We are posting five new stories on the blog:
Mike Troup, who covers music at Haverford, has a piece about the prevelance of music piracy at the school, with thousands of illegal downloads being done by students.
Juliana Reyes, who is covering off-beat Bryn Mawr, has a tale about a group of students who get together to play Quidditch -- as in the Harry Potter Quidditch.
Sneha Sadarangi, whose beat is the South Asian community, has a profile of the University of Pennsylvania group Penn Masala.
Elizabeth Svokos, who is covering arts and fashion, has a piece about the most popular Bryn Mawr style. She calls it "Whatever."
Juliana Reyes has another piece about the lone male resident of the Bryn Mawr dorms.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Musical Piracy at Haverford College
It happens a lot, but students say they don't worry about being caught. So many do it, they believe there is safety in numbers.
By Mike Troup
Ben has over 15,000 songs stored on his computer and this Haverford College student says that all of them have been downloaded illegally.
The school’s Honor Code, which has rules against theft, at first acted as a deterrent to him, but not for long.
“When I got to Haverford I didn’t pirate music for a few weeks because I felt that it was against the Honor Code, but I got sick of not being able to get new music,” said Ben. (His name, along with others in this story, has been changed to conceal his identity. The students interviewed requested anonymity in exchange for candor about their downloading habits.)
Direct conflict with the Honor Code troubles many Haverford students, who struggle with the idea that music piracy is theft, but Ben has no qualms. He feels it is okay to break the rules that separate students from the music they want.
“I think copyright is intrinsically flawed in a digital era where content can be reproduced so easily,” he said. “I don’t think Duke Ellington is going to mind if I take one of his albums.”
Ben wasn’t kidding when he said pirating is easy. He uses free download sites like Kazaa and Limewire daily to contribute to his stash of 15,000 songs. Those sites make it possible to download over 100 songs in a day. If Ben played his pirated library from start to finish, the music would be playing for more than 21 days.
Ben isn’t the only Haverford student who pirates music. While not everyone has downloaded 15,000 songs, the majority of students interviewed for this story admit to using download websites to add to their music library.
Safety in Numbers
A student we will call Caroline has over 3,000 songs on her computer that she did not pay for. Her stance mirrors the “above the law” mentality that Haverford students have adopted on this issue. Their belief is that most Haverford students download music illegally, so there is no chance of getting in trouble.
“They’re not going to catch me, everyone does it,” said Caroline..
A woman we will call Lisa is another avid music pirate who shares Caroline’s belief that there is safety in numbers.
“I’m aware of the consequences, but everyone else downloads music so I don’t take the
consequences too seriously,” she said.
What students like Ben, Caroline and Lisa do not realize is that people do get caught pirating music on the Haverford campus.
Barbara Mindell, the Director of Academic Computing Services at Haverford, deals with attorneys that are taking legal action on students on campus.
“Every year we get notifications from attorneys of the copyright holders to notify a student that he or she is being sued,” said Mindell. “They are spending millions of dollars to monitor things that are going over the network to try to catch people pirating music. It’s a huge issue.”
Mindell also added that legal action should come not as a surprise to these students. The risks of downloading copyrighted material are clearly shown on the college’s Academic Computing Center’s website. The potential consequences are all listed.
Keeping it Secret
This is not enough to scare Caroline. She said has found a way to protect her computer from being found as having copyrighted material. “I disabled my file-sharing, so now people can’t take files from my computer” she said.
What is ironic is how Caroline learned how to use this protective measure.
“Someone from the Academic Computing Center taught us how to do it last year during customs week,” she explained, “It’s even on their website.”
Sure enough, Caroline was right.
On the ACC website there are two links to websites titled “How Not to Get Sued for File Sharing” and “Disabling Peer to Peer File Sharing”.
Andrew Lipstein, 20, wishes that he had known about these links. In 2006, Lipstein was contacted by the school saying that he had to pay a $75 fine for sharing music or else he would
Be denied access to the school’s school’s internet.
