Let's Re-Pub the Pub

It's not about alcohol--just ambiance, and a sense of it being ours, not Flik's, and not the administration's occasional breakfast room.

You know the biggest room in the pub, the one without a name? Under the orange loft, off the North Room and the comfy newsroom, with a door to the terrace? The ugly disgusting one with oily plastic furniture? That used to be the vibrating social center of campus. It's already smack in the middle of things, and we already hang out outside it and sit there to snack when the other room's full. But if it looked comfortable, if we made it cozy and redecorated it to our tastes, if it had approachable homey secondhand furniture and lighting, we could actually have somewhere to go on campus in the winter that wasn't far away or too small for large groups. We could establish it as a meeting place and drift from it to other events or student spaces. We could meet new friends there, since there'd be room and atmosphere for mingling.

A few images from the past. That building (or at least that spot) has been many, many things in 80 years: an infirmary, a gardener's cottage, a men's dorm, a bar called Charlie's place, The Pub (by that name), and now only since '98 the Siegel Center with its institutional aesthetic and high-school cafeteria sensibility. It can change again. As The Pub, the [unnamed room] had brown wood-paneled walls, posters everywhere, bare wooden rafters, and a railing along the loft so people could perform up top for listeners on the ground level (think live coffeehouse music, poetry readings, or whatever floats your boat). --See the photos below, and ask Abby at the Archives if you'd like to see more.

A few images people have put forward for the future:
-murals on the walls between the windows
-some rotating student paintings
-donated comfy furniture: wood chairs and tables, upholstered couches
-bookshelves for student writing, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and conference papers
-a stereo devoted to music made by students
-a projector to project student films on the space below the loft for special events
-any other images, ideas, daydreams you can conceivably think of working into it

We'll have to iron out the details amongst ourselves once we have a larger following.

If this is a project that appeals to you here's how you can take part:
-tell your friends about it, and get their ideas as well as their support
-help create, distribute, and collect a petition to various groups of friends
-volunteer as an organizer, a publicizer, or an event planner
-help find alums or parents who can offer up old furniture, lighting, paint, etc. for our cause
-not engage with the administration on this until we the student body have our act together

One huge source of power is NOT asking the administration or student senate for money. What we need are THINGS, not the money to buy them with, and if enough of us get involved we can pull together those resources without asking the administration for anything but permission. Funding is their greatest source of control, and let's face it--they're broke, even though they're charging us an arm and a leg to be here.

Tada! Yes we can.




Read on...

Speakeasy!

Speakeasy at Threeng featuring dances by the Porcelein Baby burlesque troupe, Thursday the 20th at 10pm.

Directions:
Walk down Mead Way towards the Science Center and turn right at the end, walk uphill for about 10 minutes on Bronxville Rd. Our apartment complex is Bronxville Court, on the right after Texas Avenue.

Address: 17 Bronxville Rd (the back of the courtyard)
(the doorman, separatist/burlesquer extraordinaire, will show you up to our lair)

$5 cover -- sorry, we have no money yet but there is a lottery scheme in the works for future dollars.

Oh and Kate Bornstein's coming, for those of you who know who that is. Read on...

Dialogue on the Pub Terrace

(in an alternate lingo universe)

A: Tip of the day, folks! [windshield wave]
B: Do yr laundry at odd hrs.
C: Disco. Never meerkat yr spare quickiemaker.
A: Yeah--po cho. Did y'all hear E, F, and G all got special after that newsreel film on free love?
B: That's a box of turkey. G's a solid 6.
A: Not anymore he ain't.
B: Sblood--that conference outline. Salaco's kickin my ass, I've been makin merry too much with Lor.
C: Disco.
A: Yr all Saturday Night Fever today, C.
C: I hear my friendeur Tamagotchi's recording a new soundtrack for SNF--all whistling and jew's harp.
A: Tada! Did I ever play y'all my whistling concerto?
C: Play it for Tamagotchi. It's 6 o' clock, so she's all ears and beeping.
B: Æight--y'allah bye. Moshi-moshi.
A: Cheers, B! Dream big.
B: Live little. [Leaves]
C: A, you phil?
A: Sigay, what's good?
C: I'm thinking polyamory jives with plurality, but where do emotions fit in?
A: Nebulous theorem, you just wanna get special. Guess I'm not phil.
C: Æight. Well I'ma skedaddle--Salaco calls.
A: Dream big.

--------OR----------
(lost in translation)

A: What's up guys?
B: Nothing.
C: Word.
A: [whispering] Did you hear G got wasted after homecoming and hooked up with E and F?
B: Eww. That's disgusting. I thought G was gay?
A: Well he was drunk.
B: Fuck--that conference outline. I can't do homework with a hangover.
C: Word.
A: You're all about words today, C.
B: No, I'm just baked.
A: Dude--did you hear H got some haze in?
C: I can't afford that shit. Throw down with Sarah maybe.
B: Later guys. I'll text you.
A: Later.
B: See you man. [leaves]
C: A, can I ask you a serious question?
A: Sure, what's up?
C: Are threesomes sexist?
A: Get out, you just want some ass. That's not a serious question.
C: Whatever. Peace man--off to the library.
A: Peace. Read on...

