Every kid has dreamed of dressing up as their favorite super-hero to kick some ass and take some names. But no one was ever dumb enough to try it, because—let’s face it—it just wouldn’t work. Right?

Wrong. Comic-book junkie and all-around high school nerd, Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), has spent one too many evenings wacking off to his English teacher and imagining what it would be like to be more than just an invisible nobody. What does it take to change that image? A turquoise wetsuit and a few pushups later we have Kick-Ass, the amateur crime-fighter, loaded with only a couple of ass-kicking batons, a tazer and his determination to prove all the non-believers wrong.

Featured in the virtual limelight of YouTube with even his own comic book series in the works, Kick-Ass has made a name for himself that catches the attention of the experienced crime-fighting, father-daughter duo, Big Daddy (a hilariously awkward, yet badass Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloë Moretz). However, the less than innocent pair is already caught up in a plot of their own: to take down drug kingpin Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). With too many not-so-super heroes running rampantly through New York City, D’Amico becomes convinced that Kick-Ass is involved in the sabotage of his cocaine dealing and is determined to take him down, with the help of his son, Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Where Kick-Ass could oh-so-easily be riddled with comic book super-hero cliches, it successfully dodges them with its mature rating. Though the film has received complaints for gratuitous violence and coarse language—in part performed by a young girl—the fun plot twists and smart script keep the audience rooting for the underdogs and itching to take up torches of their own.

Though he’s still a relatively unknown actor, Aaron Johnson impressively takes a few pages from awkward lovable nerds Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg without becoming too stuck in a comedic typecast.

An awesomely varied soundtrack does wonders to define the film’s action comedy genre. From Mika to Ennio Morricone, from The Prodigy to John Murphy, the mix of songs and thoroughly epic score keep adrenaline pumping and breaths bated while the audience watches Kick-Ass duke it out.

With a smart mix of comedy and action, Kick-Ass can stand proud next to his fellow Marvel comic-book successes as a dreaming underdog. Though he probably can’t beat Tony Stark’s ass, he can still beat ours, and we’ll welcome him because, hey, he’s Kick-Ass.

For a $10 cover charge, a dozen lucky night-crawlers witnessed a marvelous spectacle on April 27.

My Dear Disco, a “dance-think” group out of Ann Arbor, Mich., took the stage. They drew the crowd in quickly and had most of the patrons moving for a sold 90-minute set. The set was extremely well put together and quite memorable.

With a female lead vocalist, a Daft Punk cover, and the inclusion of traditional Irish bagpipes in a couple songs, My Dear Disco really showed the audience that they’re different from anything else they had ever heard or seen. They started the set with a couple fast-paced songs that drove the audience’s feet mad if they tried to keep them still, and then totally conquered Daft Punk’s “Human After All:” a cover that was both impressive and appropriate.

“For Your Love” is a pop-synth tune that had me moving the whole time. Toward the end of the night they played the original song “Move Your Feet,” which had almost everyone in the bar dancing—consumed by the music and the energy that was spilling off the stage. The last song they played, “Clubbin’,” was a seven-ish minute dance number that had everyone giving up their last bit of energy to the floor. My arms and legs were sore once they cleared the stage a little after midnight.

The group came down and chatted with the people left over in the room. They sold their CD as a “pay what you will” deal and advertised free bumper stickers if you signed up for their mailing list. You can check out My Dear Disco online, but I personally recommend seeing them live if you ever have the opportunity. The Internet just doesn’t do their stage presence and all around energy justice. If you like the kind of music that throws itself off the stage and forces your body to let loose—filling you with electricity and excitement—these guys are going to open a whole new window for you.

Anticipation has the habit to set you up for failure, particularly when standards are set high. After Oracular Spectacular (2007), fans of the electro-rock band, MGMT, expected big things from their new album, Congratulations.

Their last album featured band members Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, who together created hypnotic synthpop melodies with high falsettos and songs like “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend.” However, this time around their sound has changed.

On Congratulations, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser teamed up with Sonic Boom as well as members from their live band, including Matt Asti, Will Berman, and James Richardson to create an equally hypnotic sound, but slightly less electronic.

Congratulations takes MGMT’s music in an unexpected direction. Instead of continuing on with their catchy electronic syncing, they decided to take it down a notch. As a result, the album has an underlying surfer theme hidden in some tracks. It can especially be heard in “It’s Working,” which, VanWyngarden explained in an interview, is about rolling on E and living the “Time to Pretend” dream.

Lyrics from the track include, “But if I try to feel at all I am deceived. My mind’s affected, it’s empty now. As I lay down, I feel alright. My heart is racing.”

