David LowThe latest film by director Miguel Arteta ’89, Cedar Rapids (Fox Searchlight Pictures), opened to positive reviews in mid-February after being well-received at the Sundance Film Festival. The comedy, written by Wisconsin native Phil Johnston, stars Ed Helms (The Office) as an earnest insurance salesman who is asked by his small town firm to attend an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he learns about life in a weekend as he befriends a motley bunch of party-loving conventioneers played by John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire). In her New York Times review, film critic…
Will Galison ’81 has released a new music album, Line Open, featuring his unique gifts as harmonica virtuouso, guitarist, composer, lyricist, singer and arranger. He has co-produced a collection of songs that reflects a wide musical and emotional range and reveals his sly wit and compassionate outlook. The recording features some of New York’s finest musicians, including Steve Gaboury (co-producer and keyboards), Ben Wittman and Shawn Pelton (drums), Tony Garnier and Zev Katz (bass), Marc Shulman (guitar), and Catherine Russell, Elaine Caswell and Sonya Valet on vocals. Galison is known among musicians as a premiere jazz and studio harmonica player.…
Cynthia RockwellA full-page feature article in the Jan. 22 Los Angeles Times praised designer Cameron Anderson '98 for her work for South Coast Repertory’s new production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Calling the scenic design “striking,” reviewer Charlotte Stoudt also praised Anderson for her use of light. Director Mark Rucker was quoted, also: “‘Usually you get to the forest and that’s it, visually, for a couple of acts. … But Cameron found a way for the forest to continually transform,’” he said. Anderson, who works in both theater and opera set design, explained, ‘”The fairies are constantly stealing things in the…
Ellen Forney ’89 was recently profiled by Tirdad Derakhshani in the Philadelphia Inquirer, who noted the artist’s “65 illustrations, doodlings, comic panels, and assorted visual asides” that play an important and integral part in the National Book Award-winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little Brown) by Sherman Alexie. Over a three-year period, Forney worked closely with Alexie who “gave her freedom to explore and contribute” based on her own inspiration. Forney’s illustrations had to reflect the imagination of the book’s main character, Junior, “who is growing up on a reservation in Washington state, … an aspiring…
Spiral, a CD by the Dave Wilson [’78] Quartet received a three-and-a-half star review in the November issue of Downbeat magazine. Released last June on Summit Records, Spiral features six original compositions by Wilson and arrangements of three contemporary classics, including the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil. ” “With a crack band in pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Tony Marino and Adam Nussbaum on drums, saxophonist Dave Wilson knows how to pick them and the music,” writes critic John Ephland of Downbeat. Additionally, in a review in the December issue of JazzTimes Magazine, critic Bill Milkowski observed that “Pennsylvania-based saxophonist-educator…
Olivia DrakeTwo Wesleyan alumni who wrote Ph.D dissertations on Russian politics have recently accepted tenure-track jobs in political science departments. Russian and East European studies major Danielle Lussier '98, will be an assistant professor at Grinnell College, where she will be replacing Robert Grey '61. Lussier wrote her B.A. thesis on the women's movement in contemporary Russia, and her Ph.D at the University of California, Berkeley on a comparison of civil society and political mobilization in Russian and Indonesia. College of Social Studies major Lauren McCarthy '01 will be an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She wrote her…
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Margot Weiss, assistant professor of American studies, assistant professor of anthropology, and Naomi Greyser at the University of Iowa organized a symposium on Academia and Activism Feb. 11 in Russell House. The event brought together nine interdisciplinary scholars for two open roundtable discussions on the possibilities and difficulties of bridging academic and activist work. Panelists on the two roundtables reflected on a series of questions: "What are the intersections and gaps between activist and academic work? How is activist labor intellectual and when is intellectual labor activist? How might we historicize dichotomies of theory and practice, 'ivory tower' and 'real…
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Q: Alex, you are the coordinator for program housing in Residential Life. Please explain what a “program house” is, and who can live in one? A: In simple terms, a program house is a themed-based living option at Wesleyan. Each house has its own mission statement based on the specific theme/interest (hobbies, lifestyles, languages, cultural, religious) of the house. Sophomores, juniors and seniors are eligible to live in program housing. Q: What would you say are the most well-known program homes on campus? Which are the oldest? A: Program housing has been a living option for students since the early…