Archive for June, 2011

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Rehashing a Music Debate, or: Someone Stole My iPod

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

music is my boyfriend, music is my girlfriend

In the uplifting whirlwind of my past week (I signed a lease!  I locked down another job!  My parents came to persuade me to go home to North Carolina, and they failed!), I’ve suddenly found myself in another slump, and one that I would’ve expected after I moved to New York, not before: two days ago, someone stole my phone and iPod from my makeshift bedside table while I was walking my friend out to his car.  I’m a txting junkie, so the loss of the phone was, of course, a blow, but what hit me more was the iPod theft.  I love music.  All my friends love music.  We snobbishly listen to our music on big DJ headphones and tweet Starfucker lyrics with #STRFCKR.  At least once a summer I listen to Abbey Road on vinyl with them.  Yeah, I’m one of those people.  I wear v-necks and neon and sunglasses indoors—especially at night.

I Skyped my parents (praise to the Internet for existing), and they reactivated my old phone with the T9 keypad and sticky battery pack and Fedexed it to me (it arrives this morning.  I’m anxiously awaiting the email from my campus mailing center).  So the phone situation is almost fixed.  Now for the iPod.  What to do in this age of music, when losing your mp3 player sentences you to dull, loud train rides and awkward eavesdropping on the subway?  Not to mention, that’s at least 24 gigs of essential music that I’ve painstakingly ripped and downloaded that I’ll have to sync to another iPod… when I can afford one that can store the vast amounts of 320 kbps files that I’ve organized on my external HD.

But enough obnoxious audiophile talk—or maybe not.  The last time my iPod went on the fritz, I was in high school, and I put everything on CDs and wandered around with an old school DiscMan, switching out CD for CD at every opportunity.  It was kind of a drag.  CDs take up space, the DiskMan takes up space, no matter how many mixes I made I’d always want to listen to a song on a different CD next, I couldn’t see the album art, etc.  This time, I’m far from my backup DiskMan and giant case of CDs (both bought and burned).  I have to resort to opening my laptop just to have something playing while I read, clean or pack.  And I’m beginning to notice, perhaps with my snobbily developed ear, that some of my favorite songs are showing signs of wear.  I hadn’t ripped them in lossless FLAC form, or I’d opted for the smaller 128 kbps file size, and now I could tell: there were gaps in the music, in some of the instrumental layers, that flickered or shorted out completely as the song played on.  On other songs, the sound modulated from left to right, but never in true stereo.  I know, I know.  The horror, the imperfect quality of my music!  And how could I fix this, if I didn’t have the original CDs I’d ripped them all from!?  (I could replace them quickly, but I have a personal squick about buying music from iTunes.  It has everything to do with the DRM and overall file quality and nothing to do with the pirate-revulsion at paying for music.  Let’s not get into the debate on piracy, I don’t have enough words.)

And what was worse: how am I going to listen to these soiled tracks on my daily commute—by leaving my laptop open while I read some Bret Easton Ellis?  Don’t be absurd.  That takes up way too much space.  Only grownups open their laptops on the train, and that’s because they have spreadsheets to look at and Powerpoints to polish.  I’m just a student, a youth who doesn’t know how to go anywhere without something in my ears.  If only I had my Walkman and some sweet, CD-quality music piping in through my Klipsch headphones.

I’m not delusional about what this post is roundaboutly advocating.  The fight for physical music isn’t really much of a fight at all, and hasn’t been for a long time, with record stores inexorably losing ground to other dealers like Amazon, which offers non-DRM tracks and almost CD-level quality, and to the entire torrent culture, which can get you or anyone else with an internet connection the FLAC and portable-friendly 320 kbps (or even 192 kbps) versions of nearly any album for free in five minutes.  And admittedly, portable music itself pales when you listen to the same track on a more powerful machine like a laptop, desktop, or amp.  Honestly, vinyl wins the audiophile debate on every front.