Another notable track is “Brian Eno,” which has a natural happy quality to it. The song was written about the experimental rock musician Brian Eno. It is clear the band was inspired by Eno after the lyrics, “He taught me many things. The wisdom of bleak stratagems. The prophet of a sapphire soul, presented through creative freedoms.”

MGMT has a history of screwing with musicality, so it’s no surprise that they dramatically mess with tempos in many songs. This album is going to take more than one listen to fully grasp, appreciate and accept. The songs won’t quite stick the same way as prominent songs in their last album did, but Congratulations is much more psychedelic and makes for awesomely easy listening.

Although they decided to walk an unexpected path, it’s exactly the kind of album that proves there’s more to MGMT than just a catchy debut. They demonstrate clear potential to expand musically. The band has decided not to release any singles off of Congratulations. They want their listeners to explore it for themselves.

While Oracular Spectacular put a lot of pressure on the anticipated quality of Congratulations, MGMT’s second album didn’t disappoint. Not only that, but it in turn set up anticipation for the next project.

Caution Children—a refreshing burst of hot air that has been relentlessly blowing through Ithaca’s harsh winters over the past three years—has grown from a loosely formed open mic act to a solidified mainstay within the local music scene. Led by founder Steve Burton, the group is composed of five other members, all of whom met at Ithaca College. Burton and company’s fun, yet sincere brand of rock ‘n roll mashes the songwriting dynamic of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band and the punk sensibilities of The Hold Steady, while sprinkling the dark somberness of The National on top.

Their music aims to cut through the bullshit that comprises a large part of the current indie music scene. The following created by their energetic live shows has greatly heightened the anticipation of their debut album. The album, still untitled, captures the matured rock ‘n roll sound the group has moved toward in place of the poppier songs that characterized their earlier material.

Image by Mike Grippi

“Burning Up The Night” makes for an appropriate album opener as it starts off right away with a steady rock rhythm and guitar solo, setting the tone for the rest of the album. The chorus of, “Burning up the night / Burning up the night / Trying to get back to the place where we started at,” is enough to incite crowds into a state of electricity. Funky keyboards, bells, and saxophone are led by pounding drums, played by Pat Haggerty, as the intensity builds and Burton screams until the song comes to a succinct ending. Highlighting the song is the inclusion of graveling vocals and haunting laughter by Nate Hodge of The Tundra Toes, who voices the part of the devil.

Following “The Brokenest Century,” takes a decidedly bluesier turn, until tuba blasts and handclaps transform the tune into a swinging rock song.

Burtons’ deep, gravely vocals carry a sincerity that makes his stories of broken down bars and torn lives come to life. An example is an album highlight, “Blood,” in which Burton weaves a story of a father and son after the loss of their mother. A haunted piano tries to get itself in tune before the saxophone of Reece Lazarus and keys of Aaron Terkel smoothly roll under the vocals. Gang vocals, which punch into the album in all the right places, join Burton in screaming, “If God compels we’ll have to FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT like hell.” The song picks up and finishes in a punk fury with the vocals growling to the very end.

The dark “River” finds the band at their heaviest with a driving bass, beating drums and deep tones throughout. A warped voice spouting a discernible satanic sermon over electronic tones starts the song off. Just when you think the song is about to end, an abrupt baseline sparks a choir of evil monks chanting, along with the wailing sound of the saw being played by CJ Knowles, also of The Tundra Toes.

Closing out the album, “Lites Lites” is appropriately titled, as it shines as one of the best tracks and functions as a perfect album closer. A mandolin strums as Burton sings of two people who are so in love that they set themselves on fire. “When we can’t feel our arms we’ll set fire to them / And light, light, light our way to heaven.” Gradually, echoing guitar chords accompany the humming of the vocals, made denser by the backing vocals of bassist Mike Grippi.

Abruptly, the cue “Burn, burn, burn, burn” sets the track off with a steadier beat as the soaring guitar of Alex Rosenblatt is heard overhead. The track continues to fade out and build back up until it erupts in a mantra of gang vocals screaming, “Whoooa,” as if trying to hold onto something with their last breath. Ending again with airy, distant guitar tapping and humming the album closes in a final sigh.

At the refreshing length of ten tracks, the album says exactly what it needs to say. This world might be fucked up, but it looks a lot better knowing there are people behind you. Rock ‘n’ roll may not save lives but it does give you something to believe in.

Visit Caution Children at www.myspace.com/cautionchildrenmusic.

