On any given summer night at roughly 1:00 in the morning, you are apt to find Shane Moore ‘21 at the Portland Denny’s typing furiously on his computer. At this establishment, says Shane, is where he and his high school friend Gus wrote a sizeable portion of their six month long project—a 325 page anthology—aptly titled “Musings of the Basement Pigeon: A Treatise on Common Existence” —which relates grand philosophical concepts to personal anecdotes from the authors.
“What it really is,” says Shane, is satire. ““What it really is, is satire. I mean, when we were writing it—we’ve been writing this thing for quite some time now—[Gus] and I had this philosophy class in high school, and we started talking about it over the summer and we started writing this thing. We figured if we could take, you know, kind of weird but funny or interesting little experiences we’ve had, and go really deeply into them, it would scratch the surface of some kind of base level philosophy stuff. And it’s all absurd… it’s all satire. Because nobody wants to sit down and read some heavy philosophy.”
The two were prompted to tackle complex philosophical concepts after taking a required theology course at their Catholic high school, which primarily centered around questions of ethics. Moore hopes that the book’s quotidian analysis of concepts like absurdism and nihilism will stoke the interests of layman philosophers. “I don’t really expect anyone to have some sort of [philosophical] revelation. If somebody can just read it and enjoy it, even if you don’t agree with what I’m talking about or saying, or you think whatever we’re saying is ridiculous, you still get some enjoyment out of it. Enjoyment out of something meaningless—that’s absurd philosophy right there.”
For Moore, the experience has been edifying on both a personal and academic level. “At the very least,” he remarked, “I think I’ve become much more perceptive to what’s going on. Even just sitting around not even thinking about the book maybe, I just have these experiences now where I’m paying attention to something that’s going on over there and I think that’s something I could write about. Beyond that, I think my writing has improved.” While the work is currently unpublished, The Bates Student has published an excerpt wherein Moore reflects on death, existence, and squirrels on the drive from Portland to Lewiston.
For the last few months I have been wonderfully content, and would have remained so, had it not been for the events of the last few days. Allow me to provide a bit of helpful context. This is being written a few days after I moved back to college. In the spirit of efficiency, highway travel is required. While on the highway, I noticed a number of dead squirrels on the side of the road. This was not wholly out of the ordinary. We continued on the highway. I began to notice many more dead squirrels. After the fifth squirrel, I sat up. I began to pay greater attention. At dead squirrel number 7, my vision began to blur, warping in and out of focus, and my hearing began to sound muffled. At dead squirrel number 10, the color of the leaves on the roadside trees began to change from green to orange and yellow, and then back to green again. At dead squirrel number 12, every radio station not overcome with static was playing “Jungle Boogie”, by the terrifically popular funk band Kool & The Gang, and nothing else. By squirrel 15, my hearing was gone completely, and I began to experience extraordinarily vivid hallucinations. At squirrel 17, I began to sweat. At squirrel 18, I lost consciousness. When I again entered this reality, I had arrived at my destination. I felt somewhat normal again, and brushed off my unconsciousness by saying I had taken a nap. I continued the day as normal. I did not think about the squirrels anymore. I do not want to think about the squirrels. I am sure I will have another encounter with one sooner than would be favorable. Perhaps not. I still wonder why they challenge the cars. Would you, if you were a squirrel? Would I?
After a fabulous performance at Bates during Short Term 2018, Delicate Steve came back to campus for a second show on March 8th, 2019 in the Benjamin Mays Center. This time, Delicate Steve’s performance included tracks from his newly released album “Till I Burn Up,” which came out on March 1st. Both his Short Term and most recent show at Bates were presented by WRBC.
This year’s election of the Bates College President and Vice President is even more important than usual: in the aftermath of the Student Government temporarily stepping down to protest their lack of purpose, the new leaders will have an exciting opportunity to lead the transition into increased autonomy. Need another reason to be an active voter in this year’s election? This year marks a period of fresh eyes, as two-time President Walter Washington ’19 will be graduating.
There are five candidates for President running in this election, all with extremely different backgrounds and qualifications. All five were present at a Presidential Debate on Wednesday, March 13, where they answered questions posed by Walter Washington and students in the audience.
