Start a REVOlution: Interview with Tyler Cantrell
Posted on 20. Apr, 2010 by Erika Kim in Campus, Interview
What is REVO?
REVO PUC is putting into action being the hands and feet. It is intricately connected to the faith that we have in being compassionate. The idea that predominantly drives REVO is the giving of ourselves so that others can be brought to completion/healed/treated. We really want to take Isaiah 61 and 2 Samuel 24:24.
This is about connecting the students to something that matters through the event that is REVO. It raises awareness, inspires empathy, illicit compassion, and calls you to be concerned with a higher standard of living for yourself and others.
What is the philosophy behind REVO?
In 2 Samuel 24:24, David has to build an alter to God and he is offered the land for free as well as the sacrifices, but David refuses to accept by saying something that I think sums up REVO well. The gist of it is, “I will not give to God that which costs me nothing.”
REVO is about getting people involved by making people really give. It is easy to contribute, but to make a sacrifice and really have to give something up is a completely different experience.
It’s easy to be able to contribute by donating $20 to a cause or donating things you no longer want or need, or even spending a couple hours to volunteer. Not that those contributions are not valuable, but these types of contributions may be impersonal and may not be particularly valuable to you. I don’t want to cheapen the gift that REVO has to give. Your gift should cost you something because it makes the people you are giving it to matter in a very personal way to you. Giving something that is valuable to your connection closer to the people you donate to for the cause, and they will appreciate it more knowing that the donation came from a genuine place. It connects you to them into something that’s more than just superficial. It’s an investment in your humanity.
How did PUC get involved with REVO in the first place?
Actually, PUC was the first college to host a REVO event, and SDA colleges remain the only college campuses that have hosted REVO events so far.
REVO started at a bible study in 2008. One particular PUC student, Rachel Thompson, was really moved by the Not for Sale campaign after the president of the campaign, David Batstone, gave a talk about it. It came clearly to her that to get involved in these campaigns, you should support it by selling your stuff. Her friend, Nina Brav, had hosted an event called REVO in Hawaii to raise money and awareness for the Grace of God Orphanage in Malawi, Africa. So, Rachel decided to bring it to PUC by combining the Not for Sale campaign with REVO. Through a lot of hard work and God’s blessing, they had an amazing event that raised money and awareness for fighting child slavery.
Grace Jung continued REVO last year. After a lot of prayer, she picked the Napa Valley food bank. REVO raised over $8000 to help keep the Napa Valley food bank open in a really tough stop. So many people are eager to help support people abroad, when so often there are people and organizations right next to us who need help. At the time, the Napa Valley food bank was in need of support, and the locals of Napa depended on the food bank. REVO was able to help keep the food bank open in order to feed people who were in need, right here in Napa Valley.
This year we hope to continue that legacy.
What causes is REVO supporting/raising money for this year?
We’re supporting two different charities: one local, one global.
The local charity is KidzReach, which is a program that takes kids who are in foster care or come from families with one or both parents in jail and brings them all together with PUC students and other volunteers who take care of the kids. KidzReach gives these kids a chance to go on field trips to the zoo or the beach, and do other activities like hiking or mud caving. We take them out for a day of fun and make sure they’re well fed. Basically, the mission is just to let them be kids. REVO would be raising money to fund a camping trip for them to go into the forest and let them experience nature. A lot of these kids live out in Lake County or Vallejo, so most of them don’t get the opportunity to spend time out in nature.
The global charity we’re supporting is the Tropical Health Alliance Foundation (THAF). It is a multifunctional charity that supports a variety of programs, but the program we’re going to be supporting is one that does treatment and research for Podoconiosis. Pondoconiosis is a form of Elephantiasis of the feet which causes the feet to swell and in some cases can be debilitating. REVO is the first one to be actively supporting five specific clinics and one hospital that combined treats thousands of patients with Podo. Podo is completely preventable and in many cases easily curable by wearing shoes. TOMS shoes is doing a matching gift where for every person we treat, TOMS will provide shoes for them and their family, effectively eradicating the disease in future generations, and hopefully taking care of/treating/curing 2 million people in Ethiopia and 4 million people worldwide.
This will be one of the first pushes by any organization outside of TOMS to actively treat and prevent this disease.
How can we get involved?
Sit down in your room, and look around at what you value. Take time to look at each thing that you value and ask yourself, “Why is it important?” Then look at the cause that you want to be involved in, and ask, “Would I give that up in order to (fill in the blank)?” In this case the question is, “Would I give that up in order to support KidzReach or THAF?” That’s what REVO is about. It teaches you how it is possible that the stuff that you value can be turned into real action, and that compassion and self sacrifice can be given to a cause to make a real difference.
Give us stuff that means something to you, give us donations, and prayers. REVO is about giving of yourself to see something that you care about succeed.
What inspired you to get involved?
REVO is about serving the community in a real way, and allowing that kind of service to be expressed through this event is really what made me want to get involved. God has done such amazing things through REVO and the blessings that you see when you are involved blow you away. I think that the idea of REVO is infectious to this generation, especially in the way it makes you give of yourself to the cause that then shows you the real results that come from working together.
What can we expect to see?
You can expect to see God moving in great ways. There will be a huge stuff sale, amazing music from student bands as well as a special guest band from SoCal. We’ll be serving great food from Armadillos and Helmer’s Corn-Dogs, and there will be information from THAF, KidzReach, TOMS shoes, and Amnesty. To round out the evening, we will have a Fashion show brought to you by six of your peers who have worked really hard to create some amazing designs for their models.
Dr. Larry will be on hand to explain and show first-hand accounts of his time in Ethiopia and the devastating effects that Podo has on the lives of these people. Lauren Waychoff who is in charge of KidzReach will be there showing off pictures and amazing testimonies of what kind of an impact the program and PUC kids have had on their lives.
This will be an event for the whole family. There will be amazing food, fellowship, and fun because of the hard work of dedicated students who gave generously in hope of nothing in return. It will be an event to remember because of the step of faith that students took in rocking their world forever.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Keep us in your prayers and clean out your closet for the sale cause the way that REVO is a success is letting God work through us to make a difference. Hope to see you guys there, it’s going to be amazing!
If you guys want to get involved, we can always use the help. Shoot an email to PUCREVO@gmail.com.
Check out www.startarevo.org if you want more information on what REVO has accomplished and want to see other causes that REVO is involved in.
i can haz learningz lol
Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Interview with Tammy McGuire, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication
Before we get started, not to be rude, but how long have you been teaching (Just so we can get a sense of the change in culture and media that you’ve witnessed)?
Let’s just say that I’ve been teaching before the internet was invented by Al Gore [laughs].
Sounds good. Realizing that this is a terribly broad question, how has technology changed the interaction between students and learning, particularly academics itself?
Let me just kind of go through some aspects of technology. One is access to the internet; that’s changed research habits. It used to be you that had to go physically to the library, go through the stacks, pick up materials—but now you don’t. Secondly, it has become a lot easier to get to information, but the thing is, there is so much information that it’s hard to filter what is credible. The problem with easiness is that it can lead to laziness. It’s easier for students to research, but it’s a lot harder to filter. You don’t have to go to a physical place to find out information. Before the internet, you simply could not wait until midnight to start your paper, because you didn’t have those resources at your fingertips. Another reason you couldn’t wait; even word processing is fairly new. Imagine having to write a paper where you couldn’t edit anything.
