The Northerner Print Edition - April 28, 2010

A&E“Bye Bye Birdie” fl ies the coop:Musical embodies old-fashioned American life.

10 & 11

NEWS 4Pro-life display disrupted:Four years later the “Cemetery of the Innocents” is disrupted again.

WHAT’S INSIDE

SPECIAL 5,6,7 & 8 AELP Student Newspaper:Students from the American English Language Pro-gram put together a special section.

3 April 28, 2010

The NorthernerUniversity Center Room 335Highland Heights, KY 41076Editor in Chief: (859) 572-6128News & Sports: (859) 572-6677Features: (859) 572-5859Advertising: (859) 572-5232Fax: (859) 572-5772

E-mail: [email protected]

furtherdetailsEntire content is copyright of The Northerner and may not be reprinted without prior con-sent. Views expressed do not represent those of the administration, faculty or student body.The Northerner is considered a designated public forum. Student editors have authority to make all content decisions without censor-ship or advance approval. The Northerner staff respects the right to a free and open dialogue as allowed under the First Amendment.

PRINT EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMark Payne[[email protected]]

WEB EDITOR-IN-CHIEFEmily Teaford [[email protected]]

PRESENTATION EDITORKarli Wood[[email protected]]

A&E EDITORJeremy Jackson[[email protected]]

PHOTO EDITORCharlotte Etherton[[email protected]]

COPY EDITORSEmily Christman[[email protected]]

Zach Grady[[email protected]]

Chad Hensley[[email protected]]

ADVISERGayle Brown[[email protected]]

AD MANAGERWilliam Fisher[fi [email protected]]

northernerstaff contactinformation

EDITORIAL CARTOONISTPatrick Delaney[[email protected]]

STAFF WRITERSMichael Willis[[email protected]]

Alex Owsley[[email protected]]

Jesse Call[[email protected]]

COPY DESK CHIEFBetina Kemker[[email protected]]

EDITORIAL ADVISERRyan Clark[[email protected]]

WEB CONTENT MANAGERJim Clark[[email protected]]

NEWS EDITORVern Hockney[[email protected]]

ASST. SPORTS EDITORMike Collins[[email protected]]

VIEWS 9Goodbye everybody:Goodbye editorials from all outgoing Northerner editors.

Correction:In the April 21 issue of The Northerner, the police beats were dated incorrectly. The North-

erner accidentally used the police records from April 2008 and incorrectly dated them as April 2010. The Northerner apologizes for the inaccuracy and oversight.

Charlotte Etherton/Photo Editor

Web editor-in-chief Emily Teaford (right) and Mark Payne, print, editor-in-chief partici-pate in a fun-fi lled night of shenanigans their last evening at the helm of The North-erner. Emily graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Mark graduates in December with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Emily’s post graduation plans are to write a book about her college experience and wrestle an alligator. Mark plans to get his master’s degree in Library Science and bicycle across France.

On the cover: (from top left:) Abdul Rahman Almoodi, Yu Bing, Khadejah Mutaha, Yacoub Sidiya, Ayman Alfayez, Luis

Montilva, Musallam Aldowis, Oleg Osadchyi, Siraj Alfeef, Premruedee Thongkom, Abdullah Alqarni, Saud Albugami, Yoko Turner, Fahad Aldreihem, Luis Mendoza, Ahmad Hasanain, Abdullah Alharbi.

These students make up AELP, the American English Language Program at NKU.

A pro-life student display lo-cated next to Loch Norse was disrupted Wednesday, April 21.

The “Cemetery of the Inno-cents” display featured rows of small white crosses, each said to represent 10 people who die each day as a result of abortion. The suspect allegedly pulled up several of the cross-es before being interrupted by another student who con-vinced him to quit, according to Jeanne Beckman, president of Northern Right to Life, the student organization which put up the display. No damage to the crosses was discovered.

Harold Todd, chief of the Northern Kentucky University Police Department, said here were no security cameras fi lm-ing the area where the display was located.

“The members of Northern Right to Life were surprised to learn that there were no secu-

rity cameras in the area, espe-cially due to the proximity of our display to the lake which could be a potential danger for drowning,” Beckman said, but added that the police were helpful in investigating the in-cident.

The suspects could face both university and criminal charges for their actions.