But I’d still like to make the case for the humble CD, the technological link between big, fragile, warpable vinyl records and tiny pocket-sized, low-quality mp3 players.  A CD is solid.  It’s material, it takes up some space.  If you’ve bought it new from Best Buy or used from a record store like P-rex (near where I live right now), it doesn’t matter—it’s going to sound just as good in your CD player.  All the layers will be balanced, the bass will have the perfect, intended depth, and the highs will be crisp and clear.  And there’s so much art that goes into an album package: the cover art, the liner notes, the top of the CD itself.  There’s still something to be said for artists who release albums and not just a list of singles.  There’s still something to be said for the feeling of holding a CD and knowing that you own whatever tracks are on it.  If your computer crashes or your external HD reformats itself, you’re okay.  You have the original CD version, which is nicer to listen to anyway.  Plus, no one’s going to steal a five-year-old DiskMan and a six-pound CD case.

If you’re still the type to buy CDs or at least download tracks of CD quality (burn them onto actual CDs!  Burn them now!), then luckily for you and me there are still many record stores around the city that cater to our obsessive audiophilic needs.  While I’m still in New Jersey, I have P-Rex, which deals in many, many used CDs and records as well as blank CDs with enough storage for larger high-quality downloads.  In the city, though, I’ll probably head to Village Music World.  They’re not paying me to say that, they just have a $2 student discount off any CD, and I’m student-poor.  I already have to spend money on another DiskMan.

x
Robin

I tweet while I’m at work. I have yet to master hashtags.
My personal blog: a collection of music and other pop culture things I like.

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Posted in Appreciation, onMusic | 1 Comment »

New York Attitude

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

When you live in New York, it’s easy to forget about compassion. The Big Apple is known for many things: the diversity, the culture, the crowds, the cabs. But when you think about the city, compassion is usually not the first word that pops into your head. Perhaps loud or busy, but probably not sympathetic or understanding.

And that’s understandable. I mean, it’s easy to write all New Yorkers off as jerks just because a guy on the street shoved you around, or cursed you out, or that car driver blew past you riding the end of a yellow light. On a rainy day, the thought of New York City can conjure up the image of taxis splashing pedestrians with mucky puddle water, or bike riders unexpectedly flying out of traffic, headed straight at you.

Taking this mind set is not just overly pessimistic—it’s the easy way out. If you never let your guard down, then you’ll stay safe, right?

Wrong.

When I’m off in a different city, I try to rock the NYC attitude, I admit it—jaywalking like I’m late to meet Michelle Obama, giving cars obscene hand gestures when they piss me off—but I don’t think I could say that that too-cool New York scowl is a permanent fixture on the faces of our pedestrians. Since going on crutches three weeks ago, I’ve seen the faces of compassionate New York City workers popping up everywhere to give me a hand. In fact, one time a taxi driver just stopped for me without me having to hail him, to ask if I needed help, and conveniently enough, a taxi was just the help that I needed. When I’m hobbling around, everyone nearby suddenly becomes chivalrous: holding doors, stepping out of my way, providing directions to elevators, etc. Yes, there are the few who stay rude despite my condition, such as the bus driver who saw that I wanted to get on, but whose doors were already closed, and just shook his head and drove away, but I find these types of people are surprisingly few and far between in this city that’s supposedly known for its cold heart.

From my experiences over the past three weeks I’ve come to recognize the prevalence of the Fundamental Attribution Error, which is the tendency of people to underestimate the impact of situational factors in other people’s behavior, and at the same time overestimate the influence of dispositional factors on their actions. In other words, we often automatically attribute bad features to a person when they do something improper instead of considering their story, their perspective, in explaining why they might have done so. When I have a brace on my foot and crutches under my arms, people shed their Fundamental Attribution Error tendencies because they can directly see my back-story, or at least get an idea of it, and why it’s causing me to act the way I am.

I think that if all New Yorkers (and everyone else) were to start recognizing that every individual has a unique personal experience that leads them to take the actions that they do, we can create more compassion throughout the city, and that would be a great thing. If people could start taking down the NYC-guard that they’ve built up around themselves, the city could be a much nicer place to live.

