Field Hockey Drops Two in Pennsylvania Weekend

By wpengine | September 23, 2003

Pennsylvania is definitely not the field hockey squad’s favorite place to play. The Red stickwomen (2-4, 1-1 Ivy) were beaten twice this weekend, with the first loss coming at the hands of the Penn (2-3, 1-1), 3-0. The loss was a tough to swallow for the Red, which hadn’t been shut out thus far this season.

“We dominated most of the game, but we just couldn’t score,” said head coach Phil Sykes.

Junior Liz Lorelli netted a pair of unassisted goals for the Quakers at just five minutes into the contest. Both defenses were solid, stopping all other offensive efforts for the first half.

Overall, Penn held the margin in shots, 11-7, as well as penalty corners, 5-4. Senior goal keeper Kaitlin Tierney made five saves on the hard Franklin Field turf in the losing effort.

The Red did not fair much better the next day in Easton, Penn. Lafayette dropped the Red by the same margin as Penn, in a 4-1 victory. The lone — and unassisted — goal for Cornell came in the second half from senior midfielder and tri-captain Karleigh Burns. It was her first goal of the season.

Similar to Penn, the Leopards held a huge advantage in shots, 28-9, as well as penalty corners, 7-4. In the first half alone, the Leopards outshot Cornell by a margin of 18-1. Tierney made a season-high 11 saves in goal for the Red, yet because she was tested so often, let four go by.

Junior Missy Farrand scored the first two goals of the game for Lafayette unassisted, and the team never looked back, notching two more goals in the second frame.

Cornell hopes to turn things around this weekend when it faces two opponents it defeated last season.

The Red will again be on the road — traveling to New Haven, Conn., to face Yale at noon on Saturday. Cornell will then square off against Rhode Island Sunday afternoon.

“One of our main focuses this year has not been our opposition, but ourselves and how we play,” said Sykes, “and I feel like we are improving.”

Cornell’s next home game is not until Oct. 12 against Harvard, and it will have just three of its remaining 10 games in Ithaca.

Archived article by Chris Mascaro

Discover Your Inner Indie

By wpengine September 25, 2003

What a difference a year can make. Last year, the odds of the Independent Film Makers at Cornell becoming a thriving organization looked about as good as the Jamaican bobsled team winning an Olympic gold medal. Although IFMAC has been helping Cornell students produce films for almost twenty years, the club had dwindled to the point that last year, they no longer held weekly meetings. In addition to a weak leadership structure and declining membership, a scandal involving the use of SAFC funds for the president’s personal use threatened the clubs very existence, along with the former president’s right to graduate. Fortunately for him, the charges were dropped and the president was permitted to walk with the class of ’03. Fortunately for them, the damage to IFMAC would not be irreversible. While IFMAC may have been lacking in membership and organizational leadership in the past five years, one key ingredient was still present: a growing interest in independent film making within the student body. With the surge in popularity of independent films, spurred by such renowned festivals as Sundance and Cannes, more and more Cornell students dream of becoming the next Kevin Smith. The demand was there. All IFMAC needed was someone with the leadership capabilities and the passion to bring the organization back on its feet. Enter Lauren Wells ’04. The senior film major knows first-hand how difficult it is for a student to produce an independent film. For reasons ranging from funding the impossibly high production costs to finding actors, it is simply too much for one student to take on alone. Relying on the Cornell Film Department to meet the needs of all budding film makers is just not an option. Due to the difficulty of getting into film classes, and the existence of only one member of the faculty dealing with film production, the department does not have the resources to meet the needs of all students with a desire to produce a film. Furthermore, many film classes are only open to upperclassmen or film majors, thereby excluding a significant number of students with an interest in pursuing films. With so many factors preventing students from easily producing films, Wells knew that an independent film organization was the best way to get students of all years and majors involved in film production. So she decided to take IFMAC into her own hands. Teaming up with fellow film major Jeff Cedeno ’04, the duo set out to revamp IFMAC by following a simple formula: Bigger. Better. More. One of the major problems in the past was a lack of publicity. In an attempt to increase membership, IFMAC announced meeting times in various film classes, along with the standard chalking and quarter-carding techniques. The hard work paid off. At their first meeting, they were expecting to be able to count all of the attendees on their fingers. Instead, they were met with around thirty-five new members. In addition to a large, enthusiastic membership, the organization has also gone through a massive structural change. In the past, the group was primarily guided by one director’s vision, while the members generally assisted in bringing the director’s brainchild to fruition. However, this year the focus is more on collaboration. The increase in membership brought with it more diversity in interests, with people choosing to specialize in everything from soundtrack composition to set design. With the re-introduction of weekly meetings, IFMAC has the opportunity to present workshops to help hone the skills of aspiring film makers, ranging from such topics as equipment lessons to screenplay techniques to editing workshops. Finally, IFMAC also plans to produce more films and do more screenings. Currently, plans are in the works to showcase the work of IFMAC members at a spring screening. This screening will include the work of Cedeno and Wells, who have produced a short, experimental piece using digital video. One factor that IFMAC has working in its favor is a partnership with another student group focused on film making, the Digital Video Club. Three years ago, the DVC broke off from IFMAC, in response to demand for more of a focus on Digital Video production. However, as many members of IFMAC also expressed an interest in Digital Video production, the two groups have become more closely aligned, and are benefiting from the sharing of equipment, among other resources. Another problem that IFMAC has successfully overcome has been regaining the support of the SAFC. Despite last year’s issues with illegal spending, the SAFC recognizes that it cannot hold the actions of one person against an entire new crop of passionate, enthusiastic students. According to Wells, there are simply too many people who want to see the IFMAC thrive to hold grudges against the past actions of one individual. While they are still awaiting to hear the SAFC’s final decisions regarding budget approval, indications are that IFMAC will be able to secure the necessary funds for new editing stations and film cameras. As for the future of IFMAC, both Wells and Cedeno take heed of the wise words of Whitney Houston: they believe that the children are the future, and therefore must teach them well and let them lead the way. Well, maybe underclassmen don’t actually classify as children. But still, Wells and Cedeno are both optimistic that the enthusiasm of the freshman and sophomores will keep IFMAC going strong after their graduation this spring. In addition to the passion and the drive of the club’s younger members, they have had the opportunity to learn from two mentors, Wells and Cedeno, who have undoubtedly taught them well. Archived article by Talia Ron
Endless Nights