Image by Mike Grippi

For the past three years, Ithaca’s own Caution Children have proven to be a refreshing edition to the local music scene. A six-piece band including a saxophone and keyboardist, the band delivers fun, sincere rock ‘n roll to the masses. On the verge of the release of their debut album, I sat down with band’s founder Steve Burton at Pete’s Cayuga Bar in downtown Ithaca to discuss the group and the upcoming album.

How did the group get started?

Well I had written a lot of music on my own. It was always just in Garage Band and by myself and never any instrument playing involved in it. Someone suggested that I play an open mic in the beginning of my sophomore year of college. I didn’t want to just do something on my own, so I just found some people that I knew to play stuff, and it was mostly toy instruments. And from there we started adding things like guitar and bass and drums and everything and it just kind of evolved slowly to a point where it was in the form that it is now.

What’s the writing process like and how do you guys go about forming songs?

I’ll usually write a song based on some particular phrase or something coming to me and then I put it to chords and melodies and it’s usually very bare bones. I have a general idea of what I want it to sound like or where I want it to go. Then I’ll present it to the band and I’ll give them those instructions and we’ll work out the combination of what I’m going for and what feels best and what feels different, what’s going to keep people having fun playing it and what’s going to sound good. Because a lot of times if you were to get a group of five musicians and have them play a song in the way that’s the most interesting or the most fun for them it’s going to sound like shit to the audience, just because they’re doing everything that they find is the best and none of it’s fitting together to make a song.

What are the biggest influences that you see for the band? Can you describe your sound?

I’m most influenced by Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. I try to go after that. And also, I’ve been trying more and more to find influence from the sort of source material of his stuff. Older rock ‘n’ roll like, Jerry Lee Lewis or Sam Cooke, things along those lines. The way that I’ve thought about it is pop songs that are played really viciously.

I see you as trying to cut through a lot of the bullshit. Just playing rock ‘n’ roll.

That’s been my issue with some of the college scene, is this idea of like reveling in your own musicianship. Where it’s cool and maybe it’s fun to dance to sometimes but it just seems like musical masturbation. What I’m trying to do is have musical sex with everybody. [Laughing] That’s what I think about every time I’m onstage: undressing the audience and fucking them with my music.

Can you talk about your live show and what you try to go for?

We try to play high energy because that’s simply more interesting I think than standing at a live show and going “My gosh, look at that guitar line he’s doing. That’s technically interesting.” Just because that personally doesn’t move me much. I think that having energy and just trying to be into it so that the crowd feels okay being into it. And part of what I try to do is to be showy. I’m not usually a showy person in real life, but if you can create a character and make it benefit the show, that just seems more interesting and more engaging for me and the audience.

I feel like you guys have definitely grown as a band within the Ithaca music scene. How do you feel like you fit into it?

I think that there is definitely a place for us within the Ithaca music scene and I think that there’s a demand but there also isn’t big a demand for it at the same time. [There aren’t many other guitar bands in Ithaca.] All that really means is that we can’t play every two weeks or else no one would come to our shows. But as far as the people that have come to our shows, I think that I’ve been really happy with the reception that we’ve had from people within the Ithaca music scene. The best I can say is that I think that’s great because my sort of formative music scene experience is the Ithaca music scene. So I have a sort of emotional connection to it but I can also see why there aren’t that many Indie rock bands in Ithaca because ya know…every person that would be interested in that sort of scene is sort of broke. Or they’re college students and they like can’t get out of that bubble of things in their comfort zone.

How are you guys going to release it?

We’re probably going to do a digital release, as well as a vinyl release. We’re probably not going to do the ole plastic.

Can you talk about the album?

It’s a lot of the songs that we’ve been playing for a long time. We moved toward really playing balls to the barback kind of songs and tried to play high energy and [the older songs that were more on the poppy side] we decided not to do because it [didn’t feel right for where we were at]. And not to say that there’s no dynamism to it. There’s some more lighter moments.

So how many tracks is it going to be?

It’s going to be ten tracks, which is good. I like shorter. You look at these albums from the 70’s like, Born To Run and Turnstiles by Billy Joel. Dudes used to make albums with like eight or nine songs. Granted they were longer songs. I think that, that just seems like a really appealing thing to me. Sometimes, especially with young bands, I think that a tendency is we’ve got all this stuff and there’s like, if it’s your first album, a lot of the songs on there, there’s an emotional attachment to them. So you have a tendency to throw 16 songs on an album, when really it’s much more suited to be parsed down. So that’s what we did. There’s just something that’s more appealing, having fewer songs but more songs that work together as a unit.

Pretty much all of your songs are about fictional characters I feel like. Do you like telling stories or do you ever write from personal experience?

