T H E O F F I C I A L S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F C A LV I N CO L L EG E S I N C E 1907

October 5, 2012Volume 107 - Issue 6

CALVIN.EDU/CHIMES

GAME DAY STAFF PAGE 3 QUALITY PODCASTS PAGE 6HARMONY BREWING PAGE 4 COLOR CHANGE EARLY PAGE 8

Mad Farmer Food Fest fosters refl ection on sustainabilityBY ALLYSA METZNER

Campus Co-Editor

The fifth annual Mad Farmer Food Fest (MFFF) will be held at the Knollcrest East apart-

ments from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6. MFFF is a day-long festival where the com-munity can enjoy locally-grown produce and a variety of dishes from local restaurants.

They can also take part in

discussions and demonstrations emphasizing the importance of sustainability, healthy living and faith.

The MFFF derives its name from Wendell Berry’s poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer

Liberation Front.” The poem exhorts its readers to examine their deci-sions and t h e r e l a -tionship they have to the phys-ical world, much like t h e p u r -p o s e o f t h e M a d Farmer Food Festival.

“So friend, ev-eryday do something that won’t compute. L ove t he Lord. Love

the World,” the poem reads, mir-

roring the mission of The Mad Farmer Food Fest.

The idea for the festival arose from a group of RAs seeking to equip students with a deeper knowledge about issues that in-volve energy and food.

This year’s festival will kick off at 10 a.m. and feature live music by the Brother’s Bilgen, fol-lowed by a devotion from Richard Frances-Coe, who is a seminary intern at Calvin.

From 11:10 a.m. until 11:50 a.m., attendees have the oppor-tunity to choose from two differ-ent discussions or a demonstra-tion. This year’s demonstration is the return of making apple-sauce with Ken Heffner.

“Last year this demonstration wa s so p o p u-lar,” explained Megan Dickens, this year’s sus-ta inabi l it y in-tern and project coordinator. ““I t hou g ht , why w o u l d n ’ t w e bring it back?”

F r o m n o o n u n t i l 12 :4 0 p.m., student can join a dis-cussion about animal welfare and ethical eating as well as chat with dumpster d ivers. Every discussion emphasizes a different topic.

“All the discussions are de-signed differently, so that even the speakers f rom the other d iscussions can par t ic ipate and lear n someth ing new,” said Dickens.

Last year’s festival included many of the same events, and was attended by a large group of students interested in sustainability and food.

Megan Dickson is this year’s sustainability intern handling the food fest.

See “Festival,” page 3

BY JESS KOSTERSports Editor

The men’s soccer team trav-eled to Van Andel Stadium on Hope’s campus last Wednesday to face off in its first rivalry game of the year. Once again, the Knights prevailed and came home with a 1-0 victory.

Calvin sophomore Travis Vegter scored the only goal of the game in the sixth minute. Breaking through Hope’s back line, he faced the Dutchmen’s keeper one-on-one. He drib-bled toward the corner of the six yard box and snuck a shot under the keeper’s arm and inside the near post.

The Knights maintained possession of the ball for the first ten minutes but Hope had a couple of great shots late in the half that both curved wide of the frame.

The game quickened in the second half with each team adding up shots, but Hope was unable to put any shots on net. With twenty minutes left, Hope had tied up the game off after a long throw-in from 40 yards out found the goal on a

deflection. The goal was waved off and a Dutchman forward was called for pushing the Knights’ keeper senior Jared Rushlau.

After their victory against Hope, the Knights traveled to Kalamazoo on Saturday, Sept. 29 to play the Hornets. The game remained scoreless for the first 40 minutes, unti l senior Joe Broekhuizen scored two goals in two minutes bringing the Knights up 2-0 going into the second half.

Kalamazoo ripped a shot that was defended by the crossbar, losing its only chance to score. Twenty minutes into the second half, junior Zach Willis found the net. At the 83rd minute senior Mike Sanderson and freshman Sam Hanover each scored their f irst goals of the season. The Knights won 5-0.

The K nights outshot the Hornets 17-13. Rushlau was cred-ited with the shutout.

For his two shutouts last week, Rushlau was named MIAA de-fensive player of the week. This is his first time receiving this award in his career.

The Knights are on a four conference game winning streak and host Alma on Saturday, Oct. 6 hoping to continue that streak.

BY WILL MONTEIOn-Call Writer

“Lady Gaga doesn’t drink water in f ront of her fans,” Ingrid Michaelson told the audience part-way through the show as she sat down by her piano and drank some water, “did you know that? It makes her too human or something.”

I wasn’t very familiar with Ingrid Michaelson previous to her concert at Calvin. That’s not the case anymore. Now, I might consider myself something of an Ingrid af icionado. Between her hilarious, rambling banter and beautifully stripped down set, any-one at the show, really, should know her quite well by now.

I ng r id put on a n amazing show — one of the best I’ve seen. Not owning a single one of he r a lbum s, I h a d n o e x p e c t a -tions before the show. Perhaps that makes me the best person to be reviewing it, because

I wasn’t biased in any direction beforehand.

So, even though the opening notes of each song didn’t set my heart aglow with recognition (like they probably did for most of the

audience), I was still able to enjoy every single song as if I’d been a fan all my life thanks to the solid performances from each band member.

She was playing an “acous-tic configuration” of her songs that n ight, which re-a l ly ju s t me a nt there were a cou-ple less members — she still had a full band, complete with a dr um k it and, occasionally, an electric bass. As a result, her music took on a gentler tone t ha n I be -lieve it would have otherwise.

“Acoustic” per-formances scare me because most of the time they’re really just lamer versions of the real thing. No one would take an acoustic set by their favorite band over a regular set. No one. However, in Ingrid’s case it (seemed to me to)

Michaelson brought a healthy dose of “adorkable” to the CFAC stage Monday night. See “Ingrid,” page 7

Ingrid Michaelson charms fans Soccer beats Hope

PHOTO BY ALLYSA METZNERFILE PHOTO

FILE PHOTO

Knights won 5-0 at Hope’s Van Andel Stadium

CAMPUS NEWSChimes

Editor in ChiefAbby Zwart

Managing EditorJohn Kloosterman

Online EditorRyan Struyk

Head Copy EditorJosh Ngenda

Arts & EntertainmentColleen Keehl

CampusAllysa MetznerKyle Rodriguez

Grace Ruiter

FeaturesMax Howard

LocalJoseph Matheson

National & WorldDavid Ryou

Opinion & EditorialJohn Kloosterman

SportsJess Koster

Science & TechnologyJohn Muyskens

AdvisorsKen Bratt

Lynn Rosendale

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2012-2013

BY RYAN STRUYKOnline Editor

R e i g K n i g h t , a mo n t h ly student-led worship service at Calvin, has partnered with cam-pus ministries to begin its second year.

ReigKnight began last year as a student senate project but has since left senate to collaborate with the Barnabas program.

“We’re trying to partner with the Barnabas program and trying to make it more in the roots of Ca lv in,” sa id se n ior Beck y Kim, a leader of ReigKnight.

ReigKnight regularly lasts an hour and a half to two hours and almost com-pletely consists o f s i n g i n g . Services have been held in the Covenant Fine Arts Center, as well as outside o n c o m mo n s lawn, and draw a couple hun-dred people to each se r v ice. “ W e w a n t [ReigKnight] to weave into t h e D N A o f Calvin’s culture and the way that we worship God,” she continued. “So we thought partnering with campus ministries would be the best thing.” And as ReigKnight begins its second year, Kim said that its partnership with campus ministries is off to a good start.

“They’ve been very support-ive,” she said. “They are all about revamping. They want to revamp the ministry on campus and become more tangible to the

students.”Nate Bradford, associate chap-

lain for residence life, has been working with ReigKnight on the partnership.“The folks that were leading it last year wanted to continue what they started,” he said. “So they spoke with campus ministries about ways of helping it to…continue with the momentum it had.”

Bradford highlighted that the services are student-led. “This is coming from the students for the students,” he said. “It’s something

we want to encourage.” Kim said that ReigKnight can

feel like something different than chapel or LOFT, Calvin’s Sunday night service.

“What makes it feel different is time. Chapel is 20 minutes and it’s a really good, efficient 20 min-utes. With ReigKnight, we want to create more time for people to be saturated in God’s presence.”

Senior Yoofi Otabil, another leader of ReigKnight, recognized

ReigKnight transitions from student senate to campus ministies

BY ALISON EGGERETHGuest Writer

“Are you a single fish swimming in the sem pond sea?” asks the de-scription of the Facebook group “Match Made in Calvin.”

C a l v i n s e n i o r s Marissa DeBoer and Hannah Vander Lugt have developed the on-line dating system exclu-sively for Calvin students in the Facebook group.

DeBoer and Vander Lugt confess that the idea for the site came about as a joke. They expected 50 students to join at most, but the Facebook group has nearly 200 members as of Thursday night.

Those who sign up for the site will fill out a quest ionnai re and be matched to some-one through a program Vander Lugt’s fiance is developing.

Matches will go on a group date — the first of which will likely be in November.

The girls said the date would be similar to a f loor date. They hope having lots of people will help students avoid awk-ward first dates and have

more fun. The girls hinted that the first date could be ice-skating.DeBoer hopes those skeptical of online dat-ing will give the site a chance, too.

“People should be more open to online d a t i n g ,” s he s a id . “We’re not saying that you’re going to meet your sou lmate, but you can at least make friends!”

Vander Lugt agreed. She said she thinks there is a lot of pres-sure to date at Calvin. Their group was cre-ated to help eliminate the pressure sometimes associated with dating, so people can just have fun.

B e c a u s e o f t h e high level of interest, DeBoer recently asked Facebook group mem-bers for pat ience in waiting for the ques-tionnaire and receiving matches.

The girls have yet to release a specif ic date by which students can expect to receive a match.In the words of the founders: “Meeting the love of your life is not guaranteed, but at least a date is!”

Sign up for a Calvin date

The two hour event encouraged students to come together as a campus and worship for longer than the standard 20 minutes of a chapel service.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BECKY KIM

the fact that ReigKnight doesn’t have a sermon or offering.

