This weekend, I attended the Escape to New York music festival on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton with The Statesman’s music blogger, Chris Priore.

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Day three of the festival was cancelled due to weather conditions.  The ultimate deciding factor remains unknown, but according to a festival press release, the organizers were advised by the Shinnecocks not to allow the public onto the grounds on Sunday because of potential damage to the grass after the rain had created mud.

nicest guy ever -- continued to lie in the mud at my request until I was finished photographing him.

Not one band played.  There was music, however, as a man began to play his guitar and sing while sitting on a picnic table, brightening the day.

Media was allowed to wait underneath the media tent, so we waited for a couple of hours, until it was finally decided that the “delayed opening” of the festival’s day three had been changed to a cancellation.  While we waited in the media tent, however, we had the opportunity to talk to a few people involved with Guerilla Science (who’d put on the science shows), and to a couple of fellow Stony Brook students who write for Think magazine.

We watched as the stage was de-cluttered, the bands and vendors packed up, and the wooden sculpture that people had had so much fun climbing the day before was surrounded by metal gates, as if the fun had officially been retired.

The dumpling truck that had been a crowd favorite did not open for the day, and other food vendors that had been preparing for the day’s crowd packed up.  The Mexican food vendor, Pulqueria, began giving out free tacos and chips with guacamole (best guacamole I’ve ever had, by the way) to their fellow vendors and to media, artists, and friends of artists, once they found out that the public would not be allowed on the grounds for the day.

Looking back at the few notes that I took throughout day one of the festival, one particular bullet point is outstanding: “This festival is a bunch of people who really, genuinely care.”

waiting in the media tent to find out whether or not the show would go on.

The attendance rate overall was not extraordinary (actually, it wasn’t exactly ordinary..), and the cancellation of the third day’s lineup was unexpected, disappointing and clearly not ideal.  But what made up for it was the knowledge that the people who planned and organized this festival were a group of individuals with the ambition, drive, and hopes to create something that would bring people together for just one weekend to listen to music, see things that they’d never seen before, and experience something together that would never be equal to or even reminiscent of any other weekend in their lives.

Was that goal achieved?  I’m not sure that it was achieved to the extent to which its organizers had hoped, but I think that it was an interesting experience, and people seemed to have had a great time.  The Escape2NY team has announced plans to hold the event again next year; hopefully it will grow into what it should have been this time around.

This weekend, I attended the Escape to New York music festival on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton with The Statesman’s music blogger, Chris Priore (check back soon to see his review of the music of day two).

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Bubbles, colored chalk, flowers and photographers were just three components of the second day of the Escape to New York music festival.

Saturday, the festival had a much bigger turnout than did day one.  The lineup for the day began with Graffiti6, followed by The Submaries, Au Revoir Simone, White Rabbits, The Psychedelic Furs, The Vaccines, and headliner Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

The music of day two seemed to be more appealing to a general audience.  Though the groups were indie bands, those chosen for Saturday’s lineup seemed to be closer to mainstream music and more crowd-pleasing.  The Submarines and Au Revoir Simone were two of my favorites.  I also really enjoyed the performances of The Vaccines and The Psychedelic Furs (the English rock band that wrote the song “Pretty in Pink,” which was used in the movie of the same name).

We explored the jewelry and food vendors again, enjoyed the music, and took part in an impromptu bubble fight.

Boxes of bubble guns with bubble were stacked and festival goers were free to take the guns and play, so long as they threw the wrapping directly into the trash so as not to litter the reservation with unnecessary waste.  My bubble gun didn’t work, but I didn’t really mind because there were enough bubbles around me already.  The festival grounds, especially the area closest to the main stage, was filled with bubbles, creating a whimsical environment throughout which people felt free enough to enjoy the bubbles as much as they did when they were children.  This episode taught me that, no matter how old you are, you automatically revert back to childhood when handed a gun full of bubble liquid.

The atmosphere of day two was very different from that of day one, in that there were enough people around for the performances to seem like an actual concert experience.  There were people dancing and singing along, whereas day one consisted mostly of people standing nonchalantly or sitting on the grass listening to the bands play.

We visited the science tent again, and met two guys from Rutgers, Jon and Joey, who performed a science show that taught the audience three semesters’-worth of Rutgers physics.

We sat down on a hay bale in the front row, and learned never to do that again.  The two explained that balloons filled with hydrogen float just as well as do those with helium, but that hydrogen is not used because it’s flammable.  I can attest to that, because he set a bunch of red, hydrogen-filled, balloons on fire about three feet in front of me.  I feel lucky to still have hair and eyebrows.  Eventually, Jon asked us to move back from our seats because he was about to do a few more dangerous demonstrations.

One might think it strange that we enjoyed a science show while attending a music festival, but it was really entertaining.  Not only were Jon and Joey personable and funny, but they were knowledgable, and every audience member walked away having considered the different possibilities of science.