/elizabeth Kaleko

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Beyoncé: 4 Album Review

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Beyoncé Knowles’ fourth studio release, aptly titled 4, hits shelves this week. Beyoncé has been hard at work since her last album release. Her productivity has been cited as “overwhelming” to Columbia, her record label. Beyoncé continues to be one of the most talented and hardest-working singers in the world. It is because of this fact that fans are sure to be pleased with her latest project.

The album opens with a beautiful number in ‘1+1’, a ballad that finds Beyoncé crooning in a way other artists simply can’t (and at times maybe in ways others don’t want to). What’s impressive, however, is the soulful feel that the track possesses. Beyoncé delivers real R&B, or what today’s popular radio stations have made old R&B. ‘I Care’ takes a turn towards showcasing Beyoncé’s vocal intensity while still being a meaningful song with old-school production value as the drums boom and the synth keys vibe.

The third song, ‘I Miss You’, changes the pace without changing how enjoyable the album is. The song feels sappy because of simplistic production and generic lyrics. Anyone could have performed this song and have made it decent, but as Beyoncé often does, she makes it her own. From here, we move into one of the singles of the album ‘Best Thing I Never Had.’ Though it has pop appeal, there’s more to this song than meets the ear. It’s radio-friendly, but still manages to contain a wealth of compositional appeal with unwavering piano play and significant lyrics.

Beyonce

Beyoncé's '4' deluxe edition album cover.

At this point, 4 takes a hip-hop intermission with ‘Party’. Accompanied by Kanye West and Andre 3000, Beyoncé does nothing special, allowing doubled vocals to fill out the simple-but-effective ‘Ye produced beat. Keeping in line with the album’s old-school appeal, however, the beat samples Slick Rick’s ‘La Di Da Di’ and sounds more like a classic rap party jam than today’s club-centric rap music.

Next on the agenda is ‘Rather Die Young’, debatably Beyoncé’s finest moment on 4. It includes everything we expect from Beyoncé vocally and continues to back-track through musical generations compositionally, sounding very inspired by The Supremes, particularly during the chorus. Then there is ‘Start Over’, the first song that doesn’t possess the same classic influence as everything else on the album thus far. Beyoncé attempts to make-up for this with a high-volume performance which you can hear here.

The volume doesn’t turn down as 4 presents us with ‘Love On Top’. This is a very fun song and once again very throwback R&B melodically. The album stays fun and light with ‘Countdown’, a track laden with brass horns, prominent percussion and even steel drums. Also very interesting is the “countdown” chorus that goes, “My baby is a 10/We dressing through the 9/He pick me up in 8/Make me feel so lucky 7/He kiss me in his 6/We be making love in 5/Still the one I do this 4/I’m trying to make a 3/From that 2/He still the 1.” The horns don’t disappear as the album continues with ‘End Of Time’. The song has a repetitive chorus and doesn’t stand out vocally, but it keeps the album balanced by maintaining the fun, fast-paced attitude that characterizes the middle of 4.

Beyoncé delivers a strong finale with ‘I Was Here’. Though emotional in its own right, it lacks something that the rest of the ballads on 4 seem to own: uniqueness, classical influence and a bit of experimentation. ‘I Was Here’ is very by-the-book and though an excellent way to wrap things up, not quite a show-stopper.

Ironically enough, the show doesn’t stop with ‘I Was Here.’ For whatever reason, ‘Run The World (Girls)’, a song that would fit better with the up-tempo middle section of the album, appears as the final track on 4. If ‘Run The World’ needed to remain last, ‘I Was Here’ should have been moved to better serve the continuity of the album that way it could really go out with a bang.

Overall, fans of Beyoncé and fans of R&B will be very pleased and pleasantly surprised considering the fact that the singles used to promote the album don’t highlight the things that really make 4 an impressive body of work.

–Christopher Cusack, Hofstra University

Photo Credit: © Copyright Columbia Records – 2011

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Posted in onEntertainment, onMusic, Reviews | 1 Comment »

When the price of pizza can become a problem

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved pizza.  Like most everyone that I know, I love pizza with all my heart, soul, and taste buds, and it’s been a staple of my diet for pretty much my whole life.  My taste for a good slice has grown up with me, and long gone are the days of my childhood when I ate solely cheese pizza, and wouldn’t deign to eat the crust, no matter how hungry I was.  But with a more sophisticated pizza palate comes certain demands on the wallet that can become, well, demanding.

