Archive for June, 2010

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Make New Friends and Keep the Old: Making Plans

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Do you remember those two friends I talked about before?  The couple who recently got engaged, the guy in the Navy and the girl in college?  Well, now they’ll be farther away from each other than New York to New Jersey – try New Jersey to Washington…state, that is.  See, Navy Boy just finished his first two years of training, I guess it is, and after that comes his assignment.  In this case, he’s being sent to Washington State.  College Girl, on the other hand, is still in college, and will be for the next couple of years – not even taking grad school into consideration.  On the one hand, she could go with him.  However, for the Navy to pay for her housing Navy Boy needs to sign on for another six years – that’s a really long time.  College Girl would also have to go to school out there, and leave all of her family and friends behind for the foreseeable future.  Or, they can be separated for even longer.  It’s a tough choice, and I can’t honestly say which is better or what I would do, because their situation seems so extreme.  Navy Boy’s brothers are all in some sort of service; his younger brother is also in the Navy and is about to be shipped overseas, so I guess his family has adapted to these big changes and grown used to talking to each other over Skype only.

The reason I bring this up is because College Girl and I were recently making plans for next summer – like driving to Vegas once we’re both 21, or even just a day trip to DC when we both have the time.  These kinds of plans, though, can all fall through depending on where our lives bring us over the next year.  Like Navy Boy, just last June the thought was that he would go to Virginia…Washington is a lot farther away than Virginia.

There’s that Death Cab for Cutie song, “What Sarah Said.”  In it, Ben Gibbard sings, “And it came to me then that every plan / is a tiny prayer to father time.”  Now, okay, that song is about watching someone die, but those lyrics really work in any situation.  In two years, a year, none of us can really know where we’ll be no matter how many plans we make, or vacations we plan.  But we still make plans, hoping that despite everything else we’ll be able to meet up with so and so for this or that.  I’m not really one for change, but it happens every day regardless of my feelings or opinions.  So, College Girl and I will make our plans for trips across the country cause that’s what friends do, and Navy Boy and College Girl will make their plans to get married and talk every night, no matter where they are, because that’s what people who love each other do.  There you are, father time, a few more prayers to look over.

-Mary K

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VegEats! A Rationale

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

The poster for the wonderful documentary by Robert Kenner - a must-see!

VegEats is a Campus Clipper column where we discuss the benefits of vegan/vegetarian-friendly eating in New York City and find ways for students to eat healthy and be environmentally friendly with their food while still saving money.

I want to share with you why I went veg. I am not trying to tell you to make the same choice. But most students who move to New York City encounter a much larger number of vegetarians and vegans than they have before, and I want to offer an idea of why someone might have chosen this diet/lifestyle. And for those of you who might be considering going veg, I hope to give you some things to consider and some advice. I went veg because I researched and educated myself about how eating animals and animal byproducts affected my health, the health of the planet, and the life of the animals. What I learned upset me and made me not want to use my money to support a system that has so many negative consequences. (If you would like to educate yourself, there are a abundance of resources online. I would personally recommend the site goveg.com, as well as other resources like Robert Kenner’s excellent 2008 documentary Food, Inc.)

But I think the reason I was successful in going veg and have felt so good about the decision is I didn’t make any changes too quickly and allowed myself to work at my own timeline. There’s a term in psychology, cognitive dissonance, which means the uncomfortable feeling you get by trying to maintain two contradictory ideas simultaneously. I was brought up, like many others, believing it’s okay to eat animals. But as I learned more about the consequences of this action, I increasingly found reasons why it wasn’t. Over time, months and months, my discomfort grew so that when I ate meat or cheese or eggs, I didn’t feel good about it. The food didn’t seem satisfying anymore.

Even once I decided to actually change my diet, I did it in baby steps: I gave up red meat, then waited a few months, then gave up turkey, then waited; and when I began to consider veganism, I went on “practice runs” every few months for over a year, adopting a complete vegan diet for longer and longer periods of time. During both of these process’, I was careful to note what cravings I had and what foods assuaged them. For example, when I went vegetarian, I kept a jar of crunchy peanut butter within reach at all times – I even had one under my bed with a spoon! Whenever I was feeling sluggish or craving a cheeseburger, I ate a big scoop of crunchy PB. Almost immediately I trained my body to crave peanuts when it needed protein instead of meat; it’s amazing how quickly and easily the body will adapt to changes we make as long as we are attentive to it and make sure it gets what it needs.

