BBEEYYOONNDD TTHHEE VVAALLLLEEYYA&E6 October 8, 2009 � Mount Holyoke News

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The Pioneer Valley has wonderful artmuseums and beautiful galleries, but thereare other art museums that you could visit.The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford,Connecticut is only forty minutes awayfrom Mount Holyoke.

The Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in1842, is America’s oldest public art mu-seum. Its three stories are filled with Eu-ropean and American artwork rangingfrom the 16th century to the contemporaryperiod. There are many renowned andwell-known artists on display at the mu-seum, whose names are recognizable evento those who may not consider themselvesto be art aficionados. Some of the famousartists that are shown include Van Gogh,Monet, Degas and Caravaggio.

Before entering the galleries, there isa great art library to the left of the lobby

that is worth browsing through. The li-brarian there is quite helpful and gregari-ous. He will gladly tell the visitors storiesabout the museum, such as the ghost thathaunts the library at night and the petduck that used to wander around the mu-seum. The duck is gone now, but the li-brarian keeps a large stuffed duck onhis desk in honor to it.

“The Matrix Effect” is an interest-ing exhibition of some of Wadsworth’scontemporary works from 1975 to2000, and it will be displayed untilJan. 2010. Some of the artiststhat are showcased in the ex-hibit are Janine Antoni, Christoand Jean-Claude, and ChristianJankowski. Jankowski’s video,entitled “The Matrix Effect”which the exhibition is namedafter, is the centerpiece of theexhibit. My favorite piece at the

exhibit was a striking workof art that shows the pic-ture of a beautifulwoman with her entirelife story is written outand placed around

her. A favorite exhi-

bition of the mu-seum’s visitors arethe marble sculp-tures on displaythroughout the

museum. Thesubjects are soalive in theirposes and yet,at the sametime, arefrozen in themiddle of theirstory. It is the

admirer’s active participation in recreatingthe subject’s story from that moment intime which truly brings them to life. Thesculpture of Eve in Morgan’s Great Halland the sculpture of the adult faun with hischild, located on the second floor, are twoworks of art that I urge you to linger onduring your visit.

Beginning Oct. 10, seven of Rem-brandt’s works will be shown in an exhibi-tion, entitled “Rembrandt’s People”.

For more information on theWadsworth Atheneum’s current and up-coming exhibitions, visit its websitewww.wadsworthatheneum.org

BBYY KKAAYYLLAA LLAAMMBBEERRTT ’’1122STAFF WRITER

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PPhhoottoo bbyy NNaann ZZhhuu

Few directors are more fascinatingthan Roman Polanski. His life andfilms have an inexplicable relation-

ship between life and death that is wonderfullycomplex yet absolutely horrifying. This film-maker, who teeters on the edge of genius anddisturbing, has been one of the most polarizingfigures of the last decades because of the hor-rific nature of his personal life and decisions.This fact has become glaringly apparent follow-ing Polanski’s Sept. 26 arrest in Switzerland.Yet what makes Polanski’s case intriguing isnot whether or not he is guilty for having sexwith a minor—that is a proven and acceptedfact. It is how, since 1977, this case has blurredthe lines between celebrity status, media sen-sationalism and just legal action.

Polanski was born in 1933 to Polish immi-grants in Paris; his family returned to Krakowin 1936 and were forced into the Krakow ghettoin 1939. While Polanski escaped the ghetto in1943 at the age of 10, his mother was killed inAuschwitz. Beginning in the 1960s, Polanski es-tablished himself as a great filmaker in Polandand France with such films as Knife in theWater (1962). His Hollywood breakthroughcame in 1968 with Rosemary’s Baby It was theyear after his initial Hollywood success whenPolanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, was mur-dered when she was 8 1/2 months pregant byfollowers of Charles Manson in 1969. BeforeTate’s murderers were discovered, the media—at its unbiased best—accused Polanski for themurder, thus establishing Polanski's tense re-lationship with the media.

Of course no other incident has affectedPolanski’s life and career than his 1977 arrestand guilty plea for unlawful sex with an under-age minor. Judge Laurence Rittenband residedover the case and the trial quickly became moreabout the media frenzy than actual justice. Inthe 2008 documentary, Roman Polanski:Wanted and Desired, Rittenband is described asa conflicted andsometimes corruptjudge obsessedwith maintaining acertain mediaimage. Ritten-band would oftenhold press confer-ance in his cham-bers to discuss thetrials proceedingsand kept a scrapbookof his previouscelebrity trials. Thisaction only increased themedia hype surrounding thePolanski trial, which becauseof the directors heritage alsoattracted attention inFrance and Poland.Soon the

trial was not only affecting Polanski’s life butthe victims, Samantha Geimer as well. Hername was leaked to the press and her familywas scrutinized by the media. Geimer has sincesaid: “The judge was enjoying the publicity. Hedidn’t care about me, he didn’t care aboutPolanski. He was orchestrating some little showthat I didn’t want to be in.” When it was decidedthat Polanski would serve prison time in 1978—in spite of the family’s plea that he not be impri-sioned and court documents proving thatPolanski was not a threat to society—the direc-tor left the country and has never returned.Both Roger Gumson, the prosecuting attorney,and Doug Dalton, the defense attorney, admit-ted that Polanski was treated unfairly by thecourt and are not surprised he left the country.

