Because in this post-Kayne West world—where a rapper can’t get by on image and artistic aspirations alone, no matter how phony or stupidly ambitious—hip-hop has become the most, for lack of a better word, existential genre of music out there. Rappers’ core themes are embodied almost strictly by their streamlined experiences—desiring fame, reaching fame, reacting to fame, having no fucking clue what to do with so much money—and their songs then reinforce their image. It used to be about how hard of a rapper you were, how many girls you could get or how stupid ridiculous you could sound when you threw money around. Now it’s about all those things folded into one and flipped upside-down; it’s about being famous for rapping and rapping about being famous.

It’s a strange loop and it’s one no other genre can touch. But what is clear is that Drake does it with the most sincerity, the most talent, and the most transparent mask of all, making it hard to discount that the 25-year-old actually loses sleep over questioning how he got here and what it means to his past and his future. “What have I learned since getting rich,” he asks himself on “HYFR,” his second of three Lil Wayne-assisted tracks. “I’ve been working with the negatives to make for better pictures,” is the witty, double entendre answer we’ve come to expect, yet never get tired of hearing.

The opening track, “Over My Dead Body,” is somewhere between an anthem and a more traditional R&B song, opening with a female lead hook and a bare bones piano part that Drake raps over consistently. He seems to crack a few smiles, admitting that you win some and lose some now that his taxes have hit six figures and jabbing at people “discussing his career again, asking if he’ll go platinum in a year again.” The track is trademark Drake in a lyrical sense, but with a balanced display of styles that anticipates the more focused 16 tracks that follow.

Take Care moves on to flip-flop, almost every other song, between two loose styles, which are easy to identify when the light opening song flows into the melancholic “Shot for Me” and then right into the forceful radio classic “Headlines.” The fierce and upbeat lyrical attacks wrapped up in pulsing keyboard beats mark Drake’s confident, near-untouchable state. Meanwhile, the slow, R&B infused songs show us his now-trademark emotional, introspective side concerned with past loves and genuine self-evaluation.

It’s those songs, the already radio-heavy “Marvin’s Room” and some surprisingly well-composed tracks like his Stevie Wonder collaboration “Doing it Wrong” that lead many rappers and genre fans alike to spit hate, but it undeniably gives him a dynamic R&B edge that completes the image—an Usher revivalist with Eminem’s bite and a perfected Lil Wayne flow.

A third style flutters here and there, in “Take Care” featuring Rihanna and the album closer “The Motto,” and is marked by a sort of chopped-and-screwed take on modern club music. It’s the least impressive of Drake’s styles, making those tracks mostly forgettable if you overlook the fact that he rather boldly raps about his past relationship with Rihanna in the very song she contributes to.

Halfway through Take Care, “Underground Kings” descends with a mesmerizing 4-note lead before Drake bursts out of the gate hand-in-hand with the bass. His complex cynicism—that mix of emotional reflection and negativity despite soaking in all the perks of his fame and wealth—is in full force. “Rapping bitches, rapping bitches, bitches and rapping, rapping and bitches until all of it switches,” he says of the flurry and blur of his lifestyle, one he still might think of as absurd no matter how much he may enjoy it at times.

“It’s been two years since someone asked me who I was / I’m the greatest man / I said that before I knew I was,” he admits right after, illustrating that no matter how much time he spends staring at himself in the mirror, Drake is still capable of being confidently sure of who he is and what he wants. Given that a number of the strongest tracks have been playing non-stop for months, the fact that “Underground Kings” remained unheard until Take Care’s release makes it the defining soul of the album when paired with the vulnerability of “Marvin’s Room.”

Even on the surface, Take Care is a massive success, with tastes of every hyper-stylized rapper from Rick Ross to Nicki Minaj and a remarkably large percentage of the album’s sprawling 17-track list enjoyable and repeatable. But it’s Drake’s boldness, the emotional risk-taking bounced off his blisteringly witty self-congratulations, that solidify why he’s so rich and famous, and why none of it really matters unless you can analyze it on his level.

The USDA defines a food desert as “a low-income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store”

As seen on the Food Desert Locator on the US Department of Agriculture website, all of the Stony Brook University campus is considered a food desert. By contrast, only one other SUNY university center, the University at Albany, has a campus even partially designated a food desert.