The other way the internet has been really helpful is that it is a lot easier to share information like grades, assignments. It’s a lot easier to contact students, and vice versa, because you don’t have to see them face-to-face; there is more instant feedback. The disadvantage is, perhaps for both ways, that there’s no place to hide from technology. You can go home, and you can still check your email at 10:30 at night; the problem is there are no boundaries. Students can ask questions at midnight, and the possibility exists, at least in their mind, that I could answer them.
Regarding students contacting professors: I’ve heard many professors say that they dislike email communication, because students tend to be unprofessional or even rude. Do you feel that is a disconnect between generations, or simply the nature of the medium?
It’s probably both, if I can chicken out and say that. The communication is much more informal. People are starting to email like they text. It’s very informal, very short. For a different generation, that comes across as less professional, less formal, which can sometimes come across as disrespectful. I know students are not meaning to be disrespectful when they start an email with “Hey,” but it is evidence that more education has to be done with how one can come across as professional. Of course, the other problem is people calling at all hours of the day. I don’t know if a lot of teachers text, but we all have cell phones. A lot of students don’t start their academic lives until eleven, twelve, one or two, at night. Then, because they can contact us, they do so—or try, at least. Sometimes I feel that students get a little irritated when they don’t have an immediate response.
Let’s look at it this way. It probably will be archaic to capitalize the lone ‘I’. That’s my prediction. But it’s sort of the easy way to look at it as a generational thing. What I’m finding as I read studies about technology is that even younger teachers who text find that when they get emails that are in texting form, they also see it as unprofessional. I’m not so sure it’s generational. I think it’s contextual; I think there’s a context where texting is seen as completely appropriate. I think that the younger students who use texting all the time don’t see the conflict, but for those who haven’t used texting and cell phones—at one time it was even email—there’ s a clear perception of where the line of professionalism is.
So, it seems like a question of normative communication. Is there an etiquette that people are missing?
I think the texting culture is still developing its norms. What’s the appropriate context? Do you text someone to break up with them? Do you text someone to fire them? It’s called “structuration theory”: resources are made by the people who use them, and are used by the people who make them. That’s where norms are—the rules in between. The problem is that there is this big disconnect where nine out of ten professors see texting in class as inappropriate or rude; I don’t know how many students would see it as inappropriate or rude. So this is a clash of norms.
Is it sort of like the appropriate time to check Facebook? Most teachers have banned cell phones, but some still allow people to use their laptops to “take notes.”
It’s interesting how you use “scare quotes” when you said “take notes.” I know teachers seem stupid, but they know what’s going on. There’s a lot more multitasking going on, but students also checking the weather, a little IM-ing, keep up on Facebook, and listening, and maybe taking a note or two here or there. I’ll tell you what the internet culture has done: it’s changed the way you have to teach in order to engage your students—and, I think, fairly dramatically. One, things have to be more visual in order to capture people’s attention. Two, lessons have to be faster paced. In “teacher school,” they used to say that you had to change every twenty minutes, do something different, change the pace. Now, that time is so much shorter. The third thing is that there’s a bullet-point mentality. If you can’t put it in a bullet point, then you have to work so much harder to engage students.
Do you find that there is a vast difference between students who can remember not having the internet (such as this year’s seniors) and those who have always had it (like many of the freshmen)?
There are some differences, but I don’t know that they’re huge differences. Students are very good with technology, so I think one thing that teachers need to do more is build into class ways that students can use their technology. In projects: now we have students who can make videos. It doesn’t take them six weeks to make videos; it takes them hours. I guess there can be more expectations about how to convey material. I would say that one notable difference over the last ten years or so is that there’s much more of an attachment to technology. Having a cell phone, being able to text—to even have a fifty minute class where one is separated from that seems often to be a little disturbing to students. It’s not that people can’t concentrate, it just seems like there are more interesting things to do.
So, obviously, technology has changed the way you do academia and education.
The advent of technology has made the whole plagiarism and cheating thing really interesting. Now there are sixteen-hundred more ways to cheat; eight-hundred of those that have to do with technology, professors know nothing about. The opportunity to plagiarize is so easy now, I think there needs to be a lot more education there. Those challenges have increased. It’s not that students cheat more; it’s that there are different ways to do so that extend beyond writing ink on one’s hand.
Here is my theory about what’s going on with what I see as a disconnect between the older generation and the younger: I’m not a luddite, I have technology, but I’m not attached to my cell phone. I can leave it in my office overnight, or not know where it is for days, but that is not true for much of the younger students. I was playing basketball the other day, and one of my students was about to go in, when all of a sudden she says, “Where’s my cell phone? “ Another one of my teammates is waiting to go in, crouched down by the scorekeepers’ table, and she’s texting. I don’t understand the compulsion to text in class, but my students, they want to be connected, and an immediate connection.
There are two types of communication: synchronous, and asynchronous. I don’t have to answer emails, letters, or voicemails right away; that’s asynchronous. I think students who have cell phones and are texting see it as synchronous, where the older generation sees it as if someone texts me, I don’t have to respond right away. For the younger generation, however, not to respond right away would be inappropriate or rude. That explains why, when the phone rings, you have to pick it up, why when you get a text, you have to pick it up. And that tension creates a lot of misunderstanding. It creates misunderstanding the other way, too; if I don’t’ respond to an email, it comes across as if I’m ignoring; there’s that expectation of an immediate, almost synchronous response. We want to Google it, want to Wikipedia it; we want to know something now.
So as with most things, there are always elements in which technology both constrains and enables us.
Quicksilver 2010
Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Staff in Campus, Interview
So what exactly is Quicksilver, anyway?
Quicksilver is a magazine that showcases student’s visual and literary art. Originally, Quicksilver started 77 years ago with English students on campus who wanted to publish and annual catalog of poetry. It has since expanded into all forms of artwork from students other than English majors, and the last two years we’ve been able to print it in color.
Basically, it’s a little magazine about the size of a paperback book that comes out a few weeks before school is out. If you flip through it, you’ll see a few pages of art, and then a few pages of literature, in no particular order. It’s free to submit, and it’s free to own one. We print about 2100, and they should be available for pickup in the campus center, the café, and the English and art departments.
Who is editing it this year?
For literature, me [Paige Worstell] (senior, Literature) and Hannah Burkhardt (senior, Literature, French), and for art and layout, Nicole Pidoux (senior, Graphic Design).
Who can submit?
Anyone can submit. It’s open to any PUC student no matter what their major.
What sorts of things are you looking for?
We’re looking for prose, short stories, poetry, short drama, spoken word, song lyrics… Basically anything written down. As far as artwork goes, any type of visual artwork: pictures, paintings, drawings, sketches, pictures of sculptures, and so on.
How does one submit one’s work?
Send it to Quicksilver10.puc@gmail.com.
How did you end up editing?
I’ve been assistant editor for the past two years. I enjoy seeing a variety of student artwork and literary work outside of the classroom, so it’s cool to see students with a creative outlet getting a place where they can display and show their fellow students their talents. It gives me an appreciation for the student art life on campus.
What would you say to someone who is unsure about whether or not to submit?
Submit, submit, submit! I would say not to be afraid. I think students appreciate seeing other student’s artwork outside of the classroom. Sure, every day we see what our fellow students can do academically, but Quicksilver gives us an outlet to what we can do artistically. Submitting to Quicksilver is about showing a different side of yourself; it’s not just about being an academic. You have a life outside of that. It doesn’t hurt to submit; your work might get in, and it might not, but the opportunity is there every year. It allows you to become a better artist by putting yourself out there.
About how many submissions do you publish every year?
