Mr. Corrado and Mr. and Ms. Shipstad: a Tale of the Tape

Despite plenty of events occurred this week including the Minute to Win It Pilots After Dark event, the Fields Hall Spring Spectacular, The Upright Citizens Brigade Traveling team visit Mago Hunt Recital Hall, the Pilot Dance Team Spring Showcase, Fish’s Dodgeball tournament, and the Battle of the Bands in the Anchor, I am paying off the teases made last week about Mr. Corrado.

Mr. Corrado over the last few years has followed Mr. and Ms. Shipstad and usually has been viewed as the tamer version of the dorm-based competition until this year.  The final round of Mr. and Ms. Shipstad for the last several years was called "How Bad Do You Want It?"

Predictably within a college environment, some contestants were creative by crafting Astor Roth's College into an ode of the building, getting a tattoo of the Shipstad logo (an S overlaid over an anchor), or swallowing a goldfish.

Despite efforts from the coordinators to tone down the segment, contestants have branded themselves with an "S" for Shipstad, lick salt and hot sauce off their RA and tried to drink a gallon of milk while being pelted by cherry tomatoes.

In an effort to rebrand the event, the Shipstad Hall council, in conjunction with Staff and the office of Residence Life, dropped the round and replaced it with a series of Minute to Win It-style challenges in which contestants have to complete a given task within the allotted time, all in minute increments.

How similar are these two events that rely on the stereotypical export of residence halls, people willing to make a fool of themselves? Here's a hopefully objective comparison of the events.

Year of Origin:
Mr. Corrado- 2004

Mr. & Ms. Shipstad-1999

Number of contestants (2011): 
Mr. Corrado- 6
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- 6 (3 male, 3 female)

Rounds:
Mr. Corrado- "Cribs" Video, Talent, Underwear, Question and Answer (Q&A), Tug of War

Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- Evening Wear, Talent, Q&A, Minute to Win It (formerly How Bad Do You Want It?)

Sample of Talents:
Mr. Corrado- Singing “A Whole New World”, singing and playing a montage of songs, dancing to a country song, solving a Rubik’s cube
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- Singing an opera song, sing and dancing to “Singin’ in the Rain" with an umbrella, "Accents from around the World," an informal Q& A with a Scotsman, Tiffany from the South, and Svetlana from the Motherland.

Question Asked of a Contestant:
Mr. Corrado-If you were a zombie, which contestant would you bite first?
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- If you were Hall Director for a week, what would you do?

Perspective of previous winners on this year’s event:

Mr. Corrado 2010, Ben - "I was amazed so many people chose singing as their talent. I was also pleased at how well the guys pulled off the opening routine.”

Mr. Shipstad 2010, Kyle- “It’s hard to compare to last year because this year did not have How Bad Do You Want It, but it was good. Some of the talents were interesting.”

Ms. Shipstad 2010, Lara- “Fun, entertaining, and showed that How Bad Do You Want It is not necessary for Mr. and Ms. Shipstad to be successful.”

Co-host view on the event:

Mr. Corrado- “Well organized by the Hall Council. Closing the doors brought a sense of anticipation to the event.”

Mr. & Ms. Shipstad:-“This was a great two-hour period where the building was able to come together.”

Qualifications:
Mr. Corrado-Male resident of Corrado, raise $50 for the Holy Cross Charity
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad-Resident of Shipstad

Prize for winner:
Mr. Corrado-Trojan helmet and plunger

Mr and Ms. Shipstad "Crowns"

Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- (Mr.) Hat  (Ms.) tiara, earrings and ring 

Perceived Core Audience:
Mr. Corrado-Corrado residents and female inhabitants of the West Quad
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad-Shipstad residents, East Side Quad inhabitants

Mr. Corrado 2011 Crowd awaits fun

Crowd size:
Mr. Corrado-close to 300 people
Mr. & Ms. Shipstad-close to 150 people

Location Held:

Mr. Corrado-Buckley Center Auditorium

Mr. & Ms. Shipstad- Shipstad First Floor Lounge

2011 Mr. and Ms. Shipstad Crowd awaits a retooled event

Overall, both events pleased their audiences with the exception of those who might have had high expectations, thought the talents were lackluster, or technical miscues compromised parts of the events.  No event can satisfy everyone, but these events allowed their respective dorms to allow a small section of the UP community to become a part of the dorm community, at least for two hours.

