Travis and Aneesh, a guitar duo composed of BU engineering seniors Travis Rich and Aneesh Acharya, started playing covers of popular indie songs when they studied abroad together in Germany in 2007. They have rarely played live, but after getting good feedback from posting their videos on Youtube, the duo started writing their own songs, which they are just starting to post online. Although fairly standard indie fair, their music stands out for its instrumental complexity and Acharya’s raw yet sweet voice. They are also two of the funniest musicians/scientists we know, which you’ll see from the interview we conducted with the duo.

Quad: Do you have a name? What do you want to be called? Travis and Aneesh? T&A?

Aneesh: We don’t have a name.

Travis: Aneebis. We could just be Egypt, because that’s like Aneebis.

A: Aneebis is not the Egyptian God.

T: Anubis is.

A: Yeah but we’re not Anubis. And my name is not Anoosh. And your name’s not Trabis.

T: Yes it is. Trabis. But the thing is, both of us have been called those names.

A: When have you been called Trabis?

T: You can call me Trabis.

When did you pick up the guitar?

T: I tried to start learning when I was 14. But I had small fat fingers so I stopped. So I waited eight years. And I had bigger fat fingers.

A: So you were older than you are today?

T: By that point I was 22. So I went back in time to when I wasn’t 22. I’m trying to figuring out when it was. It was, okay, it was fall semester of 2007.

How often did you practice to reach the level that you’re at now?

T: In Germany, when me and Anoosh studied abroad, we didn’t have a lot of work, so we played a lot then. Probably two hours a day. That’s probably when I got most of my deficiencies out.

Aneesh? When did you start?

A: I started playing in fall of 2006, so the year before him…I was better when we started practicing in Germany. I also had the summer before when I was doing nothing just living in Boston.

When did you start putting your stuff on Youtube?

A: At the end of Germany, so, summer of 2007.

How did that go initially?

T: I was really excited the night we did it.

A: It went pretty well. The first video is still on there, when we had beards.

Have you gotten interesting feedback on Youtube?

A: We’ve gotten pretty good comments, yeah.

T: There were a lot of beard comments.

A: ‘What guitar is that?’ is one of the more common ones.

T: There was a big argument. What was that argument about?

A: I dunno, but someone said my guitar looked like it had a mustache, and then people started flaming about nothing relevant. And some random guy stepped up to defend us, but we weren’t being attacked, so I’m not sure what was going on with that argument.

What was the inspiration to first write songs of your own?

A: Just be cool. I dunno. We would just play around, and one of us would find some chords that we liked.

T: Woah, dude!

A: We had, how many different chords did we have before we even wrote anything? They were just terrible, terrible songs.

T: Yeah, we had a bunch of “songs” that were nothing but sound. Obviously.

A: Even now we’ve got a bunch of that.

T: There was no feeling is what I’m trying to say. There was no emotion, it was just sound.

Why is Aneesh the only one who sings?

T: He’s got a more girly voice, so it’s easier for him to hit the high notes.

Aneesh, why are you the only one who sings?

A: Well, I dunno. If Travis learns to harmonize I’d be happy to, you know, split up that.

T: Yeah, I just don’t have the dynamic ranj that he has.

A: How are you going to type that up, that word? R-U-N-eng? Eng isn’t a letter.

You’re both engineering students, but do you plan to branch out with music at all? What’s the future?

A: I dunno. We want to write more, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

T: Yeah, we were talking about trying to find bars to [play live] last semester, but we never had the time.

A: I could see it as more than a hobby, more than you just casually play around when you go home. I wouldn’t mind that.

Your songs are very dynamic, lots of speed changes and key changes, variation in strumming and picking. How conscious is that, because it’s very dynamic?

T: I think our songs start off very plain, like four chords. And then we’ll just be playing those and getting bored so we’ll throw in something and it’ll kind of grow.

A: All our songs tend to start out with four or five or six chords. And then we’ll find some strumming that sounds kind of interesting and try to add in some things to make it sound good. It’s not like we sit down and say, “We want to play this way and this way and this way.” It just kind of evolves.

What was the inspiration for Start from Scratch?

T: We have no inspiration.

A: We have no sources of inspiration. There’s probably a lot of hyperbole in our lyrics. Just because we have pretty easy lives.

T: So we have to make it look like we struggle.

A: No, there are minor struggles, and we kind of extrapolate from there. I’m sure there’s some element of truth, but how much, who knows? Always, always, always the chords come first and the music comes first.

Do you have anything else to add? Any gigs coming up?

T: I was going to play in my room later.

A: Should we give a shout-out to some product or something?