We’re hoping to expand this year, if we get submissions. The amount of submissions we get will determine our publishing. We would love to get 50 poems, but the reality is that we usually get around 20. The number is always varies, but the more we see the better. We would like to get an equal proportion of art and literature.
What is the average length of short story, drama, or poem?
It all depends, but usually for written work we’d like things to be no longer than a six page, double-spaced Word document. There is no limit on artwork, as long as it can be photographed or scanned. If you don’t know how to photograph or scan, you can contact Nicole Pidoux at nrpidoux@puc.edu.
If we get enough participation, we would love to do a poetry reading at the end of February or beginning of March. Again, if you’re interested in participating in that you can email at quicksilver10.puc@gmail.com. When it comes out for publication, we like to have a release party, and people whose works are published have the opportunity to share their work with a live audience.
If you have questions about Quicksilver, send them to quicksilver10.puc@gmail.com
No Notion of Impossibility
Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Staff in Interview
C2: When did you first hear about the situation in Haiti?
TW: I was headed to Napa and I heard about it on the radio. And I though I could just post on my Facebook if anyone wanted to sponsor me to go to Haiti to make a film about it.
C2: At first, it was just a joke?
TW: Yeah, sorta sarcastic. But I started to pack anyway. Half serious.
C2: Why did you want to go to Haiti?
TW: I wanted to make a doc about a humanitarian crisis, and I discussed it with my friend Ivan—that if anything ever happened, we would drop anything and go. This happened about a month after we talked about it, so we thought this was our cue to leave.
C2: And then what happened?
TW: Eight hours later someone anonymously donated me two tickets. One for me, and then Ivan LaBianca, a friend from back home, as my logistics man to make sure that we got in there safely and stuff.
C2: You had two tickets, but did you have a plan?
TW: No. There were a lot of phone conversations with different people about how to get it and whether it was safe or not to do this and things like that. And eventually we contacted an orphanage that needed us to take a satellite phone down. I had a layover in New York, so they were going to send the phone to New York. I would pick the satellite phone up and take it to the orphanage in Haiti.
C2: Did you have any doubts in the planning process?
TW: I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen. I kept pushing like it was going to happen, but I had my doubts if I could get into the airport, the flight would be canceled, I just knew something, in the back of my head, wouldn’t work out. But it did.
So we got tickets to Port-au-Prince, but once we realized the airport wasn’t going to open for several months, in fact, we changed them to the Dominican Republic.
C2: So what did you bring with you?
TW: Basically all we took was the camera and a change of clothes and granola bars and stuff. And one thousand dollars in cash. We also had letters from the American sponsors of the orphanage stating that we could stay with them.
C2: So you and Ivan get to the Dominican Republic. What next?
TW: The next step was coming up with a game plan on how we wanted to get into Haiti, and then into Port-au-Prince. And so, after talking with lots of locals and other people trying to get over we just hop in a taxi, head for the border, and see what happens. Once we got to the border we found another group of people that were also trying to cross the border and so a group of us got together. There was a missionary, a Haitian, and the two of us. And they bribed the border guards because the border was technically closed that way. They had barbed wire across the bridge, we literally crawl under the barbed wire, walk across the bridge where the female missionary’s husband is waiting with a truck. We hop in the back of the truck and go for about an hour and a two to the mission compound and they us stay there for the night.
The whole journey going there, the not knowing what was coming next, was very scary. So the next morning we woke up about 4am and went to the local bus station, stocked up on water in a second suitcase and covered it with blankets so that people couldn’t see it. Then we hopped on a bus and took that about 12 hours into Port-au-Prince.
C2: What was the feeling amongst the Haitians?
TW: As we got closer and closer you could see this thick cloud over the city of just dust. It looks like the city is on fire but its all the dust rising out of the city. The whole bus just got an eerie silence as we were pulling in to the city. And we drove right past the mass graves where they were burying people. You could just smell the reeking stench coming off of it. As you got closer, about ten miles out, you could see the collapsed buildings.
C2: So noon, second day, you’re in Port-au-Prince.
TW: Right, but at the bus stop, we being Americans, we were like, oh, we’ll just let everyone else get off the bus first and we’ll just leisurely take our time getting off the bus but the second people got off the bus people just started trying to push their way into the bus so hard that we couldn’t get out of the bus. They wanted out of the city so bad. And going through my mind is, “What the hell are we doing here? If these people are wanting out so bad why am I going in?” A fight actually breaks out right in front of me and I end up jumping on top of the school bus seats to let the bus driver through to break up the fight, crawl over the seats, and I was able to shove my way through and out the doors.
C2: Now you find yourself in the middle of Port-au-Prince. Do you have a map? Do you know where you’re going?
TW: I had the address on the top of the letter I had for the orphanage. And so we hop on motorcycle taxis and tell them to head to that vicinity. We didn’t have a street address but we had a district address. So we head to the district and we had made friends with one of the locals. His name was Kenken. He was on the bus with us. He had come to find his family to see if they were okay. He had come from New York. We went to his house first, drop all our stuff there with a bunch of people we don’t know, and then spend about two hours walking around looking for the orphanage. Then once we found the orphanage we had to hike an hour back to his house, pick up all our gear, and then hike another hour back to the orphanage.
[…]
C2: How was it getting back to PUC after being in Haiti?
TW: It was pretty hard considering after seeing this reality, history in the making, and getting back and your biggest problem is who’s going out with who and getting your homework done. We do live in a bubble, but people here did understand what was going on. You can’t just stop your life because something terrible has happened, you got to keep going. Everyone shouldn’t just be hopping on planes to head down there like they did for Katrina.
Resident Film Artist: Charles Johnson
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Name: Charles Johnson
Year: Super senior
Major: Film and television
Medium: Film and television
When did you start using your medium and why did you choose that one?
I started using a camera at the age of two. I used an old fold out Polaroid to take pictures of random things and loved watching the pictures develop.
Then when I got a little older, I began using an old VHS camcorder (the camcorder that actually used videotape as film) to videotape people. I loved using the camera because it was interesting to view the world from the perspective of the camera.
What inspired you to become an artist?
It was a natural progression because I’ve always loved telling stories, and the way I like to tell stories is through the eyes of a camera.
Who/what inspires you?
I’m inspired by comedic writers and the comedy and thriller genre. Those are my two favorite genres because I like to make people laugh and smile through comedy, but on the other hand, I enjoy intensity, emotion, and deep thought that comes from thriller.
Some of the big directors I’m inspired by are Spielberg, Lucas, and Ron Howard among others. I’m also inspired by Japanese horror films, and currently am working on doing a parody of the J-horror genre. Two Japanese directors that inspire me are Takashi Shimizu and Hideo Nakata.
J-horror inspires me because it is a lot more intellectual than sensational. They are different from American horror films because not a lot happens in Japanese films, but there is a lot going on. Unlike American films, the monsters don’t jump out at you. Instead, J-horror is a lot bigger into the emotional impact of the characters and story.
Who is your mentor, meaning the person who works the closest to you and contributed the most to you becoming an artist?
Tery Cantrell, the professor in charge of the television side of the film and television program here, provided a lot of encouragement and technical advice that made me as competent as I am today.
Right now, academic advisor Rodney Vance has been the most helpful for me in figuring out how to achieve my goals. What he’s already done is what I want to do; to be an independent writer, director, and producer, and he knows his way around that system.
What do you feel is your future in this art?
The future is to have my own film company and to make my own works. I’m working on getting a film company started so that the film I’m working on for my senior project will be produced as a professional work.
What is your best work?