Have you been fortunate to ever attend either event?  If so, what did you think? 

Week in Review, Photo Edition: IRS+Anime= Tennis and Focus the Nation?

Wednesday presented an interesting pair of contrasting clubs: the Accounting Club (UPAA- University of Portland Accounting Association) and the Anime Club. The former was filled with students who desired extra credit and/or were actually intrigued in government work. The latter had around 10-12 people coming in and out, depending on time/opinion of show.  The blend of these two can be personified in tennis and Focus the Nation 2011.  Housed in the Louisiana-Pacific Center, tennis possesses the length and crowd size of Anime club meetings (around 3 hours, depending on length and around 10 people) but the seriousness of the UPAA meetings. Focus the Nation was a daylong event allowing students, teachers, community members and businesses to gather and discuss how to spread the new energy efficient ideas to the world. The sessions also featured the intensity of tennis and the capacity of the UPAA meeting.
Hopefully the following can illustrate the comparisons. If the link in the caption does not work here is the youtube link to "Every Anime Opening Ever Made"




See you next time, for some housekeeping from JPFW. Have a good week!

Week in Review Part 3: JPFW Aptly Names its Core Demographic

After a week of discussing issues and topics that can strike chords with people, here's a recap of last weekend's big event: Junior Parents and Families Weekend.

Craig Karges, the "mentalist", was a hoot again this year, opting to select the 10 digits of a random Cincinnati phone number, give them, in order to 10 children and "children at heart", matching the same number a mother-daughter selected.  Karges also opted to perform his trademark "table levitation" and display his abilities of identifying the name and ID number of a UP student and each digit of a piece of paper currency, usually of unusual American value, like a $2 bill, even if someone tries to trick him by handing a 500 Forint note from Hungary.


After a brunch featuring breakfast quiche, introductory speeches for introductions, and Fr. Beauchamp delivering a general speech, Career Services, the Alumni Office and the Moreau Center were able to promote their services through the examples of several alumni and a current senior.  The varied post-grad experiences prove the sponsoring departments can find plenty of options that could work for the individual completely unsure of their future to the determined person who really wants a fellowship.

The end of the morning presented the "varsity sport of the mind," quiz bowl, pitting parents against students.
For those who have not played or seen a match, here are the basic guidelines.

Two teams of four compete to answer the most questions within 10 minutes.  The moderator, after saying "Welcome to College Bowl!" and getting the response "The Varsity Sport of the Mind!", will offer a tossup question.  The person that gets it right, earns their team 10 points.  If someone thinks they know it before the end of the question, they can buzz in early.  However,  an incorrect guess would subtract 5 points from their team's score.  If their team waits until the end of the question to offer a guess, no penalty exists for an incorrect answer.

The team that gets the tossup question correct gets about 30 seconds to answer a three-part question, having little to no relation to the previous topic like naming three different types of poetic lyrical forms after identifying which war the Lincoln Brigade fought (the Spanish Civil War.)

The moral of the exercise is the adults are more knowledgeable about the origins of Fictional Detectives and USC's transgressions, while the offspring were better at chemical compositions and identifying movies that Stephen Toblowsky, one of Hollywood's bit part royalty, has gotten paid to appear. (Groundhog Day as Ned Ryerson the Insurance Salesman and a part in the Garfield movie)  The parents showed their distance from general knowledge was closer than they were from their college days as they won close (75-65) and not so close matches (115-25).  The progeny did salvage some sense of pride with a 90-60 rout over the parents behind knowledge Mosul is a city in Iraq and Toblowsky films, despite a late threat by the parents.

The weekend works best for families that might not visit campus too often due to the distant nature of home from the university or to whom many stories of classmates are told.  Having had the family visit enough, the normal attractions of the university were no longer special, so I took the folks to the taqueria known as Tienda Santa Cruz #2, a restaurant hidden in the back of Panderia Santa Cruz Taqueria, a Mexican grocery store and bakery in St. John's. If one is not careful, they could drive right by the place along Lombard.  Park nearby and enjoy cheap Mexican cuisine that will fill you up for a limited amount of money.