Sure.

T: I like…uh…

A: Chips.

T: Yeah. Chips.

Travis and Aneesh’s Youtube page, which contains all of their songs, can be found here.

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The first thing to catch my eye was the Tuesday Journal table. This journal consists of poems and pictures on unbound postcard-sized paper packaged in a thick colored paper shell; you actually have to unwrap it and pull out the cards individually. The originality of the magazine is only furthered by the poems and photographs found within its “cards”. The whole thing is put together by one editor and one intern, who individually wrap these tiny packages of creativity and distribute them for ten dollars a pop. Amazing, right?

And this was only the beginning.

At The Smart Set table, I met Kristen Hoggatt, the creator and columnist of “Ask a Poet“. This column allows you to submit real life problems and get advice from quoted lines of famous poets. The column applies poetry to our everyday concerns, bringing us closer to the words on the page. Kristin said, “Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s sad. It’s very heartfelt.”

Next I found Wild Apples, which the editor describes as a journal of nature, art, and inquiry. This journal combines poems and art (especially sculpture) into one common source. The magazine has recently started incorporating loose themes for each issue, like the past issue’s theme of soil. The editor invited visitors to the magazine’s launch on November 8th at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass. There, the journal will take on a life-size form, combing the sculptural exhibit of a local New England artist and readings from editors and contributors to the magazine.

Colleges around Boston made appearances as well. PostRoads, a journal based out of BC but open to all submissions, boasted a cover done by a member of the band Devo. Emerson and MIT were also represented with their creative journals Redivider and Rune (respectively). The Rune collects submissions from outside MIT and around Boston (though told me they often get submissions from Illinois for some reason), and supplies it to the student population. Likewise, the Redivider takes submissions from anywhere and everywhere. They also offered a palindrome contest, which proved highly popular.

On the other side of the writing spectrum, Boston Review called for forums and analytical writing. The magazine serves as a backdrop for constructive conversation on key topics, and allows students to be involved in critical discussion. They also boast well-known editors, who “see people with talent early on”, referring to their fiction and poetry submissions. Similarly, Back Bay Review opens up it’s pages to Boston area criticism. Moving into the online playing field with monthly features, the magazine “wants to raise awareness about the area” says editor Jenna Dee (CAS ’11). She also mentions that the magazine is expanding to include more than literature. Dee said that the publication’s goal is, “to gear it towards what people want, as long as it’s academic and local to the Boston area”

The Pen & Anvil Press alone spanned several tables, offering three different publications: 66 for sonnets, Hawk and Whippoorwill for nature poems, and The Charles River Journal for general poetry and fiction. They also extended invites to free and public poetry workshops at 7pm on Friday nights at the Panera in the Landmark Center by Fenway. You can RSVP for this and other programs here.

There were many other services offered at the fair beyond publishing opportunities. One table presented a six-week online workshop by Tom Daley to prepare poems for publication. Another had short story and poetry readings with the Dire Literary Series on Nov. 6th hosted by Timothy Gager, and a Writers Festival on Nov. 14th in Somerville.

Holding up the rear was a string of BU publications. The well-known Clarion, the lesser-known Burn, and the bilingual Pusteblume. I spoke with the editor-in-chief of Clarion, Sara Trotta (CAS ’10), about the BU publications. She mentioned Burn is being revived after two years as a semester publication for solely BU submissions. Clarion, on the other hand, has recently become open to outside submissions. “It’s our newest development,” Trotta said. “Our goal is to reach a wider literary scene, and grow into more than just a college literary magazine. We want to prepare our staff for small publications in the real world.” Trotta added that this expansion makes the publication larger and allows for a greater variety of voices.

Overall, the fair opened its door to readers and writers of all types from all over the country. The diversity of topics and types of publications made for an informative hour and tired arms stacked with flyers and free swag. It only proved that there is a lot of talent out there, much of it still waiting to be heard.

So get writing, aspiring authors!

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• Fair Play: A Refreshing Departure From the American Novel

Dorothy's Costume Shop | Photo by Nicole Cousins

Halloween is a favorite holiday for all of us in the collegiate era of our lives. People dress up, throw parties, go out and almost always make the most of the day. However, there is something I have noticed about female collegiate tendencies on Halloween that frankly, has me turned off to the holiday all together.

In college and possibly in the entire nation, women are encouraged to dress scantily for this celebration and are not typically given many other options. When Chelsea Peterson (CAS ’11) was asked if she thought women our age had a good selection of costumes to go by she replied, “No one tells a college-aged girl to look respectable on Halloween night, it’s just not talked about.” Halloween should be a day for us to use all of the knowledge we have gained in our classes and be creative!

