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!

     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!

     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.

-Webmaster Bill

-Webmaster Bill

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.

     One tid-bit I would like to mention of our upcoming plans is the now immensely changed music festival.  I noticed in my last post that at the time we were still planning for this event to be an outdoor event some time in early October.  I must laugh at how much the very idea of this show has changed to where it is at now only a little over 2 months later.  It was at some point during August that we realized with football games and other assorted activities there is a good reason there are normally no outdoor music festivals in the fall.  Anyways, we figured in honor of ‘The Girl Talk Fiasco’ (that’s right, I’m officially naming it, all trademark rights shall be claimed in my name) we felt that having the show in early December would be the next logical choice in the same venue we almost caused the annihilation of.  What can I say, it is proven that serial killers often return to the scene of the crime.  We then set to find the most perfect band to headline, there was much deliberation, multiple votes, more suggestions, Danny grew a few new grey hairs and Brick killed a guy.  Okay I’m not going to lie, none of us know a person actually named Brick and I totally stole that from ‘Anchor-man’ but I digress, it was really frustrating.  Upon realizing that there must be some super-secret treaty signed by every band in the whole world apparently that they will be touring Europe during this time, we made the decision to officially move the date of the show up to the end of January.  As of this point we have not officially signed anyone up, but the timeframe does seem to offer a lot more promise in terms of who our options are and hopefully this debacle will end soon. 

    Do not fear, though our big super show may not be occurring this semester, it is sure to just as action-packed as Michael Bay’s stories post-snorting cocaine.  We have two magnificent events occurring within the next few weeks.  First is the 2nd Photo Scavenger Hunt as it would be a waste not to hold such an event in the midst of the University Park fall scenery.  Second is the most triumphant return of the Mp3 Experiment!  Once again we will gather in a common area with the intent to confuse and befuddle innocent passerbye’s as told to by the directions on our Ipods.  Rather than explain this event for anyone not familiar, I will give you a video of the events creators, Improv Everywhere, performing their insane creation themselves.  It was much fun last time and we are sure to replicate it once again. 

     Another event we are rather ecstatic to be co-hosting is the College Humor Tour with Full Ammo Improv.  Personally, as a So’mate that rues not attending this school until the year AFTER we brought Michael Showalter I feel this will be a great alternative comedy show as collegehumor.com has provided myself and I am sure many of you plenty laughs and distractions from homework.  It will be hosted by Jake and Amir (Danny’s ‘buds’) and feature Wyatt Cenac of ‘The Daily Show’ along with many other comedians.  For more information on the tour in general look here.

    Besides this, other ideas are still in the process of being fully-fleshed out or are still in the double-secret probation phase.  In kind of a case of art imitating life the club that is full of poor college students is broke itself so we are always open to fundraiser ideas.  The deliberation here has ranged from baking cupcakes to working with Five Guys (Personally, I favor the latter’s delicious meaty murder).  We have also considered forming a compilation cd of local bands in our ever-continuing efforts to promote and support those in the area.  As of this moment, that is all I am able to remember.  However, it is in fact 3:50 am (sorry to everyone that actually keeps up with my blogs and notices my apparent trademark of mentioning the insane hours I stay up too) and I am sure I must be too tired to remember everything.  The semester has already been an exhausting yet rewarding one and I am sure we will all continue to reap its presents as it rolls on.  Webmaster Bill out!

     This past spring semester ended quite an interesting and successful year in SOMAdom.  We had created enough of a mark in the fall with what may go down as “the Girl Talk fiasco” so the latter half of the year was decidedly much more low-key.  Once again, we cohosted with VASA the event we see as our staple on the Penn State community the Arts Crawl.  This bodacious good time took place at the beginning of April, hence my recount of it now shall stand as a testament to my memory (good or bad).  While cloudy and wet, this did not damper the spirit of the annual myriad of local art.  This year took place amongst 3 buildings, featuring rooms with all the arts and crafts loyal supporters have come to expect from it.  As usual all of the bands put on a great show and truly encompassed the spirit of the local community in each of them.  I wish I could list the names of them all, but hence the aspect of college that destroys brain cells has outdone me in this arena.  I would like to mention the headliner this year, the Buddy System, who truly showed what Arts Crawl is all about.  No one could help but be impressed by the orgy of media they provided in their set with animated videos synching up to their live performance.  Their performance was a truly unique experience and SOMA would like to thank them for sharing it with the entire Penn State community.  While our biggest event of the semester, Arts Crawl wasn’t the only shindig to end the 2008-2009 year.  On the weekend of April 18th, we hosted what we hope will become an annual event, our first very own photo scavenger hunt.  Now I know what you may be thinking “photo scavenger hunt?  Pff every club does that, real original guys.”  Well first of all, who are you with your snide attitude!  Second of all, like everything else we do, we made it original.  Good times were had by all completing the categories which ranged from fun to obscure to well near life-threatening.  We are happy to report however that no one to our knowledge died or got arrested, hence making it a success.  Personally, I would love to create a section on this site dedicated to the photos taken during this so if you were a photographer during it I would greatly appreciate if you sent me your photos with the categories they fit into.  As such, this along with the final Open Mic nights closed another fun chapter in the book of SOMA.  Now, I get to tell you about what is being written.

     Thats right, being written, we are already planning shennanigans for next semester!  You may be thinking “Man, what’s with you guys working through the summer?”  and I say there you go with the obnoxious remarks again!  Towards the end of last semester, it occurred to some key members of SOMA that while the spring has two there are no outdoor music festivals in the fall.  Coincidently, SOMA has yet to really develop a running annual event for said semester…    *ring ring* you here that?  I believe its fate calling!  This is why we have decided to join forces with another student organization dedicated to creating music shows (The Asylum) to attempt to forge an event of epic proportions.  Should we pull this off, it will easily be the biggest thing SOMA has ever been apart of, I’m talking 21st birthday huge!  Currently I do not want to give anything away but we have been working tiresselly planning this possible shindig and if all the moons line up correctly I am positive you will be pleasantly tickled with the result.  I will have more information on this at the start of next semester.

     On that note, it is currently 4:17 am and I can literally feel the cohesiveness of my writing slipping.   I hope you enjoyed this far too rare update, since I have been poor on timing I have attempted to make them count.  So hopefully upon reading this you laughed, you cried and maybe even got a little aroused.  While pledging goes against my beliefs of chaos, I promise that I will TRY to do a better job updating you all this next year.  From the way it is looking, I am sure I will have plenty to do that with.  The point I want to leave you on is that last year rocked, but I have a feeling this next year will be even better!  Webmaster Bill out!

Now onto this semester.  Like I said this post has been slightly delayed by the wait for the results of Girl Talk show and therefore we have gotten well into this semester’s activities.  As usual the spring semester is absolutely humongous for us with the continuation of our annual events Arts Crawl and Synthesis.  Both of these events are being planned and collaborated on more and more each day and we are confident both products will live up to the quality of their yearly traditions.  We as well have an event we plan on turning into an annual occurrence coming up with the second Search for your So’mate happening February 10th!   We feel this is the perfect fundraiser for our club as it combines our amazing monthly occasions of open mic nights as well as possibly winning a date with one of the wonderful people within our club.   On that note this semester is being planned out more and more each day and we hope to see all of you that wish to participate throughout it.  On that note, homework is calling and I hope to see all of as much as possible.  Webmaster Bill out!