As a history major at Amherst, I’ve taken numerous classes specializing in slavery in the US. I thought I could understand something of the history, the pain, the suffering, the anguish. I thought, to whatever extent it was possible for a white kid in the early 21st century to know, I knew. I was wrong. Sitting in the theater watching “12 Years a Slave,” I felt the inescapable grasp of history around my neck and I couldn’t do anything about it. Never before have I felt so clearly and achingly the tragedies upon which America is built. I felt helpless, my face contorting in anguish.
When we think of hardest orchestral pieces to play, names like Mahler, Strauss, Iver, Bruckner and Wagner come to mind. Of Wagner, what comes to mind is, of course, his “Der Ring des Nibelungen” or the Ring of Nibelung. Famous for the excerpt that we call the “Ride of the Valkyries,” which appeared in the soundtrack for the iconic movie “Apocalypse Now,” this grueling 15 hour piece has been the cause of much strife and struggle for the Amherst Symphony Orchestra for the past two months.
Moving on isn’t easy, and Nicole Holofcener, writer and director of “Enough Said,” doesn’t let us forget it in her story of middle-aged love. Holofcener manages to create a romantic comedy that is at once intelligent, moving and fiercely funny, a rarity in a genre recently dominated by forgettable, formulaic plotlines. “Enough Said” is not escapist entertainment: the fairy-tale love affairs of quirky twenty-somethings have no place in Holofcener’s film. Rather, the characters and their difficulties are refreshingly relatable, even for the college-aged viewer.
For most of us, college is a busy, fast-paced, exciting four years. Balancing classes and extracurricular activities while maintaining a social life can take a toll on one’s health. Too often, we resort to making bad choices in the dining hall that affect us in other parts of our lives. Making a few simple changes in our eating habits can help us stay focused, energized and in a good mood throughout the day! Here are seven tips on how to “healthify” the dining hall:
I spotted him the minute he entered the room, and from that moment it was bob and weave.
We’d gotten together on the dance floor in the recent past. Things had, admittedly, gone beyond G-rated, and we’d both had a good time. But that wasn’t part of my plan for the night this time around.
The Common, a new print and online literary magazine based at Amherst College, released its newest issue (Issue 6) on Oct. 28th. Issue 6 beautifully brings together poetry, short stories, essays and images by both local and international authors. All of the pieces included in The Common fall under the overarching theme of, as Editor Jennifer Acker ’00 says in The Common’s mission statement, “a modern sense of place.” The magazine’s goal is to publish “literature and art powerful enough to reach from there to here,” and it succeeds with grace, both in Issue 6 and in past issues.
Party playlists are difficult. Sometimes you pick that song that makes the girls stop, stare in wonder, scream a bit and then dance wildly while belting out the lyrics. At other times, everyone boos you away from the speakers and asks how you could possibly have chosen that song while frantically scrolling through the iPod for one they think people will actually enjoy. I’ve been there. It’s rough. Sometimes I would love to have a 5-minute dance party by myself and then return to reality.
