"Gluttony #1" by Khaled Mahd

A native of Jordan, Khaled Mahd came to Boston University just last month after completing his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at Indiana State University in Terra Haute, IN. Originally an engineering student, this scientist-turned-graphic artist brings a talent for graphic design and vivid photography to the CFA graduate program. Khaled submitted his photo Gluttony #1, which is part of a 14-part exhibition on the seven deadly sins called Elementum that was originally shown in Terra Haute, IN.

Quad: What inspired the exhibition?
Khaled Mahd: The entire exhibition, actually, was conceived on a smaller scale for graphic design class back at Indiana State University. The program in my previous University was very commercial, and I asked my professor if I could do something a little more conceptual. It’s still a realistic depiction, and these turned out to be very marketable photos, but the entire idea was that I don’t want to do a project for corporate use or to promote something. So, the idea developed to become an exhibition. I took it further, I did lots of the costume design for the exhibition and the makeup sketching.

This photo is named after gluttony, but the model is almost seductive in this pose, not grotesque at all.
The idea of this show is that the seven deadly sins have all been bad things that people always commit and hide, or feel and hide. The idea for this show with this glamorous makeup and exotic outfit is basically to glorify the seven deadly sins and think of them as more of a positive channel of self expression. So, they still look dangerous and they still look threatening, but at the same time it’s like an alter ego for the models or for whoever is looking at them. They’re so beautiful and they’re so attractive to a point that people want to look like them. So the fact that they are this gorgeous and this flamboyant overshadows the fact that they are sins and they’re supposed to be hidden.

What is the model doing in this photo?
She’s crouching. The idea of the pose and this perspective, it’s a little bit distorted, so she looks larger on the front, and that way the photo looks a little bit more confrontational and more threatening. She’s looking at something outside the photo, at something she’s going to attack. This is the gluttony concept of it.

Talk about the production that goes into a photo like this.
The lighting was pretty dramatic, but it was retouched in Photoshop. The color saturation was all photoshop-made, but the basic colors and basic lighting was actually there. Lots of the shadow were painted on her fingers to make her look more grotesque. On the face, I lost some detail for the sake of shadow, which was a good thing.

Any plans to bring these photos back out?
This exhibition is called Elementum, and I’m trying to get it to have more exposure here in Boston.

In addition to photography, Khaled also does illustration and graphic design. His online portfolio can be found here.

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BU’s 5 Ugliest Buildings

(Note: This ranking is based only on the buildings’ exteriors, not their interiors.  You’re safe for now, CFA.)

5.  Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
635 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

It’s up here mainly because of the building’s nihilistic west wall, a huge brick monolith that towers ominously over the parking lot next door.  Seriously, nobody wanted to put any windows on that side?  The place almost seems to be begging for the attention of an ambitious graffiti artist.

4.  College of Communication (COM)
640 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

For those too young to remember, the COM building (which was originally built in 1912 as a garage and auto sales room) used to be topped by a large radio tower that sat atop the front stairwell.  The tower went unused for several years after WTBU switched to web-casting, and last year it was taken down.  That was a bad idea.  Yes, the tower was useless, and yes, it did represent “old media,” but at least it was distinctive and eye-catching.  Without it, COM is just a gray, water-stained block that lies mercifully hidden behind trees and frisbee-throwers.

3.  The HoJo
575 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Need we say more?  This was originally a regular Howard Johnson hotel which was bought by the university to be used as housing.  The front of the building resembles a concrete bees’ nest, or maybe a giant, gray kind of corrugated cardboard.

2.  The George Sherman Union/Mugar Memorial Library
775 Commonwealth Avenue/771 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Think about it—have you ever actually seen the outside of the GSU or Mugar?  You’ve seen their front entrances, sure, but can you really visualize them as complete buildings?  They aren’t that tall, so most of their exteriors are hidden behind foliage or neighboring buildings, perhaps for good reason.  When you can actually get a full look at them, they seem to be made out of gray, irregularly-sized Legos that have been randomly grafted together in no particular order.  Like Boston’s City Hall, they are prime examples of the architectural trend often referred to (usually by its critics) as Brutalism.

1.  The Law Tower
765 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

The Law Tower is stylistically similar to the GSU and Mugar, but distinguishes itself from its next-door neighbors by being one of the university’s most prominently visible buildings.  It’s impossible to visit BU without at least catching a glimpse of this jaggedly blocky structure, which rises up out of the center of the campus like a middle finger aimed at the face of God.

