The power of protest

For some time now the New School University has been in a struggle between the students and the President of the college Bob Kerrey. For those located in the New York tri-state area maybe you have seen some of the small news coverage of said protests. For as many protests and sit ins and the such there has been little to no movement from the President (besides being chased down 5th avenue).

Yesterday, in a silent announcement, Bob Kerrey said he would not renew his contract with the school in 2011. The board of Trustees, student senate and everyone else now try to figure out how to transition to a new president. There is no denial that the growing protests and frustrations with the administration are evidence enough of Kerrey's willingness to not renew his contract. But I wonder, is this evidence of protest having an impact to cause change, or is it the establishments victory through time?

Since we well into 100 days of a new presidency we have moved on from the former president of this country who, as we all know, was a great polarizer of the people. Yet for all of protesters demands of the former president, he graciously handed over the keys to our current president and flew out of Washington D.C. without even looking back. Did the protester's win? Did they get their way by getting the polarizer out of office?

With the New School president moving on after 2011 there will be some jubilee for those who have been in opposition to Bob Kerrey. But did the protests do what they were intended to do? The school has to figure where they will go with student demands and administration policy. As for the government of this nation, the dirty laundry is out on the past administration and what will happen? It is clear to see that nothing will happen. In the end the protester gets what they want but only masked by the civil law that was established by the establishment.

For Marilyn

I'm willing to take the heat from this post but I've got to say that on April 13th a legend passed away, and not the type of legend that many of us are willing to look up to. Her name was Marilyn Chambers, actually Marilyn Ann Briggs. For you see Marilyn Chambers was the performing name of Ms. Briggs. Marilyn became an icon of a different type of cinema, a cinema fraught with many battles and cast into the limelight of cheap sound bites and media exploitation. That cinema is what many people call pornography or adult cinema.

Marilyn got her start in an extra role in the Owl and the Pussycat and then in Sean S. Cunningham's adult sex education film Together. Her first touch of fame came when she was selected to represent the mother on Ivory Soap products.




Marilyn's icon would soon create stirs when she took on her first adult film role in the Mitchell Brothers Behind the Green Door. Marilyn was immediately placed into the spotlight and at the time of Behind the Green Door's release, adult cinema's golden age began with Marilyn Chambers becoming an instant queen of the screen. Unlike other adult film actresses of the time, Marilyn made two films with the Mitchell brothers and then decided to do cross-over into mainstream film. She was cast in David Cronenberg's Rabid as a disease infected temptress that spreads an outbreak that causes people to become zombies. The film would be prophetic in its representation of the growing spread of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. The film would also be the last major mainstream role in which she would play. Which in my view is not a bad thing considering that she returned to adult cinema and put on one of (possibly her best) roles as Sandra Chase in the film Insatiable.

Insatiable was a film that brought a high quality of filmmaking to adult cinema that had always been attempted but many times fell short. The film cost more than most adult films but also created a non-linear narrative that added a sophisticated aesthetic to the film. It is possible that Insatiable is what the adult filmmakers always wanted out of adult films but failed in developing. But just as Insatiable opened the doors to the possibility's of an adult cinema of high aesthetics, that door was shut in the anti-pornography crusades of the 1980's.

Spearheaded by the Moral Majority on the right and feminist groups on the left adult cinemas began to close their doors and fall away from film and into the world of video. Marilyn had few to little choices and continued her career in the video market. With growing concern with AIDS and STD's Marilyn backed away from starring roles in adult films and began starring in softcore cable productions and making guest appearances in adult films.

I got to meet Marilyn Chambers a few years back at a film convention. I wanted to meet the actress that created characters that battled the stereotypes of adult cinemas opponents. She was pleasant and courteous and spoke to me about what it was like working with David Cronenberg and making films. She had guts and she had talent. She was part of a time period of filmmaking that is no longer with us. It is my hope that someday film historians and critics of adult cinema will look back and see how valuable the contributions that Marilyn Chambers has given filmmaking throughout her career.

The Question

Here is a question from a math problem that I found in an old jacket that I used to wear. (In fact it was a Hawks jacket. I was probably the only one in central NJ with one back in 1995 but anyway.)


8. Ingrid takes 4 clients to dinner. the check amounts to $160. She wishes to leave a tip of %15. To find this amount, Ingrid computes %10 of the check. She then takes half of that number. She adds the two numbers.

A. Use a calculator to compute %15 of the check.
B. Compute the tip using Ingrid's method.
C. Compare the answers to A and B and explain why they are the same of different.

(Here is the answer I gave.)

A and B are the same because if you take the two answers and you average them in a combination that can really blow your mind. If you take A and put it to Charles theory you will find that you will get a completely wrong answer. Although there is no Charles Theory I am just proving a point. A is a complicated question. It seems that numbers are numbers and there are so many numbers in the numerical system that if we kept counting we would die before getting to the last number. B is one of the hardest questions in the whole number system.


