatever. Jocks. Fuck them.
5 Who should be our state’s next governor be?
George Warner, Simon van Zuylen-Wood
-JW[W]
FEATURES
6 UFOs demystified, remystified
Adrian Randall

7 The Independent (bookstores) live another day

Samuel Knowles
8 Pakistan is flooding; pay attention
Meghna Phillips

CRITICISM
11 Christopher Hitchens Dies Dramatically
Simon van Zuylen-Wood

ARTS
1 2 Bringing art to the youth (in PVD)
F A L L 2010
Alice Hines
MANAGING EDITORS Katie Jennings, Tarah Knaresboro, Eli Schmitt • NEWS Ashton Strait, Emma
1 3 An interview with Emma Hogarth Whitford, Jonah Wolf • METRO Maud Doyle, George A. Warner, Simon van Zuylen-Wood • OPINION Mimi
Natasha Pradhan Dwyer, Brian Judge • FEATURES Alice Hines, Natalie Jablonski, Marguerite Preston, Adrian Randall • ARTS
14 Hamlet buys a Blackberry, likes it Jordan Carter, Alexandra Corrigan, Erik Font, Natasha Pradhan • SCIENCE Katie Delaney, Nupur Shridhar •
Zachary Rausnitz
SPORTS Malcolm Burnley • FOOD Belle Cushing • LITERARY Rebekah Bergman, Charlotte Crowe • X PAGE
1 5 The Bell Gallery is cooler than it looks
Erik Font Katie Gui • NEW MEDIA Kate Welsh • LIST Simone Landon, Erin Schikowski, Dayna Tortorici • DESIGN
Maija Ekay, Katherine Entis, Mary-Evelyn Farrior, Emily Fishman, Maddy McKay, Liat Werber, Rachel Wex-
ler, Joanna Zhang • ILLUSTRATIONS Emily Martin, Robert Sandler • COVER EDITOR Emily Martin • MEGA
FOOD
1 5 You know you want more food trucks PORN STAR Raphaela Lipinsky • SENIOR EDITORS Margo Irvin, Simone Landon, Erin Schikowski, Emily
Belle Cushing Segal, Dayna Tortorici • STAFF WRITER Zachary Rausnitz (!) • PHOTOGRAPHY John Fisher • MVP Steve
16 Granola: not just for hikers! Carmody
Rachel Sarnoff

LIT COVER ART: Emily Fishman

17 E-lope from the family
Leah Bromberg The College Hill Independent
PO Box 1930, Brown University
X Providence, RI 02912
18 Katie Gui [email protected]

Letters to the editor are welcome distractions. The College Hill Independent is published weekly during the
fall and spring semesters and is printed by TCI Press in Seekonk, MA.
The College Hill Independent receives support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress.
Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard
on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

as if you care... ephemera

me: i walk into a bar
1:47 AM 
and say
bone zone
1:48 AM 
ramon: b1 z1
ram1
me: c1
 st1
 l1wolf
 ramon: c1 heads
 l1 wolf!!!
1:51 AM
:D
1:54 AM 
me: mr j1s and me
 the rolling st1s
 f1s alley
 ramon: f1s alley
 OH FUCK
 me: lololol
 ramon: so d1
 me: cote du rh1
 *cotes
1:55 AM 
ramon: a woman’s place in the movement is pr1
attack of the cl1s
me: fear of the unkn1
ramon: e.t. ph1 home
THEINDY.ORG 2
News

W E E K I N R E VIEW
by Deepali Gupta, Jonah Kagan, Tarah
Knaresboro, and Natalie Villacorta

I J U S T WA N T TO * * * * as efforts by animal rights groups such Fox: Let’s keep arguing to make an ab-
Last week, the US Patent and Trade- as People for the Ethical Treatment of stract “statement” even though all any-
mark office approved a patent that Animals (PETA) to ban hunting in other one cares about is watching baseball and
Apple filed in 2008 for ‘text-based states. As Faris explained, “They start showtunes.
communication control for person- with cats and dogs and the next thing Cablevision: K.
al communication devices.’ In other you know, someone says it’s inhumane
words, soon it may not be safe to sext. to shoot a deer. [This bill] is like buying Updates from FarmVille
The system would block or remove an insurance policy.” Linda visited your farm and left you
forbidden content from incoming and Surprisingly, given their affinity some pig slop!
outgoing text messages. What would be for cats, dogs, and deer, animal rights You used to have hungry pigs, but now
considered forbidden content? That’s for groups have not mounted any campaigns you’ve got happy pigs!
your parents to decide (the criteria that to shoot down the proposals. PETA cam-
would define content as ‘forbidden’ would paign manager Ashley Byrne described Denise wants to trade you a cow for six
itself be defined by a parental control ap- the proposals as “frivolous.” In an inter- pumpkin bushels!
plication, assuming that your parents view with The Tennessean she asked, “If You harvested ten bushels, and have
know how to manipulate one of those). people have a right to hunt, why not a plenty to share!
Not only would the filter remove right to shop or golf?”
graphic content from your textual com- After that shot missed the fairway, Data-collectors just visited your farm,
munications, but it would alert you, an Byrne also pointed out that this proposal and want to share your information!
administrator (your boss?) or “other probably came about “because hunting Oops, it’s too late!
designated individuals” (Mom and Dad, is on the decline.” Nevertheless, there
oh no!) of its presence. It remains un- seem to be plenty of voters intent on Farmville and the other nine most popu-
clear how explicit this alert would be, or keeping the tradition alive. Bubba Bow- lar Facebook applications give personal
whether parental controllers would re- ers of Tennessee said to WATE News, “I information to internet tracking compa-
ceive the exact wording of what you were like to hunt and fish and if they took that nies and advertisers, says the Wall Street
trying to send, but iPhone users can ex- away, I’d have a lot of spare time and I’d Journal!
pect anything from a total removal of be bored.” Surely, though, one must also Facebook says the claims are “exagger-
the content to a bleeping of their ****s consider the rights of the animals be- ated”(!)
and ****s with *’s. ing hunted. After all, without hunters, -TK
Conversely, the patent may also be wouldn’t they get bored too?
used to require certain text in a given -JK CO L D M E T H I C AT I O N
message—for example, a child learning It is no coincidence that CVS is often re-
Spanish would have to use a specified F R E N E M I E S , C AT F I G H T S , A N D ferred to as the drug store. No need to
number of Spanish words per day in FA R M V I L L E U P DAT E S schedule a late-night liaison with your
emails (¿Dónde está la biblioteca?!), or Dear Attendants of the G.O.P. Rally in dealer anymore—instead, you can get
an insufficiently affectionate child could California, the tools you need to cook meth over the
be required to end a certain amount of counter.
texts to his or her mother with “I love Really sorry we couldn’t come to that big Drug Lord CVS has agreed to pay $75
you.” Let that more beneficial (muy in- voter turnout rally. We see the irony, see- million to settle a case with federal pros-
structivo!) aspect serve to comfort fu- ing as how we’re the Republican front- ecutors over the sale of a main ingredi-
ture generations of misguided teenagers runners for CA governor and senator, ent used in making methamphetamine.
and middle-aged men interacting with and we really do need voters to ‘turn out’ The ingredient, psuedoephedrine, can
the objects of their desire, who may, so we can win, it’s just we both had really be found in cold medications such as Su-
from now on, have to resort to request- important “prior commitments.” It had dafed. According to prosecutors, CVS did
ing ‘bowl jobs’ and ‘wet putty’—our nothing to do with the fact that Sarah not properly regulate access to this sub-
corazones go out to them all. Palin was there talking about two-inch stance, and therefore indirectly helped
-DG fish and “delta smelt,” doing her best to fuel the meth trade in California and
  insult our opponents in the very special other states.
way only she can. Thanks, Sarah. Also, Authorities claim they found thou-
KILL BILLS
we regret that the rally was held right by sands of violations of the Combat Meth-
On November 2, voters in Arizona, Ar- Disneyland. That could have been really amphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005,
kansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee fun. which “limits the amount of pseudo-
will decide whether their state constitu- ephedrine that a customer can purchase
tions should protect the right to hunt Love, in one day” in CVS stores in L.A. County
and fish. Ten other states have already Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina and Orange County, California as well as
ratified amendments similar to these Clark County, Nevada.
ones, which state in part: “The citizens of Chat w/ Cablevision, 10/18/10, 10:32pm “CVS knew it had a duty to prevent
this state shall have the personal right to Fox: Stop publicly dragging out this con- methamphetamine trafficking, but it
hunt and fish, subject to reasonable reg- tract dispute. failed to take steps to control the sale of
ulations and restrictions prescribed by Cablevision: No, u. a regulated drug used by methamphet-
law.” Although hunting is already legal in Fox: Have fun not watching The Simp- amine cooks as an essential ingredient
these four states, having constitutional sons or Glee until you pay us more for for their poisonous stew,” said U.S. Atty.
protection would make the pastime vir- airing our stations. André Birotte, Jr.
tually bulletproof (from bans, that is). Cablevision: The Simpsons was so 10 This settlement demonstrates the
“When you have something protected years ago, and your Glee screenwriting Drug Enforcement Administration’s
in your constitution, then it is very dif- is outsourced to schizophrenia patients. commitment to cracking down on the
ficult to use the courts or other types of Fox: You know you still want it. methamphetamine supply chain. So, it
ballot activities to thwart [it],” said Dem- Cablevision: Yeah ok we do, also to air may be particularly difficult to sip on
ocratic Arkansas State Senator Steve the World Series. purple drank this cold season. All the
Faris, the bill’s lead sponsor there. Fox: We want more money. You’re a runt. more reason to wash your hands! But, if
One might wonder who exactly hunt- Cablevision: Ur a jerk. you do manage to obtain some cold med-
ers think is taking aim at them. Michael Fox: Keep losing customers by airing ication and you might get a good price
Butler, CEO of the Tennessee Wild- nothing at all, by all means. for it.
life Federation and spokesman for the Cablevision: Ur losing customers too. -NV
Right-to-Hunt campaign, claims that Fox: This kind of sucks.
the bill was a response to what he saw Cablevision: I know.
PLANTING DOUBT ABOUT R
Is “Providence Plantations” a historical gem or a racist relic?

A
s you drive along I-95 “Providence Plantations” in the name. Island’s vital role in the trans-Atlantic legedly called the region “a bit of Virginia
into the smallest state But they won’t be the ones making the slave trade. Joanne Pope Melish, the set down in New England.”
in the country, you decision. In 2009, Rep. Joseph Almeida author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual From the 1730s until the 1770s the
might see a sign that led a bill through the General Assembly Emancipation and Race in New England, plantations in Narragansett flourished.
says, “Welcome to that would place the choice of a name says she supports the name change even According to Melish, some apocryphal
Rhode Island.” If it change before voters in the midterm though she knows Lemons’ point is his- reports claim that a few plantations had
were completely accu- elections on November 2. torically accurate. as many as 40 slaves.
rate, that sign would Defenders of the name “Providence “My argument on this is that words Newport was also a lucrative and
say, “Welcome to the State of Rhode Is- Plantations” are quick to tell you that morph over time,” Melish says. “Words thriving hub for the slave trade. As
land and Providence Plantations.” when Roger Williams founded and acquire meanings. I think the word plan- Brown University’s 2006 Slavery and
Rhode Island may be tiny, but its of- named the colony in 1636, he didn’t tation, when it refers to a place that, in Justice report describes the situation,
ficial name is the longest of any state have slavery in mind. fact, has a history of slavery that gets “it is hard to imagine any eighteenth
in the country. However, an upcoming “In the 17th century, the term ‘plan- excavated—that’s what I think has century Rhode Islander whose livelihood
state referendum could strip away that tations’ was used to describe all of the alarmed a lot of African-Americans in was not entangled, directly or indirectly,
quirky distinction. It’s been 30 years colonies and settlements all over the Rhode Island.” On the other hand, she with slavery.”
since scholars began excavating Rhode place,” says Stan Lemons, a historian of says Plymouth Plantation in Massachu- Nevertheless, some of those who
Island’s historical embroilment in the Rhode Island and former professor of setts can retain its name. The town never agree that the troubled legacy of slav-
slave trade, and, since then, the term history at Rhode Island College. “So the had slavery, she explains, so there is no ery in Rhode Island is not widely and
“Providence Plantations” has engen- term referred to, basically, towns. An confusion about the intent of the word. fully understood still oppose the name
dered controversy among some histori- agricultural town, by and large, but still change.
ans and African-Americans. referring to the town. It has nothing, ab- A T R O U B L E D L E G AC Y Ray Rickman, a former President of
At a recent debate held at Brown Uni- solutely nothing to do with slavery.” In Rhode Island, slave plantations domi- the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society,
versity, all four candidates for governor Critics, however, say preserving the nated the land around Narragansett says changing the official name of the
of Rhode Island said they wanted to keep words inadvertently celebrates Rhode Bay—a contemporaneous historian al- state would be “wonderful.” However,
he’s concerned that the upcoming vote
reflects badly on black citizens living in
the Ocean State today.
“The African-American community
and other minorities in this country are
put upon regularly,” he says. “All kinds of
people who are not in the mainstream
are insulted, assaulted. That’s what I’m
worried about happening here, that
black folks are going to be accused of
being crybabies or trying to destroy his-
tory.”