“Although I used to frequently download music, I was caught for having shared my music. Apparently someone took a song off of my computer” he said.
Lipstein said that he is lucky that he was only caught for one song. He added that a friend is currently being sued for $750 a song for 10 songs that were found being illegally distributed from her computer.
It is an ongoing battle between the music industry and college students that do not want to spend money for music. While there are isolated incidents of students being caught, there are far more incidents of people who continue to download illegally.
“If I want a song, I’m going to download it,” said Caroline. “I’d still rather take a risk than have to pay for my music.”
By Mike Troup
Ben has over 15,000 songs stored on his computer and this Haverford College student says that all of them have been downloaded illegally.
The school’s Honor Code, which has rules against theft, at first acted as a deterrent to him, but not for long.
“When I got to Haverford I didn’t pirate music for a few weeks because I felt that it was against the Honor Code, but I got sick of not being able to get new music,” said Ben. (His name, along with others in this story, has been changed to conceal his identity. The students interviewed requested anonymity in exchange for candor about their downloading habits.)
Direct conflict with the Honor Code troubles many Haverford students, who struggle with the idea that music piracy is theft, but Ben has no qualms. He feels it is okay to break the rules that separate students from the music they want.
“I think copyright is intrinsically flawed in a digital era where content can be reproduced so easily,” he said. “I don’t think Duke Ellington is going to mind if I take one of his albums.”
Ben wasn’t kidding when he said pirating is easy. He uses free download sites like Kazaa and Limewire daily to contribute to his stash of 15,000 songs. Those sites make it possible to download over 100 songs in a day. If Ben played his pirated library from start to finish, the music would be playing for more than 21 days.
Ben isn’t the only Haverford student who pirates music. While not everyone has downloaded 15,000 songs, the majority of students interviewed for this story admit to using download websites to add to their music library.
Safety in Numbers
A student we will call Caroline has over 3,000 songs on her computer that she did not pay for. Her stance mirrors the “above the law” mentality that Haverford students have adopted on this issue. Their belief is that most Haverford students download music illegally, so there is no chance of getting in trouble.
“They’re not going to catch me, everyone does it,” said Caroline..
A woman we will call Lisa is another avid music pirate who shares Caroline’s belief that there is safety in numbers.
“I’m aware of the consequences, but everyone else downloads music so I don’t take the
consequences too seriously,” she said.
What students like Ben, Caroline and Lisa do not realize is that people do get caught pirating music on the Haverford campus.
Barbara Mindell, the Director of Academic Computing Services at Haverford, deals with attorneys that are taking legal action on students on campus.
“Every year we get notifications from attorneys of the copyright holders to notify a student that he or she is being sued,” said Mindell. “They are spending millions of dollars to monitor things that are going over the network to try to catch people pirating music. It’s a huge issue.”
Mindell also added that legal action should come not as a surprise to these students. The risks of downloading copyrighted material are clearly shown on the college’s Academic Computing Center’s website. The potential consequences are all listed.
Keeping it Secret
This is not enough to scare Caroline. She said has found a way to protect her computer from being found as having copyrighted material. “I disabled my file-sharing, so now people can’t take files from my computer” she said.
What is ironic is how Caroline learned how to use this protective measure.
“Someone from the Academic Computing Center taught us how to do it last year during customs week,” she explained, “It’s even on their website.”
Sure enough, Caroline was right.
On the ACC website there are two links to websites titled “How Not to Get Sued for File Sharing” and “Disabling Peer to Peer File Sharing”.
Andrew Lipstein, 20, wishes that he had known about these links. In 2006, Lipstein was contacted by the school saying that he had to pay a $75 fine for sharing music or else he would
Be denied access to the school’s school’s internet.
“Although I used to frequently download music, I was caught for having shared my music. Apparently someone took a song off of my computer” he said.
Lipstein said that he is lucky that he was only caught for one song. He added that a friend is currently being sued for $750 a song for 10 songs that were found being illegally distributed from her computer.
