"Blue Window" Thrives at Stage’s Edge

By David Roth

Sarah Malkin ‘00 is mad at my editor. Like, really mad: she’s on her way towards the end of a very convincing, if very theatrical (and very profane), tirade directed at him: "Fuck," she says, frustrated, and with that, it’s over. This is Saturday afternoon, October 9: her play opens in a little less than two weeks, and things have begun to get stressful. Well, let’s be fair: things are now more stressful.

Malkin’s tension is understandable. Not only is it above one hundred degrees for the second day in a row, but around us, on the southernmost end of Seaver Theatre’s courtyard, the cast and crew of the play she’s directing, Craig Lucas’ "Blue Window," are painting furniture. [con't]

Well, it’s time to open up that O.E. in the I.E. Mailbag. This week, an anonymous college president has a nagging question. Let’s have a look-see, shall we? We shall.

Love the column! My job of fund-raising for [small, liberal arts college in the Inland Empire] is so much easier when I can just hand potential donors a copy of [this unnamed college’s student newspaper (since 1889)] and tell them to turn to the Arts & Features section. [con't]

Performance Artist Miller Sports Skills and Stubble at Seaver

By Dan May

Jennifer Miller, with her agile frame and scraggly face, is a sight that takes some getting used to. Peeking from behind the wings of the Seaver Theater’s main stage in the moments before her solo show "Morphadyke: The Personal Show," she looked like any theater tech assistant who’d let their beard go untrimmed for the last few days. When she bounded on stage to the sounds of Appalachian folk music in an oversized men’s suit and converse shoes, circling a small spotlight in a chaotic swirl of arms and legs, my face froze quizzically. [con't]

Butler Talks of Family and Fiction

By Samantha Brenner

"An Evening With Octavia Butler," held at Pitzer’s Broad Center this past Tuesday night, marked the sixteenth annual Sojourner Truth L ecture. The Sojourner Truth lectureship was established in 1983 as an annual event to honor the achievements and contributions of outstanding African American women in the United States. Sojourner Truth was born a slave, and became one of the most prolific activists in the Abolitionist movement, as well as a vocal supporter of women’s rights. Much of her career was spent as a traveling preacher, and she spoke both about the Bible and on political and social issues. [con't]

Mos Def, Black on Both Sides By Mike Gaertner Contributing Writer Reputations can lead to much disappointment. When so much hype has been created surrounding an album that anything less than perfection would be unacceptable, pressures can often lead to an over- worked and sub-par album. After his debut appearance on "Big Brother Beat," perhaps the finest cut off of De La Soul’s 1996 release Stakes Is High, the Mighty Mos Def, a.k.a. Dante Bezé, a.k.a. one half of the genius known as Black Star, a.k.a. one third of Medina Green has created quite a stir in the hip-hop community. With singles such as "Universal Magnetic" and "Body Rock," last year’s masterpiece Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, and more guest appearances than Old Dirty has crack-related arrests, Mos built a reputation for himself as the hip-hop savior. [con't] Indigo Girls, Come on Now Social Amy Wood Contributing Writer Last Tuesday, I joined thirty other students to camp out in Smith Campus Center, surprisingly enough not for a protest. We were another form of diehards, those determined to be within spitting distance of the Indigo Girls in their Bridges’ concert. Stretched out on sleeping bags, we united our off-key voices to old favorites and strained our ears to understand the songs of their new album over "Table Manners’" spinning. The unfamiliar words brought on the fears produced with most new albums from my old favorites: this isn’t like their other stuff, what happened to them? Will I like this? As happens with these releases, the words, music, and voices of Come On Now Social slowly became as comforting and inspiring as the Indigo Girls’ previous albums. [con't]