Julia Panepinto ’20 lost the election for a Student Government Representative as a first-year, but took that opportunity to become Vice President of the Chase Hall Programming Board, where she helped to organise Snowball and other dances. Since then, she has been a representative for two years, and plans to use this experience in office as President.
A key issue for Panepinto is advocating for students, saying, “As President, I think it’s important that we’re here for the students. Instead of forcing students to go to our meetings, we go to them. We ask them what they want, and we work on their schedules.” In particular, Panepinto plans to implement course reviews, give students access to all dorms at all times, work on making more social spaces accessible, and prioritise Government transparency.
Ryan Lizanecz ’20 brings similar experience to the table. He and his Vice Presidential candidate, Lebanos Mengistu ’21, have a combined 5 years of experience in Student Government. During his time as class representative, Lizanecz implemented meal plans over break, made strides toward addressing the parking crisis, and helped to create the Bates Security Council. His action plan for the future includes improving security relations, parking reform, community involvement, creating a new student union, enhancing school spirit, and, like Panepinto, focusing on ensuring transparency of the Administration and Student Government.
Justin Levine ’20 ran last year for President and lost, showing his resilience as a candidate. Although he personally runs track and is a member of Club Volleyball, he tries to go to most athletic events, and is passionate about supporting his fellow Batesies. He describes his spirit and friendliness as being characteristic of his campaign, describing, “Personally, what I bring to the table is being a friend. I have a lot to provide in terms of just being a good friend to people.”
In terms of action, Levine is focusing on mental health through strategies such as advocating for more CAPS faculty; rebuilding relationships with President Spencer and between athletes; promoting school spirit; and other improvements such as adding an additional eatery to campus and requesting small printers scattered around campus.
Leo Crossman ’20, who is running for Vice President and represented Presidential candidate Michael Williams ’20 —who is currently abroad—at the debate, confesses that he has spent the past couple years being an average student. This gives him key insight into the current flaws of Student Government, as he is able to see the reasons why the Government has been unable to access students like him in the past. Crossman and Williams plan to prioritise including increased avenues for students to be able to interact with their student representatives, continuing to work to improve security-student relations, and advocating for the increased power of students in the administration of Bates.
Christian Beal ’21 has a unique background, as he transferred to Bates as a sophomore. This experience gives him the ability to look at the Bates Student Government with fresh eyes, and to give insights and comparisons from his past in another environment. As this is his first year at Bates, he also has a unique investment in the first-year class, as he can freshly understand what it is like to be a new student at Bates. Beal is focusing on government transparency through avenues such as weekly social media addresses, a more strategic disbursement of printers, better social spaces, and increased funding to club and varsity sports.
All five candidates bring very different backgrounds to the table; two are current BCSG representatives, one is a self-professed “average student,” another a transfer, and the last a second-time candidate. Polls are open between Monday, March 18, and Wednesday, March 20 on Garnet Gateway—make sure to vote!
As college tuitions are at an all time high, many students both at Bates and abroad are forced to ask themselves when applying to colleges what they intend on doing with a liberal arts degree or a humanities major. Many high school and college students worry that they won’t be able to make a return on their investment, or worse, that they’ll be stuck to work an unfulfilling career. While these issues seem more prevalent than ever, the worries are not new. On Friday, March 14, Carolyn Ryan ‘86, a former English major and current Assistant Editor at The New York Times came to share her experience with purposeful work and quell some of the worries familiar to liberal arts students especially those in humanities. Mediating the discussion was The Bates Student Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Rothmann ‘19, and Bates Magazine Editorial Director and Editor, Jay Burns.
Like many first years, Ryan came in to Bates certain about pursuing one path only to change her mind and pursue others in later years. “I do remember that initially, I came to campus and my extremely elaborate and very solid career plan was that I was going to win Wimbledon,” Ryan paused as the audience laughed, “and then I would appear on tour and maybe do Bates from a distance. And then I was going to be a cartoonist, and then I was going to be a lawyer…What happened to me, and I’m sure your college experience is similar, my first year I did tennis and it was pretty intense, didn’t win Wimbledon, but I think we beat Colby. But, the second year I stumbled into The Bates Student office, and what I really noticed—the tennis kids were great, but they were like, you know, a certain kind of kid—the kids at The Bates Student office were curious about the world, interested about talking about issues, compassionate, interested in talking about politics… and I admired them so much and I just thought ‘these are my people.’’