“There is an emphasis on other things [at LOFT]– things that are essential to the growth of the church,” he said. “[ReigKnight] is just one other thing that we hope to present to comple-ment what campus ministries is doing already.”

Dan Paulson, a Barnabas in Schultze-Eldersveld, recognized how ReigKnight is different than other worship opportunities under campus ministries.“ReigKnight

is more of a less-structured, char-ismatic style of worship,” he said. “That really resonates with some people in ways that chapel and LOFT don’t.” Paulson said that this format of worship is more appealing to some.

“A lot of people appreci-ate the different worship style that ReigKnight brings,” said Paulson. “Since Calvin has peo-ple from so many different church backgrounds and worship back-

grounds, a one-size-fits-all ap-proach to worship doesn’t always work.” Kim added that while some people enjoy ReigKnight, it isn’t for everyone.

“Some people might be turned off by this kind of thing and what we are doing through this,” she said. “You might actually lose people.”

The idea for ReigKnight was born last year while Kim was ex-ecutive vice president of student senate. But when this year’s sen-ate took office, Kim and Otabil

decided to move the project to campus ministries.

“Because it was an executive cam-paign [on senate], it never felt like it was everybody’s vision and goal,” said Kim. “But senate was an awesome first step. You have those re-lationships and the reputation of being trusted.”

Kim said senate’s par tnership was a good starting point for ReigKnight.

“There was a lot of ground we had to break through last year in terms of what we were all about, reputation, spiritual breakthrough and kind of easing people

into this new atmosphere of wor-ship that we were bringing to Calvin,” said Kim.

While Kim looks to the fu-ture, she hopes that people will continue to worship through ReigKnight.

“It started as a senate cam-paign, but beyond that, it was more from a desire to see Calvin’s campus become a place where students would worship God in a more intimate way.”

Want to write for Campus News?

Email Chimes@calvin.edu!

Campus 3CHIMESOctober 5, 2012

BY AUDREY ENTERSGuest Writer

A sizable group of Calvin stu-dents gathered in front of the chapel at 9 p.m. on Friday to compete for a $400 grand prize in the ThinkFast game show, a Buck Friday’s event. Some teams huddled in tense circles, discuss-ing strategy, others joked around and some were still scrambling to join teams.

The grand prize was a motiva-tor for some, but many students, like freshman Julia Scott, were only there for the experience.

“I was curious and thought it would be fun,” Scott said. “The $400 would just be an added bonus.”

49 energetic teams fell dead silent as the games began. The trivia questions drew from pop culture, sports, history and a tiny bit of math, requiring the knowl-

edge of all team members. Team leaders punched in answers on hand-held remotes as fast as they could because the point value for getting the answer decreased every few seconds.

Noise quickly escalated when teams realized that shouting the wrong answers could con-fuse their competitors. Students yelled that Galileo discovered the cell and that the 2012 Olympics were held in Moscow.

Wildcard rounds showcased the talents of volunteer students, who earned their teams points if they got votes.

They put plenty of creativ-ity into their songs, dances and jokes. One student claimed that at 6 feet 11 inches tall, his talent was being the tallest person on campus: no small feat at Calvin College. The ThinkFast host himself said he was impressed by the “soul” that students put into their performances.

BY MEG SCHMIDTGuest Writer

Calvin’s orientation program earned record-high ratings this year, according to Calvin’s orien-tation board. The Calvin Class of 2016 gave Passport and Quest the highest rankings in the history of the programs.

The results are based on a survey given to new students via email ev-ery year, said Rebecca Laarman, administra-tive assistant at the stu-dent development office. Students ranked pro-grams from excellent to poor and the results were averaged together.

Laarman said the rat-ings have been improving since the Quest program changed in 2009. She ex-plained that the schedule for Quest changed from being different for each Quest group to the same across the board.

“We did this because it gave everyone more to talk about. Sure, having 1,000 students in the city doing Streetfest on the same day is hard, but to have one shared experi-ence where you’re out

working together as a community sets up great team building and starts relationships at the very beginning,” Laarman said.

When people were asked about the secret to Quest’s success this year, the word “community” popped up again and again.

“Calvin has a top orientation program,” said senior Arianna

Tolsma, an orientation leader. “We are thrilled our feedback has been so high. I think it’s due to the strength of the com-munity the [orientation leaders] made together. We are so close, and we tried to encourage that same response in the freshmen — to be friends and get to know each other.”

Tolsma also attributed some of the success to OL training.

“We are taught to watch group dynamics and to adapt our plans to what we see,” Tolsma ex-plained. “A quiet group isn’t go-ing to want to run around all the time. Our main goal is to make you feel welcomed, loved and not overwhelmed.”

Despite attempts by OLs like Tolsma to cater to the needs of individual groups, some found orientation overwhelming.

Freshman Lydia Koning de-scribed the constant activity as “too busy” and compared it to “information overload.” Forrest Longworth, another freshman, voiced a different opinion. He

claimed that Quest was a “good introduction that gave you the feel of Calvin without the school work.” He also emphasized the importance of “the inclusion of people in your group from people outside your own dorm.”

“It created a social back-ground for you that was bigger than the building you lived in,” he said.Gregory Veltman, who works in the student development office (SDO), defended the busy nature of Quest.

“It was created that way to distract you from what’s really going on. It’s like a high ropes course at camp; you’re focused for the mo-ment on the task at hand when really the big picture of the course is to help you get over your fear of it. It may be a cheesy, corny and forced community, but it gets people to talk.”

BY MITCH BLANKESPOORStaff Writer

More than 2,700 fans packed Calvin’s Van Noord Arena on Sept. 21 for a volleyball match-up with rival Hope College. 1,110 of these fans were Calvin students, many of whom also came early to enjoy a tailgate put on by the Calvin Game Day staff.

Game Day is a student-run program to encourage Calvin students to attend athletic events.

“It was great to see everyone attend the tailgate and the game,” senior Andrew VerMeer, the head of the marketing team, said. “We hope to see this attendance at future Calvin sporting events.”

After the tailgate, the stu-dent body, nicknamed “Knight Nation,” filled up the lower bowl of the arena.

“I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!” was the cheer of Calvin’s student section just before the match began.

“This was literally the best night of my life,” said Calvin junior defensive specialist Krisi Zietse shortly after the Knights’ four set victory. “The crowd was so hyped up tonight.”

Calvin head coach Amber

Warners was ecstatic about the crowd at the match.

“We had an incredible crowd tonight,” said Warners after the match. “I have never seen one like that at any sporting event since I’ve been at Calvin.”

Director of men’s athletics, Jim Timmer Jr., created Game Day in the fall of 2011. Timmer created Game Day to help him-self and Nancy Meyer, director of women’s athletics, with their duties as athletic directors.

“Game Day’s primary job last year was to meet and greet visit-ing teams and officials,” Timmer said.

“Because of Dr. Meyer’s and my duties as professors and ath-letics directors, we needed assis-tance welcoming visiting teams and officials to Calvin, and thus, Calvin Game Day was formed.”

Last year, Game Day consisted of students working for an hourly rate, similar to any other job on campus. This year, Game Day is headed by VerMeer and two other students. All are receiving internship credit for their efforts.

One of these students, senior Drew Sikkema, noticed the lack of fans last season.

“While working in facilities management for the field house,

I noticed the lack of an organized student section,” Sikkema said. “I felt compelled to change that.”

Sikkema, Ver Meer and fellow intern junior Bethany Zoerhof did sports marketing research during a sports management class last spring.

According to them, the biggest reason for the lack of student at-tendance at athletic events was lack of awareness.

“Focusing on mainly basket-ball, we found the biggest reason students did not attend games was they simply did not know there was a game,” Sikkema said.

Game Day’s goal is to create an atmosphere that is both enjoy-able and exciting for the Calvin student.

“We want students to remem-ber their experience,” Zoerhof said. “Our hope is they will tell friends about it, and more fans will come. We would love to see increased, yet consistent at-tendance over course of this year and beyond.”

To achieve this goal, Game Day needed to expand. This year, Game Day staff is divided into three different groups. The hospitality crew is in charge of getting officials and opposing teams to locker rooms and the

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Lunch will begin at 1:45 p.m. and will again feature a variety of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes by MFFF favorites Marie Catrib’s, Brick Road Pizza and FoxTrot Bakeshop.

The MFFF will unwind with a video interview on the benefits of communal eating and the joy of food from Marie Catrib and Egan Farrar, manager of Marie Catrib’s.

“I loved talking with Marie,” Dickens explained. “It is like sitting down and having a discus-sion with your aunt. She is very animate and very honest.”

Catrib, the owner of Marie Catrib’s, has been participating in MFFF since the beginning and has a passion for advancing community and good food. She and Farrar recognize that families are eating at home less, but are

still looking for a place to enjoy great food and fellowship.

“In 2012, when families and friends go out, that is when they communicate with each other. Dining out has become the new family table,” explained Farrar.

With that mindset, both Marie and Farrar want to up-hold communal eating through Marie Catrib’s.

“Dining at a table is miss-ing in our society, so we want Marie Catrib’s to be the new table,” said Farrar.

Yet, MFFF is also commit-ted to faith and its relation-ship to food.“In our world right now, there is this buzz for green, but I want people to understand it more than a phase or trend. We are serious and responsible and we are called to have dominion over the earth,” Dickens explained.

Calvin Orientation Board ratings hit an all-time high in 2012

Students compete at ThinkFast game show

Calvin Game Day staff improving fan experience for studentsKnight Rewards program. This program rewards student for their attendance at Calvin athletic events.

“There is a table stationed at most every home event,” Sikkema said. “Students check in and receive coupons or are entered in drawings to win bigger prizes.”

The marketing team’s main goal is to let students know when athletic events are, increasing attendance and making the ex-perience enjoyable for Calvin students.

“Our goal is not necessarily just an increase in numbers,” Ver Meer said. “It is all about getting students to spread the word, and come back. They are our best marketers.”

The final group of Game Day is in charge of handling the tech-nology at games, as well as social media. The newly created Calvin Game Day Facebook page has gained popularity quickly.

“I have had several people tell me the Facebook page is their main source of information on our athletic teams,” Timmer said.

