Campus Conversation

What happens when two different parties have the same theme on the same Saturday night on opposite sides of campus? Many party-goers faced a heart-wrenching decision that night as jungle-themed parties in Stone and Cohan could be seen causing chaos and importing their share of fake trees.

“We were inspired by the lack of extraordinary parties at Amherst,” said Arthur Lord ’03. “Most parties here are all the same … So we thought big. We plan on showing Amherst how parties should be done this year.” The inspiration from Stone came from the creative genius of Andrew Doss ’03.

“Aaron Britt [’03] had best costume-red dots all over his face indicating that he had ‘caught malaria,'” said Doss. “Catherine Davis [’03] came in second place, dressed as an anthropologist, complete with camera and field notes.”

The Cohan party was a private one that had been planned a few weeks in advance. The parties’ hosts were understandably peeved when they heard about the competing party, although no one can be sure if their rivals in Stone had stolen the idea in an act of ruthless party warfare or if it was mere coincidence. “To the extent that we understand, they heard about the idea of our party, since we had been planning it for a while,” said Evelyn Israel ’02.

According to the Stone hosts, there was no rivalry, as both groups claim to have been planning for a few weeks. “Those kids are actually friends of mine … It was a shock that two room groups had the same brilliant idea at the same time,” said Lord.

Both parties decorated in full force for the occasion, complete with the appropriate foliage and jungle-clad guests. When asked if their party was a “typical social dorm party,” Lord said, “Well, a lot of people were dressed up and no one was dancing, so, no, it wasn’t a typical social dorm party. But wait, no, I guess it was. I was walking through my bathroom at 11 and there was a random girl puking in my toilet.”

Total request live

Some of us were born to be stars. Unfortunately, most of us were born to be nobodies. For this vast majority of people, the Campus Center provided an opportunity to experience fifteen minutes of fame, setting up a “Make your own video” booth in the McCaffrey Room last Tuesday.

The event was run as part of the Daytime Campus Center Programming (a wing of the Program Board), due in large part to the efforts of Kimberly Morris, assistant director of student activities for the Campus Center. Having done work with similar activities at Teikyo Post University, in Waterbury, Conn., Morris has attempted to bring a new creative flair to Amherst.

Paradigm Entertainment supplied the green screen, video equipment and costumes which are used to make “instant” music videos; according to Morris, the wide music selection ranged “from Elvis to Britney Spears.”

Students displayed various reactions to the event. “Some people were peeking their heads in, not sure what to think, acting kind of scared,” said Morris. “Then you had a few students who were very eager to perform and sometimes did several videos in a row.” Three students who were not intimidated by the cameras and lights were Andrew Doss ’03, Sarah Miller ’03 and Tom Fritzsche ’03, who sang and danced to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

“We chose the background of Times Square, but you could also do things like outer space and underwater,” said Fritzsche. “Andrew and Sarah were wearing leather jackets … and I was wearing a wedding dress.” Miller was happy with the performance but offered these words of wisdom: “A note to other prospective video creators: Billie Jean is a very long song.”

-K.T., T.D.