That's what I'm talkin' about

When I moved to New York to start going to college, I became acquainted with some of the city’s finest slices, and despite the onerous price of a simple slice from a top-notch NYC pizza place, my constitutional love and need for pizza obliges me to grab a couple at least every few days.  As New Yorkers know well, when it comes to pizza (and everything else) the city simply has the best. I like to try new places, but above all others, my favorite slice comes from Joe’s on Sixth Ave, across from Minetta Lane.  A slice from Joe’s is huge and thin, with melted mozzarella sitting on top of a delicious sweet tomato sauce, always fresh from the oven due to the spot’s brisk business, and it’s basically my ideal slice.  I love Joe’s pizza with or without a little extra parmesan or red pepper, at lunchtime or late night (open until 4 a.m.!).  The only problem with my devotion to Joe’s pizza is the price.  At $2.75 per slice of plain cheese, Joe’s is not exactly cost-effective.

Which brings me to the other best thing about eating in New York.  In addition to offering the best of the best, the city has more pizza places than anyone could ever try, among them a number of places that sell dollar slices.  With a steady diet of slices that cost only a dollar, even the most cash-strapped pizza lover can indulge his every craving.  Of these cheap pizza paradises, the best and certainly best known is 2 Bros’, which just opened a second storefront a couple doors down from the original on St. Mark’s, between Third and Second Aves.  At 2 Bros’, you can find a line that ranges from a few people to a small mob, depending on the time of day.  But no matter how many people are on line, you will get to the front in less than five minutes, since 2 Bros’ has perfected the science of express pizza.  The fleetest fast food joint can only hang its head in shame at the speed of 2 Bros’, where there are generally more pizzas than you can count in various stages of preparation behind the counter, and one can see three or four customers served at the sole register in under a single minute.  And most importantly, 2 Bros’ meal deal of two slices and a soda costs the same $2.75 as a single slice at Joe’s.

For a pizza lover/borderline addict like myself, satisfying my pizza needs without spending too much cash comes down to compromise.  My inner connoisseur wants to get a fancy slice every time, without worrying about the price.  But in the end it’s not worth devoting too much budget space to pizza, especially when it can be an every-other-day habit.  So when I’m nearby, have some time, and it makes sense, I head to Joe’s.  When I’m in a rush, have been spending too much lately, or went to Joe’s the day before, I go to 2 Bros’.  And when I want something new, I try one of the city’s other eight million pizza places.

—Aaron Brown

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Posted in Cheap Eats, onFood, onValues, Restaurant Reviews | 3 Comments »

Hookup Messes

Monday, June 27th, 2011

http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/serendipity.jpg

What is Hookup Culture? I know what a hookup is and I know what a culture is: of course, I’m a college kid. But put those two words together, and I’m lost. After a bit of research, I discovered it was our generation’s way of wasting time before they find someone to get into a serious relationship with.  It is when people meet, talk, and instantly become intimate—but only for the night. It ranges from kissing to going home with the person. I see this all the time at college, but I never thought it was anything new. People have been getting frisky before marriage since… always! Now however, with morals on the decline, men and women have began to rely on non-committal, spontaneous hookups to kill time and relieve loneliness with instant sexual gratification. But once again this is not new information. Most college students are well aware of this culture and take part in it one way or another. Ever been up and out in the morning and seen a girl walking in 6 inch heels and a party dress at 9 am? Laughing and making light of that image is what hookup culture is all about. And as a woman in college—surrounded by hookup culture and inevitably being a part of it—I don’t mean to sound like a third party uninvolved and like I have never woken up the morning after a night out hoping no one saw the escapades I took part in; believe me, I have. But just stopping to think about all the drama and turmoil hookups cause within ourselves makes me want to take a lot of mistakes back. The attention may feel nice in the moment—through sleepy eyes you drink in their words and smile—but when that night is over and you realize you never even got the chance to give them your number… so you knew they weren’t going to call… and you kind of were glad they wouldn’t… it leaves you feeling a bit empty. Not good or bad, just if no one saw the two of you leaving the bar, you could play if off (to yourself as well as to others) like it never happened. The point to stress is that it won’t make things better. Casual hookups are short lived. You may feel prettier and attractive during the night but what about if you see that person and you realize they only wanted you for a moment and weren’t thinking about you for the long run? You could end up feeling cheated out of a chance, or maybe that people think you’re cute enough to kiss but not enough to get to know. Never let it be easier to hookup with someone than it is to ask that person out on a date. Because after that sets into your train of thought, it’s a slippery slope of what boundaries you’ll allow to be pushed just to get that momentary satisfaction.