According to Timmer, Game Day Staff was designed for sports management majors at Calvin, but is not exclusive.

“Most of our sports manage-

ment majors get hired after they graduate in ticket sales, advertis-ing and marketing,” said Timmer, who is the main advisor to sports management majors.

“Game Day staff gives these students a chance to gain real life experience in these areas.”

Game Day has seen its work pay dividends. The volleyball match with Hope and soccer double-header saw a huge in-crease in fans. Roughly 500 stu-dents showed up for the pregame tailgate and the two soccer games against Albion on Sept. 22.

“Knight Nation has been awe-some so far this season,” head men’s soccer coach Ryan Souders said. “They have definitely played a part in making Zuidema Field a tough atmosphere for opposing teams.”

Calvin Game Day has made an immediate impact on attendance, but the goal is for Game Day to have a long-standing impact.

“We are in the process of build-ing a really solid student fan base for Calvin athletics,” Sikkema said. “For this to continue year to year, things need to be tweaked and reevaluated to create a desir-able experience. That experience for a fan should be something to be proud of.”

The show ended with a final round between the four top-scor-ing teams. Questions included special sound clips from movies and Calvin-specific trivia. Scott’s team of five, the Lions, won this final round, thanks to the inhu-man reflexes and math ability of Jonathan Crow. Crow declared that his rapid-fire Bible quizzing had finally paid off.

The Lions divided their $400 prize with attitudes of giddy disbelief. When asked what she felt of the game show now, Scott shrugged and grinned. “I had a fun time, and like I said, winning was an extra bonus!”

Other students agreed that ThinkFast had been fun and that they’d felt included, even if they hadn’t won anything.

“I had a great time,” said soph-omore Daniel Woodiwiss. “I made good friends with the other three people on my team. I’ll defi-nitely do this again next year!”

Calvin Orientation board is responsible for both Passport, which occurs during the summer, and Quest, which kicks off the academic year and begins welcome week for all incoming students.

FESTIVAL: faith, food, fun

FILE PHOTE

LocaL News4 “ ”

We’re always messing around and trying to do something new.

Jackson Van Dyke, “Harmony Brewing”

BY MEG SCHMIDTGuest Writer

There are Artprize entries this year that defy gravity, that enchant and intrigue.

There are pieces made out of paper bones and sculptures so fragile they would break if you laid a finger on them.

But there is only one entry that breathes fire.

Todd Wozniak is an artist building a kiln in the middle of Grand Rapids, a project he calls “Kiln U.” Located on Fulton and Lexington, this entry has already drawn a lot of attention, from be-ing featured in The Rapidian to attracting crowds of street traffic. “The scope of this project is so far reaching words can’t even touch it,” stated the artist.

The oven looks like a sleeping giant, constructed from pale grey stone and smoothed over with dirt and chalk. It’s not what you gen-erally think of when you picture a kiln: its long and odd oval shape seem unusual, but Wozniak chose this type of anagama kiln for a reason. He wanted to show the fir-ing process in a “weird, mystical way.” It looks almost prehistoric,

and Wozniak asks jokingly, “How could something so old look so d--- cool; and it hasn’t died out like the dinosaurs?” But the main focus of the project isn’t looks.

“Ki ln U” is a performance piece, from the construc-tion, to the firing, to the conversa-tions Wozniak has with every pass-erby. Chris Zoladz says that this will “show people what has to happen to pot tery to make the finished proj-ec t ,” espec ia l ly this week when the Kiln will be fired to over 2,000 degrees and stuffed with around 500 pots. To gain access to the convenient space, Todd had to gain permission from the fire and mainte-nance departments in the city, to be sure that his project wouldn’t cause a

BY JOSH DELACYStaff Writer

Harmony Brewing hopes to deepen its ties to the community this year through Black Squirrel University and other local in-volvements.

T h ree Ca lv i n g raduates, Heather, Barry and Jackson Van Dyke, started an Eastown brew-ery with the intention of provid-ing a café atmosphere — but with beer instead of coffee.

That brewery opened last Febr uar y, but according to Heather, “We’re just now getting the point where we’ve got a really really great general manager in place.”

With that manager handling the bar’s day-to-day demands, the Van Dykes now have more time to organize events and fo-cus on other aspects of running a brewery.

Black Squir rel University stands out amidst a host of recent and upcoming Harmony events. Every other week, a guest speaker will share about his or her area of expertise: poetry, barefoot run-ning, brewing, philosophy, the eclectic — almost everything is fair game.

“If you’re not interested in their topic at the beginning, you probably will be at the end,” said Heather, ‘97.

Black Squirrel University is meant to offer a type of communi-cation that is often absent outside of a college setting.

“You guys [at Calvin] get to hear from somebody who’s an expert in their field all the time — that’s normal for you, you know?” Heather said. “It’s not something that’s normal once you leave school. One thing that we miss is just sitting and talking about ideas.”

This Sunday, Oct. 7, Black Squirrel University wil l fea-ture two nationally-touring po-ets. On Oct. 16, Daniel Jesse, a philosopher, will speak on “Contemplating Leisure: Beyond Mere Amusement.” A presenta-tion on barefoot running will round out the month on Oct. 30.

Past presenters have included the Great Lakes Barbershop Chor us and R EV UE’s Beer Dude, Ben Darcie.

“I hope that Harmony Brewing

Company can be-come a nexus point for a new commu-nity of artists and t h i n k e r s ,” s a i d Barry, ’05.

The Calvin grads hope to connec t with the commu-nity through other events and activities as well. Harmony donated free pizza to Creative Youth Center’s fundraiser at The Meanwhile two weeks ago and served as host for mid-September’s 40th precinct pub crawl.

A c c o r d i n g t o Heather, Harmony is a place for a range of people with a range of purposes.

“When we were thinking about this place, we were like, ‘ ye a h , we w a nt people to come in the afternoons and write a paper and have a beer,’” she said. “We’ve got Wi-Fi.”

Har mony a l so has a basket of kids’ books, and thei r staff is trained to deal with families. All three Van Dykes have chi ldren of their own, and they took care to create a family-friendly es-tablishment.

“ I f a f a m i l y comes in, they get apple sl ices r ight aw ay,” He a t he r said.

The Van Dykes also try to use as many local ingre-dients as they can at Harmony. Their f a m i l i e s he lp e d them pick sour cher-ries by hand, for in-stance, for use in the brewery’s recent cherry beer.

“It’s all about re-lationships,” said Heather. “When they find out their product’s going to be used

in a beer, people are generally so excited about that.”

Ja c k s o n a n d B a r r y a r e Harmony’s co-head brewers, and

although their brewery is still less than a year old, the brothers have over a decade of home-brewing experience un-der their belts.

Due to s ize con-straints, Harmony has only six or seven beers on tap at any one time, but that lineup changes often. A few mainstays, such as Black Squirrel Porter and Crossroads Rye Pale Ale, will al-ways be in some part of the rotation, though, whether on tap, being brewed or being fer-mented.

“We’re always mess-ing around and trying to do something new,” Jackson said. “Even if you can’t get your one favorite, you’ll have something similar to it.”

The brothers a re current ly craf t ing a chai pumpkin ale for October, as well as their own batch of the White House’s home-brewed beer that will incorpo-rate local honey.

Harmony uses re-cycled dairy tanks and old yogurt containers to brew and ferment its beer — just one exam-ple of the repurposing that characterizes the brewery.

The building itself sat for over a decade as an abandoned liquor store before the Van Dykes renovated it. Before its liquor store days, the building was a 1920s house connected to a convenience store that was added in 1933.

A repurposed pew — thankfully a cush-ioned one — of fers seating in the back sec-tion. Wood slats from Wes te r n M ich iga n University’s old gym-nasium decorate an adjacent wall. Even the bathroom doors — leftovers from a Grand

Rapids Christian school — are local relics.

major power outage or fire.Perhaps what makes it al l

worth it, however, is the com-

munity that has already formed around the whole project. The little lot where the kiln is located

is usually crowded with people, and, of course, Wozniak’s dog, Leo (one of the perks of having

an outdoor location).The continuing theme

of ArtPrize is how the real prize isn’t the money but rather the dialogue the art inspires. Though he considers it to be cli-che, Wozniak agrees. Even now, he is continu-ally “surprised by all the people who stop by” and the friendships he has made.

“Thanks to all for the support, the food, the music, good times and chance to share while putting this thing togeth-er,” he said in a recent Facebook status.

Todd Wozniak’s kiln exemplifies the uncon-ventional nature of the art that is regularly displayed at ArtPrize, in spectacu-lar and beautiful fashion.

And if you don’t catch h im t h i s yea r, don’t worry, he’ll be around in 2013.

He’s thinking about heating a hot tub.

Todd Wozniak builds his kiln. The building of the kiln, the kiln itself and the creation of around 500 pots in the kiln is a single interactive art piece.

Some of the different types of brews offered at Harmony Brewing. Harmony focuses on providing a comfortable atmosphere of community.

This picture, taken in 1996, is of the liquor store that occupied Harmony Brewery’s current location, 1551 Lake Dr.

Todd Wozniak builds and operates a kiln for an ArtPrize piece

Harmony Brewery recycles, engages community and crafts beer

PHOTO COURTESY OF HARMONY BREWING

PHOTO COURTESY OF HARMONY BREWING

PHOTO COURTESY OF TODD WOZNIAK

NatioNal aNd World NeWs

5“ ”John Silber was a change age of the most dramatic sort. Very in-your-face.

Mr. Trachtenberg,“John Silber dies”

BY JOVIANUS ALDEN HARTOPOStaff Writer

John Silber, president and then-chancellor of Boston University from 1977 to 2003, passed away at the age of 86 due to kidney failure in his Brookline home on Sept. 27.

Known as America’s high-est paid educator with a sal-ary of $815,222, doubling that of the then-president of Harvard University, Silber became na-tionally recognized as the man who led Boston University for 25 years, bringing about change to a faltering university that was being lef t in the shad-ows by neighboring institutes Harvard and Massachuset ts Institute of Technology.

