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Measure For Measure's' multifaceted cast promises ambiguous dark comedy
February 13If you walk into the Balch Arena Theater tonight, you will be welcomed by beautiful concrete pillars and concrete flooring - the set for the Drama Department's spring production of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," directed by Sheriden Thomas.
Identity Thief' burdened by predictable plot, immaturity
February 13"Identity Thief" is a raunchy road trip comedy with a simple yet meandering plot that relies heavily on immature humor - and yet, it somehow isn't actually that awful. Probably because of Melissa McCarthy.
The Artsy Jumbo | Senior Natalia Vasquez pairs art, entrepreneurship
February 13Few can say they have dabbled in everything from photography to painting to digital art to drawing. Senior Natalia Vasquez, though, is more than experienced with all of those media. She began drawing at a young age and has carried around a sketchbook - or an "archive of memories" as she calls it - for years.
Joe Stile | Amo
February 13Every so often, a film will come out that tries to reinterpret a simple, universal story with a darker slant. "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" is a current, albeit silly, example of one of the hundreds of films that re?imagines a world we all know in a way that is very different and more complex than we are used to.
Bill Richardson to speak at Tufts Energy Conference
February 12Former United States Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson (A '70, F '71) will address the Tufts community at the eighth annual Tufts Energy Conference on March 2 as one of the conference's keynote speakers. The theme of this year's conference is "Powering Global Energy Security," and it will feature two keynote speakers and six panels during the weekend of March 2 and 3, according to Conference Chair Geoffrey Finger. Energy analyst Joseph Stanislaw is the other confirmed keynote speaker. Richardson, a Tufts alumnus, is also the former governor of New Mexico and former United States ambassador to the United Nations. "Mr. Richardson is really the perfect keynote speaker for this conference," Finger, a second-year master's student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said. "His experiences as an ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of Energy give him a perfect view of both the international and domestic implications of the challenges facing energy security." Richardson has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as Secretary of Energy and as ambassador to the UN. "As governor, he ... [required] utilities to meet 20 percent of electrical demands through renewable resources, so he can really speak about the political challenges and potential for progress in the energy industry," Finger said. The fourth annual Tufts Energy Showcase will also take place during the conference, during which nearly 20 local energy firms will present and share information regarding the local energy sector, and many of these firms will be looking to hire, Finger said. Other lecture panels at the conference will focus on international energy security with topics including Arctic oil exploration, energy initiatives in the U.S. Department of Defense and energy efficiency in China. Tickets to the entire two-day conference are available online to Tufts undergraduate students for $10 until Feb. 16, after which they will be raised to $15.'
Jumbos end NESCAC point drought with win over Hamilton, fall to Lord Jeffs following night
February 12At the beginning of the season, the Tufts' ice hockey team had its eyes set on not only making the NESCAC tournament but on hosting a first?round game for the second straight year.
Online Hillel co-sponsorship petition gains Tufts signatures
February 12A petition created by a group of students at Harvard University circulating at Tufts and across the country calls for the national Hillel organization to remove its ban on allowing Hillel chapters to co-sponsor events with other groups that advocate for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. The online petition was created in November by a Harvard-based campaign called Open Hillel and as of yesterday had garnered 471 signatures, 38 of which are from Tufts students. The leader of the Tufts campaign calling on Hillel to reverse the ban, sophomore Julia Wedgle, said she promotes the group's stance because she believes Hillel's current policy restricts an open discourse about Israeli-Palestinian relations. Harvard's Progressive Jewish Alliance created the campaign and petition, which has since spread nationwide. Hillel's current policy disallows its chapters from accepting sponsors or hosting speakers or organizations that either do not support Israel's right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state or that advocate for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Wedgle said the policy stifles the views of Jewish students who do not hold similar political views. "For me, Judaism is supposed to be a religion of debate and critical discussion or a religious community of that," she said. "[The policy] makes Hillel feel like a hostile place for Jews like me who do support the Palestinians and Palestinian rights." Tufts Hillel President Emma Goldstein, a senior, does not support the petition. She said one of Hillel's core values is promoting the right of Jewish people to self-determination. She said to co-sponsor events with students who support policies that undermine Israel's right to exist through boycott, divestment or sanctions against the country would be contrary to Hillel's views on the issue. "Hillel's policy is clear in welcoming all views and maintaining an open door policy," Friends of Israel co-president Ayal Pierce, a sophomore, said. "While we avoid co-sponsoring with groups that deny Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, we more than welcome discussing our disagreements." The Tufts chapter of Hillel implemented the national policy in December 2010, declining to co-sponsor an event with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which brought two speakers to the Hill to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In that case, Hillel leadership cited the actions of other SJP chapters that had demonstrated political views contradictory to Hillel's support of Israel. Tufts Hillel executive director Rabbi Jeffrey Summit said the policy prohibiting co-sponsorship does not necessarily rule out open discussion. "We believe in free speech on campus, but that does not mean that we are obligated to sponsor speakers or partner with organizations that essentially don't believe that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state," Summit said. Wedgle is also a founder of Tufts Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which supports boycotting and divesting from companies that directly profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She said the co-sponsorship policy has driven many supporters of Palestine away from association with Hillel. "I think I'm the only Jewish person left in groups like SJP who still goes to Hillel," Wedgle said. "There's a lot of differing opinions at Hillel and within the Jewish community, and there [are] a lot of people I talked to who don't go to [Hillel] because of the policy there." Wedgle believes that the intent of the petition transcends the issue of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. "It's more about having critical debate in the community," she said.