“The display is private prop-erty and was put up with per-mission from the university,” Beckman said. “The display is not in any way judging anyone affected by abortion. It is only stating a fact and describing a loss.”

Beckman said that people who disagree with the display should resort to other options to share their opinions.

“The members of Northern Right to Life feel that while the topic of abortion is often surrounded by controversy

and emotion, our display de-serves the same respect shown to any other student display,” Beckman said. “We encourage people to voice their feelings about the display at our meet-ings, through contacting us, or through putting up a counter-display, like the Students for Choice (have), rather than turning to destruction. Both sides deserve an equal place on campus and in discussion.”

The display is not designed to be offensive, but rather edu-cational, according to Beck-man.

“Abortion is never the only option, and there are organi-zations in the community who are there to help women facing the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. Northern Right to Life is one of these. We are not here to judge anyone who has had an abortion — we are just here to make sure that campus

knows there are other options, ones (that) are more accepting of each and every human life,” Beckman said.

Beckman added the organi-zation does much more than put up the annual display — including assisting people deal-ing with pregnancies or caring for their newborn children.

“The incident was reminis-cent of four years previous, when our original display was torn down and damaged by a faculty member,” Beckman said. “However, the distur-bance on Wednesday was to a much lesser degree than the incident in 2006.”

In April 2006, Sally Jacob-sen, a then NKU languages and literature professor, took members of her class out to the display and told them to help her pull up the crosses. Jacob-sen and at least six members of her class faced misdemeanor

charges for their actions. Ja-cobsen later completed me-diation, paid restitution, made a charitable donation, and issued an apology for her ac-tions in order to avoid criminal charges. The students charged completed community service in order to have their charges dropped.

Anyone with information about who disrupted the dis-play should contact University Police at 859-572-5500.

“Regardless of whether the individual or individuals involved in the dismember-ment of our display are found, Northern Right to Life hopes that this example of bias is one that is not repeated in the fu-ture towards any display on campus,” Beckman said. “Free-dom of speech is highly valued by our members and is impor-tant to maintain on a public university campus.”

NEWS

4 Edition 45, Issue 14

Jesse CallStaff writer

Vern Hockney/News Editor

Crosses from the pro-life display overlooking Loch Norse lie after being pulled up by a suspect.

Pro-life display disruptedFour years later the “Cemetery of the Innocents” is disrupted again

Do you know what AELP is? Most NKU students are not familiar with AELP. Sometimes, American stu-dents think that AELP stands for “American Eagle” or something like that. We are going to introduce AELP, which stands for American English Language Program. The purpose of this program is to help international stu-dents learn American Eng-lish and prepare to enter American universities.

In AELP, we have several classes: listening, speaking, grammar, writing, reading, aviation English and culture class. Also, we have fi ve dif-ferent levels which depend

on students’ knowledge of English. Moreover, there is a diverse student popula-tion from 11 countries: South Korea, Uzbekistan, Japan, China, Ukraine, Ghana, Tur-key, Saudi Arabia, Venezu-ela, Thailand and Mauritania. Even though we are from dif-ferent countries and have dif-ferent cultures, we share one common bond: friendship.

We spend our time in Campbell Hall, which is actu-ally not well known to NKU students. Also, we have class-es in the center of the univer-sity, which is more familiar to NKU students; for example, Nunn Hall and Founders Hall. Some students may

think that learning English all day long from 9 a.m.until 4 p.m. isn’t fun at all. However, that’s not true, because we have lots of activities, which are included in the AELP program.

We sometimes meet with conversation partners, which is when we go to the main campus and communicate with American students. This can be very helpful for im-proving our English skills as well as learning more about American culture and cus-toms. We also enjoy sharing our culture with American students to help get rid of ste-reotypes that they may have about us.

We’ve had a number of fi eld trips which show us American culture and his-tory. For example, we went to the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincin-nati, which is such a famous and important part of Ameri-can history. We also went ice skating on Fountain Square and ate ice cream at Graeters, something we would never be able to do in our countries. We also visited the Cincinnati Art Museum, which includes a lot of artwork from our countries and cultures.

In last session, we gave pre-sentations at Dixie Heights High School about our cul-ture and lifestyles, which

were very interesting for high school students to learn about other places around the world. It also gave us a chance to practice our pre-sentation skills in English. We have birthday parties that we celebrate together in the way that we’d celebrate in our own countries.

