Salutations fellow So’mates and all others that may happen upon this page, it is said that all good things must come to an end, and as overused and cliche as that phrase may be, it sadly rings no truer than at this time right now.  With the graduation ceremony that took place yesterday, so ended many superb era’s of SOMA-dom.  First and most obvious being this past semester which may go down as the most awesome semester for SOMA yet!  Second ending being the conclusion of all the graduating seniors that SOMA must sadly see go this year.  It is a strange and sad experience, for the past four years this particular group of graduates have been the heart and soul of the club as can be seen in the culmination of their time with us.  Danny Michelson, Alexis Kumasaka, Megan Andrews and Ethan Palmer Smith are just a sampling of the dedicated members of this class that made SOMA what it is today and their hard work will not be forgotten!  Now that I have their names in writing I will move on to the conclusion of “The Dark Knight” of SOMA’s semesters.

     When I had last left off, we had just finished our signature event of the Arts Crawl.  This was followed by 2 weeks of preparing for what would be SOMA’s busiest week since the week of founder Danny Greene’s Chrismahanukwanzanzakuh 2007.  And while it lacked such a badass name, oh what a week it was.  It all started that Monday with SOMA’s final show of the year.  This event alone took up most of the planning time I mentioned earlier if by planning time I meant Danny Michelson literally traveling to hell and back only to mark his magnificent run as El Presidente with the best capstone move anyone could ask for. 

     Proving that nature either does not entirely like us or is just a cheeky bitch, we lost the two headliners to this final show due to the eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull (say it with me kids).  This was followed by an intense 2 days of Danny staying and sleeping in the HUB to find suitable replacements.  After a couple of mental breakdowns, sobbing sessions and much determination, an exhausted president emerged from the ash (the ash from the volcano is it what messed up the other bands tours, get it!) with two more than suitable replacements in Man Man and Apples in Stereo.  The fruits of Danny’s labor were witnessed on April 26th in Heritage Hall when these two bands performed with local openers Zak Sobel and the Kalob Griffin Band.  As per usual every band was excellent and brought something unique to the table.  We could not have asked for a better last show and Danny is owed at least a cuddle from everyone that was in attendance.  The next night was the second annual SOMA Film Festival in which we saw a wonderful sampling of student films.  That Thursday we helped a fellow student host a fashion show in Heritage Hall yet again which was a fun new experience for us.  We then capped off the year with a fun little thing for us with the Second Annual SOMA Scavenger Hunt, hopefully the results of this experience will be posted throughout the summer as I receive more of the pictures from it.

     When we weren’t cramming every ounce of buffoonery into this week, we were making decisions for the upcoming year.  At our final weekly meeting we held elections which saw a huge changeover.  It is my honor to now present you with your SOMA exec board for the 2010-2011 year:

Vice-President: Bill Nechamkin wpn5001@psu.edu

Secretary : Nathan Larimer nrl5042@gmail.com

Treasurer: Alexis Jordan arj5079@psu.edu

PR Chair:  Arielle Gilbert agg5051@psu.edu

Webmaster: Ryan Bacon Zisk chimpchimp@gmail.com

As per usual, this is a dedicated, outstanding group of individuals (yes, yes I know I’m in it and am currently self-pandering) and if you ever wish to discuss anything about the club or have any questions you can feel free to contact any of us.  As I mentioned earlier, we are seeing the end of many eras and this brings me to the one that is perhaps most bittersweet for me.  While I have jumped ahead to the club’s Vice President position, it is with some sadness that I abandon my post as Webmaster (let’s face it, VP Bill just doesn’t have the ring Webmaster Bill has) and while I feel I serve the club better from my new position I will miss greatly my time as Webmaster.  Luckily we have a more than suitable replacement stepping in with Ryan and I have full confidence that he will exceed me in the webmastering duties (he’s a lot more familiar with web design than I ever was).  We have yet to think of a decent nickname for him but I am sure by the time he makes his first contribution to this magnificent piece of webspace he will have that settled.  Anyways, I hope to be possibly contributing to this site over the summer, though based on my past such promises that is never a guarantee.  I will look forward to the next semester all summer as I am sure all of you will.  For one more time at least, Webmaster Bill out!

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     Greetings all you dudes and dudettes, Webmaster Bill here at the tail-end of Arts Crawl weekend 2010.  This is about the time to start studying and getting my work done for tomorrow, so I will delay that slightly further with this recap of our annual signature event.  Taking place on Friday, April 9th, the 2010 Arts Crawl was described by many as the most fun they’ve had at one yet, including President Danny Michelson.  Spanning 8 buildings, 15 bands, 4 activties and 4 presentations this may have been the most diverse and unique Arts Crawl yet!  We saw the addition of two brand new ideas this year, including a headlining artist, Ira Sherman, and a fashion show which was presented by M.O.O.D Magazine.  We hope that these are two additions to the Arts Crawl arsenal that will continue for years to come.  Despite the weather everyone enjoyed walking around from building to building watching all the bands, presentations and perhaps even making a little something themselves.  While I personally was unable to get around to it myself, I was quite stoked to see people walking around with superhero capes that they had made in Patterson. 

