Author Archives: Denise

A trial of science and religion?

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Wednesday I attended the Becker/Rose cafe. This week Gregory Sloan was the main speaker and he offered some interesting insight to how astronomy and religion have interacted over time. As someone who studies plants, it is not very often that our research or theories come in conflict with religious views. Except for maybe genetically modified foods. So it was very interesting to hear the perspectives that were presented.

I thought this was a very interesting talk, even though I thought I would be hearing a lot more about Galileo and his trial. However, our speaker offered a lot of views on how religion and science haven’t always been arguing and how in many cases there are simply misunderstandings. One thing I found interesting is the change in funding for education and science. Back in Galileo’s time, the church provided most the funding for research and education. Where as now, much funding comes from private sources or the government. So back then, almost no research that would contradict the church was conducted, and nowadays, our research is so varied that there is always something going on that isn’t received very well. It is interesting to hear about the differences between then and now.

Overall I thought our guest was a very good speaker and he gave a very interesting talk. I wish it hadn’t been during prelim season.

Random… with a plot

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Thursday night I attended a play at the Schwartz performing arts center called On the Verge. I was excited to see this play because it was billed as a comedic play about 3 Victorian women who time traveled! It sounded like it would be very funny, and I was not disappointed. Though, when I entered the theater I was surprised to see how close we’d be sitting to the stage, but this turned out to be a good thing as it made the play seem more realistic.

For this performance, they did a really good job with the set, sound, and lighting. Much of the performance appeared very real. I seemed to be simply accompanying them on their journey, and could imagine the characters and I were in the actual setting (which was basically all over the place). The actors were also very good! most of them were students here at Cornell which I thought was pretty cool, and there was one older lady who joined the cast as well.

My favorite character was probably Fanny. I found her actions to be the funniest, and every time it was her turn to speak I found myself paying more attention. In my opinion, the best part of this play was when the Yeti made an appearance! But to be honest, the whole play was very comical. I don’t think I could have put together something as random as that, as well as funny. With this play, you never knew what was coming next, it was surprise after surprise!

I thought the play was very good, it certainly made me laugh a lot! I hope the other students who attended enjoyed it as much as I did!

What mastery sounds like…

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Friday night I had the opportunity to attend the Emanuel Ax concert at Bailey hall. I just want to say that this performance was stunning. Everyone in the audience seemed captivated by each note Emanuel played. And I can definitely understand why! When he plays you can see just how much he truly enjoys playing piano. He is incredibly focused on the music and if you watch his facial expressions you can see when he starts playing one of his favorite parts… everything just seems to flow, and the audience senses this! It was incredibly quiet during the performance, and still! I think everyone was afraid to move or they’d cause too much noise and wouldn’t hear the piece the way it was meant to be heard.

This was my first time attending a live piano concert and I had no idea how riveting a piano performance could be. Many of the pieces he played I have heard before, but it was an entirely different experience to hear them in person. I now know why concerts like this one draw so many people. Speaking of which, the audience was definitely skewed in the direction of the elderly. I think more people from our generation need to experience performances like this one rather than always popping in headphones. It is definitely worth the few hours and price.

Additionally, this performance was very calming, each one of the pieces took me farther away from schoolwork and all the stresses of the world. I would definitely recommend attending similar performances as a form of stress relief. Regardless though, I feel a performance such as this one by the renowned Emanuel Ax, is an invaluable experience and everyone should make an effort to attend one at some point in their lives!

 

 

Have you ever heard of Stretch and Bobbito?

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Tuesday night I attended the Stretch and Bobbito screening at Cinemaoplis. May I mention that I was the ONLY Rose Scholar who attended this event. (Can no one attend Tuesday events ??) Well for everyone who didn’t attend, you missed out! We saw some really cool people from the hip-hop world, Jay-Z and Eminem even made an appearance! After the film, there was also a question and answer session with both Stretch and Bobbito.

I like hip-hop music, but I would not say I’m into the culture very much. I had no idea who Stretch and Bobbito were before the event, so this was definitely a learning experience for me. The film itself was pretty good, it featured many of the unsigned artists of the time and recordings of live performances on the radio show. I had no idea just how big radio shows were back then.

If you’re into hip hop, I would definitely recommend this film, it documents how many of today’s hip hop artists came to be recognized and shows an inside view of the popular radio show hosted by Stretch and Bobbito. I would also recommend this film to anyone who is interested in learning more about the hip hop community and how it came to be!