We have learned a lot of things from AELP besides learning English. We want to let people know what AELP is and how it works for us. We really hope that this pro-gram will expand more and more from now on, and also we hope you can see how our English skills are improving by reading this newspaper.

AELP Student NewsAmerican English Language ProgramShakhlo Abudsalomova, Jin Kyung Kang, Na Young KimAELP Student News

Special Section

Students from the American English Language Program pose for a picture in front of Campbell Hall. The students hail from 11 different countries and are working to improve their English skills. In conjunction with The Northerner, the students wrote stories for this special section. The Northerner’s editors were involved only in the layout of the section.

5 April 28, 2010

Country profi les

Thailand

Most people know Thailand is the land of smiles. Thai people are friendly . They have

many cultures, foods, and several people from other countries. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It’s a pretty big city. Bangkok is the center of business and education. They have many famous places to travel such as

temples, markets, and restaurants. Every year most foreigners who visit Thailand come to Bangkok. The temples in Bangkok are

beautiful.

-Premruedee Thongkom

Venezuela

Venezuela is a beautiful country located at the very North of South America. It is a oil producer country. It has big mountains like

Pico Bolivar in Merida City. Also has beauti-ful beaches at the North coast of the country. Venezuela has 26 million people with a large amount of young people. Around the 30 % of population are people younger than 35 years

old.Caracas is the capital city of Venezuela. It

has around 5 million people. It is a Republic with a President and National Assembly. The second city in order of importance is Mara-caibo, the capital city of the oil producing.Venezuela has a largest and tallest cable car

of the world, bu t also has the tallest water fall of the world, the Salto Angel, located at the

South East in the Bolivar State.

-Luis Mendoza

Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand. Rice is sta-ple grain of Thai cui-sine. Thai cuisine is known for being spicy. There are fi ve funda-mental test of Thai food. There are hot (spicy),sour, sweet, salty,and (option-al) bitter. Thai used fresh herbs such as mint,cilantro, lemon grass, Thai basil, gin-ger, galangal, turmeric, garlic, soy beans, shal-lots, white and black pepper and chilies.

The famous Thai foods are hot and sour prawns soup(Tom Yum Kung), papaya salad(Som Tam),

green curry(Kaeng kaew Hwan) and Pad Tai. Most Thai meals fi nish with fresh fruit but sometimes a sweet snack will be served as a dessert. There are Khanom Chan, Khao Niao Mamuang(sticky rice cooked in swee-tend thick coconut milk, served with slic-es of ripe mango. To-day I’ll teach you how to cook Hot And Sour Prawns Soup(Tom Yum Kung). Ingredi-

ents are the prawns, mushrooms, Tom Yum paste, cilantro, lemon juice and fi sh sauce. Step1 prepare ingredi-ents: clean prawns, cut mushroom. Step 2 add a liter of water a pot and bring it to a boil. Add 4 or 5 teaspoons of soup paste and stir it. Step 3 once you’re done that, add a little bit of lemon juice and a little bit of fi sh sauce. Step 4 Add mush-rooms. Wait a few minutes. Step 5 Add the prawns. Let it cook for a few minutes and low heat. The prawns should be done by

now. The last step is to add a bunch of cilan-tro on top. If you can not do this, I’ll recom-mend that you go to eat at a Thai restaurant. There are many Thai restaurants in Ohio. Most Thai restaurants have both Thai food and Sushi( Japanese food). You can see original Thai food and fusion on the menu. There are many Thai foods, such as Tom Yum Kung, red curry,

green curry , papaya salad, pad tai, stir fry and fried rice. Appe-tizers are spring rolls, crab puffs and edama-me. Some Thai restau-

rants, the owner allow customers to bring their beer and wine without a corkage fee. I think it will be inter-esting for you. Enjoy.

Premruedee ThongkomAELP Student News

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

It is bordered by Jordan and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the

south. The Arabian Gulf lies to the northeast and the Red Sea to its west. It has an esti-

mated population of 28 million, and its size is approximately 2,149,690 square. The King-dom is sometimes called “The Land of the Two Holy Mosques” in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. The two mosques are Masjid al-Haram and Masjid Al-Nabawi. The current Kingdom

was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saudi..

