A good way to wind down after a long Friday is listening to Sophomore Maddy Gyongyosi and Sophomore Will Selman’s KWCW show “Neat Beats” from 5pm-7pm.

The show features new and cool alternative indie/rock and electronic music. This mash-up of sounds reflects on the fusion of Gyongyosi and Selman’s taste. In a collaborative interview, the two hashed out their style of music:

S: We play mostly alternative, indie/rock, a little bit more on the electronic side though. She has probably a little more of an electronic taste.

G: We have slightly different tastes in music.

S: But very like a centralized sound. She’s a little bit more electronic and I’m probably a little bit more indie/rock.

G: Yeah, so we mesh it together, and we like to play a lot of new music and old/new music.

The idea for Gyongyosi and Selman’s show began back when they were first years on a scramble together. Taking on the duties of DJ’s for their scramble, Gyongyosi and Selman found their music to be a commonality between them.

S: We were on the scramble together, and we just essentially AUX cord-DJ-ed the entire scramble up to the San Juan’s and back.

G: So we figured we’d share our music tastes with the KW.

Photo by Jillian Briglia

Once the idea to do a radio show was rolling, coming up with the show’s name was the next big step. “Neat Beats” was the original name for the show, but now it has begun to take on a whole new life through a spelling error.

G: The name’s kind of a funny topic because “Neat Beats” was the most clever thing we could think of at the time. When we were reapplying, we were thinking of changing it, but then we just didn’t because we liked it. And then, we’re now in a weird spot because they misspelled it on the sheet that has it all on there. And it’s “Neat Bears.” And we kind of like that.

S: Officially it’s “Neat Beats,” but on the show, we’re sort of addressing it as “Neat Bears.”

Both Gyongyosi and Selman enjoy performing and DJ-ing “Neat Beats.” Selman enjoys not only getting to share the music that he listens to, but also getting to relax with their show’s audience after a long Friday.

S: It’s nice, especially for me, because our show is Friday 5-7, and my Friday is: Biology, Organic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry Lab, and so I get out of that and it’s a nice two hour period. You can’t really do anything other than talk about music and listen to music. So it’s a nice gap.

Photo by Jillian Briglia

Gyongyosi appreciates the new music that gets introduced to her through the KWCW team. Getting to hear new, cool music is just as fun as sharing her music on Neat Beats.

G: I really like just having those two hours a week where we can just share the kind of music we’ve been listening to and things that we’ve been diggin’ musically, but then also KW is a great way to find new music too, because the managers at KW find really great music. So it broadens our musical horizons and allow us to play that on the show as well.

Featuring a bedazzled giant corn dog and a character dressed as a Diva Cup filled with period blood, this year’s One Act Play Contest entertained audiences of Whitman students and community members alike.

The One Act Play Contest took place in Harper Joy Theatre from Feb. 10 to 14, presenting student-written and directed plays every night.

The contest consists of three acts, each written, directed, and performed by Whitman students. Junior Tara McCulloch wrote “Worth Our Wait,” junior Drew Schoenborn wrote “boating school” and senior Troy Warwick wrote “The Incredible True Story of Corn Dog Millionaire.” Last semester, a student panel chose just three of 22 submitted scripts.

Having no limits to the content, playwrights were free to be as unique, bizarre, funny or even ridiculous as they wanted. Junior Bryan Semonsen, an actor in the One Acts, stressed the importance of recognizing the creativity within the Whitman student body.

“[The plays are] all very, very different. So … I hope the audience sees how varied theater can really be, and how ridiculously creative of a student body we have,” said Semonsen.

Since the plays can end up being so varied from one another in subject, it’s the director’s job to guide the intention of the play for the audience. Junior Theo Henderson, a director of “The Incredible True Story of Corn Dog Millionaire,” wanted not only to amuse, but also to confuse, his audience members.

“I just wanted them to laugh. Different writers and different directors probably have different things that they want the audience to experience. I just wanted to confuse and unsettle, but also make them laugh,” Henderson said.