But before we get too far beyond the boundaries of good taste (if the middle-finger analogy hasn’t already taken us there), it should be noted that the Law Tower, the GSU and Mugar are actually very well-liked among many in the architectural community.  They were constructed in the 1960s by Spanish architect José Luis Sert, who at the time was Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  According to BU Architecture Professor Keith N. Morgan, Sert’s buildings, “especially the Law School Tower, helped to further reinforce the visibility of BU along the river landscape, making it a little more competitive with Harvard and MIT.”  Paolo Scrivano, also an Architecture Professor at BU, agrees, saying that the buildings “describe very well a moment in time…  Every time I have a friend from the architectural field visiting me, they always want to see these buildings.”  So while many of us may not like Sert’s work, it may at least be able to teach us something.

But enough negativity.  Let’s move on to our other list:

BU’s 5 Sexiest Buildings

(Again, this is based entirely on external appearances.  Sorry, SMG.)

5.  Myles Standish Hall
610 Beacon Street

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Myles is just a classy place.  It was built in 1925 and, before being purchased by BU, it served as a hotel catering to high society.  Its wedge shape gives it just enough character without making it bizarre or ridiculous, and on a campus where many of the “older” buildings date from the ‘60s, it’s nice to have some representation for old-timey Boston.

4.  The Bay State Brownstones
Bay State Road

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Speaking of old-timey Boston, the Bay State Brownstones exemplify a well-loved architectural type common throughout the city: Redbrick, bowfront rowhouses, each with its own distinct personality.  Mostly built around the dawning of the 20th century, the brownstones provide welcoming facades for offices or student housing, and generally make Bay State Road one of BU’s pleasantest places.

3.  The Castle
225 Bay State Road

Photo by Nicole Cousins

The Castle is relatively small and easy to overlook, but it’s still one of BU’s  most awesome landmarks.  A Tudor Revival-style mansion, it was completed in 1914 for use by a rich Boston businessman who dabbled in poetry and playwriting and apparently had a thing for the Middle Ages.  It is somewhat marred by the fact that it’s attached to the abandoned, decrepit former Hillel House, but that’s a small price to pay for a campus facility that looks like something out of an Edgar Allan Poe story.

2.  StuVi2
33 Harry Agganis Way

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Probably the best-looking of BU’s newest facilities.  Places like the Photonics Center or the FitRec are nice, but they’re often saddled with unnecessary layers of brick; Professor Scrivano feels that they “try to adapt to the local flavor with something which is kind of fake.”  StuVi2, on the other hand, pretty much looks like what it is: A new, modern dormitory.  Also, what can we say—we like shiny things.

1.  Marsh Chapel
735 Commonwealth Avenue

Photo by Nicole Cousins

Less ornate than the Castle but still maintaining that Gothic style, the Chapel (which was constructed in the 1940s) is the anchor of the BU campus, and deserves to be.  It provides a good centerpiece to Marsh Plaza, and, in a way, it represents the other buildings around it: it combines the stripped-down minimalism of CAS or Warren Towers with the more intricate trappings of the Castle or the brownstones.  It may not be the biggest or the most eye-catching building at the University, but it is, we believe, the best.

Of course, a school’s campus is more than just the sum of its parts.  Sometimes what’s important is the juxtaposition of the individual structures against each other, the way international-style highrises can coexist with glass-fronted classrooms and old-fashioned New England rowhouses.  In that sense, the campus as a whole has its own personality and character derived from each and every one of its component buildings.

Even the Law Tower, we guess.

Thanks to Professors Keith N. Morgan and Paolo Scrivano for sharing their views and insights.  We hope they weren’t too offended.

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Copyright: HBO. Post under fair use.

Summer smash hit “True Blood,” which originates from the ‘Southern Vampire Mysteries’ best-seller series by Charlaine Harris, raises the question of what seduces readers to grotesque literature and television, and what the authors behind the fangs are up to.

Grotesque literature is often transposed to television but in the traditional sense it “means something that is alienating or jarring,” said BU English PHD candidate Kristin Bezio. A common way to alienate the reader is to sever the human connection: if the character is not human there cannot be a full empathetic experience. This distance allows the author latitude to portray controversial topics without setting back the reader through offense.

