September, 2017 - The McKendree Review

An Evening with Sherman Alexie: Vulnerability, Resistance, and Laughter

29Sep

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Entertainment, Opinion, Profiles

An Evening with Sherman Alexie: Vulnerability, Resistance, and Laughter

By Sophie Jeffery, Contributing Writer On the evening of September 22nd, author Sherman Alexie opened his keynote address for the inaugural BookFest St Louis by admiring the acoustics at The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Gallery. Alexie ensured the crowd he was still going to use his microphone, however, because he could not stand macho poets who think their voices don’t need the extra boost. “My voice is so filled with poetic testosterone,” he mocked, “I’m going to speak directly to you through my penis.” It was clear from that moment this was not going to be a typical book-reading. Sherman Alexie is an acclaimed writer, having published 26 books and received countless awards. He is a poet, short story writer, novelist and performer. He is also the 3rd tallest Spokane Indian, but says...

28Sep

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Entertainment, Opinion

Father John Misty at the Peabody

By Zach Breeding, Editor in Chief “If there’s going to be a night on this tour where I slip on a banana peel, get my head stuck in a bucket and then stumble into the broom closet, tonight is that night.” This comedy of errors described by the writer/performer of pure comedy, the latest self-described “space opera” from Father John Misty, while descriptive of the artists performance at the Peabody Opera House this past Saturday is a bit misleading. For myself and every other person I asked post show, the mishaps like “French braiding together a microphone cable and a guitar cable” only added to the stellar night. The atmosphere of the show was pure hipster; with the number of flannel shirts in the crowd likely outnumbering the number of people (I, admittedly, was participating in this tren...

Since When are we too Busy to Enjoy our Lives?

27Sep

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Entertainment

Since When are we too Busy to Enjoy our Lives?

By Magdalena Knapp, Editor Busy, stressed out, exhausted – These three words describe the average human being nowadays. We are always connected and in touch with everyone, always available to everyone, and respond to messages within minutes. For example right now, I bet that your phone is no more than three inches away from you. We run around, do things, meet with people, rush from one appointment to the next one. We do not even have time to sit down and enjoy a meal, but thank God, someone invented corn dogs, wraps and other foods you can grab and eat with one hand while you are on the phone running across the street, and almost be hit by an Uber that is driving another person in a hurry to their next appointment. STOP. When did our society become like this? Is there anything we can do, o...

15Sep

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Entertainment

Finals Week and Why it Shouldn’t Also be Housekeeping Week

By Zach Breeding, Editor in Chief I want to preface this article by saying that I don’t set out to answer any of the questions raised, merely give the questions a louder voice with which to reach someone capable of finding a solution to the problem. Finals week is a time dreaded by almost all college students (except those in Gen Eds because those aren’t real finals). It is a time in which (baring emotionally traumatic events) young adults can be put under the most stress that they have ever experienced. It is a week where they potentially gamble a semester’s worth of tuition on whether or not they pass some tests. Understandably this can put the student into a state of stress where they are not thinking their best due to rampant sleep deprivation and the necessity to pass the tests whic...

On Community Service and Into the Streets

15Sep

By The McKendree Review1 Comment

Campus Events, Campus News, Community Events

On Community Service and Into the Streets

By Victoria Sananikone, Staff Writer My initial perspective of east St. Louis mirrored that of everyone else’s: a dangerous zone of crime that was unsafe to visit. After visiting the area for a service project, my perspective was altered, and I now feel that east St. Louis may not be as unapproachable as everyone seems to believe. Our goal within McKendree University is to project a selfless institution that gives back to the community without hesitation. We channeled this notion within my University 101 class as we commuted to east St. Louis. There, we targeted an old church called New Haven to help clean and organize. Immediately we were greeted by members of the church who welcomed us with smiles and laughter, thanking us repeatedly for coming out to help them when we could have been ...

15Sep

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Campus News

The Sad State of West WiFi

By Zach Breeding, Editor in Chief For those of you in the world looking to truly unplug from the online world, our editorial team has done the research and come up with the ideal location to accomplish this. And the best, or at least most convenient aspect of this location is that many of my readers may already in fact live here! That’s right, it's Mckendree West which we have determined as the number one location to escape from those pesky WiFi signals that plague modern life so. On the topic of WiFi, late last spring semester all students received an email regarding a decision the university had made to discontinue the cable service on campus in order to be able to provide better internet access and keep up with all of the streaming and such that occurs on campus. This email was met wit...

Andrew Frank – The Comedian for People with Brains

15Sep

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Entertainment, Opinion, Profiles

Andrew Frank – The Comedian for People with Brains

By Magdalena Knapp, Staff Writer It takes one and a half years of work to have enough material for a 45-minute show – this is what Andrew Frank’s métier, or occupation, has looked like for the past nine years: he is a comedian. Frank performs about 40 shows per month, but he is not a comedian as we typically expect them to be. Andrew Frank provides insightful entertainment for smart people. His brand is intuitive comedy for people who have the required knowledge to be able to understand his jokes. They need to know something about religion, history, politics, and the world in general. In his eyes, humor is an intellectual form of connection. Frank places a high value on humor as we can see in his performances. He defines humor as “A Philosophy, a way to look at life. It is a way to express...