Kelsey Abbruzzese
Number of articles: 59Number of photos: 2
First article: April 9, 2004
Latest article: May 4, 2007
First image: September 29, 2006
Latest image: November 17, 2006
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Stravinsky, jazz, world music inaugurate recital hall
No more hard hat concerts, sneak previews, or fine-tuning. The Studzinski Recital Hall and Kanbar Auditorium will finally see real action this weekend with a series of inaugural concerts.
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Artistic zombies invade Maine Mall for student project
Attention, shoppers: Please do not take pictures of the zombies. Patrons at the Maine Mall on Sunday did not hear this broadcasted over the loudspeaker, but it was the message a Maine Mall security officer named Googin conveyed when he asked Sam Tung '09 and his friends, who were dressed as zombies for Tung's art project, to leave the mall.
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Dance springs into step with multicultural variety
This year's Spring Dance Concert offers a taste of everything: martial arts-inspired capoeira, onstage improvised choreography, and a tap solo to Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack."
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Author maps unique path to Bowdoin
Meredith Hall's first attempt at college did not turn out as she planned. In the mid-'60s, she dropped out of Bennington College in Vermont after one semester. The second time around was much more successful, though less traditional: Hall, a mother of three, graduated from Bowdoin in 1993 at age 44.
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Senior artists open show of secrets and memories
On Saturday, five seniors?Susie Martin, Maya Jaafar, Ivy Blackmore, Erin Furey, and Livy Lewis?will cap their art careers at Bowdoin. Their show, "Where Am I?" will open at 8 p.m. in the Visual Arts Center.
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Unleashing the inner bear
Taylor Arnold '07 and John Hall '08 have fond memories of attending hockey games as children with their fathers. What they remember most, though, is not the athletes. They remember the mascots.
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Film examines account of immigrant's struggle
On April 10, Hari Kondabolu '04 will return to Bowdoin, but this night will not be about his comedy. Instead, Kondabolu and Cambodian immigrant Many Uch will be screening the documentary "Sentenced Home," which focuses on Uch's struggles with indefinite detention and his looming deportation without due process.
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Go to Eleven with vibrant pop rock
Sophomore Sammie Francis's acoustic guitar performance may have earned her a recording session on Martha's Vineyard, in the same studio where Carly Simon and James Taylor recorded, but she believes her voice is her first prize.
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Brothers' struggle makes 'An Enemy of the People'
Because of their strong friendship, Anthony DiNicola '07 and Willi Yusah '09 refer to each other as brothers. This weekend, they get to act the part as brothers torn apart by corruption in Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People."
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Hari Kondabolu '04 - Live
On Monday night, Hari Kondabolu '04 performed his stand-up comedy for a national television audience on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." He claims, however, that he is still missing a major accomplishment: During his Bowdoin years as a WBOR 91.1 FM DJ and station manager, Kondabolu was never DJ of the Week.
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WBOR stays on air, re-licensed by FCC
After months of letter writing, legal counsel, and lots of patience, Bowdoin's radio station WBOR kept its rights to broadcast over the Brunswick airwaves. As of January 22, the station has been re-licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
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Miniseries 'The Pacific War' to feature alum war hero
On October 12, 1944, Andrew Haldane '41 was killed by a sniper's bullet during the World War II battle on Peleliu, one of the Palau islands east of the Philippines. His story doesn't end there.
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Alum steals the spotlight
Even though Paul Adelstein '91 now stars on the Fox series "Prison Break," he still remembers his small victories as a beginning actor.
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Miscellania tours East Coast, returns to singers' high schools
During their winter break tour, members of Miscellania returned to a place both familiar and foreign: high school.
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Senior explores intricacies, challenge of violin
Tim Kantor '07 is a performer at heart. "It's kind of what I've always done," he said. "I'm a violinist, not a composer. I know the intricacies of the instrument."
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Naked parties: an expose
All the fun with none of the clothes: Naked partygoers bare it all for the Orient.
It's nerve-wracking enough to open the door at a party and find a security officer on the other side. Imagine opening that door naked. That's what happened at the first annual naked party in the spring of 2004, when Anna Troyansky '06 answered the door for a female security officer. Consistent with the theme of the party, Troyansky was completely naked.
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Robinson explores psychology of villains
In his independent study for theater, Bari Robinson '07 explores William Shakespeare's juiciest characters: the bad guys.
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'Raise Songs' to variations on an old favorite
The first time many people hear the alma mater, "Raise Songs to Bowdoin," it's usually at an awkward orientation event. For a few, it's in a bar with a crowd of men's lacrosse alums who know the "songs" as "sons." At this year's capital campaign launch, Assistant Professor of Music Vineet Shende will give the Bowdoin community new memories of the alma mater.
