Arts and Entertainment

When Kieffer introduced the idea of cooking goat for our column, my immediate response was, “No.” What college kid is possibly going to go out and find goat just because we recommended it? After some consideration, I realized that eating goat isn’t an opportunity I have very often and if it meant producing a somewhat less accessible issue, so be it. Ironically, our meal happened to be less than fantastic.

Twitter allows users, when setting up their account, to provide a short encapsulation of who they are and what, by extension, the focus of their twitter feed will ultimately be. This ultra-distilled mission statement is the tweeter’s affirmative purpose, their telos, for the classically minded. It gives the reader a valuable, albeit brief, context when taking in whatever the author puts forth.

Every once in a while I have these moments that are too perfect. They are the kind of moments that Anny speaks about towards the end of Sartre’s “Nausea”. Or, for less literary readers, one could describe them as daily occurrences that feel like movie scenes. I could list a few of these perfect moments here to really get the point across but that would be self-indulgent and somewhat unnecessary so I will just stick with one moment in particular that is relevant for this review: I’m in a record store in Downtown Seattle, broke, beat, and wearing a leather jacket.

During fifth block, most of us have dug up our snow coats and waxed up our preferred vehicles for downhill powder shredding. Unfortunately, many hopeful skiers and snowboarders around campus can be heard groaning because very little shreddable snow has fallen. Many students agree that winter break is a time for family, cheer, and hitting the slopes, but my various trips to the mountains in the past month were characterized by rocky terrain, sticky, slow snow, and a deficit of open terrain.

As we live our day-to-day lives in the CC bubble, it’s easy to forget that there’s a whole world out there. Waking up to chiming bells before dawn and watching the sunrise while chanting in Sanskrit at an ashram in India, I certainly felt far away from home.

There is one unspoken rule that seniors have to abide by as we enter eighth block: you are not allowed to say the word “graduation.” You are also not allowed to ask us what we’re doing after May 21, because for most of us the idea of life after college is scarier than can be expressed in common passing conversations. It’s a combination of things that I’m going to attempt to deconstruct as I sit on my bed, box of Bandit in hand.

Sometimes while I am filling filters with coffee grounds and sweeping at the coffee shop that employs me I think of short story ideas until I am too disturbed by the utter cliché that is my life to do the two simultaneously. I am a young, liberal, struggling artist trying to make it in the writing world and on top of it all, I work at a coffee shop. It is these moments of disturbance that bring me to the Visiting Writers Series so I can see them in the flesh—writers who are paid to write, people who do for a living what thousands of hopefuls may only grasp at.

Colorado College’s drama department has been known to put on interesting productions. From last year’s buzz about the nudity in “Hair”, to the darkly comedic portrayal of Sondeim’s “Assassins”, the talented thespians of our campus have never ceased to provide entertaining, thoughtful and provocative drama. This year promises to be no exception. Andrew Manley, Colorado College drama professor and director has planned to direct Jean Genet’s ”The Maids” since sixth block last year.

Colorado College’s drama department has been known to put on interesting productions. From last year’s buzz about the nudity in “Hair”, to the darkly comedic portrayal of Sondeim’s “Assassins”, the talented thespians of our campus have never ceased to provide entertaining, thoughtful and provocative drama. This year promises to be no exception. Andrew Manley, Colorado College drama professor and director has planned to direct Jean Genet’s ”The Maids” since sixth block last year.

PBR is a cheap and refreshing alternative. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.

Odell IPA
India Pale Ale, 7.00% ABV
Odell Brewing Company
Fort Collins, CO

Like any levelheaded individual, I can’t think of much better than the classic combination of good company, good food and good beer. You simply can’t go wrong. Throughout my freshman, and most of my sophomore, year this meant sneaking cans onto the Rastall porch for Friday night dinner. As I grew older, and my friends and I began living either off campus or in larger, specialty houses, we discovered the art of the dinner party.

In order to give our livers a rest in the wake of both Spring Break and Winterfest, the BrewHaha has decided to take a step back for a moment and take look at the Colorado College beer scene from an outside perspective, always looking in. And while some of us just sit on our couches and write about beer, like the gluttonous bastards we are, some students are actively seizing control of Colorado College’s beer scene, and they have no intention of letting go. This week we pay homage to one of the most critical elements of the modern craft beer movement – homebrewing.

High West Distillery in Old Town Park City, Utah. Photo by Gabrielle Goodman

I know the series heading is exceptionally paradoxical. Just get over it. Believe it or not, we here at the BrewHaHa actually have what we believe to be a pretty damn good excuse. So, yes, this series is usually about fine craft beer (except for that one time we did the issue on bum wines and malt liquors), but this time we felt that we’d throw in a little variation. If you like good beer and you’re a CC student (or even if you’re not), then we’re willing to bet our bottom dollar that you probably like to indulge every now and again in some good ol’-fashioned whiskey. 

I think we all remember the bands that shaped our musical tastes today. Who can forget sitting at the computer listening to the now-ancient sounds of dial-up, desperately waiting to log on to LimeWire or Napster? My middle school experience was consumed by Cake, Beck, Weezer and, of course, Radiohead. 

Do you remember Rock and Roll? I know I’m having trouble these days; there’s a lot of great music out there in every genre, but pure bare-bones rock music is getting harder and harder to find. Somewhere between Death Cab and The Shins everyone forgot about guitar solos and it’s been all downhill from there. Fortunately, on Monday night at Denver’s Larimer Lounge, Chicago band The Smith Westerns reminded the crowd just how nice it is to get your face melted off from time to time.

We at the BrewHaHa openly commiserate with the trials and tribulations of the oft-hectic life of the CC student. We understand how hard it is to make time to slackline on the quad with your friends between Geology field trips. We too have found ourselves trying to scribble the Honor Code onto our final papers while sprinting across campus in an attempt to meet the deadline and make it back to the dorms in time to catch the last ride to Moab for Block Break. Sometimes we can’t even find the time to drink beer. This life is a vicious and cruel one.