Gavin Keirans & Co. have had an unprecedentedly successful year with UPUA, but it seems that there is concern that our student government is being too productive. UPUA’s new downtown office opened a week ago, and Keirans and several other leaders have said the project was handled improperly from the outset. Last year, UPUA found […]
Congratulations to the following kindhearted alumni, who have won the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award for their selfless contributions to Penn State:
Joan Amble(1975) Executive Vice President and Corporate Comptroller for American Express.
Gen. C. Robert Kehler (1974) Commander, Air Force Space Command
Daniel S. Mead (undergrad: 1975, grad: 1977) Chief Operating Officer for Verizon Wireless
Karen B. Peetz (1977) Chief Executive Officer of Financial Markets and Treasury Services at The Bank of New York Mellon
Richard L. Trumka (1971) President of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
Dr. Johannes D. Veldhuis (1974) Professor of Medicine at Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education
This award is issued annually by the Penn State Board of Trustees, and it serves as the "University's highest award for an individual."
Some of these fine individuals may be partially responsible for the highest single month of donations on record in December 2009 (over $58 million).
The awards both shed light on our faithful supporters and encourage said donors to maybe, perhaps, possibly cough up a few more bucks in the future... please? It's going to a good cause... us!
After reading the Collegian's editorial about the UPUA's plans for a freshman student handbook, I was more than a little confused. I felt that some of the criticism that the Collegian levied was spot-on, but surely the final design of the handbook would be superior to a "Web site that would accumulate all the links and information that freshman students ... would find very useful." I mean, sure, we'd be out 21,000 dollars, but put to good use, that money could create one hell of a sweet handout. "Put to good use" is clearly the important phrase in that sentence.
To find out a little more about the design and intent of the Freshman handbook, I emailed Samantha Miller, who is the Director of Assembly Services for the UPUA. Samantha is spear-heading the Freshman Handbook initiative, so she knows a little bit about what they are going for. Read on for the questions and responses.
Anybody who has a Twitter account probably knows about the big day that the THON Public Relations committee had on Friday. For the unenlightened, THON PR has been tweeting celebrities for the past few weeks asking them to help get the word out about THON. Their hard work paid off on Friday when Khloe Kardashian, of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, first tweeted about THON. She then promised to tweet back anybody who donated to the philanthropy. Jay Sean and Lindsay Lohan also helped out the cause be retweeting Kardashian's comments. Not surprisingly, this had a huge impact on the number of followers THON had on Twitter as well as hits on THON.org.
I was able to get a hold of Elyse Adams, PR Overall, who gave me some information about how Khloe helped out THON. "It's extremely exciting to have the support of someone like Khloe. She is helping us spread awareness about THON and pediatric cancer," Adams wrote in an email. She elaborated by saying that, "on Friday, January 29th, @THON gained 1001 followers on Twitter between the hours of 1:29 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. (plus a few hundred more on Saturday)! Our makeshift video to thank Khloe received more than 6,000 hits in one day. And our YouTube channel received more than 5,000 hits."
Read on after the jump for some more statistics from the day.
Greg Gabbard ran City Lights Records on College Ave for 25 years. The record store closed on Saturday to the disappointment of State College music lovers past and present. Hasan stopped by to talk with Greg last week to pick the mind of a man who has done so much for our community's musical inclinations.
What does the future hold for you?
Well that's an interesting question. I am going to have a lot of stock left so for a period of time I will still be selling music. Probably utilizing the internet, the technology I struggled against for the past several years. I do not believe it shouldn't exist, I just like a little variety so I will be utilizing that to sell records, CDs, and everything else I have for sale.
What inspired you to first start City Lights Records?
I was a record collector and loved music and had purchased thousands of records over time. I was about to become an English teacher in high school and a friend of mine says "I will pay you more than that to open up a record store for me". He already had one and wanted another one in another city. I said "I will do that for a little while" and well...its been a little while.
What is a typical day in City Lights Records?
A typical day here is pricing records, pricing CDs, selling records, selling CDs, answering questions about music, about new releases. It involves a lot of speaking so by the end of the day I go home and am very quiet.
If you were a musician in a band, what instrument would you play and why?
I actually was in a band in college and was the singer.
What do you like most about music?
I think my favorite part of the listening experience is the ability of the music to move you emotionally. It is a wonder to me about how much it can move me.
What are your top five albums of all time?
I have never been able to do that. I can say what some of my favorite albums are but it would be difficult for me to rank them because I would end up saying "that's in the top ten, not the top five." I don't think I could live without the Beatles albums, John Coltrane albums, Miles Davis albums, Clash albums, The Jam, The Replacements. Some of the more aggressive music I like. Soul, Reggae....I need something from all genres.
What is City Lights Records relationship with institutions that promote local music?
Help in any way we can. I have always loved to tell people who the best bands in State College are, who they should go to see. They ask me "do you have an alternative band in State College, do you have an alt. country band in State College". I always try to point them in the right direction for that. When clubs have shows I try to advertise as much as I can for the local shows. That is what keeps our community musical so I'll do anything.
Do you have a favorite local hotspot for music?
I was just in one of my favorites last night. I saw our own Dawn Kinnard, a woman who used to live here in town and moved to Nashville and went to London and recorded an album. She is going to record another one in England. We are pretty proud of her and she stopped by last night and played at Zeno's. It was great!
Do you have any advice for upcoming musicians in State College?
Be the best you can be at whatever you do and use your imagination.
If you were a dinosaur, what kind would you be? And why?
A pterodactyl, just to stay out of everybody's way.
When it came to the Capitol Steps’ Saturday night performance at the State Theatre, I didn’t entirely know what to expect. I would consider myself a fan of both musical and political comedy, yet I had never heard of the group, despite the fact they’ve been performing since 1981. So, for the uninitiated, I did my best to summarize the group's act.
Imagine America as a summer camp. Government officials are the camp counselors. The Capitol Steps are the kids that put on the skits to lampoon said counselors. That description doesn’t necessarily do their show justice – it’s not comparable to the insipid J.C. Penney gag – but there are distinct stylistic parallels.
Is your interest piqued? Find out my other thoughts on The Capitol Steps after the jump.