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Star Fish Grill faces closure
Eight years ago, Alyson Cummings left her New York law practice for a career in cooking, becoming chef and co-owner of Brunswick's Star Fish Grill. Now, a move by its landlord might leave the restaurant high and dry.
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Merenda '98 returns to musical roots, hits target with 'Quiver'
When Michael Merenda '98 gets married tomorrow, the Bowdoin late '90s musical scene will be there in full force. José Ayerve '96, frontman of Bowdoin-born indie-rock band Spouse, is one of Merenda's groomsmen and will sing his original "Siempre Capaz" as the first song for Merenda and bride Ruth Ungar. Other alumni in attendance will be Dan Pollard '98, another Spouse member, Kent Lanigan '98, and Carter Little '98, a music producer in Nashville.
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Comedians sow Middle East peace with standup
Since when are international relations in the Middle East funny? Scott Blakeman, a Jewish comedian, and Dean Obeidallah, a Palestinian-American comedian, have created "Standup for Peace: The Two Comedian Solution to Middle East Peace," in hopes that creating laughter can bring communities together. Bowdoin Hillel, the Jewish student organization, will bring these comedians to campus on Wednesday, November 1.
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College launches iTunes U for students
With the launch of Bowdoin's iTunes U, students can unearth episodes of the now defunct Bowdoin Cable Network (BCN) soap opera "Coles Tower," see episodes of Hari Kondabolu's '04 variety show, and watch live feeds of the football games.
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Godfrey: more than Zoolander in disguise
It's rare that a comedian gets his big break as a walk-on running back for a Big Ten football team. The popular comedian Godfrey, who will perform tonight for the Parents Weekend crowd, displayed his first hints of comedic brilliance during a varsity football talent show, shortly after making the squad at the University of Illinois-Champaign. Impersonating coaches and teammates, he got a rise out of his audience.
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Kerney '02 writes of teens, Darwin
Kelly Kerney '02 can't wait to come back to Maine. "I didn't see the ocean until I was 17," Kerney, an Ohio native and resident of Richmond, Virginia, said in an interview with the Orient. "I had never been to New England before visiting Bowdoin, and the rocks and the coast were surreal. When you're feeling like you're living somewhere beautiful, it helps when you're trying to make some kind of art."
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DJs rally to save WBOR
In addition to worrying about wardrobe malfunctions and Howard Stern, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating Bowdoin's WBOR 91.1 FM's broadcast license renewal and may shut down the station.
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Spinning stories and songs of first fans, 'wild youth'
Few bands on campus can claim Zach, the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Janitor, as their first fan. When the Spins first started playing, the band didn't have access to the music practice rooms in Gibson Hall. Guitarist Dave York '07 obtained permission for the group to practice in the OLC thanks to his status as a trip leader. So Zach witnessed the band's beginnings.
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Racer X driven by New Wave philosophy, music
Here's what the public knows about Racer X: It features Bowdoin Assistant Professor of English Aaron Kitch on the keyboard and Assistant Professor of Music Vin Shende on vocals and guitar. Other members of the band are Dave "Big D" Morrell and Pat "the Snake" Cyr. The band plays '80s music. But beneath this premise, Kitch and Shende insist there lies a dark and sometimes twisted history full of intrigue and references to obsolete pop stars.
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Burke '84 wages 'Tabloid Wars'
Kerry Burke '84 has moved well beyond smashing Hostess cupcakes with a hockey stick. The dessert destruction occurred during the talent section of the 1984 Mr. Bowdoin pageant, when Burke also remarked on Bowdoin sports and tuition. As a city reporter with the New York Daily News for the last four years, Burke now devotes his time and energy to the stories of New York.
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Student project holds water
Imagine the film "Crash" set at Bowdoin, and you have something that might resemble "The Water Project." As their final project, the students of Theater 322 wrote, produced, and will perform the play this weekend.
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IT puts Bowdoin podcasts on iTunes
Type "Bowdoin College" into the iTunes Music Store, and it will actually return results beyond the generic weather report podcasts. Thanks to the efforts of those in Information Technology (IT), New Media Director Mark Leaman and Multimedia Designer Kevin Travers, podcasts featuring the Asian studies department, the music department, Bowdoin sports, and BCNews are now accessible on iTunes and through the Bowdoin podcast web site.
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Davich exits comfort zone with music
While most seniors have turned their focus to graduation, Eric Davich '06 prepares for another sort of celebration: the performance of his music honors project, "Transcending the Comfort Zone." Davich wrote the piece in eight movements and has employed 35 Bowdoin students and faculty to participate in the orchestra.