In the afternoon, a box of chalk was placed in front of a black wall that spanned a moderately long piece of land on the grounds.  People began to draw on the wall with the chalk, creating a piece of art made up of the drawings of many individuals.  I drew a few flowers and then stood back and watched as my drawings became intertwined with those of the artists around me.

The day, with its increased amount of people and altered atmosphere, was one of fun and freedom as people walked around with flowers in their hair and bubble guns in their hands.

This weekend, I attended the Escape to New York music festival on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton with The Statesman’s music blogger, Chris Priore (click here to read his review of the music of day one).

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a portion of the grounds of the Shinnecock reservation

What is essentially a vast field of grass had been overtaken by two stages, a cornucopia of vendors, several artists, and a group of people looking for a weekend filled with music, sun, and spontaneity.

Admittedly, there was not a huge crowd of people on the reservation on Friday.  When we arrived, at 11a.m., being young, eager, and naive and expecting a long line to pick up our press passes, we did not have much company.  Though that fact contradicted the general characteristics of a music festival (crowded, rowdy, intense), it was actually kind of nice.  We were able to get the lay of the land in a calm, relaxed atmosphere.  There were no long lines and there was no need to push our way up to the front of the crowd while the bands were performing.  It was very different from what we expected, and definitely not your typical music festival experience, but a pleasant atmosphere had been created.

Chris mentioned the bathrooms in his blog, but I’m going to briefly mention them as well because they were legitimately impressive.  Wood flooring, air conditioning, four separate stalls with wooden doors, several sinks, paper towels, good-smelling hand soap; these are not things that one would expect to find at an outdoor music festival.  I like the Hamptons.

Now, what profound idea did I take away from the impressive bathrooms?  (After all, I have to come up with some reason to make it seem reasonable that I am mentioning the bathrooms.)

Here’s what I’ve come up with: They were an instant conversation starter.  Not only was there something to talk about with the other girls using the bathroom, but there was something to talk about with every single festival goer, because everyone had experienced the same moment of shock when they walked in.  Also, they were a sign of the fact that the creators of the festival were truly making an effort to create an atmosphere unlike that of a typical music festival.  It was clear that its organizers wanted the festival to be exactly what it was advertised to be: “a VIP experience.”

Okay, I am finished talking about bathrooms now.

Best Coast performed toward the end of the day.

The first band of the day was The Static Jacks, followed by The Postelles, The Ettes, Lissy Trullie, Chairlift, Best Coast, and, last but not least, the headliner, Patti Smith.  The first few performances were basically private performances, because there were about 15 people in the crowd at the beginning of the day.  The crowd grew as the day went on, especially toward the end of the night when tickets went on sale for $30.

Before The Static Jacks went on, though, we walked over to the acoustic stage, located on the border of the area with the food vendors, and sat at a picnic table listening to a band called OTiS.  The band did a few covers and I really enjoyed their low-key, relaxed attitude, as they smiled at each other and the audience throughout their set and seemed to be having fun and playing not just for the audience, but for themselves.

But for me, the focal point of the festival was not necessarily the music.  The festival as a whole, with all of its moving parts, was far more interesting.

There were art exhibits in little clearings in the woods.  There was a deer with a human face standing, stunned, five feet from the frontal portion of a car whose headlights shone in the darkness.  There was a large black structure resembling a bird cage with a chandelier hanging from the top and cushions lining its floor, meant for mediation.  There was a mystical gamelan orchestra — an Indonesian music ensemble – in one clearing, powered by a computer.  Stepping into each out cove when no one was around was like stepping, for just a moment, into a different world.

And then there was the science tent.  Guerilla Science, a UK-based organization, brings science to music festivals in an effort to take science to unexpected places.  Throughout the weekend, different speakers made presentations under the tent.  On day one, we attended a presentation by a rogue taxidermist.  Rogue taxidermy (also known as “vegan taxidermy”) is taxidermy without the real animals.  Basically, the guy makes stuffed animals.  Despite the fact that I was nauseous for about half of the presentation, I now know more about taxidermy than I ever thought I cared to, and it was actually really interesting.  We had the opportunity to talk to the aqua-and-white-plaid-shirt-and-newsboy-cap-wearing taxidermist, Robert Rich Marbury, later in the day, and he was a really cool guy with a very interesting life.  He showed us photographs of himself dressed as different presidents; it was entertaining.

The science tent was one of my favorite aspects of the festival for the reason which Marbury so accurately stated during our conversation with him: “I think people want to have that duality of ‘I’m going to party, but I also learned something.”

Check back soon to read about days two and three of the festival.

Robert Rich Marbury speaks to a bunny during his taxidermy presentation at the Escape to NY festival.

Friday, Aug. 5, marked the opening day of the first Escape to New York music and lifestyle festival, as well as the coming of Guerilla Science to the US.  The festival was modeled after The Secret Garden Party, a music festival of the UK, and shared both its general premise and its core components; one of which was Guerilla Science.

