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Jukebox the Ghost played at Great Scott last night after just arriving back from their European tour. The band opened for Tally Hall. Here’s some footage from the show with an interview.

Jukebox the Ghost comes to Boston from Jennifer Brown on Vimeo.

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Sydney Opera house and Harbor Bridge

As a journalism major, I had a total of four options to choose from when considering a COM education abroad:

• Los Angeles
• Washington, DC
• London, England
• Sydney, Australia

Now, I decided to employ some Sherlock-style logic to weigh my options. I wanted to get the heck out of the good ol’ USA, so LA and DC were punted from the options list immediately. If you have the chance to really get out of the country and still benefit your ultimate career goals, why not go ahead and do it? So, that obviously left London and Syndey: two English-speaking countries with almost the same opportunities and both in a well-established BU program. But then, here’s the clincher:

It’s summertime in Sydney!

So, after filling out all the necessary paperwork, packing, and trekking 30 hours and 14,138 miles, I arrived in beautiful, sunny Sydney. From here, I will be documenting the ins and outs of living, working, and learning in Sydney through my education at the BU Sydney Center (affectionately known as BUSC).

Thus far, everything is going really well! The great thing about Australian culture is that it’s very open and laid back. Of course, Aussies also love to “take the piss out of people,” which is slang for giving newcomers a hard time. I’ve been told by many that those who want to take the piss out of me actually like me, so I’m going to try to take that as a good thing.

The food here is also surprising. I have never really understood or even thought about Australian cuisine, and assumed it was probably some weird cousin of English food. However, I’ve found that Australian food is more about where the ingredients come from than the style, and I have yet to be at a restaurant that doesn’t have fresh, often local ingredients in every dish.

If I were to describe Sydney succinctly, it would be that the city looks as if San Francisco and San Diego had a beautiful, metropolitan baby. Urban sprawl makes everything conveniently within walking distance, but it doesn’t have the hectic feel of a large city. The laid back Aussie attitude is something I’ve never seen outside my family vacations to Hawaii, and it’s refreshing to see people in a big city who aren’t always rushing around. Many Sydneysiders have been helpful, too, in helping a poor, directionally-challenged American girl, like me, find her way to the bank. I even started a conversation with a random girl walking down the street, who asked if I was Canadian and then proceeded to whip out her iPhone and help me find my way to a bar/art installation in a sketchy back alleyway (I’ll discuss that adventure at a future date!).

The only downside to my life abroad: Lack of internet. I didn’t know that Australia’s broadband service is so stagnant! I was told by some people at BUSC that Australia is ranked a measly 26th in nationwide internet access, and everybody still pays for internet in blocks of data. So, I’ve been forced to reserve my internet times only when at school, and have gotten on living like it’s 2002 on the weekends.

Below is my first video, of many, that shows you the whirlwind first week of my orientation with the rest of the Sydney Internship Program students, sight-seeing, and adjusting to life in the Land Down Under.

This next week, classes begin! With an opportunity to enjoy the Australian Wine Industry (in the classroom and out in the real world), I think I’m going to like my education here. Summer in Sydney? It’s a no-brainer choice.

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Here’s more info about the video from the bulipdub YouTube Channel Page:

On a chilly day in early December 2009, over 120 students from different walks of life at Boston University came together to make a LipDub video to two of Jackson 5s famous songs: I Want You Back and ABC. As with all LipDub videos, the music video is recorded all in one take, with careful coordination between all of the students to ensure a fluid, exciting video.

The video took just over a month to organize and shoot, and it truly was a group effort, with cooperation from the university administration, buildings and grounds, student activities office, and many more divisions on campus.

Boston University is located in the heart of Boston and is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university. BU has more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 18,000 undergraduate students.

Director: Georgia Poivre
Producers: Georgia Poivre and Kevin Lee
Assitant Producer: Samuel Minkoff
Director of Photography: Geoff Toomey

Email bulipdub@gmail.com with any questions.

Song Credit:
Artist: Jackson 5
Songs: ABC and I Want You Back
Producer: Motown
Record Label: The Corporation

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Update #2: The minor fire was on the second floor of the CAS building. (@flyawayren No really, there was a fire on the second floor of the CAS building. Now it smells like burnt plastic.)

Update: No reason to panic. The fire is reported to be “very minor,” and firefighters are already leaving the scene. Info from @ChrisDKramer, who also has this video:

@buquad very minor, firemen already leaving on 12seconds.tv

Around 6:45 PM on Monday, sirens sounded down Commonwealth Avenue as fire engines raced to respond to a fire in the College of Arts and Sciences building at Boston University. Reports first seen on Twitter from @ChrisDKramer and @JackiA seem to be confirmed by the sounds and sights of sirens heading East on Com Ave. This seems to be validated by the incoming stream of tweets.

From @jessicalui: Something big going down at BU CAS. 3 fireengines, 2 ambulances, 3 police cars.

