(I'll get more into what I actually did on my trip in the next blog) Ever since studying abroad in Europe was just a small hope in my freshman mind, the prospect of being able to travel to different countries was one of my fondest dreams. I wanted to go everywhere, see everything and experience all that was offered. I can honestly say that I never considered traveling in European countries with anything on my mind other than it would be awesome. Fast forward to today, after my 10 day long trip to Italy and Spain. Traveling is so much tougher than I thought.    There are obviously the usual difficulties with traveling that I was just too sheltered to know about. I find airports to be strangely calming actually, something…Read More

Before reading this entry, there is something you should know. I am a huge National Football League fan. Not huge in the sense of a 350-pound offensive lineman, but I assure you that all 120 pounds of my lean body is an American football fan. I devour football information. I watch every New York Giants game that I can, and my family and friends can tell you that I live and die by how they play. Yes, if you're wondering, this was a horrible season for me. In short, I don't know how it happened, but I am an American football fanatic (and from now on I'll just refer to it as football, so soccer fans can get over themselves).   Now that you know that about me, it shouldn't…Read More

I figured for my second entry I'd discuss what this trip is actually costing me. Obviously, the price of a study abroad program will vary depending greatly on the actual place. I chose London, aka one of the greatest cities in the world. In addition, its also one of the priciest places I could have chosen.    London is amazing- it rivals New York City in pure volume of things to do and it may actually win in quality. You can go on the London Eye, take a look in St. Paul's Cathedral, see a show or go to one of the endless pubs and bars filling each and every street of the city. You can do this, as long as you have the money for it.  The London Eye…Read More

“Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking” is the mockingly alluring title of Aoibheann Sweeney’s debut novel about self-discovery and family secrets. The novel details Miranda Donnel’s reluctant first steps away from her sheltered childhood on Crab Island, off the coast of Maine. It is on this island that she takes care of her father, who glozes over the concrete aspects of his life, and instead focuses solely on translating the works of Ovid’s “Metamorphosis.” Deprived of her father’s interest and a mother, who died when she was young – a possible suicide, though the narrator never confirms this – Miranda feels isolated and stagnant most of the time, saying, “Sometimes I could almost feel my skin thickening into bark, my toes rooting into the ground, my arms raising stiffly…Read More

I really don't know who'll be reading this, so for those who don't know me, my name is Aaron Axelson. I've been a part of Pipe Dream since nearly the beginning of my freshman year, and last semester I was one of the assistant news editors.  This semester I am studying abroad in London through the English department. This will be my first semester away from Pipe Dream and while I am admittedly having an awesome time, I'm still going to miss the late nights and seeing the product of all the staff's blood, sweat and tears. I promised I would blog while I was in England, but I do hope that someone edits this. After last semester, I can't even imagine what it would be like to have an…Read More

“Up in the Air” is a work that stands on its own for its wit and storyline. The novel’s protagonist is a man I neither liked nor despised, but just followed along for the ride. At times I laughed with him, and at other times I doubted his sanity.  The protagonist’s lifestyle — racing from one city to another, basically living thousands of feet “up the air” — sheds a unique perspective on society. Ryan Bingham’s life is full of fleeting moments he considers very profound, having lost (perhaps intentionally) his sense of permanence. His safety zone is within the rules and (what he believes to be) the “truths” of “Airworld,” which is where this story takes place. Bingham has just quit his job as the novel opens. However, he…Read More

The Binghamton men's basketball team defeated Holy Family in an exhibition game tuesday night 64-50. Although it is not the result that would have come about if it was last year's team playing, the game still showcased some talent.   Freshman guard Dylan Talley made his debut with a team-high 14 points while junior forward Greer Wright came through with 12 points, seven rebounds and five steals.   One thing is for sure, the Bearcats need a lot of help on defense as the team allowed 15 turnovers in the game. A solid defense is what the Bearcats will need if they want to match up to some Division I schools.   The season kicks off Saturday afternoon at the Events Center as the Bearcats take on Bloomsburg.   Keep…Read More

Graduation is 11 (!) days away and in these next few highly emotional days I need all the distractions I can get ... unfortunately — well really, fortunately — I don't have any finals. What is a 22-year-old boy to do with himself while others fret about their tests and make the last minute reservations for relatives? Besides the obvious, "jerk off!" response, I've come up with a few plans for myself, and they work for you too, boy/girl of any age or class rank!   Television. Lots and lots of television. I plan to marathon "Battlestar Galactica" hardcore. Finish four seasons in a week? It's possible. I watched all of "Lost" in about three weeks last year, but that was with finals. "BSG" should be doable.   Explore. I…Read More

