February may be designated Black History Month but black history is woven into every day of every week of every month of every year. Without black history there would be no light bulb, there would be no refrigerator, no traffic light and no ironing board. What makes February special is that residents of the U.S. are invited to discover and celebrate the intellectual, cultural, social and spiritual contributions of the African-American community with the hope that newfound knowledge will make its way into daily life. A time of learning, Black History Month fits seamlessly into scholastic environments like St. Olaf.
Providing a successful Norwegian program as an alternate language choice has helped give St. Olaf a reputation of keeping up St. Olaf's Norwegian traditions. However, language enthusiasts at have a new reason to be proud. Khider Elnimeiry `07 has brought Arabic to St. Olaf.
You have the same boring class every day, the food is lame and you can't go outside without your nose hairs freezing off. Welcome to Interim. But never fear, frozen friends and foes: romance can save you. In my estimation, more people hook up over Interim than any other time of year. But what is it about Interim that encourages romance? For starters, everything.
There are some student conversations that pop up constantly on the St. Olaf campus -- take discussion of the cafeteria food and hours, for example. The cafeteria is one aspect of campus life that most students deal with on a daily basis, and many no doubt have ideas about how it can be improved.
That is where Greta Goerss `04, comes in. She chairs the Senate`s Student Rights subcommittee, which works to address student concerns about food and beyond. To productively put their ideas into action, students can take their suggestions and criticisms to Goerss instead of just rehashing them with friends.
Brandon Boyd, lead singer of the modern rock band Incubus, compared the groups newest record "A Crow Left of the Murder" to the group's earlier records they had recorded, stating, "It's like petting a cat in the right direction." Other records have been a bit more laborious. This one has been pure joy. Incubus certainly does sound like a band that's having a lot of fun on "A Crow Left of the Murder," the band's fifth album and their first with new bassist Ben Kenney, formerly of the Roots. In many ways, however, Incubus's new album is two steps forward and one step back.
The mark of a truly provocative piece of cinema lies in its ability to stretch the limits of a viewer's psyche and emotions. Take, for example, the critically-acclaimed motion picture "Monster." The film's focal character, modeled after Aileen Wuornos, is a ruthless female serial killer whose real-life nine-month killing spree left six men dead; yet surprisingly, the most consistent emotion this troubled character elicits from audiences is not anger, nor is it judgment.
Indeed, it is likely that audiences will primarily feel an overwhelming sense of pity for the sexually and mentally abused Wuornos, a Michigan-born prostitute who was sentenced to death in 1992 for the murder of six Florida men during 1989-90.
On Feb. 20 the Lingo Dancetheatre performed "Speak to Me," a modern dance meditation on language at the Southern Theater in downtown Minneapolis. The show was preceded by a free performance by Philip Blackburn's Sonic Playground in the lobby of the Southern.