Hence the reason why I was a terrible math student. Oddly enough I use Ingid's method when computing a tip at a restaurant which I guess in an odd way is me learning something all those years ago. And so the answer to A is $24. B is $24 and they are the same. My only problem is they are different because the methods used to determine %15 of $160 are figured through different means. Sure that's not what the question is asking but it is possible that question C is the very reason why I gave the answer that I did.

The worst college sports school in America?

I just have to share this with everyone who might be reading this blog but after visiting my college website I found an article written by an espn reporter about the worst college sports program in America. Yes, the New School is #1. Part of me chuckles but part of me is embarrassed. I know I'm many things but anyone who knows me knows that I like sports. Not just one or two but lots of sports. I was highly involved in athletics in high-school and have sustained a competitive road running attitude since high-school. Besides that I've been known to sacrifice precious hours of sleep to see the San Jose Sharks play a triple overtime playoff game (only to lose), see the Mets play west coast road trips, and watch Germany battle Brazil in the world cup in Asia some years back.

The New School student body doesn't care so much about sports. There are many people at my school who do occasionally watch a sporting event of some kind and there is a large proportion of students who exercise. But the New School has no football, basketball, soccer, running or anything kind of team. In central New Jersey there is Rutgers University, which in the past few years seems more concerned about certain athletics that certain academics, but the student body comes together over sporting events. Then there is the plethora of intramural activities that Rutgers offers and if you have the time you can make some friends over a simple activity. The New School on the other hand falls short in that respect.

Check out the article by Kieran Darcy and you'll get to learn a little bit about some of the alternative sporting things that the New School has to offer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=darcy/090216

A Snapshot in Time

Media, media, media and not a time to think! I don't want to go into a diatribe of society but I can't help but take a moment and say that my brain is overloaded by media. I prefer not to read any text more than one page on the internet due to the fact that it hurts my eyes to look at a computer screen for more than ten minutes. Now that the semester has started at school, one of my first assignments was to read a 34 page text on Enlightenment for my masters class in media studies. Of course that 34 page text was an online file. Yikes. The past few days have been spent reading PDF's and word documents on theory's and ideas that with every line read my face gets closer and closer to the screen, as if I was being sucked into the media vortex.

I need to take a break. Reset my focus.



Here is a snapshot in time. Nothing spectacular is happening but something that the picture cannot convey is what the taker of the picture sees. This picture comes from Karl's office and I took it from behind a piano that is in the middle of the room. Aubrey is preparing some slides for the sunday morning service. This is an intimate moment in time, where true physical expression is personified in a minor action. There is focus yet at the same time a comfortableness.

We may be graced by beauty in high stylized concepts and deliberate juxtaposition but it is possible that beauty just is. As the rocky mountains will stand day after day, without the need for make-up or cosmetic tools to make them look better, so are the intimate moments in time which flee like a syllable already spoken.

Day Five

Day Five: The day is finally here and thus ends the diet. The final meal was a hodge-podge of various vegetables. One idea that Aubrey had thought up of for a meal was portabello mushroom burgers. The portabello mushroom being a meatier fungus works well on a bun, especially when appropriately seasoned. This idea did not come to fruition but instead a lemon sauteed spinach, green beans and chicken flavored instant noodles was my meal instead. It was good. Final weight was 186. I blame that on the pizza.

People have asked me why I was doing this. There are many reasons why. One is to stretch my culinary horizon. An other was to see if eating no meat would be detrimental to my health, and as far as I can see I don't feel bad at all. I think one important reason to this diet was to experience what it is like to be vegetarian. I go to school with allot of people who are vegetarian and to be honest, vegetarians get a bad wrap. For some reason people feel that the vegans, and vegetarians are crazy anti-meat radicals. From what I see that's not the case. Part of me with this experience feels that I kind of cheated on the concept of vegetarian. But at the same time allot of junk food just doesn't have anything to do with meat, so I guess it's fair game.

I will miss this dietary experience. Often times I give no consideration as to what I eat. Food is just there. It's in the fridge, freezer, the cabinets and less than a mile away at restaurants and grocery stores. When you take away certain foods you start thinking more about food, especially meat. Right now there are people who are thinking about what they are going to eat. They don't have meat, and probably what they call vegetables would most likely be something that we would never touch. Then there is the very real possibility that someone is thinking about what they are going to eat but also realizing that they probably won't be eating anything today.

Day Four

Day Four: I've put to rest the putrid taste of vegetable dumplings and replaced the taste with pizza, with extra cheese. Not the healthiest choice of foods but there is no meat, so it counts. Weight is now 185. Tomorrow is the last day of this dietary test. I do not feel week, nor funny in any manner. Health seems to be good and moral is up. Though I have noticed hamburger commercials much more.