Songs For Smiles

The show was excellent!

It was oddly warm outside for a November evening. As I walked across the Plaza, muffled sounds of acoustic guitar drifted my way. I followed the sounds and saw that the Atrium was lit up with twinkle lights and filled with smiling people. Where one could usually find a row of tables filled with students who are cramming before an orgo-chem exam while scarfing down a sandwich, was instead a small stage with a keyboard and three microphones. Operation Smile was hosting their “Songs for Smiles” event, complete with dinner foods, a photo booth, and live music. 

My roommate and I decided to join in for a few minutes so we could watch the performers. Such groups as Deadpan, featuring Andrew Abbensett, Kaleigh Young, and the Bright Red Cardinal gave uplifting and exciting performances. Some performed original songs, with only their guitar to accompany the freshly written poetry about home, while others jammed out to classics and pop with their friends.  Juliet Mengaziol, who performed as the finale act, sang three songs on her acoustic guitar. The first was a mashup of Adele’s well-known hit single “Someone Like You” with indie-artist Crywolf’s emotional song “Eye Half Closed.” The song was rich with emotion, putting a clever “emotional” twist on a  well known pop number. She then slowed it down with Natalie Imbruglia’s 1997 “Torn”. She finally wrapped up the evening with the uplifting song “Landslide” by Oh Wonder. After the campus had experienced heartbreak from the resulting violence across the nation following the election, the song was a beautiful part of Lincoln Center’s Healing Process.

A great evening for a great cause :)    
Overall, the event was a great way for Fordham students to come together to support Operation Smile, an non-profit organization which is dedicated to providing the world with life saving surgery, while also enjoying a wonderful sense of community.

Fordham FlipSide

Blog by Brendan Batcheller

Fordham Flipside!

Many students arrive at Fordham and immediately want to get involved on campus. Being in New York City, there are endless opportunities to explore and have fun outside of Fordham’s gates as well. The goal of FlipSide is to provide fun opportunities for students to get off campus and experience different events around New York City. 

FlipSide is a programming group that developed to fill a need on campus; many students wanted to attend “classic” New York events such as going to the top of the Empire State Building or going to a Broadway show, but found that these often cost a little too much for a typical college student budget. In order to provide students with opportunities to attend these events, FlipSide needed to form a mission as to how attending these events could benefit students. What we developed was for FlipSide to provide alcohol-alternative programming. 

A typical view from the top of the Empire State Building.

As the current treasurer for FlipSide, my goal is to coordinate with our executive board to plan and organize trips for Friday nights that go into NYC. These events serve as alternatives to attending a party while also making it affordable and easy to plan around going into the city. Some of our upcoming trips for the Spring semester include Knicks and Yankees games, Broadway shows including the Lion King, Aladdin, and Wicked, and our touristy trips including Top of the Rock, the Empire State Building, and a Circle Line river cruise of famous NYC landmarks.  

This past Friday, we brought thirty students to the Empire State Building!

Making the Most of MTV

Whether it's transcribing an interview with a celebrity, sitting in on a podcast taping, or sporting a completely tinsel ensemble for a photo shoot, it's hard to bored as an intern at MTV News.

A typical day starts with the editorial staff meeting at 9:30. I sit at the table and listen as different writers update us on what the big stories are for their sections today. With sections like music, movies, TV, style, politics, and celebrity, there's always a lot going on and a lot to be caught up on from the night before.

My desk at MTV News!

After the meeting, I'll head over to my desk and see if I've been emailed any assignments. Usually, there will be an audio file of an interview waiting for me in my inbox. My task is to transcribe the interview and send it back so the writer will have a written account to pull quotes from for her story. The interviews range in length and content -- the longest one I've transcribed was 54 minutes and took me the ENTIRE work day. However, that's definitely on the longer side because they're typically around 20-30 minutes.

One of my favorites was getting to hear one of the writers interview the two directors of the Amanda Knox documentary. I got a ton of behind the scenes information on what their process was like making the documentary -- a lot of which didn't even end up in the article. So naturally, as soon as the documentary was released on Netflix, I grabbed a blanket, some tea, and watched in awe. Knowing some of the details from the directors prior to watching definitely made the experience more interesting because I knew to pay special attention to certain things.

That's me on the left as a "Tinsel Mammal".

Other than daily office tasks, sometimes I get to assist with non-written projects. The silliest and coolest of which was a photo shoot and interview with musician Helado Negro. My boss emailed me the day before and asked if I would be interested in helping out with a photo shoot the next day from 10-12. It sounded like a great opportunity, so naturally I responded with an enthusiastic yes. Later that day, the producer for the shoot emailed me with details about the project. She said that I would be wearing a tinsel suit and be posing in the background of various photographs.

A truly bizarre yet wonderful experience that
ended up with me looking like this.

This definitely wasn't what I anticipated when I was asked to "help out with a shoot." Regardless, I went into it with an open mind and a smile on my face. The crew for the shoot was super nice and was thrilled that I had volunteered to be one of the Tinsel Mammals. The musician was also incredibly kind and was so grateful that I was part of his creative journey. He also snapped the killer photo of me in the suit.

I think it's safe to say that even if I only end up fact checking and transcribing interviews for the rest of the semester, I already have more than enough stories and experiences to talk about from my first few weeks.

Finally Fall at Fordham!

Blog by Jane Mackowiak

There is always a moment about a month into the first semester when I walk outside my residence hall and I know it's finally Fall. The air smells crisper and the leaves start to accumulate on the sidewalks during my walks to class. As much as I love spending afternoons on Eddie’s in the hot sun, there is something about Autumn at Fordham that just feels right.

Central Park offers a peaceful escape from the city and a good opportunity to stroll and people watch.

When the temperatures start to drop, campus starts to buzz with excitement. You can see joy radiate from the faces of students wearing their Patagonias for the first time of the season. You feel more alert with all the caffeine from one too many pumpkin spice lattes. On the weekends, you join the migration of students outside the city for apple picking, pumpkin patches, and hayrides.

The trees change color and make Keating look even more gorgeous in the Fall

The excitement of the season cannot be ignored when you are in such a beautiful place like Fordham. The changing colors of the leaves and the sun beaming through the trees just can't be beat. When you're here, the thrill of sweater weather is infectious!