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(11/29/01 5:00am)
Just looking at Wes Anderson, with his clear-rimmed glasses,
mussed hair, a velvet suit and New Balance sneakers, it's easy to
figure out where he got the inspiration for Rushmore's Max Fisher.
Like Max, Anderson was that guy who, in school, would write plays
and have his buddies star in them. In The Royal Tenenbaums, the
dry, hilarious, subtle humor that he and actor Owen Wilson have
created (Wilson also co-wrote Bottle Rocket and Rushmore and
stars in this film) comes onto the screen with precision, thanks to
Anderson's meticulous direction. If he's deliberate and somewhat
of a perfectionist, it's only because he wants to get his vision for
each scene and the movie as a whole onto the screen.
(11/29/01 5:00am)
Just looking at Wes Anderson, with his clear-rimmed glasses,
mussed hair, a velvet suit and New Balance sneakers, it's easy to
figure out where he got the inspiration for Rushmore's Max Fisher.
Like Max, Anderson was that guy who, in school, would write plays
and have his buddies star in them. In The Royal Tenenbaums, the
dry, hilarious, subtle humor that he and actor Owen Wilson have
created (Wilson also co-wrote Bottle Rocket and Rushmore and
stars in this film) comes onto the screen with precision, thanks to
Anderson's meticulous direction. If he's deliberate and somewhat
of a perfectionist, it's only because he wants to get his vision for
each scene and the movie as a whole onto the screen.
(11/12/01 10:00am)
It was supposed to be a simple day. I was going to get up early, saunter on over
to Van Pelt and research into the wee hours. For the first time in weeks, my little
planner/calendar thingy only bore one item: Research. And fun research at that:
"The Effects of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Concepts of Self in Late 20th
Century American Youth Culture." Finally, I was going to do something useful
with my college education. And I was going to do it all day long.
(10/30/01 10:00am)
The Penn men's cross country team returned to Van Cortlandt
Park in the Bronx last Saturday to compete against its seven Ivy
rivals and Navy at the Heptagonal Championships.
(10/24/01 9:00am)
As Ben Stein addressed the hordes of Penn students who packed
into Irvine Auditorium last night, many were less concerned about
the celebrity's political views than about the chance to hear his
famous monotone phrase: "Bueller, Bueller."
(10/22/01 9:00am)
Every March, when intoxicated spring breakers from the United
States invade Marcelo Miretti's native Mexico, he stops going out at
night. The College junior just can't stand the vibe they bring south
of the border.
(10/18/01 9:00am)
"Perhaps it's #8..."
(10/05/01 9:00am)
Due in large part to the events of Sept. 11, security at Franklin
Field will be increased for tomorrow's game against Holy Cross,
and likely for the remainder of the season.
(10/04/01 9:00am)
America's hardest working punk rockers are back once again with another
stellar release, Pump up the Valuum, which showcases the same hard-hitting
guitar riffs, drum beats and vocals from Fat Mike that made the band "famous" in
the first place.
(10/01/01 9:00am)
In little more than two hours Thursday night, four individuals were
arrested for retail theft at The Freshgrocer at 4001 Walnut Street, in
three separate incidents.
(09/17/01 9:00am)
A male University student landed in jail early yesterday morning
after allegedly assaulting a Temple University student on the 3900
block of Spruce Street.
(09/10/01 9:00am)
I'm not sure I'll ever be wholly comfortable letting a writer label my
generation. Granted, there are a few who have shown a knack for it
over the years; Scott Fitzgerald and Jack Kerouac were at least
decent at the job before they truly found the bottle.
(08/30/01 9:00am)
It's hot, damn hot.
(05/18/01 9:00am)
My computer died last week. She revved up, beeped twice and, after a few moments of blue skies, went black. The words I will appeared at upper left. Will what, I don't know. She has done nothing since.
(04/25/01 9:00am)
April 1 passed just a few weeks ago and most of us didn't notice or didn't care.
Ironically, a couple of years ago that day provided a life-changing moment.