Because the theater veteran and amateur alike is welcome to participate in the One Acts, the plays can become a learning experience for all participants. For Henderson, a debut One Acts director, it was intimidating to see the actors perform his play in front of a live audience, but it was also rewarding.

“I think just seeing it with an audience for the first time was probably one of the most thrilling things for me. It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I’ve had in a long time, waiting to see this thing that we’ve spent so much time with, and we’d gotten so close to,” Henderson said. “I knew that I thought it was really funny, and I knew that I thought it was really good, but I’d spent so much time and all the actors spent so much time with it, that I just wasn’t sure if it was gonna come across in any way at all.”

Competition aside, Whitman students, participants and audience members alike got to enjoy three well-crafted plays written and put on by their peers. For first-year Maddy Gold, an actress in the “The Incredible True Story of Corn Dog Millionaire,” the time and effort put into making the One Acts spectacular, both on and off stage, should be applauded just as loudly as the performers.

“Just an acknowledgment of how talented Whitman students are, these are created by students, and directed. There is so much work that goes on, both on stage and backstage that I think is really important to acknowledge,” said Gold.

Climbers, boarders, bikers, and river-surfers gathered into Cordiner Hall on Jan. 19 for this year’s Banff Film Festival event.

The Banff Film Festival plays annually in Banff, Alberta, where hundreds of outdoor films are displayed. An intense selection process is required in order for the festival to come to Whitman; the Cordiner event screened eight films ranging from three minutes to over an hour in length.

The Banff event lasted three hours, in which the audience traveled through back-road country in the United States, reached the snow-capped peaks in Svalbard, and fell in love with a dog named Denali. The 10 films covered a variety of outdoor experiences: climbing, skiing, mountain biking, surfing, and horseback riding. Each film brought to the big screen the stunning beauty of the great outdoors while also encouraging the audience to go out and engage with nature.

Lish Riley, Rental Shop Manager for the Outdoor Program, coordinated the Banff Film Festival’s visit to Whitman. The process included crafting a film lineup with Banff’s “Road Warrior” [the traveling Banff representative] that would capture and entertain the Walla Walla audience.

“[The Road Warrior] is really knowledgeable about the films because they’ve seen them all.  By the time they get to Whitman, the films have been showing in other locales for almost 2 months.  So, when it gets down to it, myself and the Road Warrior have the biggest part in film selection.  It’s usually a back and forth process where they will propose a potential line up, and I will give my feedback on what I think about each one and will ask about other films that I particularly liked and how we can create a balanced mix of films,” said Riley.

The festival reached a broad audience, from climbers and bikers to skiers and hikers. For first-year Julia Mason, the Festival’s climbing film, “Women’s Speed Ascent,“ was a particular favorite.

“I liked them all so much. I liked the climbing one because I vaguely knew one of the people in it. And I climb,” said Mason.

For others, like first-year Teagan King, festivals as a whole are wonderful events for the Whitman and Walla Walla community to experience together.

“It’s just really awesome that they brought the whole film festival to Whitman and that it was free to students. I think that people really enjoyed it,” said King.

Whitman has also hosted the Tri-Cities Film Festival, the Backcountry Film Festival, and the Native American History Film Festival.

While the Banff Festival displayed the beauty that can be found in any terrain on this planet, it left the audience mindful of not only their relationship to nature, but also their relationship to one another.

Riley appreciated how the festival brought together not only Whitman students, faculty, and staff, but also Walla Walla community members of all ages and students from the other local college and university as well.

“For me, two of the most important things that we’ve been given in life is the earth in all it’s beautiful splendor, and people, and the relationships that we have the capacity to have with each other, and I think Banff bring together both of those things in a way that reminds us of our passion and love for interacting with nature, often in an activity that heightens our experience, and of the special gift of friendship in all its forms,” said Riley.

In the Harper Joy Theater from Oct. 22 to 25, Whitman students performed the comedy “The Liar.” Attended by hundreds of visiting parents and students alike, the show offered a fresh take on the original play, written in 1644 by Pierre Corneille.

Nancy Simon, retired Professor and Director of the theater, directed the performance, and put great consideration into its selection, with Family Weekend in mind.