W H AT ’ S I N A N A M E
The details of history are often con-
tested—Lemons, Melish, and Rickman
offered wildly different approximations
of when the word “plantations” became
wedded to the concept of slavery. But
Rickman says that shift from one mean-
ing of “plantation” to another is enough
to change the name, even if a popular
vote is the wrong way to do it.
“Before Roger [Williams] died, the
word was already negative,” he says. “It
had come to mean slave plantations in
his lifetime. So the people who are in
favor of keeping it because Roger picked
a positive term, they’re being disingenu-
ous and dishonest. A word does not
maintain its meaning if something over-
takes it and changes it.”
The controversy, according to detrac-
tors of the proposal like Lemons, is about
trying to erase history. He says a big part
of the problem is that the state’s history
is poorly taught in public schools, and
that any attempt at educational reform
needs to target both the proponents and
critics of the “Providence Plantations”
name.
“There’s a lot of people running
around pulling their hair out, sort of
saying ‘How dare they?!’ and I think peo-
ple need to know and understand why
people find the term offensive,” Lemons
says. “But on the other side, the people
who find it offensive need to see why the
term might seem sacred to other people,
to understand that this is an old term
RHODE ISLAND’S NAME by Eric Johnson
Illustrations by Robert Sandler and Eli Schmitt
Design by Eli Schmitt

that has another meaning here.” ceremonial moment,” like at the roll call need to find a different way to actively ex- school, or to go to Harvard, or Brown, or
Melish counters that the inclusion or of national political conventions, Melish press their dissatisfaction. Rickman also anything in between. And I’d like to see
exclusion of the words “Providence Plan- adds. opposes a monument commemorating that fund set up for anyone who’s African-
tations” wouldn’t inhibit schools from Rickman notes that even if the vote is the slave trade (something Brown Univer- American. Throw in a half million dollars,
teaching Rhode Island’s history, both the an attempt to change history, it is hardly sity has been planning in recent years), and everybody gets a $500 or $1000 check
good and the bad. the first to take place in Rhode Island. and says there needs to be a focus on the every year.”
“I respect Stan [Lemons]’s opinion “We [local African-Americans] are be- problems of the present. Obviously, if the referendum passes
on that,” she says, noting her involve- ing accused of trying to erase history. “Black folks have the highest unem- on November 2, it’s not going to suddenly
ment with public education campaigns. Now, by the way, America does it all day ployment rate, we’re the poorest people undo the generations-long fallout of “the
“I agree with his point about the neces- long. The average Rhode Islander pretends next to Native Americans in the country, peculiar institution.” As the controversy
sity of that to be public information. But the Browns, the DeWolfs, the Melbournes, so we live less long than anybody,” he says. attests, however, this attempt to update
I am troubled by [the name]—yes, it’s a weren’t slavers extraordinaire. So we erase “And all of this relates to slavery and poor an anachronistic name is certainly incit-
reference point, but it seems to be a history all day long. They just don’t want diet and lack of access to insurance and ing dialogue. If it fails to heal old wounds,
celebration.” black folks erasing it.” low income.” the discussion around the bill will at least
“The only time it gets He says he would prefer a practical re- remind us that questions about history
said is in some sort of DO THE RIGHT THING sponse rather than a symbolic one. and culpability are, though sometimes ab-
If this alleged effacing of history “I’d love to see an educational fund. stract, palpable and pressing.
is the wrong way to address And by that, I mean to go to auto-me-
the legacy of slavery, then chanics school, to go to electrical fit- ERIC JOHNSON B’11 is practical and
advocates in the state will ting school, to go to computer symbolic.
 Last Thursday, the RI Gubernatorial Candidates debated at Brown University. The Candidates
were State Treasurer Frank Caprio (D), local businessman John Robitaille, former Republican

POL I T IC  TAC  TOE U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee (Independent) and chairman, founder, and, perhaps only member of
the new Moderate Party, Ken Block. Block, with nothing to lose, unleashed fearless, borderline
rude, attacks on Chafee and Caprio. The cheery Robitaille did little more than hold the GOP line.
Caprio and Chafee are the frontrunners, and are both drawing from the state’s Democratic base
The Indy Grids the Governor’s Race as well-established RI family brands. The official Indy guide to voting is below:

CHAFEE CAPRIO BLOCK ROBITAILLE

STYLE Of frail bones, the frail bones that only come Tall, dark and handsome. And he was Short, balding, and carries himself His most noticeable feature is his ubiq-
from a long aristocratic lineage. See also: New an athlete. A square jaw. Caprio leaned like a smart-aleck rooster. Peevish but uitous green fleece vest, featured on his
England voice, eager and earnest demeanor. noticeably forward during the debate, endearing. Only visible to some in the campaign website.
projecting the most assertive image by crowd was his habit of putting one foot
far. His feet moved not once. behind the other when he spoke, as if
ready to burst from the starting blocks.
Definitely the smartest candidate, and
knows it.

GAY Enthusiastically supported gay marriage.  “We Explained stoically (and briefly), “I also It’s a “basic civil rights” issue. So yes. Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman. He would
want our doors open and the welcome signs would sign a gay marriage bill.” “look at legislation that would provide
MARRAIGE out…if you love each other and want to get for civil unions.”
married, please come here...come here and do
business, we welcome you.”

MOST “Having the Governor of Delaware come up, “It may not be comfortable for Mr. “We have much more serious issues to “We have two career politicians and one
what does that have to do with incentivizing Block to hear about the wind at the be working on.” (in response to Provi- who wants to be.”
NOTABLE small businesses.”(to Caprio) back of small businesses...” in respond- dence Plantations Measure)
QUOTE ing to Block saying: “Frank will say, “We
just need to put the wind to the back
of small businesses.” What does that
mean? Ultimately, [Frank’s plan for
small business growth] does not incent
me as a business owner to create a job.
That’s meaningless drivel.”

INANE REASON “The word ‘Providence’ is…a very special A Democrat, officially. Will only focus on the “serious issues.” There’s something about that fleece.
word.” Scrappy as all hell.
TO VOTE HIM IN
EDUCATION An outspoken critic of the Obama Administra- Relied on the experience of his wife, who Focused on renegotiating teacher con- “I am very supportive of Commissioner
tion’s Race to the Top grant program, which works at Central High school in Provi- tracts, which he said are currently bet- Gist and the Race to the Top,” he ex-
has given the state $75 million to be spent dence. His plan focuses on elementary ter suited for people making “widgets” plained. The initiative was a big step
over the next four years but no guarantees of education. “Then, the rest is going to be than for the ‘white-collar’ profession towards “transformative reform in pub-
money after that. He worries about what the fairly easy,” he said. He discussed con- of teaching our children. To evaluate lic education in Rhode Island.” He par-
state will do after the money dries up in 2014. solidating the Pawtucket, Central Falls, teachers, he would use four criteria ticularly lauded the focus on measuring
What does he have instead? “It takes care” to Providence schools systems, citing a evenly: peer evaluations, student test teacher performance and improving
improve our urban schools, Chafee said, which Brown study that found many children scores, administrative evaluations and curriculum.
either is or isn’t a veiled reference against switched districts during elementary parent evaluations.
measuring teacher performance. school. He has spoken out in support of
Race to the Top and Commissioner Gist.

IMMIGRATION Opposes any measure that would allow state Supports both E-Verify and any law Block opposes any “policy that would Would amend and not repeal Carcieri’s
troopers to check for immigration papers, a which allows officers to “do their job encourage racial profiling or ethnic executive order to curb the possibility
la Arizona. The first thing he’d do as governor and ascertain the identity of people” as profiling.” Also thinks illegal immigra- of racial profiling. On college plan, says
would be to repeal Governor Carcieri’s 2008 Ex- he claims they’re doing now under the tion is fundamentally a border-security he’d rather spend state money on “veter-
ecutive Order on Immigration, which mandates executive order. He opposes the college problem and that “there’s no way that ans living under bridges, children going
state employers to use E-Verify technology to plan, though he supports the Dream law could ever solve the problem” with to bed hungry, and people living in sub-
ensure their workers are legal. Because America Act. He says such a measure would exac- its strategy of “picking people off one standard housing” than on the educa-
is a “country of immigrants” as well as a “country erbate an already “broken system” (edu- by one.” tion of “people who shouldn’t be here.”
of laws,” Chafee says he’d work for immigration cation or immigration; it was unclear
reform that provides paths to legalization. which) since the students wouldn’t be
He also supports a statute that would allow un- able to hold decent post=college jobs
documented high school graduates to pay in- anyway because of their illegal status.
state tuition for state colleges. “We want [illegal
immigrants] going into higher education, then
going into the work force, paying taxes…and get-
ting jobs.”

THE PLAN Would build around Brown Medical School Supports “Straightforward Plans” to in- Wants to establish a tax friendly envi- “Cut spending and lower taxes, the jobs
by soliciting health care-related businesses. centivize small business growth. Chafee ronment for business. He agrees with will come, the private sector will take
He heavily touts (with both fists) the plan to called them “confusing.” Caprio won’t Chafee that RI needs to build around care of itself.” Walk the line, baby.
bring public transportation to TF Green Air- touch taxes, though he intimates there their critical mass of “tech jobs” and
port in Warwick. are tax incentives and corporate gains says there’s nothing in Caprio’s plan that
tax loopholes out there for businesses would create 35,000 jobs (Caprio’s num-
to exploit. ber) or even make a single small business
owner come to Rhode Island.
Truly Independent, Chafee is running on Planning to “hold the line” on taxes. He “Chafee’s tax plan shows a lack of un- Won’t touch taxes.
TAXES a policy to raise taxes on currently exempt argues that job loss, not tax revenue, is derstanding of economic development,”
goods by 1%. Think Food. the problem, and has used Chafee’s tax Block says. Block also noted that if he
plan to buoy support among working moved his two businesses to Massa-
families. chusetts, he would have enough money
to send his kids to private school, and
“have a party to boot.”

BUDGET “Companies will not come to the state if Though Caprio was State Treasurer for the Also shied away from budgetary issues, Thinks taxes are too high as it is, and
there’s budget uncertainty,” Chafee said. An past three years, he ignored the question. as his expertise lies in small business proposes to solve the deficit by cutting
DEFICIT unbalanced budget, he argues, breeds the pos- He does wants to add teaching jobs (more growth (“my software company…”). programs, wiping out abuse and waste
sibility of radical tax hikes in the future. Solu- deficit), but fundamentally restructure the Says current bloated, corrupt pension (read fraud), and to “hope” things will
tion: raise sales tax. state pension liability fund (less deficit). plan is causing deficit issues. get better. He really said that.
UFOLOGY ala LOMBARDI by Adrian Randall

KEY:
7 O C T O B E R 21 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Features

I T ’S ST IL L G O OD TO BE Illustration by Adela Wu

INDEPE N DE N T retailers as well as publishing houses

The future of themselves.
“There used to be so many more in-
independent dependent bookstores because schools