My best work is probably the film I’m working on right now, although it’s a work in progress. The reason I say this is because it is a feature film (an incredible feat for me, everyone involved, and for the department), and it is well done. I spent two years writing the script, and I’ve been filming since last year. If all goes according to plan, it should be distributed to video stores and theaters by the end of this year.
My best completed work was a short comedy film about the Adventist drug culture that I made my freshman year (2006). It won second place in the comedy category at the Sunscreen Film Festival. All the directors, actors, places, and other elements came together really well and produced something that a lot of people enjoyed.
Another one of my best works was a comedic anti-pirate PSA called “Stop the Pirates,” because it was the most professional production I’ve made. The SIFE team used it helped them get third place in the international SIFE competition.
What is your worst work?
My worst work are two episodes of a comedy segment of PUC-cast that I did called “We’re PUC-ites.” Generally, PUC-ites is some of my best work and was an amazing experience for 2 years. But there were two episodes I can think of. One was about cheating, and it had its moments, but as a whole it was pretty bad. There was another one was about the urban bubble, and I purposefully made the film style low quality, jittery, and ADD like to reflect the character I was filming. It was a stylistic risk I took that didn’t really work.
What elements have to come together in order to make a successful work?
There are two sides to making a successful production: 1) getting yourself known and liked, and 2) making money. The way to make a successful work is to find a balance between the two. Most of the time those two things go together, but not always. There are times when you can make something that is really appreciated but makes no money, or you can make a ton of money but make something that is hated by a ton of people.
By never giving up your vision, always believing in the project, figuring out what I can do to make this successful, and getting everyone else just as passionate about the project as you are (and that is the one I struggle due to tight scheduling). The last thing that’s needed is to have the capacity to work with all types of different personalities, needs, and desires so you can have them all smoothly working together.
What do you want to accomplish for your audience?
I want others to see my point of view and understand what I’m trying to say.
Generally life is so full of stresses and negativity that art should be about getting away from that, if only for a little bit. I hope my art offers an escape from reality. This is partially why I’m doing a parody of the horror genre. I enjoy watching certain types of horror movies because of the way they tell a psychological story, but I’m making a parody of it to humanize the supernatural and show that it is not something we should be afraid of. Instead of being afraid of what’s in the imaginary world, we should be afraid of what is real.
What art makes you angry?
Those who were in my history of photography class know what makes me angry. Experimental art that is purposefully made to look bad makes me angry. There’s nothing wrong with experimental art, I appreciate it, but when you take a photograph and crinkle it up or rip something up and roughly glue it back together, or when you take a crucifix, stick it in a container and pee on it. Anyone can take an object, smash it on the ground, take a picture of it, and call it art. Andreas Sorano’s Piss Christ exhibit is an example. His art consists of him cutting himself, mixing his blood with milk, soil, and urine. Recently he had a gallery exhibit called Sh*t which showcased excrement from different creatures, including himself. When he explains his art, he tries to say not only that he’s being unique, but also that he is representing fundamental facets of life and how we deal with life. If that really was the point you were trying to convey, it should be done in a way that requires effort other than bodily harm or bodily fluids. It bothers me that some art collectors and critics will pay a ton of money for that kind of stuff that took so little technique. At the same time, there are people who work for years and years carefully crafting an exquisite piece of art that will not be appreciated because it’s not unique or special. It’s typical. Proper art then becomes underappreciated.
What is your philosophy on art?
I think it’s important if you are an artist never to lose your vision. When you’re doing a project, all the things you have to do, all the responsibilities and technicalities can bog you down, and when that happens you might lose faith in the project or just to rush through it and cut corners to get it over with without trying to make it your best, and neither of those are good. Always ask yourself, “How can I, right now, do what I need to do to make that ultimate goal possible.” Never give up.
That has been a problem for me on a couple of projects. Becoming overwhelmed and showing the actors and everyone else involved that I don’t believe in the project, and vice versa, you should always stay strong and project confidence.
Any other projects that you’re working on that we can look forward to?
I mentioned it earlier in the interview, but my parody of Takashi Shimizu’s film, Ju-on. The screenplay I wrote two years ago based on Takashi Shimizu’s script for the film, Ju-on (or for the American audience, the more familiar adaptation, The Grudge). Is the movie I’ve been working on producing. The original script I sent out to a couple screenwriting companies, and hopefully if it gets picked up I’ll be working on that.
I am also working on adapting a booked called The Reformed Vampire Support Group. It’s a book that reverses the notion of vampires being cool. Contrary to how the media portrays vampires, vampirism is a disease like AIDS, and the book shows vampires having to deal with their disease, leading miserable lives because of it, and having to deal with everyday problems.
An Interview with Raboy
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Name:
Asher Raboy
Department:
Music
Education (schools you attended):
MFA Carnegie Melon – Conducting
BA in Music Binghamton
Monteux Domaine school for conductors (six weeks)
Apprenticed to Tri-cities Opera Co. in New York
What inspired you to go into your field?:
Threre are three events that made me into a musician. The first event was how I started taking piano. My sister was in elementary school and wanted to take piano. Now, my dad was the son of an immigrant, so it was his dream was to be middle class, and he still had the 19th century image of what it was to be middle class; he thought everyone played piano and did watercolors. He must have read all the books ever written Jane Austen. So, anyway, my dad told her that she couldn’t take piano—I think it was a ploy. His excuse was that if he bought piano, she would practice for a month, and then just quit. She kept pushing, so he had her sign a contract that said she had to practice half-an- hour a day, and continue through high school.
I was five and wanted to be just like the sister. In theory, I signed a contract; I couldn’t read or write, so I have no idea how I did that, but my dad said I did. There were seven of us kids, and every day the seven of us we would race to the piano to see who could practice first, so we could go outside and play before it was dark. The timer would be set for half-an-hour, and we were allowed to turn sneak over and turn it back to twenty-five minutes—but no less—and we would practice, the timer would go off, and we would run out and play. [Holds hand a few feet off the ground] So, I was playing the piano from this big.
The second thing that happened was in 3rd grade. I think my parents just wanted me to read, so they bought me a book called The Symphony Orchestra. [Pulls book from shelf] Most of this is interesting—I keep everything as keepsakes—it’s got Rondo and Sonata form, and numes … this stuff is advanced as Theory I [the first music class for music majors], but nobody told me it was hard, so I could follow it. But this is where it got me [shows picture of the score of the third movement of a Brahms symphony]; I could read music, and I could read two staffs, but this was just incredible. My dad had given me a recording of Beethoven’s 7th symphony, and he also gave me a score [points to where it is on his shelf]. I would sit there and put on the recording, and at first I could read the violin, and then I got to the point where I could read the violin and the bass, then all the strings, then the timpani … and eventually, I go to where I could read score. In sixth grade, they would have me direct band; one time in the eighth grade, I rehearsed a piece, and the teacher forgot and directed it himself in concert. Then he had me sightread a different one. He had me sightread a different piece in concert!
Even then , I didn’t have an understanding of what music was. I could follow the score, I could play the piano fast, but it was just … stuff. The third event, and the sad story, is that in junior high, I was playing a Chopin Ballade, and I got a phone call that my grandmother had died. This is a rough time for adolescents: you’ve never faced mortality before, so it’s sad; but at the same time you don’t really feel much emotion, because you don’t really know it means; then you have the guilt because you don’t feel sad, so on top of feeling sad and feeling conflicted, you feel guilty; and then you can’t go to your parents because your parent’s mother just died. So, this is the place where I was.