I haven’t written that much from personal experience or like personal feelings. I mean there’s stuff that is definitely informed by my experience because everything is informed by your experience. But it’s more about trying to capture a different experience just because I don’t think I’m all the interesting.

So where do these characters come from?

I don’t know. I never really form the characters that fully. It’s more just more trying to like put myself in the shoes of some particular situation. To put yourself in a particular mindset and think about things in that way and what would be an interesting thing to happen or thing to consider. The line, “You sound like shit when you sing, so why don’t you stop singin?” That’s autobiographical [laughing]. (“Burning Up The Night”).

Is there any overall theme to the album?

There’s a big theme of believing in things and asking: what do you believe in? And not just like religious or spiritual wise in that sort of sense, even though that does come up a lot. It’s also like believing in love. Like with “Lites Lites,” the fact that you believe in what you have so deeply that you will set yourself on fire. I guess it’s about that struggle about trying to find something that you can hold onto. It’s also not a very singular album. There’s a lot of “we.” The album as it stands begins with the words, “We belong to a different time…” so the fact that it starts with we and it’s about a lot of relations with people or with things and sort of more collectively than on your own.

There’s a lot of religious, Catholic imagery. Is that just something that you grew up with? Because I know Bruce and The Hold Steady talks a lot about that, which are two of your influences…

In the fact that in general I’m writing songs about faith or trying to believe in things, that sort of reference point, that’s the touchstone for what I think about. And also, I’ve always thought that religious things are very powerful in themselves without having to lend much weight to them. It’s a good way to give a sense of what you’re going for without having to expound too much, without having to create significance for that because they sort of have built-in significance.

To wrap up about the album, is there anything else you want to say about it?

I think that the way we did it was really good because we kind of put ourselves in a building for a week knowing that we just had a week. We worked our asses off for a week and I think that there’s a sort of moment feeling about it, as opposed to if we spent a lot of time on it, it wouldn’t have such a distinct feeling.

Future plans?

We’re going to play at Ithaca Festival. We’re going to play where we can this summer. Hopefully do some little weekend things towards the end of summer after the album’s out. A lot of us are leaving college and have other things, as music isn’t our only passion. Repaying student loans is another one of my passions, so I’m going to pursue that.

Image by Julie Hepp

By Samantha Schles

For years, characters using medication on TV shows was like a hot stove. The networks would touch it, but jump back in time to not scar characters. It hasn’t been until the past 15 years that channels began to air programs with characters actually self-medicating. Of these, most involve characters battling alcohol abuse, like Jack, the depressed doctor in Lost.

Only a few network shows deal with medication in a serious manner, and most that do are canceled quickly. Showing medication and painkillers with consequences, and characters using medical marijuana at all, are reserved for premium cable networks like HBO and Showtime. The current state of pill-popping characters is not overly preachy and non-condoning.

The 1990s signified a transition to characters with serious psychological issues. However, shows mostly used the after-school-special formula to deal with the subject. One such instance is in season two of Saved By The Bell, where Jessie Spano resorts to caffeine pills to keep up with her battling school and social lives. With the help of Slater, Zack and the rest of the gang, Jessie goes off the pills, and the abuse of medication is never breached again in the series. Moving into the new century, network programs shifted to a different approach to characters using medication.

Image by Julie

Current comedy shows often adopt the “no to limited repercussions” outlook on pill use. Usually, humorously titled pills surface for one-episode stints and are never mentioned again. The Tina Fey-created 30 Rock has around three episodes in which characters down drugs. In one episode, Jack suggests Liz Lemon take a drug called Comanaprosil (side effects include dizziness, sexual nightmares and sleep crime) for her flight to Chicago. While on the drug, Liz believes she befriends Oprah on the airplane, which actually turns out to be a sassy 13-year-old.

Another example of one-stint use of drugs is the new series Glee. In order for the quarterback/hunky leading man Finn to balance his life (this seems to turn everyone to drugs, doesn’t it?), he begins taking pills to stay peppy and alert. What ensues is an entire glee club doped up on pills, frantically singing their hearts out and grinding their teeth to pumping mash-ups.

The only current television show on network primetime that deals with medication use seriously is House, M.D. Dr. Gregory House is a brilliant doctor who suffers from chronic leg pain after a disastrous operation. House relies on Vicodin and his cane in order to get through endless days of absurd medical anomalies that always seem to occur in his hospital.

House is currently the only self-medicating doctor on any network show. Though the show mainly takes the “disease of the hour” approach, it still devotes a good amount of time to House’s addiction and his struggle to over come it. Other shows have showcased self-medication with pills over the course of the series, but they haven’t lasted as long as House.

