Villanova University’s celebration of the art of Ray Sternbergh more than 10 years after his death gives the New York painter, illustrator, sculptor and wood carver an exhibit that the reticent artist never sought in his lifetime. The posthumous show, arranged by his widow and daughter, comprises never before publicly seen landscapes, seascapes, portraits, still lifes, and sculptures.

“Ray Sternbergh – a Retrospective” opens Friday, February 24 with a free public reception from 5 to 7 pm in the Art Gallery in the Connelly Center.

His 1950s classmates at Pratt Institute saw the Korean War-era Air Force veteran as destined for a place of note as an American painter. Sternbergh, then studying on the GI Bill, is recalled as a quiet man whose presence went without much notice – until he engaged a canvas. “There were some very good artists in that class, but he was the best,” remembers classmate Tom Doyle, a retired illustrator.

That Sternbergh didn’t become an acclaimed artist is no mystery to his daughter Jennifer Huth. “Dad wasn’t interested in changing the world with his art. The hustling, dealing with agents, it just wasn’t who he was. He painted for himself. It was pure selfish love and joy,” says Huth, who lives in Bryn Mawr with her husband James and their two children.

After graduating from Pratt, Sternbergh went on to make his living as a comic book and book cover jacket illustrator, an industrial designer, and art director in the marketing and point-of-purchase industries. He saved painting for his private life and never sold or tried to sell one.

With the picturesque harbor of Northport, Long Island, NY, at the end of his lawn, and a small airport nearby, Sternbergh indulged his passions for painting, sailing, piloting small aircraft, sculpting, writing poetry, making toys and furniture, and riding motorcycles, among other pursuits.

As a painter, realism was his forte, notes his widow Nancy. “He painted what was there and he did it incredibly well. He had golden hands. I once asked him to let me represent him as an artist. He wouldn’t; nor would he let anyone else, either. My, he was an incredible artist.”

Retirement in the early 1990s became one of the most prolific creative periods of Sternbergh’s life. With skills honed by classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he produced a large body of paintings, many of which have been selected by his widow and daughter for the exhibit.

Even as he battled pancreatic cancer, Sternbergh was not idle. Jennifer recalls him taking down a large canvas done years before of three clam boats buoyed in the Northport harbor. He noticed that the light reflected off the water appeared brighter than that of the sun, which cannot be. So he fixed it. “He was obsessed with capturing light,” says Huth. He died in 2001.

The exhibit came about when Huth, a graduate student in Villanova’s Theatre Program, met Art Gallery Director Fr. Richard G. Cannuli, OSA, who then also headed the Theatre Department. Invited to the Huth’s Bryn Mawr home to examine Sternbergh’s considerable artwork, Fr. Cannuli, himself a Pratt graduate, liked what he saw: “It was time that someone who had produced such a large body of varied works without ever having had an exhibit, should have one.”

‘Ray Sternbergh – a Retrospective’ continues to April 11, 2012. All exhibits at the Villanova University Art Gallery are free and open to the public. The Art Gallery is open weekdays from 9 am well into most evenings. For extended and weekend hours, and other information, telephone the Art Gallery at (610) 519-4612. Selected works from the Ray Sternbergh exhibit may be previewed at www.artgallery.villanova.edu

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,500 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Director of Public Relations, Villanova Student Theatre

On Friday evening at 8pm Villanova Student Theatre will host our first One Act performances of the year. This is always an event VST looks forward to because it is a great opportunity for our members to direct and act in short plays. On Friday, our show will consist of  The Stepmother directed by Erin Dahl, Bride and Gloom directed by Claire Corsey and Eve and Adam: The Untold Story directed by Okichie Davis.  All proceeds of the night will go towards SREHUP, the Student Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia. Tickets are only $5, and it is a great opportunity to support charity. Performances are held in the Auditorium of St. Mary’s Hall. We look forward to seeing you there!

Nobody is surprised to notice that Congress failed, once again, to do their duty to eliminate the $1 trillion budget deficit.

The budget Supercommittee of Congress, a joint committee of 12 Republican and Democratic House and Senate members, could not form a plan by November 23^rd to confront the nation’s $15 trillion debt. President Obama has also threatened to veto any provisions to eliminate the automatic “sequester,” which will automatically cut $1.2 trillion from defense and domestic discretionary spending over 10 years starting in 2013.