Ryan, who would eventually be nicknamed “Scoop” by her peers, began writing articles like “The Joy of Being a Dana Scholar” and “Steel Band on the Quad,” which eventually lead her to write more substantial pieces later in her Bates Student career, such as restaurant reviews and “The perils of roommates.” (For the record, according to Ryan, the best roommates should have a great stereo and love the Violent Femmes).
Through it all, Ryan was fueled by her love of writing which came to her at an early age: “…I mean I was very nervous about writing, but I had always, as a kid, liked to write. And when I was a little kid, really little, like fifth grade— I wrote a book. I grew up outside of Boston, and it was—it’s going to sound more sophisticated than it was—it was about the desegregation battles in Boston and the black and white racial class. And I had always liked the idea of being a writer.” In college, one of the biggest draws for Ryan to write for the newspaper was her excitement for “the possibility of describing things.”
Now, as one of the names on the masthead for The New York Times, Ryan works to hire new talent. “Just as a general rule, what I try to do is hire people for hunger and potential more than credentials, obviously we want people with experience, but what I’ve noticed at The New York Times, what distinguishes those journalists from the rest of their field…is something that you can’t really teach, which is drive.” One example of this drive would be the slew of message she would receive when she reemerged from going to the movies at night: “I would come out the movie and my phone would just be pulsating with all the messages from the reporters who were like working through the night, sending me a new draft, just got a new source, wanted me to know this, had another idea, and there’s like a drive that really defines almost an obsessiveness about what they want to do. And you can sort of sense that whether people are at a small paper or digital outlet. Where I’m seeing the good journalism training nowadays is at the non-profits.” A few of the non-profits that Ryan highlighted were New York’s The City, San Francisco’s Reveal, and Austin’s Texas Tribune.
One of the questions Burns asked during the talk was about what Ryan penned as “The Worry Trifecta” in an essay to the Bates Magazine—the three pillars being “Finding work”, “paying student loans”, and “wondering whether your English degree has any value whatsoever”. Burns then read a particularly poignant excerpt from her essay: “‘I found myself deeply troubled by how to shape a future for myself that will expand the limits of my learning. I fear that I will shrink from the task of self-enrichment. How does one remain a student, a seeker of knowledge, ideas, and meaning, in a modern, complex, bureaucratized world: how do we prevent our lives from being frittered away by detail as Thoreau wrote?’”
Burns then asked Ryan what she would tell her 21 year-old self knowing what she knew now. Without skipping a beat, Ryan responded “What a pompous kid!” She continued, stating, “Well, I think the thing that journalism is about is embracing your native curiosity and it’s an essential ingredient, and I think, for one thing, I did worry about—I don’t know why I worried about this as a kid—but I had seen, maybe in movies or in real life…people who have become bitter as they aged, or cynical, um, and I never wanted to be like that and it frightened me a little. And I used to read a lot of biographies, I still do… but I would read biographies both to understand how people became successful but also to understand how they dealt with disappointment. And what I didn’t want to do was to become negative, cynical, bitter, and for some reason I think that shaped what I was looking for and looking not for, and I think, to me, the essential ingredient really comes to curiosity.”
During the question and answer period, the majority of the questions the audience asked had to do with the recent shift in journalism from traditional print media to a more digital platform. For Ryan, one of the biggest changes has been the “biorhythm” of the newsroom:“It used to be, and not that long ago, maybe ten or maybe fifteen, that our biorhythms as a newsroom were really based on a daily paper. So, that meant people came in, kind of late in the morning, maybe 10:30, and maybe got an assignment, and then people took time for lunch, and you would kind of regroup at like 3:00 or 4:00, and you might follow your story by 6:00 or 7:00, and it gets edited at 8:00 or 9:00, and that was kind of the rhythm of a newsroom. And that has really changed. As soon as you really get news, and confirm news, that goes up. You publish it on the web and I think it has forced a kind of transparency around what we do.”