bookstores used to order through bookstores,” she

explains. “But when an elementary

I
by Samuel Knowles school has Scholastic come in for a book
fair, that means they’re not having us
n the front room of Books on come in.”
the Square, a dozen toddlers
and infants sit in rapt atten- OUT OF PRINT
tion as Chris Byrnes reads Llama Back in the 1970s, indies controlled a
Llama Mad at Mama. A member much greater share of the retail book
of the staff for ten years, Chris market. But with the advent of B. Dalton
has a voice loud enough to fill and Walden Books—large, mall-based
the room; indeed, one can hear bookstores—a wave of Indies closed
the mama llama scold the baby down. In the ’80s, the independent
llama from anywhere in the store. In bookstore reinvented itself, with new
their excitement, most children clutch features like cafés, reading areas, and
their parent or babysitter. Others try to careful decoration. But as Barnes and
get as close to the action as possible, one Noble and Borders gained a greater share
nearly falling off his wicker chair in the of the market in the late ’80s and early teau at no more than 20 to 25 percent of scant, and it is unclear whether people
attempt. ’90s, indies faltered again. Then Amazon retail book sales. will remember their local bookstores
Located in Wayland Square, the shop arrived in 1995, claiming another chunk The Scholastic 2010 Kids & Family when browsing through titles at home.
fills one large, rectangular room with of the business. Studies estimate that in- Reading Report found that even among
wood-paneled walls and rollaway book- dependent bookstores account for only children, attachment to printed books is P U T YO U R M O N E Y WHERE
shelves. In addition to Story Time, which five to ten percent of all book sales to- still strong. Among children aged 9 to 17, YO U R M O U T H I S
takes place four times a week, the store day. Perhaps the greatest threat yet, the 66 percent agreed with the statement, Books on the Square has tried to incor-
holds political events for candidates, advent of e-readers puts the future of “I’ll always want to read books printed porate new technology, keeping their
book signings with local authors, and the Indies—as well as the printed book on paper even though there are e-books website up-to-date, sending out monthly
monthly meetings for its five book clubs, itself—at stake. available.” So the question on bookstore emails announcing special events, and al-
each of which focuses on a different At least one person in the market, owners’ minds is, will it be enough to lowing customers to order books online
theme or genre. Among the more popu- Jack McKeown, remains optimistic. Af- keep their doors open? and pick them up in the store.
lar groups, the Queer Book Club meets ter holding positions at publishing hous- Despite the shop’s loyal following,
mid-month and boasts about twenty to es including Random House and Persius BETTER OFF THAN SOME staff members noted that the problems
twenty-five members. Last week, about Books, he now serves as director of New Earlier this month, the New England suggested by McKeown’s study are na-
60 people came to hear former Rhode Business Development at Verso Digital, Independent Booksellers Association tional trends—in particular, a phenom-
Island attorney general Arlene Violet a division of Verso Advertising, and has (NEIBA) held its annual conference at enon he calls “leakage.” A person enters
read from her new book The Mob and a small bookstore in Westhampton, New the Rhode Island Convention Center, in the store and, after browsing through
Me. “We’re more than a bookstore,” By- York. Given his career history, McKeown a large ballroom on the fifth floor, down the titles, purchases the book online or
rnes says. “We’re a community meeting is not exactly indifferent to the future the hall from a meeting on fire sprinkler at chain stores for a cheaper price. McK-
place.” of books. But his findings, published safety. Most of the major publishers, as eown estimates that such behavior may
The staff credits a base of dedicated in Verso Digital’s 2009-2010 Survey of well as many smaller ones, set up tables represent up to $260 million in lost rev-
locals for keeping them in business, esti- Book-Buying Behavior, have garnered with their titles for the upcoming season. enue for indies.
mating that 80 percent of their custom- the attention of many in the booksellers’ Katie Perry, the publicist for History “Oh, yeah, we love that,” Byrnes joked.
ers are regulars—most in their thirties industry—particularly indies. Press, which specializes in regional his- “But most people aren’t like that. There’s
and forties and from the East Side. “Even In an online survey of 110 mil- tory, said she was there mostly to field a basic humanity to most people where
if I don’t know their names, I know their lion people, 23 percent of respondents orders from shop owners who stopped they say, you’ve just recommended this
faces,” Byrnes says. ranked independent bookstores as their by. Mark Binder, who writes and tells book to me—thank you. I’m going to buy
“For whatever reason, some of us favorite place to shop for books. Even children’s stories in Providence, said he it from you.”
want to keep it going,” says David Heim- more encouraging for the future, over a was more interested in the publicity. “It When a hallmark bookstore in Bel-
becker, a frequent customer. “We always third of those who chose indies are un- puts me in front of bookstores. Wheth- mont, Connecticut, went out of busi-
find ways to spend money here, whether der 34. Among those who purchase 10 or er they buy the books or not is a crap- ness, Fischer said he received a number
it’s personally or through our business- more books a year, 27 percent said they shoot,” he said. of anxious phone calls from people in
es. There’s more of a commitment, a favored Indies. In addition to the publisher exhibi- the neighborhood. “‘But we have to have
personal interest taken in the customers But according to the American Asso- tions, the conference included educa- a bookstore!’ ‘We can’t not have a book-
here.” ciation of Publishers, e-book sales in the tional events. Some taught booksellers store on Main Street.’ ‘We’ve always had
But customer service alone is not first eight months of this year totaled how to develop their websites; others ex- a bookstore,’” he recalled people telling
enough to keep independent bookstores $263 million, a 193 percent increase plained how stores could lure customers him. “Well, I’m sorry, but between the
open these days. Indies, as many in the from the same period last year. But McK- of different ages. landlord wanting more money and you
industry refer to them, rely on out-of- eown’s survey suggests that fears of the It’s also an opportunity for colleagues all shopping online, you can’t support a
store events as a vital source of revenue. coming end of the printed book may be to catch up in an industry that has bookstore.”
When the advocacy and support group unfounded—at least for now. Only 6.8 grown even more decentralized over the “People have a nostalgia for local in-
Day One invited Maya Angelou to speak percent of respondents said they owned last few decades with the closing of so dependent retail and bookstores, in par-
at a fundraiser, Books on the Square an e-reader—a relatively small share of many stores. “We have dozens of people ticular,” McKeown explained, “but their
served as the official book provider. Af- the market—with another 8.2 percent who Twitter and Facebook, but only get actual transaction behavior tends to par-
ter packing a few cars full of Angelou’s saying they were likely to purchase one to see each other a few times a year,” said allel that of most Americans—towards
books, staff members set up a table and within the next year. In addition, rough- Steve Fischer, the Executive Director of convenience and value and price versus
sold copies to people on their way out, ly 73 percent of respondents who own NEIBA. the context of the shopping experience.”
splitting the proceeds with the organiza- e-readers said that they still plan to pur- Attendees had mixed views on what Will customers remain loyal to Books
tion. chase printed books. the e-book will do to their business. on the Square in spite of this trend? For
Jennifer Doucette, the store manager, “Nobody talks about this,” McKeown But a much-anticipated program called now, enough people in the community
says Books on the Square couldn’t stay said. “Certainly you’re not going to hear Google Editions may soon allow inde- value what the store offers to keep it in
in business without such events. The use the digi-pundits talking about this. They pendent bookstores to direct customers business—and, perhaps most impor-
of independent bookstores to supply are quite skilled in ignoring the statis- to purchase e-books through their web- tantly, Story Time running.
local organizations and functions has tics that don’t speak to their directional sites. Many store owners said they will
declined in the last decade, in her view, conclusions.” McKeown’s own estimate seriously consider adopting the program SAMUEL KNOWLES B’13 is one mad
with increased competition from online is that the e-reader market will soon pla- when it comes out. But details are still mama llama.
THEINDY.ORG 8
Features

by Meghna Philip
Illustration by Robert Sandler Military exploitation, climate change, and a media

“
blackout have combined to drown Pakistan.

We are here at the forces in Central Asia. The Eisenhower cook food and boil water. Coverage has also focused on the
request of the Gov- administration provided over $500 However, much of the cutting has threat of extremism among the millions
ernment of Paki- million in military aid to Pakistan to been attributed to the “timber mafia,” who are homeless and hungry, as Islamic
stan to help them help contain Soviet influence along the an ill-defined group of politically (i.e. organizations have stepped in to provide
respond to the worst natural disaster in USSR’s southwestern frontier. militarily) connected individuals who aid in the absence of a strong govern-
their history.” The second military dictatorship, that have engaged in illegal logging for years. mental response. Some of these organi-
Thus began Secretary of State Hill- of General Zia-ul-Haq, lasted from 1978 Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, in zations, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, are
ary Clinton’s official response to the to 1988, and coincided with the Soviet a recent op-ed for The Guardian, called reputed to have ties to extremist militant
catastrophic floods in Pakistan, which, Union’s entrance into neighboring Af- the mafia “one of the most powerful groups. In a commentary in the Inter-
over the last two and half months, have ghanistan. President Jimmy Carter and ruthless organizations in Pakistan.” national Herald Tribune, Senator John
affected the lives of close to 20 million began using the Pakistani intelligence Felled trees, hidden in ravines for smug- Kerry urged increased international aid
people. Her assessment of the floods agency to funnel military weapons and gling, were dislodged during the floods to combat potential instability and ex-
seems reasonable, given the scope of the ammunition to Afghani anti-Communist and caused great damage to flood bar- tremism in the wake of the floods. How-
disaster: 1.2 million homes washed away fighters, the mujahideen, predecessors to riers, bridges, and buildings. Activists, ever, Brown Professor Vazira Zamindar,
entirely, another 5 million damaged; today’s Taliban. Pakistan was rewarded journalists, and environmentalists have a specialist on South Asian History, says
5000 miles of roads, 7000 schools, and a $3.2 billion military aid package over raised complaints about the timber ma- the fear of flooded areas as hotbeds for
400 health facilities destroyed; 6 million six years in exchange for support of the fia for years, but the government has had militant recruitment is unfounded.
children currently homeless, and facing covert proxy war in Afghanistan. neither the will nor the power to put an Unlike coverage of Haiti, “there have
cholera, dysentery, and other deadly wa- The most recent wave of American end to their activities. been virtually no human interest pieces
ter-borne diseases; one fifth of the coun- support for the Pakistani military began Reports from Pakistani aid workers on individual Pakistani people coping
try, a landmass roughly the size of Italy, after 9/11, during the military rule of have fueled rumors of deliberate levee with the floods,” said Zamindar in an
submerged by the flooding. According to General Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan be- breaks to save the wealthy. In Sindh interview with The Independent. “This
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it is came one of President Bush’s leading al- province, where no deliberate breach- human understanding is critically miss-
a disaster of a magnitude “the world has lies in the War on Terror. Billions of dol- ing systems exist, levees broke anyway, ing. What do these people look like? Are
never seen.” lars were once again funneled through a diverting floodwaters around the agri- they angry Islamic extremists? No. They
But what does it mean to call this di- corrupt, dictatorial military regime, to cultural land of wealthy politicians, and are the peasants, the extremely poor.
saster “natural”? Some reflections upon reinforce America’s regional interests. sweeping away poor villages. The majority practice mystic Sufi Islam.
Pakistan’s tumultuous political and so- It is no surprise that, when the floods In these conditions of environmental History tells us that the assumed con-
cial history, and the United States’ im- hit, 60% of Pakistan’s budget was going degradation and willful neglect, the im- nection between poverty and extremism
plications in that history, complicate to military expenditure, and about 25% plications of global climate change are is largely unfounded. Just because these
this notion. In the immediate wake of to foreign debt servicing, with 70% of inevitably a much greater threat than people are hungry and deprived, does
the flooding, Pakistani President Asif Ali this external debt accrued during mili- they would be in more developed parts not mean they will resort to violence.
Zardari left on a ten-day political junket tary dictatorships. Less than 5% of the of the world. The Intergovernmental They are simply trying to survive.”
to Europe. It was, in fact, Prime Minister state budget was directed toward social Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), re-
Yusaf Raza Gilani who had the responsi- development and civil infrastructure. leased a report in January warning that K AT R I N A’ S G H O S T S
bility of overseeing rescue and relief ef- The dangers of this imbalance became all the Himalayan glaciers that feed the In- The floods in Pakistan coincided with the
forts. Nonetheless, international media too clear when the rains began. dus River have been melting rapidly, and fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
outlets seized on the symbolic outrage, that they will disappear completely by International reports took up the label
and Zardari became the figurehead for C L I M AT E CO R R U P T I O N 2035. The sort of monsoons that fell in “Zardari’s Katrina”, comparing the Paki-
their portrayal of poor governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known Pakistan this August may become much stani President’s failures to President
Pakistan. as the North-West Frontier Province, less exceptional in the coming years. Bush’s mismanagement of the Louisi-
To focus on Zardari’s absence ignores was one of the regions hardest hit by To stem this tide will require a de- ana floods. Then, as it has now, a shal-
the larger structural problems of the the flooding. It served as a major base crease in military spending and a huge low focus on individual failures ignored
government, hollowed of its ability to for supplying the mujahideen during investment in Pakistan’s social infra- deeper, more difficult questions of the
provide for people’s welfare over many the Cold War, and it has been a major structure. It will also require the United societal causes underlying such disaster.
decades of military expansion. The gov- combat zone in the U.S. War on Terror. States and the rest of the international Katrina’s floodlines traced clear pat-
ernment’s disorganized, delayed flood As a consequence, the region has suf- community to recognize the history be- terns of historical exploitation along
response was contrasted by a strong fered infrastructural neglect and poor hind the magnified impact of climate lines of race and class. The hurricane
response from the Pakistani military, urban planning for decades. Due to lack change in this part of the world. revealed years of willful neglect of dams
which rescued over 100,000 people in of flood zoning, buildings were placed and flood barriers in New Orleans, as
the first week of flooding. Under any right alongside riverbanks. Infill was M E D I A B L AC KO U T well as the true victims of the nebulous
other democratically-elected Socialist used to narrow river channels, to allow A Brookings Institute report in late Au- “climate change” threat. The people of
government, the fact that the military for shorter, more inexpensive bridge- gust compared total media coverage of New Orleans bristled with anger at the
were the first respondents to such a do- building projects. Flash floods swiftly the floods in Pakistan to coverage of government’s lame response, and the in-
mestic disaster would seem strange; but wiped out these bridges and buildings, the Haiti earthquake ten days after each vidious rumors of deliberate dam break-
in Pakistan, it is business as usual. and many of the people within. disaster. The report showed well over ing. A media that had little understand-
According to a recent ClimateWire 3,000 stories in both print and broadcast ing of the region’s culture and history
S T R AT E G I C I N T E R E S T S report, huge levels of unchecked defor- media regarding Haiti; versus just 320 reacted with distorted depictions of a
Pakistan has spent more than half of its estation throughout Central and North broadcast news stories and 730 print people desperate and violent.
63-year existence under three separate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also contributed stories about Pakistan. Government officials consistently re-
military dictatorships. The United States to the flood conditions. When Pakistan Since the report was printed, media ferred to it all as simply a “natural disas-
has provided significant financial sup- first gained independence, about 33 per- coverage of the disaster has continued ter.” In the words of filmmaker and New
port and weapons to each one of these cent of the nation was covered in forests; to wane, with the floods virtually disap- Orleans resident Harry Shearer, “The
regimes. Encouraged by the United now tree cover has been reduced to 4 pearing from the international spotlight. people of New Orleans lost control of the
States, the Pakistani state consistently percent of its land surface. Runoff of de- Instead, the media focus on Pakistan has narrative of their own near destruction.”
privileges foreign policy and military forested silt has polluted water and sig- resumed its practiced lens of war. After It remains to be seen whether Paki-
imperatives over the livelihoods of its nificantly raised the levels of riverbeds a brief respite in August, the C.I.A. vig- stan will suffer from such an erasure. As
people. and reservoirs. orously renewed its bombing campaign the world begins to forget, and faceless
The country’s first military dictator- Some of this deforestation is a direct in Pakistan’s northern mountains in drones attack a nation already ravaged
ship, under General Ayub Khan, lasted result of the pervasive poverty through- September, part of an effort to cripple by man and nature, 20 million histories
from 1958-1969. During this early Cold out the region; poor villagers, repeatedly the threat of the Taliban in Afghani- hang bravely in the balance.
War period, as India took on a position displaced by military occupations and stan. Headlines on Pakistan soared, in
of non-alignment, Pakistan was seen as lacking other resources and fuels, have the context of these unmanned drone MEGHNA PHILIP B’11 is nursing a
a vital regional ally against Communist resorted to clearing forests for fuel to strikes. sore tooth.
 by Emily Gogolak
Design by Mary-Evelyn Farrior
Illustration by Charis Loke

