vol105issue19

Volume 105 No. 19Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Page 7Page 8

This IssueOpinionNews Sports Upgrade

Page 2 Page 5 2 Page 9

Spring Break to Mexico Not Worth the Risk Basketball Season Ends An Impressive 13 Shades of GreyCareer Services Remains Optimistic

U2 releases their twelfth studio album in 30 years, No Line on the Horizon.

Women’s team continues the biggest turnaround in NCAA women’s basketball.

This Week in Album Reviews Dorau the [Sports] Explorer

www.therecorderonline.net

MaTThEw kiErnannews Editor

For as long as the conf lict con-tinues in the Middle East and rela-tionships strain, America will continue to be a divided nation.

Author and military, foreign policy analyst Mark Perry held a lec-ture followed by discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conf lict in which he talked about U.S. involvement in the Middle East and the problems that are continuing between the countries.

“I don’t think reconciliation will work right now because it’s so bloody,” said Perry in regards to the conf licts between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Perry talked about the Islamic resistance organization Hamas that governs Gaza and the funda-mentals of how Hamas works in the modern world of politics.

“Hamas is very political – a democratic organization,” said Perry and added that Hamas is

Author and Analyst Discusses U.S. Relationship with Hamas

MichaEl walshasst. Entertainment

How do the events of the Amistad connect to the election of Barack Obama nearly 170 years later? Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza was on hand for the sixth Annual Amistad Lecture to make that connection.

“My argument is quite simple,” said Zeleza, a distinguished professor of history and African studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. “The saga of the Amistad and the election of Obama are connected – from civil rights to national independence.”

The lecture, which was orga-nized by the Amistad Committee, covered the history of the Amistad to the election of Barack Obama, as well as the African struggle for empowerment.

“This is an important tradition [the Amistad Committee has] estab-lished to remember the Amistad. It’s important that we keep alive the memory of those important events and link them to events today,” said


Estimated to affect five million Americans, bipolar disorder is im-pacting many lives in many ways.

Lizzie Simon, author of “Detour- My Bipolar Trip in 4-D”, came to Torp Theatre last Wednesday to discuss her life growing up with bipolar disorder and advise people on how to treat it while promoting her book.

Bipolar Disorder Explained: Author Tells Her Story

structured to have officials voted in or out.

He discussed his days of hav-ing talks with the Palestine leader Yasser Arafat and the day the for-mer second-in-command Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi came to Arafat to talk about the situation at the time in Palestine.

Perry said that the Hamas leader accused Arafta of betraying the Palestinian people. Rantissi later asked of Arafat what he want-ed from Hamas, to which Arafat requested 40 seats in the Palestinian legislature.

Perry said that Hamas is more of a liberation movement than a re-ligious organization and that their leaders are mainstream secular leaders. He added that the heads of the organization are well educated and that 11 of the leaders have doctorates.

“This is a very different soci-ety than we think, this Palestinian society,” said Perry. He also said

Dr. Carl Lovitt, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at CCSU, during the opening remarks.

Dr. Moises Salinas, chief diver-sity officer at CCSU, also expressed the importance of the lecture by say-ing it provokes critical thinking, em-pathy and multicultural ways.

“It makes for a better commu-nity at CCSU and makes us become better human beings,” said Salinas.

Zeleza, who is also the presi-dent of the national African Studies Association, discussed how the road to President Obama’s victory in of-fice was paved by civil struggles.

“The country entered an un-precedented contest,” said Zeleza of the most recent presidential race. “The Obama presidency brings the question of U.S. and African relations into particular relief,” said Zeleza.

Zeleza discussed four possible reasons that made Obama a viable candidate.

“It was a vote against Bush, it was a vote against Bill and Hillary Clinton, it was a vote for Obama him-

self and it was a ref lection of funda-mental transformation for us, particularly connected to the youth,” said Zeleza.

Zeleza also broke the Obama phenomenon down into the ways which different constituencies voted for different Obamas. These included the black man racial aspect, the son of the migrant, the biracial identity and the transnational experiences.

Dr. Walton Brown-Foster, pro-fessor of political science at CCSU, discussed the Obama election and how to measure its results after Zeleza’s lecture.

“It’s too early to measure re-sults,” said Brown-Foster. “The suc-cess and the meaning will be contingent on the collective positive action of the collective communities.”

Brown-Foster noted the im-pression on her young son’s peer group, who questioned why a black man can’t be president.

See Amistad to Obama Page 3

“If it’s left untreated, it can be really destructive,” said Simon. She said that the media misconstrues what bipolar disorder effects are and that the stigma of bipolar disorder lives within the individual.

The National Alliance of Mental Illness, which organized the event, was praised by Simon as being something all families and students could use as something to learn more

See Bipolar Disorder Page 4

See Author and Analyst Page 3


Thursday nights at Devil’s Den are not simply an alcohol free zone. This past Thursday saw students in-volved in learning, socializing and bellies full of free food.

Devil’s Den alongside the Black Student Union this past week put on a black history month trivia game where students were given the chance to participate in learning about black history and win free prizes.

The event, which was hosted by BSU’s executive board, allowed stu-dents to compete with each other on stage to test their knowledge.

The questions asked to students varied from asking what the first American colony to abolish slavery

BSU Hosts Black History Month Trivia Night at Devil’s Den

See BSU Hosts Page 4 Daniel Pennant won BSU’s Black History Month trivia contest. Edward Gaug / The recorder

Edward Gaug / The recorder

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aboutThe Recorder is a student-produced publication of Central Connecticut State University and does not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the views of CCSU’s administrators, faculty or students. The Recorder articles, photographs and graphics are property of The Recorder and may not be reproduced or published without the written permission from the Editor-in-Chief. The purpose of The Recorder is to approach and define issues of importance to the students of Central Connecticut State University.

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THE RECORDERWednesday, March 11, 2009

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MaTThEw d’annolFospecial to The recorder

Although the attitude of the Career Services office at CCSU re-mains very optimistic, the depart-ment cannot ignore the lingering effects of America’s struggling economy.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has risen from 7.2 to 7.6 percent in the month January, placing the number of unemployed persons at 11.6 million.

Economic downturn and shocking unemployment statistics are concepts familiar to Patricia Deloy, the Director of Career Services & Cooperative Education at the university.

“It was frightening,” said Deloy. “We could feel it coming.”

Deloy explained how the strug-gling economy does far more than

Career Services Office Remains Optimistic Despite Economic Downturn

simply limit jobs for graduating seniors.

“I’ve lost very valuable con-tacts,” Deloy said. “My best resource at United Technologies was let go.”

Along with the loss of contacts, the amount of alumni looking for job placement assistance is at an all-time high.

“This May will make twenty-five years for me (at CCSU),” said Deloy. “I’ve been surprised by the number of alumni coming back. I have one or two on my calendar every day.”

Although the economy has changed, Deloy and the rest of the Career Services office have not lost their passion for helping CCSU students.

“We always reach out,” Deloy said. “We remain active and student traffic is up.” Deloy said that the Career Center will always be busy, in one way or another.

In addition to the career center losing contacts due to massive corpo-rate lay-offs, Deloy says the Career Center has had to become more ac-tive in recruiting contacts for job placement.

In the past, the career center never had an issue with its number of contacts. Now, in times of economic crisis, there are far more students seeking employment than recruiters seeking employees.

“In a good economy we find the employers are in need,” Deloy said. “In a poor economy we find the stu-dents are the ones in need.”

While Deloy openly ad-mits that some students may have trouble finding certain jobs, she en-courages students to remain positive and active.

“Get some experience related to your major while you’re still in school,” Deloy said. “Experience helps you get to know people and sets you aside from the pack.”

In addition to gaining experi-ence, Deloy encouraged students at any age or stage of college education to take risks.

“Try something new,” Deloy said. “Find something you are inter-ested in and break into it.”

While actual job interviews are important, Deloy suggests that stu-dents be active and schedule what she calls information interviews.

“Sit down and talk with some-one who has the job you want,” Deloy said. “Find out what the job is like.”

Deloy said that students should not be scared to schedule information in-terviews. “People love talking about themselves,” Deloy said jokingly.

Although the Career Services office provides a friendly and helpful atmosphere, Deloy has noticed stu-dents hiding behind the comfort and anonymity of online job placement Web sites.

Deloy isn’t sure if this trend is due to America’s economic state, or students furthering dependence of online resources.

In either situation, Deloy feels that in-person job inquiries are the way to go.

“Don’t lock yourself in a room with a computer,” Deloy said. “Use career services please: it’s what we are here for.”

Even in times of economic struggle, Deloy’s message to students seeking employment is a positive one.

“Employers are still hiring col-lege grads,” she said. “Employers are still attending job fairs.”

Deloy feels that a student’s best bet for finding employment is start-ing their search early, rather than later.

“Your job search starts now,” Deloy said. “I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior.”

The Career Services & Cooperative Education office is lo-cated in Willard Hall, Room 100.

Tonya Malinowskistaff writer

The wonder pill known as Adderall, which can be purchased for around $5 a pill on the street or around campus, is receiving a little more attention than simply as a treat-ment for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Adderall, or “kiddy coke”, is prescribed to treat ADD and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, but as a prescribed form of amphetamine, it is rapidly growing in popularity among students.

“Adderall is probably the most common drug among college stu-dents that is never talked about,” said

Adderall More Than Just ADD TreatmentDave Hugel, 24, who admitted he has taken the drug to help him study and stay alert for exams with minimal sleep.

Students have been known to crush up the pills and snort the pow-der for immediate effectiveness.

He is not alone. In 2005 the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs published a study that reported one-in-four col-lege undergraduates in the Northeast have admitted to using the drug.