“What we want to be, and one of your fellow Batesies said this today,” said Ryan, “we want to be the one you turn to when you really want to get something solid, you really want to know what’s right and what’s wrong in terms of a big news story. So that’s our reputation, so even in a digital universe, we have to preserve that, and so part of that is being as forthright with readers about our reporting, about what we know, and we have to be really careful—even in a fast-paced environment. So we are not driven to get things first, we certainly want to, but what we really want to be is right.”
The experiences of queer students at Bates are multifaceted, diverse, and vibrant. They work in every field of study and organization on campus. Our community dresses from high couture queens to thrift shop sissies. Queer students express their sexualities and identities in a myriad of ways through differing layers of privilege. My experience as a bisexual, upper-class, cis, white man is much different than LGBT+ individuals of more marginalized identities. But there is one thing that we all have in common: we’re a small minority on this campus. LGBT+ identities are in the margins of populations everywhere, but at Bates, it’s very hard to miss. Our diverse community easily gets overpowered by heterosexual and cisgender cultures. I, personally, have found my own friend circles to be accepting and accommodating, but for many others, I know this to not be the case. While events like Coming Out Week and Sex Week give us opportunities to make ourselves more known, the queer community is rarely the center of discussion for the campus as a whole. But on an infamous dance night, that (supposedly) changes. Lick-It is arguably the biggest event of the year that puts our identities up front and center. The night before Gala, Bates’ illustrious student-faculty prom, the college at-large congregates within a smaller venue for an explicitly sexual and wild dance experience. It’s fair to say that Lick-It is second only to the 80s Dance in terms of infamy for raunchiness. The night is awash with costumes, lingerie, toys, and half-naked twenty-something year-olds in general. But rarely amidst this sexually explorative environment do I see drag, leather, grunge, or rainbows. Rarely do I see my fellow queer people. More and more I find that our communities are being erased from this event, and that queer students are just another group of attendees rather than the protagonists of the evening. Lick-It has been appropriated and overtaken by heterosexual, cisgender Batesies (to say nothing of the realities of race and nationality at the event). Much of this partying excess is rooted in the caricaturization of queer expression and the harmful notion that affirming a sexual/gender identity means being excessively carnal. Since my first year at the dance, I can remember seeing queer couples and groups isolated in niches of the dance floor in Benjamin Mays. I have seen so many pregamers and party goers simply use this dance as another opportunity to get smashed rather actually acknowledge the LGBT+ community at this school. People whom I have personally heard yell f****t in their dorms and shamelessly mock transgender folx show up to this festivity jumping in jubilation. This dance is a staple Bates event, but it’s become divorced from its original mission. Queer sexualities, genders, and cultures have been drowned out at this dance, much like on the rest of campus, by an overwhelmingly hetero and cis-normative environment. It’s no longer the “queer party” at Bates, but rather a party that happens to be put on by the queer identity group, Outfront. In a way, this may have been bound to happen; loud music and heavy drinking are, admittedly, not exactly conducive to thoughtful dialogue on exchanges of culture and identity. Perhaps Outfront should make such events more private and small-scale. And yes, while sex-positive events are always worth promoting, every dance at Bates is sex-positive for straight people. The LGBT+ community does not have equal representation and access to spaces. Do not get me wrong: Lick-It is fun. Really fun. I love the pregames, the music, and the opportunities for me and my friends to express ourselves vivaciously. But it simply is not the queer-focused event it was intended to be. The solutions to this problem are simple and have long been in the works. We need more campus-wide attendance at activities and Chase Hall programs that invite all students to come, but which center around the queer experience at Bates. What I want, ultimately, is not to call-out cis-het Bates students, but rather ask them to reconsider Lick-It. Reconsider your conduct at the party (like for the love of Miss Vanjie respect consent). Reconsider how you choose at act in queer spaces. Reconsider your preconceived notions of what being queer can mean. But most of all, reconsider how little room us LGBT+ students at Bates have to act and dance as ourselves. We need our Lick-It back.