AND

REPUBLICANISM
France and the debate on Roma migration
Liberté, égalité, fraternité? Discrimina- would be removed within three months.
tion, inequality, and shame are more What would happen to the remaining
common buzzwords in the streets of camps was unspecified.
France today, as the Republic is mired
in a heated debate on its repatriation N OW A N D T H E N
of Romanian and Bulgarian Roma (col- Since migrating from modern-day In-
loquially known as Gypsies). Histori- dia at the end of the 11th century and
cally among the most vulnerable and spreading across Europe, the Roma, or
crime-afflicted minorities in Europe, “Travelers,” have been no strangers to
the Roma have recently born the brunt inequality. From serfdom and slavery
of a summer-long crackdown on illegal to genocide at the hands of the Nazis in
settlements in France. Though the gov- World War II, persecution has singularly
ernment claims the deportations are in dominanted their history. The current
the name of national security, the ethnic controversy in France raises the ques-
agenda and legality of the French policy tion of the extent to which discrimina-
remain unclear. The controversy has the tion against the Roma continues today.
European Commission in an uproar and According to France-based Roma
the world asking the question: just how rights group FNASAT (National Federa-
free is France? tion of Associations of Solidarity Action
with the Gypsies and Travelers), 12,000
TENSIONS BREW Romanian and Bulgarian Roma are scat-
The storm started this summer with tered across unauthorized camps on the
clashes between French Roma and the outskirts of French villages and cities.
police. On July 16, dozens of Roma hit The settlements, often shantytowns and
the streets with hatchets and iron bars, garbage dumps, are considered hotbeds
attacking a police station and pillaging for violence, crime, prostitution, and il-
the Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan. legal trafficking.
The riot was in response to events of that Sarkozy’s socialist opponents argue
morning, when a gendarme—a member that the violence is related to deeper
of the French military police—shot and social perils in poor neighborhoods,
killed a 22-year-old Roma who refused and call for the government to address
an order to stop at a police checkpoint. these problems rather than solely focus
It appears that the driver did not obey on security. Sarkozy, however, staying
the police because he did not possess a true to his persona as the law-and-order
valid driver’s license. Pushing tensions politician, sees the Roma settlements
over the edge, the incident followed on as a national security problem that de-
the heels of a riot the night before in mands direct government action. After
Grenoble after civilian police killed an the riots, France wasted little time and
alleged robber during another shootout. quickly reported results. Just two weeks
President Nicolas Sarkozy swiftly re- after Sarkozy’s Grenoble speech in July,
sponded, defending law enforcement Hortefeux told reporters that authori-
and calling for the immediate restoration ties had already cleared 40 Roma settle-
of order. Interior Minister Brice Horte- ments.
feux told the BBC, “There is a simple and Roma expulsions are nothing new in
clear reality in this country: there’s no France. 10,000 were sent back to Ro-
future for hoodlums and delinquents be- mania and Bulgaria in 2009 alone and
cause in the end the public authority al- 8,500 were deported the year before. The
ways wins.” In a national security speech repatriated Roma are EU citizens, and,
in Grenoble on July 30, Sarkozy de- according to EU law on the free migra-
clared that French nationality should be tion of people, have the right to move
stripped from anyone of foreign origin freely across the Union. The same law,
who threatened the life of a police officer. however, allows member states to de-
The President went even further port those they deem threats to public
in pointed remarks against the safety or welfare. France specifically re-
Roma as a whole. The rheto- quires Romanian and Bulgarian citizens
ric was harsh, and the warning to have work or residency permits if they
grim. He called for Mr. Horte- wish to stay in the country for over three
feux to “put an end to the wild months, but insists that its policy is a
squatting and camping of the question of security, not ethnicity.
Roma,” and promised that half of the Not all find the government’s ada-
539 illegal Roma camps across France mant denial of discrimination so con-
vincing. Saimir Mile, spokesperson for France is not precluded from EU law, but
Paris-based La Voix De Rroms (Voice of exactly which law it was violating was un-
the Roma), said in an email to the Inde- clear during the course of the Summit. The
pendent, “In fact, nothing concrete has Commission had two possible grounds for
changed … there are neither more nor less action. Either the French government was
expulsions than before. What has changed only breaching the EU free circulation law,
is that the practices have become the cen- or it was also implicit in a policy of target-
ter of political discourse, with a racism ed ethnic discrimination.
that has become more and more intense.” On September 30, Brussels announced
In the past, the issue of illegal settlements infringement proceedings against Paris.
had not been a centerpiece of Sarkozy’s In what some see as an appeasement to
political agenda: the French government Sarkozy, the EC did not legally challenge
has said little, and the general public even France on charges of discrimination. In-
less. The July riots were a turning point. stead, on a more technical basis, the Com-
Unauthorized camps suddenly became a mission blamed the government for not
major national security hazard and people writing EU migration law into its domes-
started talking. tic legislation. “France is not enforcing
European law as it should on free move-
ACC U S AT I O N S A M A S S ment,” Reding told France 24 television.
Just as France was starting to fend off “This needs to be corrected, and that’s why
charges of racism, the debate became more we have acted.”
heated. On September 13, French newspa- The EC gave France until October 15
per le Canard Social leaked an incendiary to respond. Otherwise, the Commis-
police memo on Roma expulsions. Dated sion warned that it would send a “letter
August 5, the order was circulated to of notice,” which would set formal legal
all police chiefs as France began its new proceedings in motion. If France did not
rounds of Roma deportations to Roma- provide either adapt its policy to meet EU
nia and Bulgaria, and appears to confirm standards or provide adequate evidence of
an ethnic agenda to the crackdown. The compliance with EU law it could potential-
order plainly states, “Roma camps are a ly face the European Court of Justice—a
priority…It is down to the préfect [state huge and surprising blow for a founding
representative] in each department to be- EU member state. The French foreign
gin a systematic dismantling of the illegal ministry, glad to avoid charges of dis-
camps, particularly those of the Roma.” crimination, was confident that it could
The leak was an embarrassment for im- fend off Commission charges. “France is
migration minister Eric Besson, who had pleased not to have been accused of dis-
been insisting that the Roma were not crimination,” a ministry statement read,
singled out from other EU migrants living “and is ready to provide more information
in France. Just a few days before the leak, to Brussels.”
Besson told The Guardian, “France has not
taken any measure specifically against the (MORE) S K E L E TO N S IN THE
Roma [who] are not considered as such C LO S E T database reeked of discrimination. For the the settlement, though with a touch of
but as natives of the country whose na- In the meantime, Sarkozy hastened to French government, however, the docu- cynicism. “I am very happy that reason has
tionality they have.” save face. His rigged-up rhetoric on pub- ment simply did not exist. prevailed,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The leak spurred a torrent of criticism. lic security and Roma migration is largely The French state commission for data Confidence and characteristic nationalism
Viviane Reding, European Commission seen as a political mechanism to garner processing and liberties (CNIL) said it had ran strong in his remarks. “The commis-
(EC) Minister of Justice was horrified support where it has waned in recent investigated the purported use of eth- sion has decided not to launch proceed-
by mention of “Systematic dismantling” months. In an interview with the Indepen- nic files, and denied the existence of any ings against France for discrimination for
and in a speech at the Commission she dent, Justice Antoine Garapon, Secretary “structured database gathering personal the simple reason that, as I have always
denounced the French policy, insisting General of Paris-based legal think tank data relative to the Roma.” If such a da- said, there was no discrimination.” For
that it was at odds with the fundamental l’Institut des hautes études sur la Justice, tabase did exist, it would be illegal under Sarkozy, having stopped infringement
values of the EU. “This is a situation I had said, “to understand the situation with French law, which prohibits the collection proceedings and avoided charges of dis-
thought Europe would not have to wit- the Romas, one must understand Sar- of official statistics on race and ethnicity. crimination, the Republic had prevailed.
ness again after the Second World war,” kozy’s current political situation.” Many The truth, however, was decidedly vague The Roma debate brings to the surface
she said. Reding promised that France see Sarkozy’s actions as an attempt to woo when a CNIL spokesperson later admit- a fundamental tension in EU politics:
would not receive special treatment in voters where he can as the 2012 campaign ted that “some of the information reg- whose voice matters. In an e-mail to the
its violation of EU anti-discrimination season begins. To do so, he is increasingly istered” by the gendarmerie reveals “the Independent, Dr. Ulrich Krotz, a European
law, and called for European Commission turning to the far right and tapping into ethnic origins of the persons controlled.” integration expert and professor at Brown
President José Manuel Barroso to begin a sentiments of insecurity during a time of In response to the MENS discovery, four University, said, “The Commission-France
fast-track infringement proceeding. The national malaise. Roma advocacy organizations are suing dispute at its core is about who has the
Commission is the executive body of the But it remains uncertain how the Roma the French government for discrimina- main say in the Union—the supranational
European Union, and is responsible for repatriation debacle will affect his popu- tion. What direction the case will take is Commission or the member states.” In
proposing legislation, implementing de- larity. Although Sarkozy may have new uncertain. a rare clash with one of its core member
cisions, and upholding Union law. When fans on the right, he has simultaneously states, The Commission scored a political
a member state flounders, it is up to the lost footing among Catholics—a critical C LO S I N G T I M E victory.
Commission to take a stand. bloc among French voters—who largely Meanwhile, October 15 was looming and As much as the French decision is a
Sarkozy responded with a vengeance. condemn the migration policy as a human France had yet to make its case. With score for the Union, it is a blow to France.
At the opening of an EU Summit in Brus- rights blunder. On October 8, the Presi- just 45 minutes to spare, at 10:15pm the Although Sarkozy boasts of escaping fur-
sels on September 16, Sarkozy ripped into dent made a visit to the Vatican to win Commission received a letter from Paris ther legal proceedings and formal charges
Reding for her veiled reference to Nazi support. Critics, however, doubt that rub- explaining its plans to modify French mi- of discrimination, the controversy puts
deportations and relentlessly defended bing elbows with the Pope will have much gration law according to EU standards. his government in a very dim moral light
France. As reported the British Times, he benefit. “It is so obvious, perhaps that is The Ministry of Justice announced that it and calls into question the contemporary
said, “I am the French President, and I why it won’t work,” Jérôme Fourquet, a would set its best lawyers on the case to pillars of French Republicanism. Article
cannot allow my country to be insulted.” spokesperson for The French Institute of assess the French reform proposal over One of the French constitution reads,
The Summit, intended to discuss unified Public Opinion, told the British Financial the weekend. “France guarantees equality before the
economic and foreign policy, was largely Times. The row between France and the EC law for all citizens, without distinction of
overshadowed by the Roma debate and Sarkozy then found himself in an even appeared to reach its end on October 19, origin, race, or religion.” Racially charged
France’s response to Reding’s allegations. deeper hole. On the same day as his Vatican when the Commission withdrew legal police dossiers, “systematic dismantling,”
Although many of the attendees ques- visit, Le Monde reported that the French threats against the government for its and secret tracking databases hardly fit
tioned the Justice Minister’s choice of Central Office for the Fight Against Itiner- migration policy. “The European Commis- this description. As the Roma controver-
words, there was little doubt of her mes- ant Delinquency (OCLDI) held a secret, il- sion will now, for the time being, not pur- sy comes to a close, the most important
sage: France was treading on thin ice. legal database used to track Roma living in sue the infringement procedure against question may not be whether France has
Stressing his support for Reding, Barroso France. A 2004 PowerPoint presentation France,” Reding said in a statement re- been abiding by EU law, but whether it has
announced, “The commission will do what of the database, known as the MENS (mi- leased in Brussels. The Justice Ministry been following its own.
is necessary to ensure the respect of [EU] norités éthniques non sedentarisés) system, deemed the proposed modifications to
law.” appeared online and revealed a history of French national law “sufficient” and now EMILY GOGOLAK B’12 hails from a
gendarmerie records replete with regional calls for the government to put them into border state, thinks a lot about immigra-
DAV I D V. G O L I AT H breakdowns of Roma genealogies, DNA action. tion politics, and is currently studying
As a founding and core member state, samples, and fingerprints. For many, the Sarkozy responded enthusiastically to abroad in Paris.
11 O C T O B E R 21 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Criticism
Hitchens, in the latest VF piece, quotes “the great American educator” Horace
T HE W R I T E R A N D T H E Mann: “Until you have done something for humanity, you should be ashamed to die.”
Hitchens adds, “I would have happily offered myself as an experimental subject for

R E A PE R Christopher Hitchens and new drugs or new surgeries, partly of course in the hope that they might salvage me,
but also on the Mann principle.” Surely, his readers would prefer he left his mark in
by Simon van Zuylen-Wood Tony Judt on Death writing, rather than as a guinea pig for science.

