Tag Archives: cornell

Watch Matt Drink. Watch Matt Run.

  By Riley | May 2, 2011 - 10:22 pm | Videos
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RunningAmokNYC takes on Ithaca’s Skunk Cabbage Classic from Matt Duelka on Vimeo.

Matt Duelka put together this video to chronicle his time spent in Ithaca for the Skunk Cabbage Half Marathon. He took with him a support team and friend/coworker/teammate(?) Luke who’d be competing with him. The story unfolds with the embarkation from the City through the boring highways leading to the Finger Lakes. The lull in activity in the car reflects the tedium of the drive. Even for a Friday afternoon. But then they arrive, and have a beer. Matt has two.

This video aims to document the days before, of, and after the half marathon, the first time either of them have ever run it. Wait, no- It documents more than that. If it wasn’t already established, Luke had never been to Ithaca, and even with the chore of racing 13.1 miles, Matt gives Luke a hell of an annotated recreation of college. Minus the classes.

Wegmans, Rogan’s Corner, Bars in the Commons, Gimme Coffee, Farmer’s Market, Ithaca Brewery. With the exception of “Bullet Proof,” at the end, this video is worth re-watching.  Hearing “La Roux” does take me back to regrettable nights at Moonies during Senior week last year, and for that Matt, I was able to take a mental trip back to I-town.

Duelka and Luke are hard at work on RunningAmok. Running, Beer and Internet Videos. Yes please. Visit RunningAmokNYC.wordpress.com for a unique perspective into the running world.

Cornell’s Johnson Museum

  By Riley | March 4, 2010 - 1:14 pm | Reviews
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I finally made it to the Johnson Museum over at Cornell. You know, this one:

Johnson

This museum has a few permanent collections of art, as well as constantly-changing contemporary collections. But the main attraction at the Johnson is the view. High up on Libe Slope, the fifth floor of the museum offers incredible views of Ithaca and the surrounding areas. The lake, downtown, the hills, and surrounding campuses are spectacular yet humbling.

Cayuga

Being Cornell, though, I thought some of the art would be elitist, high-brow, somewhat snooty and incomprehensible for someone not well-versed in the field of art history. I went to the top floor for the view, but when I scoped out some of the displays, all I saw was this:

bubble bubble

I thought you could pick one of those up at the Commons – don’t know why you’d have to go to a museum to see it.

Then, there was this naked chick:

Exhibition(ist) A

Get some clothes on, hippy.

Turns out that the famed Johnson Museum is no exception to the liberal lifestyle that is nearly normalized in Ithaca. Anyways, if anyone knows of some REAL museums in the area, let me know.

I just took the hardest test of senior year

  By Riley | February 24, 2010 - 9:40 am | Events
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In four years of college, I haven’t taken a single math course. I know IC, like many other colleges offers fundamental math courses, like “What is Math?” Not having to take math has been great. I am not a student of the sciences – I don’t even think I associate with anyone who is. I’m a humanities student – I study Television-Radio.

But when the opportunity to take a course at Cornell called “Understanding Beer and Wine,” I knew I couldn’t pass it up. So I filled out my paperwork, and IC’s paperwork, and Cornell’s paperwork. Then I enrolled in the class. When I read that we had to bring four glasses for sampling each class, I knew thought this course was for me.

But then came the second week of classes. Our syllabi had been handed out and the summary of the course had been explained. I found myself listening to professors explain proteins binding to starches and some other scientific vernacular that was over my head. The history and cultural aspects of beer and wine-making is all very interesting – those notes are detailed and thorough. The scientific notes on the other hand lend themselves to doodles and jokes about how over-my-head half of the course matter is.

When it came time for the test I studied hard. More so than I study for most tests I take at IC. (I don’t take tests at IC anymore, if anything I write papers.) An hour two days before, three hours the night before, and another two hours the morning of the exam weren’t enough.

The test was hard. I was as prepared as I could have been. And worst of all – we didn’t get any samples to take the edge off.