Archive for July, 2009
A Splash of Art on West College Avenue
I had occasion to walk down College Avenue yesterday, from the general area of the former O.W. Houts store (yeah, they went out of business a year or two ago) toward campus. I was surprised to encounter a little art along the way.
Two buildings in the 600 block—both apartment houses, it looked like—have windows painted in the trompe-l’oeil style. Trompe-l’oeil, which is pronounced roughly “trump loy,” is basically an art technique that tricks the eye and makes things look three-dimensional.
At first I thought the windows might be the work of some industrious and very talented Penn State students, but I’ve since found that they were done by a local professional artist, Michael Pilato. You may have seen his murals along the side of a building on Hiester Street downtown, among other locations.
Whatever the case, the College Avenue windows do a nice job of adding a pleasant and artistic accent to a part of town that isn’t exactly known for its architecture or its building upkeep. Below are a couple of shots I took with my iPhone; click on any of them to see a bigger version.
Tina Hay, editor
A Student Voice on Penn State’s “Public” Value
As a Daily Collegian alum, I try to keep tabs on the young writers coming up through the student paper’s ranks. One who has caught my eye a few times lately is Andrew McGill, a senior op-ed columnist. Tackling PA state budget issues today, McGill offers a more insightful take on the issue of the University’s “state” status than anything I would’ve come up with in my early 20s. Nice work.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Praise for Carol Reardon’s Book
While trolling around the Internet recently, I came across a blog for amateur Civil War historians with a great name –The Order of Civil War Obsessively Compulsed, or TOCWOC. As a summer project, the bloggers wrote about their favorite books about the Battle of Gettysburg and compiled the overall top 10.
Checking in at No. 7 was Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon, Penn State professor of military history. The book, which was published in 1997, examined why and how the Battle of Gettysburg and Pickett’s Charge, in particular, became known as the turning points of the war. The Atlantic Monthly called it “a splendidly lively study of the manipulation, not necessarily deliberate or malign, of public opinion.”
So if you’re looking for some non-fluffy summer reading, this might fit the bill. I just added it to my own “books to read” list.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Penn State’s Resident Astronaut on the Moon Landing
Former Space Shuttle astronaut and current kinesiology professor Jim Pawelczyk ’85 MS is the subject of a short story in today’s Centre Daily Times, which gets his take on the moon landing, his 1998 Columbia mission, and the future of the space program. It’s worth checking out, as is the video below — the sort of footage that makes me which I’d been born a few years earlier to have witnessed it live.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
“Millennium Science Complex” in the Works
The construction site of the Millennium Science Complex at University Park. Click to see it full-size.
Last evening I took a quick drive up to campus to see if I could get some shots of the construction site for the Millennium Science Complex, which is being built in the space roughly between Eisenhower Auditorium and Pollock Road. Dave Shaffer ’77 of the Center for Performing Arts had posted on his Facebook page last week a panoramic shot he took from the top of the Eisenhower Parking Deck, and I wanted to see if I could get something similar.
Turns out you can’t really get to the top of the parking deck—at least not legally (uhhhhhh … Dave?). Some sort of construction has the access blocked off, so I had to shoot from the next-to-top deck. That, plus the fact that the sun was getting low in the sky, cast a bit of a shadow over the foreground of the photo. I’ll have to go back another time and try again.
What you see here isn’t a panoramic; it’s just an ultra-wide-angle shot. I did also take some photos for use in stitching together a panorama in Photoshop, and maybe we’ll run one of those in the magazine sometime. (If you’re interested in learning how to make panoramas in Photoshop, just Google “Photoshop photomerge”; it’s a fun and fairly easy technique.)
Just to orient you in this photo: Eisenhower Auditorium is behind you; the dorms you see just above the center of the photo are Pollock Halls; and that’s Mount Nittany in the distance, of course.
You can read more about the Millennium Science Complex at the link above, and also here. We really haven’t covered it in the magazine yet, and we probably should. It’s being designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, so it will probably be amazing. It’s scheduled for completion in 2011.
Tina Hay, editor
A Sneak Preview of the Arboretum
Arboretum horticulturist Rick Johnson ’82
The Alumni Association staff today got a tour of the Arboretum at Penn State, which is still being developed but which is lot farther along than any of us imagined. It’s a 370-acre chunk of land across Park Avenue from the new Business and Forest Resources Buildings—or, for those of you who haven’t been back to campus in a while, it’s across Park Avenue from what used to be Parking Lot 80.
