Fine Arts Faculty Show inspires students

This acrylic on canvas, created by Willoughby Elliot, is entitled “Sunday Morning,” and it captures the beautiful colors of both sky and land.

Bryan McFarlane’s watercolor piece, “Immigrants’ Heads: Prizes for the Head Hunters Who Are Over Patriotic and Non Un-American” is a study for “unexploded Ordinance.”

By Shara Sarnelli

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) continues its 2007-2008 exhibition season with “Fine Arts Faculty Show,” which is on display in the CVPA campus gallery. A wide array of work, created by members of the CVPA Fine Arts Department, illuminates the gallery. Viewers are attracted to work ranging from acrylic paintings to cast iron, from watercolor to steal and plaster, from mixed media to bronze and much more. With the variety of work, all the media areas of the Fine Arts Department are expressed: drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.

Donald Beal decided to get this exhibition together on his own. Beal states that “there have been faculty shows in the past, but they didn’t happen regularly, so I’m making it an annual event.” Making a faculty show a regular event is essential because it is important for students to see their professors working as both artists and teachers. Beal claims “we can provide a useful model for students as to what it might look like to lead an artist’s life.”

As a student, faculty shows impacted Beal as he says, “through my teachers’ examples, it made being an artist seem possible.” All CVPA students and those who aspire to become CVPA students can reach individual artistic dreams; “Fine Arts Faculty Show” makes those dreams seem possible and gives hope to many students.

“Fine Arts Faculty Show” opened on Friday, November 16, which was also an open house day for CVPA. This allowed for many people, whether they attend UMass Dartmouth or not, to view the stunningly creative exhibition. The exhibition will be on view until December 20 and is free of charge and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Created by Laurie Kaplowitz with acrylic on canvas, “The Visit” illustrates an impressive understanding of light techniques.

“The Petitioner” of 2007 belongs to Anthony Fisher and demonstrates oil on panel.

UMD's got talent

Students at UMD’s Got Talent showcased their various talents — including singing, dancing and playing instruments — in hopes of pleasing the judges and audience. The two-night event, which allowed students to pick the winner, was held on November 14 and 15 in the Main Auditorium. CAB sponsored the event.

Celebrating winter cheer with Maple Ridge Hall

By Shara Sarnelli

Maple Ridge residents, along with Assistant Resident Director Meghan Thompson, enjoy themselves as they attend Maple Ridge’s program Winter Wonderland, which was dedicated to the coming of winter.

Because winter is right around the corner, UMass Dartmouth has begun to celebrate the changing of the seasons and its cheerfulness in numerous ways. One such way is through the Office of Housing and Residential Life staff.

The Resident Assistants (RA) of Maple Ridge Hall threw a Winter Wonderland party on Wednesday, November 14. The program began at 8 p.m. and lasted until 10 p.m. The program took place in the residential hall’s multipurpose room, located on the ground floor behind the front desk. A donation of one or more canned goods was highly encouraged, as the RAs donated them to charity.

The multipurpose room gave off a welcoming presence as it was home to all sorts of winter decorations. Entertaining sounds of an on-campus band, known as Off-Campus Complaints, gave the wintry room warmth. Fake snow was placed around the room, which was illuminated by white Christmas lights and snowflake shaped lights. Silver tinsel and blue garland outlined the room and paper, decorative snowflakes hung from the ceiling.

Food ranged from deli meat and sandwiches to cookies and crackers. The game “Scene It” was being played in one corner of the room while tables covered with food sat in the center. Couches and chairs were place around the room to provide more comfort to the residents.

Put on by Resident Director Reggie Thomas and RAs Jon Gillen, Meghan Thompson, Yekaterina Filippova, Heidi Runnals, Doug Orgera, Mary Ampong, Amanda Chaloux, Doug Woodhouse, Shara Sarnelli and Shaun Harris, Maple Ridge’s Winter Wonderland had a great outcome with over one hundred residents attending.

Local band named Off-Campus Complaints played soothing music throughout the night for residents to enjoy.

The performance given by UMD musicians consisted of instruments ranging from guitars to keyboards.

THE BEER BARON

Victory Twelve

smells better than it tastes

By Gary Albert

Given how cold it has been recently, I’ve decided to go after some higher alcohol content brews, since they generally give that warming feeling. Victory V-Twelve from Victory Brewing Company in Pennsylvania is one of those beers.

