"Faculty Lounge" Rocks Trax

I don't think it's at just any university where you can go out on a Friday night, shoot pool, and listen to your girlfriend's history professor belt out "Highway to Hell" while your literature professor backs him up on the guitar.

At Susquehanna, you can.

Saturday night we walked over the railroad crossing to Trax, Susquehanna's on-campus student-run night club.  Trax holds all sorts of events throughout the semester, including concerts, dances formal and informal, casino nights, wine tastings, even a gaming convention.  What drew my friends and I out on this cold Friday night was the chance to hear Faculty Lounge play a set.

It turns out that Dr. Roth is not only an expert on literary theory, he's also a great guitarist.

The band is made up of Dr. Long, my music tech prof, on the drums; Dr. Roth, my lit prof, on guitar; Dr. Winegar, one of SU's deans, on bass; and Dr. Imhoof, Holly's European history professor, on keyboard and vocals. 

The band played a good mix of original stuff and solid covers, including "Hey Ya."  After Dr. Imhoof jumped off the stage and did a lap around the inside of the building, he closed the set by singing "Now I'm a Believer" – in German.

This was definitely worth braving the cold.

Listen to Faculty Lounge.
More on Trax.
More on Faculty Lounge.

Dante's Inferno

The room was hot but silent as Dr. Giuseppe Mazzotta began to read from Canto 1:

Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark,

For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,

Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more;

But of the good to treat, which there I found,

Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

Dr. Giuseppe Mazzotta, the Sterling Professor of Humanities for Italian at Yale University, visited campus last Thursday to deliver a lecture on the role education plays in Dante's Inferno.

I've never seen Isaacs Auditorium so full. They had to bring out extra chairs just to fit everyone in, and Dr. Mazzotta did not disappoint.  This was honestly the best lecture I've ever attended.

Admittedly, I am a creative write/religion double major and a fan of the Comedia, so I may have a bias here, but it was more than just interesting.  For Dr. Mazzotta, Dante isn't just an area of expertise.  Dante is also his passion.  You could hear it in his voice and see it in his animated hand gestures.

Dr. Mazzotta said that the Commedia is a journey of both mind and body, that for Dante simply knowing what justice is is not enough to make a person just.  The path up to the top of Mt. Purgatory begins with the road down into Hell.  The journey of conversion involves both intellect and passion.

Intellect and passion.  I think that's what made Dr. Mazzotta's lecture so outstanding.  Not only did he know Dante inside and out, he had such a strong passion for Dante that this 700-year-old poem suddenly seemed relevant to our lives today.

When President Lemons cut off the questions from the audience and thanked Dr. Mazzotta for coming, I thought, wow, it's over already?  Then I checked my cell phone and saw that an hour and a half had just flown by.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The Thursday before Thanksgiving Break is one of the best days of the year at Susquehanna University. Students pack into the Everett Dining Room for a delicious turkey dinner served by the faculty and staff of the university.

After Chaplain Radecke's blessing and President Lemons' annual Thanksgiving toast, everybody takes a gulp of sparkling cider. Then we all twist around to watch our professors carrying out steaming trays of food.

This year Dr. Klotz, my psychology professor, carved the turkey while the eight of us started in on our corn, greens, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Then, after we'd cleaned our plates, my Italian professor, Dr. Rodgers, served us slices of pumpkin pie.

Warm is the word I'd use to describe the whole evening. The sun's setting earlier and earlier now. It's already dark outside, dark and winter cold, but here we are, packed into the Everett Dining Room, sporting sweaters and button-down shirts, stuffed with good food, surrounded by our professors and our closest friends. It’s the best.

The Sound of Music at Susquehanna

Last Saturday at Susquehanna, the hills were alive with the sound of music.  Okay, not literally, but this past weekend the theatre department did put on The Sound of Music.

Every fall the theatre department teams up with the music department to put on a musical for family weekend.  In past years they've put on shows like Hello, Dolly!, Chicago, and West Side Story.

This year, because they moved the show from the Weber Chapel Auditorium, which seasts 1,500, to the much smaller Degenstein Theater, the theatre department doubled the number of shows, performing during family weekend and during homecoming.

Which was great for me because my younger sister was busy with marching band stuff during family weekend but was free during homecoming weekend.  So after my friends and I saw the Brian Regan show, we squeezed her into Holly's car and brought her back with us.  My sister's involved with drama club at school, and I thought she'd really enjoy the play.

The theatre department did not disappoint.  The student who played Mother Abbess really nailed her part, and of course the student cast to play Maria was excellent.  Four of the six Von Trapp children in the show were played by actual children, the sons and daughters of university faculty and staff.  The kids all did an amazing job.

What I thought was best about the play was the musicianship in the pit orchestra.  The music was fantastic.

The whole production was really professional.  I think it really made my sister's visit a memorable experience.

More on Susquehanna's Theatre Department

Brian Regan: Stand-Up Comedy at Shippensburg University

Friday after class four of us piled into Holly's car, and we took 81 South to Shippensburg University.  Shippensburg is usually about an hour and half drive from Susquehanna, but the trip was longer for us because we drove fifteen minutes past Shippensburg to my hometown, Chambersburg, where we squeezed my friend Jimmy into the car and grabbed some Tex-Mex food from Moe's Southwestern Grill.

Then we took 81 North up to the Luhrs Center at Shippensburg University for the main event: stand-up comedian Brian Regan.

Brian Regan has appeared on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien and "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson."  Regan has had two Comedy Central specials, and he recently made his twentieth appearance on the "The Late Show with David Letterman."  Tickets for Brian Regan's show at the Luhrs Center went on sale online at 11:00 AM and were sold out by half past noon—and Luhrs Center seats 1,500.

We were lucky enough to get five great seats in the front center section of the theater.  That was the part I couldn't get over—we were only about twenty yards away from him.  I've been listening to Brian Regan's albums since I was in high school, and there he was, right in front of me.

And his act was hillarious.  I don't think I could convey to you in words how funny he is.  Instead of listening to me give you his jokes secondhand, you should just see him for yourself:

As we headed back out to the parking lot, my face was sore from smiling so much.

More on the Luhrs Center
More on Brian Regan

Pumpkin Carving with Intervarsity

Normally when a bunch of Susquehanna students from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship get together, the meeting involves a laid-back contemporary worship service or an in-depth look at a passage from the Bible.

But last Friday, that wasn't the case at all.  Last Friday involved vegetable and knives.  Intervarsity spent the night before Halloween carving pumpkins down in the common room of West Village G.

See for yourself: