Perhaps the one thing that the biosphere of Hollywood has in common with the rest of the world is that there exist seven deadly sins that lead either to punishment or profit. The first sin is to make films that include non-stereotypical, latent homosexuality. The second is to cast non-professional actors who are your friends. The third is to be from New Jersey and to shoot all of your movies in New Jersey. The fourth is to reveal the name of your newest project to 2,000 students before telling anyone else. The fifth is failing to painstakingly separate yourself wholly from the characters you play and/or create. The sixth is to make a feature length film for only $250,000 after scoring two awards at Cannes. And finally, the seventh deadly sin of Hollywood is to tell aspiring student filmmakers to bypass the big business movie studios, and to film what they want and how they want by acquiring as many credit cards as possible and maxing them out in the name of film (Kevin Smith's Clerks was built on twelve separate mounds of debt).


In true form, Kevin Smith has sinned against the Hollywood Church by purposefully engaging in each and every one of these foul deeds, and in turn, not-so-silently denouncing its dogma.



What really makes Smith a Tinseltown renegade is the fact that his pact with the independent film devil has brought him nothing but love from the outside world. The 4,000 hands pounding on the backs of the wooden chairs in Bailey Hall at 8:15 Monday night, and the fair crop of people who remained in their seats until 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning, are proof that the Cult of Kevin Smith has grown to divine proportions.


With tickets going for 7 bucks a pop, Smith's lecture attracted a huge crowd outside of Bailey Hall at 7:30 p.m. The insanity soon began with the opening of the doors, and didn't end until nearly six hours later when Smith finally said good night to the diehard fans who stuck around.


This show of endurance certainly answered the question Smith posed soon after he walked on stage, in answer to the first of many hecklers who commented on the filmmaker's punctuality: "Who's the bigger asshole? The guy who's late, or the guy who stays?" Smith competed with himself for the title. But, those fans who had their special edition DVDs of Mallrats and Dogma autographed, or who finally got to ask that question that's been burning them about Clerks since 1994, may beg to differ.

December 1, 2015
anabels

Proponents of Anabel’s Grocery Hold Panel

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Executive board members of Anabel’s Grocery  hosted a panel Tuesday in Goldwin Smith Hall in an attempt to eliminate doubt about the existence of food insecurity on Cornell campus and to validate the recently approved grocery project.

Lizzi Gorman ’18 opened the discussion by defining food insecurity as “not having financial and physical means to reach your nutritional needs at any given time.”

Nicholas Karavolias ’18, Prof. Thomas Hirschl, developmental sociology and Renee Alexander ’74 discuss food insecurity and how it affects students at Cornell at a panel yesterday. (Darien Kim / Sun Staff Photography)

Nicholas Karavolias ’18, Prof. Thomas Hirschl, developmental sociology and Renee Alexander ’74 discuss food insecurity and how it affects students at Cornell at a panel yesterday. (Darien Kim / Sun Staff Photography)

Gorman said Anabel’s Grocery is striving to make food insecurity, a potentially stigmatizing topic among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, an open discussion. According to the 2015 Perception of Undergraduate Life and Student Experiences survey, 8.4 percent of 4,419 students surveyed have skipped meals due to financial constraint either “often” or “very often” in the past year.

“Students harbor a lot of shame about being food insecure and without a structured conversation we can’t talk about it,” said Nicholas Karavolias ’18, a member of Anabel’s Grocery’s executive board.

Karavolias said he hopes the opening of Anabel’s Grocery in February will facilitate constructive conversation by making the availability of convenient and affordable food for all students a recognized priority.

Government food stamps help cover the nutritional needs of 46.5 million Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, there is little focus on low-income college students who often struggle to afford meals, according to Renee Alexander ’74, associate dean and director of intercultural programs.

“There’s a misconception that low-income students are getting free rides and have no worries,” Alexander said.

While some students have unlimited access to campus dining halls, many cannot afford more than seven swipes per week, Alexander said.

She added that local stores such as Jansen’s Market and Bear Necessities are profit-maximizing businesses that mark-up prices and make shopping unsustainable for lower-income students.

“When I walk into Bear Necessities I get sticker shock when I see these prices,” Alexander said.

Prices are substantially cheaper at local supermarkets like Wegmans and Walmart, but students who live on and around campus have limited options when it comes to buying affordable food within walking distance, according to Alexander.

“Collegetown is a food desert,” Alexander said. “There are no grocery stores there other than 7/11, and that’s a convenience store. So you pay exorbitant prices and you’re not getting fresh produce while you face limited options.”

Anabel’s Grocery, a student-run grocery store aimed to serve the needs of food insecure individuals on campus, received final approval from President Elizabeth Garrett last week after being developed over the past year.