Bezio explains: “In today’s sense of vampires and werewolves, I would say that we still want to feel like we’re on the ‘right’ side of things. I also think that what we’re seeing in these paranormal TV shows and books is a movement toward attempting to literally demonize (vampires are a form of demon, technically) our fears – whether fears of ethnic or cultural Others, or fears of something out of our control. We want to put them in physical form so that we can interact with them on a concrete rather than abstract level.”

Demonizing characters allows people to enact their moral battles in person, rather than on a metaphysical level. In HBO’s version of ‘True Blood,’ vampire marriage is only legal in Vermont. The show portrays vampires’ struggle against political persecution in their pursuit of human freedoms. The persecution against vampire rights on TV parallels that of gay rights in reality: both reveal the appalling nature of humanity

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Copyright: Quirk Books

Paranormal characters provide both an emotional distance and yet a physical closeness: “It allows us to distance ourselves from the fundamental discussion going on in the work–vampires aren’t real (in 21st century understanding), and therefore they are a good way of working out our concerns. Real things are harder for our psyches to interpret because they are fraught with all sorts of real-life complications and consequences,” said Bezio. People are better able to work through controversial topics once they are removed from the context of reality and therefore, remove themselves from the beam of blame. Authors recognize this weakness and seize the trope of the grotesque to convey not only a theme, but the monstrous beholder behind it.

The recent trend in grotesque works has even spread to include perverted revisions to classic British literature. Books like ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,’ by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith feature zombies that wander the English countryside, which adds the aspect of violence to this classic love story. Proper English women bulk up through martial arts and muskets to battle the sea of undead that storm Britain’s idyllic hillside estates. In the end, Elizabeth does not just accept Darcy’s proposal: she instigates a vicious fight with him in defense of her wronged sister. Nothing shows family love quite like a zombie invasion. As of two weeks ago, a recent addition to the grotesque collection includes ‘Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,’ by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters.

Despite the recent surge, people have been dabbling with demons for a long time.

“A desire to understand Otherness, or to demonize it, is fundamental to human nature. After all, Shakespeare’s two characters in ‘The Tempest’ who aren’t human are both “good” and “bad”–the sympathetic Other, Ariel, and the evil Other, Caliban,” explained Bezio. She raises an important point, the history of literature reflects both authors’ use of the grotesque and readers’ predilection towards it.

BU English Professor Magdalena Ostas elaborated on the literary history of the grotesque and its author’s intentions: “I think of Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein” as being as much about the history of science and our conceptions of the human as a novel of ideas. One has to remember that Mary Shelley’s parents (Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin), whom she read intensely, were important figures in the political debates of the 1790s, and one can see in her novel an allegorical engagement with the questions that politically defined that generation.” Ostas suggests that Shelley’s stitched up stiff, Frankenstein, offers her readers both a glimpse into the scientific themes coupled with political stances.

Goyas "El Aquelarre"

The grotesque even traverses media. In the early 1800′s Spanish painter Francisco Goya unveiled ‘The Black Paintings,’ a collection that contains distorted human and subhuman figures. The ‘El Aquelarre’ installment features a group of disfigured witches closing in on the devil. Faces reveal fear, curiosity, and disgust, all familiar expressions surrounding the current vampire and zombie trend.

“We always try to do one or both to the things we view as different from ourselves. It’s an eternal conflict within human nature,” reflected Bezio. Either way, readers’ and viewers’ widespread obsession with the macabre implies a familiarity in themselves or maybe just an addiction to blood. They read and watch it for some of the same human faults that authors try to express as grotesque: sex, racism, and discrimination.

Aside from fascinating fangs and ravishing leather outfits it turns out that vampires are, in fact, deeper than their eternal skin.

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One day, Zac Little (CAS ’10) decided to kill his boredom by setting up a few puppets in his apartment and making them converse about political and cultural events. Now, he’s a bonafide YouTube star, a part of his own sponsored channel and creating his own internet crazes. His short series, Rock and Sock and Robot, takes all the messed up parts you love about America and turns them into quotable, two-minute slices of comedy gold.

The Quad: The first question I want to ask you is: Ha Bisky?

Zac Little (CAS '10), Puppet Master | Photo by Nicole Cousins

Little: It’s really not my fault that it’s gotten this out of control, because I do other videos with a group of guys who took it and ran with it. It started as something a guy I went to high school with used to say. He was kind of a jock caricature, and we don’t really know where it came from but it was his all-purpose exclamation he would say whether he was excited or upset or anything. I remembered it a few weeks ago and decided it deserved a comeback.