“We are seeing an increase in prescription drug abuse here for sure,” said Victoria Ginter, associate director of the Counseling and Wellness Center. “There is a huge

shift in the accessibility of (Adderall) on campus than there was 15 years ago.”

Most students use Adderall without a prescription crush and snort the pill because the effects are stronger and more immediate. Ginter believes that there should be more education in the health and wellness classes on the dangers of self-medicating.

The Counseling and Wellness Center currently does not offer group or individual support on prescription drug abuse and instead refers stu-dents to outpatient rehabilitation programs.

“Students are really running a risk by taking drugs they know noth-ing about,” said Ginter. “I would be open to starting a group for people with prescription drug abuse problems.”

Originally used in diet drugs as an appetite suppressant, this drug is an amphetamine blend classified as a stimulant in the same category as Dexedrine and its predecessor, Ritalin. Possession without a pre-scription is punishable in Connecticut

by a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail.

“Adderall is so readily avail-able because it is so over pre-scribed,” said Dave Engwall, grad-uate assistant at Natural Helpers. “The symptoms of ADD can often be symptoms of something else and a lot of kids are being overmedicated.”

The Federal Drug Administration warns amphet-amines have a high risk of depen-dence if used for a prolonged period of time and lists insomnia, heart attack and severe social disability as side effects of extended use.

Despite this warning, Adderall is still the 34th most pre-scribed drug in the United States, according to the FDA.

Students agree Adderall is the most overlooked drug used on campus. Because of its ease of ac-cessibility and seemingly harmless effects, the drug has gained a repu-tation as a miracle pill for the sleep-deprived.

“Not many people view it as a serious drug,” said senior Amanda Schultz. “They look at it as an equivalent to like, Tylenol.”


3THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / NEWS

Tonya Malinowskistaff Editor

The Bridging Cultural

Identities Conference filled the normally quiet Student Center with a symphony of foreign lan-guages on Saturday.

The third annual conference was held at CCSU and was spon-sored by the department of mod-ern languages and the Office of Continuing Education. Together they brought more than 200 mod-ern language teachers and profes-sors from around the state to see 42 registered speakers.

Conference Aims to Bridge Gap in Teaching Culture, Modern Languages

“We are trying to offer pro-fessional development that inte-grates teaching of language and the importance of culture,” said Carmela Pesca, chair of the orga-nization committee.

The event, with sessions of-fered in seven different languages, strove to educate state language teachers on how to use language and culture as one unit to enlight-en students on world civilizations.

“World language is expressed through culture, and culture through language,” Pesca said. “The connection of the two is very important.”

Through a series of sessions on world travel, art, music and project ideas, teachers were en-couraged to use innovative teach-ing techniques in the classroom and help keep modern language a core subject in American schools.

Steven Strange, a Spanish teacher at Rocky Hill High School whose session was on the use of music in the work of Miguel de Cervantes, believes that culture and modern languages need to be more prominent in public education.

“Language teachers need to be more proactive in helping keep language education in schools,” Strange said.

The “Connecticut Plan” for middle and high school reform, passed in November, encourages teachers to seek professional de-velopment and calls for staffing for additional sections of modern languages.

“We’ve taken a much more aggressive approach with commu-nity outreach and workforce devel-opment,” said Richard Cheney, associate director of continuing

education. “It’s still just the beginning.”

With some presenters in tra-ditional dress, and all with pictures and stories of travel to share, the conference brought a huge turnout. The registration fee of $25 before Feb. 15 or $40 after prevented the conference from being affected by budget cuts.

“The world is getting smaller all the time,” Strange said. “It’s more imperative than ever that stu-dents be able to communicate.”

that it’s difficult for Palestinians to talk to Hamas in their own society and asked the audience to imagine how difficult it is for the U.S. govern-ment to talk with Hamas.

The author recalled his lunch date with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who said the only way America would have discussions with Hamas was if they came dis-armed of weapons to the meeting and recognized Israel as not being an enemy.

“Where we are with Hamas and the Palestinians is not good,” said Perry. He said that America will be moving towards talking with Hamas and having a consensus of peace agreements but that the only way it would happen is if they didn’t use violence.

Perry warned that separating people is what causes wars and asked

the audience to remember past wars such as the one in Vietnam. He said that when separation happens, peo-ple will rise against it if they’re pushed hard enough.

Perry spoke of the time during his college years of how he went to see his rabbi and his rabbi asked him if the Jewish community were the chosen people, why were there six million people killed during the Holocaust. He responded later to his rabbi that one of the possible reasons was that God was asleep.

He said the Taliban are much different from what people remem-ber them by from the years 2004-2006 in their ability to separate religion and politics. He said the U.S. government has also changed be-cause they’ve become more realistic in the way they think Taliban politics function.

Perry said that the reason he got into his line of work was so he

Continued from page 1


Author and Analyst Discusses U.S. Relationship with Hamas

“This is truly a generational measure. The historic significance isn’t missed, but the exceptional na-ture of it and the lack of impression that my son’s peer group has is one perhaps measure of success.”

“I feel like [Brown-Foster] put into words what we’re all thinking,” said Casey Casserino, a junior at CCSU. “To not measure Obama’s success early and to not get our hopes up,” Casserino said.

The lecture was preceded by a slideshow of Amistad sites in nearby

Farmington, Conn. presented by Dr. Katherine Harris, adjunct professor of history at CCSU.

The presentation showed churches where captives were taken and the home of the Porters, one of the strongest abolitionist families in the area, among other sites.

“This area we sit in is apart of Amistad history,” said Harris.

“We have come a mighty long way from the days of the Amistad and a lot still needs to be done,” said Zeleza closing his remarks. “The struggle indeed continues.”

From Amistad to Obama

kElly GorEspecial to The recorder

Determining whether sever weather conditions are enough to cancel school has been an ongoing conversation this winter.

According to the National Weather Service, a total of 12.9 inch-es of snow fell last in January, making for dangerous conditions on the roads and for commuters.

“Unfortunately most of the problems come from the plows and conditions of the roads,” explained Dr. Mark McLaughlin, associate vice president of marketing and commu-nications and the man behind the posting of cancellations. “We do hon-estly take into consideration people’s sense of what is safe.”

McLaughlin and Dr. Richard Bachoo, CCSU’s chief administra-

Snow DayDecisions Behind Calling a Severe Weather Cancellation

tive officer, are the tag team that monitor conditions and post conclu-sions about the weather conditions.

“Dr. Bachoo has the info, so he makes the call,” explained Dr. McLaughlin. “I go immediately to our Web site and post the info. Then I contact the police dispatch and tell them what Dr. Bachoo has decided and that information is put into a message for the media I contact.”

“If the National Weather Bureau is predicting something, Dr. Bachoo will monitor that and he will consult at about 4 a.m. with the state highway patrol and the department of transportation about the roads,” McLaughlin said.

He and Bachoo consult no later than 5 a.m. and a decision is posted on the web by 5:30 a.m. if a morning cancellation is determined. If condi-

tions worsen after that a decision must be determined by 2 p.m.

“Sometimes unfortunately the conditions deteriorate far later into the afternoon and those are extraor-dinary circumstances and we’re gov-erned by the situation,” explained McLaughlin.

Although the best precautions are taken during a storm complaints naturally arise from faculty and commuters.

“My students are very commu-nicative. There is occasional griping about school should have been can-celed,” said Dr. Burlin Barr, English professor.

“The cancellations this year have been okay, but the 2 p.m. dead-line if the storm hits at 3 p.m. makes it a little bit hard. I let the winter weather advisories be my guide,” Barr said.

He explained he has a 55 -mile commute from Amherst, Mass. and he admits that during bad weather, he lets students go early so that he can get on the road as early as possi-ble himself.

“I have been stuck on the road and I don’t want any of my students to risk their lives for one class of American Lit II, he said.”

Kim Dorfman, a lecturer in the English department who lives across from Davidson Hall, shares Barr’s sentiments.

“I don’t want people to risk their lives. I have had good luck with snow and my classes,” Dorfman said. “I haven’t had one cancellation due to weather in 9 years of teaching until that one Wednesday this semester.”

She said she thinks the univer-sity does the best job it can and ad-mits that she would prefer a

cancellation during bad weather, “be-cause most people wouldn’t show up anyways.”

Commuter Brian Oleksiw ex-plained his attitude for caution.

“Life is too short to worry about getting to class for one single hour; even an entire day of classes isn’t worth it, because if you’re dead you are not going to be finishing the se-mester anyway,” he said.

“People usually understand we’re making the best decision we can based on the information we collect. I’m very candid about complaints – we live in New England,” McLaughlin said.

4 THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / NEWS

about bipolar disorder as well as oth-er disorders and find ways to treat them.

After treating a mental illness, Simon advised that people continue working with others to keep them-selves positive and healthy. She said that if she could have it her way, she’d have it so that insurance companies provide insurance for mental therapy and said that it’s just as important as other aspects of a person’s health.

Simon had members of the au-dience come up onto the stage to read excerpts of her book “Detour”, which described times in her life when bipo-

lar disorder had negative effects on how she functioned in what would seem to most people as normal as-pects of life.

“I didn’t ever imagine that I’d be disabled,” she said.

She found that as she grew up, she became successful while attend-ing Columbia University and later going on to work with MTV and HBO on shows about bipolar disor-der. “I had been a powerless teenager and suddenly was consulting these major media organizations.”

She spoke about her life as a youth – suffering through bouts of mania and depression, going through high school, but believing that she


Bipolar Disorder Explained: Author Tells Her Story

hated it like every other normal stu-dent and ultimately pushing her mental illness aside to become suc-cessful while she attended college in New York City.