I paid attention to how hungry or not hungry I felt, my energy levels, how well I was sleeping, my mood, everything. Diet is probably one of the easiest ways to change your whole life, for better or worse; making huge sudden changes and expecting your body to immediately adjust is a recipe for disaster. By the time I was fully vegetarian and fully vegan, I no longer had any craving for those foods – I knew what my body could use to replace them, and I liked being able to eat food that was not only delicious but good for me, animals, and the planet.

If you are interested in going vegetarian or vegan, that’s great – I’ll have more advice about that in future posts. But even if you’re not, college is an important time for your diet. For many of us, this is the first time we’re deciding what’s for dinner, and that’s actually a really important decision. The quality and quantity of food you put into your body affects you physically and in a multitude of other ways – underestimating the importance of a healthy diet is a huge mistake too many students make. Please research your food – where does it come from, how is it prepared, what nutrients, fats, and calories does it contain, and how will these properties affect you. Knowledge is power, so do what you came to college to do: learn.

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Broadway On A Budget

Monday, June 7th, 2010

One of the many allures of this enchanting city is what some call the Great White Way. That avenue of dreams where thousands of artists spend countless hours hoping for a chance to pursue their passion and where electric lights are as numerous as the stars. Most commonly this magical place is referred to by a single name: Broadway. Millions of tourists from across the country and around the world come to Broadway to catch a play, a musical, or a theatrical production. The problem for many, however, are the exorbitant ticket prices that go along with a theatre going experience.

Luckily, you have access to a number of options that can drastically cut down those prices. The most popular way in town to get a discount is by visiting the Theatre Development Fund (TDF) (or TKTS booths) at Times Square (Broadway and 47th Street), at the South Street Seaport (Prudential Building at 199 Water Street), or in Downtown Brooklyn (1 MetroTech Center at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue Promenade), where you can buy day-of Broadway and Off Broadway tickets at 50%, 40%, 30% and 20% off the full-price (plus a $4.00 per ticket service charge). Be prepared to wait in line, especially on a Friday and Saturday. Another popular alternative to high prices is by checking online ticket distributors, which sell tickets that are comparable in price to TDF. There are plenty in this category (broadwaybox.com, stubhub.com, and theatermania.com are a few), so finding a ticket should be fairly easy.

A third way to get some amazing discounts is by searching for rush tickets offered for many shows on Broadway (you can check which shows offer rush tickets at playbill.com). These tickets are fantastic in price (usually $25-$35), but require some patience on your part and occasionally cash only so make sure you head to the ATM before standing in line. There are three categories of rush tickets: lottery, general rush, and student rush. Lotteries usually start 2 hours prior to a performance, with a drawing one and half hours prior to a performance. You never know what kind of crowd will show up, but it pays to bring a friend and sign up separately to double your chances and/or to both sign up at two different theatres and have one person stand at that theatre while you wait at another theatre (you must be there in person to purchase the ticket, so be prepared to race over to the theatre your friend is waiting at and vice versa, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue considering almost all of the theaters are between 44th and 50th street). General Rush tickets are usually handed out when the box office opens. A show’s popularity will determine how far in advance you should line up, so expect to sometimes to wait an hour and a half for hot items. The last category is Student Rush. This is obtained with a valid student ID (the most important card in your wallet next to your driver’s license) and works the same way as general rush. All in all, these are great ways to get tickets if you have some patience and are not too particular on what you’d like to see and the kind of seats (or standing spots) you’d like to watch the play in. I waited in line for an hour before the box office opened for Fences, but I also walked into A Behanding in Spokane in the middle of the day and scored a $25 ticket. It’s a bit random, but totally worth it. It never hurts to just go into a theatre and ask what kind of rush tickets they have, because you may get really lucky.

Please share your Broadway on a Budget stories as well! It’s always great to hear about new ways to see great theatre. Happy bargain hunting and enjoy the show!

