James Tate elicited admiration and applause during his poetry reading on Monday night.

A Poet in His Own Words
By Elizabeth C. Holtz
Staff Writer

A decent crowd filled the room to listen to renowned poet James Tate read on Monday night. Tate was the second author to take part in the English Department’s Literary Series, following George Saunders’s reading on September 29. Tate read from a selection of poems from the numerous books he has published over the last forty years. His poetry has been garnered numerous awards. Tate’s book of selected poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1991 and Worshipful Company of Fletchers, published in 1994, received the National Book Award.

Cock-Block: A Taxonomical Inquiry
By Emily Field
Staff Writer

The phenomenon of the cock-block is well known on college campuses nationwide. Characterized loosely as an impetus to sexual activity, the cock-block in fact functions as a descriptor for a multitude of behaviors. However, the various distinctions subsumed under this all-encompassing term deserve a closer inspection.

Our first categorical move would be to divide the cock-block into two basic types: the Deliberate and the Inadvertent Cock-blocks. While the Deliberate Cock-block is usually motivated by a sense of altruism (though, as we shall see later, this is not always so), the Inadvertent Cock-block is usually attributed to sheer stupidity.

Fairy-tale plot exercise
By Susannah Edelbaum
Contributing Writer

Carlyle was asleep and dreaming about boxing when he got the call.

“I’ll have to walk,” Carmen was saying. The clock read 3:14. “The subways are all closed. I’ll be fine.” Carlyle sat up straight in bed when she said that. He knew for a fact she would not be fine. It was never fine for young pretty girls, or older ugly girls, or anyone without a dick and maybe a handgun to walk from one-seventeenth and Broadway to one hundred-second and Park by herself at three in the morning. It was one of the tenets of New York society by which he’d been raised, similar to not staring at homeless people or looking people in the eye on subways or elevators.

Folk Music Center in Tune with Claremont
By Tiana Doht and Misha Chellam
Staff Writers

It started with a man repairing his wife’s instruments in a small home workshop and has become a community hallmark of worldwide renown. It has been visited by the likes of Joan Baez and Reverend Gary Davis and has spawned national talents Tom Freund and Ben Harper. Walking by its modest storefront at 220 Yale Avenue in Claremont, California, you would never guess the history and import of the Folk Music Center.

New Releases from Belle and Death Cab
By Kate Brokaw
A&F Associate

It’s been a gloomy couple of years for Belle and Sebastian’s legions of rabid fans. The most recent period in the band’s long career has been marked by an increasing unevenness and inconsistency of material. With band member departures, ill-advised shared songwriting duties, and a spate of releases consisting of scattered EPs and an insubstantial soundtrack (to Todd Solondz’s dreadful Storytelling), the glory days of the band’s intricately majestic Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister seemed long gone.

Tarantino Kills Bill with Style
By Tim Anderegg
A&F Associate

Ok, so Bill doesn’t get killed just yet in this installment, but Kill Bill Vol. 1 reminds one every second what the movie is all about: vengeance, with style. With an opening announcement of “Now, The Feature Presentation” in 1970’s style and the quote “Vengeance is a dish best served cold,” attributed to an ancient Klingon proverb, you get the hint.

Dick On Food: Skew in on at Joey's
By Eddie Dick
Staff Writer

If a burrito and a calzone managed to copulate, the resulting culinary offspring would likely be an empanada. While the outer shell is more puff pastry than pizza dough, the filling and its spices are cribbed straight from the Latin American cookbooks.

And it just so happens that Claremont houses an establishment that specializes exclusively in the creation of empanadas. M!panada, just down Bonita Avenue from campus, is a recent arrival to the Claremont restaurant scene that has people all over campus talking. I decided to check it out for myself.