At 17 years old, Simon had been writing about suicide and was sent to a therapist by her family, even though she explained that they had been lov-ing and very supportive. After lying to the therapist to avoid seeing them, she was taken to a doctor where she was misdiagnosed with depression and was given the wrong medicine.

Simon described her years sur-viving most of high school and a trip to Paris that followed. She explained how her disorder was interfering with

her life as she detailed a night when she thought she was a cat and the Central Intelligence Agency was chasing after her.

Simon went to Paris to finish her senior year of high school where she thought she could put memories of suffering from bipolar disorder in the past.

She said that throughout her life she was in destructive relation-ships that weren’t healthy for her. To make up for suffering from bipolar disorder, she would achieve greatly in other areas in her life such as academ-ics.

“Making the most of your mind is your life’s work,” said Simon.

NAMI has a support group at CCSU that meets every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Blue and White room in the Student Center. The group meets to share stories with each other and have others to relate to who may have a mental illness or know some-one who does.

As advice to families, Simon ad-vised that families see therapists and said that she sees it as an important step in treating a family member with a mental disorder. She said that fami-ly members need therapy in dealing with mental disorders as well as the person suffering from it.

was, to who was the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and who were the Buffalo Soldiers?

“It’s giving [students] insight to the things that they didn’t know,” said Vickena Webb, a student at CCSU who attended Thursday’s Devil’s Den event.

Although the questions were sometimes difficult for most of the students who participated, the ques-tions challenged students who had previous knowledge on the subject or even students who knew some infor-mation on black history.

Daniel Pennant, the winner of the trivia competition, said that he liked the variety of the questions.

Winners of the competition won free iPod shuff les and students


BSU Hosts Black History Month Trivia Night at Devil’s Den

who participated were given free newly designed t-shirts with Devil’s Den logos. Students in the crowd lat-er in the night were given the chance to win free gift cards to iTunes along with DVDs if they answered black history trivia questions correctly.

Before the black history month trivia competition took place, stu-dents were able to have their pictures taken and have the pictures pressed onto a tote bag. Free food was given out to students throughout the night.

After the trivia game, an open mic session started with a call for anyone who wanted to make a stage appearance.

“We offer a lot of diverse events,” said Corey Zohlman, Devil’s Den @ 10PM programming chair-

man. “We appeal to all different stu-dents and interests.”

This Thursday will have a March Madness event that will be sponsored by Natural Helpers, Exercise Science Club and Devil’s Den.Past events at Devil’s Den have included Talent or No Talent Night which let students show off their vari-ous talents and on another night an American Idol spoof.

The Devil’s Den now uses a new swipe system that allows stu-dents to swipe their Blue Chip card for a chance to win prizes. If students swiped their card during last Thursday’s Devil’s Den, they were given a chance to win a free iPod shuff le if their number was randomly selected.

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Winners from the trivia game won iPod shuffles.

Lizzie Simon (right) asked students to join her on stage to read exceprts of her book “Detour”.



Editorial/OpinionEditorial

THE RECORDERWednesday, March 11, 2009

5

JoE ZaJacstaff wrtier

Ponder for a moment, if you will, the level of responsibility and resources it takes to raise one child. Think back, perhaps you have experi-ence in babysitting or have children of your own. Now, increase that number to fourteen, and consider the state of mind an individual would be possessed of to even consider it, much less go through with it.

Enter Nadya “Octomom” Suleman, who in January, gave birth to a litter of eight chil-dren. Clearly this event must be reserved for some third world dystopia, but alas, as back-ward as California is, it would just barely qualify as the second world.

Rather than registering as a moment of joy, the birth has only aroused the fury of a pop-ulace stricken by economic calamity, and galva-nized political opportunists to demonize her for their own political gain.

Octo-rageous! Suleman, at 33, is the proud single mother

of fourteen children. Absent are both the father and any semblance of financial security. Suleman lives in a tiny house with her mother and lives on a combination of money from a de-cade old worker’s compensation claim and dis-ability for her two “autistic” children. Despite her squalor, she has discovered the finances to afford plastic surgery and has recently shown interest in a $1.3 million house. She has further-more been on other public assistance programs in the past.

A peculiar situation like Suleman’s would, ideally, force a semblance of humbleness upon her but she has thus far proven ravenous for ev-ery sort of fame and publicity. Countless stories and interviews with her since the birth and she, blessed with attention, tells a perturbed public about her desperate plight, soliciting donations.

Perhaps her collagen-bloated lips could be put to better use than decrying the misery of her condition. She has made the rounds gorging

shauna siMEonE asst. opinion

Spring break is just around the corner and many CCSU students are planning for relaxing activities or are preparing for exciting vacation destinations. Mexico is a hot spot for many spring break travelers, but considering the re-cent violence and unrest taking place there right now, students should reconsider going to our neighbor to the south for their fill of the spring break experience.

Mexico is an attractive vacation spot for a lot of students because of the warm weather, gorgeous beaches and the lower drinking age. Tourist areas are a vacationer’s dream, but out-side of the seeming paradise there is a lot of vio-lence and serious issues taking place.

As of Feb. 20, the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens going into Mexico. Part of the statement said, “U.S. citizens travel-ing throughout Mexico should exercise caution in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their sur-roundings at all times. Mexican and foreign by-standers have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country, demonstrat-ing the heightened risk of violence in public places.”

The warning emphasizes that most of the problem areas are along the border, which is far away from Cancun, a popular spring break des-tination. Regardless, the risk of traveling to Mexico for spring break may not be worth the reward.

Take the story of Yvette Martinez, which was brought to light by TV host Glenn Beck. Martinez crossed the border with a friend to go to a concert as a birthday celebration, but never made it back. Martinez’s step-father later found her car abandoned and missing valuables like the stereo and battery.

Stories like this are occurring more fre-quently with the escalation of wars between ri-val drug cartels. America’s Most Wanted posted the following statement, “Mexico’s lawlessness

- an outbreak of kidnappings for ransom, brutal gunfights among rival drug cartels and escalat-ing violence - has now crossed the border and touched many American families.” According to AMW, 31 Americans have been reported as kidnapped across the Mexican border.

Traveling into Mexico at a time like this requires heavy precautions to be taken. It does not seem sensible to go there as a vacation spot when there are plenty of wonderful tourist spots right here in the United States such as Miami.

Spring Break to Mexico Not Worth the Risk

Photo: www.mexico.vg

herself on every manner of pop culture outlet to further her own exposure.

But Suleman has no one to blame but her-self. Her abnormal pregnancy, brought on by In-vitro Fertilization, was entirely optional; she had the option of “selective termination”. But she, knowing full well the extent of her fi-nancial situation, went ahead regardless.

As of March 1, she has rejected an offer by the nonprofit group Angels in Waiting to pro-vide free medical care for all of her children, permanent nurses and a free house because this nonprofit group nixed the idea of a reality show involving the children, citing concerns over the their health.

She has, in addition rejected a generous $1 million offer by Vivid Entertainment to fi-nally get the attention she has so longed for…albeit by starring in her own porno. She would have done well to accept that offer, as no man, after her fame has dissipated, would pay a dime to view that ravaged mess of an orifice.

Her situation has galvanized the conser-vative sector into action, as she perfectly fits with the Limbaugh-ideal of welfare queen. She is a huge drain on society, an idea especially in-sulting considering her nigh-bankrupt state of California must pay roughly $3 million over the course of the seven month post-birth care for all eight children.

She has not earned a legitimate income for over a decade, and has forced her 67 year-old father to go back to work in Iraq to help support her. What backlash will come of this is unclear but already lawmakers in Georgia have intro-duced a bill restricting In-vitro Fertilization, which came with the usual f luff, like the estab-lishment of legal rights for embryos. Way to go, Octo. She is a caricature and nothing more whose case will only sour more people on the idea of the “welfare state”.

It would be futile to find a shred of hu-manity in Octomom, for she has clearly sold that out long ago.

Areas in Florida have the warm weather, and the spring break atmosphere. The only thing that is missing for some people is the availabil-ity of alcohol. But honestly, attaining alcohol doesn’t seem to be a huge problem for most col-lege students. It makes sense to travel to a des-tination inside of the United States where the worry of violence is minimized and you can pump some money into the economy while you are at it!

Other universities are catching on to the probable violence and schools such as Winona State University are sending warnings to their students who are planning to travel across the border for their breaks.

It is important to fully understand the vi-olent climate that is taking place in parts of Mexico right now before you decide to travel there for vacation. If you are planning on travel-ing to Mexico for your spring break make sure you ask yourself: is it worth the risk?

As students of a public university, which is directly tied to the success or financial demise of the state, we expect that sometimes our needs will come second.

We understand that during the current economic climate, departments around campus are probably expecting pressure for staff cuts, budget cuts and pulling back on services. Consequently the secondary goals of the higher education system will probably take a back seat to the singular purpose of graduating students from CCSU.

Many of the CCSU students are non-tra-ditional and most are attending because, frank-ly, CCSU is a less expensive option for college in the area; the average student commutes, has a part time job, or two, and most save money to pay for their own education.

CCSU is a university by which students have become complacent with a lack of organi-zation. The students simply accept that receiv-ing student loans from the Bursar’s office takes more time than seemingly plausible, obtaining

graded papers is near impossible within the time zone of a week and ResLife, who seem ada-mant on securing students’ housing deposits within strict deadlines are seemingly unorga-nized when students move into halls.

Yet CCSU has little to no reserve about doling out late fees if students miss a tuition payment by a day and that apparently should simply be acceptable. But why should students meet the demands of the university, when the university does not meet the demands and needs of the student?