Polanski and Geimer settled a civil suit in1997 and she publically forgave him. That sameyear, an attempt to settle the case failed, report-edly because the court requested to televise theprecedings; Polanski refused to participate al-though the charges would have been dropped.Since then Geimer has stated that Polanski hassuffered enough and appealed to have thecharges against him dropped. At the time of hisarrest, Polanski had also appealed the case onthe grounds of misconduct the prosecution.

Here lies the problem: Polanski evaded cap-ture by US authorities for 31 years while main-taining a practically infalible image in Europeand in Hollywood. Rather than be made an ex-ample of, as Judge Rittenband often declaredhe wanted to do, Polanski has had continuedsuccess. The standing ovation Polanski re-ceived when he won the 2004 Academy Awardfor Best Director verifies that this is not a manwho is loathed for his transgressions but is re-spected by his peers. This is further realized bythe fact that more than 200 film industry profes-sionals including Martin Scorsese, PedroAlmodovar and Woody Allen, have signed theirnames to a petition demanding Polanski’s re-lease.

The Polanski case began before the currenttime of media oversaturaton, before24 hour news stations, before theOJ Simpson and Michael Jacksontrials and before celebritieswere endlessly exploited bythe tabloids. This case has be-come apart of that craze inthe worst possible way. It isnot that US authorities arewrong to arrest Polanski; whatis wrong is how the media con-

tinues to feed off a 30 year oldstory that none of the affectedparties wish to be reminded of.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and De-sired is available on DVD.

I first heard “Ignorance”, one ofthe tracks from Paramore’s thirdalbum “brand new eyes” on the radioback in July. Cruising on the 210freeway home from a friend’s house,I didn’t recognize the song as any-thing distinctly Paramore. Therewas the head-banging rock-angstemotion that stems from every rockband, surely, but this song seemed tohold more anger and frustration. Iknew that frontwoman HayleyWilliams personally wrote songs,with help from guitarist Josh Farro,on their debut album 2005’s “All WeKnow Is Falling” and the 2007 follow-up “Riot!”, and also a little songcalled “Decode” from a little moviefranchise called Twilight (Perhapsyou’ve heard of it?), and I was curi-ous as to where Williams gatheredher inspiration.

Later this summer, the musicvideo for “Ignorance” debuted, and I,being a loyal fan, immediately foundit on YouTube and watched abouttwo or three (or four) times. Therewas the tension, anger, and thelovely music that is rock-and-roll.Reading the comments below, Ifound that a few people wrote thatthey liked this new sound ofParamore and that perhaps the bandtension had made them into bettermusicians. Band tension? That wasnews to me. Soon, I found the back-story: The band cancelled a week of“Riot!” tour dates in Europe in orderto head back to Franklin, Tennessee(a little town outside of Nashville) tofigure out internal issues. Rumorsflamed of the band’s breaking-up,but were quickly doused byWilliams’ blog posts reassuring fansthat they were just tired from tour-ing and slightly tired of each other

but were working things out. Takingtwo years to figure out these issuesand the addition of member TaylorYork to the group, led to the birth oftheir third album, “brand new eyes.”

Released on Sept. 29, my room-mate and I eagerly made our way toTarget in the afternoon (thank you,Mountain Day!) to purchase analbum we had already fallen in lovewith, as the band streamed it in itsentirety the day before on their web-site www.paramore.net. This albumwas a joyful surprise for me: “Care-ful”, “Ignorance” and “FeelingSorry” carry the vibe of their previ-ous albums with snarling guitarsand Williams’ snarky deliverance oflyrics, “Playing God”, “Brick by Bor-ing Brick” and “Turn It Off” high-lights the lighter side of rock and“Looking Up” and “Where the LinesOverlap” address the rumors ofbreak-up (“I can’t believe we almosthung it up/We’re just gettingstarted”). “The Only Exception” and“Misguided Ghosts” are sudden dipsinto the indie-acoustic side of music,making them surprisingly sweet tothe ear. “All I Wanted”, the last onthe album, is personally my favorite,because Williams delivers the cho-rus line with such intense emotion issounds almost like a howl yet youare able to appreciate her vocalrange.