Over spring break I rediscovered a long lost friend. She was out of my life for about eight years and has now slowly crept back in, infultrating my every thought.   In these rough times — a month before graduation and my life changing forever — "Xena: Warrior Princess" has returned to me.   It all started when Marina Gaft, one of the assistant news editors, and I started talking about our love for the show. I hadn't really thought about "Xena" for a while ... despite having a cardboard cutout of her lurking in my hallway to scare my housemates whenver I could.   Anyway, "Xena's" musical episode was always one of my favorites. I found the soundtrack under my bed at home and it's been in constant rotation…Read More

The Binghamton men's lacrosse team (as of April 9) is riding on a five game losing streak after falling to Colgate 9-11 Tuesday.   Although the Bearcats are 0-2 in the conference and 1-9 overall, the record does not reveal how exactly competitive their opponents really are. In four of the last five matches, Binghamton faced nationally ranked opponents including No. 5 Syracuse, No. 19 Albany, No. 6 UMBC, and No. 15 Colgate. The team also lost to No. 3 Cornell earlier in the season and is scheduled to play No. 13 Maryland later this month.   Some say that the Bearcats are gaining experience from having a tough schedule. The experience however does not seem to help the team win matches against opponents that are not in the Top…Read More

If you haven't seen this story yet, perhaps you should check it out.http://www.bupipedream.com/Articles/Exclusive-Economy-keeps-Mars-film-grounded/11336The economy — the world even — needs a "Veronica Mars" feature film. There are several reasons for this necessity, check some out below: I will stimulate the economy personally by seeing the feature film at least 10 times ... during the opening weekend. The world is without a cute yet snarky blonde. Seriously, where has Kristen Bell been? The world needs some clever sass. The sassiest woman on TV right now? Tina Fey's Liz Lemon character on "30 Rock." When was the last time you saw Percy Daggs III (Wallace) in something other than a commercial? "Veronica Mars" redefined noir for the masses, it's time that neo-noir came to the silver screen. Watch your back, Sam Spade,…Read More

I have a weird online habit that I need to come clean about. I don’t think I can go to rehab about it like David Duchovny. I don’t think online forums could help me…I’m not even sure if other people suffer from this obsession. But day after day, I log on the internet and obsessively check to see the new entries.My name is Ashley Morgan, and I like to read the personals on craigslist.com.An occasional craigslist user, my frequency on the website has increased with the desire to find a job next year. After one particularly upsetting look at the bleak job market, my eyes wandered over to the left and with trepidation, I clicked the men seeking women link. I was hooked immediately.How could I not be with posts…Read More

Never underestimate the power of reruns ... or DVDs for that matter. I have become hooked on two dearly departed TV shows and it's all because of the immediate access I have to new (to me) episodes. I never would've thought I'd be singing the praises of "Battlestar Galactica," but I am. Only a few episodes into the first season and I'm hooked. I'm not entirely spoiler-free but I'm doing my best. Strong female characters can pull me into any show and right now President Laura Roslin is filling my quota, and then some. Shows with overarching mysteries — who are the remaining Cylons? — really can pull me in. "Dead Like Me" is the other show, but the mystery of "BSG" has gripped me and dragged me right into…Read More

I used to be a Myspace junkie. Then Myspace got creepy and Facebook became my social networking savior. Facebook had a good run, but our love affair is over. Twitter owns my life now.   Twitter entered my life over the summer — shout to Chris Strunk for making that happen — but I had no idea how to use it properly or even what it was for. Slowly I grew to accept a daily tweet when I returned home from work. Then it became more than one tweet. More and more friends started joining and tweeting. I was hooked.   When Facebook redesigned their site (AGAIN!) recently to be more like Twitter that was the final straw. I now spend most of my time on Twitter. Facebook is just…Read More

One of Release's writers, Erica Hill, is a huge "BSG" fan and did her best to get a one-on-one with President Roslin herself, Mary McDonnell. While we still cross our fingers for that to happen, Erica wrote up a little blog about her week spent mourning the loss of the hit Sci-Fi show. A side note: I just started watching the series from the beginning and am enthralled.   So I am a big dork to admit it, but this last week has been pretty tough.  Honestly, life without  "Battlestar Galactica" has been much more of a challenge than I thought it would be.  What am I supposed to do if I’m not wondering about the last cylon, or worrying about the future of humanity?  To be honest all of…Read More