To gain information to share with my fellow young women, I found myself at Dorothy’s Boutique at 190 Mass Ave in Back Bay. This lovely little shop has a plethora of costumes to choose from as well as a great and helpful staff including a wig specialist! Who doesn’t want to pull off a great wig for Halloween?  Dorothy’s is a family-owned business that has been open on Mass. Ave since 1947 so it is clear that the staff knows their Halloween stuff! Just ask current owner Jon Diamond, son of the famous Dorothy who is currently enjoying her retirement in sunny Florida.

Dorothy's Wall of Wigs | Photo by Nicole Cousins

Brian McCook, an employee at Dorothy’s, expressed his concern for his college age customers as he explained that girls mostly came in a bought the same five or six “sexy” outfits. Brian encouraged creativity in putting together a look for Halloween explaining how easy it can be to, “turn simple sexy into something cool” with the right accessories.

Dorothy’s offers as many Halloween accessories as costumes and with so many to choose from, it can be a simple task to have the most fun and creative costume at the party without breaking the minuscule college bank account. Girls have the option to turn away from generic costumes-in-a-bag and stock up on wigs, makeup, boas, sunglasses, bling, leggings, shoes, and masks to create their own unique look. According to the staff at Dorothy’s, Lady Gaga is one of the most popular costumes this year! Girls are buying wigs, sunglasses, and body suits all to mimic the controversial singer when they could be varying their purchases and not all  dressing as the same person!

Be the funny and sexy scuba diver! | Photo by Nicole Cousins

Just a quick look around Dorothy’s shop gave me a few great Halloween ideas that are simple and still somewhat sexy alternatives to the typical slutty Halloween ensemble. For example, using a hat shaped to look like an old scuba helmet you can be a Sexy Scuba Girl! Just wear the hat, a black turtleneck or t-shirt, and black leggings and you are good to go! Your costume will be funny and, with the tight black clothing, still form-fitting and flattering. If you really want to commit to your costume you can carry around a pair of flippers! Doing something simple and creative like this will not only draw attention to your body, but also will make you the funniest girl at the party, which is better for catching a guy that you won’t have to end up throwing back at the end of the night. Plus, it will result in Facebook pictures that you won’t have to block from your families and coworkers. All in all, it’ll make for a much more enjoyable night than drunk frat boys ogling at your goodies.

So ladies, I am hereby issuing you a challenge! Be the most creatively costumed girl and send your picture into me at scox@buquad.com.I will post your picture and shout out your greatness in a blog post dedicated only to you! And remember  ladies: sex-in-a-bag is NOT your only option for this Halloween!

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World Trade Center, Boston, MA(CC License)

The World Trade Center in downtown Boston was the hub of advertising action on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. The 49^th Annual Hatch Awards had come to take the night over: advertisers, agencies, professors, and students alike schmoozed and boozed as they celebrated the best of advertising across New England.

The Hatch Awards, put on by the AdClub of Boston, is an annual award ceremony designed to commemorate the Northeast’s most creative, most effective, and most memorable advertising every year.

Outside of the Northeast, the Hatch Awards are barely talked about, but there’s something about having a regional awards show that brings the New England advertising community together.

Boston University advertising senior Peter Hughes said of the show, “Advertising that may not have necessarily been awarded in a national or international awards show, such as Cannes, can finally be recognized.”

Recognized and celebrated. Many of the silver, bronze, and merit award winners hailed from smaller agencies in the New England area, which gave these companies a chance to be honored and distinguished from the clutter that is advertising space.

“There is so much bad advertising out there that you rarely get a chance to really appreciate good, effective advertising.” Hughes remarked. “As you are learning to craft advertising in school, you should take in only the best advertising, not only for inspiration for your work, but to know what has been done. Then, you push yourself to create something that will break through the clutter.”

Clutter seemed to be heavily emphasized in this year’s Awards. Best in Show winner, Fort Franklin, was recognized for the video they produced for the opening of the 2008 Hatch Awards. The four-minute introduction video features the Fort Franklin employee’s Macintosh desktop. It’s simple. It’s clean. Until windows pop up left and right from all the different programs he is using. An iChat pops up with a link to a YouTube video, iTunes is asking to install all updates, the baseball game needs to be constantly checked, the style of voiceover for the ad he’s actually supposed to be working on isn’t right, and the boss interrupts only to see that the employee has nothing done. The message is clear and the tagline says it all, with the music from a variety of Youtube videos and iTunes music colliding with one another: Welcome to clutter 3.0. Here’s to breaking through. Hatch 08.