The only comparable example is NBC’s Will and Grace. The show’s rich and shrill Karen Walker wouldn’t be able to hold her martini glass if not for her daily dose of pills. Her habits are seen as innocuous; the studio audience never sees Karen in withdrawal, and there are never real repercussions for her drug use. The main difference between House and Will and Grace is not just the comedy, but that Karen is a supporting character. Karen’s drug habits and Karen in general were never the focus of the show.

While network shows are still shying away from serious medication use, HBO and Showtime both feature numerous shows that draw attention to this very issue. It first began in 1999 with the premiere of The Sopranos on HBO.

The show begins with the typical gangster Tony Soprano in a not-so-typical situation for a man of his stature: in a psychologist’s office. Tony suffers from panic attacks, prompting him to begin therapy with Dr. Jennifer Melfi. With Dr. Melfi’s help, Tony is prescribed medication for panic attacks and, later, depression. What was revolutionary about the show was the normality of it. The show featured graphic mob violence, habitual hard drug use and the fury of suburban mothers alongside regularly scheduled psychiatric appointments. The massive success of the show gave way for more serious “adult” story lines, like medication, on other premium channel TV shows.

After The Sopranos reached cult status, more shows featuring psychiatric patients and prescription pill users emerged. In 2005, Weeds, a show about a suburban pot-dealing mom, premiered on Showtime. While initially the show was just a fun foray into Southern California suburbs and casual drug use, the protagonist (if we can call her that) Nancy Botwin eventually gets into scrapes with Mexican drug lords, human trafficking and assassination attempts.

Nancy’s sons Silas and Shane both begin dealing drugs in season five. However, the show took a turn with Silas’ endeavor into selling marijuana legally. He begins, as he tells his landlady, a “compassionate care club.” The dispensary is met with much resistance, a cop extorts Silas, and eventually his business fails.

The past two years have been a signal for real change in medication story lines in television. In 2008, the vampire-centric program True Blood premiered on HBO. Yes, a supernatural show about vampires, telepathy and southern Republicans managed to squeeze in pill use as well.

In the series, vampire blood, commonly known as “V,” is used as a sexual stimulant and psychotropic drug by humans. Jason Stackhouse, the beautiful albeit stupid younger brother of the main character, meets a pretty young girl, Amy, and the two begin using the drug habitually. Eventually, Amy is killed while on “V”. Let that be a lesson to you.

In 2009, Showtime debuted two new shows that dealt primarily with medication while other shows only dabbled. The United States of Tara, a series about a mother with dissociative identity disorder, and Nurse Jackie, a show about a nurse with a drug habit, both explore the effects of prescription medication.

Though only one and a half seasons into the show, Nurse Jackie has touched on the use of OxyContin, Valium, Vicodin and medical marijuana. In a bold episode of season two called “Apple Bong,” Jackie suggests a cancer patient try marijuana to relieve his unending pain. A doctor scolds her for even mentioning an illegal drug in the hospital. Jackie sneaks the patient out to an ambulance truck, creates a bong out of an apple, smokes up and instructs the patient to do the same.

Similarly, The United States of Tara shows the rollercoaster ride that is prescription medication. Although she attends therapy, keeps a video diary and ingests countless pills, Tara is never quite able to suppress her alternate personalities for very long.

In the medication landscape of TV, it seems House is the only network TV show that takes a serious look at medication, while plenty of comedy shows breach the subject often. It’s not necessary for every show to devote time to this issue. It’s not a bad thing, either, to have comedy characters take pills that make them see Oprah. There is a large amount of TV content devoted to the issue of medication evenly distributed between basic cable and premium channels. There is balance of seriousness and silliness that works. Maybe what TV is trying to say is that we can have it all.

____________________________________

Samantha Schles is a sophomore journalism major who thinks House is wrong—it really is lupus this time. E-mail her at sschles1@ithaca.edu.

By Carly Sitzer

Much like going green, eating organic seems like one of those trends that recently emerged to become popular and mainstream in society. However, organic food is more than just a fad or a recent addition to our diets: Organic food, as we know it today, first rose to popularity in the 1970s when agricultural experts first began to realize that the chemicals used to “enhance” the food we eat can be detrimental to not only the environment but also to our health.

But what exactly makes food organic? According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, “Organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation.” In layman’s terms, the animals and plants that are ultimately used to become organic food aren’t given additional products to their diet—products that the consumer ultimately eats.

The next question is whether organic food is actually better for people’s health and their general well-being. While the USDA clearly states that they make no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced foods, there has been research proven to show the drawbacks of chemically enhancing food.