It is an ongoing battle between the music industry and college students that do not want to spend money for music. While there are isolated incidents of students being caught, there are far more incidents of people who continue to download illegally.
“If I want a song, I’m going to download it,” said Caroline. “I’d still rather take a risk than have to pay for my music.”
Quidditch Anyone?
They play it for real at Bryn Mawr
By Juliana Reyes
It’s a brisk morning after the celebrated Halloween party at Bryn Mawr College, but there is no time to nurse a hangover. It’s game day.
For Quidditch.
The wizarding game, played by Harry Potter and his friends, has been played at Bryn Mawr College since the late nineties.
“I can’t remember but it was before Harry Potter went mainstream,” says Dwyn Harben, who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1986. “You couldn’t even get American editions.”
Since she has a car and a shed, Harben is in charge of keeping all the Quidditch materials.
“The stuff lives in my shed,” she says.
“The stuff” includes hoops made of gold tinsel attached to long plastic sticks (these are the goals), foam bats used to beat people in order to make them drop the large red ball, known as the Quaffle, hacky sacks attached to coat hangers (these are called Bludgers) and the most important part of the game: the Snitch.
It’s a brisk morning after the celebrated Halloween party at Bryn Mawr College, but there is no time to nurse a hangover. It’s game day.
For Quidditch.
The wizarding game, played by Harry Potter and his friends, has been played at Bryn Mawr College since the late nineties.
“I can’t remember but it was before Harry Potter went mainstream,” says Dwyn Harben, who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1986. “You couldn’t even get American editions.”
Since she has a car and a shed, Harben is in charge of keeping all the Quidditch materials.
“The stuff lives in my shed,” she says.
“The stuff” includes hoops made of gold tinsel attached to long plastic sticks (these are the goals), foam bats used to beat people in order to make them drop the large red ball, known as the Quaffle, hacky sacks attached to coat hangers (these are called Bludgers) and the most important part of the game: the Snitch.
Chasing the Snitch
In the Harry Potter books, the Snitch is a magical, winged gold ball that flies with intense speed and has the power to appear and disappear in a second. Catching the Snitch gives a team 150 points and usually wins them the game.
At Bryn Mawr, the Snitch is a painted gold ball that players hide in their pockets. It is stealthily passed along until the end of the game, when it is “released,” meaning that the player who has the Snitch is about to get chased down the field.
“That’s when the person with the Snitch realizes it wasn’t such a good idea to hold onto it,” says Mara Goldberg, a senior at Bryn Mawr College who organizes the Quidditch games.
Goldberg, who is wearing a pink hat with a flying pig on it, begins the game by telling everyone the rules.
“Absolutely no blows to the head,” she says. Then the Quaffle is thrown into the air and the game begins. Soon Goldberg tosses her hat to the sidelines; it’s getting in the way.
Quidditch is only played once or twice a semester but the two teams, distinguished by green and magenta sashes, are composed of a diverse group of people. There are ten players and they are mostly dressed in jeans and T-shirts, but Charlotte Maskin, a freshman, wears a long denim skirt and olive green snow boots. (Her skirt doesn’t hold her back - she is the green team’s highest scorer.) Another girl puts on a thick, woolen cloak during water breaks.
Matthew Sicat, 7, speeds around the field in an oversized jersey that reaches his knees. He holds a tiny, half-broom, since the normal-sized broom was taller than him.
Sicat, who has only seen the Harry Potter movies, was brought here by his babysitter who is also playing. He says it is his first game.
“I just wanted to check it out,” he says. “I made a few points of my own.”
At Bryn Mawr, the Snitch is a painted gold ball that players hide in their pockets. It is stealthily passed along until the end of the game, when it is “released,” meaning that the player who has the Snitch is about to get chased down the field.
“That’s when the person with the Snitch realizes it wasn’t such a good idea to hold onto it,” says Mara Goldberg, a senior at Bryn Mawr College who organizes the Quidditch games.
