Archives
Sun Kil Moon's 'Benji' expertly handles heavy topics
February 17"Benji," the latest release from Sun Kil Moon, isn't exactly revolutionary from a musical perspective. Yet, because of frontman Mark Kozelek's superb songwriting abilities, the album allows listeners to peek into a different universe, revealing the intimate details of Kozelek's personal life without feeling overly sentimental or melodramatic. "Benji," is a portrait of an artist at his rawest, as Kozelek sings of his fears, hopes, loves, lusts and family. And he does this all with minimal aplomb, ensuring that he always sounds real and sincere.
Men's Track and Field | Distance medley relay headlines another successful weekend
February 17The men's track and field team has been on a tear the past several weeks. Numerous athletes have recorded personal bests, qualified for the NCAA Championships, broken school records, and even become the fastest in the country at their respective events. The icing on the cake is that the Jumbos have not finished below second place in any team event.
Concert Board selects Spring Fling artist, will release name soon
February 17Tufts Concert Board has selected the headliner for this year's Spring Fling concert based on a survey taken by 1600 Tufts University students.
TV Review | After rough start, 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' sees improvement
February 17By anyone's estimation, Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." came into the fall 2013 TV season in a prime position to be a commercial and critical hit for ABC. Coming off the heels of Marvel Studios' extremely successful blockbusters like "The Avengers" (2012) and offering a direct tie to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "S.H.I.E.L.D." was in the unique position to take advantage of decades of source material from the comics. Combined with the return of fan-favorite character Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and creative direction from acclaimed television creator (and "Avengers" director) Joss Whedon, the show had extraordinary potential and goodwill before a single episode aired. How has that potential fared so far? Barely through half of its 22 episode season, "S.H.I.E.L.D." has mostly been an exercise in middling quality, with only the occasional episode breaking free and living up to the series' promise. However, recent episodes have shown that "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." may have some surprises left as the show approaches the final portion of its first season.
Adam Kaminski | The Cool Column
February 17Last semester I was so fortunate as to travel to New York City, the land of tourists, trappers and tourist trappers. I traveled with a few friends, and the trip as special and as tourist-trapped as I had hoped it would be. Our blissful weekend getaway, however, was a single foot away from being an absolute nightmare. I'll explain.
Senate discusses RA policies at weekly meeting
February 17The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate meeting began last night with an open forum discussion about Tufts' Resident Advisor (RA) policy. The Senate debated RAs responsibilities when dealing with behavioral and alcohol related incidents and discussed the possibility of allowing RAs to serve for only one semester as opposed to the full academic year which is currently required.
Ryan Buell | The Beat
February 17The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in Cleveland, Ohio in 1983, some 30 years after the term "rock 'n' roll" was coined and 20 years after the Beatles released "Please Please Me" (1963), making the genre a household name. Each year, half a dozen to a dozen nominees are inducted; there are categories for performers and non-performers, as well as for sidemen and lifetime achievement honors. Hip-hop, on the other hand, has no comparable collection or honor - a relatively new awards show on BET known as the "Hip Hop Awards" aside. With hip-hop's ascendance to the cultural forefront and its storied archives, the genre deserves a hall of fame to honor its early legends.
Tufts receives reaccreditation
February 17Tufts University received reaccreditation from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) on Sept. 19, 2013, following a vote from NEASC commissioners.
Bridge Professorships to join university's schools
February 17The Office of the Provost recently announced the two winning proposals for the new Bridge Professorships initiative.
Tufts MAKE expands into app design, holds workshops for students
By Sophie Laing | February 17It has been a little over a year since Tufts MAKE arrived on the campus scene in January of 2013. A subgroup of the Tufts Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Tufts MAKE began as a club focused on developing assistive technology for people with disabilities. While awaiting official recognition from the Tufts Community Union, the group has expanded into designing and developing apps and offering hands-on workshops to Tufts students.
Rebecca Hutchinson | What's Poppin'
February 17If there's one thing millennials love, it's abbreviating. For some reason, we really, truly hate typing out full words. The approximately two seconds we can save by typing "omw" instead of "on my way" is, apparently, far too valuable to lose. I don't know where exactly this obsession with abbreviations was born, but I was first exposed to it when I started using AOL Instant Messenger (which was abbreviated, obviously, to AIM). AIM taught me valuable things, like when it was appropriate to say "haha" and "lol," if somebody signs off without first saying "g2g" then they probably hate you and that the more letters you put at the end of a word, the cooler you are.
Women's Basketball | Jumbos finish first perfect NESCAC season
February 17Any questions surrounding the women's basketball team following its first loss of the season to Babson last week were emphatically answered by back-to-back-blowout wins over NESCAC foes Colby and Bowdoin at Cousens Gymnasium this past weekend. The wins secured a No. 1 seed in the upcoming championship tournament and the program's first ever perfect record (10-0) in conference play.
UEP Professor Weiping Wu discusses new book
February 13The Friends of Tufts Libraries Wednesday afternoon hosted an author talk with the Chair of the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Weiping Wu, who spoke about her newest book, "The Chinese City."
Aaron Leibowitz | The Fan
February 12Chris Baumohl is a Philadelphia 76ers fan. Always has been, from Iverson to Iguodala to Holiday. A Tufts senior who grew up in Philly, Baumohl wants only the best for his team. That's precisely why he's rooting for it to lose.
Eva Batalla-Mann | Valuable Delusions
February 12What time is it? It's Valen-time! I was wondering why I was feeling an aura of anxiety and crazed chocolate-fueled energy. Then I remembered what holiday was nearby. It's funny - it seems people's relationship status directly correlates to their attitude towards the holiday. It's either the best day of their life or they suddenly become The Grinch That Stole Valentine's Day (from the lesser known sequel to the one about Christmas).
Tufts alum Sutherland discusses new documentary about abuse
February 12The Communication and Media Studies (CMS) program welcomed acclaimed documentary filmmaker David Sutherland (A '67) to Tufts for a showing and discussion on his most recent film, "Kind Hearted Woman" (2013).
Inside the NHL | NHL Olympic-break awards
February 12The NHL season is nearly three-quarters of the way through, and with the league currently on hiatus because of a minor tournament in Russia, it's time to look at some early awards (including a couple fake ones) and predict who will take home Lord Stanley's Cup.
Nash Simpson | Throwblack Thursday
February 12At age 21, the Hughes brothers, Allen and Albert, reached stardom after writing and directing their first major Hollywood movie, "Menace II Society" (1993). The fraternal twins held no qualms about revealing the realities of living in South Central Los Angeles, as they shamelessly addressed the hardships that epitomized the quintessential hood that South Central is. The brothers touch upon every relevant topic at hand, from gun violence and police brutality to drug abuse and misogynistic sexual practices. The realness of this film was unprecedented: the word "f--k" is used an average of over three times a minute and the n-word is uttered roughly 100 times total.
Cooking class offered to students tonight
February 12Tufts Dining Services and Balance Your Life (BYL) Tufts will host a healthy cooking class for students this evening in the Hodgdon kitchen. This will be the second class the duo has hosted together.