On April 1, we all eagerly drove home from high school to check our mailboxes to find out where we had been accepted to college. Letters freshly ripped open in our hands; we knew our lives would change irrevocably with the contents of the envelopes.
We didn't need the ominous "something-important-is-going-to-happen-very-soon" music commonly heard in TV after-school specials -- it was pretty obvious that our lives were going to be dramatically altered.
Yes indeedy, music or not, something important was going to happen very soon.
Then, as summer rolled into September, we came to Penn nervous, unsure and excited about what college would bring.
President Rodin told us how our lives would change dramatically when we were in college. How we would come into Penn economics majors and maybe end up folklore majors (read: parents' nightmare). How we might stroll into biology classes aspiring doctors, but come out aspiring writers. How our class was the smartest class ever to be accepted to Penn (which therefore makes the senior class consistently the dumbest class at the University. No one likes to talk about that).
How within the next four years, our lives would change in ways even our fearless leader Judy Rodin could not begin to explain to us.
Admittedly, I left that Convocation pep talk skeptical.
Surrounded by 2,000 high school newspaper editors, 2,000 yearbook editors, 2,000 high school music stars -- and one fellow classmate who had told me that day that he was planning on working in Tanzania after graduation to teach a group of villagers how to create a social market economy (no, I'm not kidding) -- I was pretty sure that most of us were grounded and that we knew what we were doing.
But as I watched thousands of pre-frosh tour Penn's campus this past week during Penn Previews, I couldn't help but think one thing: Were we really that stupid to think we actually knew what it was all about?
Yes. Yes, we were.
Last week I decided to latch onto a Penn Previews tour to see what the "new kids" would be like, and whether it would be easy to steal their lunch money.
Pushy parents questioned and probed their tour guides as thoroughly as a Fling officer checking bags outside the Quad for a bottle of vodka. Embarrassed pre-frosh shuffled their feet, and stared at the ground, ashamed that their parents would (gasp!) actually ask a question.
A couple of pre-frosh looked somewhat concerned when they saw a man in a chicken suit clucking up and down the Walk. Rightly.
What President Rodin didn't tell us in her "begin-to-be-brainwashed-by-Penn-ideology" Convocation speech was that the difference between 18 and 22 is huge, and that it's not just academic. That the transformation from being an 18-year-old to a 22-year-old is not so much like that of a centipede to a butterfly, but more like that of a possum to a giraffe.
We come in caring about April 1 as the day that we got into college; we'll leave caring about April 15 as the day we have to file our tax returns on our own, without the help of our parents.
President Rodin talked about our years in college as an academic transformation -- more importantly, it's a personal transformation.
It's not quite as physically awkward as middle school, but like seventh grade, college is a crucial transition period -- this time, not from childhood to puberty, but from puberty to adulthood.
As Hey Day comes this Friday, seniors will graduate into the real world as juniors bang their canes on College Hall to become seniors. Sophomores will transform into juniors, and freshmen will finally no longer be considered sub-human within the community as they become sophomores. Everyone moves up a notch, and with the years, every one becomes a little smarter -- not just academically, but socially and personally.
Each year at college changes you: freshman year makes you excited, sophomore year makes you interested, junior year makes you passionate and senior year earns you your license to take the wheels of what poet John Ashbery describes as a driverless car.
Enjoy the ride.
(04/02/01 9:00am)
Penn men's basketball stars Geoff Owens and Ugonna Onyekwe were arrested on Sunday in a pre-dawn raid, charged with racketeering and 14 other related crimes.
In warrants unsealed at the time of their arrests, the Quakers second team All-Ivy selections are accused of systematic point-shaving over the course of the 2000-01 campaign.
It is alleged that the duo intentionally missed free throws to swing the score of a number of games, earning upward of $40,000 from professional gamblers in the process.
While the Penn community -- still reeling from the academic scandal precipitated by Mitch Marrow in 1997 -- tries to come to terms with this development, the accusations may explain the circumstances surrounding the topsy-turvy season the Quakers (12-17, 0-2 against Princeton) endured.
