Mars Exploration Hits Close to Campus

By Doug Bernstein

While most Pomona students slogged through their daily activities on Friday, December 3, some out-of-this-world events were taking place just 40 minutes from campus. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) located in Pasadena, was charged with landing and receiving communications from three devices which touched down on Mars this past Friday. [con't]

Alright, raise your hand if you’ve ever gotten destroyed in class. Y’know, put a nip o’ Beefeater in an Aramark mug and went off to O-Chem or Mo-Bio? This includes professors, mind you (Drew remembers the class he took from Dr. Sontag, so don’t be shy. We know who ya are!). Let’s face it. The majority of you, Pomona Students, have not gotten stymied, ruined, or annihilated, in class. Well, we have. Ha! We win! You lose!

Diwali Full Of Delicacies, Dancing, Delights

By Aidan Doherty

Frary dining hall was stormed last Friday night by a horde of ravenous students, all hoping for a taste of Indian deliciousness. The cause was the South Asian Students Association’s Diwali festival, or Indian New Year’s festival. A celebration of Indian culture, the event was also considered by many students the best food event on Pomona’s campus this year. "The dinner was amazing. The food was so good. I think they should have an Indian meal every week," said Janelle Treibitz '03. [con't]

Student Dancers Strut Their Stuff at Conference

By Kayla Shelton

The second section of "Denishawn Suite," a dance performed in the culminating concert of last weekend’s CORD (Congress on Research in Dance) dance conference, was described in the program text as "originally choreographed as a classroom ‘graduation’ exercise to ‘test the student’s graceful endurance while executing consecutive phrases without stopping.’" That is exactly what Jesse Zaritt ’00, the soloist performing the work, did: dance hard, the whole time making it look incredibly easy. [con't]

It’s not just the year that’s ending, but the decade too. So the A&F boys and girls are bringing you a page of top 10 lists of the past 10 years. Even if you didn’t get a hold of this stuff in the last decade, you’ve got the next one to make up for it. Top Ten Records Radiohead: OK computer I’m sure this one is a big surprise. It’s pretty cliched by now to make this the number one choice, but it verges on irresponsible to put anything else in this spot. The whole record is a tremendously potent snapshot of pre-millenial tension. This album reads like a novel and eats like a meal. Do believe the hype. (DR) [next nine] Top Ten Films Eyes Wide Shut Stanley Kubrick, 1999 Kubrick’s last was in many ways his most daring–the master opted for compassion and not the detached contempt that had been his director’s stamp. In Eyes Wide Shut, jealousy and lust turn life into a dream, allowing Kubrick to frolic in that foggy place between emotion and truth, between action and intent. Here detachment is part of life–part of sex–and the facades Kubrick grapples with don’t hide easy truths. Kubrick doesn’t just portray the irrational places our desires take us, he explores the understanding and compromise necessary to live on after we have let ourselves become something we cannot face. Not the decade’s most perfect film, but its most ambitious–and when it hits its mark, it hits harder than any other. [next nine] Top Ten Fiction Corelli’s Mandolin Louis DeBernieres Imagine a 400 page version of your favorite myth, with all the battles, heroics, sacrifices, love, romances and betrayals played out on an epic scale. Like the Princess Bride, but without the cynicism. Then imagine it written by a man who seems to have the entire OED at his fingertips. Imagine it set on a small Greek island, where the lives of a doctor, his daughter, and a brilliant suppoting cast are torn apart by the onset of World War II. -Adam Graham-Silverman [next nine]

Dan May J.B. Waterman ’01 contemplates the nuances of Michael Parker’s ’00 Green Elephant. Despite the arguably wack photo (no offense to Mike or J.B.), last Saturday’s five college student show, "Superset," was live as hell. The art was expectedly stunning, and it was all up on chain link fences with Christmas lights. And there was rock! How chic....