With a whopping 12% alcohol by volume (hence the name), V-Twelve is a Belgian inspired ale. It is specifically of the Quadrupel style. Dubbels and Trippels are typically high alcohol content brown ales, originally brewed in the Trappist Abbey in Westmalle, Belgium; Victory takes this style even further by increasing the alcohol content, making for a sweet but pungent choice.

V-Twelve comes in a 750mL corked bottle, which opens up with a large pop. It pours with a thick, frothy head that settles to a near perfect level in about 10 seconds. V-Twelve is unfiltered and bottle conditioned, meaning there is usually sediment at the bottom. Due to the style and the taste, Victory Brewing recommends that you don’t swirl the bottle to gather up the sediment when pouring, as it may detract from the flavor.

The color is dark amber brown. However, it is primarily transparent, compared to typical dark beers (stout, porter, black lager). The smell is of caramel, bitter citrus and pepper. It also has a very hoppy smell to it that I can’t place. The taste is spicy, of bitter pepper, yet fruity and almost wine-like in alcohol presence.

I personally do not like the taste, as I think the alcohol is too strong, but that’s the style and it is definitely the time of year for it. The mouthfeel, unlike the taste, I do enjoy a lot. It has a carbonated feeling, but not overkill also with a definite alcohol feel to it, but unlike most drinks feeling of alcohol, it is not dry, but very smooth and sweet.

As far as drinkability is concerned, I couldn’t even finish the 750mL bottle I had in one night, so I had to put the rest in the fridge for some other time. Victory has really created a unique beer, but unfortunately it doesn’t suit my palette well. It really smells better to me than it tastes and I don’t know many people, other than wine drinkers, who would be able to drink a whole bottle of it without having to stop and catch their breath.

The good news is, one bottle is enough for two people, so if you’re interested in sharing a bottle of nice beer (as opposed to a bottle of cheap wine) this is probably the beer for you.

Appearance: 4/5

Smell: 4/5

Taste: 2.5/5

Mouthfeel: 4/5

Drinkability: 2/5

Overall: 3/5

This beer is a definitely not for beginners and definitely not my favorite, but it could have some admirers. I’d recommend it to hard alcohol and wine drinkers, due to the similarity in taste and feel.

If you have a recommendation for a beer for me to review (anything goes), want to comment on or criticize my article, or just have questions regarding beer, send me an email at UMDBeerBaron@gmail.com

VIDEO GAME REVIEW

Wii brings back the Zapper for ‘Training’

By Gary Albert

Years ago, one of the most admired games for Nintendo (NES) was “Duck Hunt.” The Zapper that shot the ducks was bundled in many original Nintendo systems. The only game that anyone remembers that used it was “Duck Hunt.” However, there were actually 15 different games that utilized it.

How did the Zapper work? Learning how it worked, it became clear that because of the way certain new technologies work, the old NES Zapper won’t operate correctly with most TVs available today, for example an LCD TV. Nintendo has solved this problem with the Wii, which uses a new technique to create a cursor on the screen wherever the Wii remote is pointing, regardless of the TV or its size.

The Wii Zapper is $25, and it is simply a piece of plastic that the remote and nun-chuck attachment can be held in, shaped like a futuristic blaster. The majority of the cord from the nun-chuck becomes hidden and there is a handle for both the nun-chuck and the remote, allowing both triggers (Z and B) to be reached, with a new, easier-to-hold trigger extending the B button on the bottom of the remote.

The Zapper is very comfortable to hold and definitely better for aiming on the screen. Bundled with it is the real gem. “Link’s Crossbow Training” comes free with the Zapper (or does the Zapper really come free with “Crossbow Training”?) at least that’s how they make it out to be.

The game is worthy of the price alone, and it’s the real reason to buy a Wii Zapper. “Link’s Crossbow Training” is based on the characters and world of “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” and contains many of the locations and enemies from that game in it.

The game itself has a single player and multiplayer mode, as well as nine different levels with three different stages each (27 stages in total). Each is unique in its own way, but there are three different style levels, each with an objective to get as many points as possible.

The first is a shooting gallery style game, where the goal is to hit as many targets or enemies in a row possible while remaining stationary or moving in a fixed direction.

The second type of stage is stationary, but rotating around a fixed point and shooting at enemies is possible. If hit by an enemy, points are lost.

In the third stage, the character is free to move around the level with an objective to kill a certain number of enemies before time runs out. There are also two boss stages with one familiar boss, and another new, but distinctly Zelda style boss.

The game is ridiculously and addictively fun. The scores are rated on a similar system to Wii Sports and Wii Play with bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals to earn on each level, so the score from three designated stages is added together.