Image by Brian Cipolla

Modern pesticides have been used in agriculture since 1939, when Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller discovered that DDT (also known in the science world as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) could be used as an insecticide—a discovery that later won him a Nobel Prize in 1948. However, this achievement was challenged in 1962 when biologist and writer Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring, which argued that the use of DDT was harming not only the wildlife (birds in particular) that ate the pesticide-ridden food, but also to the humans that consumed it as well. In 1972, the use of DDT was banned, as a result of Silent Spring: Many people also believe that this book led to the pro-organic activism against pesticides.

In current times, pesticide supporters argue that it’s needed to maintain produce prices at a low cost to keep an ample and affordable supply of fruits and vegetables on the market. However, pesticides are, by definition, chemicals, and therefore when consumed in large quantities can be harmful to human’s health. In 2006, research published in Environmental Health Perspectives compared the presence of pesticides in elementary school-aged children on their regular diet and then after strictly following a diet consisting of organically grown fruits and vegetables. The chemicals in question were organophosphorus pesticides; overexposure to these chemicals can physically manifest as nausea, headaches, twitching, trembling and on a more extreme scale, developmental or reproductive problems.

The study found that after eating organically, the presence of pesticides was significantly lower—therefore suggesting that diet is the main cause for presence of pesticides in children’s lives.

Similarly, another controversy that’s recently surfaced with food and health is the popularity of hormones used on animals. Hormones have been used since 1930 to help promote faster growth in young animals. However, the hormones used on animals are then transferred to the consumer when he or she eats the meat that was altered.

One of those hormones used is Bovine Somatotropin, which enables the growth of young cattle and encourages milk production. Research conducted by the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the National Farmers Union found that Bovine Somatotropin had drawbacks for both the animals and humans that consumed it. The animals were malnourished because too many nutrients were going into the milk that was produced.

Studies have found correlations between high levels of Insulin Growth Factor-1 (which is present in Bovine Somatotropin) and levels of colon and breast cancer—although they are still researching if there’s a link between consuming milk with IGF-1 and the presence of cancer. Additionally, there is been research currently being conducted on the link between hormone-ridden chicken consumption and early puberty in girls.  Organic meat, however, is made from animals that are free of all hormones and follow a diet of vegetables that are pesticide-free as well.

In general, organic food is more expensive than regular food, which keeps a lot of people from choosing to eat organically. The reason for this drive in price is because without the aid of hormones, pesticide and other chemicals, it’s more time-consuming to care for the plants and the animals. However, the overall health benefits that organic eating offers can pay off in the end—it’s better to pay for the more expensive food rather than pay for the medical bills later.

____________________________________

Carly Sitzer is a freshman journalism major who likes her squash with a healthy dose of antibiotics. E-mail her at csitzer1@ithaca.edu.

Image courtesy of Liz Tigelaar

By Jocelyn Codner

But Tigelaar’s life has taken many lucky and unexpected turns (life… unexpected, I think I’m clever). In fact, Tigelaar’s original reason for coming to Ithaca College was to act in an ICTV soap called Semesters.

“I really wanted to be a soap opera actress,” she said. “I wasn’t really ever involved with Park at all.” Hilariously enough, by the time she got here she had totally forgotten about it and went about her business as a TV-R scriptwriting major.

After graduating in 1998, Tigelaar, who had already completed the ICLA program, decided to repeat it for the summer.

“The [ICLA] program was really just starting out compared to now,” Tigelaar said. “Just seeing how the program has grown—[students] are really ahead of the game comparatively. They’re doing like grad work!”

The decision to pass up backpacking across Europe with her friends for ICLA made the difference between Tigelaar having a successful career and maybe not having a career at all. Back in L.A., Tigelaar began an internship on the television series Dawson’s Creek, which then turned into a job in post-production.

She knew she really wanted to be in the writer’s room, but at that stage in the game, you take what you’re offered and find your way to where you want to be.

“I said yes to anything,” Tigelaar said, including a Dawson’s mystery novel series, which she loves to joke about.

After Dawson’s (and actually getting to write an episode), Tigelaar moved on to shows like American Dreams, What About Brian, Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers and Sisters, and, her favorite (insert sarcasm here), Kyle XY.

It was only a matter of time before Tigelaar had success with a show of her own. Life Unexpected, which she is creator and executive producer of, was picked up by the CW and has aired a well-received first season. It’s currently up for renewal for a second season.