A university, which is notoriously lax in providing anything to its students in a timely fashion, should not simply have the right to con-tinue to hold numbers such as 15, 20 or even 30 percent over our heads in tuition hikes.

Firstly, in today’s economic situation, how can a university that is dominated by students who are financially strained in the best of times, expect students to keep their heads above water when ridiculous late fees are added to accounts?

Secondly, if the Bursar’s office is openly adding late fees to accounts, can students therefore start ‘punishing’ other aspects of CCSU – surely ResLife would love to be charged for the amount of hours students waste gaining the correct keys and room information on move in day.

On the other hand as student we would like to at least be informed and be prepared when, for example, the Bursar’s office cannot organize itself to create individual payment plans for students who are having a similarly difficult time keeping financially af loat.

It’s not that students won’t sympathize with a Bursar’s office that may be struggling to keep staff around to provide their usual level of service and care; it’s just that students are not aware of the situation – if there even is a situation.

When major budget cuts threaten to in-crease tuition or decrease the normal level of service provided to students, we need to know about it – if students are not making payments

on time, the Bursar’s office would ask questions – we as students are simply asking questions in the same respect – why has the service and communication taken a turn for the worse at CCSU?

Better lines of communication between the administration, the faculty and the students need to be established, especially when each party is suffering equally under the weight of a deteriorating economy.

The school cannot expect students to stand idly by while the cost of their education continues to be pushed higher and higher with no end in sight.

Speculation does not help the self-sus-taining student prepare for the economic rigors that await them in the coming months and years.

Students naturally will bite the bullet; most have little or no choice. But we do deserve the right and courtesy of knowing how much it is going to hurt.

6 THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / SPORTS

SPORTS STARTS ON BACKPAGE

ccsubluEdEvils.coM

The Central Connecticut baseball team suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday, 14-7, at Navy. The Blue Devils finish the weekend with a 3-1 record, beat-ing Iona twice and splitting a pair of games with Navy. Junior Tommy Meade drove in two more runs for the Blue Devils in the loss on Sunday, giving him six RBI on the weekend. CCSU is scheduled to play at Hartford on Wednesday, March 11.

The Blue Devils once again got on the board first with a pair of runs in the top of the first in-ning. Sean Allaire singled and later scored the first run of the game on a Navy error. Junior first baseman Tommy Meade’s sacri-fice f ly scored the second run of the inning.

Baseball Suffers First Loss of the Season Sunday at Navy

Navy answered with four runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Blue Devil start Donny White. Three more runs in the bottom of the third inning paced the home team to a 7-2 lead. White lasted just two innings allowing six hits, six runs, three of them earned, while striking out two.

A four-run fourth inning for the Blue Devils cut the lead to one, 7-6. Sophomore Pat Epps singled to lead off the inning and scored on an RBI double by Meade, his second RBI of the game. Freshman Mitch Wells singled putting runners at first and third with no outs. Senior catcher Sean Connors singled to left scoring Meade and making it 7-4. Junior Richie Tri’s RBI groundout made it 7-5 and Connors scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to just one, 7-6.

Two more runs in the sixth for Navy increased the lead to 9-6. Junior Wes Poppe, seeing his first action on the mound in a Blue Devil uniform,

pitched three innings before allow-ing an earned run. In his fourth in-ning of work Navy an RBI single and an RBI groundout plated two runs to push the lead back to three.

Senior Casey Walko’s RBI sin-gle in the top of the seventh inning cut it to 9-7. Navy answered with a five-run bottom of the inning to open a 14-7 lead. Poppe left the game al-lowing seven earned runs in 4.2 in-nings while striking out four.

Meade led the offense with two RBI, giving him six on the weekend. He was one of three Blue Devils to post six RBI in the four-game stretch to open the season. He had three hits in the loss.

The Blue Devils are scheduled to play at Hartford on Wednesday, March 11 at 3 p.m. Check back early in the week to see if that game will be played as scheduled

stretched it to 12, 57-45, with under 12 minutes to play. Horton’s second three of the game cut it to nine and following a Sacred Heart turnover and a foul Horton hit one of two free-throws to make it 57-49.

The lead climbed back to 13 at 64-51 as the Pioneers continued to

shoot well in the second half. Down 11, 71-60, the Blue Devils scored four straight to cut it to 71-64 with 2:46 to play. SHU hit two free-throws with 1:45 on the clock to push the lead back to nine.

The Blue Devils were led by freshman Robby Ptacek who had a

game-high 15 points to go along with three rebounds. Horton and Simmons each had 12 for the Blue Devils in the loss. Hall had a team-high seven assists while sophomore Shemik Thompson added nine points, five rebounds and three assists.



Men’s Basketball Season Ends on Thursday Night with Quarterfinal Loss at Sacred Heart

Devils Fall to St. Francisomore Samantha Leach hit a jumper with 13 seconds left to give the Red Flash a 34-30 halftime lead.

Simmons led Central Connecticut with 10 first half points. Sophomore Justina Udenze added five points and five rebounds for the Blue Devils, who outscored St. Francis (PA) 20-8 in the paint. Lilley and Daly each had 10 points for the Red Flash. SFPA capitalized on nine Blue Devil turnovers, scoring 14 points off the miscues.

The Blue Devils tied the game at 36-36 in the opening minutes of the second half, but they could not regain the lead. St. Francis (PA) stretched the margin back to six points, 44-38, on a three-pointer by junior Britney Hodges. Hodges then converted a traditional three-point play to put the Red Flash up 51-43 with 13:30 remaining. Central Connecticut drew to within three points three times over the final six minutes.

Crockett hit a three-pointer with 1:17 left to make it 65-62, but St. Francis (PA) connected on 8-of-8 from the free throw line to account for the final margin.

Sophomore Kerrianne Dugan contributed eight points in the loss. Udenze finished with seven points and eight rebounds. The Blue Devils shot 22-of-54 (40.7 percent) from the field, posted a 41-40 re-bounding edge and outscored SFPA, 32-14, in the paint.

The Red Flash made just 24-of-70 (34.3 percent) shots but scored 22 points off 18 Blue Devil turn-overs. Hodges led all players with 20 points. She also had six rebounds and three assists. Daly added 19 points and seven rebounds. Lilley scored 15 points, and Leach had 11.

Central Connecticut will now wait until next Sunday, March 15, to find out if it gets a chance to extend its season. A Sacred Heart win over St. Francis (PA) in the Northeast Conference championship would send the Blue Devils to the WNIT.

Robby Ptacek led all Blue Devil scorers with 15 points.

Simmons managed just five points in the second half.

Photo: ccsubluedevils.com




Technically the season is not over for the Central Connecticut State University women’s basketball team. That is the only technicality

when it comes to the remarkable turnaround they achieved this sea-son. Last year, they had a record of 4-25 overall, with three of those wins coming in the Northeast Conference.

This season, they finished 18-13, earning the second seed in the

NEC Tournament. They now wait to see if Sacred Heart defeats St. Francis (PA) in the conference finals. If the Pioneers are victorious and advance to the NCAA Tournament, Central Connecticut will represent the NEC in the Postseason WNIT.

The drastic improvement, which was the largest in the nation this season, starts at the top. 1987 CCSU alum Beryl Piper began her tenure here at Central last year coming out of New Britain High School. Moving up from a lower level is what makes it so pleasurable to cover Piper as a coach. She understands that the media is here to do a job and can only help a team. She doesn’t look at it like some coaches at the collegiate level, as some sort of hassle. She is humble, soft spoken, yet confident and straight forward.

She has surrounded herself with strong assistant coaches, and their collective attitudes trickle down to the players. The team has cer-tainly matured in the past year, and is still fairly young. The team is losing just one senior, Jhanay Harris, who started eight games this season.

With such a young team going through the growing pains of recent years, they have ex-perienced life as a bottom-feeder and are now ready to ascend to the top of the NEC. Just like their Men’s Basketball counterparts here at CCSU, this team will be very good next year and even better the following season.

7THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / SPORTS

Dorau The [Sports] Explorer

kylE dorausports Editor

Women’s Turnaround Impressive, Not Over Yet

Shontice Simmons is a dynamic run-and-gun point guard who, with a little maturation, has the potential to be first team all-conference. Leanne Crockett is a talented rebounder who can lead the NEC in boards. The rest of the team fits the roles that are needed to perfection.

My recent columns have highlighted the negative, and it is such a relief to focus on such a positive story. Rarely do I ever invoke the name of the 1980 Olympic Hockey miracle on ice in comparison to other teams, but this season was exactly that; Miraculous.

We have been blessed here at Central to have several feel-good stories in recent years. From Javier Mojica’s career and his NEC

Tournament Most Valuable Player award, to the Men’s Soccer team and their shocking run to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen two years ago, there has been no shortage of things to be proud of athletically here at CCSU.

We may be in the shadow of a national powerhouse in basketball, but that takes noth-ing away from Blue Devils athletics. Some may just accept it and root for the Huskies, and that’s fine. They do an exceptional job marketing their teams. Others may lament that fact, suf-fering from and inferiority complex and refer-ring to UConn as the “evil empire”.

I choose to just enjoy the ride. The CCSU Women’s Basketball team was difficult to watch last year to say the least. After losing 100-41 to

USF in their opening game, we figured it was going to be another long season. But less than a week later, they got a victory. The wins began to mount quickly and impressively, as the Blue Devils won six straight conference games, mak-ing believers out of all of us. I’ve never been hap-pier to be proven wrong. It was an exciting transformation to watch in person.

