Elliot Smith

Elliot Smith: A Eulogy
By Michael Owen
Contributing Writer

Elliott Smith was 34 years old. He was a singer and songwriter. Last week, he stabbed himself a single time in the chest, and his girlfriend came home to find him dead in their apartment in Los Angeles. Within hours of the announcement of his death, a photograph of Elliott Smith appeared on the homepage of The New York Times, with a link to an impassive summary of the events in Smith’s life: his birth, the rise and fall of his band Heatmeiser, his nomination for an Academy Award in 1998, his problems with alcoholism and drug addiction. The obituary appeared for one day, during which the world read it, left to right, top to bottom, and then moved forward. Another prolific author of extraordinary and beautiful things had passed, tragically and senselessly.

bell hoooks Stirs Bridges Crowd
By Amy McDaniel
A&F Editor

Same place, one week later, similar amount of hype: it is impossible to avoid setting up Michael Moore’s off-putting, vapid performance in Bridges Auditorium right before Fall Break as a foil against which to discuss bell hooks’ provocative lecture last Thursday.

The first rambled, clearly unprepared and constantly seeking the roaring laughter that never came (Moore apparently believes that everything, no matter how petty or banal, emitted from his now-famous mouth is, by that virtue alone, a punch-line).

Diversity at the Theater
By Matthew Noerper
Business Manager

Theater productions at the 5C have reflected a recent trend towards providing non-traditional perspectives in an area that still carries a degree of ingrained, if not intentional, resistance toward such a trend.

Theater offers an irreplaceable mirror into the soul, and the incorporation of diverse political, emotional, and social experiences acts as a challenge to audiences and performers to come to terms with identities that are traditionally underrepresented. In America, this means addressing unclassifiable realities and identities that are constantly in flux. An undertaking of such socially and intellectually beneficial endeavors is evident upon campus.

California Fires Fan Sex Flame
By Emily Field
Staff Writer

This is the second year in a row that there have been raging forest fires in the area, and, from my lungs’ point of view, this latest one is not going to be forgotten anytime soon. So I have decided to dedicate this column to getting action in the middle of natural disasters or Armageddon, whatever the case may be. At the very least, now you’ll finally have the chance to use the ultimate in desperate pick-up lines: “The world is ending, and I’m still a virgin. Help me!” And the best thing is that no one will really care if it is true.

Biergarten within Clark I; More Revelry at Scripps
By Tim Anderegg
A & F Associate

The sky had an eerily appropriate tinge to it--a sort of orangey glow that managed to remind me of both the harvest time during which Oktoberfest is usually held and the Apocalypse at the same time--when the now-annual German-themed party was held last Saturday in the central Clark I courtyard.

While most of the 5C parties at Pomona are pretty standard, having the typical cheap beer, DJs playing standard college hip hop, and large numbers of drunken freshmen, Oktoberfest has emerged as a culture-filled alternative.

Interview: We Are Scientists
By Kate Brokaw
A&F Associate

A Claremont College-educated, New York-based threesome that just can’t seem to stay away from the California sun, We Are Scientists has been assigned a certain kind of campus legend over the last few years. Lured back to their alma maters at least every few months, the band continues to violate campus fire laws by packing every venue from Pomona to Harvey Mudd with legions of seemingly rabid fans. In the headlining slot of Pitzer’s Groove at the Grove last Friday, they again played for a huge crowd of students who seemed to have both an obsessive grasp on the band’s back catalog as well as an insatiable desire for new, noticeably more dance-beat-filled selections.

Dick On Food: Foray to Bombay
By Eddie Dick
Staff Writer

Most Pomona College students are familiar with Bombay Bistro as the restaurant guilty of planting flyers under the windshield wipers of nearly every car on the 5C. But in addition to their ambitious advertising program, they also boast a establishment that manages to provide solid Indian food with friendly service in a rather pleasant, if quirky, atmosphere.

Quiz Bowl Club Represents: Places Fifth
By Krystyna Wamboldt
Staff Writer

Let’s make things clear right from the get-go: we were all accepted into what is perhaps the nation’s best college. We are bright and engaging kids (excuse me, young adults). We know our stuff. But there is inevitably the fact that there are always those exceptional minds that top the rest, no matter how great the rest may be.

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