Chopin is all about pain and beauty: there’s loss and beauty; it hurts, but there’s so much beauty, you don’t care. I played the Ballade hours a day. When it was done, I understood what music was. It’s a language where a guy who died one-hundred years ago can talk to you. It can be joy and philosophy—Beethoven talks about philosophy in his symphonies—that’s when I realized that it was a language of important ideas that was not just cerebral. You can feel the ideas and sense them. I don’t want to pretend it’s’ the language of emotion—and by the way, the dichotomy of saying we think in intellect and emotion is just rubbish. There are so many complicated ways of communicating that we can’t reduce it to just thought and emotion. There are multiple languages, and music is a very profound one. We can really share some profound ideas in it.
So, then I had the physical ability to play the piano, I could read score, and finally, I understood was music was. There was also this show [about composers] that I used to watch that taught me that I could compose; it was really sort of an arrogance thing. At that time I had total contempt for these guys. I would say, “This is just a soap opera about who likes whom, and who hates whom, and blah, blah. I can do better.” So I sat down and wrote a waltz. I found out I could compose, conduct, play the piano … and it all meant something. At that point I felt I was all defined—[Laughs] much to my father’s dismay.
What brought you to PUC?:
A very circuitous route. My family is all education; my father and mother are both college professors, my sister is a professor, and my brothers and sisters are high school teachers. I don’t know if it was rebellion, but my dream was always to be a performer. I didn’t care about education, I wanted to be a performer; I didn’t apply to any universities. There was an old joke (and I just want to make it clear that I don’t believe what this joke says) that Bernstein [a famous conductor] once walked into a room with some very famous conductors and said, “I see there are fifteen conductors and five doctors in the room.” I got my masters and started to perform, and never thought about eructation—except that I built a program of education everywhere I conducted. Four years ago when Ken Narduci [former professor of music at PUC] left, the wind ensemble was open. Lynn Wheeler [Chair of the Music Department]called and asked if I wanted to take the wind ensemble.
I had a little puzzlement over this. I’m an orchestra guy, not a wind ensemble guy; I play the trombone, but it’s not what I’d been studying. And then I suddenly decided I really wanted this challenge. I d conducted a lot of youth orchestras, so I was experienced with working with young people. So then, Lynn says, “In addition to doing that, I’d like you to do some of the upper-division theory .” I fell in love with it; but I think I fell in love with it because it was PUC. There were five people in Orchestration, and they were people like Mattew Reeves [2009 alum currently earning his Master’s in Music Theory at Boston University] in the class … just the brightest people—and they wanted to learn things; it was a seminar. People move places for a reason. We live in wine country—people move here because of wine. They move to NY for culture, they move to San Francisco for culture. I’m not a wine guy; I’m an intellectual—but I’m not in an intellectual culture. Suddenly I’m surrounding by smart people who are interested in exploring. For 20 years I’d longed for this, and it was sitting right up here on the hill.
I said that if the position becomes full time, I’d love to have it and … now I’m here. I’m very grateful that the college decided to hire me. It’s been more exciting every single quarter. I love every minute of it. Every time I give a downbeat, I see people working hard to be good—it’s just magic.
What is your philosophy of education? (Teacher/student relationship? Reason for education? Etc.):
This is a school dedicated to the success f the students, everything from the counseling and learning center … this is a place where the student really comes first. This isn’t true in the big schools; you take physics, there might be 300 people. If you don’t show up, nobody will care. You’ll fail, and nobody will care. The people who are self-motivated succeed; the people who have any question—whether it’s World of Warcraft distracting them or something else—they don’t have a chance of succeeding. This is a school that really wants students to succeed.
The first thing about teaching college is that when students come in, they want to learn, but they’re tired. You’ve got to be energetic. You’ve got to be energetic and have commitment. You’ve got to be at least somewhat entertaining, in order to get people to care. Then you have to use everything you can. Talk to them, let them talk and express, do demonstrations, wear costumes if you have to. Use all the tools that you can, because what you’re trying to do is take this group of people and get as many of them to succeed as possible. It’s not about putting knowledge out so that whoever can, can grab it. It’s about having as many people partake of the joy of it as possible.
If you had a different job before you became a professor, what was it?:
Conductor, most recently music director of the Napa valley symphony.
Were there certain professors whom you had that influence what you do and how you teach, now?:
We’re all mentored. I’ve been very lucky in my life; there’s a book called Meetings withRemarkable Men. I’ve been very lucky to be among certain composers, among certain conductors who have been incredibly helpful. As you go through life, there are hundreds of people you meet, and a bunch of them who change your life. I’ve been very fortunate. I haven’t had the conductor who says, “I’m going to put you in the New York Philharmonic [famous orchestra], but I’ve had the person who says, “I’m going to help you see what this is about.” People like that have to have a big heart, and be open, and caring.
What is your pet peeve that students do?:
Besides texting in class … You know what? I’m going to answer a slightly different question. Most of the students I have, I just enjoy them. When I went to school … [Laughs, imitates deep bass voice father-figure-lecture] When I went to school, we had one television and that was in the basement, in the longue. Nobody had their own portable teleivisions. Laptops didn’t exist … because desktops didn’t exist. Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet (and I just want to make it clear that I know he didn’t really claim that). What did we do? We had a little “pub” where we would go for pizza, and sometimes we would have meetings in each other’s rooms. But basically, what we did when we weren’t in class was we got together and studied, or we’d practice, and meet every forty-five minutes to chat and then go back to practicing. We’d do theatre shows where we conducted the show. We always had concerts, so we actually practiced; the [music] building closed at 11:00pm, so we would hide in the grad-students’ offices so we could keep practicing. We were always a little sleep deprived—and part of the ease was that we were on the semester system—but we basically focused on what we were doing, because there was no distraction. [Laughs] On top of that it was East Coast, and it was snowing. What are you going to do? You go outside, have a snowball fight … now you’re freezing cold, so you go back in and study.
Now, though, you have your ipod, you’re nobody if you’re not on facebook, you’re playing World of Warcraft, looking and Wikipedia, the television is on, if it’s not on, you can download it straight to your laptop … when the heck is there time to learn anything? I don’t mean to say that students aren’t committed to learning, I’m saying that the split focus that people put themselves under tight now, it can’t, can’t, can’t work. If I’m listening to Mozart, I can’t read a book, because I’m listening to Mozart. If you put something on your ipod—even if it’s not as complicated Mozart—you’re saying you can read Plato’s philosophy while Madonna is talking in your ear and your facebook page keeps popping up? I feel that students are at a disadvantage—not of their own making.
How do you feel technology has changed teaching?:
Yesterday I was teaching a course on music technology, and our synthesizers aren’t here yet. How am I suppose to teach on a piece with equipment not set up? I hook into the internet, where I download a tutorial. Then I plug it into a projector on the big screen. Because we have a wireless internet connection, we have a computer, we have a projector, we can do a class without any materials … we were still writing on chalkboards in my day! There’s no question that there’s a good and bad side [to technology]. The power we have with computers is gigantic. Technology is very powerful. Great for the teacher, lousy for the student.
One of the way it’s both good and bad, is that you can get access to scholarly journals. The downside is that people mistake Wikipedia for scholarly journals. Suddenly what’s available is the best; what’s also available is the worst. And you’re on your computer, so you can’t go to a librarian; it’s very hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
It’s this really powerful Wild West. You can either find the gold, or get shot in the back. [Laughs] How do you like that for stretching a metaphor further than it should go?
What is your favorite class to teach?:
That’s impossible to say. The wind ensemble is incredibly rewarding. But the advanced theory courses are great because they’re people in the top. Then, of course, I had the opportunity to teach the Honors course [Alterity] … to be around people that smart is one of the most rewarding experiences. But the survey class is really rewarding. A lot of people don’t know anything about the subject, and you turn them on to it; people get excited.