A
A New York Review of Books review of Hitch-22 criticized Hitchens’s fixation on be-
ing “yoked to the great engine of history.” The same impulse that drove him to Cuba
uthor, journalist, and literary pugilist Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed as an aspiring revolutionary drove him to support the Iraq War in 2003—vanity.
with cancer in early June. NYU Historian Tony Judt, recently best-known Hitchens’s cancer-writing is not easy. He suffers physically, and reliving his ails in
for Postwar, an encyclopedic history of latter twentieth century Europe, died print surely affords him little cathartic respite. Yet he presses on. To him, it’s a simple
August 6 of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Both men crafted a set of latter- necessity that he stage his last battle, the only debate he’s sure to lose, in public. His
day memoirs while afflicted by illness. Judt, for the first time in his career, insistence on it, however, leaves us with the image of an already hunched, thinned
chronicled his own past, writing little of the illness which left him paralyzed Hitch, desperately clicking through WebMD pages for a miracle.
from the neck down. Through dictation, Judt produced the most moving, personal
work of his career. Facing a disease without a cure, he sought not to defy death, J U DT
but instead to meditatively excavate memories long-since thought lost. Hitchens’s At the onset of illness, Judt was physically able to write for a short period until he
work, meanwhile, has languished, his thoughts confined solely to his condition. He’s lost the ability to move his fingers. Gradually, he lost all motor functions from the
written only on cancer and the pitch of his will to survive rises with each essay. His neck down, and began dictating his pieces, which the New York Review of Books
abundant past, chronicled this year in his memoir Hitch-22 (written pre-cancer) has faithfully published up to and after his death. ALS begins by slowing the body into
become an afterthought. Hitchens’s search for impossible cures have come to define an eventual state of paralysis, but spares the victim’s capacity to speak and think
what is now certainly the end of his life. His writings, essentially public diary entries, until the very end. The disease is painless, but when it comes to the nag of everyday
reflect this new monomaniacal tendency. Hitchens is not wrong to write about his unpleasantries—an itch on the nose, a cold set of toes—the ALS victim is helpless to
illness—his essays merely underscore the power of cancer as a historical entity too relieve without somebody’s help. What nurses cannot relieve is the patient’s immo-
great for a journalist to ignore. Through his writing, Hitchens seeks to embed himself bility. For most patients, there are good and bad days, progressions and setbacks: the
in a largely imagined “war on cancer,” as one who both participates in and chronicles body becomes a barometer of recovery. Here lies potential for optimism. Judt’s body,
a historical movement that produces no winner or meaningful results. on the other hand, only served to remind his brain of its limitations.
Judt’s relief was to “scroll through my life, my thoughts, my fantasies, my memo-
H I TC H E N S ries, mis-memories, and the like until I have chanced upon events, people, or narra-
In three Vanity Fair columns this autumn, Hitchens’s topic has been cancer and only tives that I can employ to divert my mind from the body in which it is encased.” Of
cancer. The work seems written more for himself than for posterity. He relates the these re-encounters, he formed his memoirs.
details of malady with unflinching bravado: his odds of mastering cancer as a writer Toward the end of one piece he addressed his own difficulties speaking, because
are better than “beating” it as a patient. On the page, unsentimental introspection of ALS. “It always seemed to me that talking was the point of adult experience…. The
translates into outward self-preservation. vocal muscle, for sixty years my reliable alter ego, is failing. Communication, perfor-
Hitchens, like Judt, claimed his greatest fear was not the loss of life, for the plea- mance, assertion: these are now my weakest assets.”
sures of life has wilted considerably since the onset of illness—but his certain, even- Judt did not, however, see the deterioration of his speech as some cruel irony.
tual inability to communicate. “Until it’s hello darkness,” he wrote, he refuses to shut Like Hitchens, he understood the question was not “why me?” but “why not me?”
up. Nonetheless, he admits, “the absorbing fact about being mortally sick is that you Judt regretted only his unbreakable routine. Historian Timothy Snyder, a friend and
spend a good deal of time preparing yourself to die with some modicum of stoicism… lifelong mentoree of Judt, wrote in his own NYRB piece, “Tony told me that one of
while being simultaneously and highly interested in the business of survival.” the sadnesses of his illness was that he would never again find himself on a railway
While cancer has not impoverished Hitchens’ intellect, it has distracted it. His platform, uncertain of destination but certain of progress.”
legacy, untouchable and now in the public record, brings little comfort. Litte in his VF His own predicament, with its own hopeless certainties of destination and prog-
pieces suggest he thinks much about the biographical yesterday of Hitch-22, which ress, pushed him into delve backwards into his memory where he located, composed,
teems with tales of acid Oxford wit and craven brothels. Hitchens’ greatest regrets, remembered, then dictated the words that so beautifully comprised his memoirs.
should he die sooner than later, will be to miss the weddings of his children and never The reporter in Hitchens thumbs his nose at death by participating in it, and his
to see the World Trade Center be rebuilt. He spends his third column, far more anx- stubborn life-drive precludes him from ever discussing the faculties of life itself
ious and desperate than the first, seeking impossible, brilliant medical solutions. The again. Judt forgets death altogether—his last two years are spent crafting histories
future on which he fixates, should it be prolonged, will bring only more tubes, doc- and theories and criticisms that acknowledge life will persist after his death. He’s
tors, lawyers, and an irreversible loss of that mane of chest hair. His future, however obsessed, until the very end, with life and all its bounty. When death finally came, we
long it lasts, is that of a full-time patient. Doomed by the intersection of irrepress- don’t think to ask if he was either ready nor not ready, for, unlike Hitchens, he hadn’t
ible life-drive and potential for cure, Hitchens’ work has fallen prey to the entices of squandered his time posing the question.
medical progress. He hasn’t just confined his subject matter, he’s sold his own place
in history short. SIMON VAN ZUYLENWOOD B’11 squandered his time.
THEINDY.ORG 12
Arts

C I T YA RT S

by Alice Hines
o
Repainting a Neighborhood
n the South Side panicked. But Keefe, who had been tion, kids are still kids. Some admit that out rate of 29 percent, compared with 16
of Providence, in working in the neighborhood for seven they would rather be at home playing percent for the state of Rhode Island, ac-
a neighborhood years, got out of her car to try to talk to video games. Because all the teachers cording to a 2008 study by Rhode Island
sprinkled with de- the boys. Almost immediately, one of at CityArts are primarily artists, many Kids Count. Teachers can only hope that
caying Victorian them yelled “It’s Sister Ann!” They all arrive with no prior classrooms experi- their students will form good habits at
houses and Domin- took off running. “They knew who I was,” ence. Before tackling conceptual think- CityArts that they will take with them to
ican meat markets, she says. “But it was dangerous because ing and technique, they must first know high school.
an enormous mural jumps out of the they were in the mood to do something. how to handle a classroom. One challenge is capacity. In the past
side of the CompareFoods supermarket. I knew immediately the issue was that Volynsky describes her classes as “or- couple of years, more and more students
It is “La Plaza del Arte y Las Culturas,” they were just filling their time with ganized chaos.” Instead of following a have been staying all five days a week in-
by Agustín Patiño, an Ecuadorian artist something stupid.” list of rules, students brainstorm com- stead of just attending one or two class-
living in Providence. In the 140-foot mu- Keefe had a hunch that if there was a munity agreements on the first day of es, which decreases the number of open
ral, highways sweep across aqua and wa- free, quality summer activity, things like class. At the beginning of classes, Volyn- spots. Executive Director Barbara Wong
ter falls into floating metropolises while this wouldn’t happen. She spent the next sky allows time for students “bug in” and attributes this to the economic crisis and
pastures merge into urban apartment year researching, tracking down fund- share how they feel about the class. In the fact that parents can no longer afford
buildings that resemble those of South ing, and looking for teachers. Her hope response to the question “what inspires other options.
Providence. On the bottom left corner for the program was that a respect for you?” students listed everything from One solution is to conduct classes in
of Patiño’s mural is a small, charmingly the arts that could morph into a respect cartoons, nature, me, video-games, my other locations. Currently, the CityArts
crude mosaic of a boat, a sun, and a brick for the community. family, nachos, and the world. is looking for twenty volunteers to help
building. The building, with its red walls As a creative writing class begins, put together a project with AmeriCorps
and enormous windows, looks just like O R G A N I Z E D C H AO S twelve kids sit around a table; drum- and Providence public schools. The vol-
the one next door, home to Providence Today, CityArts offers after-school and ming with unsharpened pencils, banging unteers will teach after-school work-
CityArts. vacation classes in bookmaking, ceram- notebooks on their heads, and debating shops at middle schools around the city.
CityArts is a nonprofit that provides ics, painting, printmaking, textiles, and whether a “chocoholic” is someone who Their budget is also a problem. Currently,
free, after-school art classes to eight- stop-motion animation to around 500 eats chalk. They grow silent when Lucy CityArts receives funding through differ-
to-fourteen year olds. It began in 1993 students per year. True to Keefe’s vision, Stevens, (“you can even call me Queen ent private and public organizations like
as a summer camp for youth from the everything, including materials, is free. Lucy,”) visual artist and former journal- the City of Providence, the Rhode Island
South Side whose families couldn’t af- Classes are small, with a student-teach- ist starts to give instructions. Lucy is the State Council on the Arts (RISCA), Na-
ford summer activities and later evolved er ratio of 8:1. Teachers are all first and same height as some of the students, yet tional Endowment for the Arts, United
into an after-school program. In 1995, foremost, practicing artists. As Keefe commands their attention effortlessly. Way and private donors. “We welcome
it moved into the the former Berkander put it, “We want to teach fine-art. Things Today’s class, she explains, will be about contributions big and small—every little
jewelry factory on Broad street. The fac- like portraiture, not babysitting.” writing to music. She cranks up a percus- bit adds up,” says Wong.
tory, which CityArts now shares with While the small class size encourages sion heavy trance track by Gabrielle Roth But with the possibility of impending
the Highlander charter school, was com- tight relationships, new students must and the Mirrors on the boombox, asking budget cuts for the arts in Rhode Island,
pletely renovated in 2004. Now, it sticks fill out applications, and every semes- the kids to shout out words they think the organization may have to downsize.
out on Broad street like a shiny new toy. ter some are turned away. Accepted stu- of. Any shortfall in contributions means
The brick facade and enormous windows dents can take classes as many days of “Jungles, playing with lions! Lions CityArts would have reduce the number
of the old mill remain intact, looking in the week as they want, and many come eating people! Deserts, food, Africa!” of classes and kids served per year.
on sunny studios and classrooms, rain- back every semester until high school. They start jumping up on chairs and Meanwhile, the neighborhood is also suf-
bow tiled floors, and a gallery. Students who make it in are excited and stretching their hands into the air catch fering from a lack of financial resources
The mural is the result of a 2005 col- motivated. On a spring day, Trinity, an her attention. Lucy lowers the volume even more than several years ago. Some
laboration between CityArts and a hand- eight-year-old CityArts veteran wearing and, almost whispering, tells them to of Broad street’s family-owned business-
ful of Brown University seniors. From paint-splattered pants (“my CityArts close their eyes and expand their words es have shut down, like the pharmacy
2005-2008, teaching artists, CityArts pants!” as she calls them) started a new into stories. She comes around the table across the street from CityArts that has
students, and Brown seniors created the drawing. She wanted it to be of City Hall and whispers questions into ears: “Is it been closed since a new CVS opened
two 4 foot by 10 foot installations out and downtown Providence, where her a war or a celebration?” or “What’s that down the street.
of the thousands of colorful hand-made grandmother works. She drew build- animal doing?” Suddenly she remem- Wong notes that CityArts was lucky to
mosaic tiles. As Patiño said in an inter- ings side by side and then erased some bers something the whole class needs to have started renovating the mill back in
view with Providence CityNews, “this of them to fill in bits of clouds and sky. know. “Spelling and grammar don’t mat- 2004 when funding was more available
kind of public art, and I say this humbly, “I want to use negative space,” she said. ter! Just get your ideas out and worry for non-profits. Some of the other devel-
has the ability to change people’s percep- CityArts classes are supposed to be a about that later.” opments once planned for the neighbor-
tion of the neighborhood.” break from desks, discipline, and grades; At CityArts, the hope is that even kids hood haven’t materialized, like the plan
as fun for students as they are educa- who are signed up by their parents, or to renovate an old theatre farther down
NEIGHBORHOOD’S NEED tional. “It’s important that the students who have trouble in a traditional class- Broad Street into a Latin Cultural Cen-
An afternoon walk down Broad street take ownership of the space,” says Rebec- room atmosphere, can find a space to ter.
yields food trucks emitting tantalizing ca Volynsky, an Americorps teacher and express themselves. Volynsky hopes that With the prospect of funding cuts,
smells of Chimi sandwiches, young par- local artist who recently did an installa- no matter what their interest, CityArts the staff at CityArts may once again
ents shopping at mom and pop grocers, tion for the Dirt Palace art collective in can help students “develop their own face the kind of resistance that inspired
fire-streaked Lincolns blasting base- Olneyville. Two semesters ago, Volynsky creative practice” to take with them after them to open in the first place. That is,
heavy music, Caribbean restaurants, and taught a stop-motion animation class on they leave. people asking themselves whether in
boarded up shops. It is vibrant, diverse, environmental sustainability. “We had a struggling neighborhood, in a strug-
and economically depressed. About 35 these eight to eleven year-olds making BUDGETING ARTS gling economy, putting money into arts
percent of families on the South Side animations about water conservation!” CityArts was born out of the surround- is worth it. Why shouldn’t schools and
(which encompasses Elmwood, South she says. “And somehow we also man- ing community’s critical need for both governments cut art programs to invest
Providence, and the West End) live be- aged to do these weird experimental wa- free after-school programs and for arts elsewhere?
low the poverty line, compared to twelve ter color splat animations. It was sick!” education. Almost 20 years later, this For Sister Ann Keefe, CityArts is
percent in Rhode Island overall. Volynsky recalls when one of the quiet- need is still tangible. worth it because it’s about more than
Sister Ann Keefe, social worker, com- est students, Joelle, who spoke more Parents of CityArts students are of- just learning how to make art. “It’s about
munity builder, and Sister of Saint Jo- Spanish than English, ran over to her as ten first-generation immigrants, work- the neighborhood, the kids, the families,
seph got the idea for CityArts in 1992, she absentmindedly threw a piece of pa- ing class, and unable to afford after- the education. And the arts.”
after one summer evening, she was ap- per into the trash. “You can’t throw away school programs once their kids reach “The Sistine chapel wouldn’t have
proached at a stop light by a gang of paper!” Joelle exclaimed, rescuing the high-school. CityArts only goes up to the happened if Michelangelo didn’t have a
teenage boys who began to rock her car scrap and putting it into the recycling eighth grade. Many alums attend high- sponsor!” she says with a chuckle. “Who
back and forth. bin. schools with high drop out rates and knows who we’re helping!”
It was already dark and Broad Street Yet no matter how much they know minimal art programs. Nearby Central
was empty. A lot of people would have about negative space or water conserva- High School in Providence has a drop ALICE HINES B’11 couldn’t throw
away paper if she tried.
13 O C T O B E R 21 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Arts

