Okay, Yalies. It's time once again to urge you, ever so mildly, to get off your arses and infiltrate yourselves with some culture. "Culture?" you wail, "I get enough of that in my classes. Freud haunts me - along with hydrogen bonds." Dear friend, it's time for a breather from that oppressive, psychotic, what you attempt to call - in your frenzied state - culture. Put that Milton down and take a leisurely stroll over to the New Haven Public Library. Listen, you can rationalize this study break into "becoming one with the city," so you don't have to feel guilty. Until Nov. 2, on Elm Street not far past Temple, is "Beyond Category," an exhibit on Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Leave your rusted complaint rock behind and take a peek at perhaps America's all-time greatest composer. This entire season the New Haven Free Public Library is celebrating Duke Ellington's contribution to American (and international) society. On the bottom floor of the library is a well-coordinated display tracing Ellington's life. The exhibit is also available with interactive videodisc and videotape. Ellington was born in 1899 in Washington D.C., then the capital of African-American culture. He reluctantly started piano lessons at age seven and was making a living as a musician by age 17. Known for his meticulous dress and his aristocratic nature, friends called him "Duke." Ellington's varied career included playing at the Cotton Club (the hottest of the hot spots in New York City) that ironically barred blacks, tailoring its entertainment to New York's white elite. He traveled extensively, playing in 65 countries, and touted many famous players in his orchestra. "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people," explained the Duke. The exhibit successfully urges one to enter another world, with easy, well-written titles. The quiet of the New Haven library makes for an easy escape into the world that shaped our culture. In the upcoming weeks, as a part of the Ellington tribute, is a jazz concert on the New Haven Green, two films featuring Ellington, and other discussions and performances of and about Ellington's music. To find out where and when, check out the program at the New Haven Free Public Library. Go for it and immerse yourself in crazy sensuality of all-American jazz.
--Sacha Lichtenstein
Expanding on the tradition of vigilante comics such as Batman and Ghost Rider, Nye Wright, MC '96, created Toad. The comic was published as a weekly strip in The Herald last year. Wright compiled and re-edited these strips to present the full story of Toad, and included unpublished sketches, artwork, and notes.
Toad is formatted in full-page spreads, allowing Wright greater freedom of emphasis and greater control over the story's speed and tone. Phantasmagoric spreads explore characters' minds, and split frames create fast-moving action segments.
The compilation, available at the Yale Co-op ($3.50), is the story of Harry Ames, an ex-insurance salesman who stood by while his daughter was raped and murdered. After he allows his life to disintegrate, he is visited by a supernatural entity who calls himself Toad, and claims to be "a fantasy of vengeance." Toad prowls the city "clean[ing] up the corners of [Ames'] life that [he] has let sink into the morass of [his] self-pity."
On his creation, Wright notes: "My main idea was to create a comic book antihero;...he's skinny, he's ugly. He's just a bastard." Toad addresses Wright's concern with "modern culture's victim mentality." Ames struggles with his paralysis and his guilt, but he will eventually have to choose whether to confront his terror or allow Toad, his inner demon, free reign.
--Michael Horowitz
Those crazy college alums - what will they think of next? If you thought The Complete Book of Beer Drinking Games, brainchild of the founding fathers of Pierson's Tuesday Night Club, was the alpha and omega of drinking manuals, the four writers have pulled the lampshade over your eyes and wrought from their collective brain yet another guide to institutionalized Bacchan(ale)ia. Now with the "Revised and Expanded!" Beer Games 2: The Exploitative Sequel, your cup runneth over. (And all the better if you actually plan on reading it!)
For those who wonder why anyone would buy this book, the writers have graciously included eight good reasons. "You are tired of Proust," they suggest. Or maybe, "It beats renting the video of Wayne's World for the 12th time." That's a tough call. Someone might buy this book just for the lists of all the bars its writers have been thrown out of, and why. Take Molly's in New Orleans, where they were thrown out after an encounter with "jingoistic Cuban sailors." But the book contains even more good thinking. Purchase a No-Mess Snarf Recycler, Captain Beer Headgear, or the ever-useful Replacement Brain. People burdened with sensibilities of this century will especially appreciate the Inflate-a-Wench item and the Beer Falsies. Guess they're saving the chastity belt for the next edition.
Then there are the games themselves, antics that make every blackout an experience to remember. There's the Windmill Game, where you have to knock a matchbox off an empty beer bottle in one fluid motion from 10 feet away, or suffer the consequences of drinking another half a beer. Or the more intellectual Alphabet Game, where six players close their eyes and stand in a circle, jointly reciting the alphabet - but woe to the players who speak at the same time! They force the whole group to start over, after another round of drinks. When the party's over, take the hangover quiz. And remember, grades aren't everything.
-- Tito Taylor
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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