Bang. Cut to silence. Cut to black.

Fort Franklin captured the essence of the advertising space today:  with so many advertisers and venues for advertising emerging, clutter is hard to break up. Just like a laptop desktop may get overwhelmed with the dock icons bouncing and distractions just a glance away, advertising is a space where the consumer is bombarded and inundated with message after message.

Good advertising can break through that. And, effective advertising will get the consumer to pay attention and absorb the information about the product. That’s the kind of advertising the Hatch Awards wants to celebrate.

Judging for the Awards was held at Partners + Simons, an advertising agency in Boston, and there were a panel of nine judges from advertising agencies across the country to review the work over the course of a weekend. Judges included employees from high-profile agencies like Ogilvy, Crispin Porter, BBDO San Francisco, BBDO New York, just to name a few.

Among the gold medalists were Arnold Worldwide’s Barack Obama advertisements, Mullen’s Boston Bruins television ads, Hill, Holliday’s Liberty Mutual television ads, Pod Digital Design’s integrated online campaign for the History Channel.

John Hancock, a Hill, Holliday client for a number of years and counting, won Marketer of the Year, and Best in Show, the ceremony’s most prestigious award, went to Fort Franklin.

Pod Digital Design's Expedition Game for The History Channel | Copyright The History Channel

The winners all had one thing in common: big ideas spanned across multiple mediums—with a single consistent message.

Liberty Mutual’s agency, Hill, Holliday, for example, won a gold medal award for their national television campaign featuring the Responsibility Project. But the agency also won medals for more than just the television ads. Their microsite, ResponsibilityProject.com revolved around the same concept their commercials did: Responsibility. The online banner ads for Liberty Mutual also won awards. These ads feature campaigns warning consumers about things like being fire smart, and encouraging consumers to vote in contests like Coach of the Year to recognize NCAA coaches who displayed talent and sportsmanship.

A big idea is a start, but clearly consistency is the key to drive home the big idea.

Hughes said, “Almost across the board, [the winning campaigns] were the ideas that make you say, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?!’ because of their simplicity and genius.”

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• Get Your Green On: Second Annual sustainability@BU Festival on campus

Teri Aronowitz, Boston University's sexologist

Aronowitz, a nurse practitioner at SHS, earned her title of “sexologist” in the form of a post-doctorate degree from the Kinsey Institute, a program part of Indiana University that researches and studies sexual issues. Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a controversial researcher who sought to understand and explain sex in the human race, established the Institute in 1947 as a not-for-profit organization part of Indiana University.

As Aronowitz stepped into the  BU Women’s Resource Center to talk about masturbation on October 8^th, over 40 people greeted her. She sat down in the middle of the room, cracked a few jokes, and then dove right in. While we were there for almost two hours talking about sexual related issues and topics, I decided to share a few interesting highlights.

- Almost everyone masturbates… almost. Dr. Alfred Kinsey polled 5,000 men and 5,000 women in the 1940s, asking them about masturbation. He found that 92% of men admitted to masturbating (no shocker there), but only 62% of females admitted to pleasuring themselves. Since we’re living in a time six decades later, I can only hope that more women are not only partaking in masturbating, but are more open about it. I can’t help but wonder if the other 38% of women were simply too embarrassed to talk about it.

- Focus on the clitoris. It’s a scientific fact: women can’t reach orgasm unless their clitoris is stimulated. According to Kinsey’s study, 84% of the women that masturbate used “clitoral and labial stimulation” to make it to the finish line, while only 20% used vaginal insertion. The clitoris exists solely for the purpose of pleasure – the only organ in the human body that has such a use. As for the popularly speculated G-spot?  The G-spot is a tissue on the inside of the vagina that sits right behind the clitoris. This tissue comes into contact with the clitoris, providing the intense orgasms many women attest to.

- Sex toys from the Orient. Aronowitz enlightened us to an interesting device developed for masturbation in Renaissance Japan: rin-no-tama. This sex toy is made up of a hollow, wooden phallic tube, inserted into the vagina. The woman would then insert a ball or two into the hollow tube, which would then vibrate and create erotic sensations for the women. I guess this is a good technique if your vibrator’s batteries ever die.

Rin-no-tama, the Japanese sex toy

- Women’s “blue balls.” Aronowitz related stories of how patients would come to see her, complaining of discomfort in the vaginal area and automatically assuming they had an infection. However, this uncomfortable feeling could be the result of stimulation ending with no climax, Aronowitz explained. When the clitoris is stimulated, the labia engorges it. If climax is not reached, the labia can continue to be swollen for days, which can pull on the clitoris and rub together as you walk, resulting in discomfort. Aronowitz suggests that if this ever happens, take care of yourself in bed as soon as possible!