I E S
E N T BOD
A I
N S hes out d arts
i g i t al
R
T a Hogarth flemsedia in the h a P radhan
Natas ildesheim
Emm ie w by
Inter v by Marney
H
l l u s t ration
I
Providence-based new media artist Emma viewer to have. In that particular piece,
Hogarth, originally from Australia, re- it was about slowing down the fade-in of
ceived an MFA from RISD in digital media the viewer’s image so it wouldn’t be im-
in 2009. According to her website, “Through mediately obvious and then having that
documentary-style and interactive video delay on when it moves, and somehow grammed printer
works, her projects attempt to reflect the that slows down the viewer. One of the to print out stills, so it
impact of media technologies on perfor- things that I don’t enjoy seeing is docu- was kind of then about the moving
mances and documentations of the Self.” mentation of interactive work when peo- image versus the still and that moment
ple run up to the work and waive their and transience versus documentation of
The Independent: What fascinates me arms—and then they’re done. In thirty the moment.
about your work is the incorporation of seconds they’re done because they think I: In the Time Portraits and also your
the body and its corporality and position they’ve figured it out. other project Light Portraits, you are
in what could otherwise be very alienat- I: Can you tell me about your process creating beings that only exist within a
ing technology. creating YouViewer and why you chose to a specific space in these particular mo-
Emma Hogarth: Yeah, and that’s re- work with surveillance footage? ments.
ally important to me. I’m not a very EH: I was fascinated by the imagery and EH: Sometimes I regret that there is no
tech-heavy person—I’m not a program- there was something aesthetically inter- physical product to the work. It doesn’t
mer, although I have created very simple esting about the low-res pixilated image. then have a commercial aspect, which is EH: And we can’t escape it, at least not
programs to do very simple things. But It felt very painterly, and the color range fine and I’m completely fine with. But in this culture.
the programming and the heightened is also very small. Each video that I was it is interesting that at the end of the
technology is not as important to me as looking at would be within a certain col- day you have a bunch of stuff on a hard I: And across cultures for that matter.
the kind of experience that I have while or range—it would be all kind of grayed drive. We are perpetually confronted with this
making it and the kind of experience I’m out, or all kind of a blue pallor. So there I: Yes, the hard drive enables this space idea of technologically reproducing the
trying to create. For me, the art is more were certain aesthetic things about the to be born but I think the work’s im- body. From painting portraits and da-
important than the technology, by far. imagery that for me felt very painterly materiality beyond these moments is guerreotyping, there is always a dimen-
I: I struggle with the same thing. You and very impressionistic. But I was also its most redeeming quality. In that way sion of us not simply existing as flesh
have an idea that has to do with space kind of appalled at the fascination that it’s very much like dance—something because we find ways to use technology
and bodies, and then have to deal with people have, including myself, in watch- of the moment that can never become to remake our flesh.
wires and foreign machinery as the me- ing this kind of violent imagery. There a souvenir for someone to own or take EH: Yeah, to reconstitute ourselves.
diation to make it happen. was the content, but there was also the home. That’s the way I think of performance
EH: You can get really frustrated and hit aesthetic of it. I did two short video piec- EH: Yeah, exactly. That’s another con- and documentation—performance gets
your head against a wall. For me, imagin- es where I just edited and looped two nection for me that I got interested reconstituted and has a different ma-
ing that process, I’m already giving up on different pieces of surveillance footage. in—documentation and photography. I teriality, a solidity as an image or video
the project. But in some way, I feel like I was trying to bring out the action and think the connection between new me- or written description. It metamorpho-
the really good ideas just have a better it turned into a sort of choreography— dia and digital media and photography sizes. It’s not just obviously theatrical
flow and are not as much trouble to get this guy was jumping up and kicking the gets taken for granted a little bit. There performance but everyday life—our ob-
done. door. It all became very dancerly. is an important historical connection session with photographing and docu-
I: The project lends itself perfectly to the I: There is an element of viewer complic- in terms of ephemerality and memory menting and sharing photographs.
medium. ity in what is a tragic and violent scene. that has been written about quite a bit. I: That’s a curious desire to want to pre-
EH: Yeah, exactly. Are there instances of tragedy that you I feel like photography is a middle point, serve something and construct some-
I: You were a dancer for many years. Was are provoked by and use in your work? technologically speaking. Before that, thing lasting when it’s not there.
the transition from using bodies as your EH: A lot of what I’m using right now is we had drawing and sculptural casting EH: Which connects to the myth of the
medium to being so invested in technol- connected to surveillance footage in a methods that were also recording devic- first image ever—the myth told by Pliny
ogy difficult? way, but is more based on a broad inter- es. I see the digital as happening along of the daughter of Butades tracing the
EH: It wasn’t really difficult because I est in memory and images. Once I had that whole continuum. I think that’s in- shadow of her lover before he left. The
had done some performance pieces with done those pieces with surveillance foot- teresting to think about a longer history origins of the image, if we take that
projections, some that I had performed age, I connected it to my broader interest of the digital lens. myth to be true, are always connected to
myself, or choreographed and worked with images and memory, and time. For I: The Light Portraits and Time Portraits loss and documentation and ephemeral-
with performers. So I had been behind me, performance is very metaphoric of are almost a new-media daguerreotype ity and time.
and in front of the camera, and created life because it’s transient or ephemeral. of sorts since the viewer and subject is I: The most redeeming thing about a lot
installations involving performance. So The image tries to capture something present and their image capture is con- of new media works is that that they
it all was already kind of connected for and then remain. So I had done some tingent on time and incorporates an ele- create an experience limited to a cer-
me. And then I started thinking not just pieces with transient portraits, portraits ment of performance. tain space with nothing material to take
of the performer’s body, but also of the that were disappearing or being discard- EH: Yeah, for it to be activated you away.
viewer’s body as the other side of the im- ed in some way. have to be moving closer to the sensor. EH: Yeah, I think there is a beauty to
age. When I started to think about spe- There’s a dance of appearing and disap- that. There is a truth to it, that ephem-
I: Like in your piece YouViewer. Some- cifically doing interactive portraits, I col- pearing. erality and that moment. People say the
thing really changes in your mind after laborated with Clement Valla and we did I: With the daguerreotype, one has to same thing about dance. Some of the
feeling the space for a little while. You the Time Portraits pieces for which he ba- instead constrict their movement for x modern dance pioneers like Ruth St.
are no longer startled by your own im- sically did the programming, and we col- amount of time. Denis talk about spirituality and move-
age being so seamless in these images of laborated on the ideas. That was a paint- EH: Yeah, and I find that very interest- ment and the body. In order to get back
crime scenes, and somehow become ac- erly type image, so it’s kind of about the ing—those performances of the portrait to our true nature, we have to embrace
customed to your own presence on the moment of creating the portrait image, image. From the point of view of how we the body and movement because that’s
screen. and creating that image through a type adapt bodies to the imaging technology, our natural state of being. We don’t ex-
EH: That’s interesting to hear you say of performance. People interacted with and then how those performances be- ist somewhere else; we exist in the body.
that. In one way, it’s such a simple it in a very performative way. It was one come so everyday so quickly. We adapt It’s a similar kind of idea. She was saying
piece—just inserting the live image of of those pieces that people did try to our ways of presenting ourselves and that dance is the ultimate, because it’s
the viewer into prerecorded footage. It’s run up and waive their arms to, though performing to technology. you just in your body. There’s nothing
too simple. But one of the challenges of we slowed it down and tried to create I: I find that quite terrifying—that our extraneous about it. I think that relates
doing interactive work is trying to direct a more contemplative experience. The performative selves are contingent on to the experience of an installation or a
the kind of interaction that you want the second version of that piece used a pro- the direction taken by engineers. projected image, that it is immaterial. 
THEINDY.ORG 14
Arts

DE LV I N G
I N TO T H E
DI A L O G U E
BE T W E E N A RT
AND TEXT
The 100th anniversary

C
of the John Hay Library
at the Bell Gallery
urated by ten of the tunately didn’t make it into the show. pressing the differing ideologies of their The exhibit’s most striking images are
John Hay’s librarians, Moreover, all of these items and texts authors. The illustration of the blowfish two illustrations of a female anatomy.
the new exhibition at are viewable upon request at the library, exaggerates the fish’s bloated form but The first, which is often referred to as
List features works but few even know these things exist, let also demonstrates a pre-scientific-era “The Flayed Angel,” is a romantic portrait
from the library’s five alone sit in a library down the street. excitement and incomprehension of how of a woman peering over her shoulder.
million piece collection. The exhibit begins with something or why such an oddly-shaped creature Her back has been sliced open, exposing
Although few of the works exhibited that should appeal to everyone: water- exists. her ribs and the muscles that line her
were originally conceived as art upon colors of fireworks exploding in the night Nowadays, blowfish are still bloated, spine. For scientific purposes, each bone
their creation, the exhibit encompasses sky. The washes are taken from an adver- but we’re no longer shocked and fright- is labeled with a number. However, the
a range of styles that extends over five tisement portfolio, one of the first books ened by their figures. Meanwhile, Cun- work’s scientific value is overshadowed
centuries, a feat that becomes apparent to advertise fireworks as entertainment, ningham’s purple fuzz demonstrates an by the body’s luscious red, which seems
within the first few steps into the gal- not military weapons. Nevertheless, one artist utilizing an expressive and alter- to open like a flower. Taken from Suite
lery. The exhibit is arranged into catego- book from the exhibit’s military sec- nate technique to achieve a better under- de l’Essai d’anatomie en tableaux imprimés,
ries: military; arts and entertainment; tion demonstrates how fireworks were standing of a bird’s cute, wild and enig- 1745, The Flayed Angel suggests an in-
culture and politics; and engineering, shot out of a dragon to scare opposing matic nature. While the former would ner beauty and complexity that goes un-
science, and botanical, but these param- factions. The watercolors flank a picture help you classify an animal if you were seen.
eters are purely organizational. Each sec- of the world’s first roller coaster. Other to come into contact with it, the latter William Hunter’s The Anatomy of the
tion bares works whose artistry defies highlights from the arts and entertain- is more focused on translating the emo- Human Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Fig-
the seemingly austere subject designa- ment section include an ink and water- tion and experience of watching a bird. ures takes a different approach to female
tions. color illustration of the fairies and don- In turn, neither is necessarily better or anatomy. Hunter’s book functions simi-
The exhibit opens with a small tribute key head of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer more accurate, but both demonstrate larly to a flipbook, each page removes a
to its namesake, John Hay. After study- Night’s Dream and a collaboration be- how artists attempt to translate life into layer of skin and muscle, slowly dissect-
ing poetry at Brown, Hay began a lifelong tween poet Octavio Paz and contempo- work. ing the body to reveal a woman in the
career in politics at the age of twenty two rary artist Robert Motherwell on a beau- The botany book features poems to late stages of pregnancy. Based on the
as Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary. tifully printed, heavily bound book that help illustrate the history or perhaps actual corpse of a pregnant woman, the
He was present at Lincoln’s assassina- translates/mirrors poetry with painting. experience of viewing a flower. Dine’s image does not shy away from any de-
tion and would later become the Secre- The combination of image and text remake demonstrates how contempo- tails. The fetus lays shriveled amid a web
tary of State under Presidents William is a theme throughout the exhibit. This rary artists utilize different, abstract of intestines and it’s mother’s legs have
McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay can best be seen in The Temple of Flora, a techniques for expressing the true and been chopped off at the thighs, creating
appears sitting alongside Lincoln and botanical book from 1807 that features complex character of their subjects. For a hambone type image unlike anything
fellow secretary John Nicolay in a paint- large, decorated images of flowers with example, Campbell’s Soup Cans by War- even in horror movies. It is at once spec-
ing at the museum’s entrance. However, accompanying poems. Unfortunately, it hol used a simple object to explore the tacularly gruesome and fascinating. Dur-
a closer inspection shows that the work is not possible to flip through the book, beauty and inanity of American consum- ing his life, Hunter was criticized for his
was actually a photograph that had been but it rests open on a picture of an Egyp- erism. Warhol’s Cans and Cunningham’s apathy towards the origin of the corpses
painted over. The president and his tian Bean (a flower) above the great pyr- fuzzy bird demonstrate attempts to and was even accused of commissioning
secretaries would have sat in front of a amids. This style mimics the European translate life into art, but the Hay also the murders that resulted in his test sub-
white backdrop for their photograph, portraiture of the times, and the book is exhibits works that although aestheti- jects. He was a stern man and a dedicat-
but John Nicolay, opting for a more fa- largely considered the greatest botanical cally adequate, were not originally con- ed anatomist that stood on the frontier
miliar setting, decided to have the pho- book of all time. However, the inclusion ceived as art. In turn, the works are in- of modern science. He was also a bit of a
tograph painted over, and the three were of poetry was unusual for its time. teresting because they provide a text for Frankenstein.
depicted in a beautiful study. The oddity Over 150 years later, pop artist Jim understanding the cultures that created The exhibit presents art as text and
behind the seemingly normal painting Dine collaborated with a number of them. This can be seen in a small, ivory the dialogue between the two, but it is
offers an appropriate introduction to the contemporary poets to create a modern Asian doll from the 1850s. When visit- also full of plain interesting and beauti-
rest of the exhibit. At first glance, only version of the book, which is also on dis- ing a doctor, women would point to the ful pieces. My favorites were an illustra-
about half of the exhibit’s works are aes- play. Unlike the original, Dine’s version doll’s private parts instead of taking off tion of an Egyptian temple based upon
thetically pleasing, but all are fascinating is drawn with rough strokes of charcoal. their clothes. Moreover, the doll is pe- studies made during Napoleon’s expedi-
objects that provide glimpses and new Alongside the 1807 version, the con- tite, and her feet are bound, demonstrat- tion into Egypt and a Frederic Reming-
angles into societies and cultures, some temporary book appears brash and in- ing an example for women at the time. ton watercolor of a Union General. As is
of which are centuries old. accurate. However, it also illustrates the The doll is a wonderful object, but the true with all good works, the more time I
Below the portrait of Hay and Lin- original version as flamboyant. Along- exhibit’s most interesting works are the spent with them, the more I became fas-
coln lays the poem “O Captain, My Cap- side the two botanical books is a detailed ones where science and history overlap cinated. If you have time, read the stories
tain” handwritten by Walt Whitman. A illustration of a blowfish from 1557 and with art. Many of the books presented in behind all of the objects; even the ones
writer and lover of poetry, Hay wrote to an illustration of a bird Merce Cunnhing- the exhibit are the first of their kinds. In that look boring are interesting. At least
a number of different poets, asking for ham made with a few purple colored pen- turn, many of the illustrators took liber- stop in for the fireworks, the corpses,
handwritten transcriptions. Whitman cils. The blowfish appears monstrous, ties and relied on approximations with and the picture of Satan holding a baby
was the only known poet to respond, almost alien, while Cunningham’s bird their works. This space for interpreta- Napoleon. The exhibit runs through No-
and now, over a century later, his hand- looks like a ball of fluff. Neither illustra- tion allowed unique combinations of vember 16.
writing sits in List. The library hosts a tion is an accurate representation of its artistry and science. They demonstrate
number of such objects, including a lock subject, but both explore different facets an aesthetic and sentimentality that is ERIK FONT B’11 digs librarians, espe-
of Edgar Allen Poe’s hair, which unfor- of the animals while simultaneously ex- generally viewed as irrelevant to science. cially the weird ones.
15 O C T O B E R 21 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Cook/Book
FOOD K E EP S T RUCK IN G
More street food in Providence
RO SE N CR A N TZ A ND by Belle Cushing
Illustration by David Emanuel and Hannah Riskin-Jones
GUILDE N ST E R N A R E There is a mystical aura surrounding the
food truck. The truck appears as if out
ter, but on any given night, Broad Street
becomes a mecca for Dominican food