So, what does this mean? It should mean that the Republican House, the only chamber that actually passed a budget for 2012, will introduce provisions of the Simpson-Bowles Plan to the floor and dare the Senate and the President to veto it.

Is this really the end of the military as we know it and the impoverishment of millions as education and housing budgets are forcibly cut?

The House has an opportunity here: 20 days after the sequestration order, the majority leader in either Congressional house can propose a joint resolution to modify the triggered cuts.

Indeed, the Budget Control Act of 2011 implemented this segment of the Gramm-Rudman provision, written in the Balanced Budget Act of 1985 (S. 1702 of the 99^th Congress). As Senator Phil Gramm himself wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the resolution can be changed only with relevant amendments and debated over a period of 10 hours without filibuster.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) posted on his Facebook page on November 21st that, “[w]hile I’m disappointed the supercommittee could not reach an agreement, the House will forge ahead with the commitments we have made to reducing gov’t spending and creating a better environment for private-sector jobs.”

Luckily for him, the Gramm-Rudman provision allows for a simple majority vote on any alternative to sequestration, which lasts only one year; hence, if Republicans take either the White House or the Senate in 2012, they could eliminate provisions of Obamacare or even reform entitlements in the first couple months after inauguration.

I say bring back Simpson-Bowles, named after chairmen Senator Alan Simpson and former chief of staff Erskine Bowles. You may not know what that is, since President Obama called for his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010, then promptly ignored it.

Yet, the Commission recommended responsible and healthy proposals including cutting tax rates “across the board, and reduc[ing] the top rate to between 23 and 29 percent.” While cutting tax rates, Congress must also “simplify” tax deductions, meaning either eliminating all tax credits, or retaining certain key ones such as the Earned Income or the Child Tax Credit.

More importantly, however, the Commission called for a cap on discretionary spending through 2020, “holding spending equal to or lower than spending in 2011, and return spending to precrisis 2008 levels in real terms in 2013.” That also means ‘’limiting future spending growth to half the projected inflation rate through 2020.”

That is the most important provision of Simpson-Bowles: limiting the future growth of spending. If Canada can cut their spending growth to an annual 1% for five consecutive years, the United States can CERTAINLY do better. Canada balanced its budget within three years.

In fact, the Republicans in the House should dare President Obama to veto his own Commission, to verify that he prioritizes politics above solving fundamental national issues, and to prove his mettle as the Campaign President.

Players whiz around the field on broomsticks, shooting balls through hoops to score. Team rivalry at the World Cup is intense. Villanova’s team whoops and rallies around their captain, the team’s seeker. The play quidditch exactly the same way that J.K. Rowling paints for Harry Potter- except, well, muggles can’t fly.

Villanova’s Quidditch team has a two-year history, born alongside the school’s Harry Potter Club in 2009. Now a separate entity – though it shares Potter fanatics with the general club – Villanova Quidditch was denied status as a club sport in 2010. Now they are an official club, just like the school’s Skateboard Club and the Table Tennis club. (There’s even a Villanova Electronic Enthusiasts Club, whose mission statement reads: “We get together once a week to play video games in a safe and fun environment.”)

But Quidditch isn’t only for squares. “Players get hurt. It’s rough, and there are no pads,” says the team’s captain, Billy Greco. “You see a lot of broken collarbones. The chasers and seekers are basically playing rugby, but with dodgeballs being thrown at them.”

After practice, the team gathers the dodgeballs and volleyballs used as weapons and goal-scorers. They stack the broomsticks and dismantle the hula hoops attached to white plastic poles, the volleyballs’ aim for the last two hours. They practice a few times a week all year, with less frequency when it snows (“We want to play, but the field gets all muddy”) and more in anticipation of upcoming tournaments.

Villanova Quidditch enters four or five tournaments per year. This weekend, they headed to the Quidditch World Cup at Randall Island in New York, along with more than 100 collegiate teams. Billy tells me that there are even more teams than that nationwide- impressive, for a sport that was invented only five years ago.

Middlebury College in Vermont was “the first college in the country to develop a grounded, muggle-friendly game,” according to its website. Middlebury won the first 5 annual Quidditch World Cups, and remained undefeated in this time span. In fact, they remained undefeated until World Cup 2011 this weekend, where they were beat by the University of Michigan. And then in the first elimination round game, where they were ranked fifth in a final bracket somewhat resembling that of NCAA Basketball, the University of Michigan lost to the #32 team. Who was the #32 team? Villanova Quidditch.