The grounds of the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, N.Y., were overtaken by stage setups, dance tents, DJ booths, food and jewelry vendors, art exhibits and, most significantly to this particular piece, a tent under which audiences could sit on bales of hay to learn a little bit about the world outside of it.

Guerilla Science is a UK-based organization whose proclaimed goal is to integrate science into the arts world.  Known for bringing thought-provoking scientific demonstrations to The Secret Garden Party, held every summer in London and throughout the English countryside, the organization’s true aim is to bring science to unexpected places, like music festivals.

The tent hosted a slew of speakers of varying areas of expertise, including a taxidermist, a journalist with a background in zoology, a Coney Island strongman, an astrobiologist and others.

Rogue taxidermist Robert Rich Marbury was among the speakers presenting his knowledge of the scientific world.  As a rogue taxidermist, Marbury, in essence, makes stuffed animals.  Known as “vegan taxidermy,” his particular craft does not involve using real animals (though he has used real animals before).

Marbury sees much benefit in the Guerilla Science program, in that it brings science to a party-like setting.

“I think people want to have that duality of ‘I’m going to party, but I also learned something,’” Marbury said.

According to Marbury, the presentations make for a well-rounded environment, and they give people something to take away and remember.

“I honestly think that for the most part people feel like, we also want to be able to bring something out of the experience, and you might remember seeing the skinned squirrel more than a party frog,” Marbury said, referring to the photograph of a skinned squirrel that was shown during his presentation and a giant synthetic frog with a DJ setup within its hind quarters.

Jon Mayes and Joey Reichert teach an audience three semesters-worth of Rutgers physics during the Escape to NY festival.

Jon Mayes and Joey Reichert, who work in classroom support and education outreach at Rutgers University, also presented at the festival.

Mayes affectionately called the merging of science and arts “edutainment” — a term which he felt described his and Reichert’s hour-and-a-half-long performance.  The pair takes audiences through three semesters of Rutgers physics, displaying both their skills and the majesty of science through their eyes.  They set fire to hydrogen-filled balloons, make sound visible using a propane-filled tube with holes through which flames rise and fall depending on the length of the sound wave, freeze flowers with liquid nitrogen and smash frozen bananas with a hammer (among other feats).

The duo’s intent, said Mayes, is “to show [people] that science is real, it’s all around us, it’s relevant, and it’s fun.”

Though the two admitted that a music festival is not the typical residence of a science show, Mayes said that he thinks there is definitely a place for science amongst the fun.  According to Mayes, he and the other speakers can effectively show people that science is fun in the atmosphere of a music festival because people are generally open-minded and having fun anyway.

“I think it absolutely fits,” Mayes said.  “I mean, when you think science, you think, you know, classroom, you’re sitting, and you’re sleeping and texting and on Facebook and not listening to the old guy who’s lecturing to the board about stuff you don’t understand.  Here, [at the festival] people are here, they’re drinking, they’re having fun, they’re cutting lose, right?  So you get to see that science is all around you.  Science, you know, science just is.”

Today was the first day of Escape to New York — a three-day music and lifestyle festival in Southampton.

Statesman Music Blogger Chris Priore and I set out to cover each and every aspect of the festival, from the music to the food to the art exhibits to the vendors.

Due to my exhaustion, the following photos will have to suffice until I regain the ability to write coherently tomorrow.

The festival is being held on the scenic Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton.

Some of the festival staff walked around with costume bunny heads; reason unknown.

This dome was filled with cushions and rose petals. It's more fun than it sounds.

See tomorrow's post for a more detailed description of the above: an Indonesian gamelan orchestra powered by a computer.

This DJ toad was driven around by a man with an umbrella hat, and played music throughout the day.

DJ Toad being driven around by a man in an umbrella hat.

The bunnies are back.

Official festival photographers wore uniforms: gym shorts with high socks, white polos and white sweatbands. For example, see the man to the left in this photo.

Above, for your viewing pleasure, is a photo of a stuffed animal created by a taxidermist who spoke at the festival. Check back tomorrow for details on my interview of him.

Best Coast was among the many bands that performed throughout day 1 of the festival.

Check back tomorrow for the stories behind the photos.

I walked into the Staller Center last night and ran into Cody Blue Snider, whose short film, “All That Remains,” was about to be shown as part of the Stony Brook Film Festival.  He was running around trying to make sure that his friends and family were all seated, so after talking to him for a minute I went upstairs to the auditorium to take my seat.  There I found Yoon, one of The Statesman’s photographers (who has so kindly been photographing the directors and cast members of the films who decide to stick around for a Q&A period).

Coincidentally, my seat next to Yoon was directly behind the seat of Youn, one of The Statesman’s Arts & Entertainment section writers.  Yes, I sat next to Yoon and behind Youn; and yes, their names are pronounced the same way.  I found so much joy in introducing male Yoon to female Youn.  They’d never met before and I jumped at the opportunity to make that happen.