From @skops: Legit fire in CAS. Intense

Stay tuned to this post for more info as it happens. If you have any information, please tweet @buquad or email us at staff@buquad.com. Still looking for a photo of the scene.

Jonah Lundberg contributed to the compilation of this story.

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Photo by Julian Furtak

From his rusty-red haircut and 70′s-style paisley pants to his feisty and fearless onstage antics, Boston University student and musician Dan Macdonald (Spitzer Space Telescope) keeps people on the edge of their seats.

Spitzer’s musical path began at BU his freshman year when he played shows at BU Central open mic nights. His uncommon and energetic Irish folk music stood out amongst the venue’s shy, first-time performers. Eventually other venues and artists picked up on the unique talent and Spitzer was invited to play various  on- and off-campus events. His first solo show was at T.T. the Bear’s in Cambridge during the spring of his freshman year. Gigs at places like the Nameless Coffeehouse in Cambridge followed, where Spitzer met the venue’s previous owners, Maureen and George LeBlanc, who became mentors for the musician–they had been in the Boston coffeehouse circuit for decades and exposed him to various clubs, musicians, and folk music enthusiasts.

Spitzer continued to play locally until the summer before his junior year in 2008, when he embarked on a national East Coast tour that started in Chicago and traversed the Southeast to Florida. He sold hand-made, self-recorded EPs on the road and used BU contacts and friends to help him book shows and bring crowds. The tour was successful enough that the musician was able to hit the road again a few months later.

His collection of Irish folk songs turned into an official self-titled album during his junior year of college. The album was released by Good People, a record collective based in Spitzer’s hometown of Lansing, Michigan. The album-release show was sponsored by WTBU at Morse Auditorium where Spitzer played the concert with a group of friends he met in the Allston folk scene. One of his friends, Vince Bancheri, was the brains behind the Allston hootenannies where Spitzer gradually became a monthly staple for the scene’s loyal fans. Spitzer and Bancheri later teamed up with other artists to create Mama Bird Recording Company and host a series of folk shows in Boston, two of which were The Grand Ole Hoot at Cambridge’s YMCA Theater and A Night of Sea Songs at Cambridge’s Democracy Center.

All of Spitzer’s projects follow the same principle of staying true to one’s self. He explains:

What I’m trying to promote with Spitzer Space Telescope is DIY, self-reliance, and being true to yourself as an artist. I also think the message I’m trying to convey is to have fun with the art you’re making and not try to forcefully change what you think is cool just to fit in or to further your career.

The media have latched onto the musician’s independent ventures and helped further launch Spitzer’s name. The Daily Free Press, BU Today, SCAT TV, The Boston Phoenix, Bostonist.com, and Paste Magazine have all delivered Spitzer’s music to the public realm.

Now a senior, the musician plans to undertake a full US tour upon graduation. When not touring, he’ll be painting, working, and showing his artwork in New York City and Boston. His next shows are listed on his Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/spitzerspacetelescope.

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U.S. Capitol Building during Obama's Inauguration | Photo by Mike Pitter

At the inauguration of President Barack Obama, millions of people rejoiced together for a new beginning in America. I saw tears, smiles, various expressions reacting to the notion that this new president would bring massive change to political and social realms of this country. “Yes we can!” in unison made manifest the momentum behind the people’s will to lift America from an abyss of corruption, racism, class tension, economic depression, and war. The tainted reputation of the United States would be washed away with Barack Obama leading the “free world”. There were Obama shirts, bumper stickers, hats, scarves, dolls, pins, posters, pens, ring-tones, mugs and more demonstrating the wild frenzy for the election of America’s first black president. During the course of the campaign, people laughed, cried, marched, spoke, wrote and sang for the senator because of the faith they had in his seemingly genuine leadership. I knocked on door after door after door spreading the word on Obama’s plans during the Rhode Island primaries to express my enthusiasm for the progress many people hoped to see. Even with the realization that President Obama was still a politician, I was still optimistic about the changes to come during this new administration.

Today, here and now, almost a year after the inauguration, the idealism and unity that many felt in those days has been overshadowed by pessimism, impatience and disappointment. Many people have grievances towards the new administration, believing that the president has not delivered what he had promised during the campaign. President Obama had strong intentions to lift our economy from ruin through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In this document, he vows that 95% of working families will receive tax cuts, hoping to strengthen the middle class. Because a strong middle class maintains stability in the state, it preserves the status quo. However, as I worked over the summer, canvassing on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, many people that I conversed with about the Obama administration have told me that they have experienced the opposite of what they had anticipated in January. Some say that their taxes have been raised. As the president addresses the various other issues, there seems to be more and more disagreement among the people as to how to go about fixing this country, hence the decreasing amount of Barack Obama paraphernalia.

Though President Barack Obama has accomplished much of he had promised, like creating alliances with other countries, focusing on health care and education reform, I sometimes wonder how and why he does not completely adhere to what he had laid out during his campaign. Does the unwavering establishment, the un-malleable consolidated system, thwart him, somehow? Is he a puppet for this system? Let us wait and see.

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