Before writing this article I was talking to a male friend of mine about the dating situation that goes on in his school and he told me, “there is no dating scene in our freshman class… everyone just drunkenly hooks up and act all embarrassed when they run into each other the next day.” So my advice for freshmen entering college, with a sea of new friends and potential hookups in front of them, it’s better to just take a step back and try to hold off on the locking of lips just yet. Get to know people, make friends and hang out first, be young and free and see if they are someone you would want to be that intimate with. Wait till someone thinks your worthy of taking out to dinner or even something more casual like coffee or karaoke with a group of friends at Karaoke Boho. Now that I’m a junior in college, not only have I seen the damage hookups can bring, but I’ve also seen how precious relationships can be when you give yourself a moment to just be alone and let love decide your actions rather than lust.  As my mother would say, “honey, you’ll never find a boyfriend if you’re kissing all his friends.”  Just be you, have a great time and make yourself a hot commodity that will only go with someone that you know is worth your kisses.

-Jackie Aqel

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Posted in Relationships | 2 Comments »

‘Dollhouse’: A Flexible Identity

Monday, June 27th, 2011

You most likely know him from Buffy, or maybe even Firefly or Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, but Joss Whedon’s most recent television show, Dollhouse, should be grabbing your attention just as much. Dollhouse follows main character Echo as she enters into the Dollhouse, a place with the technology to wipe your memories and ‘imprint’ you with new memories. The Dollhouse serves clients by giving them “what they need,” for example, if they want a person to love, the Dollhouse’s ‘actives’ (their employees, such as Echo) are imprinted with the thought of someone who would be perfect for loving him/her, and they are allowed time together. The entire organization, created by Rossum, is illegal and underground. The show follows different characters as they try to expose the Dollhouse, save the actives, and prevent Rossum from abusing its power.

Main character Echo, displaying her multiple=

As I watch this show, I can’t help but contemplate what my life would be like if one day I discovered that my life was not my own. That, in fact, I was living with somebody else’s memories and my true, original identity was stored in a chip somewhere outside of myself (possibly even in somebody else). Would I be willing to give up the life I had now to become a person that I had been before, yet can’t remember anything about?—Remember that I feel as if I am this new person, she is me and I am her completely. What did I used to be like? More flexible? Dogmatic? Better in school? An entirely different person with different traits…

Dollhouse made me wonder what I’d do if my identity was not under my own control. And it got me thinking, What would a different personality try to do that I’d never try to do? Sky dive? Perform? Although it’s not what Dollhouse was preaching, it made me want to get up and try new things, as if I was somebody else completely. I could learn to dance at Piel Canela, or spend the day at a spa pretending I was a pampered celebrity. Campus Clipper makes trying new things easy and cheap, so build on your personality because you never know what type of secret technology corporations have that are about to wipe your memories clean!

/elizabeth Kaleko

Photo credit: www.flimgeeks.com

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Craft Time

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

I wasn’t sure how my relationship with my sister would take to me leaving for college.  We didn’t have a bad relationship or anything, but five years apart can be a lot, and we were already pretty different (my sister is far chattier than I am).  I wondered if the distance might have us talking less, or if it might make us less close.