CW: Racism
On Friday, March 8th the Mayor of Lewiston, Shane Bouchard, resigned amid a scandal arising from racist text messages he sent to his mistress, as well as allegations of having a hand in leaking mayoral election opponent Ben Chin’s emails to the Maine Examiner in 2017. In the text messages, Bouchard called elderly black people “antique farm equipment,” referred to himself as “so sexist,” and joked about going to a “clan meeting.” Though this behavior is unbecoming for any elected official, it should be of no surprise to the Bates community because of Bouchard’s affronts against Bates students. During last year’s mayoral debate, Bouchard attacked Bates students by saying that they, quote, “shouldn’t be voting in our local elections. And if they do vote in our local elections, we actually need to uphold the legal requirements for them to register to vote, which they do not.” During his term, Shane Bouchard sent a letter to new Lewiston voters (many of them Bates students) making it appear as if you needed a Maine driver’s license and Maine vehicle registration in order to vote. You do not. The Maine Secretary of State had to intervene to clear up any misconceptions caused by Bouchard’s letter. We can learn many lessons from Bouchard’s tenure. One: racism is still alive and well. Those of us who do not experience it must realize that people who occupy public office can harbor deeply white supremacist sentiments. When put into action, these sentiments can endanger the livelihoods of people of color, with Shane Bouchard being one of those officials. Two: It is no coincidence that the mayor who threatened our enfranchisement is the same mayor who identified himself as a Klansman. We know that different social struggles are connected, so it makes sense that those who threaten one struggle will threaten others. In addition, the legacy of Bouchard’s troubled tenure gives us yet another important reminder that Bates students must be involved in the day-to-day politics of Lewiston. This doesn’t mean that everybody has to join the Maine People’s Alliance or read the Sun Journal religiously, but it does mean that links need to be built between Bates students and the people of Lewiston. With such racist people in power, the Somali community, in particular, must be given attention. If students and regular working-class people cannot establish strong political dialogues, we will only get more and more Shane Bouchards. I am sure that many of us feel relief that such a contemptuous person is no longer in City Hall. But that which will define whether we are able to improve the links in the community and defeat xenophobia within our city will be our ability to change the way we approach politics. Voting for Ben Chin once every two years isn’t enough. Working with the Harward Center isn’t enough. Tutoring Lewiston’s students won’t be enough. Volunteering at the library isn’t enough. At risk of sounding cliche, we must take on all sides and get organized. Our involvement in the community is political, and we cannot afford to ignore Lewiston’s politics during our four years living in this city.
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915 written in 2012 by Jackie Sibblies Drury, is a difficult play to put on and perform. Its presentational, metatheatrical narrative accompanied by an ensemble dynamic creates a complex theatrical task for any director. The play itself is engaging, and provokes thought which might make audience members and readers feel uncomfortable. Under the direction of Timothy Dugan, Bates College Theater Department’s production does not shy away from the uncomfortable: it confronts the discomfort of the show and brings the audience along.
Growing up, my mom loved to pamper my sisters and I with a facewash and some good smelling lotion before we went to bed. Eventually, as ridiculous as this sounds, I grew up and got my very own good smelling facewash. My dad calls the bottles of products my mom and I use “lotions and potions” as they quickly fill countertops in our bathrooms. I grew up valuing the time of day where you take special care and show a little extra kindness for the skin on your body. Especially growing up in the Rocky Mountains where days in the sun are long and intense, this kind routine full of lotions and potions is important!
My skin care routine has since evolved after countless adventures through stores filled with different products. But it has never has strayed from finding formulas that keep my skin happy and healthy, my complexion clear, and my confidence high. I have recently been using products from Tata Harper which is a company based in Vermont that creates formulas free from GMOs, toxins, fillers, artificial colors, artificial fragrances, and synthetic chemicals. I love all of the products I have used from the brand. Its fragrance is both relaxing and revitalizing and the products make my skin feel alive and healthy.
Every time I was my face, I start out by rinsing with water, sometimes warm, sometimes cold; and then dry it just enough so it stays moist. I do not usually wear a lot of make-up, so I never use a solution dedicated to only removing makeup. If I am wearing makeup I sometimes ignore the residue left behind, but often just use a q-tip to get the mascara around my eyes.
After I do the initial rinse, I use a regenerating cleanser from Tata Harper. This “potion” is an exfoliator but is gentle enough on my skin to be able to use it in the morning and in the evening. I put it on my dry skin and leave it for a few minutes. I dry my face after rinsing and then spray it with “Hydrating Floral Essence” from Tata Harper. Hydrating with this formula before moisturizing allows moisturizers to be soaked up as much as possible.