"The accusations are totally and uncategorically without merit," said Penn coach Fran Dunphy, as he edged closer to the Olney stop on the Orange Line. "Though I still wonder why we lost to some of those God-awful Division III teams like Columbia and Delaware...."
For the season, Owens was a 50 percent free-throw shooter, and Onyekwe found the hole with 59 percent of his shots from the charity stripe.
But this amounts to only circumstantial evidence to the team's biggest supporter.
"This just absolutely cannot be true," said Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky, relaxing in his new plush leather chair. "I've known Geoff for five years, and he has more respect for himself, for the school and for the Ivy League than to do this.
"If anything, I'd bet that 'U' kid is behind it. First came that 360 at Princeton, and now he's concentrating in Legal Studies."
According to the FBI, though, the evidence is overwhelming.
Against then-No. 9 Seton Hall in December, the criminally minded duo combined to hit 5-of-13 (38%) at the line, but 16-of-27 (59%) from the field. Onyekwe even blatantly bricked a free throw with 1:04 remaining and a chance to put Penn in front. The Quakers went on to lose, 80-78.
"There is just no way these two characters can do so well with Eddie Griffin in their faces, and so poorly with nothing between them and the basket," FBI spokesman Shaun W. May said. "While we know the public won't initially believe us, we have them conspiring on tape."
Indeed, recordings produced by the FBI seem to slam-dunk a guilty verdict, as the pair can be heard discussing point spreads and game scenarios in detail.
One clip, allegedly recorded the day before Penn took on Big 5 rival Temple, goes as follows:
Owens: "Yo man, we six point dogs to dat ol' fool Chaney! Ain't no way I'm gonna let us cover that shit! That's prime-time!"
Ugonna: "Very true, my dear Owens. This is a bloody marvelous opportunity to pick up a few shillings. That Sagarin chap sure makes life easy for us. We may even procure 1, 000 dollars for this work."
Owens: "Yeah, a whole 'G', yo. Dat's phatty! Mo-money!"
As it turns out, Owens went 0-for-2 from the line against the Owls, but a mediocre Penn squad did not need his help, falling well short of covering the spread in a 74-60 drubbing.
Reaction across the Ivies ran the gambit between shock and disbelief at news of the arrests.
"It's another Penn-Princeton conspiracy keeping my team down," sputtered delightfully pocket-sized Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher, as he took a deep swig from an unmarked bottle.
"I don't know what to say," said Cornell coach and former Penn assistant coach Steve Donahue. "But guilty or not, that airball Geoff threw up in Hanover was still pretty sweet. Heh-heh."
Those closest to the pair in West Philadelphia are as surprised as anyone by these middle-of-the-night developments.
"I still don't want to believe it's true," said Diana Caramanico, Owens' girlfriend, and the best damn ballplayer to ever play at Penn. "But I guess I suspected something was up when Geoffy-poo stayed on that stationary bike all day in practice, talking on his Motorola two-way-pager."
While Owens and Onyekwe are learning the rigors of prison life and could not be reached for comment, teammates were quick to come to their defense.
"I can't believe the FBI is even considering this might be true," said David Klatsky, Penn's anti-shooting guard. "Sure, I always wondered what they were doing when they talked amongst themselves in the corner during timeouts. But I'm just 5'7", so I can't get up there to listen."
Owens and Onyekwe will be arraigned on April 15 and face six-to-nine years in prison. But by the grace of incomprehensible NCAA rules, they will retain their eligibility if convicted.
Upon hearing this news, Dunphy immediately hit the bottle, and also began applying for a fifth year of eligibility for "U".
"I've got to cover all my bases, if you know what I mean," said Dunphy, stroking his long, thin, handlebar mustache. "If U ends up plea bargaining, he'll be free in time for Temple in 2003!"
(04/02/01 9:00am)
In the past three seasons, the Penn women's soccer team has been led by three different coaches -- and marked improvement has been noted every year.
