Archive for June, 2009
A Classic on The Classics
Joe Paterno has long cited the influence his Jesuit education — heavy on classical literature and thought — has had on his life and career. Given that, JoePa was a perfect fit for a Forbes Magazine project entitled “Power Ambition Glory.” The series, inspired by the idea of “the stunning parallels between great leaders of the ancient world and today,” features interviews with subjects ranging from poet A.E. Stallings to former defense secretary William Cohen. The latest interview features Penn State’s Hall of Fame football coach. You can read it here.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Franek Headed to Worlds
Bridget Franek and Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan pose after the race.
Junior Bridget Franek had one of the races of her life Sunday at the U.S. Track and Field Championships. She trimmed more than seven seconds from her personal best in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and she qualified to compete in the world championships.
Here’s a little perspective — Franek had finished fourth at the NCAA championships. The analysts at letsrun.com, a favorite track/running website, were particularly impressed with her improvement. You can read their take and watch a post-race interview with her here.
Franek’s time of 9:36.74 broke her own Penn State record, too. She’ll compete at the world championships in Berlin in August.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Now Chip Kidd is in Newsweek
His work was just in the New York Times Sunday Book Review yesterday. Now Chip Kidd ’86 has a piece in this week’s Newsweek. Kidd, who designs book covers for Alfred A. Knopf, takes a look at seven book covers by other designers that he thought were especially memorable.
The piece—which is more of a slide show than an article, or at least online anyway—is called “My Favorite Covers.” Thanks to Joyce Hoffman, the alumni director for the College of Arts & Architecture, for calling my attention to it.
Tina Hay, editor
‘Street of Our Lady’ Wins National Award
Penn State filmmakers Judy Maltz, Barbara Bird, and Richie Sherman have shared some good news with us: Their documentary No. 4 Street of Our Lady won a Golden Eagle Award during the spring CINE competition.
Francisca Halamajowa
The movie tells how Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic, hid Jewish families from the Nazis. The 15 people she saved—including Maltz’s father and grandparents—were among only 30 Jews who survived in the town of Sokal, out of an original 6,000.
Past winners of the CINE Golden Eagle have included Ken Burns, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.
You can find out more about the film in Vicki Glembocki’s award-winning story from the Nov./Dec. 2008 Penn Stater (note: clicking on that link downloads a PDF) and at the film’s Web site.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
A Wide Shot of the Stuckeman Family Building
Here’s another in our occasional series of campus buildings as seen through an ultra-wide-angle lens. I was headed up to the Palmer Museum of Art yesterday, with my camera bag, for a photography workshop (more on that another time) and happened to pass by the Stuckeman Family Building, which is the home of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
It’s a funky-shaped building, squeezed in between the North Halls water tower, the Palmer Museum of Art, and Beam Hall. It’s one of those ultra-green buildings—it earned a gold rating from LEED, which is the the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.
The building is named for H. Campbell “Cal” Stuckeman ’37 and his late wife, Eleanor. (Actually, the whole School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture is named for them now.)
By the way, there’s a really good gallery of Stuckeman Family Building photos here. I can’t figure out who the photographer is, but the photos are terrific.
Tina Hay, editor
Chip Kidd, God, and a Water Balloon
Chip Kidd ’86, who once was called “the closest thing to a rock star” in the graphic design world, spends most of his time designing jackets for books by the likes of Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, Michael Crichton, and others.
But once in a while he gets pulled into another project. He did the illustration that will grace the cover of this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. The illustration is for a story about the new book by Robert Wright called The Evolution of God.
In his blog, Chip Kidd explains how the project came about, how he tried to wiggle out of it, and how he ended up doing it after all.
Tina Hay, editor
White House Reporter Ben Feller Reminds Us That Accuracy Is Vital to His Job
Just got an email from Ben Feller ’92 Com, who I interviewed for the cover story in our May/June issue. He wrote to share a PDF link to our Q&A on the Associated Press site, and to share his story (which ran in today’s Washington Post, along with who knows how many other papers) about soaking White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in a charity event on the White House lawn.
Here’s Ben’s take:
Hope all is well in the homeland. Thanks once more for the fair and generous coverage in the last issue. I’m still getting nice words my way.
Speaking of….the AP Web site now features your work, giving The Penn Stater a nice worldwide splash.
Also, I thought you’d get a kick out of what happened yesterday. Definitely a new highlight. Here is my first-person story.
Penn State proud,
Ben
He also sent a short video of his dunk-tank success, which I can’t seem to figure out how to post just now. Hopefully we can throw that up on the blog sometime Monday.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
On the Fast Track?
An old joke has it that State College is “equally inaccessible from everywhere,” but that situation might change someday if high-speed rail comes to town. President Obama has floated a plan for a high-speed rail program in the U.S., and Penn State is making a case for having State College included in a Pennsylvania high-speed line.
It’s premature to book your tickets, though. As the Penn State testimony before a state House subcommittee noted, people have been talking about bringing high-speed rail to central Pennsylvania since at least 1985.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett — The Gen X Perspective
My former Daily Collegian colleague Ted Anthony ’95 Lib, who now covers American culture for The Associated Press, puts the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson in perspective with this piece. The Generation X perspective, that is.
As someone who spent parts of my formative years playing with my Charlie’s Angels dolls (complete with a snazzy crime-fighting van) or circling the rink at Spinning Wheels as Billie Jean blared, I think he got it exactly right.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Kate Dailey on Michael Jackson’s Death
It didn’t take Kate Dailey ’02 long after Michael Jackson’s death this afternoon to post an entry to her Newsweek blog, in which she interviews an expert from the Cleveland Clinic about sudden cardiac arrest. Check it out here.
Tina Hay, editor
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