Collegian: Nightlife

Diversity Grind

2007-04-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

"Well, at least there's no eleven-teen-year-olds here," the guy next to me said.And so my night at the CellBlock began.With two weeks left until the semester ends I decided to get a little crazy and head out on a Wednesday night. Partly to pay homage to nightlife blog's humble beginnings, and partly because it was hosting an over-18 night, the ex-Crowbar location was my venue of choice for the

Hip - and hirable

2007-04-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

I think it’s about time the title “best dancer evrrr” went on the resume. I began Friday by “practicing my networking skills” with corporate visitors at the IST Building Future Forum (otherwise known as the how-many-free-corporate-trinkets-can-you-gather-in-three-hours contest). After returning to my dorm victorious, armed with a hand-sanitizer spray pen, a key chain flashlight, a

Party like there's no homework tomorrow

2007-04-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

It was Friday night, and Kunkle Lounge was hoppin’.Kunkle Lounge, the glass-walled enclosure on the edge of Hammond Building, traditionally houses studious engineering students interrupted only by the occasional science lecture.But Friday night was no ordinary night.Friday night was the Schreyer Honors College semi-formal — the one night when all the cool people who scored a 1350 or above on the

Hour after hour

2007-04-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Nine hours of Asian cultural education might seem excessive. But it was all worth it to see the break-dancing monkeys.For some reason, the campus was saturated with Asian events this weekend. It began on Friday night with the Graduate Student Association movie about Tibet (very long, but Martin Sheen's narrative goodness made it all worth it). Then the Sikh dancing festival at the HUB. And then,

Protection is Tasty

2007-04-01T11:33:00.001-07:00

Maybe I'm weird, but I don't think people should waste sexual protection gear just to get a taste of its sweet, sugary goodness.I don't think this is a problem with condoms. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a guy take one out of his wallet, open it, and start licking just to get the sugar high.But Friday night, I discovered another form of protection - the "dental dam" - is apparently much

Glowsticks for Jesus

2007-03-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

I was standing in the HUB on Saturday night when I saw them: girls dressed in colorful kimonos and holding shiny fans.I didn't have tickets to see Charlie Murphy that night and I was planning on waiting by the door to see if someone with a ticket didn't show up. But being the sucker for bright, flashy objects that I am, I had to check these girls out first.Something seemed a little funny when I

On the Prowl

2007-03-18T11:01:00.001-07:00

While volunteering with Habitat for Humanity over spring break, I quickly learned to avoid Alabama's flying nails, power tool injuries, alligator attacks, rouge fishing hooks, and bad drivers. But the most fearful, and yet, most intriguing danger in Alabama, is the cougar.I first learned of this legendary species while riding along in the back of a pickup truck (quite a common site in Alabama).

Feeling the deepness

2007-03-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like poetry to jazz up a weekend at home.While the rest of State College was reveling in the joys of "State Patty's Day," I was home this weekend to catch up on some sleep and homework. Well, I tried to tried to catch up on sleep and homework. I actually watched a lot of On Demand movies.However, after an emotional viewing of Titanic, On the Beach, and Attack of the Clones, I put

Funky Farming

2007-02-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

I never knew sheep could have gumption, but if the Northeast Student Affiliate livestock judges have anything to say about it, having “gumption through the hip” is a good attribute for any self-respecting ewe. I got myself out of bed at 9 a.m. Saturday and trekked past Beaver Stadium to the Snider Agricultural Arena to see animal science majors compete in livestock

Wango or Twaltz?

2007-02-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

Thon wasn't the only place to dance on Friday night.Having had my fill of the Thon line dance and the "Green Eggs" band's performance of "I like big butts and I cannot lie" on the Thon stage, I decided to check out what other dancing opportunities there were on campus.Most fraternities were at Thon and apartment parties were pretty low key. So I crossed my fingers and headed off to LateNight at

Mystifying Movies

2007-02-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Movies don’t make much sense if you miss the first 20 minutes. Especially if you miss the first hour and 20 minutes and think you only missed twenty minutes. I had a lot of homework Saturday night, so I decided to stay in and get some homework done before going to see the LateNight movie at the HUB. And by stay in and get some homework done, I mean nap, eat lots of Chinese food, read,

Technical Techno

2007-02-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

Wireless network difficulties can make it seriously difficult to get your groove on.Or so I learned this weekend.It was Friday night and my reading of The Art of Unix Programming was starting to get pretty juicy. But I promised my friends I would hit up the local "rave party," so around 11 I tore myself away from the chapter on remote procedure calls and headed out.Now, when I think of a rave, I

Robotic Rumba

2007-01-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

I’m a fan of non-traditional dancing.That’s not to say I have anything against the bumping and grinding gyrations that tend to dominate State College’s clubs and fraternities.But I gave up a while ago on such dancing tips as “move your hips more” and “feel the beat.” Instead, I decided to specialize in such high quality old school dances as the electric slide, the macarena, the shopping cart and

T-shirt Troubles

2007-01-21T16:23:00.000-08:00

It was Friday night and I had nothing to wear.No, I’m not going metro. I just wasn’t ready to get back into the laundry-doing routine. With the majority of my shirts residing in the hamper, I had two choices left: my new, fashionable, sparkly long sleve shirts, and a black and white shirt with the words: "GEEK - PLEASE DATE."It was a tough choice, but I decided to hope that girls like honesty.I

Going alone...with everyone

2006-12-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

As I am getting to be an old lady and no longer want to party the night away, I am retiring from the nightlife blog. Yes, I know, it's incredibly upsetting. But it has been a good ride. For the next semester, Ryan Pfister will be taking the helm, and to give you a little taste of what you're in for, here is his rendition of last weekends antics."The Daily Collegian Formal is pretty much the polar

Santa, baby

2006-12-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

'Tis officially the season, and this weekend reminded me why this time of year is my favorite.First, the decorations. I am amazed at how detailed and decorative some student houses are. Lights cover every porch pillar, ribbons tie around every door, fake reindeer mate on every lawn. Two balconies in the Diplomat bear a season greeting to passers-by on Beaver Avenue. The top balcony reads "Noel."