Anyway, Cody’s short film was incredible.  It told the story of a war veteran suffering from dementia and struggling to cope with the memories of the deaths of the ones he has loved throughout his life.  Interestingly, every time he remembers the tragic events in his life, he then has flashbacks of the woman with whom he fell in love.  The man’s memories of death and loss and heartbreak are juxtaposed with his memories of love and hope and happiness, and the contrast truly colors the piece.  Cody didn’t seem to be entirely impressed with his own work, but the audience definitely was.  I think that sometimes we don’t see in our own work what others see in it.  Everyone interprets a work differently, and Cody’s film can be interpreted in many ways.  I think that’s the aspect of the film that impressed me the most.

Cody (who happens to be the son of Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, but is talented in his own right) took to the stage to answer questions at the conclusion of the 20-minute film, and seemed to instantly win the hearts of the crowd as people laughed and applauded enthusiastically.  He spoke of his next project, which he is currently working on, as well.  His next work will be a short film depicting a class of students who pull pranks on their teacher and end up accidentally killing her.  Her head is blown off.  A woman in the audience raised her hand to say that she was affected by the film shown tonight because her mother passed away with dementia, and that she was slightly disappointed in his idea for his next film.  As I sat wondering how or why anyone could have the nerve to say that to a young filmmaker, my question was answered by the woman herself.  “I was your ninth grade Earth Science teacher,” she said.  And then it all made sense.  Cody reassured her that she was not the teacher in the film, saying that it is about a third grade class, and that his third grade teacher, who everybody loved, was Mrs. Stark.  As I mentioned in my opening night blog, Cody and I went to the same elementary school, but he’s two years older than I am.  Mrs. Stark was my second grade teacher.

To read more about “All That Remains,” and about the film that followed it, see my next blog post.

Now that I am not falling asleep on my keyboard, I can write about the film that I saw last night.  I attended the 7p.m. showing of a film called Losing Control.  This showing at Staller was the film’s east coast premiere, and its director, Valerie Weiss, and star, Miranda Kent, were both in attendance.

I turned around to find that I was sitting two rows to the front of Weiss and Kent, which for some reason made me feel cool despite the fact that I was sitting alone because the friend who was going to come with me got stuck at a family gathering and could not come.

I have always had a soft spot for romantic comedies, no matter how predictable and cliché their endings, so I was happy when I did my research on the film and found out that it was of that genre.  I was happier when I found that not only would the film be cute and funny (whenever I use that phrase I feel like I’m describing a person…odd.), but it would not be weightless.  Despite its levity, weight is added in that its main character, Samantha, struggles with the idea that science and faith don’t always seem to coincide.

Samantha is a graduate student of Harvard University doing scientific research in an effort to finally graduate.  Her boyfriend of five years, Ben, proposes to her, and she tells him that she can’t say yes because she needs to prove that they are right for each other.  She wants empirical data to support the hypothesis that she should marry him, and she sets out on a journey to find it.  Sam tells Ben that she needs to see other people, and he tells her that if she needs to see other people after having been with him for five years, there is nothing to think about; he is not waiting around.  Ben is offered a fellowship to China and accepts it (after initially rejecting it in favor of staying with Sam).  Sam decides that she should have a series of one-night stands and grade each partner in each area that is important to her in a relationship.  She makes a data chart, which she carries with her to parties and fills out in front of men without shame, and is sure that this will help her to figure out whether or not she can do better than Ben.

The idea behind the plot line may be cliché, but “cliché” does not always imply “bad.”  The hour and a half during which the audience had the opportunity to follow Sam on her ridiculous and eccentric journey to engagement to the love of her life is one which is fun and pleasant and simple and complex all at the same time.  Yes, the ending was predictable; yes, the part where Ben jumps on a plane to fly back to the United States after he realizes that someone has stolen Sam’s research and taken it to China, only to find that he has arrived just in time to save her, as the guy who had been stealing her research is about to kill her by forcing her to swallow a lethal chemical, is slightly unrealistic (and yes, that was a run-on sentence, but it was run-on for emphasis because that’s how crazy and chaotic the ending is — oooh, a metaphor); but I think that sometimes we need a movie like that.  I think that sometimes seeing a film is a method of escaping our own lives for a little while, and immersing ourselves in a world similar to but different from our own.  Sam’s world is thought-provoking and colored with vibrant characters, and it is the perfect place to escape to for a little while.  Also, Ben (Reid Scott) is cute.

After the showing of the film, Weiss and Kent took two seats on the stage to answer questions from the audience.  Weiss told the audience that her two young daughters, husband and mother were listening to the Q&A — she had them on speakerphone.

Not only is Weiss a director, but she is a writer and producer as well.  Oh, and she also happens to be a Harvard scientist with a PhD.  Weiss, who majored in molecular biology and minored in theater and dance, eventually chose to follow her passion in the filmmaking industry.

“It allowed me to ask lots of questions like science did, but there was no limit,” she said during the Q&A.