- Add climaxing to your bedtime routine. A friend of mine once asked if masturbating before bed was actually beneficial, since achieving an orgasm increases blood flow, making it harder to fall asleep. Aronowitz says pleasuring yourself or engaging in sex with your partner is a good way to wind down from a stressful day. Sex is achieved in 4 stages: excitation, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. During resolution, blood flow and pressure returns to normal, ensuring you will be able to sleep afterwards.

Dr. Teri Aronowitz can be reached at 617-353-3575 or at taronow@bu.edu for any questions about your sexy-time.

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Photo by BU's Kate Samp

It’s Friday night and Nooka Jones is speedily biking from Boston University’s BU Central to downtown Boston’s Club Rise.  He has no time to waste between shows because he has to hit the booth and entertain the crowd.

Jones is a COM senior by day and a local deejay by night. He’s one of the few college deejays that work the Boston music scene throughout the week, entertaining crowds ranging from 200 to 1,000 people.

Jones got his first pair of turntables and started as a mobile DJ when he was in eighth grade in Zionsville, Indiana. He was an anomaly who listened to European dance music and alternative Internet radio shows as his fellow classmates cranked top 30 tween hits. Eventually he purchased his own PA system and worked for a small company that deejayed weddings, bar mitzvahs, proms, and high school dances. During high school, he used gig money to drive 45 minutes once a week to southern Indianapolis and fund his now 500-piece record collection.

When asked why he left his humble home in Indiana for the mean streets of Boston, Jones explained:

“I needed to get out of the Midwest. Boston felt like a good escape. It was city living, but also manageable. Boston’s full of youth and it gives the city a refreshing energy. New York is stuck in a mindset and Chicago is too “Midwest” for my taste. Boston’s been great to me the past three years.”

Boston has indeed been “great” to Jones. Living in the city has allowed him to interact with the music scene and take advantage of opportunities that help him work toward his music-related goals.  When he was a junior, the college deejay participated in BU’s abroad program in London. The semester resulted in a major musical turning point for the BU student; he had finally experienced the club culture he’d always read about online. His love for electronic music was amplified by London’s dance culture and he was also introduced to new, innovative forms of music, such as “dubstep,” a fusion of hip-hop and techno that originated in South London.

The deejays that inspire Jones most are the ones who push to discover something new or innovative, including Sasha, Gabriel & Dresden, Jesse Rose, Riva Starr, Lindstrøm, Brackles, Fake Blood, and Tiga. He describes Lindstrøm‘s 2008 album, Where You Go I Go Too, as his favorite dance album since LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled release.

The most rewarding aspect of deejaying for Jones is the process of “laying down a record, stepping back and soaking up the energy of the track.”  He appreciates the emotionally personal experience that music elicits and finds deejaying to be an ideal avenue to share such an experience with a whole community of people.

Setting high goals for the fall, Jones has numerous live shows in the works.  In October, Jones will be deejaying during his part-time residency at Rise, Boston’s only after hours club. On October 27, he’ll be headlining a show at the Enormous Room in Cambridge, and on Halloween, Jones will open for Cool Kids at BU’s Masquerade Ball.

Outside of events, Jones hopes to wrap up and release an EP by December. The album will feature music independent of the typical club scene, and is heavily influenced by London’s “steppy,” experimental electronica, with a hint of Jones’ classical roots (the deejay has played the piano since he was five).  In addition to the EP, the composer is planning to release an entire album in the spring. He’s striving to make the solo project a more club-oriented album that varies in style, depth, and thematic elements–not just a basic club set of 12 4/4 tracks, but something that will also include ambient and piano tracks as well.

Jones is a senior in COM, majoring in advertising. He’s on the Ad Lab‘s E-board and is the promotions director for WTBU. Outside of academics, he’s a freelance web designer and works for the university at Information Services & Technology. Listen to him live on WTBU every Sunday from 10 to midnight at http://www.wtburadio.org.

Exclusive Mix
Jones was kind enough to create an exclusive mix for Quad readers to download. We’ve listened to it in its entirety, and it is an awesome nonstop track that will have you dancing continuously for its 1 hour and 2 minute length. To listen to a 2+ minute preview of the track, click the play button below. To download it in its entirety, click here or use the download link below.

[audio:http://buquad.com/audio/quadmixpreview.mp3|titles=Exclusive Quad Mix Preview|artists=Nooka Jones]

Download Mix (Mediafire, 85mb mp3)

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