People have stories … there are seventy people, all young, and there are so many who have amazing stories. They’re all very different experiences, but each one of them has been surprisingly rewarding. I haven’t had an experience yet that hasn’t been rewarding. I probably missed a class [in the list] and have now insulted somebody. This job is great because it’s so diverse and it’s all rewarding.
What did you want to be when you were little?:
Astronaut, baseball player. The truth is we all wanted to be a baseball player. Very early on, I had daydreams about wanting to be a musician, but I had no role models. I didn’t even meet an amateur conductor until high school; I didn’t meet a professional until college. I sort of knew they existed, because Bernstein [famous conductor was out there, but they were sort of … [waves hands around ephemerally] … abstract, vague ideas. My dad wanted me to be a physicist, and I actually studied physics. I would have gotten the degree, wouldn’t have been inept, wouldn’t have won the Nobel Prize … If I had to go into anything else, it would have been mathematics. Sometimes I regret not going further .. my math is rusty. But you get up into the advanced stuff, and there are magical worlds that open up. It’s like visiting Narnia and the Lord of the Rings; the worlds are that strange. You can go and visit these worlds; it’s pretty abstract, but it’s pretty exciting. I think it would’ve been a good career, but then I wouldn’t be here doing what I’m doing—so it wouldn’t have been a good career.
Which subject would you absolutely never want to teach?:
Biology. The reason is that biology can’t just be theoretical, it can’t just be memorizing. You have to see how systems work. There’s dissection, experimentation where you have to kill animals … I’m squeamish. You’re out in the fields, in the swamp, working with bacteria that eat garbage, so you’re working with garbage … it’s a field for people with strong stomachs. It’s a very important field, but I just could not do it. All respect to the biologists; hats off to them, but I just could not do it.
What is the most hilarious answer to a question you have ever received?:
I once asked Matthew Reeves, when he was writing his Genesis piece [performed last year], “Is there an ontological tautology?” and he replied, without missing a beat, “We’ll find out, someday.”
[For those who care, “ontological” means “given, having the nature of an indisputable law of existence,” and “tautology” means “self-proving axiom.” An “ontological tautology,” in this sense, basically means “God,” or some sort of underlying meaning to the universe. It’s funny. Trust me.]
If you could elect any person (living or dead) to be President of the United States, whom would it be?:
Beethoven, because Beethoven was one-hundred percent committed to the idea of every human being having equal value and equal worth. It’s what it wrote the 9th symphony, and the 5th symphony about. He’s the one person who did not bow when the king went by; even Goethe [18th and 19th c. German poet who argued for democracy] bowed. This is a man who believed in democracy. The funny thing is, this guy loved humanity, but hated people. That’s an important quality, as President. You’ve got to be willing to take someone on one on one, and not feel sorry when you beat them—but you have to do it for the benefit of the people. You have to be willing to say, “I’m going to create freedom for people,” and understand that having dignity, to understand what love is, is not domination. You’re a guy who believes that and still be cantankerous enough to still get some laws passed … I think that would be a good combination.
For punishing students in class: Taser or wooden paddle?
Wooden paddle. I’m a hands-on kind of guy.
Getting to Know: Zoe Thompson
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Name: Zoe Thompson
Year: Junior
Major: Biology
Why biology?: Because I really enjoy the subject of biology. It’s really interesting. I’m NOT pre med unlike a lot of the other biology majors.
Why are you not an English major?: English was my second choice for English major – I couldn’t teach myself biology, but it would be easier for me to learn English on my own. I didn’t need a whole bunch of classes to appreciate books.
Future plans: Graduate school and getting a ph. D. in some sort of biology. A pet psychic if that doesn’t work out.
Hometown: Southern California; Yucaipa (close to Loma Linda); it’s close to the mountains. Close to the beach, too.
Clubs/Organizations: ASA, because I hang out with Asians all the time. Biology club – because it’s my major. Eventually. Not a member but right now. Orchestra.
Favorite class(es) you’ve taken at PUC: Systems physiology class: it was hard and I had to study a lot, but it’s what I find interesting. I also enjoyed Pattern (Honors class); Dr. Waters and Dr. Davis are both really funny. Organic chemistry, not because of the subject, but because Hemmerlin is a really good professor.
Strangest things one of your professors has said: Dr. Wong says strange things ALL THE TIME. When I was in lab, we were supposed to shake up a test tube, and he grabbed the test tube from me and said, “No, no! TOO ROUGH! TOO ROUGH!”
We had to prick our fingers for one of the bio labs, and he told us, “Now that I told you the correct way to do this, you won’t get AIDS.”
Why did you come to PUC?: It was a really hard decision between Walla Walla, Andrews, and PUC. I wasn’t really impressed with Walla Walla’s bio program, on the way back to Andrews I got stuck in the terminal – which didn’t help me foster a fondness for either school.
As for PUC, it’s [Angwin] a pretty area, and other people’s accounts of their experience helped me choose.
Heritage: One quarter Greek, and a smattering of European stuff.
If you could elect anyone (living or dead) to be President of the US, whom would it be?: James Cameron. He worked wonders with $300 million; let’s see what he can do with the GDP.
If you could write an autobiography, what would you title it?: “How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Things Even If They Don’t Match Exactly.”
What do you think is your greatest accomplishment?: I have successfully avoided watching The Notebook.
Which languages do you speak?: English. A few words of Greek. And I’ve taken 3 years of French, but unfortunately, I can’t converse very well.
If you could change one thing about PUC, what would it be?: Visiting hours in the dorms. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to play Nazi Zombies!
Which instruments do you play?: Violin. And I’d love to learn how to play guitar.
Which is your favorite punctuation mark, and why?: Semicolon, I think. It’s so full of hope.
What was your favorite toy when you were young?: I had this sweet remote control car that you could flip and drive on either side. All the guys were jealous.
What was your favorite tv show when you were young?: The Magic School Bus. I loved the one where Arnold turns orange because he eats too many Seaweedies.
Have you met a famous person?: I saw Alec Baldwin at this amusement park when I was younger, and didn’t really know who he was.
Are there any celebrities whom you would like to personally fight, and why?: Robert Downey Jr. I would lose miserably of course, but I’d enjoy every minute of it!
How will the world end in 2012?: We are definitely going to blow ourselves up. But if we don’t, California can just break off to go hang with Hawaii. Alaska can come too.
Why is the cafeteria so bloody expensive?: The KGB, the Mafia, Fidel Castro, the gunman on the Grassy Knoll … I could go on and on.
What do you think will be the biggest issues in Adventism in the next decade?: Keeping younger people in the church, allowing women’s ordination, and not being so rigid and encouraging more discussion.
What do you think will be the most pressing issues the United States faces in the next decade?: Obesity, keeping carbon emissions down, figuring out all the places on a human body that someone could conceivably place a bomb.
What will be the most prominent issues PUC faces in the next decade?: Upgrading housing for faculty and students, pleasing people at the cafeteria.
Pens or pencils? Pencils
Coffee or tea? Coffee
Candy or chocolate? Chocolate
Coke or Pepsi? Coke
Mac or PC? Mac
Footwashing or potluck? Potluck!
Rice milk or soy milk? Soy milk
Why are you so cool?: A lucky combination of genetics and good nutrition, I guess?