For once in my CCSU career, I’ll be root-ing for the Pioneers, because for all their efforts this season, the Blue Devil women deserve a shot to represent this school on a national stage, as well as get more post-season experience. It will prepare them well for the inevitable success that is on the way.


kylE dorausports Editor

Central Connecticut Ice Hockey had its season come to an end at the hands of William Paterson in the Super East League Semifinals. The Blue Devils fell 4-1 to the Pioneers, who won all three games between the two teams this season.

Senior goaltender Craig Height made 28 saves and Mike DiClemente scored Central’s lone goal in a losing effort. Joe Dabkowski and Rob DiClemente each earned a helper on the only CCSU tally. The Pioneers utilized a two-goal third period to put the game away.

CCSU reached the Semifinals by defeat-ing the Montclair State Hawks by a score of 6-2 at the neutral site Albany Country Hockey Facility. Central’s offense was powered by Joe Dabkowski’s four-goal effort. Craig Prema and Mike DiClemente each chipped in a pair of as-sists as the Blue Devils scored two goals in each period en route to the win. Other scorers for CCSU included Jeff Pease and Matt Williams. Carmine Vetrano got the start in net and made 34 saves to earn the victory.

The Blue Devils once again made their presence known in the Super East awards. Senior forward Mike DiClemente was the Super East Player of the Year, recognizing a regular season that saw him average more than two points per game while putting up 20 goals and 59 points. Excelling off the ice, Joe Dabkowski, Craig Prema, Brett Holmes and Michael Joy all were named to the All-Academic team. Finally, freshman forward Jeff Pease was selected to the Super East All-Rookie team.

The Blue Devils will be heavily represent-ed in the first ever ACHA Division II All-Star Challenge. The event pits all-star teams from leagues around the country against one another in the first week of April. Players from the Blue Devils on the team include the top line of Joe Dabkowski and the DiClemente brothers, de-fensemen Kevin Butler and Ryan Beaulieu, as well as goalie Carmine Vetrano.

The Pioneers were blown out 8-1 in the SECHL Finals by Siena. The same score that the Saints put up on CCSU a year ago in the League Championship. Siena won the Super East for the second consecutive year. They swept the season series with the Blue Devils this season, outscoring Central 17-1.

William Paterson Single-Handedly Defeats Blue Devils


UpgradeTHE RECORDERWednesday, March 11, 2009

8

U2, love them or hate them, must be given credit. Since their first album in 1980, the band has had the same four-man lineup and has stayed successful keeping their sound fresh and ever-changing.

The band’s latest album, No Line on the Horizon, is their first album since 2004 and an-other example of how U2 tends to make things different.

For me, U2 has always been a band that sits in the middle ground of my musical taste. Rarely do I ever find myself listening to any U2 albums from start to beginning before finding myself wandering away from it to something more pleasing to my ears. In fact, outside of songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”, most of their work strikes me as unmemorable and simplistic sounding mainstream rock.

No Line on the Horizon is a bit different. It by no means is a perfect album or an album that has made me become a U2 fan, but it is most certainly an enjoyable listening experience. Brian Eno, whose latest critical achievement in producing Coldplay’s Viva la Viva or Death and All His Friends, joins U2 once again to produce and add his touch to the new album. If the first few tracks are any indication, the touch paid off.

Love were one of those sixties bands who had more inf luence on the world of music than actual commercial success, much like Buffalo Springfield or the Velvet Underground (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Fleet Foxes and Okkervil River claim Love impacted their mu-sic greatly).

Fronted by Arthur Lee, the first African-American frontman/guitarist in a rock n’ roll band (he was producing records while Jimi Hendrix was still on the “Chitlin’ Circuit”), Love were the kings of the Sunset Strip from 1965-68.

They discovered and signed The Doors to their record label, Elektra Records, and could count The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd as fans. Their 1967 album Forever Changes is a cult-classic and mi-

U2 No Line on the Horizon Interscope March 3, 2009

Love Forever ChangesElektra RecordsNovember 1967/April 2008

The album, which opens with the title track “No Line on the Horizon”, impresses from the get go. The opening title track is an ener-getic barrage. Bono still has a voice. The album proceeds to “Magnificent” which at first doesn’t sound like a U2 song at all. The guitar at the be-ginning is mean and angry. Bono’s vocals add a lot to the second song.

No Line on the Horizon is an album that grows on you. When I first listened to the album a few weeks ago I wasn’t sure what to think. The songs are catchy, enjoyable and fun. The Eno touch is alive and well on tracks like the first single “Get on Your Boots”, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” and “Stand Up Comedy”. The industrial and electronic vibe on “Get on Your Boots” seems to be a first for the band.

For a band that has released 12 studio al-bums in nearly 30 years, it’s hard to ask for more than what we’ve received here. As a non-fan of U2, I greatly appreciated and enjoyed their new-est effort. It might not have made me become an Edge-head, but I do have new respect for the group that just won’t go away.

MichaEl walsh asst. Entertainment

nor masterpiece, and stands out as one of the most unique records of the sixties.

Forever Changes is an album that grabs you from the start. The songs combine folky guitar strumming, West Coast psychedelia, existential lyricism, and Herb Alpert-esque brass sections, with great pop sensibility and harmonies.

The actual music is very uplifting – very reminiscent of other California bands of the time- but the lyrics are dark and brooding, and as introspective as anything Bob Dylan ever wrote. This is because Lee thought he was going to die while making the record, and wanted it to be his goodbye.

He belts out, “What Is Happening and How Have You Been/Got To Go But I’ll See You Again/And Oh, The Music Is So Loud/And then, I’ll Fade In To The Crowd”, and you know he truly feels like he’s about to leave the world forever.

The main theme of the lyrics are the dark side of the “peace and love generation”, and con-tain many existential themes, which can be

CALENDAR 3.11 - 3.18.09

Music

3.11E for ExplosionThe Status and Yearling@ The SpaceHamden, Conn.$10 / 7 p.m.

Yearling: Through the craggy mountains of sound that North Carolina metal acts have pushed up through the years lies the lulls and valleys populated by pop bands that once dom-inated the local music scenes, and their younger brethren eager to return to the melodies that first put the state on the map. Climbing down from the monoliths towering above to forge something new and unique is Yearling, featur-ing Sid Menon, bassist for the uncompromis-ingly brutal Glass Casket. Cutting his teeth touring the nation with the metal outfit, Menon realized that as much as he enjoyed the shred-ding and destruction Glass Casket provided him with, his heart still lie in the golden sounds of 70’s AM pop

3.12 – 14Battle of the Bands@ The SpaceHamden, Conn$10 / 6:30 p.m.

3.13Doomstarw/ Taigaand Amoroso,Myty Konkeror@ Cherry Street StationWallingford, Conn.$6 / 7 p.m.

3.13Joey AllcornThe Forgotten Ones@ Cafe NineNew Haven, Conn.$6 / 9 p.m.

3.13Sasquatch & the HolyHellraisers@ Cafe NineNew Haven, Conn.$6 / 10 p.m.

3.17The JackiesStalemate@ The SpaceHamden, Conn. $10 / 7 p.m.

3.18Parker House and Theory

w/ Fancy Trash@ The SpaceHamden, Conn.$10 / 7 p.m.

Fancy Trash works the line between rock and folk, blending a non-traditional sensibility with the tradition of acoustic instruments to make something unique. Folk-tinged indie rock. Don’t let the acoustic instruments fool you, they are a rock band. Fancy Trash has toured extensively up and down the East coast and through the Midwest, Colorado and California. They have opened for national acts such as The Jayhawks, Marah, The New Amsterdams, Devotchka, Hackensaw Boys and Jesse Malin, and shared bills with notable regional acts like The Figgs, Haunt, Spouse and Mark Mulcahy.

FilM

3.11 - 14Milk@ CinestudioHartford, Conn.7:30 p.m.

In one of movie-making’s little miracles, Gus Van Sant’s movie about Harvey Milk is the po-lar opposite of the overly reverential biopic: it sizzles with politics, sex, danger, and humor. Part of the excitement comes from Sean Penn’s electric performance as Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials who served only a year as a City Supervisor in San Francisco be-fore being assassinated along with the mayor in 1978. Van Sant (To Die For, My Own Private Idaho, Finding Forrester) puts the audience smack in the middle of a major turning point in the (ongoing) California culture wars, as the gay community stood up for their rights and never looked back. “I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted. I have a lot more to drink.” – Harvey Milk.

3.15 – 17Defiance@ CinestudioHartford, Conn.2:30 p.m.

From Glory to Blood Diamond to Defiance, di-rector Edward Zwick has a passion for bringing little known stories - and reluctant heroes - to the screen. His latest film is based on the true story of a group of Jewish resistance fighters who escaped into the forests of Belarus, where they banded together to save Jewish refugees and battle the Nazis. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell are impressive as three brothers who share a deep bond while holding conf licting ideas on how best to fight for sur-vival. “To hold up the mirror to the world, is an extraordinary opportunity. It’s also a responsi-bility I’ve always felt, and I just hope that I’m able to keep doing it.” - Edward Zwick.

found in songs like “The Red Telephone” and “The Daily Planet”. The lyrics are so well craft-ed that the subject matter creates an almost “anti-chemistry” with the backing music. The album has a feel and atmosphere all its own.

Love’s Forever Changes is a masterful al-bum by a band that was at its breaking point, in more ways than one. Due to Lee’s growing paranoia, and rampant drug-use within the band, Love split in 1968. While the members continued to make music in other outfits and produced great work, Forever Changes remains their pinnacle, and is a must-listen for any seri-ous fan of sixties rock, or music in general.