This game is recommended to anyone that owns a Wii, and with the low price that it comes at, it’s definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Robby Roadsteamer, Part II: Working on cure for death

By Brett McCabe

North Shore comedian and musician Robby Roadsteamer is fascinated by the simple things in life like Hot Pockets and television.

North Shore comedian and musician Robby Roadsteamer is not a fan of sitcoms or typical Hollywood movies. Roadsteamer praises “Arrested Development” for being so different, which is exactly the reason why it didn’t last more than three seasons. “People don’t want that. People want [expletive] a situational comedy where it’s not even situational because, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t know a situation that exists like those [expletive] shows,” said Roadsteamer.

Predictability isn’t only common on television but in film as well. Roadsteamer discusses this situation with, “Why don’t they make a Spiderman movie where Spiderman dies at the beginning of the movie and the rest of the movie is funeral arrangements or a wake.

“Just something totally outside of the box. You’d watch the movie and be like ‘Holy [expletive]! Everything’s capable in life!’ Instead of the old ‘You’re a bad guy. You’re a good guy. Web, web, web, web. I win!’ I mean, it’s just so funny, man. I don’t think we’re even allowed to do outside the box ideas like that anymore.

“I’d love to have situational comedies where the family’s in the house, and in the first two minutes, a guy comes in with a machine gun, kills everybody and the rest of the situational comedy is how he lives in the house and tries to pretend he’s the family and then sets up some sort of drug ring.”

Stating reality television to be lacking in the “reality” category, Roadsteamer explains how things worked on his appearance on NESN’s dating show “Sox Appeal”: “I had to go up with three girls and have a date. Well, I would have never dated these girls in real life, and they kept feeding me questions to say and they kept telling me what they wanted me to do. If that’s just a little taste of small town reality TV, imagine what they do on “Survivor,” imagine what they do on “American Idol.” I mean, it’s just scary. But, what are you gonna do? I write songs.”

When asked about what music he’s currently listening to, Roadsteamer replied: “Favorite right now, hands down without a doubt: Elliot Smith. The [expletive] he wrote, it was like feeling like I was in a cell at some prison and someone wrote his name, like ‘been there, done that.’ And then, actually this past summer, I had his last album that they released after he died, “From a Basement on the Hill.” Just jaw dropping. Like, just the [expletive] he was saying you could tell he wasn’t in a good space. It’s really sad, but at the same time amicable that a lot of the best art that you’ll ever see or hear… I wouldn’t even say miserable, when they’re not afraid to hold back anymore. When that line is no longer there. I listen to it… and there’s no happy ending. He’s not somewhere out in LA writing another album. It’s like, whoa. That still hits me like a fast ball.”

In the movie “Fight Club” there’s a scene where the two main characters walk into a convenience store and hold a gun to the cashier’s head and say: “If you could do one last thing what would you do?” “I always wanted to be a veterinarian!”

The scene in the film is similar to what Roadsteamer experienced while tripping on mushrooms. “When I was on ’shrooms one time, I always thought I was gonna die. I always thought, ‘If I’m gonna die, what would I wanna do?’ I think my joy came on once I realized ‘I wanna be a singer. I wanna write something. I wanna write something really great.’ Then I realized I wasn’t gonna die and there’s that ecstasy level; ‘I could actually write this out. I’m gonna do this! This is great! I love life!”

Two years ago Robby Roadsteamer stopped looking at sales on iTunes and started looking at the people around him. “I LOVE Massachusetts. Bill Hicks actually has a funny thing about this, ‘I notice people when they get a vacation from work, always go on a plane trip somewhere. Why don’t you take a vacation in the life you chose? Why are you paying a lot of money for a travel agent to travel far away from the life that YOU chose for yourself?’ And it’s true, man. There’s something to be said to actually wake up in the morning and being like ‘Wow. You know what, man? I’m really psyched at the decisions I’ve made; I’m really happy with the people around me I love and I’m really happy with the life I chose.’”

It’s safe to say that Robby Roadsteamer is finally comfortable in his own skin. Putting his legs up and leaning back in the booth at the bar, Roadsteamer describes not regretting abandoning the character he used to play on stage. Calling it his version of Andy Kaufman, he pissed off a lot of people, but it never reached outside of Boston. Yet having a bunch of different phases no one ever knows about won’t matter after he dies, since people will just muddle with his Wikipedia.