So, perhaps the tension was agood thing. It allowed the band timeto think about what they wanted tosay on this album, mixings old andnew sounds to showcase their cre-ativity and devotion to music. Theband is still fairly young (early 20s)and I’m looking forward to future al-bums and more surprises. Just get-ting started, indeed.

‘brand new eyes’ is available now.

BBYY MMEEGGAANN DDEEAANN ’’1122CONTRIBUTING WRITER

BBYY JJOOAANNNNAA AARRCCIIEERRII ’’1100A&E EDITOR

Paramore’s third album introduces a new sound

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A&E 7October 8, 2009 � Mount Holyoke News

I am an Internet addict. I spend far more time on the internet thanis healthy. So, when several of my friends joined Twitter, I gladly fol-lowed them into the cold bleak night. (Wait, that may be the wrongthing.) Twitter, for the uninitiated, is a social networking site that al-lows you to blog in 140 characters or fewer. The 140 characters arecalled a tweet, and it’s a bit like a combination of Facebook and instantmessenger systems. Your update stays on a page for your followers,and you can follow other people.

Initially, I got into Twitter to follow my friends, but one of the bigthings about Twitter is the manner in which celebrities and the enter-tainment industry have hopped on Twitter as a manner of promotionor connecting with their fans. From Britney Spears to Shaq, toStephen Fry to Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to Al Gore and KarlRove and everyone in between, celebs (or their assistants and othermembers of the publicity machine) are hopping on Twitter in droves.

The direct connection to fans can be both a blessing and a curse.Amanda Palmer, a musician, uses Twitter to connect to her fans on apersonal level, as well as for ticket give-aways and show announce-ments. She also uses her Twitter to send messages to her boyfriend,author Neil Gaiman. Watching celebrities interact on Twitter gives usa sense of voyeurism, I think, and creates a false sense of beingfriendly with celebrities.

But the sense of being friendly isn’t always something wonderful.Celebs are people too, people who have ups and downs and momentswhen they act like complete and utter whiny emo idiots. It seems likefor every wonderful celebrity who isn’t a tool, there are three who are.Twitter reminds us that celebs have typos, get drunk and tweet thingsthey shouldn’t and in general are people, too.

Celebrities in the past haven't been people, not really. They’vebeen products of publicity machines and most of their images weremanufactured. The Internet and crazy paparazzi have broken thosefacades mostly, and now celebs seem to be taking it on themselves todo the rest.

I’m gonna be honest here: I don’t want them too. I don’t want tohave those myths shattered, and I think celebs (especially those withchildren) should be allowed to have some privacy. Mostly though, Iwant my illusions kept for my own personal reasons. Story time withKim: when I was about twelve, I was completely and utterly in lovewith Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. I worshipped him and theground he walked on. Deep in my black little soul, I thought he wasthe coolest and most wonderful person ever. That twelve-year-old wasstill in here somewhere when I followed him on Twitter and discoveredthat he was a complete and utter whiny, bitchy idiot. Yeah, illusionsshattered; but I love my celebrities, I just want to love them—from adistance.

And before you ask—yeah; I still follow some. I know, I’m such ahypocrite.

BBYY KKIIMM BBOOYYDD ’’1100@Celebtweets

If you went to Gamble Audi-torium last Thursday, you wouldhave not only learned about thehistory of hip-hop, but alsowhere women stand in this cul-ture filled with b-boying, mcing,graffiti and djing. JenniferWeber, teacher of BeginningHip-Hop at Mount Holyoke Col-lege and daughter of EnglishProfessor Daniel Weber, gave avisual presentation on the his-tory of women in hip-hop called“Hoodies or Heels?”

I was anxious to go to thisevent, because as a resident ofBrooklyn, I was raised and influ-enced by hip-hop. I wanted to

meet and hear whatWeber had to say.She started off danc-ing at clubs and thenwent onto a higherlevel. Thus, I wantedto learn how she wasable to establish

her own fe-male dancetheater in

Brooklyn called Decadence The-ater. I was intrigued by howyoung she was and yet so knowl-edgeable about this culture.What most struck me is her loveand dedication to continue learn-ing about a new culture that shewas not raised into, a culturethat many have misperceptionsof and are not entirely familiarwith.

Hip-hop today is very differ-ent from what it used to be. Theold hip-hop still exists, but be-cause rap culture and sexywomen in videos have taken overthe market, b-boying and graffitiare not as well-known as theyused to be. The hip-hop stylewhich was started by DJ KoolHerc with dub battles (compet-ing with the loudest sound sys-tems) has not completely diedout, but many people have for-gotten it. Weber spoke aboutother important icons who influ-enced hip-hop style, includingAfrika Bambaataa who usedmusic as a way to stop violenceand Martha Cooper, a journalistwho helped hip-hop grow by tak-ing pictures and printing them inthe New York Post.