A two-disc collector’s edition of Love’s Forever

Changes was released in April of 2008 and is avail-able in music stores nationally.

saM PErduTa

special to The recorder

9THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / UPGR ADE

Jason cunninGhaM Entertainment Editor

Tapes n’ Tapes has been pretty busy. Though we haven’t heard much about any fu-ture releases from the band, we’ve seen them push through quite a few tour dates in support of their second LP, Walk It Off, which was re-leased in April of 2008.

Fans had mixed feelings about Walk It Off, but initially supported the band’s effort and f looded venues to catch their infamously fun live shows. I was one of those fans, making sure to catch the April 18 show back in 2008 at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. Though he

Tapes ‘n Tapes: Still Kicking Out the Jams

Kindle Fails to Light Fire to World of TextcharlEs dEsrochErs

staff writer

The online mega-store, Amazon.com, has released Kindle 2.0, a follow up to last year’s successful e-book reader of the same name.

Instead of letting buzz snowball to a cli-mactic exhale like many other gadget’s ad cam-paigns, Amazon chose to release its new device merely months after its announcement.

Why did Amazon do this? One reason could be because they didn’t need the publicity, since the original Kindle was still on back order at the time of the Kindle 2.0’s announcement. Much to the delight of those waiting for their Kindle 1.0, Amazon automatically updated their order to the newer device, making them the first to receive it.

The new Kindle sports several new fea-tures but at this point most of them are labeled as “experimental.”

The feature that has attracted the most attention as of late is the Text-to-Speech fea-ture. Unlike traditional audio books, the Kindle generates audio without a prerecorded narrator. The result isn’t the smoothest speech but does get the job done for listening to the New York Times on the commute to school or work.

The reading aspect of the device is good, not great. The standard of quality for these de-vices isn’t set high.

Eyes don’t strain while looking at the screen and the matte finish deters most glairs. But the screen isn’t back, front or any kind of lit. The Kindle requires an outside source of light. But this is all intended to ease the reading so the result feels very natural.

Offering 13 shades of grey, the Kindle can accurately replicate most newspaper pic-tures. This statement sums up the Kindle 2.0 perfectly: It’s hard to imagine anyone who would get excited over 13 shades of grey, let alone pay $350.

The device does have an online feature under its “experimental” category, which works great if you like the slow Internet. Another “ex-periment” Amazon ventured was MP3 playing capability which seems pointless considering most people own an MP3 player or don’t plan on buying one.

Amazon.com offers an extensive E-book library along with subscriptions to popular newspapers and magazines. Kindle’s wireless capabilities, now running on a 3G network that

requires no Wi-Fi hotspots to update, sets it apart form other e-book readers like the Sony e-Reader.

The rate at which the Kindle changes pag-es isn’t very fast, but it’s supposed to simulate a book - take that fact with a grain of salt. Also the Kindle offers checkpoints in books and periodi-cals so a large amount of f lipping isn’t necessary.

The buttons are simple, minimalist, offer a Qwerty keyboard and the whole thing is as thin as a pencil. Doesn’t it seem like every gadget is thriving to be as thin as a pencil these days?

The best way to utilize the keyboard would have been to type full rich text files but the user is limited to only typing Post-it type notes in the digital pages.

So what does the customer get for $350? Well, that’s a tough question to answer and it de-pends on how much it’s used. Here in lies the main problem with the Kindle, and other e-book readers. In order to get your money’s worth the customer has to buy and house several books and periodical subscription at once.

The Kindle 2.0 is a means to spend more money. The books are cheap with many costing around seven dollars and there is no shipping or sales tax attached to them. But without the books the Kindle does nothing on its own.

The customer’s are paying for the oppor-tunity to pay money. You could buy the iPhone and pay $20 for a data plan and get everything the Kindle offers making it seem obsolete if one can put up with looking at an illuminated screen for an extended period of time.

The last complaint about the Kindle is that it seems to be marketed towards someone who has to buy books semi-annually and has to carry them around. College students fit into this de-mographic perfectly. Yet there are no college textbooks offered on Amazon’s digital library.

Imagine carrying all your text books in one light, easy to read device that seldom needs charging.

I can’t recommend buying the Kindle 2.0 to anyone who reads less than two books a month. Newspapers, like the Washington Post, are much easier to read than their real life coun-terparts. This, and the possibility that Amazon.com will realize that there is a huge market for E-textbooks, would lead me to strongly recom-mend it. It’s a gamble though.

If you honestly don’t have anything to do with your tax return, then buy the Kindle 2.0.

had a throat cold and could barely sing through most of the set, Josh Grier pumped up the audi-ence all the same, and the crowd appreciated his humor and intensity on stage. The set was long, the place was jam-packed, and the feelings of support were through the roof.

A little more than ten months later I re-turned to the Paradise Rock club for their show on Feb. 24. The venue was about half full this time around, with fans’ enthusiasm cruising at mild at best.

What was the deal? Wasn’t anyone excited to hear what new stuff the guys had been work-ing on? Didn’t they want to hear Grier with a full, healthy voice? I was nothing but confused.

When they took the stage you could almost see their disappointment at the turnout.

So what did we get? That night we were treated to a fantastic performance. Though the crowd was small, Tapes n’ Tapes still gave it their all, and blew my mind away.

There wasn’t a spectacular light show; there weren’t any corny antics, only a rock band, playing rock music. There’s a certain amount of honesty presented when we see a band play a fantastic show with nothing help-ing them along except their talent and personality.

The set was a tad shorter than the rest of the previous dates on the tour, but what we got in exchange was some new material, tight per-formances and a band who clearly enjoys play-

ing their songs to an extent beyond the crowd’s satisfaction. I appreciate that their solider of soul attitude pays off big in a live setting. This allows most of their studio material to translate into fantastic live shows.

My head is still filled with excitement even now for what Tapes n’ Tapes will give us with their third release. It’s a shame more people didn’t make it out that night.

If you get the opportunity and you love live music, please check Tapes n’ Tapes out. It’ll be a worthwhile investment of your time. Personally, I can’t wait till they come back this way, I’ll be encouraging as many people as pos-sible to make it out and support them.

Jason cunningham / The recorder


THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / SPORTS

Jason cunninGhaMEntertainment Editor

Loud music is booming, a full house is chattering away, filling the Torp Theatre with a hurricane of energy. Then, all of the sudden, Norman Ng bursts onto stage, smiling bright and ready to perform.

Magician Pulls In Audience, Hits Big At CCSUWhat is it exactly that Ng will be doing?

Magic of course. Before you get ready to sigh and yawn, know that Ng isn’t the typical magi-cian we’re all used to. His philosophies on magic are far different than that of shock magicians like Chris Angel or the slick tuxedo wearing gimmicks of the Las Vegas magic scene.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li FailssEan FEnwick

staff writer

To start off, screw Street Fighter: The leg-end of Chun-Li. Whoever thought that this film was a good idea either has some sort of mental disease or is a shit-f linging monkey. In a world where your cinematic choices are Madea Goes to Jail, The Jonas Brothers Concert in 3D or Street Fighter: The legend of Chun-Li, feel defeated by Hollywood.

Kristin Kreuk plays Chun-Li, a concert pianist living in Honk Kong whose life is up rooted when she discovers her father is kid-napped by this big evil man named Bison (Neal McDonough) who looks nothing like his video game character.

Bison uses Chun-Li’s father to set up big contracts so that he can turn the water front slums into high-class luxury real estate. That’s right the big evil Bison that was looking for world domination in the first Street Fighter movie has now set his sights on real-estate. How can a simple pianist stop such a fiend you ask?

Well have no worry, she fortunately re-ceives an ancient Chinese scroll in the mail and decides to follow its clues to a crime fighting organization known as The Order of The Web. This organization is led by Gen (Robin Shou) and in a matter of days it seems Chun-Li is a master of all their ancient martial arts, which includes the ability to defy gravity with spin kicks, harness her anger for maximum power

“Most guys in Vegas are too f lashy and guys like David Blaine are douchey,” said Ng jokingly after a well-received performance at Central Connecticut State University.

So what kind of magician is Ng? Well, first off, he’s a good one. The audience had nothing but enthusiasm for the young perform-er. If members of the audience didn’t have their jaws dropped in amazement at his illusions, they were laughing at his hilarious stories and improvised jokes.

“I would say that 70 percent of my tricks are original, the script however is all me, 100 percent. I write all of my own material,” Ng said. “That’s because for me it’s all about relat-ability. Some of my script is about my life; it’s easier for the audience to get into it when you share yourself with them. What I’m going for is conversational magic, I like to get the audience as involved as possible.”

Ng accomplished involvement right at the beginning of his act by offering up some cold, hard cash to audience members in ex-change for assisting him in his tricks. He did the same later on in his on-stage game show.

Participation also seemed high because the audience really seemed to like him. There’s a certain amount of charm in his act that other magicians lack. He injects many stories about his life and his own personal interests into his act.

“I’m an artist. My art comes all from me, my story. The best way to derive emotions from people is to relate to them. That’s why I have the stories about Maine and the restaurant chain and hockey,” Ng said.

As most artists know, doing what you love isn’t always an easy gig. Most people entering a career in the arts face tough times, old and young.

“It’s wasn’t easy. Right out of school, when I was 18, I moved out to California with only $500 in my pocket and started my own enter-tainment company. I was living in Oakland, in poverty,” Ng said. “I would recommend magic as a career to people who have a passion for it, but let me says this, it’s hard. There are under 20 magicians who make a good living touring and doing what I do.”

Ng knew how to work the crowd. It seemed like making people happy was the most impor-tant thing in the world to him. There’s a certain type of passion we attach to soul-singers and ac-tors, people who perform for a living.