Stony Brook students do have some access to local supermarkets through both university and county buses, but food desert status only takes into account how close stores are, not whether it’s possible to get to them.

Despite Stony Brook’s unique food desert status among SUNY university centers, this is not an uncommon problem nationwide, according to USDA economist Shelly Ver Ploeg. The University of Michigan and the University of Maryland have also been listed as food deserts.

“The situation on college campuses is a little different,” said Ver Ploeg, noting that the guidelines meant for the general population may not always be adaptable to colleges.

For example, she said, the placement of academic buildings, lawns, stadiums, and other general features of college campuses tends to “inflate” the distances used by the USDA to determine the distance from residences to supermarkets and large grocery stores.

University spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow echoed these statements.

“The methodology of USDA also does not take into account the fact that most students at a residential University, such as Stony Brook, are on a meal plan and that freshly prepared meals are available 7 days a week, 20 hours a day on the Stony Brook campus,” Sheprow stated in an email.

Sheprow also noted that Campus Dining encourages students to “eat healthy” and provides free nutritional counseling from a dietician.

However, Sheprow did not respond to questions about Stony Brook’s status as the only SUNY university center for which the entire campus is a food desert.

Requests for comment from Campus Dining representatives were not returned.

Scenes from Zuccotti Park and Times Square on October 15 as the Occupy Wall St. movement mobilized and marched across the city, resulting in 72 arrests. Soundtrack courtesy of the protesters. Scroll below or follow the link above to see the video.

For 32 years, The Stony Brook Press has been a recognized leader in campus media at Stony Brook, fulfilling its mission of “informing the campus community, promoting progress, and inciting debate” while producing alumni that have won awards including the Pulitzer Prize. And in only three years, Think Magazine has built the campus’s most-visited media web site, updated every day with the latest news, culture and opinion, as well as producing an award-winning print magazine. Think has fostered a close relationship with The Huffington Post and media organizations including The New York Times and the BBC have used its reporting. The excellence of both publications together with the Press’s particular strength in print and Think’s on the web are highly complementary. By combining these strengths and building on them, together we will be able to create something even better than either of us could have alone.

During the course of this semester, the editors of both publications will be working together to gradually integrate them into a unified whole that not only preserves the best attributes of each, but also gives us the opportunity to take full advantage of our new, larger size to pursue goals that only larger publications can. Both the Press and Think have always embraced continuous improvement, and we intend for the new Press to continue that tradition to become the best print and web publication Stony Brook has ever seen.

For now, the Stony Brook Press and Think Magazine will remain officially separate organizations with our own editorial boards. The Press will continue to focus on its print magazine, while Think will focus on the web site. In the near future, new content will stop being added to the Think web site, thinksb.com, which will be archived; instead, all new content will go to sbpress.com, the Press’s web site. Shortly thereafter, Think’s content will be transferred to the Press’s web site and the thinksb.com domain will forward to sbpress.com. Select content by Think’s editors and staff will begin appearing in print issues of the Press, while the Press’s editors and staff will begin creating content for the web site as well as for the magazine. Behind the scenes, the administrative aspects of both organizations will be integrated. By the beginning of the Spring 2012 semester, we intend for Think Magazine to be fully integrated into a new and improved Stony Brook Press, with a single editorial board leading a unified print and web publication that we hope will quickly become Stony Brook’s preeminent media organization.

To everyone who has supported The Stony Brook Press and Think Magazine over the years, thank you. We hope you are as excited about this new opportunity as we are, and we look forward to introducing all of you to a new Stony Brook Press, incorporating Think Magazine, that will be better than ever before.

Right here at Stony Brook University, between the weekends of September 29 and October 9, the Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written and directed by Val Lantz-Gefroh, as part of the Open Stages Festival. It is the only play submitted from the United States to be accepted to the British festival and Ms. Lantz-Gefroh, after having asked how it was to be selected, said simply, “It felt great!”

The adaptation was first written in 2008 and several rewrites later it was finally presented to a crowded audience at opening night on Thursday at the Staller Center for the Arts. For those not familiar with the actual play, The Tempest takes place on an island and centers around the usurped Duke of Milan and magician, Prospero, who uses his magic and dominion over spirits to shipwreck those who have wronged him. Through a series of dramatic and comedic events, the path to forgiveness is found just as everything seems lost, and everyone in Milan and on the island is restored to their rightful places.