After the toner has dried I put on a Reparative Moisturizer and a Retinoic Nutrient face oil. I usually only do these two steps in the evening because both give my face a chance to heal while I sleep. In the morning I start with the same steps, but instead of the moisturizer and face oil, I put on a BB crème from the Body Shop that acts as a moisturizer and a refreshing start to the day. During the summer, I put sunscreen on daily as an additional step to the process.
I also use a lavender oil from Dr. Hauschka, which is a similar brand to Tata Harper. I often put the oil on my neck and chest before I go to bed, after I have done all of the other steps to my routine. I recognize that our skin deserves all the best, as it endures stress, sun, and all of the other parts of the day. This routine has become some of the most relaxing and revitalizing parts of my day. The “lotions and potions” that fill the bathroom counters are all put to good use.
When Hozier released his “Nina Cried Power” EP, and later his single “Movement” last year, it had been almost five years since the Irish singer-songwriter captivated the world with “Take Me to Church.” Upon listening to “Nina Cried Power,” as a Hozier fan, I was immediately excited to see what he was going to create with his newest album. But like movie trailers for a mediocre summer blockbuster, his EPs contained the best parts of his newly-released sophomore album “Wasteland, Baby!”
That’s not to say that the album is bad. Hozier is a fantastic and expressive vocalist; the single “Movement” is a clear example of the sheer ability and power the 28-year-old singer is able to harness. But, not even Hozier’s voice can lift the at times monotonous sound of “Wasteland, Baby!”
The album was written within the last year. The singer-songwriter spent much of his hiatus in his homeland of Ireland to reconnect to his former self, or the Hozier that came before the singer’s debut album, “Hozier.” Since its release, major societal and environmental factors (both good and bad) have shaped our world. Hozier, although not in the public eye, was keenly paying attention and conceptualized his album as “about enjoying taking part in a cultural wasteland or a moral wasteland.”
The album’s title, “Wasteland, Baby!” comes from the dread he felt watching the Doomsday Clock being moved to 2 minutes to “midnight,” due to unchecked climate change and looming threats of nuclearization. Hozier tackles this concept with a grace rarely seen in modern artists; melancholic and intimate, his lyrics read like poetry. In the title track he softly croons, as if almost underwater, “All the fear and the fire of the end of the world happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl.”
Political commentary and activism is nothing new for the Irish artist. His breakthrough hit wasn’t, as most people think, written about a relationship: “Take Me To Church” came from the musician’s frustration with the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and its domination over the government and culture of Ireland. “Nina Cried Power,” a send up song to civil right activists like Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Mavis Staples—who is featured on the album—is probably the best song on the album. “Wasteland, Baby!” also exemplifies Hozier as a well-read and intellectual artist; in the grungy, drum-heavy “No Plan,” he cites astrophysicist Katie Mack’s philosophy of the death of the universe, and in “Almost (Sweet Music),” he pays homage to American jazz legends like Duke Ellington and John Coltrane.
While Hozier’s writing is exemplary and there are a number of great songs on “Wasteland, Baby!” the album falters as a whole. The 14-song album feels bloated and the pacing is erratic. As he jumps from existential to optimistic songs, Hozier doesn’t let a consistent mood develop over the album. It opens explosively with the first couple of songs but Hozier struggles, especially in the middle, to make the 57-minute runtime feel diverse. I found it hard to remember most of the songs in the middle and they all seemed to blend into each other.
Therein lies my key issue with this album: the concept and the production of the album is superior, but aside from the singles, there’s nothing “new” on the album. Songs like “To Noise Making (Sing)” and “Sunlight” are not unique, they’re just rehashes of songs we’ve heard five years ago. Listeners hear a new sound being formulated on this album in some songs, but it feels that “Wasteland, Baby!” could have benefited from a heavy amount of editing and reworking.
Following Hozier’s meteoric rise to fame, the artist has the world looking to him to create. I think in a way, his skyrocketing popularity threw him off. The album feels at times like he’s singing about what he thinks people want to hear and not what he wants them to.
Bates Baseball fell to a record of 3-5 on Thursday after the team lost to Endicott College (2-2) by a score of 8-0. The loss follows a three game win-streak that brought the Bobcats a win away from an early-season 0.500 winning percentage in their overall record.