Even comedians can often capture our hearts. Rarely would you think that a magician puts every ounce of his heart and soul into a per-formance - on Ng’s face it can be seen from when the lights go down to when the lights come up.

Instead of exiting, leaving his crowd satis-fied and separate from him, he dives into the audience instead, offering answers to their questions and spending as much time as possi-ble talking to them. Someone this passionate has a mission and Ng’s is clear, unlike the tricks behind his illusions.

“The new wave of magic is coming. It’s got to be brought back, magic is cool. So spread the word, because it’s my mission to help make it mainstream again. I want people to be inspired by magic,” Ng said. “After all, making someone truly amazed is what magic is all about.”

and to throw concentrated energy balls at peo-ple.

Directed by Andrzej Bartkwiak, known for his excellent films like Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 the Grave, and Doom - oh wait all of those movies suck. It’s evident that Bartkwiak has no idea what to do when he’s in the direc-tor’s chair. Every scene fumbles around until a fight breaks out and when the fighting is going on it still looks like Bartkwiak is clueless.

I don’t want to write this film off com-pletely. Michael Clarke Duncan and the Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo as Bison’s sadistic henchmen Balrog and Vega were all right to watch. And then there was Chris Klein (American Pie) as some random Interpol agent who was there for no reason, his acting was perhaps the worst part of the film.

How could this movie not have sucked so much?

Well for starters the shit-f linging monkey could have decided on a better character then Chun-Li, or he could have chosen to get a better director. The thing that upsets me the most about this movie is that they have the audacity to set up for a sequel.

Chun-Li discovers a f lier about some un-derground “Street Fighting” tournament and its rumored that a dude named Ryu is attend-ing. That’s sounds like a really great idea, if it was in this movie. If you take anything from this article I hope it is my warning: do not see this movie.

karyn danForThlifestyles Editor

Set up in one corner of Maloney Hall’s second f loor art gallery were four tables of pia-no harps: the gutted insides of the giant grand instruments.

“It’s a pretty amazing invention,” said Wesleyan University graduate student Max Heath. As his hands rested upon a large block of glass, Heath moved it across the piano strings as a camera projected the glass and strings onto the wall behind him. “I hardly have to move the glass to create sound,” Heath said. This was only an element of Michael Pestel’s multimedia installation, Ornithopera, a closing performance of his exhibition Aviary, which drawn upon the lost voices of endangered and extinct bird species is also a celebration of the ones still alive. In the orchestrated event, it is scored for a minimum of 31 sound and a couple movement performers with additional partici-pating members of the audience. Students and faculty from Central Connecticut and Wesleyan were aligned

From Flying to Jiving: Ornithopera, AVAIRY’s Final Migrationagainst each side of the galley with different in-struments, the majority being handcrafted by Pestel. Opposite to the piano harps was slate drawing tables and an upright piano; the other two contained of a row of typewriters and slate writing podia, which consisted of a board of holes with a mixture of stones in each.

The audience lay inside these four walls of sound and eight performers with assorted string and wind instruments are inside of them cen-tered around a bird cage atop a circular moving platform.

Explaining the background of Ornithopera’s significance, Pestel spoke to the audience outside the center of the circle he’d eventually step foot in. “The most important thing about this is listening to the lost voices, the voices of extinct birds species that have dis-appeared,” he said. “These species have been eradicated since the 1500s by the United States. Fifty percent of all animals will be endangered and extinct by the end of the century.”

Pestel urged audience participation with slates and chalk to create their own additional noises. The slates weren’t ordinary however.

Dan Yashinsky, a Toronto based storyteller, told the audience a tale of his mother and the slates were saved from her roof; they were perched on by eight decades of birds.

Two Butoh Slowalkers (movement per-formers) slowly made their way around the pe-rimeter of the room; as they crossed an instrument, it signaled the noises initiated by each student. On the upright piano Brian Parks, a concert pianist and composer, pounded down random patterns of notes at the same time; each note represented a letter in the Latin spell-ing of the species of birds.

Briskly typing away bird proverbs into the old-fashioned typewriters, CCSU art his-tory professor Dr. Elizabeth Langhorne’s eco-art class also chanted little utterances under their breath.

And just like that, Pestel was moving back and forth, using various instruments as he strolled around the room; his two-year old daughter Josey dawdled around holding a baby doll, ran to Pestel and, still playing his instru-ment, swiftly scooped her into arms and car-ried her around.

He then stepped to the center and sat down with the eight performers, which was the invitation for the audience to partake. Chalking it up, some did rhythmic beats with straight lines, some went more free-form and curva-ceous onto the slate. While the performers in-side the circle kept to one instrument, Pestel used several bite sized items; mixing the me-lange of noises in the air. Pestel pulled out a tra-ditional f lute, Josey crawled into his lap with a doll still clutched in her hand.

All of the different sounds did seem a little intoxicating, enhanced by glancing at the vid-eos projected on the walls of Pestel’s various close up experiences with birds; playing an in-strument as the bird chirps back at him.

The sounds lasted for a couple Butoh Slowalkers rotations; about 20 minutes worth of ears ringing with high, low and clinky-clanky noises. For what was seemingly a grand finale of sorts, Pestel arose from his seat, walked over and stood next to a gong, and shot an object out of his f lute, symbolizing the end.

10

11THE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / UPGR ADETHE RECORDER / Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / SPORTS

MichaEl walshasst. Entertainment Editor

A zither begins to play. A tour of post-war Vienna is given by a British police officer with a voiceover beginning “I never knew the old Vienna”. This is how the memorable The Third Man, gets its feet off the ground.

This memorable introduction is just the beginning of one of the most remarkable and mysterious films in the history of cinema. The British film noir, directed by the overwhelm-ingly underrated Carol Reed, has been talked about constantly in the 60 years since its re-lease, and for good reason.

The Third Man is noir at its finest. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) arrives in Vienna only to find out that the friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), who invited him there, is dead. Martins dives deeper into the question of acci-dent or murder by digging up all possible infor-mation and sources he can.

Film director Peter Bogdanovich puts it best. While entirely debatable, he likes to call The Third Man the best non-auteur film ever. This meaning the best culmination of talents, rather than a film that was being written and directed by the same person who also applies his or her distinct style to the film, like many films by the likes of Ingmar Bergman or Jean-Luc Godard.

The Third Man shows a lot of artists at the top of their game. The culmination of talent in The Third Man starts with Graham Greene’s screenplay. Greene used his novella of the same name to create the atmosphere, characteriza-tion and story for the screenplay that ends up bleeding from the film. His mysterious noir story was originally intended only as source material for the screenplay before it was pub-lished as a full novella.

The trend in talent continues to the screen with great performance after great per-formance. Orson Welles is, as writer Luc Sante says, the ghost in the machine for The Third Man. Alluded to constantly, referenced in the title and the most powerful and moving per-former in the film, Welles is at his most mysti-fying in his limited time on screen.

The banter between Welles and the per-fectly American Joseph Cotten, two often on

The Third Man Set To Darken The Screen at Real Art Ways

MichaEl walsh asst. Entertainment Editor

It doesn’t really shock me that one of Alan Moore’s main inf luences when writing the Watchmen book was the great and unique nov-elist William S. Burroughs. Both Moore, with Watchmen, and Burroughs, with Naked Lunch, are the minds behind two of the more un-filmable source materials, eventually turned into films.

Long before Zack Snyder took the chal-lenging task of bringing the celebrated graphic novel to life on the big screen, the concept of a Watchmen film had been attached to different production companies and many names, such as heralded directors Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky.

Nearly 23 years after the film’s initial rights were given to 20th Century Fox; the Watchmen film has finally come to fruition. All that now remains is the question of whether the film was worth the wait and whether the choice to film the once thought to be un-filmable, was a smart idea.

Watchmen, which follows Rorschach’s in-vestigation of the death of an ex-superhero, is a

Watchmen Sets New Standard In Graphic Novel Adaptation

tough film to review. Considering the different windows the audience could be looking through when viewing the film makes me fully realize what this film is to one might not be for anoth-er.

For starters, you’ve got your obsessed fan-boy who has read the novel countless times picking detail after detail from the book’s deep subtext. Lower on the awareness chain are the viewers of my kind. These are the ones that read the graphic novel once after being mesmerized by the original trailer last summer. Last but not least are the members of the audience who are totally oblivious to the subject matter or the characters (don’t worry, that isn’t a sin in my book, just a fact).

For most films, making this distinction wouldn’t be important. But, folks, this isn’t The Dark Knight. Watchmen is a violent, gritty, strange, sprawling and extremely in-depth piece of work. This isn’t a film chock full of action. What it is though is a story, and a complex and complete one at that. It’s a mesmerizing period tale set in an actively catastrophic, politically challenged and tense threat of nuclear world war, ready to explode at any minute.

A diehard fan would hold this novel in the highest regard. It’s one of the most important graphic novels ever made. A one-time reader like me would be hard-pressed to find them-selves caring too much about every little detail, worrying mostly about the large plot turns and devices. A newcomer to the deep story might just end up slightly confused. Watching Watchmen was like watching the graphic novel come to life in a way I didn’t think was possible. Zack Snyder hit it spot on. His previous films, the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and the 2006 graphic novel adaptation of 300 seem like child’s play in comparison to this sprawling superhero saga.

One of the most important reasons for this film’s success is the perfect casting. Each character turned out exactly as I imagined they would when I was reading through the graphic novel. It would have been very easy for Warner Bros. to give a part to a big named actor rather than dishing out roles to the most fitting con-testants.