Tigelaar just pitched her season two arc to the network and is eagerly waiting Upfronts at the end of the month (a large meeting where networks announce their primetime schedules for the oncoming seasons) to hear if Life Unexpected made the final cut.

“It’s radio silence—it’s like they’re your boyfriend and they won’t call you back,” said Tigelaar. “Once you’re on the air, the only place to go is off. Hopefully not yet though.”

The show is about a foster girl, Lux (Brittany Robertson), who tries to become emancipated from the system. In order to do so she must have her birth parents’ signatures. She tracks down her birth father, Nate Bazile (Kristoffer Polana), who tells her that her birth mother is the local radio DJ Cate Cassidy (Shiri Appleby) and that he got her pregnant in high school. The show chronicles their journey of becoming a family.

Tigelaar herself was adopted. “I think [being adopted] did inspire [Life Unexpected], but I didn’t realize it until after,” Tigelaar said. “In continuing the story it makes it easier—but I think people have these feelings, whether you’re adopted or not.”

Tigelaar’s characters are incredibly complicated and flawed, which she said is one of her favorite things about them. Not necessarily so for the network. Cate, in particular, was hard for The CW to warm up to. When Tigelaar first started Life Unexpected, lots of people complained that Cate wasn’t “likeable” enough.

“There’s such a double standard when it comes to women on TV,” said Tigelaar. Cate is a career-driven woman, hesitant to marry and settle down. Tigelaar felt a personal blow here, as Cate is fashioned largely after her. Being a successful woman in a competitive business, Tigelaar has a real drive and love for what she does and less of a focus on being a Betty Draper type. Cate isn’t alone on the air, however.

“Liz Lemon is so much more like what women are like,” Tigelaar said. “Most women are NOT Carrie Bradshaw.”

As one of Ithaca College’s successful alumni, Tigelaar came back to speak to Park School students about the future. She visited several classes, and taught a master class herself on breaking story for a television series. She also spoke at the Park School of Communications’ senior dinner.

“If I can do it, anyone can,” she laughed. While this is not entirely true, she does leave students feeling reassured. “Everything that led me to getting the position that got me started was through IC,” Tigelaar said.

“Life is a series [of decisions],” Tigelaar said. “It’s not just the big decisions that change your life—it’s every little teeny tiny thing.”

_____________________________________________________

Jocelyn Codner is a senior cinema and photography major who’s excited for her own show, House of Steves, to take off. E-mail her at jcodner1@ithaca.edu.

By Catherine Fisher

With our country in an economic crisis along with the sporadic increase of natural disasters, it isn’t surprising that depression rates among the American population have risen. Luckily for us, antidepressants are only a doctors note away. But are we really that lucky?

Antidepressant ads give the impression that happiness is all wrapped up in a little pill, but in actuality the only thing these ads guarantee are disillusionment. Many have seen the commercial that features a saddened individual walking down a dark hallway where they eventually walk into an area illuminated by light and their features become overjoyed. After watching this, it seems as though these pills work instantly but that’s not always going to be the case. In fact, when on antidepressants, one may feel worse before they feel better.

Take a look at Prozac’s website, for example, where we get all the information that’s not included in the 15-second commercial. In big bold letters reads, “Antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teenagers, and young adults within the first few months of treatment.” Yes the commercial gives the website address for those seeking more information but who checks the website?

Image by Marc Phillips

The theory behind brand name drugs such as Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro is based on a chemical imbalance in the brain that creates depression. It is suggested that low levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that relays signals to the brain, is the cause of this imbalance. Antidepressants often address this issue through cartoon diagrams that show the problem then the solution once on the drug.

This belief can be contradicted as it has been proven that serotonin is not the sole contributor to depression. “Serotonin imbalance as causing depression is at best a gross simplification of a partially understood dynamic process that involves many neurotransmitters and brain structures,” said Hugh Stephenson, a psychology professor at Ithaca College.

He went on to explain that the newer generation of antidepressants, such as Prozac, had to come up with something that would be better than the older generation, hence the focus on fixing this serotonin imbalance. Yes, serotonin has something to do with depression, but is that the sole contributor? No, but the common viewers of America aren’t going to know that.

With such flaws, how is it that these ads aren’t taken off the market for misleading audiences? This all boils down to clever advertising. “It’s all about eye candy,” said Cyndy Scheibe, professor of psychology at Ithaca College, “They distract you from hearing the side effects by using visual images.”

While we hear these side effects that range from insomnia to digestive problems, we see people having a great time with friends. To the masses, it isn’t these words that count; instead we notice pictures.