And now it’s blown up on the internet.

Yeah, for a long time it was just a placeholder. I was going to come up with some other nonsense phrase, and everyone who I talked to persuaded me not to change it.

How did you start Rock and Sock and Robot?

I used to be involved with other comedy groups, and when I moved to Boston I really had no one else to do anything with. So, I kind of needed a way that wasn’t just me talking to myself in my apartment. So, I decided that if puppets were talking to each other it wouldn’t be as sad as me talking to myself.

How long does it take you to make an episode?

I guess it takes about five or six hours total.  My original plan was to just film it once and I would never have to worry about it ever again, but then I realized that that would not be very visually interesting, especially on the Youtube page. So, the first thing I have to do is shoot it again, which is pretty easy. But, then, after that I have to do all the voices. I have really horrible technology, so it’s a lot of moving things between two computers, because they’re both old and one can’t really handle altering audio and the other can’t handle video. So, there’s a lot of walking back and forth across my apartment with a flash drive. It’s really simple animation, so it’s a lot of hitting the same keys 400 or 500 times.

The animation is pretty topical, does it take much to find inspiration?

It does now, because the only thing that’s been happening for weeks is the health care reform debate. And it’s been going on for so long that it’s just boring and there’s no more jokes to be made. And, so, you just have to go back. Making fun of Glenn Beck is kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I feel like I need to do it anyway. It’s fun, but it’s not very productive.

Check out more of Rock Sock and Robot at Zac’s website, habisky.blogspot.com, or on the Angry Films Channel on Youtube .

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It’s October, which means three sure things: fallen leaves, midterms and the baseball postseason. This postseason looks to be as dynamic as ever, and we’re here to give you our expert opinions as to who will rock the MLB playoffs in 2009.

American League

East – New York Yankees

Photo by Flickr user Wigstruck

Theeeeey’re baaaaaack. After missing the postseason for the first time in thirteen years, the Yankees have the strongest team since the Joe Torre years. The Yankees are by far the best team in baseball with their 102-57 record. The lineup has a reborn Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira tattooing every baseball he sees, and Alex Rodriguez following suit. The pitching has been strong with C.C. Sabathia sporting a cool 3.21 ERA and 19 wins. The rest of the rotation has quite the resume of postseason play with Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett in the two and three spots.  Also, the Yankees have had great success at “They Stadium,” but the away game is a little less stable. The Yankees have 12 less wins on the road, and they have 31 more homeruns in the Bronx. Home field advantage gives Yanks the edge, and they could be unstoppable.

Central – Detroit Tigers vs. Minnesota Twins

It’s come down to the wire in the American League Central Division after Detroit seemed to have a solid lock on that playoff spot. However, we benefit, with some free baseball as the Tigers and Twins battle it out in their 163^rd game. The Tigers have played really mediocre in the final month of regular season play, limping with a bruised 16-15 record in 31 games. The Twins haven’t performed much better, going 20-10 in the final months.  Both teams have struggled, but in the last six times these two teams have faced off the Twins have taken four of six games. The Twins also have the advantage in the season matches going 11-6 against Detroit. It’s going to be a close game, but in the end Joe Mauer and the Twins will take this one from Detroit.

West – Los Angeles Angels

Photo by Wikipedia user UCinternational

To no surprise the Angels have topped the weak A.L. West division once again, and you can already see the Red Sox salivating. However, this is 2009 and the Angels could have a chance. Even without Vladimir Guerrero performing, the offense is just second in the American League behind the Yankees in RBIs and leads both leagues in team batting average. The pitching staff looks nothing more than average, but the bullpen is the big surprise. After dumping Francisco Rodriguez on the Mets, the Angles picked up Brian Fuentes who leads the A.L. in saves. Also, with Darren Oliver holding down the ‘pen its no wonder the Angels won 94 games this year.

Wildcard – Boston Red Sox

By

Photo by Flickr user Wigstruck

Everybody’s hometown favorite is back in the ALDS for the third straight year, but the question is: How far will the beloved Sawx go? It seems as though the midsummer offensive swoon is over, and the Sox run-scoring machine is back. In September alone the Red Sox scored 152 runs, and were held under 3 runs just six times. Also look out for Jason Bay to come up big in his second playoff appearance. Last year he batted .341 with three home runs and nine RBI’s. Right now he leads the team in home runs (36) and RBIs (115). The really worry point for the Red Sox is the pitching. Once you get past Josh Beckett you have a hard time finding anyone trustworthy as a solid number-two pitcher.