A p h i l o s o p hy g r a d u a t e with high honors from Trinity University, Silber would carry on to enrolling in Yale Divinity School for a year, studying law at the University of Texas in Austin before returning to his original roots in philosophy with both a master’s and doctorate degree from Yale in 1952 and 1956, re-spectively.

Following his education Silber remained in the academic field as he spent time teaching at Yale and Bonn University in Germany with a Fulbright scholarship.

He returned to Austin as a full professor, department head and eventually the dean of Austin College of Arts and Sciences.

Yet by 1970, his liberal poli-tics and executive aspirations had brought him into conf lict with the chairman of the Board of Regents, Frank C. Erwin Jr. Silber was dismissed as dean and

began looking for a new job, ac-cording to the New York Times.

Founded as a Methodist uni-versity in 1839, the position of presidency was not one that was

deeply-coveted and the New York Times reported that in his interview he “called the campus ugly, bemoaned a faculty laden with deadwood” and said “the university might be dying”.

Yet his ideas convinced the board of trustees to hire him, marking the beginning of a new fresh era for the university. “Dr. Silber will pick us up and throw us, and I’m afraid we need to be picked up and thrown,” one

member of the presidential search committee said, according to the Boston Globe.

Known as a tyrant and bully, and labeled as “the meanest SOB

on campus” by Nora Ephrom, Silber naturally presented his dynamic personality that includ-ed explicit hard-hitting words. Among his many outbursts in-cluded calling the English depart-ment ‘a damn matriarchy’ due to a quarter of their tenured faculty being female.

Moreover he emerged as lead-ing figure in the stand against faculty unionization as the Wall Street Journal reported that he

believed that “faculty at universi-ties have too many ‘managerial’ duties to be considered ‘labor.’”

In a tribute to Silber, the Wall Street Journal cited Peter Wood,

t h e p r e s i d e n t of the National Assoc iat ion of S c hol a r s , t h a t Si lbe r " looked upon academic administration not as a task for managers but as an intel lec t ua l c a l l i n g — not quite scholarship but something like a fierce allegiance to excellence of the mind."

His aggressive behavior even led to “10 deans and three-quarters of the faculty as-sembly in 1976 who called for his resignat ion be-cause they were unhappy with his autocratic style,” according to the Washington Post.

Nevertheless Silber did not see himself gov-erning with an autocratic fist as he told the Boston Globe in 1980 that “I’m a model of civility.” William Bennett US Secretary of Education under Reagan took to his mentor’s side arguing that, “Silber is frank and manly and direct. There isn’t enough of that these days. He believes human beings should be spoken to as if they were human beings, not as if they were flowers.”

John Silber, Boston University autocratic reformer, dies at 86Stepping down in 1996, Silber

believed that his greatest con-tribution “has been to declare that there is one university in the country with no interest in intellectual fads, in following propaganda and ideology.”

Throughout his presidency, “BU’s endowment went from $18.8 million to $430 million and its physical plant more than doubled,” according to the Boston Globe.

Moreover, “he raised tuition to Ivy League levels and tight-ened admission standards, but enrollment nevertheless climbed to 30,000 from 20,000. He also financed $700 million in new construction and tripled the uni-versity’s property holdings, ac-cording to the New York Times.

In 1990, Silber took leave and became involved within the politi-cal arena where he campaigned for governor, creating an upset victory in the democratic pri-mary before losing narrowly to Republican William Weld, a former federal prosecutor.

Robert A Brown, the univer-sity president, wrote that “Boston University as lost a great leader”, a man who was “responsible for the transformation of a regional, primarily non-residential insti-tution with minimal research and scholarship into the modern Boston University.”

According to the Washington Post, Stephen J. Trachtenberg said, “You know the expression ‘you can’t make an omelet with-out breaking an egg?’ John Silber made a two-egg omelet breaking 20 eggs. He was a change agent of the most dramatic sort. Very in-your-face.”

John Silber, pictured here in 1999, was the leading reformer in BU politics.FILE PHOTO

BY KATEYLN BOSCHGuest Writer

Officials began drilling in a renewed effort to recover the body of Jimmy Hoffa last Friday. Hoffa, a prominent leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared on July 30, 1975.

A t i p l e d o f f i c i a l s t o Roseville, Mich. suburbs last week. The tipster did not say they body was Hoffa’s, but the body was supposedly bur-ied around the time of Hoffa’s disappearance. F u r t h e r , t h e former owner of the house has connections to organized crime.

Radar detected an anoma-ly below the slab of concrete where Hoffa is allegedly buried. However, the samples taken Friday showed no visible signs of a body.

The samples were sent to Michigan State University for further tests. The police await the results that will confirm or deny the presence of a body. Police are not convinced that it is Jimmy Hoffa’s body, despite the evidence.

“We are strictly investigating this as a cold case homicide and that has been our focus from the beginning,” said Roseville Police Chief James Berlin to CNN re-porters. “If it somehow happens to be Mr. Hoffa, well great, that will end a major mystery.”

Calvin history professor James Bratt said the murder mystery ele-ments of the former labor union

leader’s disappearance attract people to the case.

“It’s interesting that it’s a mur-der mystery combined with or-ganized crime,” Bratt said. “It’s an interesting combination of different TV plots.”

T he n i g h t Hof f a d i s a p -peared, he was to meet with

Anthony Giacalone and Anthony Provenzano, both mafia leaders. Both Giacalone and Provenzano denied the meeting taking place. His car was found at the res-taurant but there was no sign of Hoffa.

Many theories developed over the past 37 years about what hap-pened to him.

One theory put the corpse un-derneath the New York Giants’ stadium while another said he was killed by federal agents and the body was dropped from a plane over the Great Lakes.

In 2006 the body was believed to be on a farm 30 miles from where Hoffa disappeared. The information given was described to be the most credible lead since Hoffa disappeared.

The ongoing search has opened a dialogue about the relevance of the case. The police chiefs lead-ing the investigations think it

necessary to do all that is possible finish the case. “I would like to bring closure to his family and the tens of thousands of Teamsters that idolize this man, and just the southeast of Michigan," Berlin said.

Milford Police Chief Wayne Walli told Detroit Free Press

reporters in 2006 he would be criticized if a body was later found by the owner of the property and the police failed to search when they received the tip.

"Certainly the in-formation was cred-ible,” Walli said to Detroit Free Press reporters. “It was necessary to pursue it.”

S o m e o f t h e Calvin community think the search is not worth the con-tinued effort.

Freshman Megan Vander Hulst stressed that the case has gone on for 37 years.

“The case just doesn’t real-ly seem that important,” said Vander Hulst. “The police have so many other things that could use their resources.”

Bratt said that the focus on the case is wrong. He is more concerned with where the mil-lions of dollars went than the whereabouts of the body. “The guy is dead,” he said. “That is pretty clear.”

Bratt believes that the drama of the disappearance distracts people from the larger issue of workers receiving fair compensa-tion. His father was a member of the Teamsters union.

“The pension was terrible,” said Bratt. “As usual, the point is gone with the wind and people are more interested in the soap opera aspect.”

BY CHRISTINE BENNETTStaff Writer

I srael i Pr ime Min is te r Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the General Assembly of the United Nations last Thursday, stressing again the threat of the Iranian nuclear program and demanding stron-ger measures.

Holding up a cardboard cartoon depiction of a bomb, he drew a bold red line below the label “final stage,” stating that Iran may just back off if nations gave them a clear cut red-line. Prime Minister Netanyahu did not state what Israeli actions would be if Iran reached the “final stage” of developing a nuclear weapon — a point which experts put at being 10 percent from having sufficient weapon grade mate-rial — but military actions are clearly implied.

Prime Minister Netanyahu continued to say that Iran backing down from the bold red line would gain more time for further sanctions and other peaceful measures of persuad-ing the country to completely abandon plans for nuclear weapons.

As for when Iran might reach that line, the Israeli Prime Minister speculated that it would be sometime during the spring or summer of 2013, postponing it conveniently until after the American presi-dential elections coming up in a month. America has so far refused to put forth a similar ultimatum.

A leaked report from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, pub-lished earlier the same day, also called for heavier sanc-tions. An international report by the Foreign Ministry was leaked to a local news agency,

Haaretz, and published the morn-ing of the same day as Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the UN. An anonymous Israeli official familiar with the report confirmed the published details.

The report stated that current sanctions have already had a heavy impact on Iranian econ-omy, and may even be caus-ing instability in the Tehran government. But current sanc-tions have not been enough to deter the Iranian government from continuing in its pursuit of nuclear weapons, therefore the report called for a new round of heavy sanctions. If these seems to show weakening of Israel’s stance against Iran, the Israeli Defense Minister offers a counteracting opinion, saying that the govern-ment should do what it could to avoid war, but ultimately, Israel would do what it needed to, “even at a painful price.” Sanctions al-ready in place have indeed been weakening the Iranian economy. Haaretz reported that Iran has lost up to half of its oil exports, which adds up to $40 billion since the start of this year.

The New York Times also reported increased inf lation in the rial, Iran’s already unstable currency. It went from 24,600 rials to buy 1 dollar on the last Monday of September, to 34,800 rials for 1 dollar the first Monday of October. The Central Bank of Iran also adopted a policy change as of Sept. 23, establish-ing a “foreign exchange center” with preferential rates for those importing necessary goods, such as meat, medicine, or grains.

But instead of calming wor-ries, the new policy only served to escalate fears that the central bank was running low on dollars. Food prices continue to rise, almost doubling since last year, reported the Shargh, a moderate newspaper in Iran, using reports from the Central Bank.

Sanctions on Iran called forSearch for Jimmy Hoffa continues after 37 years

Hoffa was reportedly said to be buried under this driveway.FILE PHOTO

Fe atures6

Sometimes dramatic, always sentimental, Nate Demio’s Memory Palace explores the parts of history you never knew about but should. In five to 10 minutes, Demio tack-les the true but strange events from Galloping Gertie to John Wilkes Booth’s brother saving Lincoln’s son. Recently the Memory Palace has been co-opted into the podcast collective Maximum Fun, where he will actually be paid now for making his audiences cry. Thank goodness for that. Hopefully he will never ever stop.