Overall, the weekend featured plenty of time to have fun, point out the similarities between parent and child, and take your mind off tests and midterms.

To readers, what was your JPFW experience like? Is there anything you wanted to do, but just did not have the time to accomplish? If you are not yet a junior or your university did not offer the experience, what would you have liked to do with your family during college?

Inaugural Week in Review

This busy week offered several activities, many of which I sadly was unable to attend due to ASUP Senate proceedings and prior commitments.

I was unable to attend the African-American Read-in, the Anti-Valentine's Day Reading held by the English Society, a lecture about graphic novels, the Trashin' Fashion show, in which students submitted clothes made from recycled materials, the Campus Community Emergency Response Team session, a group preparing the campus for survival in case the community is shut off from resources via an emergency, the CPB movie Hereafter, or the Pilots After Dark event "Dance Your Heart Out."

I was fortunate to attend the Alaskan Immersion Plunge Concert/Bluffoon Improvisation performance and the ASUP candidate information meeting.

The concert, which raised at least $400 from $3 admission prices, featured student Sam Wegman and a group including April Vanderkamp, the event organizer.
Sam performed a cover of The Beatles' "Something", his own "Behind Closed Doors", "Never Perfect" and an untitled song that discussed the use of white lies to hide the truth of the subject's addiction.

Vanderkamp's group took a more humorous approach with their covers of Weezer's Sweater Song, the Band's "The Weight", "Maybe" and "I'm Sorry", the latter two being Vanderkamp originals about a couple's progression in a relationship culminating in living in a house built for four and a blunt but still respectful way of ending a relationship.

The Bluffoons performed some of their usual games like "Presidential Debate" in which two "candidates" have to say "A vote for me is a _____ for a ____", "I promise a _____ for every ____" and a closing quote, which was "And My Axe".  A team of three people mime the words that go in the blanks  and the first person to complete the phrases "wins" the election.  As easy as it might sound, ten minutes worth of using Michaelangelo's "The Creation of Man" from the Sistine Chapel fresco so the candidate could get "I-pod" managed to produce more laughs than I thought.

I managed to accomplish the highest goal for a spectator, getting a suggestion used, during the game "3 Rooms." This game features three different scenes happening, but the last line of one scene must be used in the next, word for word.  The scene featuring my suggestion "nice pants" had the trials of alleviating the pain of too tight pants. 

One of the interesting games was their starter, "My Movie", in which Bluffoon members pitched their ideas, provided a synopsis if prompted, then had their movie performed if the "studio executive" wanted to see it.  The participants provide some interesting ideas like "The Movie about the Thing", the tale of a multi-armed creature; "The Spoon Diet: a How-to Guide" where eveerything is eaten with a spoon, "The Legendary Benches of Azaroth", and "Orange You Glad?," the tragic claymation tale of two oranges that exist peacefully until one of them gets squashed.

The two hours flew by and was a solid investment of $3 and two hours on a Friday night.  The next Bluffoon show is Friday, February 25th, so take advantage of your Friday night by investing in laughter.

The candidate meeting for Executive Board positions was a harbinger of the week within ASUP Senate with one candidate concerned about personal attacks aimed at her.  Since I am acting as the coordinator and producer for the debate, I am concerned on how it will go, especially with the CST 363 class attending.

It should be fine, but the activity surrounding the newest resolution over allocating Capital Improvement Funds toward the construction of the new Recreation Center says it will not be easy. Activities includes facebook groups on both sides of the issue, strong opinions on how to discuss it during this Monday's meeting, a compromise meeting held after the Beacon deadline, a Beacon story that was unable to discuss the proposed compromise and a petition to move the decision to a student vote, for which I helped obtain signatures, all create a sense of tension and stress for the next week. The petition hinges partly on the resolution discussion being tabled, an uphill task.

If I can survive the next few days, the week should be smooth sailing until Junior Parent Weekend, which might present its own creative circumstances.

Take care, and have a safe and efficient week!