Hello there boys and girls, after much delay I have been able to compound the excitement and and planning going on to make a new post about a lovely little thing called SOMA!  Due to rather loose and uncertain circumstances I did not feel it was appropriate to provide an ending post to last semester, but now we have enough information and closure to speak up on the topic.  As I am sure most of you know, after much hard work and dedication on the parts of our president and vice president Tim Knapton and Danny Michelson we were able to put on quite possibly the biggest show in the history of the Hub by hosting mash-up artist Girl Talk to play Alumni Hall.  While admittedly there were some aspects of the show that did not go to plan, it is our determination that majority of the people there seemed to have a good time and we therefore feel this show qualified as a success.  Unfortunately through lack of experience we were unable to forsee some of the crowd response prior to the show and were rather dissappointed by some of the actions that took place in line.  As I said Tim and Danny worked harder than anyone knows to make it happen and this included not knowing for sure it would until 2 days prior to the event.  We also would like to issue a big apology to everyone that came to the show and were unable to get in.  Like I said we simply wanted to put on a show that we knew would satisfy a large crowd and did not anticipate a humongous crowd.  Luckily we now can take this experience and adapt it towards future events to help better create shows and activities that will satisfy everyone that wishes to take part.  This story does have a happy ending though, it has officially been declared that SOMA is not in trouble and that we will merely have to cover the damages to the Hub which we took full responsibility for in the first place.  We hope this will lead to an increased interest in the club and plan on using that interest to snowball into our future.

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!

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Hey guys,
A few officer meetings ago we actually were able to keep the ADD under control and formulated a magnificent idea. I decided to take that scheme and turn it into a reality. I poured my heart and soul into it and after a long, excruciating 10 minute process I had brought this creature to fruition. Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce that SOMA has once again expanded into the realm of social networking, now conquering the giant that is youtube! At this rate of success we will soon pass the economy of Beligium Anyways come check it out and join if you have a youtube account. All films,advertisements or whatever whacky videos you feel like sharing with the Penn State community are welcome! you can join at:

http://www.youtube.com/group/psusoma

It has also come to my attention that another one of these nifty tools was concocted earlier this semester and has gone largely underused. I of course speak of our SOMA Lastfm page! It was a brilliant idea forged by our Always-Changing-But-Currently-Titled-Sex Titan Alex. However, he still remains the only member of this machine, what gives? So please check out this fun little page at:

http://www.last.fm/group/Penn%20State%20SOMA%20(Students%20Organizing%20the%20Multiple%20Arts)

On that note, I will go about my Saturday, please send me or any other officer any feedback on the sites!

-Webmaster Bill

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Hey guys, Webmaster Bill here to give a brief update on what is increasingly looking to be an amazing semester in SOMistory.   Having completed our second general meeting tonight, we are at what seems to be a grand peak of interest in the club and activities!  All of the officers were ecstatic with the amount of suggestions, if we can get the ball rolling on even half of these ideas this year we just may become the biggest thing in this institution called Penn State, I’m talking football big!  While that may be a painfully overly exxagerated statement, we are psyched with the current state of things nonetheless.  To give you an idea on what you can expect, I will mention a few of the consistently mentioned ideas so as to set them in this stone we call the internet. 

     First of all, following the tremendous success of the “Find Your So’mate Date Auction” last year we are determined to have it yet again.  While it may not happen this semester it will definitely happen next one, depending on whether it is decided that it should be yearly or monthly.  This naturally leads us into the ever popular Open Mic Nights.  They will be held in the West Commons Study Lounge as they were last year.  We have the first one set for October 7th so if you wish to show off any sort of talent we more than welcome you.  While we traditionally see acoustic guitar/singing acts, we want it to be known that we welcome all forms of talent, whether it be juggling, stand-up comedy, spoken-word, poetry or something really cool that know one has ever heard of. 

     Another thing in serious consideration is a Halloween event.  While we are still toying around with ideas for what to do, we are set on making something happen here, whether it be a show, movie or anything else creative.  Keep looking back to see what the final decision is.  A great new idea that has already been implemented by our Hobo Jim (I believe that’s his title at the moment, it changes every 2 weeks) Alex is New Music Days where we all gather together at Chronic Town (the hookah lounge downtown) and listen to a new album released that week.  Currently this seems like it will be a weekly Wednesday event but there are still kinks being worked out.  Lastly, due to popular demand, we are planning on bringing back the MP3 Experiment this fall. 