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-Roni Tessler

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Interning in NYC: Tips for Writing Your Cover Letter

Monday, June 7th, 2010

One of the most crucial components of the internship application process is your cover letter. Essentially, the contents of this letter provide potential employers with their first impression of you, prompting them to read your resume and decide if they want to call you for an in-person interview. Thus, it is extremely important that your cover letter represent you in the best possible light. While writing your cover letter, remember these points:

1. Write individual letters for each company. Standardized form letters not only lack creativity, but also imply a lack of interest in the position to the person reading it. Taking the time to write individualized letters shows the reader that you possess a sincere interest in the company and the position that you are applying for, which presents you as the better candidate.

2. Research the company. Make sure you know the basics of the position and the company that you are applying to, and be sure to add some of your findings into your cover letter (i.e. as reasons why you want to work there, why you admire the company, how you can help fulfill the company mission, etc.) Again, this helps to convey your personal interest in the organization and will help you land an interview.

3. Support any claims you make with specific examples. This is your time to brag about your accomplishments and show the reader why you would be an excellent addition to their team. So if you say in your cover letter that that you excel in the classroom, be sure to tell them about how high your GPA is or about your two years on the Dean’s List.

4. Use a professional tone and proofread your letter. You want to your future employers to think that you are serious about work and that you are capable of behaving properly in a professional environment. Making jokes or having any grammatical/spelling errors shows them that you do not care about making a good impression.

For more info and tips, here’s a useful website that I found while I was writing my cover letters. It not only gives you more information and tips, but also provides you with examples of good cover letters and other business correspondence, such as thank-you letters and networking letters. So have fun writing your way to an interview!

-Christina Brower

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Interning in NYC: Tips to Aid You in Your Search

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Landing a full-time job after graduation has gotten a whole lot tougher these days due to the present state of the economy. Jobs are few and far between and the competition for them has grown especially fierce, which is why obtaining an internship has become an important priority for most students these days. However, the competition for intern positions is just as ferocious. So how can you maximize your chances of surviving in such a cut-throat environment? Here are some things that I learned to do when searching for an internship:

1. Start your search early! For example, if you’re looking for a summer internship position, start looking for open positions in late January/early February and continue until late April/early May. You will be surprised how many positions are available when your search spans a couple of months.

2. Submit your application ASAP! Some students are under the impression that if they are one of the last applications that employers see that they will have a better chance of being remembered. This, however, is not the case. Applying hours before the midnight deadline can make you look like a procrastinator. In the work place, deadlines are extremely important, and most employers want someone who is timely with their work. So once the application period begins, submit your resume and cover letter as soon as possible to avoid being a part of the last minute rush.

3. Apply to as many positions as you can! I know this can be a long, tedious process, but believe me it is absolutely necessary. This spring, I applied to over thirty companies, and only received about five calls/e-mails for an interview. So put yourself out there to as many people as possible. It will make your chances of actually landing a position more probable.

4. Make use of your resources on campus! Most colleges and universities have a career services department, which provides students with resources, such as resume critiques, mock interviews, company tours, and weekly e-mails with new internship/job opportunities, to aid students in their searches. These people are trained professionals who have helped many students go from the classroom to the office and can help you become a better candidate for employment or put you in contact with the right people.

5. Utilize internet search engines! In addition to MonsterTrak and Craigslist, there are many sites available that are devoted to finding internships in a particular field. Just Google it and see what comes up. For example, after doing a Google search, I found a website called BookJobs.com, which was wholly devoted to internship/job opportunities in the book publishing industry and which is where I found the most openings.

-Christina Brower

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The Northside Festival

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Along with barbecues, beach parties, and baseball games, summer brings along with it an enormous heaping of music festivals. Later on this week in Tennessee, music acts like Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder, and Jay-Z will be playing at Bonnaroo. In July, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago is boasting Modest Mouse, LCD Soundsystem, and Pavement as headliners. Come August, also in Chicago, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, as well as The Strokes will play what will probably be amazing sets at the gargantuan Lollapalooza. I, personally, would love to pack up and hit up all of these festivals, and more, if not for the fact that I just recently overdrew from my bank account. I simply cannot afford it.