-Musallam Aldowis, Abdullah Alharbi,Ayman Alfayez

As we know, food is important for human society. There are two kinds of food. Every day, we eat junk food or healthy food. There are peo-ple who don’t know how to cook, so they go to a restaurant to eat, but here is the problem. It is diffi cult to fi nd a restaurant that has healthy food. So today we are going to explain to you how to cook healthy food (clean food). - Saud Albugami

World Cuisine

Thailand serves up spicy and sweet

All fl ags and maps courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency’s

Worldbook.

The Men’s Soccer Club is for everyone who wants to play and enjoy his time. My officers and I have been working very hard to gath-er people together to know each other to have friends from different countries.

We are asking North-ern Kentucky University to give us money to buy equipment for everyone, because we have not re-ceived anything. The good thing is that we have about 23 members in our soccer club and we are looking for more. Come out and play and enjoy the nice weather.

Here is a interview with

the President of the men’s soccer club,Yousef Albdiwi.

When do you play ?

We play every Wednes-day.

How many players play for your team?

My team has 16-20 play-er.

Who is captain for team?

The name of the captain is Yousef Albdiwi.

Where do you play ?

We play at NKU.

What time do you play?

Between 5:30 to 6:30 in-the evening.

What is the name of your team?

NKU club

How many times has your team played?

We have played four times and we won all of that. I think the competi-tion is very difficult, be-cause the team has good players.

Abdul Rahman AlamoodiAELP Student News

Sports

The Northern Kentucky University Men’s Soccer club.

If you go to Saudi Arabia don’t for-get to taste capsa. Capsa is the most popular food in Saudi Arabia. It con-sists of rice, chicken, onions, tomatoes, spice and a little salt and water. And put together on the fi re until the rice absorbs the water. After it cooks en-joy the delicious capsa.

Helah AlaseemAELP Student News

Capsa

Views from around the globe

Khadejah Mutaha

It’s diffi cult to live in a state which is always exposed to the dangers of deadly weather and bad communication with people. In addition, you can’t communicate with people in Florida unless you speak Span-ish. You will probably need to learn how to speak Spanish if you live in Florida. That’s why my family and I moved from Florida to Cincinnati for these factors: hurricane, hot weath-er, and unfriendly people.

The fi rst reason is that hur-ricanes and hot weather are two of the costliest natural di-sasters in Florida. These natu-ral events can become natural disasters if they negatively af-fect people and their property. More and more people are be-ing affected by violent natural events because the population is increasing in areas where these events are most likely to occur. For example, the tem-perature in Florida is often in the high 90s and sometimes 100s. On the one hand, the hurricane’s damage to the city was in terms of people forced out, economic loss, and lives lost. On the other hand, hot weather causes distress and pain, makes people unhappy, makes the body shut down, and causes skin diseases. The hot weather causes animals and plants to die.

A second reason is in gen-eral people in Florida aren’t neighborly and are unfriendly. In Florida, we couldn’t fi nd na-tive-born Americans. We only found tourists. It was diffi cult to fi nd someone who spoke English. I had to speak Span-ish because most of the people are from South America.

Fortunately, now we are safe in Cincinnati and happy because the weather here is incredible, and also the peo-ple are very friendly, so that my family and I like the life in Cincinnati better than in Florida.

Oleg Osadchyi

I live in America. I love Ameri-cans. They are Cheerful, polite, vulnerable, similar to children. However, if you invite them, they don’t come. Someone will be afraid. Work occupies all the time from morning until night. They don’t have days off or know how to use them.

Houses in America are made of cardboard. You can knock your foot through a wall. Try to hit a wall in Ukraine and you will break your foot. I don’t know what walls here are made of, but I don’t recommend knocking. A wall crash is likely. But indoors all is made beautifully.

In America nobody can repair anything. Here it is more expen-sive than to buy something new and people throw out almost new things. And here people throw out clothes. And some-times arrange sale of things – ga-rage sales they are called. Such an idea – people buy a bunch of things, litter the houses, then clean hard in the house, then arrange the sale of these things

right in front of the house, usu-ally on Saturdays. The price is purely symbolic price. I adore garage sales.

I have understood that in America the most important thing is not to hesitate to ask questions. It has begun with the moment I fi rst arrived at the American airport and wished to leave my bags.

