Dear Reader,
In eight days Renn Fayre will be here! Congrats to the seniors who have all had a difficult four (or five or six) years! Read about one senior’s journey to Reed (2). Like most theses, the library small press collection below the tower is a gem in its own right (4). When the Drum Corps starts next Friday, just hope those off-campus hear the Mellodi (1).
Beginnings and endings: another hectic academic year has almost passed. From stealing a custodian’s milkshake (9), to having sexual fantasies in your 9 A.M. history class (8), we’re all questioning how Reed has changes how we act, how we think, and how we feel.
The end is nigh. Charles Nunziato’s fiction “First Love” comes to a dramatic conclusion (6) and Charlie Wilcox gives us one last dose of Culture (10). But don’t let it get to your head: stay safe this Thesis Parade and stay out of trouble. While you’re thinking about consent for Renn Fayre, think about Honor in the CSO’s Directives (7).
As always, we invite you to our weekly open meetings, Mondays at 8 in PAB 105.
Love,
Ben, Brendan, Clara, Jordan, Lauren, and Vikram
News & Features
This semester, Branden Sanders, an Enterprise Fellow at Vanderbilt University, has been working towards adding Reed to his music website Mellodi.com. The design of the site is similar to iTunes, but instead of finding Bruno Mars or Ke$ha in the Top Songs one will come across some of the most promising college artists in the country—or at least those who have decided to upload their tracks.
Over a dozen students from Tufts, Skidmore, and Wesleyan have seized upon Mellodi as a good venue for presenting their music and expanding their audiences. Joining Mellodi makes their work accessible through a curated page that shows their songs alongside those of other artists from their school. Sanders optimistically wrote in an email at the beginning of the semester: “Once we get about 12 artists we’ll give Reed its own school page and people will be able to browse and listen to all the music made by Reed students.” To date, only five Reed artists have signed up while others have refused or failed to respond to Sanders’ requests.
Tufts offered me 35k and Reed couldn’t give me a dime. “We’re sorry,” they’d said. “You seem like a great fit. But our deadlines are really that strict.” My senior year of high school had been a period of dissociation. Circumstances involving the hospitalization of a loved one and my own arrogance had lead to me turning in the non-custodial parent profile for the Financial Aid CSS profile a week late. “You know, if you take a year off, you can reapply for aid,” someone at Reed told me, “I can’t make any promises, but our aid is better than Tufts’.”
Tufts was solid and straight-laced. It foretold a future in a suit. Reed had a different allure. The first recording of Howl took place at Reed, and in my estimation that made Reed worth taking a year off for. I worked landscaping until all of the fall leaves were cleared away. It was good money and my savings stacked enough to let me travel through winter. I had an ambitious plan. My friends were homesick college freshman scattered around the country, more than willing to put me up for a night, so I charted a U around America, planning to go down the East Coast and up the West. A buddy gave me the last of the weed he’d harvested that fall. I’d never smoked much, but the bud was soothing and I’d freed myself of obligations. Landscaping had also left me sore, and smoking helped with the headaches that I had begun having.
I tumbled straight out of my first year at Reed and into the San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB), a nonprofit in the heart of San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood whose mission is to foster love of the printed word. They offer classes in bookmaking, calligraphy, and letterpress. This last is accomplished with the help of four beautiful old Vandercook cylinder presses and two even older pedal-cranked flatbed presses, all kept in pristine condition by a small handful of dedicated artists. In addition, half of their floor space is an exhibition area with cases and bookshelves full of beautiful small press and artists’ books. Similar to the current exhibit of small press books on display in the Hauser Library, these exhibitions presented books as more than a medium for information. Rather, they confronted spectators with the idea that to collect and exhibit books as art is to appreciate the work and love that goes into making these quotidian objects, and to realize that, perhaps, they are not as quotidian as they may seem.
With Renn Fayre coming up, The Grail took a look at Community Safety’s Departmental Directives. We found some interesting things within — but you should also take a look at the whole documents since they guide the CSOs in protecting the community. Despite rumors that the directives have been changed, they are only updated once a year — over the summer. These excerpts are from the latest (2013) revisions of these directives.
Fiction
It was all more perfect than I could have imagined! The yard was filled with circling neighbors, so many new faces and bodies, all so extravagantly adorned. I soon spotted Matches bolting around in ecstasy, racing to all corners of the party, enthralled at the panoply around him. As I traced his path I came across faces both familiar and strange, family and neighbors alike. However, I could not find that face I had spent my day envisioning with such vigor. Where was Lisa?
Graceful Grousings
Lunchtime Poll
Miss Lonely Hearts
Dear Miss Lonely Hearts,
HELP! I accidentally drank my custodian’s chocolate Frosty a few weeks ago, and it’s eating away at my soul. I went to the closest Wendy’s (on Sandy Boulevard) and bought two large chocolate Frosties (because interest) and a 1/4 lb. cheeseburger (because square meat). I excitedly drove back to give him the frozen milky goodness. Upon returning to my dorm, my HA told me that the custodian would be gone for a week visiting family. Dismayed (here’s the sad part), I ATE THE FROSTIES. Like Holy Shit. Why am I such a terrible person? I didn’t realize you could save those things in the freezer. What do I do?
Frozen in Fear
De Sastre
Alex McGrath ’16 knows the style of our favorite Hum rockstar! Offset by khaki trousers, Alex’s outfit daringly demonstrates the classic Roman hero’s festive flare for floral. Don’t be naive enough to think that either Alex or Aeneas is all flower power! Beneath the flower patterned bomber lies a checkered button down, with fluorescent hues of magenta, electric blue, and lime green. But Alex beats Aeneas with his shoe game! Unlike Aeneas’ second-rate sandals, Alex dons prestigious purple sassy suede opulent Oxfords. Alex knows better than Aeneas when it comes to “classical” fashion.
Best of luck with end of semester stress!
—AA & MUK