Goldberg, who is wearing a pink hat with a flying pig on it, begins the game by telling everyone the rules.
“Absolutely no blows to the head,” she says. Then the Quaffle is thrown into the air and the game begins. Soon Goldberg tosses her hat to the sidelines; it’s getting in the way.
Quidditch is only played once or twice a semester but the two teams, distinguished by green and magenta sashes, are composed of a diverse group of people. There are ten players and they are mostly dressed in jeans and T-shirts, but Charlotte Maskin, a freshman, wears a long denim skirt and olive green snow boots. (Her skirt doesn’t hold her back - she is the green team’s highest scorer.) Another girl puts on a thick, woolen cloak during water breaks.
Matthew Sicat, 7, speeds around the field in an oversized jersey that reaches his knees. He holds a tiny, half-broom, since the normal-sized broom was taller than him.
Sicat, who has only seen the Harry Potter movies, was brought here by his babysitter who is also playing. He says it is his first game.
“I just wanted to check it out,” he says. “I made a few points of my own.”
Time to Get Silly
Danae Ostroot, a freshman at Bryn Mawr, sits in her wheelchair and grips her foam bat, attacking anyone who comes near her.
“I’m having a lot of fun hitting people,” she says. It’s her second Quidditch game.
Harben, a banker who works in New York and lives in Bryn Mawr on the weekends, says she plays Quidditch because she likes to encourage wholesome activities.
“Too many college kids spend all their time getting drunk,” she says. She likes Quidditch because it’s “a way to be incredibly silly and get some exercise.”
Harben, 48, has been playing Quidditch ever since it started at Bryn Mawr, though she had already graduated. She calls it regressing.
“It’s cutting out on adulthood,” she says.
Harben is one of the most enthusiastic people when it comes to recruiting new players. Throughout the game, people walk by, stop, stare, laugh. Goldberg, Harben and the other girls constantly yell invitations to join the game. One time Harben even shouts an invitation at a Public Safety officer in his parked car.
“You wanna come play?” she asks, striding over to his van as she clutches her broom. “You need to come out and make sure we’re playing it safely.”
The girls giggle and continue the game until someone yells, “Water break!”
“Has anybody been keeping score?” Goldberg asks the others as they come to the sidelines.
“Why would we keep score?” One girl responds. “It’s Quidditch!”
But towards the end of the game, it seems like the players have agreed on a score.
“Eleventy-one to q,” Goldberg says, grinning.
Then the players are off again, running, giggling and yelling. And dodging foam bats.
Danae Ostroot, a freshman at Bryn Mawr, sits in her wheelchair and grips her foam bat, attacking anyone who comes near her.
“I’m having a lot of fun hitting people,” she says. It’s her second Quidditch game.
Harben, a banker who works in New York and lives in Bryn Mawr on the weekends, says she plays Quidditch because she likes to encourage wholesome activities.
“Too many college kids spend all their time getting drunk,” she says. She likes Quidditch because it’s “a way to be incredibly silly and get some exercise.”
Harben, 48, has been playing Quidditch ever since it started at Bryn Mawr, though she had already graduated. She calls it regressing.
“It’s cutting out on adulthood,” she says.
Harben is one of the most enthusiastic people when it comes to recruiting new players. Throughout the game, people walk by, stop, stare, laugh. Goldberg, Harben and the other girls constantly yell invitations to join the game. One time Harben even shouts an invitation at a Public Safety officer in his parked car.
“You wanna come play?” she asks, striding over to his van as she clutches her broom. “You need to come out and make sure we’re playing it safely.”
The girls giggle and continue the game until someone yells, “Water break!”
“Has anybody been keeping score?” Goldberg asks the others as they come to the sidelines.
“Why would we keep score?” One girl responds. “It’s Quidditch!”
But towards the end of the game, it seems like the players have agreed on a score.
“Eleventy-one to q,” Goldberg says, grinning.