The Battle for Free Speech

Perhaps the administration thinks we're board of free speech and content with occasional announcements, or at least that we're happy to confine our free speech to private conversations and print newsletters like this. Well, our student predecessors several short generations ago fought tooth and nail to express themselves bigly, colorfully, and in public. The governors of Westlands and Bates were not too fond of the spectre of graffiti that could haunt their preciously landscaped and architectured campus, not to be sullied with the images and voices of the actual students themselves, so they offered a consolation prize that students could freely decorate and defame a square of plywood next to the dining hall entrance to match said's plywood cuisine. ----- And what did we do? We forgot. We the Sarala students, who have won many battles only to graduate and allow victories to fade with passing batons. Meanwhile the Free Speech Board (for yes, that is its official title) has become a useful offline venue for publicizing events when almost none exists (save the back of this page). Those of us reclaiming the board for its original use certainly don't oppose publicity--we'd love more ourselves. But we'd ask that announcers please not paint events a week in advance. We're tagging daily, and it slows communication. Let's coexist, and choose our battles. Perhaps for now we should paint single sections of the board, leaving others open. And I, the writer of this blurb, would like to humbly request that we taggers try not to specifically offend announcers or subvert their announcements in bad taste (as has happened). We shouldn't build bad blood before we've built anything else, especially not twixt students. The more room we have to express ourselves the less we'll wrestle for space. One last word: are our overseers afraid of what tour groups or parents might see? Are they ashamed of us? Aren't we who this place is for? Read on...

Call to arms, y'all

In this broad age of Globalization it's such a relief to trade face-to-face without the penetration of corporate systematism. Not to demean the worldwide movement still cementing itself around our shoes (cliché itself at this point), because we all love and support our third world compatriots sooo much that all the clothes we buy come from there, unless of course you shop at American Apparel, elitist bastard. Certainly there comes a point, though, when you just can't help but feeling like you're not paying so much for cotton or plastic as for their absentee CEO's fourteen-year-old boy-lover's boob job, and certainly not for the thread to sew back on fingers lost putting them together. And after the first couple early-morning acid breakdowns over that mental image, you really want to just get rid of everything you own and never look at it again. Out-the-window liberation cramps the style of any red-blooded American, though--don't worry. And after all you need shit. A community of just such like unstable people eager to escape mind-numbing capitalist categorical division is what the world needs now, you think looking through tears into the stars. It's not a dream, freaks. Weekly Teahaus bartering sessions are now a reality glimmering like hope for our disparate and uncommitted community. Leave those sorry consumerist doldrums behind in garnering treasure, giving away trash, or doing good turns for others, all on your own terms. Meerkat Day. Thursdays at noon, seriously. Read on...

Scenius

Brian Eno coined the term "scenius," or collective genius. The root idea is that when certain criteria are met, a "scene" develops its own momentum, creative energy, prolificness. . . In a time and place characterized by scenius, the group of people involved develop their own collective style, elaborated individually by each participant. They influence each other at a rapid pace, and in fact are one another's greatest inspirations. Often individual famous artists we remember were inextricable parts of such scenes. Think the Beats. Think the Italian Renaissance. You get the idea.

Several ingredients for scenius, illuminating why it's so spontaneous and tough to replicate:

* Mutual appreciation -- Risky moves are applauded by the group, subtlety is appreciated, and friendly competition goads the shy. Scenius can be thought of as the best of peer pressure.
* Rapid exchange of tools and techniques -- As soon as something is invented, it is flaunted and then shared. Ideas flow quickly because they are flowing inside a common language and sensibility.
* Network effects of success -- When a record is broken, a hit happens, or breakthrough erupts, the success is claimed by the entire scene. This empowers the scene to further success.
* Local tolerance for the novelties -- The local "outside" does not push back too hard against the transgressions of the scene. The renegades and mavericks are protected by this buffer zone.

Something to aim for. Check out Kevin Kelly's blog The Technium for more. Read on...

A blog....

It's tough figuring out how to be accessible on the web when so much of what we do is about being face-to-face. But the blog format is useful for communicating, so we can check in on each others' ideas and find out what projects and events are going on, and share art too. Good to put information in one place. Plus, it's a great way to show people what we're up to and remind ourselves how far we've come.

So here goes. I'll be posting previous articles from the Barter Board to get started, but hopefully we can make this accessible to contributions from a variety people.

--Bacchus Read on...