In this show about design, host Roman Mars shows his audience the power of architecture and design. As the title implies, Mars speaks of design hidden in plain sight. Produced beautifully with layered sound bites and an engaging atmosphere, 99% Invisible stands with the best podcasts despite its small staff size and fund-ing. And it’s only getting better. Coming out of San Francisco’s KALW, 99% Invisible has very recently been critically acclaimed for its extremely successively Kickstarter campaign this summer, ranking as the most funded journalism project on the site with $170,000 donated. With a newly garnered reputation and fund-ing, 99% Invisible starts its third season this fall.

If Radiolab had to be described in one word, that word would be enthusiasm. That and science. Centering around one idea (such as love or space or identity), Radiolab investigates the sci-ence and stories surrounding the subject. Though now one of the most well-known podcasts out there, Radiolab did not start off that way. Headed up by host Jad Abumrad and, in later episodes, Robert Krulwich, Radiolab started off as an hour-long program on WNYC. Although it still operates as a radio program, it fits comfortably into the podcast genre and, indeed, acts as a primary influence for many aspiring hosts today. Hosts Abumrad and Krul-wich pull their audience in with their personality and spontaneous musing as well as the content and quality of their stories to make Radiolab easily one of the most accessible podcasts.

As public radio’s rebellious child, Love and Radio keeps all the intellect but garners itself an explicit tag. One of the most boundary-pushing radio podcasts, Love and Radio flits around uniform recording and the traditional radio story. Host Nick van der Kolk explores stories from college love to in-home Detroit strip clubs and tells these stories while also inhibiting them. Van der Kolk shows his story, slipping into the unscripted conversation he has with his taxi driver about love and marriage. With Love and Radio, its audience never knows what to expect and is always satisfied.

The Future of Radio:

Some people think public ra-dio is a dying

art, but they are wrong. In a generation that grows up with iPods and auxiliary cords for their cars, it may seem like radios are becom-ing more and more out of place. However, thanks to new ways to access, radio is flour-ishing. Satellite and Internet radio are among the advances in radio, but what seems to be most principal is the new(ish) form of the podcast. This new form allows for a larger amount of smaller shows, which are increas-ingly creative. It allows for another easy way for aspiring storytellers and journalists to share information and beauty with the world. Plus, they are fun. So, if you want to be enter-tained without checking out to another rerun of “Friends,” you should check out some of these podcasts (all of which can be download-ed for free in the iTunes podcast section).

A small guide

to the endur-

ing presence of the radio and its unique Storytellers

BY MAXWELL DAVID HOWARDFeatures Editor

Radiolab

99% Invisible

The Memory Palace

Love + Radio

FILE SOURCE

FILE SOURCE

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

7“ ”Part of the fun is the unpredictability of where Efterklang is going to go next.

Jason Miller, “‘Piramida’ an excursion into isolation ”

Live Paint with live musicians creates a unique ArtPrize exhibit

BY JASON MILLER Guest Writer

As an indie band f rom Denmark that is classif ied primarily in the “alternative folk” genre, Efterklang isn’t a band that many people could be expected to have listened to, let alone heard of.

Although they have been around since 2003, they have only put out three albums previously, be-fore their Sept. 25 release of thei r newest work, “Piramida.” Although not a well-recognized art-ist over here in the United States, the story behind their new album in addi-tion to their unique music make Efterklang one of the more interesting bands out there.

Usually, music is a sum of all of the parts of the band; the emotional state of all of the members, the experiences and ideas of the writers, and the skill of the musicians. For “Piramida,” the environment of the record-ing is perhaps what influences the feel and mood of the album the most.

The title is taken from the name of an abandoned min-ing town on an island that sits on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle, in perhaps one of the most desolate and lonely loca-tions in the world.

This choice of location sets the tone for the album. If there

BY KATE PARSONSOn-Call Writer

“We’re going to be singing about death,” opened David Gungor, lead singer for The Brilliance. The audience laughed nervously. But as the strings swelled and piano filled the audi-torium, the audience settled back.

The Brilliance is a different kind of band. With an electric guitar and drum set, but also a grand piano and full string section, its sound is musically complex and different.

Ken Heffner, director of stu-dent activities at Calvin College, said he heard The Brilliance open for the band Gungor, led by David Gungor’s brother Michael, last spring. “I went up to [David Gungor] after the concert and said, ‘let’s see about get ting you back here to play your own show.’”

“They are reinventing worship music and taking it in what we would argue is a better direction,” he said. “At least, much more theologically robust and aestheti-cally complex.”

The Brilliance was at Calvin for a performance on Friday night, but band members also spent the morning leading chapel and doing workshops with Calvin music students. They rehearsed and used several Calvin string players in their show.

But though The Bril liance led worship in chapel on Friday morning, members would hesi-tate to label themselves a worship band.

In a conversation with the band after the show, John Arndt, pianist and composer for The Brilliance, said, “We find what we do to be art. I wouldn’t neces-sarily call this in the genre of wor-ship music…what we’re doing is making something beautiful and presenting it.”

“It definitely wasn’t what I

MATT MEDENDORPGuest Writer

The members of Paint in Action resemble regular artists except for two things. One: their canvases spin on their aisles. Two: they paint music.

That’s right: music.Friday night at the Looking

Box the band Bennett played while artists Tali Farchi and Royce Deans painted for an ArtPrize exhibit.

They are members of an art group called Paint in Action, a company whose mission is to focus on “art without boundar-ies.” They take a multimedia approach to artwork by combin-ing the genres of paint, music and sometimes even dance.

“I’m painting music,” said Farchi. “I’m not painting the musicians or the instruments; I’m

painting sound.”“We paint music, which is

different than painting to music or painting with music,” added Deans. “We internalize the music and respond to it.”

Both Farchi and Deans sit in front of rotating canvases when they paint, their backs to the mu-sicians. Focused intently on their work, they apply brush strokes in time with the beat, increasing and decreasing their rate of work in conjunction with the melody.

For the two painters, live music is an essential part of the experi-ence. The duo painted to recorded music last year at ArtPrize. This year’s presentation, according to them, was entirely different.

“The painting is more direct and has more life than recorded music,” said Farchi “What we did here, with only live musicians, has much more life.”

For Deans, having the musi-

cians in the room makes for better art.

“There’s so much more ener-gy,” said Deans. “The experience is so much better when we’re in a room with the musicians that are actually generating the vibrations that are making the sound.”

“The personalities of the musi-cians bring life to our painting,” added Farchi.

Energy and personality are two things Bennett has in abundance. The young band is active on stage, stomping feet and moving with their music. Between sets they engage the audience in banter, al-ternately promoting future shows and making jokes at each other’s expense. Their “vibrancy,” as Farchi phrased it, contributes to the atmosphere of the room. The audience has a chance to actively engage a collaboration of music and art, each enhancing the other.

“It’s really cool to see the

arts interacting together,” said Bennett violinist, mandolin play-er and vocalist Nick Rolls. “A lot of the time people leave the visual out of the music, but it’s an incred-ible representation of what music and art can be.”

For Bennett guitarist and vo-calist Josiah Gentry, Friday night offered a snapshot of Grand Rapids.

“It felt like a perfect picture of Grand Rapids,” said Gentry. “There’s always these little hubs, things that not everyone knows is going on but they’re the coolest things. Tonight was a reminder of that, it was a privilege, and an excellent experience.”

The Grand Rapids-based Bennett is composed of three members: Nick Rolls, Josiah Gentry and Nicholas Warren. They combine the sounds of keyboard, accordion, violin, man-dolin, guitar and vocals to create

a unique blend of sound.And it seems to be working for

them. Bennett spent the summer touring around the Midwest and, in August, they won the compe-tition GR’s Got Talent. Their success this summer helped them begin work on an EP, which is scheduled for release some time next month.

This isn’t the first time Bennett and Paint in Action have worked together, and it may not be the last.

Bennett vocalist, keyboard-ist, and accordionist Nicholas Warren said the band enjoys the atmosphere of the shows with Paint in Action.

The affection is mutual.“Those guys are fabulous.”

Farch i sa id about Bennet t , “Thei r sound dr ives me to paint.”For more information visit bennettband.com, and pain-tinaction.com

expected,” said sophomore Laura Sheppard. “I was expecting a concert like any other concert. But it was a full experience. The way they had the orchestra and the way it built up was a form of worship itself.”

B u t t h e b e a u t y o f T h e Brilliance’s music isn’t just in its rich orchestrations. The lyrics are also complex. The band doesn’t rely on a repetitive verse-chorus structure, but write songs like stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Some lyrics come di-rectly from the psalms, others from church prayers.

Heffner thinks this is an en-couraging trend. “We need to have worship music that address-es the full range of the biblical story, not just the gospel,” he said. “The story of being a Christian is a very big story and our worship music should express that, and often doesn’t.”

The Brilliance sings praise music, but also songs of lament and confession. It just released an album celebrating advent, but another album focuses on the mournfulness of the Lenten season.

“We grew up in this tradition where if you’re suffering there’s something wrong with you,” said Gungor. “But I don’t think you can get to hope without suf-fering.”

The Brilliance, along with bands like Gungor, is breaking new ground in worship music, whether or not they would choose that label for themselves. By sheer talent and quality, they set themselves apart. Aesthetically gorgeous, their orchestrations are equal matches for lyrics that are deep and Biblically based.

“Worship is a time when the body of Christ comes togeth-er and is reminded of what we need to believe,” said Heffner. “With The Brilliance it’s not just a g lor i fying t ime; it ’s a teaching time.”

‘Piramida’ an excursion into isolationBand brings new worshipwas one word to describe the mu-sic of “Piramida” as a whole, it would be “isolation.” Throughout the entirety of the tracks, neither the vocals nor the music seem to try to take center stage.

W he n f r o n t m a n C a s p e r Clausen sings, his voice softly echoes and sways. When the in-struments are playing, a diverse mix of electronic and acoustic pieces, they always seem to be

restrained, never culminating in a striking movement or overpow-ering the song. “Piramida” is a passive album, with numerous background noises that make it feel like the listener is isolated themselves. The effect is unnerv-ing at first, but the longer one listens to the album, the better it feels.