Lantz-Gefroh’s adaptation places the protagonist on his deathbed and turns all of the happenings on the island into events taking place inside a dying Prospero’s mind. The play becomes more about making amends and prolonging the inevitable than it is about restoring order and natural law. The adaptation comes from the experience of watching her mother die six years ago and its parallels to the final musings of Shakespeare in his play. Lantz-Gefroh focuses on the theme of loss and “this end of life journey that [she thinks] is pretty universal.”

Aside from the strong emotional response the play asks for from the audience, it is worth seeing for the comedic and romantic scenes alone. The actors’ tone, inflection and body language are easily identifiable and they convey what may be a difficult language effortlessly. Prospero (Steven Lantz-Gefroh) and Ariel’s (Deborah Mayo) interactions are playful and affectionate and it is obvious in the way he carries himself around others that his strongest attribute is being a father. The audience adored watching Miranda (Diana Lucia) swoon over the handsome Ferdinand (Robert DiSario) in typical Petrarchan fashion, and could not contain their laughter while Stephano (Robert Shilling), Trinculo (Jillian Cross), and Caliban (James Alexander) stumbled drunkenly over one another while planning their own kingdom on the island. Not to mention Robert R. Doyle (playing a well-liked version of the chatty Gonzalo) had the best slow motion walk of the night (and ever) and Shilling has a killer mustache that even a lady can envy.

However, before one can get comfortable in the joyful moments, the play constantly reminds viewers that life outside of the imagined island is coming to an end. The steady beating of a heart monitor and the ticking of a clock thrusts the action back to the hospital room of a dying Prospero, where video clips of the visitors and their muffled voices play on the screen backdrop of the stage to signify the “real world” action of the play. Everything outside that room slows down, not just because he wants more time to enjoy life, but also because having to watch a loved one in their last days can make minutes feel like centuries.

Fellow patrons John and Ginger Williams, an older couple from the Stony Brook area, found the play “charming” and said the use of the hospital setting added “gravitas” to an otherwise light-hearted adaptation. Mr. Williams added that he “expected to be annoyed by it,” but actually found it all very effective.

One of Lantz-Gefroh’s biggest concerns was that her inspiration would not reach a broad enough audience, but most everyone has had some sort of experience with death that makes it easy to identify with and relate to the play. Mrs. Williams said the play put her right next to the bedside of her father when he was dying. At times it was hard for her to watch and she joked that maybe that did not make her a very good person to interview.

Samuel Katz, a Biochemistry and Theatre Arts double major at SBU, commended the play, above all, for its impeccable lighting and stage directing. Props and scenery were moved effortlessly across the stage and from scene to scene. The lights and video cues were as close to perfect as a live performance can make them.

Budding Shakespeare aficionados may find unreasonable places to put their criticisms. Such as cutting a large chunk of the play’s dialogue, a mixture of anachronisms and a lack of iambic pentameter, which Lantz-Gefroh says has the tendency to “put people to sleep.” The changes were necessary and it is pretty difficult to judge a modern version against its Renaissance-era predecessor. The plays were written and directed at different times and for different purposes and people, and the original Shakespearean play just would not be able to convey the same sentiment that this adaptation does.

Whether one understands the agonizing emotions personally or not, from Miranda’s first chilling scream at the stopped heart monitor of her father—which almost made me cry right out of the gate—all the way to Prospero’s epilogue and exit from the stage into the quintessential bright white light, the emotions are clear and sincere. Based on the turmoil that she endured while the death of her mother loomed, Lantz-Gefroh transforms a play about law, slavery and magic  into one about love, loss and understanding. Each show is a little different from the ones before it, so if the need arises to see it several times the cast and the crew probably would not mind too much.  “I never really think a project is done,” Lantz-Gefroh said. “I always want to change things and tweak things. It’s always evolving.”

Those who spoke at the service recalled in admiration Marburger’s adroit ability to remain calm in stressful situations, the ease with which he could explain the most complex workings of science to anyone who asked, and most unusually for a physics theorist, his level of manual dexterity, usually reserved for scientists in the experimental field.

“Jack’s loss is terribly painful, and I don’t know how it could be any other way,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said from behind the flower adorned podium. “If we are able to emulate what Jack did in eliciting the best from others, then we will be okay as a society.”