Resident Artist: Cabel Bumanglag
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Name: Cabel Bumanglag
Major: Graphic Design and Fine Art with Teaching Credentials
Year: 5th year senior
What mediums do you work in?: Paint, I paint in front of chapel sometimes. And then ceramics, I’m a teaching assistant for ceramics. Sculpture, I like sculpture too. Pretty much all the classes I’ve taken so far at PUC I have really enjoyed. I don’t have one that I am really leaning towards. Usually it works in that I just tell myself, “I’m doing ceramics right now” and then I do it… I used to take my time doing fine detail with drawing and painting but coming to college I would have to get the classes over with. There are assignments that are due the next day so I had to come up with something. I would say my style has become a little bit more loose for painting. In some ways I think I have become more impatient with painting but I still like it though it is a quicker medium now. I would say though that 3D stuff is a little bit slower. But I enjoy 3D because it is something you can actually touch and hold, it is a different way of viewing art. My favorite medium is hard to choose.
Where has your art been featured?: On the cover of Spectrum magazine, the student art gallery, Quicksliver, and various other art shows.
As a child did you do art?: For my first drawings I remember I would do them when I got in trouble. My mom would send me to my room and I would draw. It started out from tanks and airplanes blowing each other up to drawing people and getting better and better as time goes by.
How did you choose your major?: People were asking, “What is your major?” and I was like, “I don’t know” so I had to pick one. So I went through the catalog and tried to think about what I would like to do so I did art.
What was your recent bowl project?: I made 200 bowls (as a holiday gift to PUC faculty) before I even started making the bowls I had to figure out glaze colors, shapes, and sizes. So I think I did around 25 just trying to figure out what to do. But once I had it down, what I was going to do, I had the process going the projection was that I would have the project done in ten weeks but it ended up taking a lot longer, I didn’t finish until two weeks before Thanksgiving (he started this past summer).
What is your favorite piece of artwork that you created?: My degree project that I did for my Fine Art Major. I did it on love, happiness, fear, anger, and sadness. It was five different paintings and they are all abstract paintings and they all have slight figures in them. The reason why I think I like that project the most is because I put the most time and energy into them. I worked it and worked it, didn’t like it, started over and so on. So it ended up becoming, what I would say is a finished piece.
How did you get in the mood for this project seeing that it dealt with emotions?: Well, I would get ready to work on it but then I would say to myself, “Wait, I don’t feel angry. I’m not an angry kind of person.” So I would have to really think about it and tell myself I want to get angry strokes of paint. I wanted people to be able to touch the painting and feel that you are angry. And yes, I did listen to Eminem or whatever got my blood going.
What is your least favorite piece of art you created?: For things that have something wrong I usually throw them away or somehow get rid of them. However, some people like different things so what I think doesn’t always matter. Sometimes people ask me to draw them on the spot, people always say that but they don’t realize that it takes time. It is not just straight up drawing it is about figuring out a little bit about who they are and putting it on paper.
What is your philosophy of art?: I would say art is in the eye of the beholder.
How do you want people to perceive you work?: Well, for example sometimes I’ll paint that’s disturbing and I want it to be disturbing to people. I have this painting of these faces that look like they are in the shadows and I hung it above my bed at my house. When I came back home my mom took it down so I asked her, “Where did the painting go?” and she said, “Oh, it was too scaring me so I put it behind your door”. So if I have the intent for my art to bring a certain emotion out of someone I hope that my art can bring that emotion out of them. But if I don’t have that intent and the emotion is just within me when I make the painting then people should perceive it however they want to.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists?: Just keep doing it. The more you do it the better you get and just because people say you’re never going to make money with it is no reason to stop. The fact is you don’t know that, that is something that they heard or something someone told them but they haven’t gone through it most likely.
Getting to Know: Cameron Anthony Haley
Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Staff in Interview
Name:
Cameron Anthony Haley
Year:
Freshman
Major:
Theology
Why theology?:
Because I really love the Lord and want to tell others about Him. I really feel called to share the love of God with other people.
Future plans:
I’m still thinking and praying about that. I’m possibly considering doing AFM (Adventist Frontier Missions)—they go to parts of the world that haven’t been exposed to Christianity at all. As far as being a pastor, I’d like to do something with youth.
Hometown:
Sacramento, CA
Clubs/Organizations:
Haven’t had many events, but I’m part of the Invisible Children club.
Why those clubs?:
I took a mission trip to Africa; I was able to go to Mozambique with my church. I heard the story from a friend, and I really believe in that education is a very powerful tool. The fundraising is to build schools. When people are educated, they have the freedom to make choices for themselves, and they have the freedom to break out of poverty.
Favorite class(es) you’ve taken at PUC:
Tie between Books o Moses from Sheldon and Life and teachings from Hernan Granados. I liked Sheldon‘s because I think that as Christians, we should look into Scripture as a whole and see what it says to us about God. A lot of times the Old Testament is not looked into that much; I really learned a lot about God’s love through some of the crazy stories.
Favorite teacher(s):
I really like Granados because his class really made me think about how to apply what I was learning to my life. It made me think about how to take Christianity out of the classroom.
Strangest things one of your professors has said:
Professor Elmendorf threatening to shoot a pitbull that had been chasing her, and then being horrified that we thought she was serious, even though none of us thought that.
Why did you come to PUC?:
I came to PUC largely because it’s close to home. I’m really close with my family and I just wanted to be there to see my little sister [8 years old] grow up. Plus, I’m a pretty new Adventist, and I’ve lived in Sac my whole life, so all my connections are here.
Heritage:
African-American, and a bit of Irish on both sides. I don’t know how that works.
If you could elect anyone (living or dead) to be President of the US, whom would you choose?:
I like something my history teachers said my sophomore year in high school. We were watching a movie called AD, that followed the story of this roman guard around the circumstances of Jesus, and when the Christian church was just starting to get persecuted. It also followed the story of one of the zealots, too. He really hates the Romans because they killed his family. He comes across these Christians who are being persecuted, and for them, it’s not about supporting or not supporting the Roman government; they look at how Jesus was above the politics, above it all. Politics is a human institution, so yes, we all have to deal with economics and international relations, but I think that by and large, if people would let go of the little things that divide them, then they’d find that they have a lot more in common than they think; there would be a lot less political tension.
If you could write an autobiography, what would you title it?:
“He Carried Me Through”
What do you think is your greatest accomplishment?:
If I had to pick one, it’s overcoming the spiritual struggle that I had to be an Adventist. I was really convicted from my classes in high school about the truth about Sabbath, but I was in a church that I was very comfortable at. As God impressed me with this truth, I kind of tried to run away from it, and I didn’t want to leave what I had. A great accomplishment I have made is being willing to accept the truth for what it was and make the right decision, and now I think it’s the best thing that I’ve done.
Which languages do you speak?:
English, y poquito espanol.
If you could change one thing about PUC, what would it be?:
I haven’t been here that long, but … I’d like to see more small group type settings, because I think it’s important for practical Christianity to actual talk about what you hear behind the pulpit. Everybody comes from a different social context, so applying the bible to your life depends on where you are. It helps to talk that out with other people.
Which instruments do you play (voice does not count as an instrument; seriously)?:
Electric bass
Which is your favorite punctuation mark, and why?:
The joint question-mark-exclamation-point, for when life just smacks you in the face … What?!
What was your favorite toy when you were young?:
By far my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure. I still have it, by the way.
What was your favorite tv show when you were young?:
I’ll give you three guesses. [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles].
Have you met a famous person?:
Spirit West Coast is probably the closest I’ve been to doing that.
Are there any celebrities whom you would like to personally fight, and why?:
Probably none, because frankly, that’s why I’m in weight training: so I can turn my water pistols into something that somewhat resembles a gun.