It fits the coffeehouse vibe; mu-sic that sounds better when relax-ing to it playing in the background than it does when one actually sits

down and focuses on it.The overall tone aside, the mu-

sic is solid. Efterklang comes off as a softer Coldplay, with similar-sounding vocals but a much more somber and introspective feel. “Told to Be Fine” is a high-point of the album, mixing a cascade of synthesizers with distinct drumbeats to make an almost dream-like work that sounds like Casper is thinking the song aloud.

The effect is mesmerizing, and leaves the listener want-ing more when it’s finished.

Another particularly enjoy-able song is “Dreams Today,” which is perhaps the most uplifting song on the entire album. Although most of it is simply piano, the constant playing injects a fresh breath of life to the somber-sounding second half of “Piramida.”

It breaks down some of the isolation of the rest of the work, and although it is comparatively short at three minutes long, the effect is marvelously satisfying.

Overall, “Piramida” is defi-nitely an album that will make

you think and wonder. The isolating mood and haunt-

ing sounds inspire many different feelings over the course the re-cord, ranging from uplifting highs to somber lows. Part of the fun is the unpredictability of where Efterklang is going to go next.

Each song is unique in its own way, but works beautifully when listened to as a cohesive work. This culminates in a deeply satis-fying album that makes listening to it an enriching experience.

PHOTO BY RYAN STRUYK

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

served to benefit her sound — her music still sounded full and complete. And the power of her music really rests on her voice, anyway, so doing away with a little extra noise couldn’t hurt her.

But her music, excellent as it was, was only half the show. The other half was just listening to her as she rambled and told stories in between her songs. Stage banter always runs the risk of being painfully awkward. Some artists, though amazing, were not meant to talk to people, which is why Ingrid’s talk-ing was a breath of fresh air. Her involving stage banter seemed to come to her so natu-rally, not only adding humor to

her performance, but a large dose of sincerity.

Sometimes, her ramblings

would lead her into impromptu songs. One such time, as she was discussing Lady Gaga, she de-

INGRID: puts on perfectly balanced showcided that Lady Gaga has a baby goat named Phil, which then led to her singing and playing piano

about baby goats to the tune of “Poker Face.”

She also had no qualms with talking to members in the audience, actually listen-ing and talking to a few of the more chatty ones. One disgruntled student was upset to find out that she was mar-ried, and putting on the tone of a royal princess, Ingrid told him that he must duel for her love out on Commons lawn.

Ingr id Michaelson le t down her guard enough to be a goofball in front of ev-eryone, removing some of that awful aura of celebrity we like to rub on musicians, and everyone at the show

benefited for it. She is truly tal-ented musician, and she put on a memorable show.Gungor wished to make a Christian album in a fresh, new way.

FILE PHOTO

FILE PHOTO

SCIENCE ANDTECHNOLOGY

8 “ ”I might join if I become a stay-at-home dad. They have some recipes on there.

Richard Martin, “Pinterest attracts”

BY JENNIFER KANGGuest Writer

Pinterest, a popular social media site, f inds its popular-ity pulled towards only certain kinds of users — women. What deters most men from using the site?Pinterest describes itself as “a content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard.” It might not sound particularly groundbreaking or exciting; however, the response proves otherwise. Roughly two years after its launch, the site boasts 10.4 million users ac-cording to David Wallace’s ar-ticle “Pinterestingly Enough: Interesting Pinterest Stats.”

However, these impressive numbers are very much slanted toward one particular demo-graphic: women. Of the 10.4 mil-lion Pinterest users, 80 percent are women and 20 percent are men. And that statistic doesn’t seem all that different in the Calvin com-munity. “I joined the site because of all the do-it-yourself content,” said Annette Brouwer, a senior. And many other American users

would agree with that reason. Wallace’s article states that the top five Pinterest interests in the United States are crafts, gift ideas, hobbies and leisure, interior design and fashion collections. These are not the top interests that could potentially entice male users.

Many male stu-dents responded to questions about P i n t e r e s t w i t h st range looks or stated “I don’t know a ny t h i n g a b out that” when asked about Pinteres t . However, one male student, Richard Martin, seemed to know a little more than the others. “I think Pinterest is …” he covers his mouth with his hand momen-tarily before continuing, “dumb,” said Martin, a junior. “People go on the site and just look at the do-it-yourself stuff, and they don’t even end up doing it. It’s a mass procrastination mecha-

nism.” Elizabeth Doerop, a ju-nior, agrees with Martin to some extent, “I go on the site because it gives me something mindless to

do when I am bored.” Pinterest gives Calvin female students a way to procrastinate by looking at things they enjoy.

But would changing the top interests help bring in more male users? When asked that question,

Martin looked unconvinced.Pinterest is usually filled with images of things you could or should do. “Ultimately, I don’t

think men respond well to that. They like to do things on their own.” Martin said. Brouwer would argue that it is maybe it is the occasion for all the do-it-yourself content, “There are so many wedding things on there. No wonder men want to run away from it.”

Pinterest is essen-tially geared toward women now. And it is hard to rip that demographic audi-ence in mind when even thinking about the site.The font the site uses on its name and logo reveals a lot

about the site. Brower mentioned that the word ‘Pinterest’ and its logo on the site use pretty, swirly letters, which look feminine. Also, Doerop said that the simple one page scroll down, rather than the clicking to the next page ap-

peals to her.However, Brower does critique

certain formats of the site, “The pinboards and system of organi-zation annoy me. They could do better, but I don’t know particu-larly how at the moment.”

Emily Diener, a fifth-year se-nior would agree. She said that she had joined the site because she wanted a way to organize all of her projects. But she soon gave up when she found that the site was a bit too complicated to use.

Even with these slight cri-tiques, the site has become a woman’s domain. And it looks like it will be hard to change its domain to be more inclusive toward men. With 80 percent of users being women, this will only fill the site with content that inter-ests them, making it a site geared to women.

And the lackluster response from male Calvin students sug-gests that it will be difficult to talk about Pinterest, let alone join the site any time soon.

But maybe it isn’t a hopeless cause. “I might join if I become a stay-at-home dad. They have some recipes on there,” Martin says with a smile.

BY CATHERINE KRAMERGuest Writer

October usually signals the start of Grand Rapids’ most col-orful time of the year, with leaves turning red, orange and yellow before beginning to fall slowly as the month progresses.

This year, however, our time in autumn hues may be severely limited.

The ef fect of the summer drought may still be visible in the fall season’s trees, as a lack of precipitation in recent months may lead to a dull and short-lived color leaf display this fall.

“I’ve heard that the trees aren’t supposed to be as colorful this fall,” said Jeanette Henderson, program manager at Calvin’s ecosystem preserve. “It makes sense, because trees drop their leaves earlier if they’re stressed.”

While the dry summer will continue to show its effects on tree health, the change in leaf color may not have a drastic im-pact on the beauty of the season.

“Trees under stress tend to turn

color a little faster and a little earlier in the year, but I would be surprised if the differences would be significant enough that we could see those changes,” said biology professor David Dornbos.

From Dornbos’ win-dow, t he tops of the t rees on Commons lawn are visible. Some of the leaves on those trees have begun to change, while many re-main green.

“[The colors] feel pretty nor-mal to me,” he said while sur-veying the over campus.

Students are also taking note of the trees this year and hoping to enjoy them while they can.

“I love how beautiful campus is in the fall,” said senior Katie Nelessen. “I would be really dis-

BY JONATHAN HIELKEMAStaff Writer

Before the turn of the current millennium, political campaign-ing was largely based on polling. Presidential and legislative candi-dates’ operations would analyze data and formulate plans based on where they were popular and where they needed to improve in order to take office. Today, how-ever, social sciences, particularly behavioral psychology, are having an influence on how campaigns are operated.

The Associated Press has learned that Mitt Romney’s presi-dential campaign is investing large sums of money into im-proved data mining and analysis techniques. Jack Gillum reports that, “The project employs strate-gies similar to those the business world uses to influence the way Americans shop and think. Now they’re being used to sway presi-dential elections.”

Romney’s campaign is em-ploying the services of Buxton

Customer Analytics, a company that is affiliated with Bain, the finance business once run by the Republican presidential nominee. Buxton takes in data from records and business reports and can pro-duce “household level” analysis on purchas-ing, voting or other behav-iors.

According to the compa-ny’s website, t h e y s e r v e organizations ranging from municipal governments and hea lth-care providers to f inancia l institutions a nd res tau-rants. They collect their data by paying out for access to expensive databases of information col-lected about everything from vot-ing history to credit ratings. The idea is that presidential elections, especially, are decided by turn-

appointed if we missed out on the bright colors.”

While many are concerned over the problems with trees, it is

difficult to determine the exact causes of leaf-changing speed.

“There is a huge combina-tion of factors at play here,” said Henderson. “Each year is differ-ent, and there is a lot of science

behind figuring out how it all works together.”

It appears that the dry weather is playing an important role in

speeding up the color change this year.

“Color change is largely driven b y i nc r e a s i n g night length, but the start and rate of color change can in turn be m o d i f i e d b y plant stress,” said Dornbos. “It is p o s s i b l e t h a t the dry and hot weather earlier this summer is speeding the pro-gression up.”

T r e e s a l s o show st ress by failing to produce

fruit. Watch how many acorns an oak tree produces, suggests Dornbos.

“If you start sensing low num-bers of acorns, that’s a sign of a low-energy plant,” he said.

“Producing seeds is a secondary need for perennial plants. They only produce fruit if they have extra energy. Otherwise, they are focused on survival.”

In addition to the potential aesthetic issues, trees are fac-ing several other problems be-cause of recent weather patterns. Bugs have become an increasing problem for trees and plants, and not just because of hot, dry summers.

“Warm winters are more prob-lematic than summers because in-sects exert negative effects when they are not killed in the cold,” said Dornbos. He also said that the survival of more bugs through the winter is one of factors that led to the recent upswing in West Nile virus cases.

Amid the troubles facing trees this season, Henderson remains hopeful.