Two years ago, the Quakers advanced to their first-ever NCAA Tournament under first-year coach Andy Nelson, and last season, the Red and Blue finished their season with an ECAC title, led by first-year coach Darren Ambrose.
With this in mind, Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky has announced a shocking plan for the future. In hopes of continued success, Bilsky will hire a new coach every season for at least the next 10 years.
"We're going to try this out. A new coach each year has worked recently, so why should we change anything?" Bilsky said in a press conference yesterday. "It will be our 10-year plan. We're all very excited about it."
According with the plan, head coach Darren Ambrose was let go yesterday.
However, the first-year coach did not seem remorseful about his departure from Penn.
"Hey, what do I care -- I'm the goalies' coach with the Philadelphia Charge," Ambrose said. "That's a professional soccer league. It's like the equivalent of the NBA. Hey, I'm the equivalent of Phil Jackson. Hey, you guys can still call me if you want. Just make sure you refer to me as Mr. Phil Jackson."
For the upcoming fall season, Bilsky has already begun his search for a new head coach. However, he has run into some difficulty trying to lure coaches to Philadelphia for just one season.
"Yeah it's a little tough, but I'll get the job done," Bilsky said. "I can always lure them with shiny red cars and prostitutes and stuff. Or, worse comes to worst, I can kidnap their mothers."
Bilsky already has a short list of candidates for the job, highly touted prodigies such as the assistant coach of the McNee Street club soccer team and the head soccer mom of the Yorktown Class B travel team.
However, Bilsky noted the trouble of keeping up the high level of coaching throughout the next 10 seasons, citing the fact that the crop of talent would simply wear thin after a few years.
"Sure, five years from now, a lot of the best candidates will be gone," Bilsky said. "But I got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. Take for instance, Fred the Bum. He's a Philadelphia guy, knows the area and knows nothing about soccer. The 2007 soccer team will be in good hands. Man, I'm a genius."
Fred the Bum, a resident of a cardboard box outside Wawa, could not be reached for comment, but was witnessed kicking a beer bottle across 38th street into oncoming traffic.
Bilsky's genius, however, does not impress the women on the team. In fact, the soccer players think the plan sucks.
"If I wanted a new coach every year, I would have played for the Clippers," said junior Sarah Campbell, who will play for her fourth coach in four seasons. "It's ridiculous. How do we plan on getting recruits with a different coach every year? Bilsky's a moron and I'm not afraid to say it."
"I'm utterly, completely and totally devastated," senior Kelli Toland said of the change. "But besides that, shit's good."
Upon hearing the news, seven women's soccer players have quit the team and another -- freshman Heather Issing -- has decided to try out for the football team.
"Yo without that short, scraggly voiced Jewish kid, I think I got a shot," Issing said referring to the graduation of senior placekicker Jason Feinberg. "I can kick the ball like a motherfucker."
With the team in shambles, it is all but certain the Quakers will not repeat their recent success.
But Bilsky still has his eyes on Fred the Bum in 2007.
(03/02/01 10:00am)
On any given Saturday night, Penn students sit down to romantic candlelight dinners. The meals may cost a week's pay. The lights are dim, the violin plays softly in the background and, so far, the companions seem pleased.
But there is one thing missing -- and the students are lost on how to order it.
Wine -- it's a part of our culture, our society and our professional lives. If knowledgeable on the beverage, a person can throw a posh party or impress the boss at a business lunch.
But, when it comes to wine, most undergraduates are clueless.
"I drink a lot of wine, but I don't really know what's what," College senior Constantin Friedman said.
Now the Penn Philomathean Society is hoping to change that, with the help of the Drug and Alcohol Resource Team.
The society has launched a wine-tasting seminar this semester, determined to turn Penn students into wine connoisseurs.
It's not entirely ironic that DART, an organization that cautions against alcohol abuse, supports a seminar promoting wine.
In fact, DART president Molly Macdonald said that this seminar is a safe way of showing people how to enjoy wine.
She came to the first session to advise students to drink responsibly.