So what is a guy with a current balance of -$2.58 supposed to do? Thankfully, The L Magazine has my back. From June 24 – 27 Brooklyn will be graced with the Northside Festival. In its second year, the festival is dedicated to independent musicians and filmmakers who have a history within the borough. The lineup, which is as eclectic as Brooklyn itself, is featuring some relatively prominent acts such as Islands and Wavves, but the main drawing point is the multitude of lesser-known acts, which are sure to find some new fans at the festival.

I’m mainly looking forward to seeing one of my favorite bands of all time, Les Savy Fav, play yet another hilariously raucous set filled with catchy post-punk riffs and costume changes. Yes, costume changes. Also playing is Titus Andronicus, whose latest album, The Monitor, is so good that I cannot stop listening to it or recommending it to everyone for the past two months since I’ve heard it.

Unlike those other festivals I mentioned, tickets to the Northside Festival aren’t offensively ridiculous. If you’re over 21, $50 can get you a badge which will get you into all of the shows playing as a part of the festival on a first-come/first-serve basis. These badges will also net you some sweet discounts with local food and drink sellers. If you’re not over 21, or you don’t want to go to every show, you can pick and choose and buy individual tickets at the different venues. Ticket prices range from $10 to $18. I think even I can manage that.

Thanks, Brooklyn. You’ve shown me, yet again, that even though I could go somewhere else, why should I?

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Let’s Dance: Battery Park

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

In an attempt to finance my admission to real performances, for the past year I have been working at the Statue of Liberty (yes, it’s both cool and terrible at the same time). While I’m still waiting on my paycheck so I can see a real performance and write about that, I do have some exciting free things for you to check out.

In order to get to Liberty Island, I have to board the ferry in Battery Park. I can’t attest to what goes on all day long in the park, since I refuse to go there on my off days, but I can tell you that after 5 or 6 p.m. (when we get off the last boat from the island), there’s always something going on. On any given day that doesn’t involve storms, there are people waiting to sell you handbags, draw you a picture, or pass out Obama condoms. Additionally, there are usually some musicians playing tin drums, big guys holding snakes that you can take pictures with (although this makes me scream and run away – no big deal), and the occasional breakdancing show.

Particularly over the summer, there’s always a crowd in Battery Park. My favorite part of these festivities is certainly the breakdancing – although the shows don’t often last long and they aren’t the best shows I’ve ever seen, it’s worth stopping and clapping for a few minutes. Usually when I get off the boat (by Castle Clinton in the park, which is closer to the 6 train rather than the South Ferry subway station) there is a group in red performing. They bust out flips, yell until you clap, and although sometimes disorganized are at least good for a laugh.

Photo from Webshots.com: http://image44.webshots.com/45/3/97/41/373839741sNjkGC_ph.jpg

This place isn’t so exciting over the winter (although once it’s snowy and there are no performers left you are free to make epic snowmen) – but in the summer, there’s a lot going on.

The biggest snowman I ever made was this winter in Battery Park!

In addition to these informal street performers, Battery Park also holds some concerts and other events. This Saturday there was a science exhibit, and last summer there was a Rilo Kiley concert (that I had to miss!), among others. I’ve even seen the Paul Taylor II company perform for free on a makeshift stage in the park.

If you don’t want to chance it and head down to the park to enjoy some rays and the random entertainment, you can find schedules for the larger events on the Battery Conservancy website. Different organizations use the space, and a wide variety of things go on there. The best part? It’s free!!

-Meghan Q

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Chambers of Solitude: the October Schlump

Sunday, June 6th, 2010
Big Apple

New York City: you don't have to see all of it in a month

About a month into the fall semester, a phenomenon occurs that I refer to as the October Schlump. It’s easy to recognize: first-year students, (who every night up till then have turned Washington Square into a giant social playground,) suddenly disappear. For a few weeks they are conspicuously absent, and then slowly, as Halloween approaches, they begin to tentatively reemerge from their dorms. What happened?

