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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Hey guys, this is going to be a short and probably needless post, but I just needed to put out there how much fun the MP3 Experiment was while still on the vibe of it.  Never has getting confused and bewildered looks been so much fun!  It is a hard act to truly put into words so I will save further description for a future post that may contain a video of the collaboration by Prez Danny Michelson.  I am certain everyone there had a great time and I hope everyone that missed out will get a chance to attend the next one!

-Webmaster Bill

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To let us know if you will partake or not and are into chiq social networking devices, check out the facebook event , if you wish to see what shenanigans you are getting yourself into first, the directions are below…

SOMA Presents: The 2009 MP3 Experiment

If you have never heard of an MP3 Experiment, check out the videos below.

At exactly 2:00PM on this Homecoming Sunday afternoon, we will try to get as many people as possible to meet on the mall outside the Thomas Building, where we will all press play at the same moment. Everyone will be listening to an MP3 of over half an hour of instructions full of activities, music, and games, leading everyone without any communication between us. The end result will be utterly zany.
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IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO FOLLOW THESE STEPS:
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STEP ONE: Download the MP3 HERE:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?524wkijjubh

STEP TWO: Load it onto your iPod, Zune, etc. Or burn it to a CD.

STEP THREE: DON’T LISTEN TO IT!!! If you know what’s going to happen, it totally ruins the fun. Keep it fresh, and hear it for the first time at the event.

STEP FOUR: BRING A NEWSPAPER. This is super important, as it will be part of our activities. It can be any newspaper, in fact, just one section will do. Pick one up in the HUB on the way.

STEP FIVE: Bring a watch with a second hand, or make sure your cell phone can tell you specific seconds. It’s important to start as close to 2PM as possible. Here is the official clock we will be using:
http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java

STEP SIX: Get to the Thomas mall BEFORE 2:00 PM. If you get there late, you are pretty much out of luck. There’s no easy way to catch up, and you’ll most likely be unable to join. Because of this, make sure to get there by 1:50. That gives you a good ten minute window of safety. Once at the mall take a seat ANYWHERE. On the grass, on a bench, standing under a tree. Doesn’t matter, just be somewhere here by 2:00:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/6643/amap.jpg

STEP SEVEN: Press play at 2:00PM

STEP EIGHT: Have fun!

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PREVIOUSLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What if I don’t press play at exactly the right time?

That’s OK. We’re counting on everyone’s tracks being slightly off. Different mp3 players have different response speeds. It will be fun to see participants who are clearly ahead or behind. If you are significantly off, feel free to glance at a neighbor’s iPod and try to sync back up to the correct time.
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What if I accidentally hit a button on my player during the experiment that stops the track?

We recommend turning on the “hold” button on your player after pressing play to prevent this from happening.
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What if my player crashes or the batteries die during the experiment?

In the unfortunate event that this happens to you, we recommend you pretend like nothing is wrong and just go with the flow. There’s really no way to fix it, so why not have as much fun as you can anyway?

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Perhaps most importantly: INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! The more people we get for this, the more nuts it will become.

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