"We're a peer health education group," she explained to the students in attendance. "Our mission on Penn's campus is to provide education to reduce high-risk drinking. Educate your friends not only on what to drink but also on how to drink."
Philo started the seminar in hopes of creating a more well-rounded Penn student.
"Since 1813, our mission has been to increase the prestige of the University in the modern world," Philo President and Wharton senior Nikhil Da Victoria Lobo explained. "The reason we want to work with wine is that wine is a cultural activity. It's not something you engage in for the sake of having alcohol."
The society will hold six sessions for this seminar throughout the semester. Thirty Penn seniors, all of whom are 21 or older, attend each workshop.
Deborah Scoblionkov, the wine columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Jim Anderson, a Philadelphia wine and food connoisseur, teach these sessions.
Scoblionkov and Anderson didn't know the difference between a Chardonnay and a Cabernet before venturing to Europe, where both discovered wine was an integral part of the culture.
"I lived in Europe for three years," Scoblionkov explained. "Soda was pretty expensive. Wine was the cheapest beverage at that time."
Anderson learned about wine during his visit to France.
And after learning about wine, both now use their understanding in their daily professional lives.
So what will the two teach Penn students?
"I want for them to develop a sensitivity to wine and incorporate it into their lives," Scoblionkov said.
"I hope that they'll be able to feel confident in any setting that might require them to make a choice of what to drink," Anderson added. "It can be an intimidating thing."
Scoblionkov started off the first session with a short history of wine, then poured some of the beverage for the students to try. She explained that the seminar will have a "practical approach to wine."
Most students in the seminar consider themselves novices when it comes to wine.
Scoblionkov said that those unfamiliar with fine wine might opt for commercial popularity rather than quality.
"Usually people stick with a very safe, recognizable wine, and those are some of the most boring ones out there," Scoblionkov noted.
Macdonald added that there aren't too many opportunities on campus to learn about wine, especially since other drinks are more popular at pubs and parties.
"I think wine is not one of the primary beverages that is consumed," she said. "I think the drink of choice would be either liquor or beer."
Some say education on wine and other alcoholic drinks may even cut down on binge-drinking.
"You end up drinking less and getting more out of it," Anderson explained.
The key is learning to savor the quality -- the taste, the smell and the texture.
The Office of Student Health, which often deals with students suffering from over-consumption of alcohol, applauds the new wine-tasting seminar.
"People who participate in wine-tasting are interested in the use of alcohol in a responsible fashion," said Evelyn Wiener, director of Student Health Services. "Alcohol is a part of this society and it is the responsibility of the University and various service departments to provide education, screening, counseling, treatment and referrals."
(03/02/01 5:00am)
The Philomathean Society and the Drug and Alcohol Resource Team have launched a new wine seminar, which aims to give Penn students a flavor of the wine culture. (Stefan Miltchev/The Daily Pennsylvanian)
(02/28/01 10:00am)
Koko Archibong is a West Coast guy, and he won't let you forget it.
The Penn men's basketball media guide has a section in which each player has filled out a questionnaire.
In response to "The most important thing I bring to this team is -," most of the guys wrote "leadership" or "experience," but not Koko.
Nope, according to the media guide, Archibong -ÿa 6'8" sophomore forward out of Pasadena (Calif.) Polytechnic - brings "West Coast flavor."
"Absolutely, I would totally agree with that," laughs senior center Geoff Owens, who has played with Archibong for almost two full seasons. "I'll be talking to him and I'm not sure about a word that he's using or whatever, and he'll be like, `It's a West Coast thing.'"
"A little bit of my lingo is different," Archibong agrees. "I talk differently."
More than just lingo, Archibong's West Coast roots also manifest themselves in the music he listens to.
"You won't find too many people out here listening to the music I listen to," Archibong says, citing artists like DJ Quik, Xzibit and E-40. "I listen to both [coasts], though. I just try to bring some elements of education in on that stuff, besides just Jay-Z."
"He definitely does," Owens said. "He'll be like, `There's this and this rapper, you guys gotta learn this, it's a West Coast thing.'"