Alexa Petersen | Jeminist: A Jumbo Feminist
February 12The show "Girls" on HBO was already awkward. Chock-full of privileged narratives, hopelessly self-involved characters and occasionally oppressive and/or troubling sex scenes, "Girls" is a show feminists don't know what to do with. Do we like it or do we hate it? It's almost as awkward as we felt when Ann Romney, Mitt Romney's wife, screamed "I love you, women!" at the Republican National Convention. Anyway, this past episode was the awkwardest of the awkward. Here's the short version: Hannah was the only character of the four main female characters featured, and the entire episode consists of her meeting a very handsome 40-something doctor named Joshua - then they have lots of sex and hang out at his house for two days straight. I sat in my living room with my six other housemates to watch this episode, and we hated it. We hated it from start to finish. We couldn't put our finger on why, but it was no good. Turns out we weren't the only critics. With the close of the episode on HBO, the Internet exploded with criticism of the weirdest and least-enjoyable "Girls" episode yet. I felt like the departure from realism was intentional. "Joshua was a total fantasy man, which is why we'll never see him again," The Huffington Post's Margaret Wheeler Johnson said in a blog post. Daniel Engber of Slate so very gracefully said, "Why should this coupling be so difficult to fathom? I think it's because Hannah is especially and assertively ugly in this episode." They can't figure out why Hannah gets the hunky guy. They just can't figure it out. References to Hannah's "looks" and weight, blatant or subtle, are splattered over every review. If you haven't already, check out Jezebel's article on the episode, entitled "What Kind of Guy Does Lena Dunham Deserve?" Reading this article was a very awkward epiphany for me, my housemates and I hope many others. The article points out what we were literally just too stupid to see. We think this episode is weird, awful, terrible, tragic, etc. because it seems to us completely unrealistic. It seems to us completely unrealistic because we don't believe that women who look like Hannah get to be with men who look like Joshua. We don't think he would tolerate her emotional "outbursts," her requests to be pleasured (the thought!) and her inquisitiveness about his past relationships. A particular line is very telling, as the article points out to us. Joshua asks whether Hannah thinks she is beautiful. She remarks, "I do, it's just not always the feedback that I've been given." Lena Dunham is literally standing on the rooftops and screaming to us the hypocrisies of the privilege of beauty, and what you do or do not "deserve" because of it. And we dropped the ball. I missed the mark. I'm a self-identified feminist, and I write a column about feminism, for god's sake. And I still missed it. I missed every inch of it. Did I explicitly criticize her body or her "rudeness" or the unlikelihood of her getting Joshua? No. But did I still think it was unrealistic. Yes. And that's still a problem. I'm putting it in writing and confessing my sins. I have written this piece, first, for those who made the mistake I did and, second, to say that I'm not perfect. We're not perfect. People who believe in social justice make mistakes sometimes. We overlook oppressive paradigms that have been mainstays of our upbringing, even when we try really hard not to. For better or for worse, I did it. And I won't do it again. That is what I learned from the fifth episode of the second season of "Girls."
Primary Source continues to tweet during self-imposed suspension
February 12The Primary Source has continued to post tweets on its Twitter page while the print version remains inactive this semester due to a self-imposed suspension. The suspension was enacted after public outcry in response to the conservative journal's December 2012 publication of a controversial "Christmas carol." The piece, entitled "Take Back the Night," mocked the Take Back the Night event, which seeks to raise awareness about sexual assault on campus. According to Primary Source Editor-in-Chief Christopher Piraino, anonymous Source alumni are using the Twitter account to share current news, links to blog posts and anything conservative that Source members find interesting and important. "Our twitter is just to show other Tufts people who follow The Primary Source these conservative articles, see if they're interested," Piraino, a junior, said. "It's just a way to promote people's ideas and the opposition. There's no original content from The Primary Source." The Source twitter has also been posting about Tufts Community Union Senate initiatives and live-tweeting some of their meetings and questioning the positions of Tufts organizations including Tufts Divest and Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine. But Piraino said that the tweets do not fall under the journal's self-imposed suspension. He explained that the Source is taking this semester to reevaluate its editorial practices. "Really what it's all about and what we're doing is taking a step back and seeing - we know what we did wrong, we just overlooked something," he said. "We're just trying to see what we could do better other than just rereading everything and getting more people." The self-imposed suspension was an internal decision, according to Piraino. He said the Source did not receive any notice from the administration other than Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman's email to the Tufts community after the Source's last edition. "I sincerely hope that The Primary Source follows through on its promise to review its editorial practices before publishing another issue," Tufts Community Union President Wyatt Cadley told the Daily in an email. Despite the tweets, the Source has not published an issue since December, and its future as a publication depends on the returning staff, Piraino said. He added that the Source hopes to return to printing this fall. "We just [have] to keep on doing it and not make any more mistakes and try and show everyone we're not some evil student group, which some people have a vision of The Primary Source as that," he said. "The fact [is] that we're just a regular student group, and every four years there's a different crowd." The Source expressed its regret for publishing the carol, which originally appeared in a 1999 issue, in a statement sent to the Daily by email last semester. Piraino hopes that members of the Tufts community can look beyond the incident in forming their opinions of the Source. "In terms of the view that Tufts has of The Primary Source, I would hope that it's not just from this one carol but [that] they read our articles and see what we actually think and see what our viewpoints are, rather than just an aberrant mistake that we made," Piraino said.