Using the bad days to drive creativity, Robby Roadsteamer will write a song, write a blog or make a video. After it goes up on YouTube, the regular fans give it the usual 200 hits. But it’s not about that. It’s about someone later coming up to Roadsteamer and asking him: “Dude, were you trying to say this with it?” To which Robby will agree, happily, “When you get used to your body and your spirit, you’ll find there’s gonna be a lot of people out there that wanna hear what you have to say.”

If you’re in the mood for more humor and insight, check out www.roadsteamer.com.

Christmas comes to Worcester

By Jeff Bogosian

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs classic Christmas carols in an unordinary way for all to enjoy.

On November 16, Worcester got into the Christmas spirit. They didn’t do this by lighting a Christmas tree, hanging wreaths or having a parade; they did it by welcoming a Christmas classic to the D.C.U. Centre.

When the holiday classics are thought of, The Nutcrackers or The Radio City Rocketts come to mind, but ever since 1996 a new name in Christmas entertainment has arrived, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). Do not be fooled by the name, this is not a grandmother’s type of orchestra, but she may enjoy them, too. This orchestra takes the classic Christmas songs and throws a rock and roll twist on them.

As different as the music is from the classical orchestra sounds, the performance is changed even more. The performers in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra do wear tuxedoes, but that is where the similarities between them and classic orchestras end. Instead of having all the performers on stage sitting down in a lifeless scene, the people in TSO are jumping, running and dancing around the stage. The scene in the arena is even more surprising than the band. Smoke, flames, fireworks and lasers illuminated the arena where the concert was held.

TSO’s show starts off with a high tempo overture. They then play a full album, which tells a story, different depending on what show is seen. In this part of the show, which takes about an hour, they mix the fast tempo songs they are best known for with slow, heartfelt songs along with a narrator speaking.

The stories they tell all have to do with Christmas and the spirit of Christmas. These stories leave audience members fully expecting to walk out of the venue to see it snowing and Scrooge running down buying food for the feast with Bob Cratchit.

Once TSO has the crowd all buttered up with the Christmas spirit, they switch the tone of the concert. They play some old favorites such as “Rolling on a River” by Tina Turner.

During this time, TSO also plays the favorites from their other albums, songs like “Requiem (The Fifth)”, which is a hard rock version of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. This part of the concert also includes the lead singers singing on a platform in the middle of the floor section, guitarists being lifted 25 feet into the air on a platform, running through the crowd and flames being shot up along the stage and all along the floor sections.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra isn’t what most parents would expect from a Christmas concert, but it completes its mission, leaving the audience entertained and ready for Christmas. It releases the Christmas spirit everywhere it goes and pleases fans of all ages. The laser show atmosphere will get people excited and dancing. The deep narrations will pacify any crowd.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has become a tradition in many families and all relatives love it, including grandmothers. Fans would recommend adding this to a family tradition starting next year; just make sure no one expects a typical orchestra.

Digital Media Festival Honorees

Dan Flynn gives a speech after receiving the Distinguished Digital Media Alumni Award.

Student participants of the Digial Media Festival were asked to come down at the end of the night to take a bow and be recognized for all their hard work.

Kelly Pavao, photographed with family memebers, received the Thomas J. and Caroln E. Curry Scholarship Award.

MATT'S UNKNOWN MUSIC CORNER

Music recommendation fest: Part III

By Matt Meylikhov

This is the final article of the Musical Recommendation Fest. Enjoy!

The Mountain Goats – John Darnielle began recording in 1991 and hasn’t stopped since. With an incredibly large and vast music library, this acoustic folk band is just what modern day folk enthusiasts need with the lack of folk out there in the world.

Daniel Johnston – Forget Max Bemis, Daniel Johnston is the original psychotic musician. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Daniel Johnston has struggled for years while pursuing his musical career. Writing, recording and performing since 1978, he has put out some absolutely brilliant work that is celebrated by pretty much all your favorite artists. He is still making music today, so give him a listen; he deserves it.

Mew – If bands like Coldplay and Muse are for you, then you’ll love Mew. Hailing from Denmark with high-pitched vocals, heavy bass and delayed guitars, Mew performs an excellent form of spacey rock. They’re a wonderful band to see live as well, as their songs take on a whole new form on stage. Highly recommended.

At The Drive-In – One of the greatest bands of all time. A huge staple in the scene, and I fully guarantee that 99% of your favorite underground bands worship this band as much as I do. You might be more familiar with one of the three bands that came from the break of up ATDI (The Mars Volta, Brazil, Sparta), so if you want to see where these bands came from, you need to find “Relationship of Command,” their greatest CD.