With English pronunciation it is necessary too be careful, espe-cially with Americans. They will listen, agree, pretend that they understand everything, and then ask a question so you begin to understand that they didn’t un-derstand a thing you told them.

Siraj Afeef

Let my love open the door. I guarantee we’re able to own everything, but not love. Obvi-ously, anything we love for our-selves should be loved for other people too. Love has many effects because it’s a benefi t for great relationships, and the other effect is it makes people happy.Love’s benefi t is for the great-

est relationship. It’s being friendly, and never ever hurt-ing others as well. We need to

be honest, and have mercy with each other all the time. We need to have the greatest heart ever. However, it’s diffi cult for us to have that, but we should hold our feeling and control our temper while dealing with each other. The other effect is that love

makes people so happy. Of course, money doesn’t make people happy. I swear there’s nothing that makes people hap-pier than love. Love isn’t only for humans, but for every single growing thing such as animals, fl owers, fi sh, and birds. Many

people have great happiness, so that they will probably stay on the right track. A few kinds of terrible people probably won’t have happiness, but they won half the world. These kinds of people have missed the greatest thing in the world and in their life as well.Overall, we can get anything.

We can buy the most expen-sive thing, but we can’t buy love and happiness. If all countries had a great relationship, they wouldn’t have war. If wars were never fought again, the world would be a much better place.

Yacoub Sidiya

When you leave all of your life with your family and one day you have to leave it that is not easy. However, when you have a chance to study outside of your

country, don’t think about it, just do it. That is my advice for you. I got a good experience after I came to the US. The fi rst thing is learning another culture. Every-thing is different from my cul-ture. The second thing is friends. I made many friends from dif-

ferent countries. Also, I learned about these countries. Finally, I learned a new language and that is a very good thing. However, I had a diffi cult time and situa-tion, but that encouraged me to depend on myself and get this experience.

Fahad Aldreihem

It`s hard to be an international student. I remember what I felt when we arrived to Washington International Airport. It looked very strange. The weather is dif-ferent, the people are speaking another language. And we had just arrived from a long fl ight.

We were tired and feel con-fused. We were culture shocked. We tried hard to fi nish the Cus-toms Procedures and think about the next fl ight to Cincinna-ti. When we arrived to Highland Heights we went to a close hotel and we took a long sleep. In that time many questions were in my mind, like how I can rent an apartment? how I can go to the university and back to home? how I can open an account in some local bank?

And a lot of questions like that. We couldn’t rent a car because we didn’t have an American or an International License. So we couldn’t shopping or visit anoth-er place because we couldn’t go out far from Highland Heights. We knew taxis would cost a lot.

In the winter break we stayed at home for 13 days. You can imagine how the feeling is about that: we couldn’t do any thing ex-cept just watch T.V and use the Internet for the whole break.

If we want to speak with some body and try to explain some idea we try hard to fi nd word, but we can’t and then we felt de-pressed.

After two months we felt a homesick. Especially when we talked with our family, we missed our family, our friends, our food, and our life style. Day after day that feeling has gone and we are accustomed the American life. To be honest, American people are very friendly, helpful, and patient. If we talk with someone and we try to explain our idea and they try to help us, so we aren’t shy.

I would like to thank the American people for their ap-preciation and love for us, and I wish for them more success and peace.

Yoko Turner

I like American food: steak, Mexican food, barbecue, Ameri-can traditional food. Everything is so tasty. But the quantity is too much. When I order a small

sandwich, it is the same size as the Japanese large size. So I can’t eat the whole dish. And when I order something at the restau-rant, it is diffi cult for me because I have to choose sauce and a side dish and so on. The restaurant should have a small size menu because I don’t like to eat too much. It makes me sleepy and fat. If I have leftovers from my dish, I never eat them later. So that is a waste. If I can get the small size, I can save money and food and calories.

I like the American style home. It is very cute and pretty. I live in a detached house with a garden

now. At fi rst, I was surprised be-cause the house has a basement and a garage and a large garden. And also very large trees are in the garden. But I don’t like it when people wear shoes inside of my house. I can’t understand this situation at all because I want to distinguish between inside and outside. Also, I was surprised that people usually park the car on the side of the road. I was thinking, “Why do people who have a large garden and garage park the car on the public road?” These cars sometimes are in my way.