     For those that weren’t sure of where to go, even after 3 years I still have no way of electing a path myself, we were blessed as always with walking minstrels.  This year that role was filled by the entertaining duo of Silvio Navarro and Mark Celeste who helped shine a path for everyone.  All of the bands put on excellent shows, perhaps due to the exceptional coordination of which acts played in which room.  Rather than just scattering the bands like a game of marbles, 2010 saw metal band Judgement Shall Pass play in the brutally appropriate Foundry while the band Sculpture Club Family Band performed in none other than the Sculpture Room.  While I wish I could thank each act that played this year individually that would take quite a while and I do not believe I have enough snacks to do so, so I will just say in complete honesty that you all did marvelous jobs and represented the State College music scene remarkably.  I would also like to give a shout-out to the headlining band No Age who put on a fun and energetic show as well as the headlining artist Ira Sherman.  Everyone that helped put this shin-dig together are incredibly grateful that they came to our school and hope for the best in their future endeavors.  Speaking of those that helped out, everyone that volunteered or in some way contributed to the set up and coordination of this event did a superb job and are owed a debt of gratitude by everyone in attendance.  Since this is SOMA’s website, we would like to personally thank VASA for as always co-running this event with us.  Lastly, thank you to everyone that came out and had the opportunity to enjoy such a joyous occasion, you are the reason we keep doing this every year and it is your satisfaction that keeps the Arts Crawl alive!

     Now, onto the rest of the semester.  We may only have a few weeks left, but this has been a fun and awesome year for SOMA and we plan to cram as much more of that awesomeness as we can in.  While we don’t have set days for either yet, it has been pretty unanimous by all members that we will have at least one more Open Mic and an end of the year Photo Scavenger Hunt.  This time we have some pretty definite confirmations on the photo scavenger hunt so there will be a lot of finger-wagging should this not be a success.  For our last Open Mic we have decided to do something special and while it is not set it seems likely that this will be an outdoor event on the Old Main lawn.  While this excludes the actual mics, we feel the earthy ideals behind such a notion will make for an equally fun time.  Keep your social networking skills up to par to find out the dates and further information on both of these events in the near future!  Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, our final event of the year.  While it is sad that the year is in fact ending, it will be on an overwhelmingly enjoyable and splendid note that could perhaps rival this whole year itself.

     As you may have heard from the Collegian by now, SOMA will be presenting one final show in Heritage Hall on Monday, April 26th.  This show will include local openers Zak Sobel and the Kalob Griffin Band, along with Cymbals Eat Guitars and headliner Los Campesinos!  This will serve as an excellent capstone on an illustrious year in SOMA and we are all quivering in anticipation for the awesomeness that will occur.  On that note I believe I have caught you all up on what has been and what will be.  I hope you all had a good time at Arts Crawl and that all of you will have a good time at these upcoming shenanigans.  Webmaster Bill out!

Thank you from SOMA and VASA!

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     Hello all, that is right, I am actually here to perform my duty and update this website of all the many many things that have gone down in SOMA for the past 3 months!  I know I know, I am a slacker and terrible at my job, but from a comicbook perspective the rarity of my updates should lead to a hefty value in about 30 to 40 years.  Like many of you I have been dealing with an rainstorm of schoolwork over the past semester, I am sure even right now on the eve of the end of spring break there is something I am blowing off to write this, and have found little time to even so much as advise Danny or whatever my job has appeared to morph into for lack of website service necessity.  I know that does not seem like a real term, but it is in fact almost 5 am and hence I will fall back on my old crutch of writing at ridiculous hours as the reasoning behind my random incoherence.  Anways, now I’m just stalling so I will jump right into business so as to not resemble any Russian dictators.

     I suppose I should start with the end of last semester as I never gave an official close to it.  As has already been premiered on this fantastic piece of webspace, So’mates Ethan Palmer Smith and Ryan Bacon Zisk have successfully kickstarted a SOMA podcast and already produced 3 magnificent pieces.  they are hosted over at the SOMA podcast zone which is completely Rod Serling-free.  Please go check them out if you haven’t already for many lulz and whatnot.  In other dealings with the end of last semester, there was an event that we co-hosted with Full Ammo Improv, can’t quite remember what it was though.  Oh yeah, that’s right, we hosted THE COLLEGE HUMOR LIVE TOUR!!!  As you can guess from my remaining excitement, the show was as awesome as expected and went off without a hitch.  We have gotten much better with crowd control since “the fiasco” and if you do not know what I am speaking of please seek out Danny Michelson as I am sure he loves recounting his experience of it.  The College Humor Live Tour featured headliner Dan Levy as well as College Humor regulars Jake and Amir, Streeter and fellow Penn State alum Jeff Rubin who himself was a former editor of Phroth.  Needless to say the meeting between him and current Phroth editor Matt Powers was awe-aspiring and no room was meant to hold such comedic genius at once.  The night before, a local stand-up show was held as a warm-up to the big event and all the local comedians performed excellently.  Everyone owes a big shout-out to Kelly Murphy and Dan Miller, the dynamic duo that essentially made the show.  One of the downsides of waiting forever to actually update is it does not work well with my terrible memory and as such that is all I remember from the end of last semester.  However, not to build anything up too much, but that does bring things to this current semester.  I must warn you, the ass-kickery of this current semester, is so amazing, so mind-blowing, so incredible it has been described as 26 simultaneous female orgasms in the brain!