The important thing to understand about these impressive performances is that they aren’t incredibly jaw-dropping in terms of act-ing ability, but f lawless in terms of producing an accurate and believable portrayal of each character. None of these performances will win awards, but they don’t have to for this type of film to succeed. The film is undoubtedly front-ed by Jackie Earle Haley’s fierce and sympa-thetic performance as Rorschach. The stand out performance gives absolute justice to the gritty character.

I can’t possibly touch on every perfor-mance but I will add that Billy Crudup played Dr. Manhattan in a never overbearing fashion, Patrick Wilson was an excellent Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II), Matthew Goode was a perfectly cunning and deceptive Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan was ever so brutal as Edward Blake (The Comedian). The cast as a whole was entirely impressive and made this film what it was.

The most challenging part of translating Watchmen to the silver screen was bringing such a complex narrative jam-packed with phil-osophical themes and meaning down to a 163-minute film. Moore covered it all in robust fashion in 416 pages in his original text.

The first screenplay was written in 2001 by David Hayter before being handed over to Alex Tse to make revisions and rewrites. For all intents and purposes, these two faithfully cap-tured all that was needed to be told. The back-stories of characters that intertwined with the films present day events such as Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan were executed perfectly and Snyder handled them beautifully on screen.

The mood of the film was ever-changing, but with good reason. While not all the details are as you will find them in the graphic novel, you would be troubled to find a more faithful and spot on adaptation of Watchmen than this. The talked about tweaked ending is simply a different plot device that results in the same outcome.

Visually, Snyder excelled. His keen ability to produce such visually impressive films brought the vibrant and colorful pages of the Watchmen graphic novel alive. He didn’t so much put his stamp on the film as much as he translated the story over. Snyder created a true Watchmen world as far as I’m concerned. Costumes and sets were impressive and truly helped engulf me as a viewer.

My one complaint about this absolutely satisfying film comes from the odd and strange musical decisions. Rather than opting to use just the original score by Tyler Bates, Snyder de-cided to use songs from the likes of Jimi Hendrix and others. While I particularly liked the use of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changing” in the opening credits, something about Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower” didn’t fit the role. It was strange and out of place, an overlook by Snyder and the rest of the crew perhaps.

I can see newcomers not liking this film. I can see hardcore fans being obsessively picky. Not to say that if you fall into either of those two categories you’re doomed of not enjoying this film the way I did. While others might have found the film too long and over encompassing, I personally am itching to get my hands on the future director’s cut DVD.

Watchmen by all means isn’t perfect, but it is spectacular. For me, it sets a new standard of brilliance in graphic novel and comic book ad-aptations. The Dark Knight was one thing, but Watchmen is something of a different breed.

screen partners, is at its highest during the Ferris wheel scene in which Welles even added his own now famous line of dialogue to the script.

Acting doesn’t end with Cotten and Welles. The entire cast triumphs greatly and are key in making The Third Man what it is. Alida Valli is very dame while Trevor Howard is the cunning Major Calloway, the man running the investigation. Each performance, whether it is large or small, adds to the film in a major way.

The final key to the success of The Third Man is its director, Carol Reed. Vienna was such a beautifully photographable city in the time of this film. The damp, wet shots of the streets and buildings at night are evidence of the ability to make Vienna stand out as another character in the film. The black and white style of the film noir hides the pain the post-war city might have, leaving viewers with only the mys-tery of the city.

The best example of all this is the film’s conclusion that takes viewers from city streets to suffocating sewers. In an attempt to leave the film’s all too good mystery as alive and well as possible I will only comment on the finale as be-ing tense and dazzling. It has made for some of the best and most impressive chiaroscuro mo-ments in the film noir genre. It’s both visually arresting and an absolutely satisfying finish to the film.

The Third Man is one of the greatest films ever made. I’m a believer of this and so are many others. Whether it is Orson Welles’ limited yet captivating performance or Anton Karas’ un-mistakable and perfectly suitable zither score, The Third Man is a timeless film entrenched in many minds for many reasons and will be stuck in the minds of many newcomers for many years to come.

The Third Man will be shown on Monday, March 16 at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Conn. The spe-cial early screening will be at 1:30 p.m. with a discussion following the film. For more information, visit www.realartways.org.

12 Sports 3.11 THE RECORDERWednesday, March 11 , 2009

ccsubluEdEvils.coM

The Central Connecticut men’s basketball season came to an end on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Northeast Conference Tournament.

The Blue Devils dropped a 76-64 decision on the road at third-seed Sacred Heart. With the loss the Blue Devils finish the season with a 13-17 overall record, they were the sixth seed in the tournament for the sec-ond straight season.

The Blue Devils missed their first five shots from the field before

Men’s Basketball Season Ends on Thursday Night with Quarterfinal Loss at Sacred Heart

sophomore David Simmons took a pass from classmate Aaron Hall at the 16:10 mark to cut a quick Sacred Heart lead to 7-2. Junior Joe Seymore’s first basket of the game cut it to 13-6 but the Blue Devils made just three of their first 13 shots from the field.

The Blue Devil run reached 7-0 on the first three of the game by soph-omore forward Ken Horton.

The Pioneers answered quickly with a 5-0 run of their own to up their lead to 18-11. An 8-2 run by the Blue Devils cut the lead to one, 20-19, with 4:46 on the clock. Four different

players scored during the run for CCSU.

The Pioneers led 33-25 at the half on the strength of 5-of-12 shoot-ing from behind the three-point line. CCSU hit just 11-of-26 from the field and 1-of-6 from three. Eight of the nine players who played for CCSU scored, led by four players who each had four points.

Both teams came out firing the second half and combined to hit nine of the first 13 shots from the f loor. Sacred Heart took a 10-point lead with 14:22 to play, 49-39, and then

See Men’s Basketball Page 6

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Central Hockey Hits End of the Line

www.ccsubluEdEvils.coM

The second seeded Central Connecticut women’s basketball team dropped a 73-62 decision to third seeded St. Francis (PA) in the Northeast Conference Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon in Fairfield, CT.

The Blue Devils, now 18-13 overall this season, can earn a berth in the Postseason WNIT if Sacred Heart wins the NEC title next week. Freshman Shontice Simmons led the Blue Devils with 15 points. She also had seven rebounds. Freshman Gabrielle Oglesby and sophomore Leanne Crockett each added 13 points in the loss.

The two teams traded leads three times in the first half, and the

score was tied on five occasions. St. Francis (PA) led by as many as six points over the opening seven-plus minutes. Trailing 15-9 at the 12:23 mark, Oglesby started a 6-0 Blue Devil run that would tie the game. Central Connecticut went ahead, 21-18, on a three-pointer by Crockett with 7:21 left.

The Blue Devils built their lead to 26-22 before a pair of Red Flash triples erased it. Freshman Brittany Lilley hit the first for SFPA, and sophomore Allison Daly made the second.

The three-pointers sparked a 10-0 run that gave St. Francis (PA) a six-point lead with 2:06 remaining in the half. Central Connecticut nar-rowed the margin to 32-30, but soph-

Blue Devils Fall Short in NEC Semifinals

chrisToPhEr boulayasst. sports

CCSU women’s lacrosse dropped their home opener at Arute Field against Siena, by a score of 15-9 on Sunday afternoon.

The Blue Devils (0-4) went down 2-0 early due to goals by Siena’s Dierdre McQuillan and Caitlin Mikel. After the early stumble, CCSU surged to score four goals in less than four minutes, to take a 4-2 lead with Courtney Mooney, Alexa Smead, Lyndsey Mastandrea and Ashley Perkoski cashing in.

Coach Rachel Tringali was pleased with the Blue Devils’ early ef-forts on all fronts.

“We played the best first half this season,” she said. “We did a great job in transition.”

Lindsey Rosecrands led the scoring for the Saints (2-1), scoring four goals and adding two assists. Mikel and McQuillan each scored hat tricks, Courtney Highsmith and

Saints Baptize Blue DevilsAllie Kain each scored two, and Ryan Tierney scored a second half goal.

For the Blue Devils, Stephanie John, Mastandrea and Perkoski each scored two, while Smead, Mooney and Michele Conway all scored one.

The game f luctuated through-out the first half, with four ties and two lead changes.

Siena’s (2-1) Kristin Concordia made 10 saves for the Saints, while Blue Devils goalkeeper Alice Lee had 20 saves in a losing effort.

“We have a great goalie in Alice Lee, but sometimes we rely on [de-fense] too much,” Tringali said.

CCSU’s dependence on defense would come back to bite them, as they gave up four goals because of un-successful clears during the match, finishing 12-16 in clears, while Siena was a perfect 6-6.

The Saints were able to pull away in the second half, with Courtney Highsmith scoring what would be the first of four-straight goals for the Saints, and put the game

out of reach. Siena outscored CCSU 6-2 in the half.

“We came out f lat in the second half and we couldn’t recover. We couldn’t find our groove. We didn’t capitalize when we had to,” Tringali said.

Tringali also formulated what the Blue Devils will have to do to carry the strong first half play into a 60-minute effort.

“We need to maintain more possession on attack and [have] more ball movement on attack,” she said.

CCSU received six yellow cards in the game, while Siena received two. The Saints outshot the Blue Devils 41-20, and CCSU also lost the turnover battle, committing 25 to Siena’s 19.

“Turnovers hurt us. Sometimes we try to force things instead of al-lowing things to f low,” she said. CCSU played Quinnipiac Tuesday in their Conference home opener. They will be in action again at Arute Field on March 18 against Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m.

Shemik Thompson and the Blue Devils never held a lead against SHU on Thursday night.

See Devils Fall Page 6

Baseball Suffers First Loss of the Season Sunday at Navy

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Shontice Simmons led the Blue Devils with 15 points during their semifi nal loss to the Red Flash.

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