     As I said before, this is a mere sampling of the endless ideas that have been concieved for this semester and I will have more updates on these and any other events that see themselves come to fruition when more information becomes available.  We are open to anyone that wishes to help any way so if you do or just have any questions or other suggestions/ideas please email me or any of the other officers, or you could let us know at the general meetings we have the first and third Wednesday of every month.  On that note I believe I have delayed from doing my homework for as long as possible and am sorry I can not further help you do the same with this post.  I hope to see you all at the many exciting events I mentioned above!

                                                                                                                                                                         Webmaster Bill

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     Hello all, Webmaster Bill here getting settled into classes again as I am sure you all are as well!  I figured I would make a kick-off post to sort of get the ball rolling on what will be a most awesome new semester in SOMA history.  Hopefully many of you reading this are new students who saw our booth at the career fair (technically it is starting tomorrow but by the time you will have seen this chances are it will have happened, can you say conundrum?).  I would just like to welcome all of you and introduce you to the purpose of SOMA.  As I am sure you were told if you stopped by the booth, SOMA stands for Students Organizing the Multiple Arts.  As the title explains, we do not limit the club to one form of artistic expression or style or train of thought, we are open to promoting anything that may be construed as local art.  We are an incredibly accepting club with many diverse members and open to anyone.  If you wish to be apart of a community that appreciates all concepts of artistic expression, we are the club for you.  I strongly encourage everyone to check out one of our open meetings that occur the first and third Wednesday of every month.  If you wish to be even more apart of this organization feel free to stop by one of our officer meetings in the hub, we are open to any and all suggestions.  On that note I wish everyone luck with the upcoming semester and will make another post soon when I receive more information about our future.  See you all soon!

                                                                                                                                                                Webmaster Bill

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     Hello all fellow Somates and other visitors of this web site, this will officially be the final post of the 2008 Spring Semester!  From here on out all remaining posts will deal with the future of the club, starting with the ever-so-long ways away next semester.  However, SOMA hopes that this summer break will be a productive one.  We all ready have members finding possible bands and excellent ideas for next semester in hopes to make it as absolutely radical as possible. 

     Now to wrap up the previous semester, I realized I never made a post about the Synthesis event, and therefore will take care of it now.  While riddled with technical difficulties, it was generally agreed that the show was remarkable nonetheless.  Synthesis chair Danny Michelson did an excellent job keeping the show running as did all those that aided him in the process.  All of the acts did a superb job as well, blending their usual auditory attacks with the unique visual stylings this show was created to offer.  Acts included Audio Imagery, Nodd Morris, Jeff Kornberg and Violets For Ophelia.  SOMA would like to thank all of the acts as well as everyone else that helped make this event happen. 

     Now, back to the future of the club.  It was decided at the end of the semester that we would hold elections for officers.  The votes came in and we now have a new administration.  While many of the faces remain the same you will notice a few key changes.  Here is the new list of SOMA officers ready to take the club into the 2008-2009 year!

President -  Tim Knaption

Vice President, Synthesis Chair - Danny Michelson

Secretary - Megan Andrews

Treasurer, Arts Crawl Chair - Erin Stolz

Webmaster/Historian - Bill Nechamkin

PR Chair - Michelle Mancini

Open Mic Co-Chair - Ryan Ulses

Open Mic Chair - Devin Daniels

Fundraiser Chair - Alexis Kumasaka

These are the faces that have gladly decided to carry on the SOMA name for next semester!  As I mentioned before, we all ready have many possibilities lined up and are very excited with what can possibly come.  However, this by no means means that we have everything set up, we are more than open to any suggestions that anyone has.  In fact, I am issuing an optional summer assignment, thats right, like all of your professors SOMA wants your participation!  While your sitting around this summer I want you to think of a terrific idea for a SOMA event next year, this could be suggesting a band to play or  some completely out-of-the-blue never thought of before absolute genius idea of something we could do!  So yeah, turn in your ideas next semester and I will let you know whether you passed or not, don’t worry, I’m a very easy grader ;-).  No idea is off limits, SOMA is open to all free-thought.  We would also like to notice that as this semester comes to a close, we are seeing the graduation of some key members.  Unfortunately, founders Danny Greene and Mitch Carney are moving on and officially leaving this institution we call Penn State.  SOMA would like to thank them for all of the hard work and dedication they put into the club, we will never forget that you are the ones that came up with this ingenious spectacle.  On that note, I’m just about all out of things to say, feel free to contact me or any other SOMA representative over the summer and if not we all look forward to seeing you next fall!

                                                                                          Webmaster Bill

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