Then the players are off again, running, giggling and yelling. And dodging foam bats.
A Mix of Musical Spices
A profile of Penn Masala, an a cappella group that knows how to mix the sounds of of South Asia with America.
By Sneha Sadarangani
Fourteen guys with a love for music, a penchant for singing and a talent for fusing Indian beats and American tunes translate into Penn Masala, the University of Pennsylvania’s all-male, South-Asian a cappella group.
On this particular day, the group is hard at practice for their upcoming show.
They huddle in a close circle and launch into American pop sensation Ne-Yo’s Because of You, which is taken over by Hindi lyrics and Indian melodies, rounded off by western-style beat boxing.
The last strains of the song fade out and they go right into the next song; their own rendition of Sting’s Desert Rose, complete with a middle-eastern vibe and peppered with Arabic.
“Our music is distinct. Everything we perform has a Masala stamp on it,” said Anup Bharani, music director of the group.
Comprising primarily of South Asians born and brought up in America, Penn Masala merges the two cultures into a fusion of sound. They chose their English songs based on how well they blend with Hindi music and if the lyrics harmonize across the two languages. The end result is elastic, distinctive music, artfully juggling unexpected beats and melodies.
A Blend of Cultures
“Our parents feel really proud that we’ve merged the Indian culture they’ve instilled in us and the Western culture we’ve grown up with,” said Nikhil Marathe, lead percussionist of the group.
Currently on their fifth album, Penn Masala was founded in 1996 when four UPenn students decided to mould their love for South-Asian music into a more universally appreciated genre. After strengthening their fan base across campus, the group has gone on to perform in cities such as New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
Their unique music has even earned them international acclaim. Penn Masala has performed in London, Toronto and across India, for sold-out crowds.
“The response we received in India was overwhelming,” said Bharani. “Performing without instruments was a new concept to the audience and it felt great to introduce them to a cappella.”
Penn Masala typically puts on two shows a year at UPenn and around six at off-campus locations.
“Our audience is usually evenly distributed across South-Asians and Americans. Off campus performances tend to show a bias towards Indians but in general our music caters to a wide range of musical tastes,” said Sagar Bhatt, a senior member of Penn Masala.
Increasing media exposure including a recent stint on NPR, news features in the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily Pennsylvanian and Penn Masala’s website and online radio have expanded their fan base beyond the South Asian community.
'Their Own Flavor"
“Penn Masala has their own flavor,” said Elliott Thomasson, a sophomore at UPenn. “I don’t follow the Hindi parts but I like that they’ve retained their culture in their music.”
Will Van Eaton, another UPenn student agreed: “I don’t know much about South Asian music and wouldn’t have gone for the show if my friend wasn’t performing in it, but Penn Masala just won me over.”
In addition to spreading South Asian culture in America, Penn Masala is actively involved in community service. Their upcoming show in Dallas is a charity fundraiser hosted by Ekal Vidyalaya, an organization which promotes education in rural India. They have previously performed in support of Asha for Education and Raksha, both of which champion the same cause.
“It’s extremely satisfying to be able to give back to our community by doing something we love,” said Marathe.
Penn Masala has been recognized by the Zee Bollywood group for the same, and was awarded the Project IMPACT Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the South Asian-American Community’ at an award ceremony in New York in 2003.
Riding on the success of previous albums, their newest one features three original Hindi songs, which have been written and composed collaboratively by the group. One of the songs ‘Pehchaan’ which literally translates into identity has truly established Penn Masala’s identity on the a cappella scene as it will be featured on the BOCA or ‘Best of College A Cappella’ 2008 album.
Mixing Spices
“After combining and modifying songs ‘Masala’ style, we decided to try our hand at writing our own songs,” said Bhatt.
‘Masala’ which means a mix of spices is fitting; the group maintains a refreshingly original ability to merge Indian classical, Western hip-hop, classic rock and Bollywood beats into a delectable treat for the musical palette across cultures.
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