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All Princetonians know that our last few months of college are also some of our busiest, thanks to the senior thesis. But the nation’s smartest and preppiest students have found ways to make this graduation requirement more bearable. One tradition – that the Band hopes to take part in this year – is the incorporation of a random phrase into students’ theses.
According to Band alums, the Band never officially participated in this tradition. This practice was, though, pretty popular among student groups, especially eating clubs. For instance, Campus Club, which used to contain many Band upperclassmen, used the phrase “beaten like a rented mule” in 2004. Other Campus Club phrases included “bees can smell fear,” “so you don’t confuse them with mountains” (lyrics from the 2002 Shakira song “Whenever, Wherever”), and “and as a result, the sharks got smarter.” Campus Club seniors also posted the relevant page of their thesis, with the phrase highlighted, on the walls of the club. Though the Band never officially partook this tradition, there have been attempts to. In 2009, Alex Barnard really pushed for a certain thesis phrase that pertained to the Citadel. Members of the Band’s class of 2012 have said that they would like to do a thesis phrase this year. They haven’t settled on a phrase yet, though they have brainstormed some possibilities: – “an aura of quiet desperation” – “dovahkiin” – “fus roh dah” (I’m told these last two have to do with some video game or something) – “took an arrow to the knee” – “good night, thesis” – “fry an egg on the sidewalk” Coming up with these phrases is probably the easiest part. Embedding one of them into their theses will probably be less easy, as the 2012’s theses cover a huge range of topics, most of which have little to do with video games. Topics include: – Nicole Rafidi (Electrical Engineering) – a program that interfaces with an electroencephalography (EEG) headset in order to optimize studying using neural feedback. – Bobby Klein (Mechanical/ Aerospace Engineering) – building an autonomous Manta Ray Robot. – Alec Slatky (Politics) – whether the later-no-harm criterion of instant runoff voting should be considered a legitimate benefit and if so, how big the effect would be based on real- world data. – Robert Timpe (Computer Science) – implementing a machine learning algorithm from a paper and using it to make a machine learn to play a video game. The machine will learn by watching a human play the game first. – Lucy Reeder (History) – the effect of cultural ideas about race on interpersonal Anglo- American relations during WWI. – Madiba Dennie (Politics) – the modern transformation of rape from an undesirable ‘consequence’ of war to a political tool, used to accomplish military and political objectives. – Jacquelyn Nestor (Molecular Biology) – the role of cellular cytoskeleton components on collective cell migration. – Anna Condella (English) – a collection of short stories based in the Finger Lakes Region of Western New York. To investigate just how difficult incorporating one of the suggested phrases into all of these theses might be, Matt and I decided to randomly select one of the phrases and try inserting them into each thesis. And it turned out to be not too hard after all. Here’s what we came up with: – Nicole Rafidi (Electrical Engineering) – Though the device heats up while in use, it never reaches a temperature where one could fry an egg on the sidewalk. – Bobby Klein (Mechanical/ Aerospace Engineering) – The autonomous manta ray robot that I have constructed can do literally anything. Including crawling out of the water and taking an arrow to the… belly? – Alec Slatky (Politics) –Hi my name is Alec and I am so obsessed with the topic of voting that my thesis is going to say good night! Ha! – Robert Timpe (Computer Science) – 1. For i = human player 2. set machine to “take an arrow to the knee” 3. if i = “take an arrow to the knee” – Lucy Reeder (History) – Though cultural ideas on race affected these Anglo-Saxons’ experiences of the war differently, they were all united by their longing for previously simple comforts: a warm bed, a quite night, good night, thesis. – Madiba Dennie (Politics) – The resulting despair was similar to what might be inspired by attempts to write one’s thesis at night. – Jacquelyn Nestor (Molecular Biology) – The components of the cellular cytoskeleton are quite useful and can do many things, including taking an arrow to the knee. – Anna Condella (English) – Sienna woke up and looked out her window, out at the barren landscape, out over the frozen waters of the Finger Lakes. Today, like every other day, was frigid. As Sienna reached down to slowly slide on her wool socks, she realized she had but one goal in life: to one day escape the cold monotony that was her life and move to a sunnier place, where she would be able to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Seniors, you guys are welcome to take our suggestions, though we won’t be offended if you think you’re able to come up with something better in the next two months. And Band member/ alum/ stalker, If you have (better) suggestions for how the seniors can incorporate any of their phrases into their theses, leave a message in the comments section! -Wendy Pan ’14