According to Weiss, “there’s a wide range of truth and fiction” in the film.  Each character was based on a person, or multiple people, that Weiss encountered during her grad school years, and the science in the film is plausible.  Though the Y-Kill formula (aimed at preventing genetic diseases by killing y-chromosomes) invented by Sam is not a real formula, a formula with a similar function does exist.  There is a formula about to be patented, which is used to kill y-chromosomes in cows so that the mother cow will produce females instead of males in an effort to increase milk production, Weiss said.

The film was incredibly fun to watch and the perfect follow-up to the films of the two previous nights, which were heavy with depictions of the Holocaust and were not the most cheerful pictures of the world.

Tonight was the third night of the festival, and it had a much lighter feel.  The short film that I saw tonight (leading up to the full-length film) was called “Cataplexy,” and I can honestly say that it was the most entertaining short film I have ever seen.

“Cataplexy” tells the story of a man who calls prostitutes to satisfy his sexual needs because he collapses when he experiences the feeling of love.  On the night depicted in the film, the call girl who shows up at his door is coincidentally a girl with whom he went to high school years earlier.  Of course, he falls for her in the end, and proceeds to fall face-first into his broccoli soup.

The short was refreshing because it seemed to be an abbreviated, cut-to-the-chase version of a romantic comedy.  It is not redundant or mundane or annoyingly predictable because predictability is not a concern with its short length.  The audience cannot leave angry at the unoriginal ending because the laudable conclusion was brought to them in a matter of minutes; and those minutes were enjoyable.  I spoke to the film’s director after it was shown and he agreed to do an interview, so expect more on this in a future blog post.

The full-length film that I saw tonight was called Losing Control.  The showing at Staller was the film’s east coast premiere, and its director, Valerie Weiss, and star, Miranda Kent, were both in attendance.  I loved it, and I also loved the fact that I was sitting two rows in front of Weiss and Kent and could turn around in the middle of the movie to see the reaction that Kent had to seeing herself on screen.

I will write more about the film itself and the Q&A session tomorrow.

Me wearing my press pass on the 2nd night of the festival

I arrived at Staller to attend a showing of Fort McCoy on the second night of the film festival, and as I waited for the film to begin, I did some research on my iPhone to see what the film would be about.

Upon finding out that it was another film about the Holocaust, I began having doubts.

The film that I’d seen the night before, though incredible, had dealt with the Holocaust and had completely drained my capacity to withstand emotional torment.  I had been feeling sick all day, and could not bring myself to sit through the entire film feeling sick and sad at the same time, so I did something incredibly rude and left about five minutes into the movie.

To be perfectly clear, my leaving had absolutely nothing to do with the film itself.  The few minutes that I did see of it, and the fact that the film’s creator and some of its cast members were in the audience, actually made me want to stay to see more; but feeling sick and depressed at the same time is not enjoyable, so I just wasn’t in the mood to sit through another heavy movie.

I did, however, stay long enough to watch the short film that was featured before the movie.  The 3-minute film was one made by Kristi L. Simkins and titled “Something Special.”  It tells the story of a young war veteran who travels to New Zealand to experience the natural world, and is reminded of a fellow war veteran who had urged him to explore New Zealand before he was killed.  The 3-minute film depicts the internal flashback of its main character, played by New Zealand actor Dan Musgrove, through dialogue and sound.

After the showing of the short film, its director took to the stage to answer questions about it.  One audience member asked her whether she considers herself a spiritual person (because of the conclusion of the film, at which its character looks to the sky to communicate with his late friend.)

Simkins said that she would say that she is spiritual, but not necessarily religious.  This was interesting to me because it made me think about what it means to truly believe in something.  I think that it’s important to believe in something, whether it is religion or not.  I think that believing in something makes us better people; I think it allows us to lead more fulfilling lives.

As the film’s protagonist grapples with the idea that he is enjoying the breathtaking atmosphere of New Zealand without his former companion, he hears the voice of his friend in his head.  It seems as if he decided to finally travel to New Zealand in honor of his former friend.  He seems to be living his life differently because he has been given a chance, and his friend has lost his.  If looking at life in that way is not spiritual and hopeful, I’m not sure what is.

The film Sonny Boy, which came to Staller from the Netherlands for its premiere showing in the U.S., opens in the 1920s and takes viewers through the time periods prior to, during, and following the Holocaust.

Ricky Koole and Sergio Hasselbaink were the film’s leading lady and man.  Koole plays the part of Rika, a Dutch mother of four who falls in love with Waldemar, a character played by Hasselbaink.  But this is no simple love story.  Waldemar, a black man, has come to Holland from Suriname to go to college.  He meets Rika, who is 17 years his senior, and she takes him in as a tenant after she has left her husband and the maid with whom her husband cheated.

Based on a novel written by Annejet van der Zijl, which tells the entirely true story of the parents of a man named Waldy Nods, the film is not a work of fiction.  Waldy’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters were in attendance of the U.S. premiere.  According to his son, Waldy is still alive today and is in reasonably good health.