Quad’s Pick: New York Yankees

By far the most dominant force in baseball this season, it’s hard to stop the juggernaut Yankees from barreling their way to the final race to the AL pennant.

National League

East – Philadelphia Phillies

Photo by Flickr user artolog

A year removed from the World Series championship, the Fightin’ Phils are getting used to the postseason after clinching a division title for the third consecutive season. Philadelphia will try to repeat as champions for the first time since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000. You’d have to go back in 1975-6 and the Cincinnati Reds for the last NL repeat. To accomplish this feat, the Phillies will look to their sluggers with 30-plus home runs: Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Trade deadline acquisition Cliff Lee joins last year’s World Series MVP Cole Hamels to anchor a bolstered rotation. But unless they are able to pitch late into games, an imploding bullpen may derail the repeat train.

Central – St. Louis Cardinals

Photo by Flickr user SD Dirk

The red-hot Cardinals have all their guns are blazing both behind the plate and on the mound. With the largest division lead in the National League, the Cardinals have coasted back into the playoffs after a year off. Albert Pujols was a Triple Crown threat earlier this season and is still in the top three in batting average, home runs and runs batted in. Matt Holliday joined St. Louis in a midseason trade and has given Pujols the support he needs. But the true strength of the Cardinals is their rotation. Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter could each be considered for a Cy Young award, with Wainwright leading the league in wins with 19 and Carpenter  putting up a league best 2.24 ERA.

West – Los Angeles Dodgers

Photo by Flickr user Bryce Edwards

Life is good in Hollywood and in Mannywood as the Dodgers punch their ticket to the postseason for the fourth time in six years. Los Angeles has hung tough to earn its first back-to-back division titles since 1977-78, all despite losing slugger Manny Ramirez to a 50-game suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Even with Manny’s return, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have picked up the slack in the outfield, with the latter leading the majors in walk-off hits. Jonathan Broxton has been unhittable out of the bullpen and can close any game out if the questionable rotation, headed by Randy Wolf, can let him pitch.

Wildcard – Colorado Rockies

Photo by Flickr user SD Dirk

After reaching the World Series two years ago, Colorado is hoping that this month will be Rocktober. The Rockies have overcome early season struggles For the second time in three seasons to surge into the playoffs. Colorado was 12 games under .500 on June 3 and at one point trailed in the wildcard by 9 and a half games. Troy Tulowitzki has exploded with a 30-20 season and Todd Helton leads the team in batting average and on-base percentage. Perhaps the biggest surprise and most important contribution to the Rockies’ resurgence has been the quality of their starting pitching. Jorge De La Rosa and Jason Marquis lead the only rotation with five starters registering double-digit wins.

Quad’s Pick: St. Louis Cardinals

The NL pennant is in the Cards, as their balance on offense and pitching will be a force to be reckoned with this postseason.

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The Boston music scene is a vast conglomerate of genres. Like every city’s scene, Boston has its bad parts, but good parts do exist and some are still waiting to be discovered. Once music-goers take advantage of seeing local bands live, many doors (literally) are opened; there are house shows, Cambridge shows, Allston shows, Jamaica Plain shows, and the list goes on.

The local scene consists of hundreds of people who go out to see live music for the same reason—because they enjoy it. Then, not only do opportunities arise to experience new parts of the city outside the BU microcosm, but also to get to know new people. In addition to meeting new faces, the shows tend to be cheaper. Perhaps the experience will lack a firework light show and massive sound crew, but it will still be an experience.

Because the Quad’s music section will cover shows all over Boston, I’d like to familiarize you with some gems from the local scene. The following is a list of venues and bands that I enthusiastically recommend, ordered alphabetically:

VENUES:

Club Passim- Located in the heart of Harvard Square, the 50-year-old venue is known as the legendary folk club that helped jump-start Joan Baez’s music career. It’s a “cultural center” that offers music lessons during the day and live music at night.

Great Scott- Great Scott is only a 20-minute walk from BU campus at the Harvard Avenue/Commonwealth Avenue intersection. Great Scott features a full calendar of local and touring indie acts. WTBU radio show host Matt Amaral says, “The Great Scott is nice because it’s close by and still has an eclectic mix of shows.”

