Early this morning, in his article “George Tepe: A Modest Endorsement,” Chris Friend wrote in support of George Tepe’s presidential run and directed many criticisms against Will Savino. Friend’s chief concern with Will, it seems, is that he is a member of Mr. Gad’s and that sometimes his commitments to improv comedy could require him to leave AAS meetings early — it is, according to Friend, “all you need to know” when deciding who to vote for.
I’m not the biggest fan of George Tepe. He seems ambitious, and quite frankly, obsessive about AAS politics. Not to mention we’ve been on the opposite side of too many issues to count.
That said, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the best man standing for the job. I have a great deal of respect for George Tepe, because he always seems to be trying to help the student body, and is open to new ideas. George Tepe cares more about the student body and the effectiveness of the AAS than probably anyone else on this campus, and it is apparent in his track record.
This weekend saw Amherst host its most famous presenter for the semester. (Spring Concert doesn’t count). Rachel Maddow, as everybody knows as the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, gave a book talk about “Drift”, some non-fiction piece about something military, something blah. Or at least, that’s what everybody was expecting right? It turns out, her critique of our country’s recent approach to war was quite fascinating, and, for the average student, revelatory.
The two latest James Franco movies, “Spring Breakers” and “Oz the Great and Powerful,” were released within weeks of each other, and could not appear to be more different. In “Spring Breakers,” sex, drugs and violence abound in pursuit of the “American dream” — embodied, in this case, by a killer spring break. “Oz,” on the other hand, is a 3D Disney wonderland with scenery stronger than its plot. Neither film is a great success, but each has its merits, and it’s quite magical to watch them back-to-back and see Franco transform from a greasy wannabe gangster into a dapper wannabe wizard.
Imagine, for a moment, that for the first time in your Amherst career, you are visiting the Mead Art Museum on your own accord. For some, this will be a fresh memory, while for others such an imaginative feat might be a near impossibility. Imagine that no class brought you to view sketches or still-lives as source materials for a project, no visiting family members brought you along on their touristic explorations of Amherst and the surrounding area and there are no Zumbyes singing among the artwork as you meander the Mead’s galleries.
This Thursday, a film screening of “The Interrupters,” a documentary on workers who prevent gun violence in Chicago, will take place in Pruyne Lecture Hall at 8 p.m. Co-sponsored by Careers in Education Professions, Black Students Union, the EDU, the Department of Film and Media Studies and the Amherst College Entrepreneurs Society, the event will feature Co-Producer Zak Piper and Ricardo “Cole” Williams, one of the three violence “interrupters” (along with Eddie Bocanegra and Ameena Matthews) whose life and work in their crime-ridden communities form the focus of the documentary.
[Trigger warning: sexual assault and misogyny]
