Too often, we all get caught up in a routine. An over-scheduled, hectic routine, but a routine nonetheless. Of course, it’s easy to fall into this pattern. Of course, the activities we choose are fun. Considering, however, all the great organizations and clubs on campus, I suggest for you to try something new. Be spontaneous.
Voice control is not new. In 1961, IBM constructed a computer called the Shoebox that could perform mathematical functions using spoken digits as input. But to watch Apple’s iPhone 4S release and to read reviewers’ accounts of Siri, you would think this new generation of voice control is the next killer app. And, as surprising as that conclusion is, it might just turn out to be accurate.
John Edgar Hoover took over the post of Director of the Bureau of Investigations in 1924 (they wouldn’t add the “Federal” until 1935), when an Amherst graduate sat in the White House, the Chicago Cubs hadn’t won a World Series in 18 years and race riots, union strikes and anarchist bombings made Occupy Wall Street look like child’s play. Hoover would remain in his office until the day he died 48 years later, when Tricky Dick ticked off entries on his enemies list, the Vietnam War just kept raging and the Chicago Cubs hadn’t won a World Series in 66 years.
You can tell a lot about a person by the subsections they divide their time into when asked to sum up their lives. Time spent sleeping versus time spent awake, time spent exercising versus time spent relaxing, time spent thinking about that boy or girl you like versus, well, nothing. But for the typical Amherst student, the distinction that we make is pretty clear. It is study time versus literally everything else we do in our lives. That’s a pretty fair representation of what life here is.
In turning my attention to writing about music, something I must confess I am new to, I was unsure of what to write about at first. I thought to myself: there must have been something released in the past year that means something to me. Something new that I would want to talk about. Something new that I feel an uncontrollable desire to tell everyone I meet to go out and listen to. Something relevant to a modern audience. After pondering this option, I thought, why bother?
Last Friday, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Swanson, presented a full-length program to welcome Amherst parents for Family Weekend. The program, entitled “From the New World,” opened with Richard Wagner’s prelude to his opera “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg” (“The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”), followed by Wolfgang Mozart’s concerto for piano and orchestra No. 9 in E-flat major with Alissa Leiser as solo pianist. The second half of the concert featured Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No.
Writer’s Note: The following piece is intended as satire. Please don’t take this out of context and write the newspaper angry letters.
In the wake of the recent snowstorm and power outages, people around campus are starting to ask questions about the school’s management of the crisis. We were without power for almost a full 24 hours. Classes were cancelled at Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith. Hampshire College blew up. Townies took over Val, invoking “Squatter’s Rights.”