President Samuel Stanley spoke of the courage Marburger had in facing his lymphoma. “He was frank, and analytical about his disease, fighting until the very

end, but always unafraid…and perhaps characteristically for someone who had accomplished so much, he still thought that there was so much to do. And yet, he was not sad for himself, but rather apologetic to us that he would not get everything done.”

Marburger died July 28 at the age of 70 in his Port Jefferson home after a battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He served as Stony Brook’s third president from 1980 to 1994 when he stepped down to return to teaching. He became director of Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1998. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy where he remained for eight years. He became Vice President of Research in 2010.

Professor Robert Crease, chair of the Philosophy Department at Stony Brook who co-taught a class with him, said Marburger “knew what no other science administrator knew—how dramatically science was changing.” The imaginary fourth wall that protected science from public scrutiny and government supervision was disappearing, and Marburger modeled to others how to embrace that change.

“Jack approached each seemingly impossible task the same way; he saw the broadest perspective and invited all the actors to share it, encouraging them to step off stage from the dramas,” Crease explained. “This would usually take down the tone enough to reach compromise. The rest of us find this difficult to understand. We tend not to forgive those who compromise, viewing them as selling out or lacking in principles…Jack was the most principled of all.”

That ability to compromise and to encourage others to do the same was what made him a great university president, Crease said. “He had to manage an institution full of passionate advocates for indispensable departments, schools and offices. In his 14 year tenure he successfully promoted a broad perspective in which the whole flourished, and if each advocate was not entirely satisfied, at least they felt heard.”

But beyond his ability to lead, to advise and to teach was Marburger’s love for science. It was the most satisfying pursuit of all and the main stabilizer of his life, as Crease told the audience at the service.

“This was the vision he wanted us all to share,” he explained. “The world, both physical and human, consists of a myriad of elements which work together in a vast cosmic ecology. [Marburger] found it a pleasure to contemplate how this all worked, and if it didn’t work the way he expected, even better—that gave him the possibility of making a discovery.”

Harold Metcalf, a physics and astronomy professor at Stony Brook, recalled the way Marburger would come into his classroom on short notice, remove his jacket, pick up a piece of chalk and begin writing equations without missing a beat.

“And it didn’t matter what we asked him, his answers were always incredibly clear as if he’d prepared a lecture,” Metcalf said. “And then he’d go back and be the president.”

Aside from his teaching, Marburger is recognized greatly for his contributions to science policy as an advisor to President Bush, and he is known for pioneering a new field of research, of all and the main stabilizer of his life, as Crease told the audience at the service.

“This was the vision he wanted us all to share,” he explained. “The world, both physical and human, consists of a myriad of elements which work together in a vast cosmic ecology. [Marburger] found it a pleasure to contemplate how this all worked, and if it didn’t work the way he expected, even better—that gave him the possibility of making a discovery.”

the science of science policy, that would dramatically improve the quantitative basis for policy.

“What distinguished Jack was a trait less common in the halls of power; he was, by nature, indeed selfless…He simply and consistently wanted to do what was best for his country,” CEO of VIAForward Richard Russel said. “For eight years Jack gave the president the best scientific advice available, and his advice had significant and positive impact.” He added, “I cannot remember a single member of Jack’s professional staff who did not hold him in the highest regard, consider him not only a superb leader, but a friend.”

Marburger’s sons, John and Alexander, were the last of those who spoke at the service. Alexander recalled fond memories, such as riding through a pine-forest in Montana while discussing particle physics.

Before playing a song called “Little Birdie” on the banjo his father made, John described his father’s handiness—a source of great pride for his father, but something he spoke little about. He listed the various things his father made, including a harpsichord, model airplanes, custom latticework and wooden transoms. He recalled a time when he was 5 or 6 and his father helped him solder a toy robot from metal pieces left over from an electronics project.

“I just thought that soldering metal together was the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen,” John said, “…and I was convinced that he could do anything.”

Photo credit: Stony Brook University

After years of anticipation, Epic Games launched the third and final installment of its flagship trilogy on Tuesday, September 20. To those of you who do not know (in which case you should be ashamed,) Gears of War 3 is a third-person shooter that focuses on using environmental cover and engaging enemies in close quarter fire fights. The series is one of the most popular in modern gaming. Its first installment in 2006 set the standard for modern shooters since. As the last installment of the trilogy, Epic strived to create the most polished and best Gears game to date. They did not disappoint.