The Middle East- Located in Central Square in Cambridge, The Middle East is only a ten-minute bike ride from campus and boasts four separate stages: Upstairs, Downstairs, ZuZu, and The Corner. Jason Bergman, a Northeastern University student and Boston DJ says of The Middle East, “After living in Boston for nearly four years, I’d say my favorite venue has always been the Middle East Downstairs. They have cheap shows, awesome lineups, great sound, and a great staff.”

Midway Café- Hard to reach but worth the visit, the Midway Café in Jamaica Plain is a cozy garage-band barroom waiting to be explored. Boston University student John Facendola explains, “It’s a very small chill atmosphere; the venue promotes a personal experience. I was there for a hardcore show and the small space gave the set a more raw feeling—everyone got really into it.”

O’Briens- The sister venue of Great Scott, O’Briens is a smaller barroom venue that hosts more local/under-the-radar names. It’s almost always a 21+ venue, though, so steer clear if you’re an underclassman.

TT the Bear’s Place- TT the Bear’s (or “TT’s”) is just around the corner from the Middle East in Central Square. The venue lacks strong acoustics, but hosts solid touring and local shows throughout the week. One of their recent shows included the Sub Pop band The Fruit Bats (check out our very own interview with The Fruit Bats here).

Whitehaus- The Whitehaus is a collective of artists/musicians in Jamaica Plain who host weekly, independent shows—or, as the scene has coined the term—“do-it-yourself”/DIY shows. Boston University student and DJ Nooka Jones explains, “The Whitehaus has a folksy, intimate environment with good acoustics. It’s a different kind of place—very relaxed. Because it’s a public ‘house’ venue, it’s more inviting than other places in Boston.”

BANDS:

The Big Big Bucks- The Bucks are a catchy four-piece band with rough vocals and clever wordplay. Great Scott employee Devin Charette says, “They’re very under-rated for what they’re doing. They’ve gotten a lot better over the last year and they’re one of the Boston bands people need to hear. No matter the audience size, they have the same energy at every show.”

Photo by Tony Cheng

The David Wax Museum- The folk group consists of five musicians who play various instruments (including a few Mexican guitars) and often sing in echoed call-and-response form. They recently sold out their album release show at Club Passim. Boston University student Devon Maloney says, “The fact that David’s American and plays songs in English and Spanish is really cool. He’s a cross-cultural artist and he’s not afraid to be one.”

Magic Magic- Known for their wide-ranged vocalist and two drummers, Magic Magic have gained a lot of buzz over the last year, including unexpected press from the UK. The London Times reports, “If you’re looking for comparisons, you might cite Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, the Spinto Band and the like. Really, though, Magic Magic are their own band. And what a band—and what a discovery.”

Many Mansions- A one-man act, Many Mansions is an electronic brainiac, sampling everything from tribal drums to children’s toys. Bostonist.com describes his music as “the sort of environmental, atmospheric ambient music that you would expect to have heard on a college radio station at 3 a.m. 10 years ago. Lots of drones and slowly developing melodic ideas and drumming.”

Mean Creek- Mean Creek is a modern folk/rock group that masters the concept of dual male/female vocals. Steve Theo, the founder of Pirate Promotion in Cambridge, says Mean Creek have “been working hard for years and it’s finally all coming to fruition in their new album, The Sky (Or the Underground).”

Photo by Jeff Galusha

Neptune- This band makes their own instruments out of junkyard scraps to produce a raw, creepy, and original sound. Boston College student and radio host Ryan McDaid says, “Their abrasive industrial noise is counterbalanced by driving percussion and engaging vocals. Neptune is the closest thing America will ever get to its own Einsturzende Neubauten.”

Photo by Julian Furtak

Pretty & Nice- The creation of Boston University alumnus, Holden Lewis, Pretty & Nice is a foursome of post-punk dance music with complex guitar parts and catchy choruses. Boston College student and concert photographer Julian Furtak says, “Having photographed Pretty & Nice countless times in the past, it’s never felt like a chore. Listening to their song ‘Tora Tora Tora’ with or without a camera in my hand has always managed to lift my spirits into full dance mode.”

Quilt- A trio of two girls and a guy who mix 70’s psychedelia and modern experimentalism, Quilt plays most of their shows in Allston and Jamaica Plain hideaways. Liz Pelly, a music director at WTBU explains, “Their eerie layered girl singer harmonies and lo-fi drones are what intrigued when I first heard Quilt.”