According to Blaise Sceski, who played in that game, “Everyone on our team gave their all and left everything on the field.  It was an epic moment and showcased just how talented Villanova’s team really is.”

But Villanova’s team has always been strong. In their first World Cup appearance two years ago, Villanova made 8th in a field of 21 teams. The next year, among 46 teams, Villanova placed fifth when they lost to the reigning champions, Middlebury, in a nasty game that tore one player’s ACL.

Unfortunately, this year, just fifteen minutes after the bloodied battle with the University of Michigan, Villanova Quidditch was stuck playing “a well-rested University of Pittsburgh team that was very well trained, very big, and very fast,” as Sceski describes them. They lost in a “fierce and physical game,” bringing their record in this tournament to 4-2, since they also lost in the first round to Michigan State in an “absolutely crazy game” plagued by “inconsistent refereeing” and injuries.

In March, Villanova Quidditch hopes to host its own tournament for the first time. Teams can only bring 21 players to a tournament, so they hold try-outs before each tournament appearance to make the final cuts. Throughout the season, 40 or so players show up at Villanova’s practices, according to Greco.

Teams field seven players at a time: three chasers, one keeper, two beaters, and a seeker. The chasers toss around a volleyball as the “quaffle”; putting it through one of the hula hoops earns 10 points. The hula hoops are guarded by the keeper. The beaters function as a sort of defensive line, aiming dodgeballs (“bludgers”) at the opposing team’s chasers. It is against the rulers for beaters to attack the opposing keeper or the snitch, but the seeker is fair game. The seeker is usually a cross-country runner or a wrestler, and he runs after the snitch. The snitch has a small ball inside of a sock, which is tucked into the back of his waistline. When a seeker grabs the ball from the snitch, his team earns 30 points and the game is over; if one team is more than 30 points behind, then, it is inadvisable for the seeker to go after the snitch. The snitch’s mobility has no limits- he can bike, hop on trucks, even run through buildings. “The snitches are crowd pleasers,” says Greco. “I’ve seen one pull out a red bull fighting capes for taunting.”

If Villanova hosts its March tournament, the team will need to buy a full set of “official brooms” to provide for visiting teams. They have a few of these sturdier, more expensive brooms now, but most often they play with ordinary household brooms. Equipment casualties are common in the dirty, fast, and dangerous sport.

Some players speculate that the roughness of quidditch scares off potential female recruits. Quidditch is a co-ed sport, but many teams resemble a boys’ club. Villanova has some brave exceptions. The status of these female players may soon be in jeopardy. “We are only a few steps away from being able to apply for NCAA status,” says Villanova beater Matt Goosherst. “If we start playing in stadiums and selling tickets, then get a season going, we can do it! The IQA (International Quidditch Association) already has enough schools.”

But if the sport became NCAA, would it lose its co-ed nature, a feature of the sport in the Harry Potter series? The current rulebook dictates that there must be at least two players of each gender on the field for each time. Since the sport was designed to be “grounded and muggle-friendly,” a little NCAA recognition is something for teams to look forward to. With institutional backing and the resources that come with it, maybe someday – someday – Villanova Quidditch can really take off in athletic flight.

Villanova students scream and cheer as the basketball team dribbles the ball down the court. In the midst of all the action on the court, students fail to realize that there are several different shows playing on different kinds of courts at Villanova University. These courts are called stages. Villanova is a school so focused on athletics and academics that it sometimes fails to appreciate the importance and presence of the performing arts.

While Villanova University has a strong graduate program for theatre, its undergraduate opportunities in theatre and music as a whole are lacking. “I think Villanova needs to have more arts offerings for undergraduates,” Emily Coombs, the director of public relations for Villanova Student Theater, says. “There are so many talented people here that there would definitely be an interest from the student body to take classes and pursue the arts.”

Currently, Villanova has 26 musical groups and three main outlets for undergraduate theatre. The three theatre groups include Villanova Student Theatre, Villanova Student Music Theatre, and stage crew. Villanova also offers a theater minor for undergraduates, but no major.