But it turned out that spending some time apart helped rather than hurt us.  Coming home for the summer, I went to my sister’s school band concert, where she had a brief trumpet solo, and listened to her talk excitedly about her science class. Instead of seeing her as merely my kid sister who was all up in my space all of the time, I started to see my sister as her own individual self.  This time around, I took her seriously, and we were able to really talk.

Not only have I started to understand her as her own person, but we’ve started to realize the little things that we have in common as well, one of which is a love for crafts.  We spent a couple hours last weekend sewing together little stuffed figures, and it was a simple and relaxing way to spend some time together.  From designing the toy (and its clothes, in my sister’s case) to passing scissors and felt and buttons, it was a comfortable and agreeable, if not wildly exciting, way to pass a Sunday afternoon.

Image credit: flickriver.com

Sewing as a pastime seems almost archaic now, but there’s something deeply satisfying about making something on your own, from start to finish.  And even if it is a simple, age-old activity, it can be fun when relatives come to visit.  My mother, grandmother and I used to sit at the kitchen table and do beadwork together whenever my grandmother came to stay.  We’d sometimes talk and joke, but making something with your hands also occupies the mind and takes off the pressure to converse, making silence quite comfortable.  It was okay to just focus on the beads we were stringing together.  There were times when we would hardly say a word, and yet we’d still feel at ease in each other’s company, and happily busy.  It was only when someone finished their project that we’d remark how well it came out, or how wonderful the colors looked together.  Although of course beadwork can be incredibly intricate, it can also be really simple and still look great, making it a delightful little project to do with others, regardless of skill level.

Art materials can run a little on the expensive side, but if you hit a good sale it’s absolutely worth it, especially since most materials keep for so long.  I have all sorts of leftover fabrics, and these can be used for small projects, or patched together for more unusual ones.  Even materials that seem unusable, like buttons that don’t match or the end of a spool of ribbon, can be put to good use in another piece.  For the figures we made this weekend, my sister used felt that we’d had for a few years, and I used the scraps that she was done with and two odd buttons.  Out of that, we were able to make something new.

Anais DiCroce

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Posted in Family, onFun | No Comments »

Choosing the Right Vegan Vitamins

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Use this guide to make sure your vitamins are as cruelty-free as you are.

Since not everyone is perfect and eats balanced meals containing every single necessary nutrient required by the body for peak performance, once-daily multi-vitamins help fill in the nutritional gaps left by a diet of regular food. Unfortunately, most vitamin brands bind their pills together with animal ingredients like gelatin, and they also market certain nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids in the form of animal products like fish oil. However, there are plant-based sources for all necessary vitamins and minerals, and they are becoming more readily available in stores as they have already been on the Internet. Here is a guide to finding the right vitamins for your lifestyle.

1. Do more than read the label.

Labels are required to list ingredients but not their sources. Though gelatin is usually made from animal bones, it can also be made from plants, and some companies don’t bother specifying which kind is used on the bottle. Vegan brands usually indicate that they are vegan somewhere on the label, with or without the rabbit/V logo, but when in doubt, do some research on the Internet. Even if the company’s website doesn’t mention whether they are cruelty-free, chances are a fellow vegan has written a formal letter asking for information and posted the response on a forum.

2. Take (for starters) a multi-vitamin, and tailor the rest to your needs.

Downing a handful of vitamins every day can make anyone feel like a grandparent with a seven-day pill organizer. To start with, every person should take a once-daily multi-vitamin that includes a high percentage of the daily-recommended intake of major vitamins and minerals. Decide whether your normal diet contains a sufficient amount of iron before choosing between vitamins with or without iron added.

Other pills can be taken at your discretion. It’s advisable for women to take calcium supplements, and many people don’t get enough omega-3 fatty acids through their food. Analyze your diet and decide where you can supplement and where you can change your eating habits to avoid another pill.