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2011, Ohh 2011. OHHHHH, 2011! What a magnificent year. I remember it like it was yesterday. In 50 years, when people think back to this year there are three things they will remember: the killing of Osama bin Ladin, the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the Princeton University Band’s undefeated year (just because it happens every year doesn’t make it any less special). So that future historians may more accurately chronicle the phenomenon which was the 2011 PUB, let’s take a look back at it: the fighting 2011. DEANS DATE GIG This year, like most years, started out in January. While some people were worried about “writing papers” and “passing classes” we were more worried about the people who were worrying and so we decided to spread cheer.  WINTER SPORTS Following dean’s date, finals, and other insignificant “academic” work, basketball and hockey season were in full swing. Surprisingly, our hockey team seemed to consistently play teams with short, fat, smelly, unskilled, and/or ugly goalies. Fortunately, the band was there and more than willing to offer the opposing goalies honest and good-intentioned banter throughout the game.   Basketball season was also a blast.   One special treat this year was the opportunity to hang out with our bestest buddies: the Brown Band. Our winter trip to Brown gave us an opportunity to march around the campus accompanied by some of our Brown friends. The police even showed up! After the march around we played at the basketball game.  But no basketball season would be complete without a trip to the NCAAs, well except for maybe a Harvard or Penn basketball season. While the Women’s team outright won the Ivy League, the Men tied for the Ivy League title and had to play a playoff game against Harvard for the NCAA bid. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves and then add captions under the pictures to hammer in the point. I’ll admit that subtlety is not my thing.  Okay, so this is not from the playoff game, but it is instead from the first Princeton Harvard game. It was featured on ESPNU, hence the sign that Jemma Stember-Young ‘13 is holding. We won that one 65-61.  The Men’s team went to Tampa Bay. Despite a close loss to Kentucky, the trip was a major highlight of the year.     The Women ended up in DC. Unfortunately, like the men they were eliminated in the first round. Nonetheless, it was an amazing trip.   SPRING SHENANIGANS After that adventure, we went to DISNEYWORLD. Okay, I lied. However, in addition to our usual gigs, we recorded an album: Songs in the Key of Loud. You can buy it on our website. While you’re looking at our album, check out some of our other fabulous merchandise. SHAMELESS PROMOTIONAL!  REUNIONS & DEAD WEEK Finally, the year started to wind down. Hold on. This all started to happen around May. May can only mean one thing. Well, maybe it means a few things, but the most significant of those things is REUNIONS. Reunions are basically what happens when you recycle dead unicorns to make something even more magical. Leading up to reunions were the regular dead week shenanigans.      This year’s White Castle Meat Product Tolerance Marathon had some great moments. Not only did Simon Fox Krauss ’11 make it to the career century mark, but an all-time record was set by Marcus Theus ’12 with 33. This year’s queen was Peggy Young ’12 with 14. The only real losers were everyone who ate White Castle burgers. Finally, the festivities began. Gigs were played, legendary alumni were met, the P-Rade was nothing short of amazing, and somewhere life happened.     I KNOW WHAT THE BAND DID LAST SUMMER AND SO CAN YOU!!! After a crazy gig like that, you may think that the band rested over the summer. Even if you ask Nicole Rafidi ‘12, our former president, she might tell you that we don’t have gigs over the summer. But, that’s an elaborate cover up. In reality, the band did some of its most important work over the summer. A. We traveled to the future and saved the world from robot, ninja, alien ghosts. B. We wrote a pregame show earlier than the night before a game. C. We tuned once. We would have done it more often but it takes soooo long. It’s like 15 minutes. D. We made amends with Santa for how the trash section treats him. E. We found people who were funnier than me to write the shows. F. The Penn Band. BACK TO FOOTBALL After all the craziness of the summer died down, we got back on campus and started a busy football season. This season had 5 road trips including trips to Hampton—a school we had never been to before, and they didn’t even try to beat us up—and Dartmouth—where the men are men and the sheep are scared. One special part of this football season was our stop to play on the Capitol building on our way back from Hampton. Unfortunately, we couldn’t break into the Library of Congress to lobster. And who could forget the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade where we marched with some friends from the Columbia band. Oh, and did I mention freshmen? I think I counted a bazillion freshmen this year.         END OF THE YEAR AND THE FUTURE
Our football season had to end, as all things must, in a tacky banquet. There are no bandquet pictures here for the sake of those involved. Rejuvenated with a new officer core and an especially good looking AC, 2011 finished on a high note with the start of what I’m sure will be amazing basketball and hockey seasons. But what lies in the future for the PUB: more adventures, a plaid zeppelin, world domination? No one really knows. All I’m sure of is that I’m excited to be a part of it. -Matthew Kirschner ’14 AC *Photos were provided by Jemma Stember-Young ’13 and other band members There have been some nail-biters this basketball season! As you may know, we beat Harvard in the NCAA playoff game with an AMAZING buzzer-beater by Douglas Davis, final score: 63-62.