Keep it simple

2006-11-26T18:38:00.000-08:00

I am the Queen of awkward conversation.After four years of returning home for holiday breaks, I’ve perfected the art of a plastered smile, a fake laugh and an unnoticeable escape.As a result, I’ve never held the “how’s college/what’s your major/what are you doing now” conversation for longer than 15 minutes.Until Wednesday night.The night before Thanksgiving, anyone who ever graduated from my

Fly, Turkey

2006-11-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

Rather than talk about what I did this weekend, which is really just more of the same, I would like to revel in the fact that Turkey Day is in five days!!!!To me, Thanksgiving means a number of different things:1) It means returning to a civilized state — New Jersey, where only the strong survive.2) It means eating my body weight in turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and my aunt’s famous pepperoni

Don't mess with the best, cuz the best don't mess

2006-11-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

There are two rules to going on a hayride:1) Don’t expect actual bales of hay.2) Bring your own keg.On Friday night, the nerdy Collegian kids ventured out into the real world and took a hayride to the middle of nowhere. Really nowhere. Like, “I’m going to kill you in the woods with a chainsaw” kind of nowhere.Now, by hayride, I actually mean a tractor pulling a wooden cart, lined with hay pieces.

Oh to be young again....

2006-11-05T13:37:00.000-08:00

When I walked through the door of my guy friends’ apartment Friday night, I was intrigued to find, not my friends, as I’d expected, but a bevy of scantily-clad freshman girls — or at least so I’d thought.I soon found out that only some of them were freshman. The others were seniors — in high school.They were visiting one of the boys who lived in the apartment. The make-up they’d used to cake

Halloween in Happy Valley is better than a bucket filled with Candy

2006-10-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend made me realize how incredibly lucky I am. This was my fourth Halloween in State College, a college kid’s Disney World. This was also my last Halloween in State College — and I planned on making it worth it. I spent Thursday night at “The Rocky Horror Show,” presented by the Thespians. Most shows, I’m required to go because one of the leads is a friend. This time around, every lead

It's the simple things in life

2006-10-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend, among bar mingling and games of manimal (the best game in the world, I may have to blog about that one day), I discovered how limited my alcohol pallet is. Though I have been 21 for six months now, I haven’t really matured from the freshman tendency to choose a drink based on price, rather than taste. For example, I don’t really drink beer, but when I do, it’s usually a Bud or

10 things I hate about Michigan weekend

2006-10-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

I had incredibly high hopes for this weekend. Not only had my friends and I been getting pumped up for the Michigan game all season, but I also had alumni and friends from Michigan coming in for the game. I wanted to prove to them how amazing Penn State is. I was ready to start early and stay late. I wanted to make last year’s Ohio State night of debauchery look like a kindergartner’s birthday

There's no place like Home

2006-10-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

I love Penn State.The campus, the town, the games, the people — even the days of endless rain. I love it all.And nothing makes me realize that more than a weekend at home.Since school began, I’ve gone out every Friday and Saturday night, determined to make the most of my senior year. But this weekend, the old lady in me emerged, and I headed back to the dirty Jersey for some much needed R&R.

Take it easy baby, make it last all night

2006-10-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

My roommate tends to live by the mantra, "Anything you can do, I can do better."Whether it’s playing Scattergories, spiking a volleyball or — in the case of last Thursday night — running a bar, she lets her subtle competitive streak shine through.It was “alternative rock” night at Bill Pickle’s Tap Room, which involved a lot of R.E.M., Nirvana, Radiohead and other non-danceable music. My roommate

Who is the man behind the mask?

2006-09-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it’s life’s oddities that put a permanent smile on my face. On Thursday night, my friends and I sat in the near-empty Sports Cafe, a $3 draft in hand to drown the stress of that week. The laid-back atmosphere we'd been looking forward to was interrupted with a mad-dash to the windows overlooking Burrowes and College. "There's a chicken and a gorilla outside!""What? Really? A real one?"

Gameday Saturday: Sex and the city style

2006-09-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Football weekends are out of this world.It starts with the alumni-filled bars on Friday night, leads into Saturday afternoon tailgates, complete with shotgunning Natty Light and dizzy-bat relays (a game consisting of chugging a beer, spinning 10 times around a bat and then attempting to hit the newly-empty can) and then four hours of non-stop cheering and one 'Hey Baby' sing along later, we head

It's like the first day of school...but better!

2006-09-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

As a senior, you’d expect I’d been a part of many 21st birthday milestones. But on Thursday night, as I sat toasting a birthday shot to one of my best friends, I realized this was the first time I was going to participate in the whole extravaganza, starting with the pregame and lasting until the 2 a.m. stumble out of the bar. I would be there for her first journey down College Ave to her bar of

Behind Bars: Inside the Cell Block

2006-09-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends have said they are avoiding it like the plague. Others have gotten there early, eager to be first in line for the opening night dollar shots. Me? I was, for the most part, indifferent. But I took advantage of the fact that Ernesto kept many Penn Staters inside and joined the hundreds of other desperate-for-a-new-hangout college kids at the Cell Block, the new kid on College