3. Shop smart.

Vitamins have to be taken every day, so it’s a good idea not to spend a small fortune on them. This can be done while still avoiding dubiously labeled, cheap, bulk bottles. Vegetarianvitamins.com is a great source for affordable certified-vegan supplements by mail order. If you prefer to shop locally, you’ll have to utilize your online research on vitamin brands, but chances are you won’t even have to go to a specialty store to find what you need. Chain drug stores have extensive vitamin selections, or you can take advantage of coupons for independent drug stores like Whitney Chemists. Scroll down to find a Campus Clipper coupon for %10 off.

Even if you feel like you’re in great shape, taking a dietary supplement every day can increase your body and brain’s potential. Make the extra effort to ensure you’re performing the best you can, and take your vitamins!

-Avia Dell’Oste.

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Posted in Eating Healthy, onHealth, onSavings, onShopping | 2 Comments »

Facebook vs. The Wedding

Sunday, June 26th, 2011
Fakebook

Facebook versus world nations. (Click image for source).

Facebook. We all know (and some of us love) Facebook. It’s revolutionary. Literally. Ask Egypt. It possesses an amazing ease of use, managing to embed messaging, game-playing, photo-posting, video-uploading, link-sharing and (lest we forget) poking, all into a neat, blue interface. Yes, Facebook is quite a thrill and I’ll admit that, as a Facebook user, I enjoy it. But recently I received an e-mail that knocked my appreciation of Facebook down a peg.

After a long weekend enjoying the marriage of one of my oldest cousins to his lovely bride, I was checking my e-mail Monday afternoon and saw a message from a sender I had not seen in a while: Facebook. You see, I don’t like being bothered with e-mails that I won’t read anyway. So, all of the unnecessary messages I would receive (about group notifications, event notifications, notices about posts I’m tagged in, inbox messages, etc., etc.) I have already opted out of. When something happens on Facebook, I’ll know when I go onto Facebook. Having it happen on Facebook and in my e-mail inbox seems redundant to me.

This being the case, I thought that while I was checking my e-mail, I wouldn’t see any messages from a sender named “Facebook.” But of course, I was dead wrong. I simply wanted to delete the message and leave it at that, but it piqued my curiosity. Why was I receiving this message?

“Hi, Christopher. You haven’t been to Facebook for a few days, and a lot happened while you were away.”

This is how the e-mail began, verbatim. The rest of the message basically looked like Facebook restricted to the confines of my inbox window. I didn’t know what to think at first. Obviously, while I’m not on Facebook, things continue to happen. Statuses are updated, profile pictures are changed and comments are made. But why did Facebook need me to know about it so desperately that they e-mailed me?

Fakebook2

Facebook being used on a Mac OS. (Click image for source).

I understand that at the end of the day, Facebook is a corporation and they’re in the business of making money. Obviously they want me to use their website because it helps them conduct their business and collect advertising fees. I suppose what upsets me isn’t really the e-mail at all, but the circumstances under which I received it. As I said, the e-mail came to me after spending a weekend home enjoying a family wedding. I didn’t use the Internet much at all during this time, let alone go onto Facebook. I was proud to see my cousin get married and for those 72 hours, it was more important to me than anything else. So reading an e-mail that said I was missing out on Facebook’s happenings seemed so insignificant that the e-mail came off as insulting. Because yes, Facebook, I have nothing better to do with my life then check your updates all day long.

I hope I’m not the only one who has an opinion about this. I don’t want to see my generation blindly led onto an Internet roadway that we can’t drive off of. The Internet is important, and I’ll admit Facebook may be important, too. It’s a great tool for communication and organization. But we shouldn’t let its usefulness overshadow what is really important in life. Technology is made by humans and used by humans, so as human beings, we should be able to control it, and not let it control us. Be careful with how (and how often) you use Facebook. There’s a real world out there, and Facebook should only be a means through which we want to interact in real life.

–Christopher Cusack, Hofstra University

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Why Asian Food is for Everyone

Saturday, June 25th, 2011

Whenever I suggest an Asian restaurant to my friend Michelle, she unconsciously wrinkles her nose a little. Michelle is undoubtedly a pasta kind of girl. I think she’s under the misconception that all Japanese restaurants are terrifying, mysterious places where the only options on the menu are variations of raw fish. Other friends fondly mention Cup Noodles.