The film is just over two hours long, and is more emotionally draining than I could have possibly predicted.  It explores probably every controversial idea in existence: racial discrimination, abortion, fear, love, hope, religious discrimination (it deals with the Holocaust), morality in general, and more.  I am not one who typically cries at movies, and I found myself very nearly in tears (I would’ve been in tears had I not been in a public place and holding them back).

If the ups and downs of the plot line of this film were charted, the result would be a diagram closely resembling one portraying an erratic human heart rate.  It plays with the emotions of its audience as a cat plays with toy mice, carelessly tossing them around and leaving them to deal with the mess that they are left in.  But none of this is negative.

The film is beautiful. It is about struggle, but it is also about hope. Rika is in a concentration camp, squatting on the cold ground in the middle of a pouring rain, and she sees nothing but hope. She sees hope in the rain because it brings her back to the time when she would dance in the rain with her children and Waldemar. She remembers the time when she and her children would play outside in blue and white clothing with pinstripes or polka dots. She sees hope because she knows that things can only get better, and she wholeheartedly believes that they will.

Some may think that she is simply delusional. After all, she sees hope that is not actually there, and she ends up losing the fight; but I think the hope that she sees is beautiful, and that most of us could use a little bit more of it. Hope and faith may be delusions, but so what if they are? We have to believe in something.

Maria Peters, the director of the film, was kind enough to sit down to speak with me at the premiere’s after-party.  I asked her what exactly she would say that the film is about, and she said that it is a film about love.  She said that it is a film about the love that the male and female leads share, and the manifestation of that love in their son, who lives to prove that love conquers all.  To her, all of the other elements are simply things that get in the way of that love and that their love overcomes.  She said that it is about not physical love, but emotional love.  But, she did concede, saying that there is one thing that is stronger than their love for each other: war.  Though the two do everything in their power to keep their love alive, they have no control over the war, and (sorry to give away the ending here…) they fall.  Their son Waldy, however, lives on.  For this reason, Peters tells people that the story is not entirely sad in premise.

The author of the book said in a question-and-answer period after the film that she feels that the disappointing ending is not a disappointment.

“The fact that something is being told makes things right,” she said, emphasizing the fact that the story shares a piece of history, and that she would not be able to justify a plot change to create the stereotypical “happy ending.”

I had the pleasure of talking to Waldy’s granddaughters about what it’s like for them to see their family history on the big screen, especially in lieu of the rather depressing ending.  According to his granddaughters, 17-year-old Doranne Nods and 15-year-old Pien Nods, Waldy had a difficult time watching the film.  After all, he was fundamentally watching the story of his parents’ death.  The girls told me that it was easier for him to deal with the novel, which he could put down when the memories and ideas became too intense; but the movie can’t be stopped, and it’s visual.

I also had the opportunity to speak to Hasselbaink, the male lead.  He told me that this was his first film, and that he is now working on two other projects in Holland.  He is currently a part of both an action movie and a zombie movie — each a far stretch from Sonny Boy.

I honestly cannot say enough positive aspects of the night as a whole.  Having the opportunity to see Sonny Boy in an audience with some of its cast members and director, as well as the author of the novel that it is based upon and the family members upon whose family the story is based, reminded me just how lucky I am to have the chance to do this job.

My SBFF Press Pass -- The spelling of my last name is wrong, but as long as it's still valid I don't mind.

Last night I attended the opening night screening and reception of the 16th Annual Stony Brook Film Festival.

Our film blogger, Joe Piccininni, was planning on joining me, but he got in a car accident on the way. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt; unluckily, it is impossible to drive to Stony Brook without a car.

I sat down in the Staller Center’s auditorium, and the guy sitting three seats to my right turned to me and introduced himself.  He shook my hand and asked me if I was one of the filmmakers (apparently the filmmakers’ passes and press passes are nearly identical).  I told him that I was there to cover the event for The Statesman, and asked him if he had a film in the festival.

As it turns out, Cody Blue Snider, the guy of whom I sat three seats to the left, is a 21-year-old filmmaker who, coincidentally and previously unbeknownst to me, went to my elementary school.  Cody spent his early years living in a house about a block away from mine.  For such a big world, it sure is small.

Anyway, Cody’s short film, “All That Remains,” will be featured in the festival on Wednesday night.  The short has earned a great deal of attention because it was filmed entirely in Stony Brook.  Cody graciously agreed to talk to me about his film at some point during the festival, so expect a post about that sometime next week.

The film that opened the festival is called ”Sonny Boy,” and was brought to Staller from the Netherlands.  The characters in the film speak Dutch and German, so the version shown featured English subtitles.  The movie opens in the 1920s and explores the years prior to, during and following the Holocaust.  Alan Inkles, the director of the Staller Center and founder of the Stony Brook Film Festival announced that the evening’s screening was to be the premiere of the film in the United States.