9 April 28, 2010

VIEWS

I started writing for The Northerner in Jan. 2009. I came to The Northerner after I met Zac Collins,who was the sports editor at the time, in a class. Our daily in-class sports chat turned into an opportuni-ty for me to combine my pas-sion for sports and writing. I’ve always had a passion for sports and writing, so when presented with the chance, I jumped.

I’ve written over 40 stories for the paper; most late at night and under gut-wrenching stress. I would be crazy to tell you it was easy. It wasn’t. But it has made me a better writer.The opportunity to combine my passion for sports and writing has helped me prepare me for my dream job. My ultimate goal is to be a sports reporter.

I’ve always been uncomfort-able in situations where I’ve had to talk to people that I don’t know on the phone. My time with The Northerner has forced me to become comfort-able because it was a process that was a part of each story that I wrote.

I will never forget the editors and staff members that I’ve worked with at The Northerner. It was a privilege to be around such a large group of intelligent writers. The friendships that have been are important to me because I have learned much of what I know from each individual on the staff. I want to give special thanks to all of my friends on the staff. Thank you for teaching me the things that you knew about the aspects of journalism. I appreciate every-thing you all did to create the paper each week. I also would like to thank Gayle Brown for the opportunity to be a part of the staff. Her guidance and instruction contributed to my improvement as a writer.

I can’t say that I’ll miss being in school, but I will miss covering NKU sports for The Northerner. It’s been a great run, but I’m out of here. -Michael Collins

I’ve never been what one would call a “joiner.” I’ve always been content to do my own thing and was always rather annoyed by the sororities and clubs who tried to recruit me to join their ranks. So no one was more surprised than I was when I joined the Northerner staff. Now I only wish I had joined earlier in my college career. My time spent at the Northerner has been more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined. I’ve been able to spend time with some of the most talented and creative stu-dents at NKU, and feel privileged to call them friends.

I began my tenure at NKU as an elementary education major but came to my senses rather quickly. I shifted my major to his-tory and fi nally settled on English, after Steven Gores read to my intro English class in Old Eng-lish. The switch has been nothing but pleasurable for me. In my opinion, NKU’s English program is one of the best programs of-fered at NKU. While the rest of my peers were complaining about having to do this-or-that in their classes, my days were fi lled with reading some of the most won-derful pieces of literature ever written — works by Shakespeare and Marlowe, to Browning, Keats, Austen, Wharton, and Vonnegut to an entire class centered around the Brother’s Grimm fairy tales. My professors were always knowl-edgeable, but some were just in-credible. The words of Professors Barclay Green, Parmita Kapadia, Steven Gores, Robert Wallace and Gary Walton will always echo in my mind as well as their love for literature.

Even though I usually do not hesitate to criticize the University where criticism is due, I have to admit that my time spent at NKU has afforded me experiences that I will always be grateful for, like meeting Wendell Berry. I’m grateful to my parents for making me register at NKU even when I didn’t want to, and for everyone who wished me well and made my experience here at NKU unforgettable.

-Betina Kemker

I’ve worked for The North-erner since the fall of 2007 and I realize that you and I don’t have a very intimate relation-ship. For most of you, I’m a name on a staff list or the writer of an occasional story. I had a blog once but was known to be a chronic non-poster.

Seeing as I graduate in a little less than two weeks, I thought it might be time for you to know me. And I mean really know me. For my goodbye, I’ve compiled a list of every ec-centric detail that describes me. Read on if you’re interested.

My name is Emily Danielle Teaford.

I love alligators. I have two 5-foot-long alligator pillows. The only earring I wear in my cartilage piercing is a silver alligator. My friend gave me a taxidermy alligator head for Christmas. I loved Steve Irwin before you knew about him.

Alligators = life.I will always color in coloring

books, create the best costume for theme parties and go to animal shelters.

I have this strange ability to name species of sharks, which I attribute to my obsession with Shark Week as a child. Before I turn 25 I will cage dive with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa.

I’m terrible at making specifi c plans — I feel like spontaneity and the unknown are half the fun of life. Some of the best places I’ve discovered are because I decided to drive north instead of south.

For my Honors Capstone project I wrote a travel guide for adults in Walt Disney World.

I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean and passed through the Panama Canal on cruise ships.

I did the semester exchange

program in Glasgow, Scotland. There are over 1,000 pictures

of me tagged on Facebook.Andrew McMahon of Some-

thing Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin signed the back of my license as a witness to my promise to be an organ donor.