By wpengine September 25, 2003

Think finding another twenty minutes of Citizen Kane, or a lost Shakespeare folio. That’s what this is like to the comic book world: the unexpected return of the master. That’s about as good a summary as I can give of what it’s like to open Neil Gaiman’s Endless Nights for the first time. As to what Endless Nights itself is about — that’s a somewhat harder question. Endless Nights is an addendum to Gaiman’s monumental Sandman, a 2,000 page ten volume graphic novel which originally ran from the late ’80s through the mid ’90s. Although Gaiman is kind enough to present the reader with a sly, intriguing introduction to the world of the Sandman and the artists who draw it, while a new reader would quite probably enjoy the book, they wouldn’t get nearly as much out of it as those who are familiar with the universe. All the stories deal with the identities and natures of the comic’s main characters, who readers of Sandman have come to know so well, or think they have. But for those who aren’t familiar with Gaiman’s work: there are seven beings who are not gods (for gods come and go) who are personifications of the underlying patterns of existence. They are called the Endless, and they are Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction (who quit), Desire, Despair, and Delirium. According to Gaiman, his 2,000 page saga about Dream can be summed up in less than 25 words: “The king of dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his choice.” The seven stories in the book each profile one of the siblings, or try to. One of Gaiman’s points is that it would be impossible to write a definitive account of any of them because what they are is so complex that we can only ever know a part of it. The first story, “Death in Venice,” is a perfect marriage of subject and setting, writing, and art. P. Craig Russell, who illustrated the jewel like Sandman issue “Ramadan,” uses the same unusual panel structure and gleaming palette to detail an eternal day on a Venetian island. Death, one of Gaiman’s more popular and humane creations is markedly more sinister in this story, possibly because she gifts a young man with his life’s work and keeps unhurried watch over a ceaseless party. Gaiman, always so adept at reimagining old tales has basically given us a re-telling of “Masque of the Red Death” from the view points of both the revelers and the reaper. Russell matches Gaiman tone for tone, drawing Venice shrouded under gray clouds, the party in eye popping vibrancy, and a flashback in the warm sepia tone of its remembrance. The whole story seems to hang in that haze so particular to Venice: great beauty forever hovering on the edge of decline, the perfume not quite masking the scent of decay on the wind. The second to last story, “Destruction On The Peninsula,” has a similar discomforting edge, as the two most charming siblings, Destruction and Despair, wreak unwitting (and witting) havoc on an archeological dig. The big brother / kid sister relationship between the two Endless is so perfectly drawn, and Destruction is such a capable, laid back character that it is entirely to easy to forget who he is. The two most antipathic siblings, Dream and Desire, receive stories which mirror each other in odd ways, depicting the consequences of desires unresolved and saited, respectively. Desire’s concerns that most dangerous of all transactions in Gaiman’s universe: a wish granted and love requited. Miguel Manara’s lush style, at once impressionist and emotionally detailed perfectly complements Gaiman’s take on an old norse legend. It’s typical of his approach that while his story about Dream shows the stars and the Endless in all their ordinary concerns and pettiness, this seemingly tawdry tale has quite a lot to say about the power of human desire and what happens as the drama inherent in youth, and in this case being part of a myth, fades back into every day life. Dream’s story is the most representative of the usual Sandman tone, and as it is an origin story (for more characters than might be immediately apparent) it’s perfect for both newcomers and old fans. Miguelanxo Prado’s fantastic watercolor scenes perfectly capture the soft edges of the world as it was when it was very young. One of the absolute best moments in the book is when the source of the story’s narration is revealed to be the sun, telling the earth a bedtime story. Ironically, Gaiman is most faithful to his goal of profiling each Endless with the most experimental story in the book, his collaboration with Barron Storey: “15 Portraits of Despair.” They give us a profoundly saddening and terrifying ride through a part of life which is as outwardly varied as it is inwardly, horribly the same. After the intensity of the other stories, the final meditation on Destiny is a quiet coda, but a fitting one for this world where, for all the epic deeds and minute, lasting cruelties, in the end, it’s all about love. More often than not, the kind that leaves scars. There’s a book, and a family, and stories. And, as Gaiman says, within the book was the universe. Archived article by Erica Stein