As I listen over the phone to the sounds of orders being yelled out and cappuccino machines buzzing at extremely loud frequencies, I wish it wasn’t snowing so I could conduct this interview in person. Finally the sounds dissipate just long enough for me to ask Bruno Pascale, owner of Café Z at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, some questions.

Nothing fascinates me more than other people’s stuff.  Let me rephrase that.  Nothing fascinates me more than the random crap and seemingly useless objects we all have lying around our homes and apartments.  I think this generally worthless rubbish, and its placement in one’s abode, really says a lot about an individual; and while it may look like nothing more than junk to me and you, the true mystery of it lies in the very reason why it has yet to be tossed out by whoever owns it.

This week the Johnsonville Press turns one year old, thanks to our writers, editors, and of course, you, the reader. You may not always be there for us, be we certainly love you anyway. Why else would we continue to produce interesting content, week after week, for little thanks and no compensation?

The art scene, amongst other things, is something I intend to investigate in the coming year. In fact, I intend to indulge all the queries that I’ve had about New Brunswick and the world this year, whether it be the seriousness of overpopulation and resource scarcity as a threat to human civilization, the deal with that one angry street preacher (why is he so angry?!), or the sort of thing so outside my past experiences that I can’t even list it as an example because I have no idea what it might be. 2010 is going to be a year for personal and intellectual growth. A time to take chances and risks. It’s going to be my year. It’s going to be 2000Ben.

When I received my absentee ballot to vote in the special election to replace the late great Ted Kennedy, I felt an immeasurable disappointment with the names I saw on it. The choices, as I saw them, were these: a giant douche, a cold-hearted woman, a babbling hypocrite and a space for me to waste my vote. To be honest, no candidate on the ballot seemed capable of filling the position. Over the course of several days I deliberated and resolved that I simply could not make a decision. And …

Over this past winter break, several of our staff members found themselves traveling, both at home and abroad. We decided to take the opportunity to ask each of these writers to answer some questions about their recent travel experiences. Brendan McInerney, staff photographer and photo editer to the Johnsonville Press, talks about his time in Madrid, Spain.

Draine on Society

On Tuesday December 1st, 2009, President Barack Obama made public his intention to send an additional 30,000 American soldiers to the combat theater of Afghanistan.  Though expected, this move was drastic and raised questions about the intentions of his administration regarding the ongoing wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  The decision to add 30,000 troops to Afghanistan is reminiscent of the decision of the Bush administration to bolster the troop levels in Iraq by approximately 25,000.

This Christmas, for the first time ever, I decided to wrap my gifts in wrapping paper. In the past, I’ve avoided this practice, in favor of the “gift bag and tissue paper” approach. The latter is simple and easy, the former, time consuming and difficult. And yet, for whatever reason, this year I chose to snip, fold and tape up my gifts—with surprising precision for a noob, I might add. Even more surprising, at least for me, was how enlightening the whole experience of wrapping gifts proved to be.

Last Tuesday, Charlie Kratovil and other Operation Robin Hood activists gathered to make brown bag lunches (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a piece of fruit) for the homeless. Attendees marked the event as a success. We spoke to Charlie K., to follow up on the current activities of ORH and the response garnered from the University…

I. Springs and Sockets

Light beams struggle across…

II. Summer; Sand

Throwing Heineken bottles into the Atlantic…

III. Au[tumn] Natural

A mother robin told her nest of the orchard that used to grow…

IV. Carpe Nixem

In the night, in the snow…