While looking for a job, I plan to coauthor a novel with my best friend Lauren about our experience in college. The working title is: Everything I know I learned at a college party.

My life ambition is to work for National Geographic.

I’m graduating cum laude with a major in Journalism and a minor in Honors.

If you want to tell me about yourself, log on to thenorthern-er.com and leave a comment on this story. Thanks for read-ing — it’s been interesting.

-Emily Teaford

Editors say their goodbyes

Charlotte Etherton/Photo editorEditors Emily Teaford (left), Mark Payne and Betina Kemker pose for their last photo to-gether as members of The Northerner staff.


A&E

“Bye Bye Birdie” doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it packs a punch when it comes to providing an audience with bubbly songs and great com-edy. Set in the fi ctional town of Sweet Apple, Ohio, the mu-sical embodies old-fashioned American life reminiscent of the white-picket-fence era.

The musical tells the story of Conrad Birdie, a popular rock ‘n’ roll musician, who is drafted into the Army. His agent, Al-fred, is horrifi ed by what this will do to his career. However, his frustrated and longtime girlfriend, Rosie — who wants nothing more than to turn Al-fred into an English teacher,

settle down and have children — has come up with a simple plan. Before Conrad is shipped out, he will give a last kiss to one adoring fan on the “Ed Sullivan Show.”

The only thing that seeming-ly puts a little jazz in the young-sters of Sweet Apple High is the highly sexualized moves and hip-thrusting tunes of Conrad. The play was written with Elvis Presley in mind (in fact the real life events of El-vis’ draft into the Army served as an inspiration for the musi-cal). This is certainly refl ected in Bradford B. Frost’s turn as Conrad Birdie. Frost’s over the top, Elvis-like mannerisms are

hilarious as he’s continually trying to smoke, drink, and get chicks from one scene to the next.

The show is truly brought to-gether under the outstanding performances and the highly stylized direction of Ken Jones. The musical is a visual feast for those who are in love with color, from the boys’ and girls’ outfi ts that match their per-sonal telephones in the song, “The Telephone Hour,” to the swinging sixties glittery golden outfi ts of Conrad and his two “Chicks.” Matt Bohnert and Carmyn Howe shine as Alfred and Rosie, with a relationship that is chock-full of perfectly

timed comedic chemistry and outstanding vocal performanc-es.

In a play that satirizes 1950’s life, there are ample examples of stereotypes to keep the pal-ette happy. You have the blos-soming 15-year-old Kim Ma-cafee, played by Lauren Otte, with the perfect pitch of young naiveté, facing the prospect of becoming a woman with an in-nocent excitement illustrated by the song “How Lovely to Be a Woman.” Then there’s Mr. and Mrs. Macafee, played by Kieran Cronin and Sara Kenny, who delightfully epito-mize the typical 1950s parents, cursing the rebelliousness of

teenagers in “Kids.” Finally Mrs. Peterson, played by Caity Shipp, does a wonderful job as Alfred’s clingy and overbear-ing mother.

The strongest quality of this cast and production is that the cast enjoyed their performance as much as the audience and it showed in the quality of the production. The only criticism that could be made is the play didn’t last longer. The house was packed. The applause rang loudly. Just when the audi-ence thought it was over, they were greeted with an encore of “Kids” to bring down the cur-tain as the applause continued to resonate in the theater.

Shawn BuckenmeyerContributing writer

“Bye Bye Birdie” fl ies the coopMusical embodies old-fashioned American life

Courtsey of NKU theater department

Junior Bradford B. Frost as Conrad Birdie is surrounded by the rest of the 1950s inspired cast.

A&E

11April 28, 2010

Bernie Hill is an average college stu-dent with a not-so-average talent in mu-sic. He is in a rock band and eager to take on what the music industry has to offer, even if it means losing friends in the pro-cess.

Raised in a home where music was a daily requirement, Hill and his brother Frankie were at the mercy of whatever was being played around the house by their parents. Whether it was 80s pop or classic rock, it served as the template for music they would compose in their cur-rent band, The Last Troubadour.

The Portland, Ore., native is a walk-ing surplus of character and isn’t afraid to admit he isn’t the typical rock star. He has the body type of a rock star: a lean, fragile build with a defi ned jaw line, long stringy hair and the quintessential must — a band T-shirt.