Park – Park is a greatly underrated and a misunderstood band. They were neither big nor popular, but had an incredibly loyal fan-base that stuck around with the band for ten years. And for us, it was ten years full of great music. However, they recently broke up due to personal reasons and now Park is no more. But if you want some good alternative rock, Park is the band for you.

The Shins – I am aware that the majority of you now listen to The Shins because you saw Natalie Portman doing it in the movie “Garden State.” That’s great and all, but that doesn’t mean I myself shouldn’t reinforce it, because the Shins are great. Lately I’ve been listening to their first CD, “Oh, Inverted World” a lot and rediscovering how much I actually enjoy the Shins. I admit they’re a little hard for some to get in to, but they’re more than worth it for all.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – To many, this band is a pinnacle of music. Creating long and 100% epic music, combining all sorts of instruments and capturing all sorts of emotions, Godspeed is a long broken up band of yesterday. However, no music collection should go without a little bit of them to survive. “Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven” should be purchased soon if you do not already have a copy on CD (or on vinyl).

Olafur Arnalds – A modern day neo-classical composer, Olafur recently released “Eulogy for Evolution” and it is an absolutely, incredibly, haunting CD. My friend recommended this to me and it’s some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I put it on in the car one night while driving home at 2 in the morning and the emotional waves this CD can move you through are incredible. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll find this CD.

Boys Night Out – First off, I need to say stay away from the band’s new releases. The only CD by this band you need is “Make Yourself Sick.” This isn’t one of those stereotypical stuck-up attitudes that a band’s later work is crud compared to their first release. “Make Yourself Sick” is a true album with a mix of pop-punk and hardcore. Boys Night Out’s first CD was an absolute triumph when it came out and I still hold it dear to my heart.

Regina Spektor – Regina is a Russian singer songwriter from New York who has been recently making waves in the underground community with the release of her fourth album, “Begin To Hope.” Pop music heavily relying on her piano playing abilities, Regina is a very good pop act out there. However, she’s also easily accessible by others who don’t just want to listen to pop. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see much more of her in the future, thanks to the popularity of her newest album.

Ronnie Day – One year after writing “The Album,” Ronnie Day decided to give it away for free off the internet from his own site. If you like acoustic songwriters in the vein of Chris Carraba (Dashboard Confessional), Andrew McMahon (Jack’s Mannequin, Something Corporate) or Cary Brothers, then this CD is for you. And if not, hey, it’s free, so it can’t hurt to download it and give it a quick shot. Some of the lyrics are ridiculously cheesy in my opinion, but it doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the music in the background.

And there you have it. That’s the final of the three articles. I hope you found something to enjoy out of all the bands listed. If you didn’t, perhaps you are too picky and unwilling to give new things a shot? You tell me. It was hard to pick the artists that I did, but I worked in themes.

When you have over 100 gigs of music on your hard drive, it’s not like there isn’t a vast library to choose from. And considering it grows exponentially almost daily, you should never fear that I won’t have something to share. So look forward to the old format of a singular band per article from now on.

RECOMMENDING RHONDA

A (free!) musical revolution

By Matt Meylikhov

By Rhonda

As winter and Christmas fast approach, it’s time that we start to appreciate the simple (and free!) things in life. The holiday season always puts a pinch on everyone’s wallets and you may not have the money to go out and buy new CDs, even though listening to the same CD on repeat is getting old and irritating. I have just the solution for you: www.pandora.com.

Pandora.com is a free music website that creates personalized radio stations based on the user. Pandora utilizes the Music Genome Project, which was founded by Tim Westergren in 2000 and allows the site to create specific radio stations for you based on a song, artist or album that you like.

According to the website, the Genome Project was created by a group of musicians and music-loving technologists who wanted to capture the “musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it’s about what each individual song sounds like.” Now that’s intense!

In order to begin taking advantage of this free service, you must first register by clicking on “create an account” on the home page and entering your personal information into the specified boxes. If you have any qualms about registering, you may want to peruse the Frequently Asked Questions section, which you can access by clicking “Help” on the top right side of the screen.

Once you have completed the registration steps, you are home free! You can begin creating your radio stations. For every account that you have, you can create 100 personalized stations. To create your station, click on “Create a New Station” and type in a band, song or artist that you like. The website will automatically create the station and the music will begin to play.