On another note, this was the first film I saw at Cinemaoplis! The theater itself seems pretty cool and if they show another film that interests me, I will definitely be attending!

What is Eco-Terrorism?

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Last Wednesday I had the chance to attend the documentary screening of If a Tree Falls at the Cornell Cinema with Q & A afterward with the director, Marshall Curry. Before watching the movie, I read a brief description and was surprised to find out it was about the ELF (Earth Liberation Front). Which… I knew nothing about other than hearing the name before. So going in, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

As I was watching the film, the experience was kind of surreal because while I knew things like this were going on when I was younger, I had absolutely no exposure to it. That being said, I feel like I learned a lot from this film.

One phrase they mentioned a lot in the film was eco-terrorism. The film raised a lot of questions for what exactly should be defined as eco-terrorism, or if the term should even be used. I think it is important that this question be answered, since it affects how people who participate in these crimes are classified. For example, one of the subjects in the film, participated in some of the ELF activities, including setting fire to private property. Even though he did not harm any people he was classified as a terrorist, and had to spend his jail time in a special facility.

Typically when I think of a terrorist act, I think of something that causes terror to people. Which his acts certainly did. However, some people say that an act is only a terrorist act if it causes harm to people. Since this is up in the air, I think we need to define what exactly is a terrorist act, and probably add different classes of acts instead of simply saying a terrorist act is a terrorist act. Since the main subject was classified as a terrorist, he was placed in a facility in that handles them. But he (who never harmed any people/ has no intent to) was placed amongst many many others who do want to harm people and have done horrible things to humans.

So was it fair?  Should he have been classified as a terrorist for the rest of his life? Even though he only damaged property?

What Can We do to Help Those Who are Growing Our Food?

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Wednesday after the farm to fork house dinner, (which I must say was delicious!!) I had the opportunity to attend the Becker/Rose cafe which was themed around who’s growing our food. As a plant science major, most things about plants intrigue me, and so I simply had to attend this event. The first speaker, Mary Jo Dudley, introduced a program she helps run at Cornell to help farmworkers across America. I was unaware this program existed but I think they have a great cause. Many farmworkers around the United States are undocumented and live a life of migration. Their kids go from one school to another and often end up behind in their education. These people live under the radar from fears deportation. The other speaker was Justine Vanden Heuvel who works in the field of the science of grape growing. She talked about how even locally, there are a lot of migrant workers in the vineyards. She also mentioned how many employers keep them away from the roads during busy periods.

Hearing about the way these people live their lives was very saddening. I cannot imagine going through life in constant fear of being deported back to a country I fled from. No one should have to live their lives that way and it is cruel to force these people into lives of fear. We should do more for these workers who take the hard labor intensive jobs we don’t want. They are an essential part of our economy and without them there would be a huge demand for farm work, and few people willing to put in labor. Regardless, living your life in fear, is no way to live.

So what can we do to help?

We can help them learn English as our speaker mentioned, or perhaps we could provide other goods or services they need. I hope that each one of us can find some way to help those in need across our country. Even the smallest gesture would mean so much to these people.

Is Godot Real?

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IMAG0722Thursday I had the opportunity to attend the first Rose Scholars event offered this year! We watched a play called Waiting for Godot preformed by the Yiddish theatre troupe at the Swartz preforming arts center. Honestly, when I signed up for this I had NO IDEA what to expect. So to answer the first question that I’m sure came to your mind… YES the play was in Yiddish. Which, according to the very informative packet they handed out is a language rooted in Middle High German and Hebrew, and can also include vocabulary derived from Polish, Russian, or Romanian. And as far as I know, I have never heard Yiddish before, so unfortunately I had no idea what they were saying! Luckily though they had translated the play into English and projected those subtitles for those not proficient in Yiddish (I’m pretty sure the man next to me understood every word though!).

For those of you wondering what the play was about:

I’m not quite sure to be honest. There was a lot of random banter among characters, but it did seem sort of cohesive. These two older men, Didi and Gogo, were waiting by this tree for a man (or being? Or someone?) named Godot, and for the most part it seemed they were trying to find ways to pass the time. At one point a rich looking man and his servant come on stage and have some interesting dialogue with the main characters. (This was my favorite part as there were many things to laugh at). After this point, I had to leave due to other obligations (we all thought the play ended at 9, when it actually went on longer!). So I look forward to reading the other blogs to see if the characters ever got to meet Godot! I hope they weren’t left to continue waiting indefinitely…

(Picture: Man on left is Gogo, man on right is Didi)