N OW F R IE NDS of nowhere, just when you could use a

homemade spicy sausage or a chimi-
trucks. La Casa del Chimi and countless
other trucks line the street, each claim-
churri. Why go to a restaurant when ing to serve the best chimichurri. In this
Review of Hamlet’s Black- you can satisfy an array of case, it is not the Argentinian condi-
cravings from one of sev- ment of the same name, but the Domini-
Berry by William Powers eral vehicles parked can fast food. Seasoned beef, chicken,
(HarperCollins, 2010) at the corner? Lo- or pork spills out of a toasted roll with
cal, farm-fresh tomatoes and coleslaw. Or try frituras
produce mixes (salted fried meat), or pinchos (Domini-
with international can kebabs). Yuquitas, a Latino take on
cuisine, and both mozzarella sticks, are bits of queso fres-
have found an ap- co surrounded by mashed yucca (a root
preciated, if ad- vegetable), fried to golden-brown crispi-
opted, home in the ness. Loyal customers gather, families
Providence food truck with young children in line next to gangs
William Powers will be at the Brown Book- scene. Fine dining has of teenagers, creating a place for conver-
store on Thursday, October 21 at 6:00 PM. been humbled, or street food sation, gaudy cars, and a pounding bass.
has been glorified. Either way, I’m While not high-class gourmet, it is warm
getting in line. and satisfying. It serves as not only a
by Zach Rausnitz central part of the Latino community,
HEWTIN’S DOGS but adds a welcome flavor to Providence
Between social networks, viral videos, Sausages and sandwiches as a whole. Each truck has staked out its
thousand-dollar texting bills, portable Matt Gennuso launched his gourmet own spot on the street, and in the local
devices, and baby portable devices, it sausage truck last August as a way to business world. Head to Broad Street
feels like technology is causing an un- put the spotlight on sausages and fuel with five bucks, a working knowledge of
As for the title, the analogous Black- his personal passion for cased and cured Spanish (helpful, but not required), and
precedented shift in the human experi-
Berry was a pocket-sized device called meats. Gennuso, who co-owns Chez an appetite for smooth fried food the
ence. But perhaps not as unprecedented
“tables,” popular in Shakespeare’s time Pascal on Hope Street with his wife Dominican way.
as you think, William Powers argues in
and mentioned in Hamlet. It “came Kristin, proudly states that all sausages
Hamlet’s BlackBerry, the new book from
with blank pages made of specially are homemade, as are the sauces and Around 8:00 PM nightly, Broad Street.
the former Washington Post columnist. In
coated paper” that “could be written condiments, and the bacon and pastra-
the book—which could have been com-
on with a stylus and later erased with mi are house-cured. The menu rotates ANTOJITOS MEXICANOS
pacted into a powerful essay but whose
a sponge,” helping people manage the to include their twelve specialties, like a Mexican cravings
insights instead float around amid pages
information overload of the print era Peking inspired sausage with peppadew On weekend nights, Brown students
of redundancy—he parallels our pre-
and organize their thoughts on the go. and papaya relish, and pork belly sand- flock to the corner of Charlesfield and
dicament to other drastic shifts in his-
In helping us deal with our current wiches topped with a fried egg. Even Thayer Streets with a midnight snack
tory to which people managed to adjust.
onslaught of connectedness, Powers’s vegetarians are not left out of the fun. on the mind. The intoxicating aroma of
He situates each historical moment
biggest asset is his equanimity. Com- The meatless sloppy Joe, boasting sweet sizzling chicken and melting Monterey
around the work of a great thinker. In his
mentary about the effects of technology potato and butternut squash with Han- Jack draws them out of D-Phi and dorm
first example, he visits Ancient Greece,
tends toward extremes; the true believ- nahbell cheese, would tempt even the rooms to the taco truck. They line up
where Socrates and Plato first experi-
ers marvel at every sleek new device and most vehement carnivore. for an “antojito,” the Spanish word that
ence the respite that the countryside
the Luddites see our tools enslaving us. Gennuso himself is in the truck two means a whim or a craving. The smiling
provides from city life. It’s an obvious
Powers settles in the center, trying to days a week. When he is in the Chez Pas- couple inside the truck is prepared to
comparison to the excesses of connect-
figure out how to reap the good of con- cal kitchen, restaurant workers Val and satisfy these nocturnal hankerings. They
edness and the relief that comes with
nectedness without overdoing it. His Chris are at the sliding window to joke correct your inebriated pronunciation of
taking a break from our screens. what’s
advice for controlling screen use is like with regulars, ooh and ahh over cute “huaraches” while rewarding you with a
more striking is the comparison Pow-
sound dieting advice: don’t stop eat- babies and puppies from the park, and tortilla piled high with pork and beans.
ers makes between our new lifestyle and
ing altogether, don’t buy into panaceas, hand out bacon wrapped pork meatloaf With an almost parental consistency,
the addition of written language to spo-
and use common sense. He encourages sandwiches complete with peach com- they are there to forgive (or refuel) the
ken language in ancient Greece. Urban
small changes that give interior life pote. In warm weather, you can also night’s debauchery by way of a lovingly
and rural life are two ends of the same
room to flourish amid so many external find their hot dog stand in Lippitt Park, fried quesadilla.
spectrum, but in 400 BC, writing was an
stimuli. He designates one day per week across the street from Chez Pascal. Gen- It could be the fact that it is 1:00 AM,
entirely new option for language. While
as his internet Sabbath–a challenge, nuso dreams of someday completing the or that the munchies have just hit with
we’re capable of contemplating a life
he admits, but the only way to guaran- meat trinity and opening up a sausage a vengeance, but this mediocre Mexican
away from the city—plenty of people live
tee himself time away from his screens. joint as well. In the meantime, Hewtin’s cuisine is what’s happening on Thayer on
in rural places—a world without writing
Unfortunately, his equanimity also Dogs will keep on trucking through the a Saturday night.
is something foreign. For the ancients,
proves to be his worst flaw as a writer. winter, and indefinitely, bringing out
writing was not just foreign, but alarm-
Powers is so worried about emphasiz- sugar pumpkin bisque with brown but- Weekend nights until 1 AM at the inter-
ing. With thoughts captured externally
ing moderation that he does a tiresome ter to fight the cold—for fear of his loyal section of Charlesfield St. and Thayer St.
on paper instead of committed to memo-
amount of equivocating. No-brainers patrons staging a violent protest should
ry, would everyone’s minds go to waste?
like “Everyone’s temperament is unique, the sausages disappear from the Provi- Craving more on food trucks? Get the
It turned out writing had its virtues.
and we all have our own personal reac- dence food scene. Indy’s take on all of Providence’s wheel-
It freed ideas from the time and place
tions” clutter his advice. He’s unable to ing and dealing gems online. Also, rumor
where they were spoken, allowing them
guide without hand-holding, and some- Follow on Twitter @ChezPascal has it that Julian’s restaurant will be de-
to be shared and pondered elsewhere.
times slips into babying the reader. He Tuesday, Grant’s Block facing Johnson buting not a truck, but a double-decker
Powers finds this cycle of change and
qualifies his statements so much it lulls & Wales off of Weybosset English bus to market their food around
adjustment recurring every few hun-
you into a stupor. Nobody will be add- Wednesday - Friday, Roger Williams town. Stay tuned for the big reveal in the
dred years. Gutenberg’s invention of
ing Powers’s name to the list of Plato, Memorial State Park, corner of N. Main coming months.
the printing press led to a society bom-
Ben Franklin, Thoreau, et al., but he does and Smith
barded with information and left to sort
succeed in assuring us that the internet, Saturday, in front of Chez Pascal restau-
through it. Thoreau’s experiments with
while transforming our lives, doesn’t rant, corner of Hope and Ninth Streets BELLE CUSHING B’13 got a Twitter
seclusion and simplicity helped him ad-
have to consume us. account just for the food trucks.
just to the world of trains and telegraphs
that was expediting the speed of life; he CHIMI TRUCKS ON BROAD STREET
ZACH R AUSNITZ B’10.5, Staff Writ- Fast food from the Dominican Republic
embraced solitude not permanently, but
er, wrote a whole bunch of sonnets. They may not have a Facebook, and you
to learn to reckon with a world changing
too fast for wisdom to keep up with. won’t be able to follow them on Twit-
THEINDY.ORG 16
Food