But here are two truths regarding these misconceptions: Japanese food varies a lot, and Cup Noodles are tasteless (salty is not  flavor!). I want to start off with the Cup Noodles, because I can almost hear the ramen enthusiasts protesting. Instant ramen in and of itself is not bad, and I certainly appreciate the low price of Cup Noodles. I do think it’s somewhat telling, however, that the first two results when you type “Cup Noodles” into Google are “cup noodles cancer” and “cup noodles bad for you.” While I doubt this brand of instant ramen will give you cancer, it’s certainly the least appetizing instant noodles I’ve ever tasted. Maybe I’ve been spoiled, but Cup Noodles pretty much taste like starch and watery soy sauce to me.

Image credit: suzuya.ca

That’s not to say that all instant ramen is tasteless, though. Head to an Asian market and you’ll see that there are many different brands and flavors of instant ramen, including soy, pork, and miso. Some of the other brands of cup noodles come in bigger containers as well, which is great for when you’re really hungry and that Cup Noodle styrofoam seems a little on the skimpy side. While there are definitely tasty cup brands of instant ramen, my personal favorite types of ramen are the ones that cook in a pot. Although not as instantly ready as the cup brands, they only take about ten minutes to cook and all the ingredients (other than water) are still included. I’ve always found the sauces in these brands to be better, which makes the extra five minutes totally worth it!

As for the raw fish confusion, it’s simply untrue that Japanese cuisine consists solely of uncooked fish, and taking a look at the menu in any Japanese restaurant confirms this. There are plenty of curries and rice dishes to be found in Japanese restaurants—one of my personal favorite rice dishes is called katsudon. It is a bowl of rice with eggs, thin pork cutlets, and seasoning on top. This type of rice bowl can be made with other types of meat, or even with just eggs and seasoning, for any vegetarians out there. Aside from ramen, there are also other types of noodles, such as soba or udon noodles. These noodles can be served both hot and cold, which make them a great choice on a hot summer night.

Tempura is another nice dish to have in the summer. Simply put, tempura is vegetables or seafood, put in batter and fried.  Many people are somewhat wary when they hear the word “fried,” but tempura is not all that unhealthy. For one, it is primarily vegetable or seafood-based.  It is also generally not too heavily fried, with the emphasis in the dish being the vegetable or seafood itself.  All sorts of vegetables and seafoods can be used in tempura, from eggplant to asparagus to shrimp. Tempura is actually pretty easy to make, as well.  My mother makes it fairly often in the summer, and we usually have it with some soba noodles on the side.  She makes sliced eggplant, green bean, and onion-and-carrot tempura. The onion-and-carrot tempura are thinly sliced and battered together almost like little bundles, and they disappear absurdly quickly from our table.

Of course, there’s also sushi. Most people are at least familiar with sushi, most likely having tried tuna rolls or California rolls. These are fine sushi choices, but I would urge any sushi fan to try something a little more adventurous.  I personally love sushi made with eel, although this sometimes gets me odd looks when I mention it to friends.  The fish is very soft, though, and often in sushi it is seasoned with a sauce that is almost sweet—I definitely recommend it!

Image credit: lectronet.com

The other fun aspect of Japanese restaurants that specialize in sushi is that there is sometimes a separate sushi bar. Some sushi bars feature a conveyor belt of sorts, with various sushi dishes on colored plates.  Generally, each plate color or pattern corresponds with the price of the sushi dish, so it is easy to check your spending as you eat. Restaurants like these are a lot of fun to go to with groups of people. I once went with my family, and my younger sister had a blast picking up dishes of sushi for us all; she would sit eagerly awaiting her favorite shrimp sushi to come down the conveyor belt.

Maybe if I had suggested a sushi bar like this, I could’ve convinced my friend Michelle that Japanese restaurants are fun and delicious, rather than strange and foreign.  Although I didn’t go into this much depth with her during my initial attempt to convince her, she did eventually agree to try out a modern Thai restaurant. And despite her initial reluctance, she ended up enjoying it after all.

Anais DiCroce

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