How will the world end in 2012?
If Jesus decides to play the ultimate irony and comes back.
Why is the cafeteria so bloody expensive?
The world may never know.
What do you think will be the biggest issues in Adventism in the next decade?
Female pastors is definitely going to be a big one for a long time; how to interact with other church groups, other denominations; how Adventists impact the world with Christianity as a whole.
What do you think will be the most pressing issues the United States faces in the next decade?
Definitely health reform.
How do think future generations will view the decade 2000-2010?
A technological boom. Computers just kicked butt this last decade.
What will be the most prominent issues PUC faces in the next decade?
Keeping enrollment up. That’s always a big issue facing Christian schools because they’re expensive, and people might think that they can get what they want faster at public university, they might think that there are more resources to offer. That’s one thing that I really love about my mom; she ‘s a single parent and she’s always made sacrifices to keep me and my sister in Adventist schools. It’s always going to be a challenge to show a world consumed by materialism the lasting value that a Christian education brings.
Pens or pencils? Pencils
Coffee or tea? Tea
Candy or chocolate? Candy
Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi
Mac or PC? PC
Footwashing or potluck? Footwashing
Rice milk or soy milk? Soy
Haystacks or special k loaf? Haystacks
Why are you so cool?
Any coolness I have comes because the Lord shines through me.
The Man Behind the Lyrics: An interview with Bryonn Bain
Posted on 11. Oct, 2009 by Peter Katz in Interview
Bryonn Bain interviewd by Peter Katz
C2: Race and ethnicity play a big part in your show. Tell us a little about your family background.
BB: My family is like the United Nations. My mom’s side is South Asian; she came to Trinidad from India. My dad’s side came to Trinidad from West Africa. So I’m Asian, I’m African… I grew up in Panama, […] speaking Spanish and English. I’ve also traveled pretty extensively throughout Latin America.
C2: So, how did you get started doing spoken word/hip hop?
BB: I grew up performing. My dad was a calypso singer, who won his way to New York City. Calypso is Trinidad’s gift to the world. I remember being seven years old singing “Matilda, Matilda…” [laughs] I had no idea that there was some serious patriarchal implications; it’s like old-school “Gold digger.” Calypso singers have names like rappers […] one of my favorites was a guy named Black Stalin. My favorite song of his was all about evil and the afterlife, all the folks in the world who have been greedy getting their just deserts. I grew up with that [calypso music], so it was inevitable. My brothers and I began performing in high school talent shows, and then in local prisons during the holidays. For us, it was a great time to connect with folks who would really appreciate it—[laughs] I mean, they’ve got nowhere to go, it’s a captive audience, right? I had no idea that a decade later, after going to prisons around the country to raise awareness in local communities about how devastating the prison system is to society, I would have an encounter with the NYPD that would lead me to suing them.
C2: Outside of your cultural background, what else has influenced you in your work; specifically, which artists and genres?
BB: I’ve been in singing groups, hip hop bands, writing poetry since elementary school. As a kid, my first rappers and poets were people like Rock Kim, Microphone Fiend … What I admired was their ability to speak intelligently through music in a way that was not preachy, but was really captivating and spoke to the realities of folks who didn’t’ have a lot of access to material wealth, but who had an abundance of spiritual wealth to give to the world. Later on, people lie Queen Latifah in her early days, Lauryn Hill, MC Light, Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Jackson 5. On the other hand, I have a lot of more “traditional influences.” My English teacher in either 7th or 8th grade gave us The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, and I read the line about “tap tap tapping on my door” and I was like, “This guy’s rapping in the nineteenth century.” Other poets like Langston Hughes…that whole movement; the music of jazz singers like Billie Holiday Nina Simone, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith. My dad had really eclectic musical tastes. Obviously, there was a lot of calypso, but he also played reggae…anything from Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead, to Chopin and Bach and Mozart. Just this last week, I worked some classical music into the show. I think it not only provides a really profound contrast, but it demonstrates the wider whole of the human experience, how everything ties in.
C2: Can you explain that a little more?
BB: Hip hop and theater audiences traditionally aren’t the same audience. Hip hop appears in the inner city with Black and Latinos in the early nineteen hundreds; classical music is music that came out of Europe from 1500-1900—and that’s the period during which my ancestors were being enslaved. I think contrasting what’s seeing as “high civilization” with what has unfortunately received the stereotype of being “low civilization” or “low art” shows on some level that they come from a similar human need to express something that’s beyond ourselves.
C2: I know that part of your play deals with a potentially wrongfully imprisoned man on death row whose sentence may be commuted to life. Is there any news on his case?
BB: Nanon Williams was incarcerated at seventeen for murdering someone during a bad drug deal. He’s admitted that he was part of the drug deal, but insists that he has not killed that person. For the last five years a newspaper revealed a series of fabrications revealing a lot of botched evidence in both his case and others involving the Houston Police Department. He’s having a new hearing around his case; his attorneys have gotten the court to rehear his case on January 11 of next year. There’s another man, Troy Davis, in a similar predicament. Seven out of nine witnesses in his case have recanted. When seven of nine say that they were lying…[unamused laugh].
The point is, though, even killing someone who has committed murder isn’t justice. We should be thinking of restorative justice. An eye for an eye is barbarous. Their cases are important, but they also raise the question, “what kind of society do we want to be?” Should one of the most modernized societies in the world still be using medieval methods to deal with social problems? Especially when it’s been established that the criminal justice system disproportionately incarcerates, murders, etc. people of color. It’s important to raise awareness where people would doubt a person of color, just because they might say that you’re only upset because that person looks like you.
C2: There are a couple of main themes that run through your show—race/ethnicity, the human experience, what it means to be an artist, an African-American—what do you think are some of the most important themes?
BB: I think there are a few themes that run throughout the show. One of the main themes appears right at the beginning: things are often not what they seem. All too often, we see people on the outside, take things at surface value, when in reality, there are always sublevels, I mean layers and layers […]. It’s wrong to suggest that people are anything otherwise, that we aren’t multiple layers; people of other backgrounds are of a far more complex background than we know. At the same time, at some point, we have this common essence. Some people believe that we are our bodies that have a soul. I don’t. I don’t think we have a soul, I think we are a soul, and our souls have these bodies. If you have that basic point, that we have the is underlying spirit that’s beyond all this, that—at least for me—forces me to not assume that I understand the journey of someone else’s soul, however many years, decades, hundreds of years that might be. I think that the show is getting that the idea that, though it’s almost cliché to say that we can’t judge a book by its cover, we forget, we need to be reminded of it. Give folks the benefit of the doubt, motivating folks beyond what we see on the surface of things.
Another overall theme is the of the inhumanity of a society that is the most powerful, most technologically advanced society in history, yet still feels the need to strip more people of their rights than any other country. I mean, they put a 17 year old kid on death row; that just doesn’t happen with white kids. If white men were incarcerated with the frequency of black and brown, it would be a national crisis; we’d have analysts trying to figure out how to solve the problem. But that’s the thing. We weren’t brought here to become the president, we were brought here to be exploited. That calls for a central message of human justice. At the same time that I have all these serious topics, there’s a whole lot of humor, because we have to laugh to keep from crying. I certainly don’t take these topics lightly, but humor is an aid, a part of the process.
In the end, it comes down to the idea that “We are because I am”; there is no individual without his or her community. I think the piece is showing that. [Being wrongfully incarcerated] was an experience that changed my life, and so it’s an iteration of that experience and the folks to had the greatest influence on my life.
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