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Soulive to lift spirits with jazz in Gym
Soulive isn't going to let its audience take jazz sitting down. The trio of Alan and Neal Evans and Eric Krasno proclaims its brand of music to be "jazz that you can dance to," which will fill Bowdoin's Sargent Gym today at 9 p.m.
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Hold Steady to keep Smith crowd rocking
For WBOR's annual concert tonight, The Hold Steady brings its straight-ahead accessible rock to Smith Union.
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Students bring campus 'Home'
"Home," the musical that began during a drive from New Jersey to Bowdoin almost three years ago, finally comes to Pickard Theater March 2 to 4 at 8 p.m. Davin Michaels '06, Michael LoBiondo '06, and James Nylund '06 spent a major part of their time at Bowdoin producing this musical about four friends struggling with the challenges that come with graduating. It also focuses on a couple who has to make a choice about where home is after graduation; one lives in New York and the other in New Jersey.
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'Monologues' inspires discussion
At this year's "The Vagina Monologues," 40 of Bowdoin's own women will bring humorous, traumatic, and silenced sexual experiences into the open.
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A capella groups to spread holiday love
Longfellows, Miscellania pair up for a belated Valentine's concert
With the Longfellows and Miscellania performing the "Val Jam" tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel, the obvious question arises?why celebrate Valentine's Day after the fact? Rumor has it that member Dennis Burke '09 was unable to find a date for Tuesday night's festivities, so the rest of the group decided to help a fellow out and move the concert to Friday.
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Troupe shows off improv abilities
Single men at Bowdoin College who are dreading a dateless Valentine's Day: Improvabilities has a solution. Julia Bond '09. All that's left is for these boys to show up to the Improvabilities show Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. If they lose out on the date, at least they can see a night of great sketch comedy. To explain how Bond will be auctioned off on Saturday night, co-director Dan Brady '08 said, "On Saturday we'll play our own version of 'The Dating Game' in which a member of the audience will end up winning a date with our very own Julia Bond.
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Ladysmith to bring harmony to campus
They are more than the voices chanting in "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" or "Homeless." They are more than Paul Simon's discovery and the backing vocals on his masterpiece, "Graceland."
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Jazz duo to perform Monk standards
As is the case with most musical pairings, the duo of Gary Wittner and Howard Johnson happened by chance. Wittner and Johnson, who will be performing their jazz concert at Kresge on Saturday at 3:00 p.m., met at a restaurant in New York City.
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Ivies Weekend brings bands, spring tidings
Rumors tend to fly around the last week of April every year: why do we call it Ivies? The real reason is probably that it is the weekend when they traditionally planted the ivy on the dorms (though not much grows in Maine in April?it might make more sense for planting season to be in mid-July), but the stories run the gamut. One of the myths is that Ivies Weekend commemorates when Bowdoin rejected becoming part of the Ivy League, or on the other hand, when the Ivy League rejected Bowdoin. Whatever the truth is, students milling around campus this weekend don't really care?for them, Ivies is a much-needed and crazy last hurrah before finals and graduation.
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Drums to speak in Morrell Lounge
As one of the half-credit classes at Bowdoin, the World Music Ensemble has had more performances and put more work into its drumming than the work required for some full-credit classes at the College. It is probably also the only half-credit class with connections to Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente. These students have danced and added their rhythms to Chamber Choir performances in the Chapel, and also held a few concerts of their own. Now, the group has learned techniques, beats and dances from the masters and from the source: Talking Drums, led by Abraham Adzenyah and Helen Mensah.
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Poet Williams to bring passion, politics to Pickard performance
Zach De La Rocha, the former frontman of Rage Against the Machine, called Saul Williams's said the shotgun to the head "an invitation to live and die in the moment, a confrontation of the politics of empire, a dare to transform oneself in the face of fear, and a post-9/11 love song all in one." Thanks to the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture Fund, Bowdoin students have a chance to see this landmark slam poet, considered one of the most familiar and critically acclaimed in America.
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A capella group emerges from underground
Since members of Bowdoin's newest a cappella group, the Longfellows, have been perfecting itheir range since October and finally have their first performance March 10, they've achieved almost an "underground status" around the campus. To this claim, Willi Yusah '08 responded, "What, like underground rap?"
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Masque and Gown show Five Flights takes off
Five Flights is a comedy that deals with what a group of adult siblings want to do with the aviary bequeathed to them in their father's will. Ideas range from selling it to a real estate developer to creating a new age church of "the fifth day," the day God created birds.