Our guide was Richard Johnson ’82, shown above; he’s the horticulturist for the Arboretum. (By the way, he’ll be featured on the Everyday People page of our September-October issue.) He showed us the stuff that’s already been planted or constructed and the stuff that’s still to come. In the “still to come” category is some impressive stuff, including an education center, a rose garden, a medieval garden, and a 10,000-square-foot glass conservatory. When it’s all finished, it should be amazing.
Rick showed us a big fountain that’s being installed (see photo at right)—although it won’t be called a fountain. It’s the “Margery Enes Smith Soaring Waters.” It’ll shoot jets from four to 15 feet in the air and be illuminated at night.
I was also excited to see that there’s a lily pond—in bloom. Water lilies are extremely fun to photograph, as you can see at right. The lilies were a gift from George Griffith ’56, who owns a big garden center in Johnstown, Pa. He plans to donate more lilies—and some lotus, another showy aquatic plant—when things are farther along.
Up at the Overlook Pavilion, which is already finished, we saw thing called a “water map,” a form of public sculpture, essentially. It was done by Stacy Levy, a world-class artist who happens to live in Centre County. It shows the area’s watershed, complete with streams, water towers, and the like. And when it rains, the runoff flows over the water map in a way that mimics what really happens in the local watershed.
The Arboretum isn’t officially open yet. It’ll be dedicated next April during Blue-White Weekend, and I think that construction will continue for several years beyond that—I get the impression that they’re doing things as funds permit. (The Arboretum is relying heavily on private funding, and got a big boost two years ago with a $10 million gift from Skip Smith of State College.)
Finally, here’s a map of the whole Arboretum—current and planned. Click on it to see it bigger and in more detail. Same goes for any of the photos here.
Tina Hay, editor
So Long, Guys
In a study published yesterday in the journal PLoS Genetics, a team of Penn State genetic researchers argues that the Y chromosome — the difference between me being a he or a she, if I remember anything from biology class — appears to be going the way of dinosaurs, dodo birds, and dial-up Internet. This story quotes a pair of University researchers — associate biology professor Kateryna Makova, who led the study, and Melissa Wilson, a graduate research fellow who was the study’s lead author — offering what I consider encouraging news: If this does happen, it won’t happen for a few thousand years.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Pirates, Phillies, and THON
I got an e-mail from John Arnao, the Penn State student who is communications chair for next year’s IFC/Panhel Dance Marathon, letting me know that next Thursday (July 23) is “Penn State Night” when the Phillies host San Diego at Citizens Bank Park. The Alumni Blue Band will perform before the game, and a portion of the ticket sales will be donated to THON. There’s more info at the Phillies’ Web site.
A week later, on Friday, July 31, the Pirates will host the Washington Nationals at PNC Park, and again a portion of each ticket sold will go to THON. The Dance Marathon Alumni Interest Group is involved in that one, and you can find out more about that game here.
Tina Hay, editor
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
I’m normally not current on Jane Austen news, but the title of a new adaptation of the famed author’s work has caught my eye: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Due out in September, it’s the follow-up to the unexpected hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a “mash-up” of Austen’s novel with the undead that was published earlier this year by the appropriately named Quirk Books. My first thought when I read the news: What would Maggie Sullivan think?
Sullivan ’97 Lib, who we profiled in our March/April issue, is the founding editor of AustenBlog, a site devoted to all thing Jane Austen. As expected, Sullivan chimes in on this latest (and strangest) update of Austen’s work, even suggesting one of her own “gentle readers” might’ve inspired the idea.
And now, enjoy a trailer — yes, they make those for books now — of Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
What’s Sonia Sotomayor Really Like?
“She likes to turn her full charm on her most intensive questioners, and she is a big toucher,” reports Ann Gerhart ’77 of the Washington Post. Gerhart has been attending the confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee and filed this report on Sotomayor’s demeanor, her speaking style, even her choice of carbonated beverage.
Gerhart, a longtime staff writer for the Post, is the author of the 2004 book The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush.
Tina Hay, editor
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