I know, because I went through it. For students new to this amazing city, that first month is like a dream. So many wonderful things to see and do that were never available before; new friends to make, new places to go, new things to discover. But it really feels like a dream: there’s a constant sense that this is illusory, that at any moment you will wake up and this opportunity you worked so hard for will dissolve around you. When a new friend invites you to go to this party at their friend’s place in Brooklyn, you think, Brooklyn! When else will I get to see Brooklyn?! When you read about a new exhibit at the MoMA, you think, the MoMA! When else will I be able to visit the MoMA?! When you pass a new Mexican restaurant in the Village offering a two-for-one Margarita special, you think . . .  well, you get the idea.

This lifestyle is, of course, impossible to maintain. About a month in, you wake up one day, maybe around 5 PM, and think, what day is it? You realize that you slept through an entire day of classes. See, you meant to just take a short nap – it was 3 AM, you’d just gotten back from a party at a friend’s – Happy Wednesday! – and you realized you didn’t have any clean clothes, so what a perfect time to do laundry! You threw a load in the washer, and then came back up to finish that essay on Socrates – that’s what New York’s about, multitasking! – and about two pages in thought, I’ll just take a quick nap – an hour or two, tops. After all, you haven’t slept in two days, so it’s about time to give the body a little refresher. Now here you are, essay not finished, classes missed, your load of laundry having been removed from the washer and scattered aimlessly all over the laundry room floor by some jerk. And even after sleeping twelve hours, you still feel tired. Or not tired, more than tired – exhausted. Your resources have been depleted; nothing in you wants to get out of bed, go anywhere, do anything. The momentum is gone.

This is the October Schlump. Although skipping meals and missing sleep are major contributing factors, the Schlump is not a disease, at least not physically. It’s the mental state that settles in when you realize that you barely have any idea what you did in the past month. You were in constant motion, you went and saw and did a million amazing things, but you can barely remember any of them. Some of them you liked, some of them you didn’t, but which were which?

So, for about a week, you don’t go out. You stay inside, do homework, get lots of sleep, eat right, and figure out what to do next. In that time, you realize that New York City isn’t going anywhere. It won’t disappear under your feet one day; it will be there the next day when you wake up, and the day after that, and the day after that. You will have at least four years, at most the rest of your life, to explore. So after that week, when friends call you up and invite you to this or that, you can say no, not tonight, rain-check. You don’t even need to give a reason. You can (in fact, you must) spend a night in now and then. And you must do is reflect. You are swimming in a sea of new experiences, new stimuli, new ideas, and some are good for you and some are not. You can have all these experiences but if you never stop to reflect on what they mean, they are – literally – meaningless.

As anyone who’s lived in a dorm can attest, dorms can be a lot of fun, but they aren’t really the best places for quiet reflection. After my October Schlump, I began to seek out places I could go to be by myself, to think and ponder, to reflect and debate. I can’t give you the answers to the big questions of life that all college students confront during those four years – I don’t have them. But I can share with you come places I think will provide the stillness, the solitude, within the bustling metropolis that we call home, to find some of these answers. And I will call them Chambers of Solitude. More to come.

And in the meantime, if you need to a moment of calm and some advice on chill-axing, (sorry, I won’t use that word again,) go here.

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Make New Friends and Keep the Old: Looking Back

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

On February 20th 2007, I turned 17.  In New Jersey, when a person turns 17, and if they have fulfilled all of the requirements, he or she is eligible for their license.  Well, I got mine – along with my first car (a 1990 Buick LeSabre, navy blue).  I was so in love with my car, and had so many plans for it…my parents had already gotten me a really awesome sound system to get installed, and I couldn’t wait to drive it down the shore for the first time.

Fast forward to March 4th 2007.  In New Jersey, high school juniors have to go take the HSPA, High School Proficiency Assessment.  The HSPA spans four days, and lasts about three hours each day.  March 4th was the first day for my class, and I wore my favorite tee shirt and most comfortable pair of “lounge” pants, and flip flops.  By the time the day was over, I was ready to get home and relax.  So of course no more than hour after I had gotten home, I got a call that I needed to go to my best friend’s house for an emergency band meeting.  Not exactly excited to get there, I nevertheless got in my LeSabre and started down my street for the easy two mile drive.  This is where things get fuzzy, because not halfway down my street I, for some reason, swerved, then over corrected, and ended up driving straight into the side of a house.