These medications are a product, and the intent is to sell their product using some unique selling proposition to make it stand out among the other pills sweeping the market. “They want you to remember their product when you make a decision, if not to convince you to use it but question whether you should,” Scheibe said. The people behind the commercials of Zoloft and company want to at least leave you questioning your own mental stability.

Let’s just take a look at the opening of the notable Zoloft commercial. “You know when you feel the weight of sadness. When you feel exhausted, hopeless and anxious.” It sounds like these feelings can just be related to a bad day, but target this to the regularly stressed American citizen and they find themselves scheduling an appointment with their most trusted medical personnel for claims of depression. Such broad generalization leave the typical viewer thinking that there is this magic drug that can help solve their sadness, but that is hardly the case.

Psychologists call this situation the “FUD factor” which stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. Here we have a plain ol’ person who is mentally fine sitting on the couch, watching TV when all of the sudden a few syndromes can be applied to his life. All of the sudden the FUD factor kicks in and this plain ol’ person begins to feel nervous.

“It is irritating to doctors to have ‘ask your doctor’ at the end of the ad,” Scheibe said. While these drugs claim to be the universally accepted medication it turns out that these antidepressants are in fact almost never right for a person. So next time you see an ad for Lexapro or any antidepression medicine just be warned: Bullshit may ensue.

____________________________________

Catherine Fisher is a freshman cinema and production major who thinks it would be cheaper to hire a clown instead. E-mail her at cfisher2@ithaca.edu.

Image by Jim Cathcart

By Emily Miles

This month, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum continued its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration with a rather unusual exhibit. On Thursday, March 4, Animal Collective collaborated with artist Danny Perez on a unique performance piece specifically designed for the museum.

Transverse Temporal Gyrus featured original recorded music composed for the event. Costumes, props, lighting, visual elements and sound were incorporated into one incredibly psychedelic experience for anyone inside the museum.

Animal Collective described their inspiration for the performance with mysticism and excitement. They wanted to relate being immersed in the jungle, surrounded by the calls of wild birds, with being immersed in New York City at night.  Adding that along with the visual work of Danny Perez, the Guggenheim was transformed into “a more mysterious hideaway.”

The performance was rumored to have sold out 20 minutes after ticket sales opened. Soon after, the Guggenheim opened up an additional show to meet the demand. With inexpensive tickets priced at $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers and up to $300 for “Craigslisters,” fans spanned genres and came from far and wide to see the event.
By 9 p.m., hundreds of eager fans lined the block in the cold before the performance. They retained their excitement ever so coolly in thick-rimmed glasses and Lycra, hardly aware of the older, bourgeoisie museum members sliding through the velvet rope at the front door.

Red paper tickets were distributed for entrance with the simple invitation to “start from the upper-level and work your way down.” Despite the hype surrounding the event, the dozens of reviews online and the enticing Animal Collective description, no one really knew what to expect upon entering the modern art museum.

The audience was shepherded into the museum’s giant rotunda and met by an eerie, supernatural spectral display. Three ghostly actors, costumed in paper mache masks and floor-length gowns, were perched atop Danny Perez’s huge statuesque art, hardly moving at all throughout the performance. Rumors flew of the strange actors being the members of Animal Collective.

Long-time museum members tiptoed through the unusual audience in utter disbelief, clutching delicate glasses of white wine. Hoards of hyperactive, face-painted Animal Collective fans danced and spun around them. Despite the pristine museum environment, these clans of colorful Animals seemed completely at home, hopping around screeching and blowing bubbles.

It could have been the multi-colored strobe lighting patterns bouncing randomly from tier to tier, matching the visual creations of Danny Perez. It could have been the chirping of strange, exotic birds echoing from every angle. It could’ve been that the music, similar to that of Animal Collective, never resembled a particular song or even pattern for that matter. It could have been the eerie footage of color conglomeration and images of nature that were slung onto the roundabout walls of the tiers rising from the rotunda.

Or maybe it was just the absinthe. The yellow, sparkling drink was poured for a mere $9 a glass, alongside domestic beer and wine. Regardless of the circumstances, audience members spent the entire three-hour performance in a state of trance. There was no beginning, no climax and no conclusion.

The performance was set to end at midnight, but as the Guggenheim’s senior guards soon learned, clans of Collective fans are not easily deterred. The celebration continued as the music faded; a dance party erupted in the highest level of the museum, animal calls and excited yelps echoed to the exiting attendees below.

The three actors stayed in place—bidding no farewell. The music continued—slowing in tempo. The audience remained—stuck in another world. Guards moved the last of the mesmerized teenagers towards the back door. As they enter the real world, the sound of wild jungle birds transitioned into the sound of the New York City night.