Men's track takes two event wins in home finale
February 12The Tufts men's track and field team on Monday hosted its annual Cupid Challenge, the team's final home meet of the season and its last opportunity to qualify for certain championship meets later on. With a number of athletes having missed earlier chances to do so because of injury or lackluster performances, Monday night was a final chance to extend their seasons.
Melissa MacEwen | The Roaming Fork
February 12Everyone likes phalluses, and everyone likes seafood. So what better way to spend Christmas Eve than with some sea cucumbers? My family arranged for our family friend Stefano to join our Christmas Eve dinner, as he was temporarily wifeless. He would be in charge of dessert. Maybe it's because I'm generally too lazy to make actual entrees, but I make a mean appetizer, and I decided that Christmas Eve would therefore be the perfect night to prepare a sea cucumber amuse-bouche. Obviously. With hours until Stefano's arrival, it was go time. To be fair, this decision wasn't entirely out of line. In addition to its international reputation as a health food - unsurprising considering its low fat content and high levels of vitamin C - the sea cucumber is also reputed to be able to cure everything from joint pain to hypertension to low male libido. Mostly, though, sea cucumbers are eaten as a delicacy and make appearances at formal gatherings and ceremonies. For my recipe, I decided on a rather intricate recipe from "Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking." "Sea cucumbers braised with steamed black mushrooms" sounded tasty enough, and with a few adaptations, it would be fairly straightforward to find all of the ingredients. Though most sea cucumbers in the California Bay Area are dried, I was lucky enough to find a package of frozen cucumbers at my local Ranch 99 Asian grocery store. They were decidedly underwhelming when I opened the package, but I was relieved that they smelled more like clean sea water than dead marine life. Rinsing and slicing the cucumbers took a decidedly philosophical turn when it came time to remove the intestines. Unsurprisingly, sea cucumbers are little more than muscular tubes with a few intestines inside. Still, we humans aren't really any different. Coelomates for life, my friends. The cooking mainly centered on boiling and steaming ingredients at slightly different times, so though there was a lot of measuring and running around, things went pretty smoothly. After the last step, in which I combined the sea cucumbers and the mushrooms before adding the corn starch (which honestly seemed completely unnecessary at the end, and resulted in everything looking a little bit dull and gelatinous), it was the moment of truth. I filled ramekins for myself and my family and grabbed a fork. Before I dug in, though, I hesitated. The cucumber quivered slightly on my fork, sandwiched between a shitake mushroom and a piece of canned bamboo. It was too late to back out, I thought, and I shoved the fork into my mouth. I needn't have hesitated. I honestly loved it. Cooking the cucumbers and the mushrooms in very similar sauces made the entire dish cohesive, but nuanced. The bold earthiness of the mushrooms undercut the tang of the bamboo, and the scallions gave everything a bit of a kick. True to expectation, the cucumbers had picked up the flavor of the sauce, but managed not to be too salty or overpowering. I was quite pleased with myself. Most surprising was just how unintimidating the cucumbers managed to be once combined into the dish - they were camouflaged by the mushrooms, and their mild, slightly rubbery texture tasted eerily similar to rice noodles. Though I think I enjoyed this dish considerably more than my family or poor Stefano, ?whose dessert was delicious, by the way. ? I would make this again in a heartbeat. I might be too scared to try to prepare cucumber with different accompanying ingredients lest it disrupt the dish's balance, but I'm sure cucumber would also be delicious with a number of other vegetable pairings. Join me next time for taro!
Netflix snaps up dense, dystopian British miniseries 'House of Cards'
February 12"House of Cards" is a big gamble for Netflix. On Feb. 1, Netflix released all 13 episodes of the show's first season to its subscribers. Netflix is making significant strides to produce more and more original content. The much?discussed fourth season of Fox's beloved sitcom, "Arrested Development," is set to air this May and is one of Netflix's most high?profile initiatives. Netflix's main concern is whether or not people subscribe to Netflix, rather than whether they actually tune into the shows. And Netflix needs shows like "House of Cards" to help bring in those extra subscribers.
Jason Schneiderman | Stoppage Time
February 12Something is rotten in the east side of Manchester. A season marked by a dismal early Champion's League campaign, which saw Manchester City win none of its six games, is turning equally sour in league play. And now, fingers are finally being pointed.
