Rubber Gloved on Culture Shock

This past Tuesday, I attended a meeting for the Purchase College annual festival "Culture Shock." At most, I was made aware that Mr Jeff Levin, the head organizer of this years festival, has diverted the focus for Culture Shock.

First: a brief bit of Jeff's recent history--

Jeff was nearly impeached from his position on the Purchase Student Government Association (PSGA) when fellow students were sick of being left in the dark about the upcoming music festival. People wanted to know what bands were coming to preform and Jeff replied, giving a skeleton that lacked a backbone. His lineup is incomplete. I could talk about this issue all day, but to give you an idea, here is Jeff's most recent updated schedule for the quickly approaching festival on April 16. . .

Culture Shock 09' Lineup:
THIS LINEUP IS NOT COMPLETE!!
(tentative)= contracts are in, but not signed for yet.

Friday
Streetlight Manifesto (tentative)
The Red Chord
Paper Route
Murphys Law (Tentative)
Light Pollution
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA

Saturday
The Cool Kids (tentative)
Telepathe
The Dear Hunter
Margot and the nuclear so and sos
The Paper Raincoat
The Tallest Man on Earth (tentative)
Bread and Puppet Theater
Kiss Kiss
TBA
TBA

After party
Menya
TBA
TBA
TBA

. . . Damn, looking at it makes my tummy twist. I may just have to poop a verbal mess all over this kid. Maybe I am a mess of a musician, but, why is it that I don't recognize any of these band names?

Jeff Levin, if you are reading this Jeff, Mr. Levin, please know that forming a committee would have been a great idea for this festival. This thing is much bigger than you, or I, Jeff Levin. It is something that all students, faculty, and any interested mind will be a part of, and you, Jeff Levin, you took this all into your own hands without shaking those of your peers and asking them about the diversity that this multifaceted, multicultural campus expects in Culture Shock. I don't see what took you so long to understand that setting up meetings is vital to the health of organizing a large event. At this meeting you asked us if we were "O.K." with the decisions you made about the theme, stage placements, and selected bands. Well that was nice of you to do, I'll admit, but doing it this close to the end of the line is not helpful to us. It wouldn't make sense to change the lineup NOW, it is far too late. If you reached out your hand for help months ago Jeff, the campus would have "high-fived" you for it. Instead, we've noticed the clams in your hands after months of sweating this out, and now the success or failure of this festival is all on you.

In a recent editorial in The Purchase Independent, staff writer Chris Vaughan asked Jeff Levin a series of questions such as,

"How do you think Culture Shock has come together the past couple of weeks?"
A: "It is getting there. The impeachment set things back but it gave me more motivation. The line-up now is as diverse as I wanted it to be."
(As diverse as HE wanted it, not US. . . Interesting)

or...

"Is Culture Shock different in any way this year?"
A: "Basically the Carnival two stages and the rides. Just the overall theme."
(Yes. The Carnival is a good idea for a theme. It will distract everyone for the time period while bands are preforming so no one will notice the bands that didn't show up)

Well I am glad that we can be entertained by this:



Since Jeff Levin has given up on this:

. . . I hate to be such a damming critic, Jeff Levin, but you fucked up.

Self Image

Life. What a beautiful world we live in! Look at the people walking around. Can you see the beauty? I bet that you can also see the faults that all of these good looks are built upon. After many instances of trial and error, people have found the "right" way to look good. If there is a right way to look "good," then there must also be a "good" way to look "right!"

No, no, no, you say. What is good is dependent of individual perspective. Well, what if what is good is nature, and so, it is of human nature to be subjective and say that something so objective like "good looks" vary and differ from one individual to the next.

Take a look at this photo of me: the one and only, Dan Hartigan.


Let us take a close look at the components of this photograph.

What sticks out to you the most must be the red bandana that is backwards on this curly man's greasy head. Does he look good?

Seeing as he is me, I am fully right in saying this- he is full of mixed feelings. When he wears the bandana like this, he feels comfortable because it holds his poof of a fro down neatly. Also, red is this mans favorite color to wear and he approves of his own fashion. He feels uncomfortable in knowing that if he were to go to a gang infested part of the land, he would be jumped, maybe mugged, maybe killed. He feels mixed up about being comfortable with his image because he knows that even though he sees of himself to look "good," others may not be view and judge that he is dressing "right." In response to this, his thumb turned downwards and he shook the bandana from his head.

Q:Why is it that we cannot be completely comfortable with our images?
A:Because even though someone feels comfortable with their looks, their looks can make a mass of others feel completely unomfortable about the way that person looks. We play off of the vibes that people feed to us.

There is something funky about that!