Got a relationship question you want to ask, or a situation you want thoughts and advice on? Email me at somedude.harvardfml@gmail.com, and watch this space for my answer! T.B. asks,

I’m a male graduating senior, girlfriendless, and freaking out that after Harvard, the dating pool is gonna shrink faster than a water balloon thrown at a bed of nails. Now, the clever bit: I am only really interested in Harvard girls — and maybe actresses but that’s another story — picky and vain, but it’s who I am. I’m running out of time and all the hot girls have boyfriends! Can you give me hope?

I can indeed, T.B.

First, you needn’t worry too much: there is indeed an after-college dating world, and it is awesome. It seems scary because there won’t be so many single women your age all living within the same square mile you do, but it’s really not any harder to meet them.

Another thing playing in your favor: as men continue to mature emotionally through their 20s and beyond, they tend to become more desirable – this is because personality tends to affect women’s attraction to men more than vice versa. Since you’re so particular about your tastes in women, that will help you as you get older.

You’re right in your observation that the most desirable girls tend to have boyfriends, but clearly not all of them do, although those that are single tend not to stay single long. But as Randy Munroe helpfully articulated, you have more time — a lot more time — than you think. Read the rest of this entry »

Hasn’t this month of folk been awesome?  You’ve been going to lots of concerts in and around the square, right?  Attending the discussion groups, speeches and workshops?  You’ve at least been noticing the photos in shops all over the square?

Okay, maybe not.  Noice hadn’t realized either until recently, but it turns out that the entire month of November marks the celebration of “Forever Young: Folk Music History Month in Harvard Square,” an effort co-organized by the New England Folk Music Archives and the Harvard Square Business Association.  More information on the concerts and other events happening in the Square all month long can be found here.  To name a few, the legendary Club Passim has folk concerts every night, Tommy Doyle’s has a few special events planned, and the Brattle Theatre is showing “Festival!,” a documentary on the Newport Folk Festival.

The most exciting part of the History Month is that businesses all over the Square from J.P. Licks to The Tannery have exhibits on folk history set up.  At each business, photographs are set up in the window and a page of history about an influential photographer, club owner, concert promoter, band manager, musician, or artist is displayed.  The full list can be viewed here.  This blogger recommends not walking the distance to the Irving House because he couldn’t find any set-up there, but the rest of the businesses have some great photographs displayed in the window.  Examples follow after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Artists Nancy Brooks Brody and Carrie Yamaoko assemble the fierce pussy installation.

With the flu season upon us, dear old UHS has been constantly urging Harvard students to wash wash wash our hands. But the next time you want to de-germify, head over to the bathrooms in the Carpenter Center or the Sackler Museum where you’ll get not only a dollop of soap but the chance to experience powerful activist art works.  fierce pussy, an artist collective focusing “around lesbian identity and visibility”  has transformed sets of Harvard bathrooms into installation pieces. Formed in New York City during the early 1990’s, fierce pussy has used wheat pasting, a type of postering technique, and text as their chosen medium to reclaim derogatory words used towards lesbian women.

We dropped by the exhibit while the some of the group’s founding members, Joy Episalla, Carrie Yamaoko, Zoe Leonard, and Nancy Brooks Brody, were in the process of gluing posters along the bathroom walls. They Harvard students were also involved in the construction through out the day. With our formal art background consisting of only elementary school paint fights, the application processed seemed a little random. However, these awesome women freed us from our ignorance and showed us how the different layers of the paper was representative of the different layers of identity and sexuality within individuals.

Keep reading to find out more about this work.

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hen entering Leverett’s dining hall after an exhausting day of class, even the hungriest student will notice the garishly colorful mural hanging at the head of the hall above the fireplace, a notorious work of art known among all Leverites.

In 1990, Leverett House Masters John and Judith Dowling commissioned painter Jerald Webster to compose the mural, entitled “Coltrane.” The modern piece—composed of abstract shapes and lines of vibrant and divergent colors—acts as a wild and unfortunate contrast to the beautiful Georgian-style dining hall. The painting supposedly depicts a bird’s-eye view of Harvard Yard, and pays homage to the influences of famous jazz musician John Coltrane, whose music Webster listened to while he painted the piece. Webster originally painted three separate murals to allow house residents to choose their favorite, but over the years, the selected mural quickly fell out of favor among Leverett’s denizens.

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