Inkles announced that the film’s director, select cast members, and a couple of others involved in the making of the film were sitting in the audience and would be answering questions at the conclusion of the showing.  The guy next to me expressed in words exactly what I was thinking when we were informed of this: “This is pretty awesome; to have them in the same room as you,” he said.

It was an incredible night, and not only because of the movie.  It was a night that truly mixed the Dutch and American cultures, as everyone involved with the film is visiting from Holland and will be leaving to return home on Sunday. Doranne and Pien Nods, who are the granddaughters of the man whose parents’ story is told through the film, are two of the sweetest girls I have ever met.  The two are 15 and 17 — not much younger than I am.  We talked about shopping (they’re staying in the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue, and this is their first trip to New York City), compared music tastes, and recommended stores and bands for each other to check out.  At the conclusion of the night, I found myself sitting at a table at the after-party in the Wang Center talking with Cody, his friend Jordan Jacinto — an acting student who goes to school in L.A. — and Waldy’s granddaughters, as the five of us tried to introduce each other to the aspects of our own countries that stick out in our minds.

To find out more about the film, and to read what its director and cast members had to say to me, see my next blog post.

Every week in the Throwback Thursdays series, you’ll be exposed to musical gems from past years or even decades that you may have missed when they first came around and are worth taking notice of.

Belle and Sebastian is an indie pop act out of Glasgow, Scotland, which borrows its name from the French children’s novel Belle et Sébastien. Lead singer Stuart Murdoch delivers delightfully wistful songs that have been featured in movies, such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Juno, as well as in television shows, such as How I Met Your Mother and Gilmore Girls. Members of the group have gone on to perform in and find acts such as God Help the Girl, Camera Obscura and The Gentle Waves. Belle and Sebastian is one of my favorite groups, and always manages to sneak onto a mixtape I make for a friend — no matter the mood of the tape, Belle and Sebastian has covered it all.

A Summer Wasting, off of the critically acclaimed The Boy With the Arab Strap

Another Sunny Day, off of The Life Pursuit

Joe is a sideburns-wearing, hyphen-using, Q-Tip loving compulsive stove-top cleaner residing in NY. He really likes movies. He is co-founder and contributing Visionary at twovisionaries.com.

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So you’re a Stony Brook student. Okay; Good for you.

I am, too. Luckily, here at SB, we have lots of wonderful opportunities available to us which we can take advantage of. The only thing you have to do is find them.

I love films. Since 1996, the Stony Brook Film Festival (which I will refer to as SBFF from here on out) is one of those wonderful opportunities available to us. Taking advantage of this wonderful blogging opportunity, I will be attending the festival for the purpose of self enlightenment. Really, that’s the number one reason. But why should you be grateful? Because I will be sharing with YOU, my readers, the enlightenment I will be taking away from the festival. This enlightenment will roll downhill onto the blog for everyone to eat. With that established, I expect all of you to read this blog on a daily basis.

Moving onward, If you need further explanation, the SBFF is a festival of films – a showcase of independent works from filmmakers around the globe. It lasts July 21st – 30th at our very own Staller Center for the Arts. The theater handles two screenings per night, typically around the 7 and 9pm hours. You can check out a schedule of the screenings here.

Tickets are priced accordingly. $7 for students, $9 for non-students/per screening.
A pass to every screening can be purchased for $75.

Hope to see you there!

Photo Credit: Ezra Margono

This semester’s final RockYoFaceCase event took place last Monday alongside the MAMA Art Show at the Stony Brook University Student Union.

RockYoFaceCase ended its second year-long concert series with free cake, balloons and six bands: 3dB, WreQ.one & Adonis hosted by Ben’Jammin, Peyote, Spirit People, Knick Knack & The Paddy Whacks and Lawn Chair Bombers.

Next door, in the Union Ballroom, the MAMA Art Show attracted students who were curious to see what the show was about.

The show, which features student art, was the university’s second to be put on by the Undergraduate Student Government and the Fine Arts Organization. The show featured artwork that adhered to an urban theme, along with free popcorn and pizza.

Senior health science major Amandeep Nagpal, who contributed a compilation of digital photographs to the show, said that he was pleased that the show gave students an opportunity to express themselves despite the fact that Stony Brook is not known for its art department. He also said that he was happy with student involvement.

“I wanted to display my photos one more time before I go,” said Nagpal, who is set to graduate this spring.

According to Nagpal, the show attracts many people because it is in the Union and is convenient.

“I’m just happy because people are actually interested,” Nagpal said.

Freshman studio art major Patricia Arnedo also had a piece displayed in the show.

Arnedo’s piece was a sculpture of a hand making the shape of a gun. According to Arnedo, it was meant to depict “humans as a weapon” and to convey the idea that when one hurts others, he or she is really hurting him or herself.

The hand, which Arnedo originally made for a sculpture class project, is a wire infrastructure wrapped in plaster bandage.