Pete Thamel is at it again.   This time he focuses on a sexual harrasment complaint brought on by Elizabeth Williams, a major gifts officer for Binghamton athletics. Williams alleges that senior athletic department representatives Jason Siegel and Chris Lewis physically and verbally harassed ever since she started her work in the athletic department.   Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/sports/ncaabasketball/19binghamton.html?ref=sportsI must say that the timing of the article is fitting given that Binghamton is about to play in its first NCAA tournament. There is not much to say about the article itself as this is a developing story; however, unlike his last article, Thamel's sources seem pretty solid. Still you would think that he really has it in for Binghamton. Perhaps he got rejected from the school when he was…Read More

Yeah, our knees touched. Our eyes locked.   Yesterday, I got a chance to sit down with Ingrid Michaelson before her show at City Wintery in Manhattan.   Chris Strunk (the editor of Pipe Dream groupies) and I chatted up the Binghamton University alumna on everything from her time at BU to "Lost."   Michaelson, a mega fan of the hit ABC show, even changed up her song, "Be OK," to include a couple of verses about the mysterious island drama. I may or may not have squealed in delight. Link to a video of "Be OK/I love 'Lost'" http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=73809560379&ref=mf   Her set included old standbys, "The Way I Am," (Michaelson called it a little fart of a song that she wrote in five minutes) and "The Hat," (fans cheered…Read More

I promise not all my entries will be about "Lost," but to quote Charlotte, "This place is death!"The amount of germs spread around this office is pretty gross. From pink eye to stomach viruses, sicknesses run through each section leaving a devastated trail of editors in its wake. I'm not saying I'm completely innocent, I've spread a germ or two, but these past two months have been the worst.To make matters worse, according to Google, our office number is the number for BU's Health Services. We have sick kids calling here at least once an hour. When I say "Hello, Pipe Dream," I'm greeted with "...is this Health Services?" The conversation usually ends with me saying I can't connect the student with Health Services and then a slam of the…Read More

Ali Rasoulinejad's "Back to High School" (http://www.bupipedream.com/Articles/Dont-go-West-young-man/10893) looks at a problem symptomatic of not just Binghamton but many Universities: a strong reputation on the outside, but inside the classroom, students that have not mastered skills they should have in high school, if not earlier. "How can a student at this school argue, with a straight face, that an ungraded rough draft is too much to be expected of first- and second-year college students?" asks Rasoulinejad. While Binghamton University continues to expand, with a planned law school, there are still real deep-rooted problems within programs that already exist. The University would do well to address its shortcomings before taking on more.  Read More

D.J. Rivera should have been the America East's Player of the Year, no question. That some coaches in the conference protested his early eligibility by not voting him as such, however, has gained Binghamton some more national attention.   Pete Thamel, The New York Times college sports beat writer who recently depicted Binghamton's men's basketball program as failing Binghamton's academic standards (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/sports/ncaabasketball/22binghamton.html?em), mentioned Rivera's lack of recognition in his blog The Quad here: http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/in-america-east-a-statement-is-made/.   For more, check out our men's basketball expert Randy Benjenk's commentary: http://www.bupipedream.com/Articles/Humble-MVP-At-Tournament/10861 .Read More

We produce Release on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays with the rest of Pipe Dream.   It's nice because we require a lot of design attention and we get that. We also don't have to deal with the blasting Whitney Houston and other random oldie hit songs the rest of the staff blast on repeat. The downside: I miss "Lost."   Watching "Lost" on Thursday mornings is just not the same as experiencing it with the rest of the East Coast.   I'm digging this season, naturally, but there are too many unanswered questions still. I don't have the patience! Please somebody, anybody, tell me what happened to my beloved Rose (L. Scott Caldwell). Her sass is greatly missed. Sawyer's (Josh Holloway) growly snark does not do it for me. Is…Read More

If you're looking to buy tickets to the Bearcats' first-ever America East Championship appearance, scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Events Center on Saturday, check out the Bearcats' Web site here: http://bubearcats.com/sports/mbask/titlegametix.html     For a full recap of Binghamton's semifinal win over University of New Hampshire on Sunday, check out basketball guru Drew Wolin's story here: Rivera lifts Bearcats to AE championship game.    Read More

After much pushing, most by me, Pipe Dream has blogs! This is exciting. New media in action.   I've got a lot of cool stuff planned for Release before I graduate. A little tease of what should be coming up next week:   A new video from our favorite indie songstress alumna: http://vimeo.com/3177689   Photo credit: Julie Munn/Photo EditorRead More