Recently, Villanova accepted an invitation to form a partnership with the Abbey Theatre of Ireland. This partnership will provide Villanova students with unique opportunities such as internships and classes abroad and will bring new productions to the stage of Vasey at Villanova. Additionally, the theatre department of Villanova holds four performances in Vasey hall each year. Thus, Villanova presents many opportunities for graduate studies of performing arts, but what about undergraduates? There are few classes in music and performing arts and many times disappointing turnouts for all music activities at Villanova.

For Christine Nass, the director of publicity for music activities, the problem can be attributed to a lack of visibility. “The University seems to have little publication of student activities in general, and if they do, we as music activities, are never in it,” Nass says.

The conflict with the lack of visibility and outlets for the performing arts does not seems to be a lack of passion or dedication of the participants, but rather the lack of funding and resources provided by the University.

Father David Cregan, the chair of the theatre department, has proposed a solution to this dilemma. Villanova has decided to establish an undergraduate theatre major. According to Julie Phan, VST stage manager and director of The Foreigner, the theater major will be developing within the next two years. Phan says that Villanova will then hold professional productions like those in Vasey for undergraduates as well. This decision will certainly boost the performing arts presence on campus by producing expertise in the area of theater, but it will also take away opportunities from non-theater majors in the future.

“We may have to restructure VST a little,” says Phan. “We may have to move toward dinner theater performances, for example, since many of the roles and opportunities in theatre will be filled and reserved for the theatre majors.”

Traditionally, undergraduate theatre and music activities in general at Villanova have been open to everyone. “In both theatre and music activities at Villanova we cater to amateurs, which we define as people who love what they do,” says Nass. “If you want to get involved we will find a place for you. We’ll even teach you how to play an instrument if we have to!”

Overall, the theatre department has made strides in trying to establish a presence for itself on campus. It is difficult, however, to foster expertise for a limited number of people while still offering opportunities for everyone who is passionate and wants to get involved with the arts at Villanova. The new theatre major hopes to promote more visibility for the arts at Villanova as a whole. Then, maybe the performing arts at Villanova will be put back under the spotlight, where it is meant to be.

A tent peeks out from the back of the first floor of Falvey Library, representing the Nova99%, the Occupy Wall Street chapter of Villanova. The Occupy Villanova Group has indeed been on campus for a few weeks now, with the Nova99% Twitter account active since November 3^rd. This group began in Falvey Lounge, and indeed still meets within this somewhat populated spot. It also situates itself nearby the tent, allied with its table of literature. Yet, nobody seems to sit within the tent, a symbol of a representative chapter of Occupy Wall Street.

The tent represents solidarity with those whom actually sleep outside Philadelphia’s City Hall, with those whom reside in Zuccotti Park. This tent is supposed to be a marker for discussion, a, as the Nova99% Twitter account describes it, “form of communication,” even for “opposing viewpoints.” Yet, is this camping equipment really successful in its purpose? With no person even sitting within it, with no real practical purpose, what does this tent really state about this movement?

Students and faculty may sit around it to discuss the platforms of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They may Tweet, Facebook, and rally around it for discussion. They may also distribute literature on the accompanying table. However, is this not a mocking of the movement itself? A tent, invisible to most other students, to the rest of the 99%, will do nothing in the back of the library. It must be moved to Connelly or Kennedy to even provoke real commentary. Yet even then, somebody must sleep in that tent. If nobody even sits in it, the Nova99% risks the fulfillment of a possible foreshadow for the rest of OWS: the passing and dying in the winter cold of a symbolic movement that could never focus on a specific plank of issues. It will become, quite simply, a hollow edifice,  a passing Tweet, and a temporary living space.

If you’re like me, the next week is going to be insane. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the most anticipated video game release of 2011, according to IGN.com and other industry sources, came out at 12:01 AM on Tuesday, and now campus is caught in the grip of a mysterious plague. The male population of Villanova has thinned considerably. Class attendance is down and the rare guy that is seen on campus looks exhausted and unkempt, like he’s been combating the flu for the past few days or is in the middle of finals week. Unfortunately, it’s neither of those things. That guy you see has been fighting World War III against a Russian ultra-nationalist faction on the battlefields like New York City’s Financial District (watch out, Occupy Wall Street!). It’s a very dark time for the Main Line’s premier Catholic university, but it’s only going to get worse. Why? Dragons are coming.