The visual presentation wasfilled with facts, quotations, pic-

tures and video clips fromdance videos and movies.

There was a clip of Lady Pink, akey pioneer for women in hip-hop. She broke the barrier forwomen to graffiti. It was toughfor her not only because she is awoman, but because she isEquadorian and her family didnot approve of this culture whichthey did not understand. Still,today, graffiti is not consideredart by the public and graffitiartists continue to push for-wards.

So, where were all of theother women in hip-hop? Theywere around, but there simplywere not many of them. Some ofthem, like Missy Elliot and FoxyBrown, were rapping similar toguys and dressing like them.However, some of these womenchose to appeal to the largermarket by cultivating a sexyimage. No one yet knows exactlywhere women will be in hip-hopfive or ten years from now, butWeber is one woman pushing foracceptance in the world of b-boy-ing.

At the end of the presenta-tion, one of Weber’s dancers, b-girl Frac from DecadenceTheater, showed us some of hermoves. She worked long andhard to get where she is, but inthe end a new love for a differentculture has developed.

BBYY SSUUIINNEELLYY HHEERRNNAANNDDEEZZ ’’1111OP/ED EDITOR

Discovering women’s place in hip-hop

When I was assignedto watch “Divná Slecinka,”a documentary for mymusic class, it was not as Ihad expected. Instead Ifound myself watching anhour-long narrativelessmontage that followed themusician through varyingmusical venues, not tomention that the musicwas strange. I couldn’tmake sense of what I washearing or seeing becauseI couldn’t tell where themusic was from and it sounded different than anything I had heard before.

The music was that of Iva Bittová, a violinist, singer and composer from the Czech Republic and ofMoravian descent. Bittová is classically trained but is known for her experimental approaches to musicand her incorporation of different languages, sounds, and genres which she molds and bends to createher music, which to me now makes sense. It all became clear as I got to meet her and watch her performlast Friday night.

Bittová began her career as an actress in the mid-1970s, appearing in several Czech films, but sheswitched to playing violin and singing in the early 1980s. She started recording in 1986 and by 1990 herunique vocal and instrumental technique gained her international recognition. Since then, she has per-formed regularly across Europe, the United States and Japan, and has released eight solo albums.

Bittová stated that she does not like genres, and she classified her music as “my own personal kindof folk music.” Influences from her Roma culture can be heard from the way she talks about her childhoodand the way her father inspired her, but she also takes hints from jazz and poetry. “If I hear somethingI like, I use it,” she said matter-of-factly. I got to take a look at her book of music, which is full of ordinary-looking sheet music, but when she came out on stage her performance was strictly original.

Bittová comes from a musical family—her father Koloman Bitto, was a famous Roma musician fromsouthern Slovakia, played guitar, trumpet and double bass in folk and classical ensembles, and hermother Ludmila Bittová sang in professional vocal groups. However, Bittová is a master at blending dif-ferent genres. I see her as a sort of master chef of music. She even referred to the humor she utilizes onstage as her “best spice”. Master chefs don’t cook by the recipe, they experiment and come up with newfoods to expand your imagination. Bittova is definitely one that doesn’t play by the rules.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to dinner with Bittova and her musical partner and very talentedbassist, George Mraz. Over dinner we talked about the music industry. What was particularly inspiringwas the way in which Iva approaches music. She talked about her violin with great enthusiasm. “It’s veryhelpful, it’s like taking a shower,” she commented about the help of her instrument to make her feel. Andindeed listening to her music is refreshing like a shower. Her music cannot be replicated since so muchof it has to do with her individuality as a performer.

The experience of seeing Bittová on stage was so different in comparison to listening to her music ona recording, or even watching the documentary film about her. Those forms only capture a glimpse of herfull creativity. Bittová is a true performer in that she interacts with her audience, makes eye contact andsmiles. She talks in gibberish, makes bird noises, and moves around stage and transcends the “rules”which we are accustomed to.

Violinist Iva Bittová cooks upher own flavor of folk music

Courtesy of Schuyler Marquez

Iva Bittová (center) poses with several fans following a concert at Amherst College.

Photo by Joselyn Urena

T H E W E I S S M A N C E N T E R FOR LEADERSHIP AND THE LIBERAL ARTS

Erika Blacksher, pioneering bioethicist and research scholar, will discuss the widening inequalities of health and the shared responsibility that is necessary to create health policy beyond

health care reform.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 7:30pm gamble auditorium, Art building

ERIKA BLACKSHER

Reorienting U.S. Health Reform Towards Health For All

EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. www.mtholyoke.edu/go/healthcare Mount Holyoke College 413-538-3071 South Hadley, MA

BBYY SSCCHHUUYYLLEERR MMAARRQQUUEEZZ ’’1111ASSISSTANT A&E EDITOR