We won by one glorious point. And Harvard STILL hasn't been to the NCAA since 1946. Mwahahahaha. If you haven’t seen the buzzer-beater, check out the following video. http://vimeo.com/20973769?SPSID=46553&SPID=4231&DB_OEM_ID=10600 (this is my favorite of all videos I’ve seen. Harvard’s #10 looks pretty silly when he is trying to heckle Dan Mavraides teeheehee). I have watched this video so many times. They are so exciting. But it was so much more exciting in person you wouldn’t believe it. I will relive for you how it happened: 1.) There were 2.8 seconds left on the clock, we were down by one. I don’t think that I had given up hope, although I chose to watch the final seconds when usually I choose to look away during the stressful parts, so who knows. 2.) Douglas Davis went all over the place with the ball. But eventually it left his hands. 3.) I remember seeing the ball arc through the air as the backboard lit up red. 4.) The shot was good. 5.) Everyone went crazy. 6.) I was afraid the Harvard fans were going to beat us up but they didn’t. 7.) NCAA BABY! And, let’s go to Tampa! Private jet. You know, the usual And of course we went to the game! Kentucky University versus Princeton University. We played tough. We slowed them down. The Band rushed at least 4 Kentucky shots by mis-counting-down the shot clock. UK didn’t know what hit them. Plus their band was way less cool than ours. Like, infinitely less cool. We may have lost 59:57, but Kentucky is now in the Final Four. So not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Later that week, the women’s team played in the NCAA tournament in College Park. They put up a good fight, but lost to Georgetown 65:49. The Band had a great time wandering around DC. And now, drumroll, Reunions are coming up!! Alumni should fill out their attendance surveys if they will be “go[ing] back to Princeton at commencement time, sampling each Reunion, that’s the life for mine oh baby” etc. I hope to see you all very soon! -Elizabeth Shoenfelt ’13 AC UPS UPS.
On Friday, we beat Brown 78-60. On Saturday, we beat Yale 67-63 in a white-knuckled nail-biter. It was great. But look at what we had to endure to get there. So much snow! That has got to be at least a foot and a half of snow. Crazy. “If you lick the whiteboard I will nominate you for Grossest Member!” Band Council will look FAVORABLY upon your licking this whiteboard. [2019 update: pictures were corrupted (in several earlier blog posts), captions still included for the humor value.] We have had an exciting year so far, Band! Congrats freshmen on completing your first semester, you made it. How did Dean’s Date treat you?
We are so studious, Band! Look at us and our papers. And by studious I mean good at playing the toilet seat. And by papers I mean music. It is 4:55 let me run from Forbes to hand this in at McCosh! Totally do-able. Low Brass 101: Getting Those Papers In On Time And Looking Super-Cool in the Process. The Holder Howl, only instead we are in Blair Arch. And instead of yelling we are playing drums. And we are wearing cooler outfits. Arch gig on Dean's Date Eve. Perfection. And in other news, the official Drum Major hat is a big hit with the young children in the crowd. 2010 has been great! Here is a 2010 year-in-review: January Women’s Basketball Pink Zone game for Breast Cancer Awareness! Lots and lots of pink. February Snow day! The band plays in the snow. Basketball against Yale at Jadwin Gym. Victory of 82-58. March Tallahassee. Woohoo! Here we played for the Women’s Basketball team in the NCAA tournament. April The Band took an awesome trip to the new Meadowlands Stadium for the Konica Minolta Big City Classic. We played Syracuse… we lost… but it was awesome nonetheless! And the Band went undefeated. May One word. Reunions. I hope to see each and every one of you there this year. It’s going to be great! June Graduation gives us some new cool alumni! We love our 2010 seniors! September NEW FRESHMEN. They are awesome! And now we have a steel drum player; she is great! We love having new additions to our ever-awesome Garbussion section! October We were superstars once again at the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Let’s just remember: Orange and black are Princeton colors. Halloween just borrows them for the day… Check out these photos! The Band was popular among the paparazzi at this event.    November
We went to Yale! December Caroling! Santa was in attendance. Happy New Year from Santa, and from all of us here at the Princeton University Band. I’m Elizabeth Shoenfelt ’13, new Alumni Coordinator, here to update you! Football season has come and gone. Here is the play-by-play:
Final Football Stats: 0-7 Ivy League; 1-9 all games. Band: Undefeated. We played [Crest Aquafresh Sensodyne Aim Oral-B] Colgate at home. The Homecoming game was against Harvard this year. We performed a flasher routine as always: “Brothel Mechanics” turned into “Bleach the Crimson” turned into “Fight on Old Nassau.” And the crowd went wild! We didn’t earn our bonfire though… Our big road trip this season was to Yale. Quite fun. And of course we played in the bookstore! And now… basketball and hockey season! We are well underway. Stay tuned! So even in the Spring Semester the PUB has been busier than ever! We’ve been going to our usual gigs, but the band has had a lot of amazing firsts in the past month! By far the coolest thing that the band did in March was travel with the Women’s Basketball Team for the NCAA tournament in Tallahassee, Florida! We actually flew with the Team, Cheerleaders, and Athletic Staff on a Charter Plane, where our bus drove right up onto the runway to meet us! VIP Treatment! When we arrived at the hotel, they were ready for us! The whole place was decked out with Princeton gear, from banners to even a flag out front! We arrived in Florida on a Thursday, so to occupy ourselves on Friday we spent the day at Panama City Beach!  Finally it was time for the game vs. St. John’s!  Drummers Gabe Eggers ’13, Hyung Lee ’12, Seth Gordon ’13, Nicole Rafidi ’12, and Matthew Edwards ’12 at the Pep Rally at the hotel!