“There sure are some beautiful trees out there,” she said, looking out at the expansive preserve, with reds and yellows just start-ing to show. “I hope people get the chance to appreciate it before it’s all gone.”

out and by thin margins in so-called “swing-states.” Targeting indiv iduals rather than i l l -def ined or scat tered groups a n d g e t t i n g t h e i r s u p -p o r t i s s e e n a s k e y in the new political order. Voters,

however, are not the only targets of data mining. With a record amount of funds expected to be raised in this election, finding donors who are willing to give even small amounts could be crucial.

To m B u x t o n , t h e c h i e f executive of the company, is con-fident in his business’s ability to deliver results for its clients. “I can look at data of any kind and say, ‘I want to know who that $100 donor could be.’ We can look

at data of any kind.”

There are no records of pay-ments from the campaign to Buxton, which could be an in-dication that Romney and his campaign wanted to keep the analytics company’s in-volvement a secret.

The Obama campaign is also making use of these new technologies and so-cial science mechanisms to help increase voting and donating. Supporters of the Democratic candidate can connect to the so-called “Dashboard” where

activists can link up and com-municate with one another. Analysts have been impressed with the scale and sophistica-tion of Obama’s efforts a well as Romney’s. “It’s all about the data this year and Obama has that … any small advantage could absolutely make the difference,” technology strategist Andrew Rasiej said to Politico.

For voters, this could have some uncomfortable implica-tions. Though voters and donors are often more supportive of candidates to whom they feel a personal connection, they might be disturbed by the exacting level of detail candidates have about their personal lives.

Where politicians see opportu-nities to get people more involved and hopefully vote for them, many citizens are feeling wary of the invasive practices. With most Americans’ lives being in-creasingly lived in the realm of computers, however, the age of easy corporate access to personal information appears unlikely to fade away anytime soon.

Summer drought conditions may shorten, dull fall color

Pinterest attracts a majority female user base and community

Presidential candidates hope to sway election with data mining techniques

Calvin walkers may notice trees turning color earlier this fall.

Pinterest is 80 percent women, failing to interest males.

Obama’s Dashboard service connects grassroots campaigners.

IMAGE BY JOHN MUYSKENS

PHOTO BY MAKENZIE BUEHLER

DASHBOARD.BARACKOBAMA.COM

SPORTS9“ ”

This was an important game for us. We went in expecting a super tough game.

Paige Capel, “Winning ways continue”

BY JESS KOSTERSports Editor

The men’s golf team has ex-tended its lead in the MIAA to 20 strokes. On Monday, they headed out to the Wuskowhan Player’s Club for the MIAA Jamboree hosted by Hope.

Calvin shot a score of 304, 11 strokes better than second-place Alma. Trine, who trailed Calvin by two strokes heading into the competition, was 20 strokes be-hind Calvin after the round.

Senior Dave Sarkipato shot a nine on the third hole but was able to overcome and take first place with a score of 73. It was Sarkipato’s f irst medalist honor of his collegiate career. Junior Mark Allen shot a 75 for a second place tie. Senior Ben Kuiper and junior Jake Hoogstrate shot rounds of 78 and sophomore James Van Noord had 80 strokes.

Calvin left the day with a 22 stroke lead in the MIAA.

On Thursday, in the team’s make-up game from Trine last week, Calvin took fourth with 297 strokes. Trine won with 288 strokes followed by Hope and Adrian with scores of 291 and 294 respectively.

Hoogstrate led the Knights shooting a 72 for a seventh-place tie. Kuiper shot a 74, Sarkipato

a 75, and Allen and VanNoord both shot 76.

With this fourth-place finish, the Knights’ lead in the MIAA was shortened to 13 strokes.

On Saturday at Alma’s home course of Pine River Country Club, the Knights took back seven strokes to bring their lead to 20 strokes.

The Knights shot a 301, three strokes ahead of Hope. Kuiper led the team with a 73, which put him in second place. Sarkipato had 75 strokes. Hoogstrate shot a 76 followed by VanNoord with a 77. Allen shot an 82. Sophomore Michael Wierenga shot a 77 as an alternate.

T h i s i s t he fou r t h t i me this season that the Knights have taken f i rst at a MIAA Jamboree. This is the most in school history for first place finishes in a single year. With two MIAA competitions left and a 20-stroke lead, the Knights are not letting up.

“20 strokes is not enough with two tournaments to play. We have to go out and win [Monday] to put ourselves in good shape going into the final tournament at the Medalist. Golf is a crazy game and anything can happen. We’ve played well but haven’t won any-thing,” commented Hoogstrate.

The Knights play again on Tuesday at Albion for their final MIAA Jamboree.

Men’s golf adds to leadBY JEFF MEITLER

Guest Writer

The varsity men’s and wom-en’s cross country teams placed third in a stacked field which boasted some of the nation’s best NCAA Division III com-petition on Friday.

The varsity teams spent the day running across the beautiful course at the Notre Dame Invitational while the JV squad ran at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational.

On the men’s side, seniors Dan Kerr and Matt Vander Roest led the way, placing fourth and sixth respectively. Both runners got out hard and held on to their positions, each running under the vaunted 25 minute barrier.

The team, ranked sixth in the nation, was round-e d o u t b y j u n i o r G r e g Whittle in 25:13, senior Job Christiansen in 25:22 and junior Sam Kerk in 25:27. Calv in was edged by the team ranked first in the na-tion, North Central College, and NCAA Division II un-ranked University of Texas at Arlington.

“We just need all the pieces to come together; it’s the last 10 percent that needs work,” said Vander Roest. The team was in first place with about

one kilometer to go in the eight-kilometer race.

“That’s a loaded question, I gotta go to Wendy’s right now,” responded head coach Brian Diemer when asked about how the race went.

“We just didn’t f inish the race the way we wanted to,” he continued, more seriously. “We fought of f a couple of surges from North Central but over the last 1,000 meters, we re-ally hit the wall. On the good side, we are making progress. To be able to take North Central into the fifth mile of the race shows that we are getting somewhere.”

O n t h e w o m e n’s s id e , ju n io r Nicole Michmerhuizen had a fantastic race, placing fifth overall in a blister-ing 17:49.

“I was excited about my race and I am look-ing forward to building off of it the rest of the season,” she said after the race.

“Our pack was extremely strong, running together through most of the race, and finishing within nine places of each other,” coach Diemer said about the race.

Senior Alyssa Penning, ju-nior Alyssa Oram and fresh-man Mackenzie Diemer f in-i shed toge ther tak ing 29 th through 31st place, all around

18:20. The team placed third behind two Division I teams, Texas Christian University and Notre Dame.

On Saturday, the Knights c o m p e t e d a t t h e L o y o l a Lakef ront Invitat ional. The men’s team placed 14th and the women’s 20th out of 47 teams.

Senior Kevin Peterson headed the charge finishing 66th place in a time of 26:20.

“I was impressed with Kevin Peterson takingit out and just going for his best that he could. He developed a ver y s t rong race in a crazy f i e l d w i t h a lot of turns and a lo t of bod-i e s . [ J u n i o r ] Phillip Spitzer h a d a v e r y strong race, one of his better CC

performances,” coach Diemer said after the race.

Sophomore Kate Ardinger was Ca lv i n’s f i r s t f i n i she r on the women’s side in 76th place and 18:49 for the five kilometer.

“It was a good day for a race. It wasn’t windy in the windy c ity,” said Ardinger. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Jodi [Hoekstra].” Hoekstra has been assistant coaching this year.

XC places third at Notre Dame Invite

BY SYDNEY CHIPMANStaff Writer

At the third MIAA Jamboree of the year, the women’s golf team took fourth overall, earning a team score of 342 strokes in South Bend, Indiana on Wednesday, Sept. 26.

Jun ior Carl ia Canto was Calvin’s top golfer, placing fourth individually with an 83. Freshman

Casey Harkema h a d a n 8 5 , s e -nior Elise Doezema a n 8 6 , freshman Jennie Poole an 88 and senior Rachel Whitaker a 101.

A t t h e C a l v i n / H o p e Division I I I Chal lenge, the Calvin Knights took second in the two-day challenge. After pos t i ng a score of 348 on Fr id ay, t he K n ig ht s c a me back with a st rong score of 340 on Saturday, coming to a two-day total of 688.

Canto had a 75 on Saturday to take f i rst place in the f i-nal tournament standings as she carded a round of 80 on Fr iday. Doezema picked up the pace on Saturday with a round of 83 after shooting 91 on Friday.

Friday’s initial 18-hole round was hosted by Calvin at the Thornapple Pointe Golf Club while Hope hosted Saturday’s 18-hole round at the Macatawa Legends Golf Club.

The Knights compete again on the Oct. 6 at Adrian’s Lenawee Country Club for the fourth MIAA Jamboree of the season.

CALVIN.EDU

CALVIN.EDU

Carlia Canto

Nicole Michmerhuizen

BY JUSTIN VANDEN ENDEOn-Call Writer

The Calvin women’s soc-cer team extended it s win-n i ng s t rea k to fou r ga mes with wins over Olivet, Saint Mary’s and Adrian this past week. The Knights are now 5-1 in conference play and 6-2 overall, moving them into second place in the MIAA.

The Knights v isited win-less Olivet this past Tuesday, hoping to notch an easy win. Calvin dominated possession and outplayed the Comets, but was unable to score in the first half.

Ca lv i n sophomore Pa ige Capel finally broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute with her third goal of the season, a tap in from close range. The goal, assisted by f reshman Taylor Te n H a r m se l , wa s a l l t he Knights needed to avoid the upset as they held on for the 1-0 victory.

The Knights outshot Olivet

Winning ways continue for women’s soccer22-6 with junior goalkeeper Ashton Hearn picking up the shutout.

The team would have to quick-ly refocus for a match against the Saint Mary’s Belles on Thursday, Sept. 27.

T h e v i s i t i n g K n i g h t s turned in another solid perfor-mance, outshooting the Belles 18 -5 ove r 9 0 m i nutes , but neither team was able to capi-talize on their chances, ending regular time 0-0.

Only two minutes into the sudden-death over t ime pe-r iod, junior Heidi Scholten c o l l e c t e d t h e b a l l i n t h e box and slid it to junior Danielle Car ter, whose f i r s t goa l of the season sealed the win for the Knights.

Saturday, Sept. 29 the Knights hosted Adrian College at Zuidema Field with a chance to take the move up the MIAA standings with a win.

