Check out a few of the events happening next week and let us know how they were!

• Spring Jam 2012: Unless you’re an online student, you’ve probably seen all the hype and promotion about this year’s jam. While the performers don’t have quite the recognition as the Drexel’s Homecoming Guest (Yes, I’m talking about Snoop Dogg), there is enough talent to keep your ears and dancing shoes satisfied. The party starts at 4pm and ends at 10pm tomorrow, March 19. Get there early for free food and carnival games then move to dancing as the night goes on.
• Week of Writing: Drexel’s literary community culminantes every May to produce the Week of Writing. From Crime Writing to the panel on Social Media, there’s something for every aspiring writer, no matter what genre you prefer. Click through for each event and schedule.
• Graduation Fair: While this isn’t exciting to you if you aren’t a graduating senior, I am thrilled for this! A one-stop-shop for graduation garb, info, tickets, and more. This is just what I need to ramp up for the summer and graduation. Get all your graduation necessities on Monday, May 21, from 10am-6pm.

When it was first announced Drexel was linking up with the museum, I didn’t really think much of it. Now seeing everything that is being done, I realize how great of a partnership it is. I graduate next month and kind of wish this pairing had happened earlier in my college career. At least there’s still time for me to take advantage of free admission.

While Storycorps has a dozen animations out now, they also have many audio only recordings. Further, they are starting a high school curriculum to inspire students to hunt for stories in the people around them. They are taught how to interview, what questions to follow up with, and how to organize an interview to tell a complete story. These abilities should inspire a next generation of writers and storytellers dedicated to passing on the lessons that came before us in a modern and passionate way.

If you’d like to get involved or share your own story, contact them or read through their do-it-yourself guide. Otherwise, on the day after Thanksgiving, come out to the national day of listening and take a few moments from your day to thank someone who has inspired you with their stories (most likely, your teachers.)

Each animation has between 400,000 to 1.6 Million views. They are all worth watching. Major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but they also accept donations on all their video pages.

I hadn’t given this much thought until today when I passed by the fraternity AEPi doing a fundraiser by the Mario statue.

“Pie a brother in the face and make him look REALLY STUPID!” They were shouting, “For just a buck, you can get pie all over a brother and have fun doing it!”

I know this is a really old practice (carnival dunking, clowns throwing food on one another, etc.) and probably for a good cause. I also know that all of those being ‘pied’ 100% volunteered and that its not a necessarily dangerous act. Even still I wonder, why do humans get such joy out of the pain of others? Why are we programmed to laugh at someone being made to look like a fool or when someone who is normally a success fails?

*A special thanks to Ari Melman, my in-house thesaurus.

Film majors should have at least one class assignment to make viral-ready fun promotional videos for every department on campus. That would really show the world that we’ve moved beyond 80′s “simple times” themes and 90′s inverted color MTV-style ad spots. The 21st century is all about being original, fresh, funny and over the top.

Imagine a chemical engineering video of chemically creating the greatest candy ever, Willy Wonka style. All the beakers and test tubes fizzing with different flavors.

Or an English department video where they stage a battle between the poets and fiction prose writers. They carry their books into battle, fighting with the most powerful verses in their respective collections. The ebook reader has trouble finding his page in time and is vanquished by both sides.

Who would have expected the Drexel Copy Center to pave the way in creative promotional videos? The 24 parody is fun Drexel camp that’s well worth the 2.5 minutes, and nearly undiscovered with only 30 views after two years. Help spread the love it deserves and encourage the film and video department to spread the love to every department at Drexel!

Keeping up their biennial video releases, first in 2008 and then in 2010, the Drexel Copy Center is finishing up their third video for release this summer.

If you’re unfamiliar with the show, which I suggest you rectify immediately, it’s standard format contains a variety of acts that tell stories that pertain to that episode’s topic. Some notable episodes include: The Psychopath Test, Recordings for Someone, and Break-Up. All these stories and experiences are corralled into an hour show and edited by the producers, who hand the show off to Ira Glass, This American Life’s host, to present to the week’s audience. This past Thursday, they decide to do something a little different and create a “live” show. I use quotes because the show’s dedicated followers far exceed the room at any theater; however, all viewers were able to watch the action simultaneously. On Thursday, the actual show was held at an NYU theater and was broadcast across the world to movie theaters.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make Thursday’s show, so I attended last night’s encore show at the Rave theater in University City. I had assumed that the encore show would be relatively empty since I figured most fans went to the live show that was hosted at a dozen theaters around the city, but I was completely wrong. My boyfriend and I arrived in the theater as the previews were still rolling, and could barely squeeze into a spot in the second row. Despite the close view, the show turned out to be wholly entertaining.

This American Life is one of my favorites because the stories are often humorous, deeply touching, or a combination of both, and the live show did not disappoint. In addition to the typical acts (during which the storytellers stood at the front of a stage than the typical radio studio), there was dancing, interactive music (yes, the theater collectively played a song with instructions from a phone app and the screen), short film, and more segments that are impossible to perform on their normal platform. The show was much longer than its typical one hour window, clocking in at over two and a half hours, but each segment was everything I love about the show: entertaining, funny, fascinating and maybe a little sad.

If you haven’t listened to radio since middle school and are game for a new addiction, check out This American Life’s website and catch up on most past episodes. One of my absolute favorites is this Father’s Day episode, and I can’t guarantee that you won’t spend the rest of your afternoon listening to more episodes of This American Life and falling in love with the spoken word.

Drexel’s co-op also makes senior year for five-year students pretty interesting. I already completed all three of my fall/winter co-ops, so that means I have five terms of classes one after the other to finish up my time here at Drexel.  While there is some time off in September, it’s pretty much classes straight through till June 2013.  I really like the quarter system and all the classes I’m taking, but with that schedule I’m sure that by June of next year I’ll be glad to be graduating.

What do you think of Drexel’s quarter system and five year program?  What are your experience like seeing friends from other universities graduating?

Sometimes, when I enter any of Drexel’s buildings, the heat inside is double the heat outside. In my Design for Media class, the teacher put all us students in a stuffy, suffocating computer lab. Three windows were open and all the computers were on. And then, when the room couldn’t possibly get any more intolerable, the professor stood up, and actually shut the classroom door. You could practically see all us students diving for the door, hands outstretched, screaming ‘Noooooo!’

I don’t look forward to a summer of sweltering within Drexel’s classrooms. Surely, at at least $50 grand a head, they could kick up the air conditioning?