      Hopefully you have you used the space between paragraphs to prepare yourself for what I am about to tell you about.  First of all, this semester has seen some of the most successful fundraising in the club’s history, proving once and for all artists do actually know how to make money.  We first hosted a quite successful Five Guys fundraiser as is now obligated by every club on campus apparently.  We also hosted our 3rd Annual Find Your So’mate/Open Mic Night.  This year happened to fall on the Wednesday after Valentine’s Day allowing for those who spent that special day alone in their apartment watching “When Harry Met Sally” with a pint of Cherry Garcia to possibly find someone for our profit.  These fundraisers have gone to use, as was evident in one of the best shows we have yet to host.  Treasurer Lauren Downing is owed a big high-five from everyone for her work on these efforts. 

     On January 22nd we held a magical event in Alumni Hall when we presented We Are Scientists with British Phil and The Exclusive Document.  Needless to say, the show was quite a joyous evening.  Both the Exclusive Document and British Phil were awesome, handling the large crowd with ease, major labels please take notice.  We Are Scientists performed with the awesomeness that was expected, playing their material flawlessly and entertaining the crowd with cheeky banter in between.  All and all it was a fun evening that entertained many and did not result in any injuries to either the crowd or venue which Girl Talk has taught us is actually a great accomplishment.  Everyone in attendance owes a great debt of gratitude to SOMA President Danny Michelson who I literally watched slave himself for 4 months to make that show happen.  Next time you see Danny, I want you to give him a great big hug, and he’s from Jersey so you can check out his “situation.”

     What you have just read is but a mere taste of the Spring 2010 semester.  If my calculations are correct there are still about 6 more weeks left in this baby and we intend to make them the most mindblowing 6 weeks you can handle.  Upcoming this very week is a local show held at the fantastic venue of Abba Java Cafe which will serve as a fundraiser for Haiti.  We will also possibly host another local show at Abba Java on March 26th as well though that has yet to be finalized, or at least to my knowledge.  I guess any calls from VP Alexis correcting me on the matter will actually prove my work is read so hooray for uncertain information.  As per usual we will co-host with VASA the always excellent Arts Crawl on April 9th which will be headlined by No Age.  Arts Crawl chairs Devan, Ryan and Melanie have all worked quite hard on it so I’m expecting great things this year.  I would also like to let you in on a little secret that we may be in the works for hosting another big show at the end of the year.  Right now the date is set for April 26th so make sure you prepare to blow off all homework and studying that evening and come enjoy whatever we are able to throw together. 

     On that note, we will continue to put on Open Mic Night’s in the West Commons every month and are always open to other new exciting ideas.  If you wish to ask us anything or want to get involved we have general meeting every Wednesday at 7:30 in the Thomas Building.  We actually reserve a room now (I know what’s with us getting so official?) but I can not remember what number it is so I will just leave that detail for you to find yourself like Nicolas Cage in a Disney movie.  Also feel free to email me or any other officer listed in the “How Can You Get Involved” page of the website.  Anyways, I intend on making the three hour drive by to school tomorrow and as such should probably get rested.

-Webmaster Bill

P.S. Hope I didn’t exaggerate anything too much.

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Hey guys, it’s the spring semester again which means we are diving right into our signature co-event with VASA of the annual Arts Crawl.  This event involves the take0ver of a handful of arts buildings on North campus.  In these buildings we set up different art forms in each room, one of which being local bands.  To get an idea of who there is to perform, our Arts Crawl chairs created an application for bands to fill out.  If you are in a band or friends with one that is interesed in taking part in this magnificent experience, please download and fill out the application here.  Anyways, my New Years Resolution was to be a better webmaster so in the tradition of such promises I must continue breaking it for now, however I do plan on having an update soon!

-Webmaster Bill

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Hey guys, just giving you a brief update on yet another fantastic new thing brought you by SOMA.  Recently Ethan Palmer and Ryan Zisk were all like “yo we wanna make a SOMA podcast!” and everyone else was all “do it, you wont!” so naturally they did it as that is the only proper response you can have to such a challenge.  As expected it has turned out superbly.  Don’t believe me?  Have a listen for yourself at the podcast zone.  Leave them some friendly feedback so they know what a great job they’re doing, anyways, I am going to get back to what I am actually supposed to be doing.  I am not making any promises as even I do not trust myself at this point, but I’m hoping I will have an overall update on the club next week when I am bored at home, later!

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