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Ensler's Monologues expose world of women
When 200 women respond to questions about their memories and experiences with sexuality, there are some pretty interesting answers. They talk about everything from bad gynecologist experiences to violence against women to orgasms and everything in between.
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Hypocrite honest, entertaining
I was stranded in O'Hare Airport, but I was laughing. Not that sadistic, why-am-I-stuck-in-this-awful-place type laugh, but actually giggling to the point that I had to put down Susan Gilman's Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress so that I would stop embarrassing myself. In Hypocrite, Gilman recounts her New York City upbringing with humor, wit, and brutal honesty, making it the funniest book I've read in quite a while.
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Heritage Choir to give souled-out performance
Try saying "ethnomusicology research." Then, try singing it. Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, who will perform at Pickard Theater Friday night at 8:00 p.m., do that with their combination of slave songs, spirituals, work songs, and field hollers.
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Huun Huur Tu presents the sounds of Tuva
Maybe you've heard they can shatter glass with their voices. Maybe you've heard that, if they sing a certain note incorrectly, they can kill themselves with the reverberations. Maybe those rumors are true, maybe they're not, but either way, the Huun Huur Tu Throat Singers from the Russian republic of Tuva will stage an interesting show Friday night in Kresge.
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Robert Randolph brings the funk to Bowdoin?s gym
It was worth the wait. When Robert Randolph and the Family Band took the stage, an hour late, last Friday night in Morrell Gym, the audience forgot the wait. They forgot that Randolph and his band had been sitting in their hotel room eating lobster until 8:30. All they heard was the music and the incredible talent the band displayed. From the moment the band played their opening instrumental number until the finale where every band member switched instruments, everyone was dancing for the whole concert.
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Visions of Voters
Nick Walker '04 gets out the college vote with PIRG
In this heated election year, a Bowdoin alumnus finds himself in the midst of the fray and playing a major role in getting out the vote. Not only is he hiring campus organizers and fellowship interns for the state PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups), but he is also a very recent graduate: Nick Walker '04, who currently works for the Boston-based organization.
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Rock Out at Queerstock
"At the risk of sounding like a cliché, music brings people together," Sam Farrell '05 said. "Writing music is such an honest, revealing process as well, and I think it goes well with the idea of Out Week?having the courage to be honest with people around you and most importantly yourself. It's not easy."
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Eclectic bluesman Corey Harris rocks Sargent stage
The music industry defines Corey Harris as a blues guitarist, but as the audience in Sargent Gym found out last Friday night, Harris's music goes beyond the traditional definition of the blues. With the help of drummer Johnny Gilmore, Harris infused his show with reggae, Cajun, and world music flavors to create his unique version of the blues.
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Talking to the highway man
SC: The characters in the play are all based on various people I've met in my life, but also are very rooted in who I am as a person. I was interested in exploring what happens to people who, in some ways, have their horizons limited by various problems, both personal and social. For this reason, the characters speak poetically, in a heightened language we do not associate with these types of people. To borrow a line from Charles Mee, I've written characters that "sound right to me."
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Oxfordites bring Britain to Bowdoin
The Music Department kicked off its Teatime Concert Series last Friday with English accents and wild animal sounds, courtesy of Oxford University's Ensemble ISIS.
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Student play highlights sensual side of Millay
Through scattered letters distributed amongst the stage and audience and an unconventional take on Edna St. Vincent Millay's life, Jasmine Cronin '04 enlightened the Wish Theater audience on Sunday afternoon as to the exact nature of "Vincent's" poetry.
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Weeks Philharmonic triumphs in annual Battle of the Bands
They could have claimed it was the leisure suits, but the Jim Weeks Philharmonic won Bowdoin's Battle of the Bands without help from their wardrobe. Thanks to their funk style, great rock covers, and excellent musicianship, Jim Weeks won in the Pub last
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Variety rules ASA fashion show
Between the traditional costumes, the Bowdoin guys in drag, rapper Snacky Chan, and a Grease sequence, the annual ASA Fashion Show was more than any average fashion show.
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Students stage Shakespeare's history of the heroic Henry V
Shakespeare inspires awe in many actors and students, and Henry V is no different. Aaron Hess '04 decided to tackle the play about kings and wars for his senior honors project in English and theater, calling Shakespeare "a demanding playwright [who] has to be taken seriously."
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April Verch hits right notes
Thanks to April Verch, Bowdoin had its fill of bluegrass, Celtic, French-Canadian, and jazzy fiddle tunes last Friday. Not only did she play the fiddle tremendously, but she also performed the "Ottawa Valley Step Dance" during her songs, adding to the incredible amount of talent that her instrument already displayed.