But when asked to define "West Coast flavor," Archibong is reluctant to nail it down.
"You can't bottle it up," he says. "West Coast is a major, major force, so you can't bottle that up to just me. I do try to bring as much of it as I can, though."
One aspect of Pasadena that Archibong would like to bottle up is the weather.
"Out in California, I'd get mad when there was a rainy day," he says. "It took me a while to get used to the fact that there are actual seasons out here."
But dead-of-winter trips up to New England have made him appreciate Philadelphia's relatively mild Northeastern weather.
"All those trips tend to be a lot colder than down here," he says. "This year, I feel much more acclimated to things [in Philly], the extremes in weather and what not."
As one of the six members of head coach Fran Dunphy's stellar freshman class last year, Archibong started in 12 of the Quakers 27 games, earning more playing time as the season progressed.
Starting at small forward all this season, his numbers have only gotten better.
Archibong's long-range shooting has improved significantly. He's hitting at a 37 percent clip from beyond the arc, good enough for 11th in the Ivy League and third on the Quakers.
In fact, he is third on the team in most statistical categories, including points and rebounds-per-game, as he averages 10.3 and 4.6, respectively.
Archibong has led the Quakers in scoring on two separate occasions this year, including the game at Florida International, where Penn got its first win of the season, and Archibong scored a career-high 23 points.
"I think he's improved his game a lot," Owens said. "His jump shot, a great pull-up move to the baseline, there are so many things he's improving on.
"I've seen Koko make so many strides as a player and a person in two years."
Archibong's success is noteworthy because he wasn't one of those kids that dreamt of basketball stardom. Although he now calls basketball "one of my true loves," he was a grade-school soccer player. And, while he played basketball on the Pasadena playgrounds, an NCAA Division I career seemed pretty far-fetched.
"I first played soccer when I was two. I played basketball on a team in the eighth grade, but other than that I was strictly playground," he says. "[Playing collegiately] definitely didn't cross my mind."
But in California, the soccer and basketball seasons run concurrently, so Archibong had to choose a sport. The club soccer team he was on "kind of dissolved," so he decided to give organized basketball a try.
"I'd only played summer ball, and I couldn't make a left-hand layup, but it was fun, so I decided to do it," Archibong says. "I wasn't even tall. I was 5'10" as a freshman, but I had a growth spurt."
More like an explosion. Archibong grew 10 full inches during his high school career and the coach suddenly had a star on his hands. His senior year, the forward averaged a double-double in points and rebounds and led Pasadena Polytechnic to an undefeated season.
"I would never have thought that it would turn out this way," Archibong says.
For Dunphy, recruiting Archibong was a no-brainer.
"We saw him over that summer, and what's not to like?" Dunphy said. "He's tall, he's long, he's athletic. He can shoot well enough and he could get in, which is always a big concern."
Archibong knew that he wanted to go to an Ivy League school from the very start of the recruiting process. Accordingly, he did his homework.
"As much as anybody we've recruited in recent years, he has known as much about [Penn] as anyone," Dunphy said.
"I did a lot of research on the schools that were recruiting me," Archibong says. "[Penn] offered me the best of both worlds, as far as basketball and schoolwork."
Now Archibong - who doesn't have a major yet, but knows that it will be "science-oriented" - is instrumental in helping Dunphy entice other players to Penn.
"He's good at the recruiting process," Dunphy said. "I have no problem leaving recruits with him and knowing that he'll take care of them."
For Archibong, hosting recruits is as much a part of improving the team as working on his own game.
"I believe that [recruiting] is a very major part of what we do here," he says. "You want to make sure that we get the best players around."
It doesn't stop there, though. One of his roommates is freshman guard Charlie Copp, who first met Archibong on a recruiting trip last year. The sophomore seems to have taken Copp under his wing.
"We get along great," Copp said. "He's shown me a lot of things, and given me a lot of good advice about the troubles that you go through as a freshman.
"He's always laughing and joking around. He's just a happy kid. He has fun, whatever he's doing."