The game may have not turned out for the best, but the band still had an amazing time as always! Another first for the band was going to Men’s Volleyball Game! The team had asked us to play, and was really excited/thankful for us to be there! It was an exciting event that lasted all 5 games, and the band was only hit a couple of times so it was a blast! Finally, last weekend the band travelled with the Men’s Lacrosse Team to the Big City Classic, where we watched the Tigers lose 4-13 in a painful game, BUT the event was one of the first games in the new Meadowlands Stadium, so it was a great experience in the end! Plus we did escalator gigs before the game, which were awesome! The band will be finishing up the semester, crashing Pre-Frosh events, looking to recruit new members, and gearing up for Reunions! As many of you may know, the band and FoTB (mostly just me, really) are working on compiling a history of the ensemble since 1919. I’ll be posting topical pieces here to give the band and its alumni a taste of what is being uncovered of the group’s rich and storied past. Given the flurry of events this week, and hopefully into the coming weeks, I thought I’d take a look at the band’s relationship with the game of basketball.
The band’s relationship with basketball is almost as old as the band itself. The Daily Princetonian tells us that the band, looking for ways to occupy itself during the off-season, played at its first basketball game on January 28, 1920 against Penn (sucks) in University Gymnasium, just a few months after being founded. The band, clad only in plainclothes for these early events, continued to play at most home contests from then on, weathering games in frosty Baker Rink when University Gym burnt down, and decades of games in Dillon Gymnasium as Princeton grew into a mid-major powerhouse and perennial “giant killer” in the NCAA Tournament. As far as I can tell, the band played at its first NCAA Tournament in 1969, cheering on the eventual semi-finalists in the first three rounds in Philadelphia and College Park, MD. This week, is a week full of firsts for Princeton basketball and the band. This evening, the men played in their first ever College Basketball Invitational Tournament game, in Jadwin Gym against Duquesne University. This was their first postseason bid since 2004, and the band, faithfully on campus for spring break, cheered them onto victory! They will face Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis on Monday in Indy. Saturday, the women’s team will play in their first ever NCAA Tournament against St. John’s in Tallahassee, FL. The band will be joining them, so check back here next week for a trip update from your Alumni Coordinator Jacquelyn Nestor ’12. This particular trip is an especially big deal for the band because it adds another state to the travel map. That’s right, the band has never been to sunny Florida before this weekend. Did you know that in the last 3 years, the band has ventured to 4 states for the first time? Wisconsin, South Carolina, Minnesota, and now Florida are all on the list. Check out the women’s team and the band on ESPN2, or online at www.espn360.com, this Saturday at 12:21 pm Eastern time! Then watch the men’s team take on the Jaguars on Monday on HDNet at 7:00 pm Eastern time. GO TIGERS! BEAT ST. JOHN’S! BEAT IUPUI! The band has been faithfully attending Basketball games throughout February, following the ups and downs of the Men’s Basketball team, and the extremely successful Women’s Basketball Season. After moving briefly into 1st place after defeating Columbia on February 12th, Men’s Basketball fell to Cornell (ranked #22 at the time) in a close 45-48 loss on February 13th. Along with a wonderful showing by the band, the Jadwin Jungle almost seemed to be back in action as the stands were filled with Princeton students! On February 16th, the Band took a road trip to the Palestra, and defeated the Quakers 58-51. On February 19th, in a televised game on ESPNU the Tigers defeated Yale, scoring an unusual 82 points. Unfortunately, despite a great showing by the band the Tigers fell to Brown on Saturday night 54-57. This weekend, the PUB will be supporting the Women’s Basketball team on Friday, and the Men’s Ice Hockey Team with a visit from the Brown Band on Saturday, all while hoping the Men’s Basketball team will be able to defeat Cornell on Saturday! |
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