As part of this weekend’s Oktoberfest Celebration SEC and the Senior class are bringing Los Angeles DJ duo extraordinaire Supermash Brothers to the Dance Gym. The concert isn’t until Saturday night at 9pm but tickets are on sale all week in Case Center from 11-4pm.

For more information on Oktoberfest clicky click here or check out Super Mash Bros’ kute pix on myspace here.

The student run Library Cafe is once again open for business, and anyone with half a brain and/or a single taste bud would benefit from one of their delicious treats. Our handsome Editor in Chief recommends tonight’s chocolate chip bacon cookies while I personally enjoyed the caramel corn. Each one costs less than a buck and isn’t homework so you should probably go get some.

The Red Cross Blood Mobile will be on campus this Thursday from 10am-4:30pm. If you are interested in draining your veins sign up here.

Location: Dance Gym (in Sports Center)
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009
Time: 10 am – 4:30 pm (last appointments at 4:15 pm)

Benny Morris  Professor of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University and the Skidmore College Middle East Scholar in Residence will be giving a lecture tonight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict titled 1948: Back to the Beginnings. The talk is free and open to the public and begins at 8pm in Gannett.

Born in Israel in 1948, the year of Israel’s founding, from parents who emigrated from Britain to Israel in 1947, Benny Morris “grew up in the heart of a left-wing pioneering atmosphere.”* While a journalist at The Jerusalem Post for many years, Morris established his reputation as an historian – and as pre-eminient among the “new historians” – with the 1988 publication of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, in which he “revolutionized Israeli historiography and, to a great extent, a nation’s understanding of its own birth.” In this and subsequent writing – nearly a dozen books and countless articles – Morris has painted “a far more complex picture (of the Israeli-Arab conflict) than many Israelis were prepared to accept,” and indeed a more troubling picture than the scholarly and general public on all sides of the political divide have frequently been happy to receive. Without abandoning his allegiance to the historical record, Morris plays out t! he consequences of his findings, as he sees them, in commentaries on the current political conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world. Indeed, though he still characterizes himself as a liberal Zionist, his work has recently provoked Liberals for his forceful depiction of what he sees as predominatly Arab responsibility for the failures of the various peace processes. Never one to “flatter anyone’s prejudices, least of all his own,” and possessed now of what he has called a “cosmic pessimism,” Morris’ mastery of, and perspective on, the history of the Arab-Zionist conflict is unique, if not unmatched.

Details on the Residency and future events may be found here.

The New York Knicks began their 10-day training camp here at Skidmore College this morning. We assume practices will be just as tightly guarded as last year but don’t give up hope fanboys, I’ve heard Mike “The Moustache” D’Antoni is the guest DJ at Putnam Den this Friday.*

The Knicks have two first-round draft picks here with them—Jordan Hill and defensive guard Toney Douglas—and have also just re-signed free agents David Lee and Nate Robinson but have been tight lipped about the training schedule. The Knicks will have free reign over the Sports Center until October 10th when their camp will end with a game against Jay-Z’s New Jersey Nets at the Times Union Center in Albany.

I don’t really know what a fast break is and only play basketball for the ladies so for more in depth reporting try PostingandToasting.com where Skidmore student Seth Rosenthal is covering the practices.

* unconfirmed

Tomorrow President Glotzbach will host the first “fireside chat” of the semester. Students looking to have a tête-à-tête with the Glotz can find him and his lovely wife Marie by the fireplace in the Murray-Aikins Atrium on Wednesday, September 30, at any time from 5:30 to 6:30pm.

This is a great time to talk freely with Glotzbach about the new rules in Scribner regarding band practice and the culling of the taxi Ride Safe program. This is also your best opportunity to touch his silvery locks.

Every Thursday this semester starting October 1st at 9pm there will be a Trivia Night in the Dining Hall behind the pasta station (look for signs). Prizes for the winning team each night and a grand prize for the team with the highest cumulative score at the end of the semester.

Teams of up to 7 people
Contact Kathryn Child (kchild@skid) for more information.

F.A.T released its insanity themed October calendar  today and its chock full of goodness.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Sunday, October 11th @ 3pm
Primal Fear – Thursday, October 15th @ 8pm
Benny and Joon – Sunday, October 25th @ 3pm
Three Faces of Eve – Sunday, November 1st @ 3pm

In addition to the four films Skidmore’s own Professor of Psychology, Andrew Molteni will be on hand and the end of the series for a “riveting and casual discussion of the films.”

Allan Gurganus

Author Allan Gurganus will present Skidmore’s 38th annual Frances Steloff Lecture at 8 pm Thursday, Oct. 1, in Gannett. Gurganus will read from a new work of fiction, talk with Mason Stokes and Robert Boyers and host a brief question and answer session with the audience.

Le Monde lauds Gurganus calling him the Mark Twain of our age and Robert Wilson, editor of The American Scholar, called him “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty.” Gurganus has worked with the New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Gurganus’s first published story, “Minor Heroism,” appeared in The New Yorker when he was 26. His first book, the 1989 novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, spent eight months on The New York Times best-seller list, and was made into an Emmy Award-winning television program. White People, a collection of stories and novellas, received The Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a Pen-Faulkner finalist. His latest book, The Practical Heart: Four Novellas, received the Lambda Literary Award. His new novel, The Erotic History of a Southern Baptist Church, will be the second in The Falls Trilogy that commenced with Widow.

Gurganus’s short fiction appears in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, and other magazines, and has been included in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, and Best New Stories of the South. His political editorials often appear in The New York Times. <via Scope>

A smattering of Gurganus’s essays are available for free on his website.

Tonight WSPN brings Math The Band, Gung Ho, and Zombies Did It at Falstaff’s. Doors open at 8, Show at 9.  WSPN will be selling the hottest fall fashions so make to bring cash money and support college radio. In addition to being totally fucking rad this show is FREE!