ON  T H E  G O  L A
The Nuts and Oats of Granola Bars

by Rachel Sarnoff

N
Illustration by Marney Hildesheim

othing beats sink- ninety-three.” acids, and complex carbohydrates. And INGREDIENTS:
ing your teeth into After the Industrial Revolution and they’re not too caloric—each contains
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
a dense granola the onset of factory food, treats like the only 193 calories and 61.28 milligrams
bar when you’re granola bar were mass-produced and of sodium—a very hypertension-friend- • ½ cup raw sunflower seeds (unshelled)
low on energy. For distributed. At this point, granola bars ly amount! Many bars, like the Odwalla • 1 cup sliced almonds
athletes, students, weren’t so much granola as they were Chocolate Chip Peanut bar, contain over • ½ cup flaxseed
hikers and travel- junk food—they were called “handy 200 calories and 170 milligrams of so-
• ½ cup honey
ers, there is something magical about bars,” but like conventional candy bars, dium.
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
the convenience and efficiency of grano- they did not deliver much nutrition. Brown’s homemade granola bars con-
la to go. Problem is, most store-bought They consisted primarily of sugar and tain toasted oats, which are low-glycemic •1 ounce coconut oil (canola oil or but-
granola bars are less healthy than their milled flour or oats. index carbohydrates, meaning the body ter is fine, too)
packages boast and they fail to provide metabolizes those sugars slowly. There • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
the essential nutrients of the earlier der- RAISING THE BAR are no mystery ingredients in these
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
ivations of the bar. It was not until 1975, when Nature Val- bars. The almonds, sunflower seeds, and
ley hired an inventor to formulate a flaxseed deliver Omega 3 and 6 essen- • ½ cup chopped dried blueberries
A B R I E F H I S TO RY O F T H E B A R more nutritious (although by no means tial fatty acids, to which current scien- • Optional: ½ cup dark chocolate chips
The life of the granola bar started way be- perfect), convenient, and tasty bar for tific studies attribute anti-inflammatory
fore Nature Valley’s shiny, green, plastic- the baby boomer generation, that the properties and cholesterol-lowering DIRECTIONS:
wrapped “Oats ‘N Honey” treats. During concept of granola bars as a health food properties. Beyond all of the nutritional Spray a 9-by-9-inch baking dish with
the Middle Ages, Crusaders needed to emerged. Industrialized, prepackaged benefits of the bars, they are delightfully nonstick spray and set aside. Preheat
pack lightweight, high calorie foods to granola bars claim to help us keep mov- filling and satisfy every nutty, savory, the oven to 350° F. Spread the oats, sun-
sustain their energy on long trips. The ing, stay focused and healthy, and even, and sweet craving one might have. Best flower seeds, almonds and flaxseed onto
travelers packed dense fruit cakes called in more recent years, lose weight. In the of all, each bar only costs approximately a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and
“pan forte” (strong bread). These cakes ’70s, if you looked at the list of ingredi- five cents to make, as opposed such gra- toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasion-
contained honey, grains, nuts, and dried ents on some pre-wrapped granola bars, nola bars as the Clif Nectar Bar, ringing ally.
fruit—a combination packed with fiber, you might have seen numerous added up at $1.79 for 1.6-ounces. Avoiding In the meantime, combine the honey,
vitamins, minerals, and enough energy sugars and oils. Now, in the current costly and usually (ironically) health- brown sugar, coconut oil, vanilla extract
to keep the riders satisfied. The fiber in Quaker Chewy Bar, you will see chemi- compromising granola bars is a daily and salt in a medium saucepan and place
the cakes filled them up (and kept them cal preservatives like TBHQ, artificial struggle for consumers, leaving only one over medium heat. Cook until the brown
regular), while the nuts and grains pro- color, and partially hydrogenated soy- possibility: make the bar yourself! sugar has completely dissolved.
vided necessary fat and protein to store bean oil. We certainly appear to be on a Once the oat mixture is done, remove
energy, maintain their muscles, and in- downward spiral of over-processing our FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS it from the oven and reduce the heat to
sulate their organs. granola bars. B U Y P R E - PAC K AG E D B A R S 300° F. Immediately add the oat mixture
Across the Atlantic, Native Americans Most granola bars do contain a cer- The recipe below is my variation of to the liquid mixture, add the dried blue-
also fashioned their own versions of gra- tain ratio of carbohydrates, fats, and Brown’s original recipe. And you can berries (and if you’re using them, the
nola bars. The Cree Indians introduced proteins. Carbohydrates are good for substitute different dried fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips), and stir to combine.
“pemmican,” to American colonists in immediate energy as they are quickly seeds with the ones in the recipe to tai- Turn mixture out into the prepared
the late 18th century. “Pemmican” was absorbed into the bloodstream. Com- lor the bars to your liking. I also like to baking dish and press down, evenly dis-
a rawhide package of pounded fat, bone plex carbohydrates, such as whole grains include half a cup of organic dark choco- tributing the mixture in the dish and
marrow, dried berries, and dried deer and vegetables, are usually coupled with late chips, as they add an interesting, place in the oven to bake for 25 min-
and buffalo meat in a beef-jerky-meets- fiber, which slows down digestion and complex bitterness to the mix. The smell utes.
Clif-bar-concoction. In 1793, Scottish keeps you full. You can bet that M&M- of the bars as they come out of the oven Remove from the oven and allow to
frontiersman Alexander MacKenzie studded granola bars won’t contain too rivals that of freshly baked cookies—yet cool completely. Cut into squares and
crossed the North American continent many complex carbohydrates, though, they leave you neither bloated nor sugar store in an airtight container for up to
from coast to coast with these bars as and even when a bar’s package boasts high. two to three weeks.
his only food supply. He was the first “multi-grain,” you can never be too sure The next time you reach for a ma- Original recipe is from Alton Brown’s
European to successfully accomplish the how processed these grains are. chine-made simple sugar and refined “Good Eats,” Season 9 Episode 5, but I
voyage, all thanks to the good ol’ pem- The show “Good Eats” on the Food grain mixture in an expensive, eco- swapped coconut oil for butter, flaxseed
mican. In fact, he recorded his feat on Network, hosted by Alton Brown, teach- harmful plastic-wrapped package, I sug- for wheat germ, dried blueberries for
a rock near Bella Coola (by the shore of es the American public how to make gest that instead you whip up a batch dried apricots and added dark chocolate
the Pacific) by painting with the greasy homemade, healthy alternatives to pro- of homemade granola bars in your own chips.
mixture: “Alexander Mackenzie, from cessed food like prepackaged granola kitchen. They’ll cost less, taste better,
Canada, by land, the twenty-second of bars. The bars Brown concocts include last longer, and your body (and bowels) R ACHEL SARNOFF B'13 is cool com-
July, one thousand seven hundred and healthy unsaturated fats, all nine amino will thank you for it. pletely.
17 O C T O B E R 21 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Literary

LOPE by Leah Bromberg

Illustration by Emily Fishman

(with an object) (without an object)

1. (Of four-legged animals) to move or run with a regular bounding move- 1. To move or run with bounding steps, as a quadruped, or with long, easy
ment. strides, as a person.
2. To cause (a horse) to canter with swift, easy strides. 2. To canter leisurely.
My Atso, great-grandmother, whom I have met but cannot remember, you 3. He left his (wife) when they were still young. He ran away across the ocean,
3. are young and lovely in your first photograph. But the face in the second and entered into the mainland for business. (She) stayed on the island For-
portrait, painted when you are an older woman, is unsmiling. You have lost mosa. A world’s war collapsed between the waters, against them, across
the color of your lips, and the irises have changed. The light has left your them. When he finally returned, he found (her) beauty had faded. He found
eyes. My father had always called your marriage unromantic, and my moth- that he had forgotten to love his native country. He left for Japan. She
er refused to speak. You lost the first name of your family for a young tutor. stayed in that house. ( ) lost the ability to smile. The place where her
Your family never intended for him to teach you that. At seventeen I want to mouth should have been, the painter made a (w)hole.
know why you found Ai a greater name, why this word which means “love” 4. My first memory of that house is the way that art spills across tables and
lost its shape in your mouth. drawers, falls along a hallway, clutters a dead tree, erases corners. My grand-
4. Along these walls of calligraphy and Taiwanese paintings in large halls, the parents have filled each white face of each empty wall with the pigments
small frame seems to tuck itself into a corner. The face of the woman is un- of expensive paintings, antique teacups, pianos, black iron gongs, a golden
smiling. I am preoccupied by this lack of a smile. The red pain of her mouth dragon, red papers for good luck, the alphabet of fortune, costly jade pen-
arcs downward in a fallen half-moon. Would it have been too much to ask dants. When I went, my Agung held up this glittering stone and tricked him-
the painter to lie with the horsehairs of his tool, and fill each pupil with self into thinking my eyes glittered too.
light? I have seen the faces of the serious before, of unsmiling mouths. For 5. At seventeen I learned how many people were missing from the walls. I
them, the smile becomes a choice, and the person chooses to assume an air learned why I could not find a picture of my great-grandmother with her
of gravity. When I look at her though, I realize suddenly that she is no lon- husband. He never died in Taiwan, where she lived in that house. I learned
ger able to smile. At the front of the house is a black and white photo of my his portrait had been hung by another woman’s arms, somewhere in Japan.
Atso forty years younger. She holds Agang, my grandfather, a small baby on After my eldest aunt married, they refused to hang any more pictures of her.
her lap. In the days stretching between the two pictures I learn that she has She is perpetually twenty-one years old in that house. I have not seen her
just eloped with her tutor. I learn that her aristocratic house has just disin- husband for seventeen years. They never asked why my first uncle severed
herited her. I learn that she will lose her heart in seven years. In the black his marriage. They rejected the woman my second uncle married. They re-
and white photograph, light fills her pupils. She smiles shyly. I am troubled fused the woman whom my youngest uncle loved.
by the knowledge that red paint will not retrace that smile. 6. Now the house has changed, grown so large there is nothing to fill it any-
5. My Atso, great-grandmother, was born into a large house and her mother more. The definition of a leap in the mind: that I once found it cluttered.
had small feet. My great-grandfather was born into a small town, and had And now the paintings have turned into windowless panes of glass, black
no father, and his mother had nothing. When he turned nine he found two, iron souls with the heart knocked out of the stomach. And good luck papers
large wooden shoes placed before him. Someone told him that he must fill bleeding red can be smeared with too much blood I did not know, I am sorry.
those large shoes. My Atso’s mother had small feet in little box shoes. Atso I did not see this was the bleeding of a family. This was a house, was a hand
was the first woman to walk without baby steps in little boxes. half-empty.
6. Foot binding was a custom practiced on young girls and women in China for 7. My Atso, great-grandmother. You were young and lovely in your first pho-
ten long centuries. The bones in the foot are broken and re-broken so that tograph.
the foot remains too small to support the body.
7. When the sun was thinner, and her own shadow more narrow, she used to Tao Zau (Taiwanese)
wait for him. Books filled with love poetry hung about her. But the words 1. “To elope.”
could only make her cry when (he) read them aloud. He was young, and 2. Translation.
wore clothes like a Westerner. His hands never sank so deeply into his pock- 3. The shape of this word in Atso’s language.
ets, like the men in her family. His hands were always open—they stretched 4. The sounds which would have filled her ears.
across the table, opened up her books, turned her pages, pointed to lines 5. A noise. Tao:“Steal.” Zau: “Walk away.”
that were inscribing a word into her pupils which she was only just un- 6. Boxes, shoes, footsteps, breaking
derstanding. One day, his hands were so full that she forgot his pockets 7. “Leave” has two definitions. My Atso learned these seven years apart. The
where empty, and she stretched open her left hand. She wanted to feel the 8. second definition moved the smile from her face.
weight of her hand in his. But when she tried to touch his hands, her family 9. The moon moves through an absence in heaven. She wonders if the crescent
snatched her wrists, and bound them. shape is a smiling mouth or a hand half-empty.
8. My great-grandmother ran with a regular bounding movement. In swift 10. When I was fourteen, I became your wife, so shy that still my face remained un-
strides she crossed the boundary between this, your inheritance, and (that), opened. I bowed my head towards the shadowed wall, and called one-thousand
your worker; between this, your family, and (that), your penniless man; be- times, and turned not once.
tween this, your blood, and (that), your horse. He was your tutor, but we When I was sixteen, you left.
teach the lesson. She was the first woman to run away from that house, and
did her family weep over this, their daughter, or (that), her feet unbounded? Li Bai (Poet my Atso studied with my great-grandfather)
by Katie Gui
FRIDAY | 22
2 PM
Flickers: Rhode Island International Horror
Film Festival. Promising fifty twisted, ghoulish
movies appropriate for mature audiences only.
Runs October 21-24. Bell Street Chapel at 5 Bell
Street, Providence. $5.

7 PM
“Out of Our Minds.” Short film, with Q&A and
the list
SUNDAY | 24
musical set with director Melissa auf der Maur
following the screening. At the Cable Car Cin- 1 PM
ema, Providence. $7/$9. King Lear. Production by Shakespeare on the
(Quiet) Green. “I grow; I prosper; Now, gods,
8 PM – 11 PM stand up for bastards!” (1.2) Brown University HAVE AN EVENT
Screens & Transcriptions: Opening of Art. A Campus. FREE. to submit to the list
simulation of flow in cubic cavity, featuring work ???
by some of the Indy’s finest: John Fisher, Emily 2 PM & 8 PM send details to
Martin, and Adrian Q. Randall. At Home De- 3 Chairs 2 Cubes: Undergraduate New Plays [email protected]
pot, 109 Matthewson Street, Providence. FREE. Festival. Featuring plays by Braine, Posner,
Crowe, O’Neill (the other one), Kuritzkes &
friends. At Production Workshop. 7 Young
SATURDAY | 23 Orchard Avenue, Providence. Tickets at the WEDNESDAY | 27
door are FREE an hour before showtime.
10:30 AM 8 PM Doors, 9 PM Show
Mensa Admission Test. Pfffft. Weaver 7:30 PM Blues Revival Wednesdays presents The Shane
Memorial Library at 41 Grove Avenue, East FirstWorks presents: La Exelencia. This Manzi House Band. Complete with a full bar for
Providence. $40. 12-piece orchestra from NYC reclaims the salsa all your libatory needs. The Spot Underground
dura (hard salsa) of the 1970s and promises at 15 Elbow Street, Providence. FREE.
3 – 5 PM “unstoppable dance music.” At Lupos Heart-
St. Joseph’s Veterans Association Meat Raffle. break Hotel, 79 Washington Street, Providence. 9 PM
‘xactly what it sounds like. At 99 Louise Street, FREE. Action Speaks! Community Forum: The Roam-
Woonsocket. FREE. ing Mobro Garbage Barge. Join host Marc Levitt
and expert guests for a live panel discussion and
6 PM
The Tiptons, an all-female Sax quartet from San
MONDAY | 25 taping. This week’s theme: the 1987 trash boat,
and “what to do with the waste products from
Francisco, play Firehouse 13 w/ friends The 7:30 PM Doors, 8:30 PM Show a material rich society.” See actionspeaksradio.
Eyesores. 41 Central Street, Providence. $8/$10. Ke$ha. You heard me. Lupo’s Heartbreak Ho- org for more details. AS220, 115 Empire Street,
tel. 79 Washington Street, Providence. $35/40. Providence. FREE.
7 PM, 9 PM
Found Footage Festival. The best cinema from
garage sales and dumpsters nation-wide. At the
Cable Car Cinema, Providence. $7/$9.
TUESDAY | 26 THURSDAY | 28
7 PM – 8 PM 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Interracial Dating Forum. Join the discussion Undone Without Its Better Half: Closing Recep-
about how race influences dating decisions. De tion. Nick Carter, Cecilia Salama, and Tim
Ciccio Family Auditorium (Salomon), Brown Simonds have some unfinished business, and
University. FREE and open to the public. they want you to see it. List Art Center, 2nd
Floor. Brown University. FREE.