Spitzer Space Telescope- Telling tales of ancient dragons and pirates, Spitzer Space Telescope is a ravaging force of folk music. He commands his audience with his booming voice and uncontrollable guitar playing. BU Today describes him as an “effusive, energetic singer-songwriter.”

You Can Be A Wesley- A female-fronted band with four members who graduated from BU last year, You Can Be A Wesley is a high-energy group full of beachy guitar riffs and nostalgic songwriting. The Weekly Dig compares their sound to the likes of Joanna Newsom and Sufjan Stevens.

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What gender would you prefer living with?

However, the gender-neutral housing initiative is facing much more opposition than the simple, cost-free alteration attracts.  With the Medical Amnesty policy pushed to the back-burner, and the print-quota scandal taking much of the Student Union’s time, can a liberal policy be proposed, approved, and enacted within a reasonable timeframe?

The question has yet to be answered, but College of Engineering junior and active Student Union member Charles Manning hopes to enact his gender-neutral proposal early enough to give BU students the option on their 2010 housing form.

“I hope to get this proposal done and through by Thanksgiving,” Manning said.

Manning’s sentiments aren’t far-fetched: according to the website genderblind.org,  many of the nation’s schools and even other Boston-area colleges like Brandeis and Harvard have altered their longtime housing policies to make gender-neutral housing a reality for students. Manning says that the policy should have been enacted a long time ago, and that given the average BU student’s independence it seems that as adults we should have had this choice years ago.

“I think that it hasn’t been a big issue because people who wanted to go that route, they just moved off-campus,” Manning said.

Manning said he has a positive outlook about this initiative, and that his initial conversations with the administration have been relatively open-minded and friendly. However, in an email to The Quad, BU Housing Director Marc Robillard said that students must be assigned to roommates of the same gender, and there has not been a significant number of requests by the student body to change the policy as it stands. Robillard also said that transgendered students are assigned on case-by-case basis.

Charles Manning (ENG '011) advocates to change the housing policy | Photo by Nicole Cousins

“At BU we work with each student who is in the process of changing gender to support the individual student’s needs,” Robillard said.

When asked if he was aware of the transgendered policy, Manning said that he had no idea that it existed, and that not only all students should have access to a gender-neutral option, but also that it should be openly advertised and need no explication.

“As adults, we should not have to justify our reasons for living with whomever we choose,” Manning said.

This is not the first time that the Student Union has been met with resistance: last year’s attempt to enact Medical Amnesty to ensure intoxicated students wouldn’t face disciplinary repercussions in the process of seeking medical attention, and the current battle to review the drastically cut print quota are both clear examples of the red tape the administration strings around students desiring real change. Despite the outspoken voices of the Student Union, it seems like the administration isn’t interested in listening.

Other students who have inquired about the university’s housing policy have also been promptly shut down. College of Arts and Sciences junior Tom Reis said that when he was considering housing in the fall, he began wondering why members of the opposite sex couldn’t live together, especially in apartment-style housing where students can live in separate bedrooms. He said that he emailed housing about a gender-neutral housing, and they promptly shut him down.

“It was kind of just dead in the water,” Reis said.

When asked about whether he knew about the Student Union’s proposal, Reis said that he did not know about it at all until recently. He also said that if the Student Union  really committed to changing the housing policy, then the arguments for the proposal are very strong. The administration, he said, is another story.

“I would hope that if the student body makes it a point of their interest and their concern, that [the administration] would listen to the constituents and at least give valid reasons as to why or why not the change would happen,” Reis said.

For now, Manning said that he is confident that gender-neutral housing is a change that BU is ready for and that if the university is as progressive as it wants to be, that changing housing rules is a logical step. He said that he is writing a proposal for the administration, and that he hopes to get more people  to help pass out petitions and speak up about their opinions.

“I’m hoping I can get more students to help with this change because it’s going to take a lot longer than the print quota,” Manning said.

It is still too early to tell just how the gender-neutral policy will pan out once it is proposed to the administration, but this change, if done on time, could boost the reputation of the Student Union among the student body. There are still many miles to go, and a thicket of red tape to slice through, but if the feat is achieved the student body will finally have the first real, tangible liberal policy change since 2007. And then, maybe all students will have the opportunity to live with whomever they choose regardless of what’s going on downstairs.