Like Nagpal, Arnedo was also impressed with the attendance of the show. When asked, she said that the best part was “that people are so interested in it, and that so many people come.”

The two events coexisted, creating an expressive and exciting environment for students to visit that night and augmenting each other to prove that Stony Brook does have a creative side.

Graduate mechanical engineering student Anthony DeFilippo emerges from the Batmobile boat on a one-man bike kayak during the middle segment of his team's heat in the Regatta. (Photo Credit: Aleef Rahman)

Roth Pond was the stomping ground of hundreds of students and numerous diverse and unique cardboard boats on May 6.

Some boats were particularly intricate and interesting, such as those created by the Equestrian Team and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

The Equestrian Team, which competed with a horse-shaped boat last year, created comic book superhero Aquaman on a seahorse for this year’s race.

According to junior engineering science major and Equestrian Team member Kayleigh Reamy, the boat took about a week to build.

“We didn’t put in too much time until Wednesday into Thursday into Friday,” Reamy said.

The standout boat of the event, however, seemed to be the one created by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. The engineers built a boat that was actually car-like. Not only did it have wheels, it had a removable motorcycle-like middle that was used by the team to gain an edge against competitors.

Team members who were rowing the boat sat inside the cardboard structure, and one of the team members was pushed out on the middle piece about halfway across the pond.

The boat did not win, but it was a spectacle and the design was noticeably different from and more advanced than that of anyone else.

“This is our last year at Stony Brook, so we wanted it to be awesome,” said Anthony DeFilippo, a graduate student studying mechanical engineering.

According to DeFilippo, the team used computer-aided design software to formulate a plan. After designing the boat, the team began to actually build it, beginning with a raft for a base.

The more streamlined boats seemed to have the true competitive edge, however, as canoe and kayak-shaped boats seemed to have an easier time propelling themselves across the pond.

Photo Credit: Arielle Dollinger

On a three month average, 214 people walk through the doors of the Stony Brook University Sleep Disorders Center each month. Of those 214 people, many are college students, said Theresa Haegele, a secretary at the center.

According to the center and copious amounts of research, sleep disorders plague college campuses.

Young adults moving into dormitory buildings, are granted the freedom to do whatever it is that they please, can drink alcohol under no supervision, are influenced by their peers, forget that time management skills exist and some even take surveys about going to sleep at 3 a.m.

(Graphic Credit: Arielle Dollinger and Alessandra Malito)

An unscientific survey of 55 college students conducted through a survey by The Statesman in March and distributed using Facebook showed that there is much potential for the existence of both diagnosed and undiagnosed sleep disorders in college-aged individuals. Fifty percent of survey-takers said that they think they might have a sleep disorder, but have never been seen by a doctor. Four of the 55 said that they have been diagnosed with sleep disorders.

David Morrissey, a senior at Stony Brook, said that he has suspected that he has had a sleep disorder for eight years now. He has yet to see a doctor about the problem.

“My parents and pediatrician thought I was paranoid, but recently I’ve actually just been lazy about it,” Morrisey said. “I guess it’s not as bad to the point where it’s unbearable.”

According to Sleep Disorders Center Doctors Avram Gold and Rina Awan, it is far from unusual to have college students come into the center for an exam. Awan said that most come in at the insistence of their boyfriends or girlfriends, who tell the individuals that their breathing and snoring patterns during sleep are irregular.

“Most of the time, it is somebody else telling them, and they’re not that aware of their need for sleep evaluation,” Awan said.

Gold said that while many believe that sleep disorders are the result of psychological turmoil, he does not believe this to be entirely true.

“What has come out over the years is that there are far more medical problems with sleep than there are psychological problems with sleep,” said Gold.

According to Chris O’Connor, 24, who graduated from Stony Brook with a degree in biology and is now learning how to work in the field through experience at the center, the atmosphere of a typical college campus is not conducive to healthy sleep habits.

“College gives you probably really bad sleep hygiene,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor said that he has learned that drinking alcohol is one cause of college sleep problems in general.

“Insomnia is a very common complaint,” Gold said. “The two biggies are insomnia and fatigue and they usually go together.”

Gold, however, does not mention the effects of alcohol. He cites breathing problems as the core instigators of further unrest.

“In most of these people, there’s some element of a breathing problem, that is responsible for the insomnia and the fatigue,” Gold said.

The sleep center usually solves problems with breathing apparatuses or orthodontics. The center also provides information to students about ways to sleep better, advocating methods other than medication.

A list of “17 Helpful Sleep Tips” from SleepBetter.org, which the sleep center provided, recommends several solutions that many college students have difficulty employing.

“Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, which suppress deep sleep, within three to six hours of bedtime,” the article advises. And then, of course, there’s time management.

The prevalence of sleep disorders on college campuses is a problem that can be mitigated by visiting the sleep center for overnight tests or by self-awareness. And by not taking sleep surveys at 3 a.m.