Some may say Hill has what it takes to be a businessman. His compelling abil-ity to verbally sell the band is what most bands in rock ’n’ roll lack. Perhaps with this generation of musicians raised in the shadow of “American Idol“ and the faltering stability of rock radio comes a sophisticated business savvy.

After discussing life as a college stu-dent we delved into a discussion of what it is like to be a musician in Northern Kentucky.

Q: Does school take away from taking an active part in the band or are the oth-er guys in the band in a similar situation? Also, being in a band and going to col-lege at the same time usually leads to a fork in the road. What are your thoughts on this?

A: We’re all working and going to school at the same time. I go to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We practice on Tuesday and Thursday and I work on Saturday and Sunday. I think about it all the time. I go to school for Business Marketing. It’s a back-up plan in case the band falls through.

Q: Of course it’s unknown how many bands actually share this trait but you and your brother, Frankie, join a frater-nal order of rock bands that have broth-ers in them (Van Halen, The Beach Boys, Oasis, etc.) This is a problem for some musicians. What complications does this

bring to the music?A: Of course we have had arguments

like every sibling, but overall we get along. There is chemistry between us that keeps the drama away.

Q: Out of all the cities you’ve played, (Chicago, New York and Detroit) did any strike you as having the right attitude towards what you are trying to achieve?

A: There is an audience for our music, for sure. We actually befriend fellow mu-sicians more so than fans from these oth-er cities. Fans are great though. While on the road we raid refrigerators and sleep in the living rooms of strangers.

Q: Where do you guys sleep on the road? I imagine driving from New York to Michigan can be a tiresome road trip.

A: (Laughs) Well, sometimes we sleep in the van. Sometimes we sleep in hotels if we need to stretch. We have pulled over and stayed in camps where we pitch

a tent. There have been many great times that have come from that.

Q: Are the crowds similar to crowds you play to locally?

A: They’re similar. I notice when we go on the road that I get people coming up to me and unloading their life story on me and it’s pretty crazy how open people are.

Q: You realize the more popular you become, the more that situation will am-plify right?

A: (laughs) Yeah, but I’m not worried about that right now. That’s a problem for “future Bernie.” That’ll be crazy but I’ll worry about that later.

Q: Being young and in a rock band these days might have a different mean-ing than it did decades ago. Is there a need to release a visceral carnage that comes with being a rock musician (de-

stroying hotel lobbies, chasing women, etc.) or are those ideas of a long-gone era?

A: (laughs) Well, I’m actually a tradi-tional kind of person. I’m not much of a partier. The band has a blast on the road but we try to avoid getting ridiculous. As a matter of fact, this behavior in two for-mer bandmates is what led to their de-parture.

Q: It appears that you have a very dis-ciplined approach to your work. Do these kinds of burned bridges bother you?

A: Yes it does. One of the members was a friend I had known all through-out school but his partying was distract-ing him from his effort in the music. My brother and I are the main leaders of the band and we decided it was best to let him go. Friendships are broken. Hearts are broken. It’s a tough business but it comes with the territory.

Q: The band has an undeniable classic rock “feel.” There are defi nitely nods to a glam rock era long since passed. Is there a conscious effort by you guys to mix the best of the old-school with the best of modern rock?

A: Defi nitely. We have a very wide taste in music. I know the infl uences on this band include a lot of classic rock and new rock. Stuff like Queen and Avenged Sevenfold. We try to combine the best of two time periods to make our own sound.

Q: What is on the agenda for the band in the coming months?

A: We’re going to try and get our fi rst record professionally recorded. We have it narrowed down to a couple stu-dios. One is an independent subsidiary of Warner Records. We’re just going to keep playing shows and decide whether or not to make it a full album or just an EP. We have individual songs avail-able on iTunes. We only do shows on the weekends due to our work and school schedules.

Q: If the sound of The Last Trouba-dour were compared to the four ele-ments (earth, wind, fi re, water) what would it be?

A: (Laughs) We would be wind be-cause we are in your face!

Kyle SebreeContributing writer

Take to the HillsNKU student Bernie Hill is a troubadour

Courtesy of Bernie Hill

Bernie Hill (L) poses with his brother Frankie Hill (R) after playing a show.

The Northerner Print Edition - April 28, 2010

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