The first thing I did when I woke up, having passed out for probably a minute or two, was call my dad (not 911, of course, because that would have made sense).   I then texted my friend something along the lines of “I was just in an accident on my street.”  The friend I texted, my best at the time, got to me in record time, before my father and the ambulance he called on his way from the office.  Now imagine, I’m sitting there in my own blood, cradling my broken wrist; I didn’t know it at the time, but the front of my car was crushed all the way to the windshield , which was also cracked from my face meeting it (and that’s why they tell us to wear seatbelts).  After checking on me, my friend took it upon herself to knock on the door to make sure no one was inside and injured, ignoring the danger she could have been in from the now structurally unsafe house.  That being done, she came over the passenger side, which I had somehow slid too, procured napkins from somewhere and did her best to wipe the blood from eyes and mouth – she did all of this before any other help arrived, but checked first to make sure help was going to arrive at some point.  Now, you may wonder why I bring this story up.

I think about it sometimes, about her wiping blood from my face and staying with me until I left in the ambulance.  I think about it because just a little over a year after my accident, we were suddenly no longer friends.  I wonder how we could be so close, and care so much about each other, and how that could just end.  It’s horrible how the fact is that friends, no matter how close they are, can just grow apart.  It started with a fight that probably wasn’t even that bad, and then radio silence.  BOOM, no more friendship.  We still talk occasionally, and when I’m in town we’ve gotten coffee before, but there’s nowhere near, and never will be again, the closeness we used to share.

On the other side of that, there’s the friend who made the half hour drive to visit me in the hospital each of the five days I was there after the accident.  She brought me movies and real food, and even washed my hair for me after about three days of me living with the blood, glass, and vomit that was by then crusted into it.  Of course, with my broken nose I didn’t even notice how rank I was, so the hair washing was more for everyone else’s benefit, but that’s not the point.  I’ve known her for twelve years now, I believe; she actually was my babysitter when I was younger, fun fact.  Our relationship is probably more like sisters than friends, and we can go from laughing hysterically together to me wanting to punch her in the face.

I just wonder why that friendship is different from the other one.  There’s no denying that Friend B and I have had probably over a million fights, radio silence included, yet we’ve always remained friends.  I’ve questioned in another blog on whether or not some people are just more important in our lives, and I didn’t want to think that I could rate my friends like that.  But I guess somewhere inside I do, because the simple fact is that one of those friendships is over, and the other is just as strong as ever.

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Getting to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

“Get to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward”

I said this to someone once without noticing, and she was thoughtful enough to remember it and even quote me later. That’s when it really made sense to me and stuck. I say it to myself all the time now before digging into something that makes me want to hide under a bed and hibernate for the season.

Here’s what it means to me: most things that are really, really worth getting are really, really hard to get. This goes for money, love, fame, fortune, success, diamonds, you name it. There’s a reason that a very small percentage of people attain what they truly want: it’s tough as a two dollar steak and the process is just about as appetizing.

There’s little point in pretending that asking someone special out, making that first sales call, or going to an interview for your dream job are going to be easy. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably going to sweat like you’re running a marathon and chug Pepto-Bismol like you’re life depends on it.

But here’s the good news. Once you cross that muddy river, there’s a beautiful shore on the other side. If you’re not willing to get dirty and make that trip, then you’re stuck on your little island. Clean and mopey. Yeah, you’ll be more comfortable avoiding your fears, but what’s the point of that comfort if it’s keeping you from getting what you really want? When you have more wrinkles than you can count and more to look back on than look forward to, will you think to yourself:

“Gee, it’s a good thing I didn’t take that risk 20 years ago.”

Or will you think:

“I wonder what would have happened if I…”

I bet you $5 that it’ll be the latter. (I’d bet a lot more, but my checking account wouldn’t like it).

The point is, we miss so many opportunities because going after them is just plain awkward. My philosophy is, face the awkward, get through it. It’ll be over quicker than you think, and the reward will be well worth it. And hey – even if you don’t get exactly what you want, I promise you’ll feel good about yourself for taking that risk. It’s addicting, and it gets easier and easier with practice.

So quit reading and go get to the pot of gold on the other side of awkward — whatever that means to you.

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