With every new song that comes on, Pandora offers an explanation as to why that song was chosen for your station. If you don’t like a song that they chose, simply scroll down on the picture of the album cover. A pop up will arise with three options: “thumbs down” (meaning you don’t like the song. Pandora will remember never to play that song again and will also completely revise your radio station based on what you do and don’t like), “menu” (which links you to an explanation about why the song was chosen, the option of bookmarking the song, artist or album, information about the song, artist or album and the option to buy the album or song from iTunes or Amazon) and the “thumbs up” option (which will remind Pandora that you like the song, so they will repeat it in the station every once in a while).

With every new station and every thumbs up, thumbs down and bookmark that you make on the website, Pandora will add information to your personal profile. This profile keeps tracks of all of the songs and artists that you bookmarked, the dates you bookmarked them, the different radio stations you have and also allows you to create a personalized profile by writing about yourself.

If you want to share your station with your friends, the website tells what your link would be and you can simply copy and paste that link into e-mails, onto Facebook wall posts or through Pandora’s own “Share” options.

Pandora also has a cool shuffle option at the bottom of your list of stations called “Quick Mix.” This mix shuffles all of your stations and allows you to get a sampling of all of your favorite bands and songs, rather than sticking with one particular genre and style of music, as you would with the typical one-station-at-a-time option.

Pandora has recently come into some new technology and now has features where you can play your stations in the home or on the go with the purchase of their new products, which allow you to reap the benefits of Pandora without having to be in the vicinity of a computer that is logged online. If you become a Pandora enthusiast, as most people who are exposed to Pandora become, I recommend checking out these advanced options on www.pandora.com/in-the-home?from_home=1.

The only drawback I can find to the website is that you can’t go backwards and replay songs that you like. You can’t decide what songs play at what time and you can’t pick and choose what track order you would like. However, you can press the back arrow and look through all of the songs you have already listened to. You can also pause the song you’re currently listening to if you want to get up from the computer and do a few things, but don’t want to miss out on the song. But you can’t tell Pandora what you want to play or when.

To some, this may be a positive aspect. I know I have certainly stumbled upon many new artists and songs that I would not have found if the track list was always up to me, so I am quite thankful for the exposure. Also, the thumbs down option certainly cuts out the amount of unpleasant music that I listen to. If Pandora starts playing a song I can’t stand, it’s no issue. I skip it. And I can keep skipping until I find a song that satisfies me, and Pandora will remake my station to satisfy my tastes, as well.

I have been a devoted member of Pandora.com for almost three years now. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who is looking to listen to their favorite artists and also discover new ones. Pandora almost never plays the same song twice within any six hour period of continuous usage, so the music is quite varied and interesting. I am thankful that someone recommended the website to me, and now it’s up to you to learn it, use it and love it.

ASK MISS CHERRY

Devastating results of a drunken hookup

Dear Miss Cherry,

It burns when I go to the bathroom. I thought it was something I ate, but I’ve been regulating my diet for over a week. Could it possibly be an STD? My friends said that I might have hooked up with a girl last weekend after a keg party, but the weekend is really blurry. I am going to get tested soon, but I was wondering if you knew what I might be dealing with here. — Burning Stream

Dear Burning,

Because I am not a trained medical professional, I can’t say for certain what you are dealing with. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes and a UTI all list burning sensations when urinating as one of their symptoms. Because of the number of diagnoses that this symptom applies to, it may be difficult to determine whether or not your symptom is the result of an STD.

This would depend on if you engaged in sexual activity with the girl. And if you did, was a condom or another form of a barrier used? Your best option would be to consult your doctor to get tested and find out what exactly is the cause of your urinary pain. If you request them, STD tests may be run.

As for the future, always use a condom when having sex with a new partner. Bring one with you to a party as an extra precaution. Another thing to consider is your drinking. If you are getting drunk every weekend to the point where you are having trouble remembering sexual situations and events, it is time to get help.

Drinking alcohol impairs your judgment so you could be engaging in activities that you normally wouldn’t participate in when sober. You can also make poor judgment calls, like having unprotected sex, which can then lead to pregnancy, or the contraction of an STD.

Try contacting the Counseling Center on campus to curb your drinking habits and talk to your medical doctor about your symptoms.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

While Miss Cherry’s advice is well-researched and supplemented with matierals provided by on-campus Health Services, she is not a trained health professional.

All serious medical questions should be discussed with a trusted family healthcare provider or member of the university’s dedicated Health Services or Women’s Resource Center staff.

Health Services can be contacted at 508-999-8982 or visited online at www.umassd.edu/studentaffairs/health/.

The Women’s Resource Center is located in Pine Dale can be contacted at 508-910-4584 or visted online at http://www.umassd.edu/wrc/.