The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/25742
Sam Spokony Top Five Collaborations in History, according to me 5) MOSES AND GOD (13TH CENTURY BCE) Though perhaps not technically human, God saved monotheism (a bit self-serving, eh?) by, after bringing 10 horrible plagues upon Egypt, parting the Red Sea to free the Israelites after generations of enslavement there. He chose Moses, a guy who didn’t have such a great leadership resume, to be his spokesman through it all. One of reasons for that choice, so they say, was that the guy was humble, so much so that he was reluctant to take the job of a lifetime. So, an omnipotent being teams up with an old shepherd with no public speaking experi- ence. Now we have Jon Stewart, but back then, that’s what worked for the Jews. 4) MERIWETHER LEWIS AND WILLIAM CLARK (1804-1806) You’ve got a roommate. And maybe, even though you’re good friends, you don’t always see eye to eye. It’s pretty common, really just an effect being in close contact with someone for a long period of time. Now imagine walking with this person from Illinois to the Pacific Ocean (which no Ameri- can had yet laid eyes on), then back again. You and this other guy are leading a team of around 30 explorers through a frontier of uncharted wilderness and natives both friendly and hostile. No McDonald’s along the way. No Internet cafes. No GPS. It’s safe to say that it was a tall order, and that its successful completion solidified the sense of romantic adventure and Manifest Destiny, that, for better or worse, helped build this nation. 3) FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, WINSTON CHURCHILL AND JOSEPH STALIN (1941-1945) All right, so maybe Stalin didn’t turn out to be so great. But, after two years of a war that was going pretty well for the Nazis, the unification of these three iconic leaders, whose nations literally spanned the width of the globe, was the turning point everyone was looking for. If the Big Three had never teamed up, the dystopian fiction we all know might’ve become our sad reality. 2) DON QUIXOTE AND SANCHO PANZA (1605-1615) So what if they’re entirely fictional? Besides laying the founda- tion for the modern novel, the fantastic quests of the Knight of the Woeful Counte- nance and his faithful squire are inspiring in their own right. The journeys that fill “Don Quixote” are full of societal satire, but they also continue to show us the value of honesty, personal morals and endless motivation as a way to escape the sad monotonies of a conformist, “sane” world. Miguel de Cervantes wrote part of the novel in a Spanish Inquisition prison, but the messages still carry weight today, and they will forever. Read it; it’ll change your life. 1) BILLIE HOLIDAY AND LESTER YOUNG (1934-1957) This is really the best one. Lester Young first met Billie Holiday after living as a boarder in Holiday’s mother’s house in 1934. After becoming close friends (She called him Prez; he called her Lady Day), they went on to cut some of the most passionate, heartfelt records of all time. The interpretations were beautiful, but it was their warm, breathy tone that was so human, so real: a voice and a saxophone trading phrases, but sharing a heart. They had a falling out after their collabora- tive peak in the late ’30s–early ’40s, but reunited one more time in a live performance on CBS in 1957. Though they hadn’t spoken in years, Young played her one final blues, a solo for the ages; she looked up at him and gave a quiet smile that said more than any tune could. They parted ways after the show, but the connection never faded. It’s the kind of love that makes more sense than anything we might learn in life. These two icons had never really lusted after one other, never shared a romantic relationship. But at Young’s funeral in 1959, Holiday told another friend, a jazz critic, something strange. She said, “I’ll be the next one to go.” She died four months later. Sam Spokony is a junior majoring in music industry and English at SUNY Oneonta. He can be reached at spoksm03@suny.oneonta. edu. Jennifer Tighe Class or sleep? Sleep. It’s 10:15 a.m., and my phone is buzz- ing around my bed, lighting up all sorts of obnoxious colors that should never be seen before noon and playing some ear piercing piece of garbage in a pathetic attempt to try to get my ass out of bed. Is it working? Oh, hell no. Alarms are useless in Jennie Utopia. Don’t ever underestimate my love for sleep. I would sleep for days if it was so- cially acceptable. But you people and your opinions and a priori judgments just won’t allow it. Curse you. Some of you might find my sleep-addic- tion meaningless, but oh boy, let me tell you, it’s disastrous. I’ve missed very impor- tant Denny’s breakfasts, a countless amount of those mythical things you people call “sunrises,” and of course, the most detrimental, numerous amounts of classes. This is my last semester here at Oneonta and I, being the intelligent and beautiful young lady that I am, sched- uled 10 and 11 a.m. classes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I’m actually laughing out loud right now at the concept of me, Jennifer Jill Tighe, ever getting up before 11:30 a.m. to do some- thing school-related — it’s just completely unrealistic. Needless to say, I dropped both of those classes and added a 1 and a 2 p.m. But now I’m finally finding my way to my point; I think the No. 1 most annoying part of being a college student is that we get penalized for missing a certain amount of classes a semester. Most of the time you aren’t allowed to miss more than three a semester, which I find to be totally ludicrous. But what makes me even angrier is the fact that if I don’t go to class and still get good grades, I’m still getting penalized. What is the big deal? I do all of my home- work and I turn in all of my assignments, the majority of the time getting good grades. So, then, why do professors care whether I’m there to listen to their ramblings or not? I think the No. 1 most annoying part of being a college student is that we get penalized for missing a certain amount of classes a semester. Am I not the one dishing out hard-earned dollars every semester just so I can go here? I should be able to make the decisions as to when and how many times a semester I’ll go to class. It’s about time that we grow up and get to make our own decisions, so let us. Jennifer Tighe is a senior majoring in Eng- lish at SUNY Oneonta. She can be reached at tighjj53@suny.oneonta.edu. Scene column? E-mail Cassandra at Want to write an O-Town editor@otownscene.com Feb. 24, 2011 O-Town Scene 5