On Friday at 12:01 AM, the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will release for XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and PC, bringing the wrath of a frozen wasteland and its ancient dragon inhabitants down on the gamers of Villanova. What reviewers from PC Gamer, 1up.com, and IGN.com expect to be one of the most immersive games ever released will consume hours upon hours of time and cause people to neglect important things, like loved ones, personal hygiene, and proper nutrition (can we buy stock in Wingers?). Mountain Dew and Monster will quickly become the most widely-consumed beverages on campus as the envelope of sleep deprivation is pushed in the name of “an epic gaming sesh” that defies
all logic. If Skyrim and MW3 were the only threats to the health of the student body in the next week, I think we would survive. As it stands, we’re not going to make it, because from the harsh tundra of Skyrim, gamers will take up arms against the Knights Templar in the final adventure for master assassins, Altaïr and Ezio Auditore, in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, due out next Tuesday.

Adrian Peterson, BJ Penn, and Derrick Rose are all in for the new Assassin’s Creed, which is being somewhat overshadowed by this week’s slate of game releases. Ezio Auditore’s quest for vengeance against the Borgia family (which renewed interest in the world’s first crime family and probably led to the launch of Showtime’s “The Borgias”) will come to a head in the last AC installment before the series conclusion, Assassin’s Creed III. No Shave November and Ezio’s gnarly Renaissance beard will contribute to distinct scruffiness of Villanova men (and irritate the faces of girlfriends).

All in all, the next week looks like a doozy for the University’s gamer population. I think we all need to help one another out by encouraging healthy sleeping, eating, and bathing habits. Wait… BarstoolU’s Blackout Tour is coming to Mad River on Tuesday? Oh, screw sleep! VIVA COLLEGE!

25% of protesters at NYC’s Zuccotti Park do not plan to vote in the 2012 election.

984 NYC arrest records from 9/18-10/15 show that protesters live in more expensive homes than nationwide averages. The single-family homes listed on police forms have a median value of $305,000; the median value of owner-occupied housing units in the US is $185,000.

Milk Street Cafe was forced to lay off 21 employees due to a 30% sales drop since the protests started six weeks ago. This amounts to a 25% reduction of the Cafe’s staff, which is located at 40 Wall Street and has been thriving in the normally lively Financial District since it opened in June. The owner blames police barracades and checkpoints, closed subway entrances, and frequent marches for the lack of business, and says that he will be out of business in three weeks if the barricades are not removed.

Today, the New York Post demanded that Mayor Bloomberg reclaim Zuccotti Park from the Occupy Wall Streeters. The op-ed piece argues that the once credible protests are now nothing but a public nuisance that needs to be quelled in a show of mayoral leadership.

MTV is scouting people aged 20-24 in Zuccotti Park for a new season of the “Real World” with an Occupy Wall Street theme.

There is a website called Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street.

The protesters in Zuccotti Park have raised over $300,000 in cash to house up to 300 people for the winter months.

31% of protesters would support violence to advance their agenda.

Only 15% of protesters are unemployed. The national unemployment rate is 9.1%.

77% of protesters are in favor of raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans; only 36% are in favor of raising taxes on all Americans. 65% say the government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement, no matter the cost.

Protesters have made a list of demands public on The99PercentDeclaration website, including: “an immediate ban on all private contributions of money and gifts, to all politicians in federal office, from individuals, corporations, ‘political action committees,’ ‘super political action committees,’ lobbyists, unions and all other private sources of money or thing of value;” “immediate abrogation [of] the ‘Citizens United Case’ [that] equates the payment of money by corporations, wealthy individuals and unions to politicians with the exercise of protected free speech;” Congressional limits of four two-year terms for the House and two six-year terms for the Senate; reduction of “the national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020″; a “student loan debt relief forgiveness program” funded by “a Wall Street corporate tax surcharge as reparations for their conduct leading to the economic collapse of 2007-2008 and current worldwide recession”; “the immediate formation of a non-partisan commission, overseen by Congress, to audit and investigate the economic risks and possibility of eliminating the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank and transferring its functions to the United States Treasury Department”; “new FCC regulations granting free air time to all candidates”; “abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the Popular Vote in presidential elections”; “an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan”; and “repeal of the ‘Defense of Marriage Act.’”