Calvin started strong, holding well on defense and moving the ball quickly.

“We knew it was a big game.

We had to play composed, play fast, and in the first half we re-ally set the tone,” said senior Francesca Smith.

T he K n ig ht s worked t he ball well on offense and had 6 corner kicks in the f irst half. T hose cor ner k ick s proved vital 10 minutes in when fresh-man Sidney Kinney sent the ball to Capel for a clean header and a 1-0 lead.

A second corner kick, this time delivered by junior Kelly Koets, fell near the back post. The ensuing scramble ended with the ball in Adrian’s net as Carter found an opening through the defense and netted her second goal of the season.

Head coach Mark Recker was pleased with the special teams play.

“We have focused on produc-tion out of corner kicks,” he said.

Adrian was unable to muster any legitimate scoring opportuni-ties in the first half, and Calvin continued to play effectively through the midfield.

In the 38th minute, a skillfully-

placed pass by freshman Jamie Verbal just cleared the Adrian de-fense and found freshman Abigail Ploeg all alone in the box. Ploeg confidently slotted the ball in the bottom left corner leading the Knights to a 3-0 lead at the half.

Recker commented on the im-portance of Ploeg’s goal.

“Those finishes are key. The confidence that flows out of that carries throughout the game,” he said.

Adrian came out quickly in the second half with last year’s M I A A M V P, Sa m Ba rke r, lead ing the charge. Barker struck a ball off the crossbar early in the second half and minutes later connected with Erin Weide for Adrian’s first goal of the afternoon.

However, the Knights re-mained composed and shut down Adrian’s attack for the rest of the match, securing the 3-1 victory.

“This was an important game for us,” said Capel. “We went in expecting a super tough game.”

Calvin’s special teams were es-pecially productive in the match,

with two goals on corner kicks.“We have been practicing our

corners and practice is paying off,” said Capel.

Recker concurred, “There is a certain mentality you have to have on corner kicks, de-fensively and offensively. You really gotta hunt the ball and work yourself into position. If people are in position, corners will be an avenue of production this year.”

The win moves the Knights to second in MIAA, one point behind Alma, and puts their c u r rent w i n s t reak at fou r games, a 7-3 overal l record. Recker was pleased with the team’s progress.

“It’s an overall comfort with the product,” he said referring to his team’s play, “and that confi-dence is coming, but this product has the capacity to compete with the best teams in this league,” he said.

The women face off again on Saturday hosting Kalamazoo who is tied for third in the MIAA behind Calvin.

Women’s golf gets second

EtcEtEr a10

SUDOKU

c a m p u s s a f e t y r e p o rt9/24/2012Campus Safety took a report in regards to an individual possibly pulling down his pants and exposing himself on the fifth floor of the Hekman Li-brary. The incident was said to have occurred on Sept. 21, between 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. The suspect was described as a college-aged Asian male with black hair and wearing blue jeans. The victim said that she saw the suspect’s pants pulled down to his knees, with his buttocks exposed. The victim left the area immediately after observing the suspect with his pants down.

9/26/2012Campus Safety observed a student vehicle parked in the East beltline park-ing lot which contained fireworks and an airsoft gun. Officers contacted the student to advise him that he was in violation of Calvin College’s policy on both fireworks and weapons. The items were turned over to Campus Safety, and the information on the student was forwarded to Judi-cial Affairs.

OPINION AND EDITORIAL

11“ ”Even at Calvin, public image often is a higher prior-ity than truth.

Kyle Rodriguez, “Discussions require openness”

From the

Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the writer’s name and class. Letters received without a name will not be printed. The editors reserve the right to edit any letters. The length of the letter should be no longer than 250 words; lon-ger letters may be shortened at the editor’s discretion. The deadline for all letters is 5 p.m. on Tuesday for print on the following Friday. Send letters to chimes@calvin.edu with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line, or send your com-ments through our website: www.calvin.edu/chimes.

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BY KYLE RODRIGUEZCampus Co-Editor

A video was released a couple weeks ago containing footage of Mitt Romney making controver-sial comments while speaking at a private fundraiser in May.

The comments, which includ-ed the claim that 47 percent of Americans do not pay taxes, were heavily criticized by citi-zens and media alike. To cope with the increasing barrage of crit icism, the Romney camp quickly put together an impromp-tu news conference to temper the vitriol.

It’s a move that is common for politicians or public figures to make when less-than-popular quotes are revealed to the public. Backtracking, denying events happened, or blaming others for misquoting them are among the tactics often used to try and erase embarrassing statements.

Romney chose not to go that route, and for that, I applaud him.

While he did clarify that his comments were “not elegantly stated,” he was firm in his posi-tion that there was a large portion of Americans who would support Barack Obama solely because his policies allowed them to not pay taxes.

I’m not defending Romney’s comments, nor do I wish to de-bate the never-ending conf lict between liberal and conservative economic principles (at least, not in this particular space).

However, I am encouraged whenever public f igures are frank with their beliefs and don’t backtrack on something they

believe in.In an age when political cor-

rectness is valued as highly as it is, too often individuals are afraid to say anything remote-ly averse to popular opinion. Unfortunately, this fear leads to people sugarcoating opinions, mincing their words and just flat out avoiding situations in which they may be forced to give an honest opinion.

While this attitude is the norm for public f igures, especially ones whose jobs and careers are decided by public perception of them, I become extremely frus-trated when this attitude invades the Calvin College community.

As a Christian community that values discourse, higher learning and grace, Calvin should be an in-stitution where truth, understand-ing and honesty are prioritized. If that is the case, then ideally people should be free to give their honest opinions on issues and free to start conversations that lead to the growth and development of those involved.

Unfortunately, the more I write and edit for Chimes, the more I realize that even at Calvin, public image often is a higher priority than truth.

This week’s Chimes had sev-eral interesting leads for campus news, stories that students de-serve and would want to know about. Unfortunately, whether people involved are asked to recount events or give an honest opinion on a situation, they’ve been too afraid to attach their name on the subject, making it impossible to report on.

The problem is two-fold.First, it seems that often people

Discussions require honesty and openness

How many times have you sat down to write a paper and stared at the blank page for half an hour? What was stop-ping you? The fabled “writer’s block?” A poor understand-ing of your topic or a lack of research? A confusing assign-ment description? Just plain laziness?

I’ve experienced these all. But the older I get and the more I write, particularly in 300-lev-el classes, the more another worry pops up — originality. I worry that I have nothing new, nothing important, nothing worth reading to say. It hap-pens here in Chimes as well. I often struggle to find topics that will interest students, and I get nervous about making too many claims. Why are you reading what I have to say? What new ideas can I possibly put into your head?

Professors ask us to come up with a thesis including a “unique claim” for argumen-tation papers. We’re expected to read dozens of academic articles and books, but then use all those claims to create our own completely new idea. “Anything else is plagiarism!” they cry. “Cite every sentence you quote, every paragraph you paraphrase. (The author’s last name page number) should appear after every other sen-tence, at least! This is not your work,” they say, “so don’t take credit. But do, without includ-ing any of the thoughts you read about, come up with your own idea. Be original!”

It happens with subjective assignments as well. “Be cre-ative!” they say. “Show me something I’ve never seen be-fore! Find a new point of view, do the unexpected. You will be graded on creativity.” Very few of us, I’d venture, have the genius required to create completely new art or writing. (A note — much of this centers on the humanities. Scientific fields, it seems, have a bit more possibility for new discoveries.)

I’m not going to advocate plagiarism. No, you shouldn’t use quotes unattributed. You shouldn’t copy someone else’s artwork and claim it for your own. But there’s something wrong, I think, with a field that can’t admit that nothing is original.

That’s right, I said nothing.

Everything we say, write or create is influenced by every-thing we read, watch or hear.

Amidst all this angst about originality, I’ve been reassured lately by several writers who contend that all material is recycled and we only need to learn how to present it in a new way. Austin Kleon’s re-cent book is called “Steal Like an Artist.” “Every artist gets asked the question, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’” he writes. “The honest artist answers, ‘I steal them.’” It all comes down to deciding what to steal and how to repurpose it, he claims. It’s even in the Bible, Kleon notes. Ecclesiates 1:9 — “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

“The artist is a collector,” he writes next. And isn’t that true? An artist, someone who aims to be creative and origi-nal, is really someone who just pieces together parts of things she loves. My perfect creative act, a novel let’s say, would be Steinbeck’s characters with Safran Foer’s postmodernism and “Little Miss Sunshine’s” positivity. It might be a new story (though “there’s only one story” is a theory as well), but it’d be affected by everything I’ve ever ingested.

The lesson, really, is don’t sweat it. Creativity is a protean concept, one we’ll never truly get our hands around.

In the spirit of stealing like an artist, I’ll end with a sizable passage written by American independent film director Jim Jarmusch. In it, he argues that originality is an outdated con-cept, and reminds us to steal like an artist.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paint-ings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversa-tions, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bod-ies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, al-ways remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.’”

~ajz

at Calvin are extremely hesitant to publicly criticize the college or even different groups within the community. While I understand Calvin College’s desire to keep a positive image, it has caused the truth to be suppressed far too often. That’s not to say that stu-dents and the public should know every little detail about the inner workings of the college; that’s not practical on multiple levels.

But students and staff alike should be aware of issues on campus that affect their lives as students. As a campus, Calvin can grow and improve through honest discourse. Discussing only the positives and filtering out anything remotely negative is not a policy of honesty.

Second, people are afraid to attach their names to any opinion that may differ from anybody else’s, even if their opinion is well-reasoned and thought out. How as a community can we grow if we are afraid to even begin conversation?

If we’re too afraid to share our opinions with others, to firmly take a stand on our position, then maybe we should take a second look at those opinions. If those opinions stand up to our own scrutiny, perhaps it’s time to in-troduce them to others. Only then does growth begin.

At Calvin, the core beliefs of creation, fall and redemption are referred to daily. But a huge part of the Christian faith is our continual sanctification.

Shouldn’t that sanctification include our thoughts and opin-ions as well?

Shouldn’t we start the conver-sation?

12 Photo essay October 5, 2012