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Guys out prowling | Photo by Stephanie Crumley

It’s not hard to get laid in Boston. The city is dense with weekend frat parties, dance clubs and bars laden with horny college students, all with the same goal in mind: to pull ass.

But when analyzing any one of these open-to-the-student-public drinking and grinding extravaganzas, the majority age group tends to be 18 to 19, especially females. As girls gain experience in the partying scene, they come to realize that frat parties and 18+ club nights exist for the sole reason of hooking up.

My boyfriend’s roommate, a moderately attractive unemployed 23-year-old, recently asked a young cocktail waitress–he guessed her age to be approximately 18–to go out on a date with him. When I pressed him further for details and asked what he wanted to do with her, he responded with: “Psssh. I just want to get laid at the least possible expense to me!”

Now, I have many good guy friends, and most of them confide in me the same ideal: they all want to have non-serious flings with girls. While I don’t discourage that –because, let’s face it, we could all use a summer romance or a no-strings rebound as a temporary pick-me-up now and then–most guys seem to target underclassmen, who are so new to the college partying and dating scene they don’t know what they’re getting into.

Recently, I was able to observe a fun social experiment involving underclassmen. My roommate over the summer was an entering freshman at BU, and she threw a party at our apartment the same weekend that many fellow freshmen moved into their dorms. She invited a few people that she knew from Facebook, imagining a small to moderate gathering where the “fresh meat” could get buzzed, socialize and meet new people.

What we didn’t expect were the hoards of crowds showing up on our doorstep. As we all know, word spreads fast in the freshman community: god forbid one of your floor-mates overhears you’re heading to a party, or your going-out group grows immensely. I estimate between 50 and 60 freshmen traipsed in and out of our apartment that night,  drinking our booze with a blazing ferocity.  This party was their first college experience, and they seemed well-impressed to make it a damn memorable one.

Your typical rowdy Allston Party | Photo by Stephanie Crumley

After going through case after case of cheap beer and noisily slurping shots from $11 handles of vodka, the fun really started. While there seemed to be more girls than guys in our apartment–a fact for just about anywhere you go at BU-– everyone at the party seemed to get around regardless. I had to stop six to eight different couples from engaging in intercourse in either my or my roommates’ bedrooms. A couple started making out in our front hallway, stopping their public heavy petting for nothing – even as a crowd of people crowded around, hootin’ and hollerin’, with pictures being snapped. An observer egged the guy on, screaming, “Take her shirt off for us!” He promptly did, with no shame shown from the girl whatsoever.

I saw guys making out with one girl for a few minutes, only to promptly be led off somewhere private by a different girl moments later. I saw at least five to ten people bouncing around, looking to make out with anything that had a mouth. I invited four or five of my single 21-and-up guy friends, at least three of whom (that I know of) ended up getting action with giggly freshmen girls with whore-mones gone wild.

Women Studies Professor Barbara Gottfried says that women feel pressure to be sexualized, caused by peer pressure and by racier styles of mainstream fashion.

Freedom in college, after the sexual restraints of dealing with parents and privacy in high school, also fuels younger women to loosen their morals – and their jeans’ buttons.

“It wasn’t convenient to have sex in high school; I think people fooled around, but young women weren’t having intercourse,” she said. “It’s a lot easier in college because there’s no parental control.”

Gottfried expressed concern that young women are the ones getting hurt in this modern “hook-up culture,” since girls tend to layer sex with emotional meaning and college-aged guys generally like unattached sex.

“Men are getting for free what they used to have to pay for,” she said.

A female coworker of mine, who graduated from University of Hartford in 2007, said she regularly attended frat parties as a way of making new friends, but ended up with hook-up buddies instead.

Frat parties are a great source of proving Gottfried right: guys can expect to make a contribution of at least five bucks at the door, while the party-throwers invite girls in for free. This is obviously a ploy to increase the odds of going home with an unknowing underclassman chick, excited and proud of the special treatment.

My coworker remembers liking the special treatment she received from being invited into parties on her college campus of University of Hartford.

“For any girl that was pretty enough, guys were like, ‘Sure, come on in,’” she said. “To an extent, once you got into the party, it could be a real confidence booster.”

So, this is my message to you, freshmen girls: hooking up no-strings-attached can be fun. But during your first year in this crazy and sexually-fueled city, make sure you’re not getting played before going home with the hot guy you’ve been ogling all night at a party. Make sure you know what you want and what you’re getting into, before it’s too late.

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