The beginnings of a storyteller
By WANLY CHEN | May 10, 2018I remember when I was in elementary school and performed in yearly school plays. I would hand my mom the pamphlets and she would mark down the dates and times.
I remember when I was in elementary school and performed in yearly school plays. I would hand my mom the pamphlets and she would mark down the dates and times.
In a very real way, I owe everything I have to Aaron Sorkin. For those of you who don’t know, Aaron Sorkin is a screenwriter and director famous for successes like “The West Wing,” “A Few Good Men” and “The Social Network.” He’s got two Golden Globes, an Oscar and five Emmys but for me, his gift to the world were his two lesser-known shows, “Sports Night” and “The Newsroom.” These shows changed my life.
There it is again. It’s hanging over your head like a vulture. You want to do something about it.
Here are some places I’ve lost my keys in the past week: my refrigerator, my underwear drawer, my bathtub. I have ADHD, a disorder marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
UB operates on Seneca Nation territory while American Indian students and faculty still struggle to find representation on campus. In a university with over 20,000 undergraduates, only 59 enrolled this spring are American Indian.
My mom almost died giving birth to me. She lost five pints of blood over the course of an hour. Twenty-two years and five months later, she gets to experience me walking across the stage receiving my bachelor’s degree in communication.
At first, I thought of the “Not in This Lifetime...” Tour as a typical money grab. Putting aside my excitement for a Guns N’ Roses reunion, there were still plenty of questions needing answers, let alone how the band would work. The 2016 reunion of Guns N’ Roses seemed to mildly satisfy fans.
The Fruit Belt neighborhood is being rapidly gentrified, and the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biological Sciences’ new downtown location is playing a big role in the process with minimal effort to deter it. Gentrification raises the land value and economic status of a neighborhood, increasing its desirability for middle and upper class residents, but almost always leading to the displacement of long-time low-income residents. The displacement of these communities is a nationwide problem.
Regarding UB Giving Day: Through either serendipity or a strange current of capitalist synergy, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Robin Schulze’s office sent the announcement “Coming Next Week: UB Giving Day,” soliciting donations from every underpaid graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences within days of The Chronicle of Higher Education publishing “Want to be a ‘Volunteer Adjunct’? Southern Illinois U.
On April 15, Kanye came out of hiding and resurfaced on Twitter. He just ranted as per usual. He tweeted about his favorite t-shirt designs, consciousness, creativity and trends, finding ways to somehow make each tweet less transparent and more inspirational than the last. But even with inspiration coming from his fingertips, Kanye still managed to rile some fans up.
Student newsrooms are in danger. Southern Methodist University’s student newspaper, The Daily Campus, will dissolve in May. The University of Central Florida’s student publication, The Central Florida Future, shut down in 2016 after 48 years in circulation. Herriman High School students launched their own independent publication after administrators deleted an article on a teacher’s firing.
UB prides itself on having Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings, and several sustainability-related awards, including the 2016 Green Power Award from the EPA.
On Friday, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in a press conference and on Twitter that Central Park would permanently be car-free starting in June, with the exception of the lowered roads that go through the park at 97th, 86th, 79th and 65th streets. As an anti-car citizen of Buffalo, I can’t help but dream of a car-free Delaware Park, which is currently cut in half by the hideous and hazardous Scajaquada Expressway.
I was a little upset when I found out Spring Fest fell on May 5, the same day another concert I was planning on going to. I was even more upset, and slightly concerned, when I decided to sell my tickets to my show to attend this year’s fest without even knowing the lineup. In years past, SA has been hit or miss when it comes to booking talent at UB’s festivals and I really didn’t want to sacrifice my seats for the breathtaking Jorja Smith -– emphasis on breathtaking –– and wind up seeing some hot rapper I’ll forget in a few months.
On Friday night, the U.S. bombed Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians in a Damascus suburb.
I never thought I’d be writing this. For too long – maybe like three weeks – I’ve been holding this secret in.
A month ago, my colleagues from The Spectrum and I were given the opportunity to cover the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
The recent Facebook privacy breach serves as a chilling reminder that federal Internet privacy guidelines are long overdue. On March 19, The New York Times reported that Cambridge Analytica, a political data-mining and consulting firm, collected over 50 million Facebook users' private information without their knowledge.
Netflix’s hit show “Queer Eye,” the reboot of the early 2000’s Emmy-winning reality television series “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” had me crying real tears after an eight episode binge-fest. The program stars the “Fab Five” — not the legendary 1991 University of Michigan men’s basketball recruiting class — but a collective of trendy homosexual men who help unstylish men become their best selves.
An article published recently in The Spectrum that warns of a reduction to the students admitted to the Educational Opportunity Program by approximately half has left me concerned and frustrated.