Campaign

Gears of War has always emphasized a comfortable balance between its campaign and multiplayer modes. From the second you pick up the controller you’ll realize one thing: this game looks fucking beautiful. The graphics this time are amazing, and as you go through the campaign, you will most likely pause just to look at the incredible world that Epic has perfected these last five gears. The main characters and enemy locust look great as usual and some of the new creatures you’ll face are just plain freaky to look at. The enemies themselves are smarter and more varied this time around. As you go through the 10-plus-hour campaign, you’ll be shooting down everything from exploding crab-like Polyps to freakishly mutating Lambent, to the savage remnants of the Locust Horde. And the improved AI means they won’t go quietly. This installment to the series also promises a far more compelling storyline then in the previous games.

As you progress through the campaign, you will dive deeper into the minds and pasts of the game’s protagonists, especially the ever-fascinating Marcus Fenix, as well

as get the answers to any questions you have ever had about the series.

Co-op is also as great as ever, allowing you and your friends to fight against your foes together in order to save Sera from the Lambent and Locust alike. This campaign is fun, challenging, and promises to be a fulfilling ending to the story we have been following all these years.

Multiplayer

Now, on to what makes Gears, Gears: versus multiplayer. Everything about the multiplayer has been polished and revamped. It plays smoother (this is due in part to the switch over to dedicated servers,) with barely any lag that plagued both Gears 1 and 2. When you get gruesomely killed by another player, it’s not because you lagged, couldn’t shoot or somehow got lagged across the map right in front of them; you died simply because you didn’t kill them first. The new maps are equally as awesome, and varied. The newest addition to the multiplayer modes, death match, is also a nice change of pace due to the fact that now once you die, you don’t have to wait around for the match to end to re-spawn. The executions are also back and better than ever, with each weapon having a unique, and exuberantly gruesome and humiliating, execution. All in all, the already amazing multiplayer is even better in this new installment, proving that Epic has answered on its promise to deliver the most polished Gears game to date.

Horde and Beast Mode

Horde and Beast Mode are the other two game modes playable in Gears of War 3. Those who have played Gears of War 2 are already familiar with Horde mode. The main premise is that you and four other players must survive continuous waves of enemies as they continue to get harder and harder as the game goes on. But, unlike Gears 2, you now earn money instead of points for each locust

you maim, which can be spent on weapons, fortifications such as barbed wire and even the ability to buy your way back into the game after you die. These additions are great because they force you to work even more like a team as you all pool in your money and decide the best way to use it. Just a warning though, Horde mode can get hard, like when me and my teammates went from kicking to road kill

in a matter of five seconds.
Beast mode is a new addition to the

Gears universe, and has already become one of my personal favorites. Basically, you play as various Locust, and your goal is to take out the opposing team of GOW soldiers and civilians. The fact that there are a variety of horrible monsters to choose from makes this mode truly gruesome and amazing. When the game first starts, you only have a choice of the lower lever

Locusts, such as the walking land-mine Tickers and the fast-moving, ear drum- rupturing, Wretches. The fact that these are weaker than other Locusts does not make them less fun to use (once you sneak up behind someone and blow them to hell with the Ticker, you’ll know what I mean). As you progress through the waves and get more points, you will be able to unlock even more monsters, such as the giant spider Corpsers and the unstoppable tanks that are Berzerkers. This mode is an awesome addition to the game, and will prove to provide blood, carnage and fun for all.

Conclusion

Three words: Get. This. Game. Everything about it is awesome, from the graphics and story to the incredibly polished multiplayer. This game is a must-buy for any shooters fan. And, if you haven’t played the previous games in the series, there is no reason not to jump on the bandwagon now and play a game that is obviously worth your cash. This game gets five stars out of five, and is a perfect reason to miss class for a couple days.

]]> http://sbpress.com/2011/10/gore-perfected/feed/ 0 http://sbpress.com/2011/10/usg-to-create-new-part-time-position-with-16000-salary/ http://sbpress.com/2011/10/usg-to-create-new-part-time-position-with-16000-salary/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:57:16 +0000 Carol Moran http://www.sbpress.com/?p=6284 The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) has significantly changed the distribution of responsibilities in planning USG-funded campus events in the past few years, the larger changes being the restructuring of the Student Activities Board (SAB) and the creation of the Special Programming Agency (SPA), both of which were done by the 2010 Establishment of Student Life Act.