“I knew it was going to be on parent’s weekend, so, yes, I used to like, when I was director of the theater, to have something for parent’s weekend that was very accessible to a broad audience and pretty and entertaining, festive.”

Simon praised both the theatric quality and whimsical, humorous content of the play.

“And our objective with it is, as I’ve stated it to our production staff and cast, is to makes people wet their pants laughing. So that’s one reason. It’s also just a feast of hilarious, brilliant language.”

The play is written entirely in iambic pentameter rhymed verse couplets. But despite this Shakespearean language, Simon says it’s still accessible to any audience.

“The language is totally accessible but perfectly, wonderfully imaginative, it’s just really quite terrific. And it’s a fun story about young people.”

Since The Liar is a farcical comedy, its cast wanted to allow the audience to escape into a world full of farce and comedy. First Year Matthew Schetina said that performers hoped for the audience to leave the theater with smiles.

“I hope they have a good time because it’s really funny, I hope they think it’s funny, but I also hope they kinda learn to not take themselves too seriously…and I think that’s important to not take yourself too seriously,” Schetina said.

Junior Kathleen McKeegan played Clarice, one of the main female roles in the play. For her, the play’s fun extended to the performance itself. Working under Simon’s direction, too, proved enjoyable and constructive.

“I loved the script;I thought it was super funny. Also, I adore acting and I’ve never worked with Nancy Simon before so I thought this was a great opportunity. But it seemed fun and it’s a period piece so we got

Noah Yaconelli ’18. Photo by Hannah Bashevkin

to dress up in fun costumes which is really fun. I loved the show.”

After five weeks of long hours of preparation for opening night, staff member Nina Vanspranghe was eager to bring the play to life for an audience.

“After five weeks, it’s just like those past days, that I’m starting to laugh less because we are really eager to have an audience, because over and over we are doing the same jokes but no one ever laughs because there is no audience. We’re really all yearning for an audience.”

On Mondays from 12:00pm-2:00pm, sophomore Molly Cameron hosts the MC² show, playing music that is influenced by current events.

MC² is a great show to experience new music while also becoming aware of the events happening in the world. By keeping an open mind about current events as well as music, Cameron has opened up an avenue for Whitman students to remain connected with the world outside of  “the bubble.”

MC² got its name from witty wordplay.

“The show’s name is a play on an MC (Master of Ceremonies), or the host of an event. Since my initials are MC and I’m hosting a show, I thought it would be a fun name for the show.”

When talking about the criteria for her weekly current event selection, Cameron also gave a sneak peek into what she might play for us next.

“My decision on a theme for the week is pretty random. Usually if something jumps out at me, then I will decide to do something about it. For example, with all of the news that Planned Parenthood has gotten recently I’ve been thinking about doing a girl power week where I play music by and about strong powerful women.”

Cameron keeps an open mind when determining the music she plays.

“I don’t always know all of the songs that I play. Each week we’re required to play 5 new songs, so I look through the new music that is at the station. I also look through new music and genres on Spotify to find songs.”

There is not a lot of criteria for the music Cameron plays.

“I obviously don’t play any explicit music, but otherwise I’m pretty open. Sometimes I focus on specific decades like the 80s and 90s. Usually I play indie/alternative music, but it is [also] a mix of a lot of different kinds of music!”

Cameron started the show as a way to get involved with Whitman campus life.

“I’ve always been interested in having a radio show and I thought this would be a great time to start! I’m a sophomore, but I just transferred here and I was looking for ways to get involved at Whitman quickly.”

Photo by Karissa Hampson

If you’re looking for fun study break on Monday afternoons, listening to Molly Cameron’s MC² is a great way to unwind to great music, as well as learn a thing or to about what’s going on today.

This year Whitman’s three a cappella groups are starting the school year with new goals and new plans.

On Monday, Sept. 5, at 7:00 p.m. all three Whitman a cappella groups performed in the Reid coffeehouse.

Each of the three a cappella groups performed songs. The Testostertones are an all-male singing group, the Sirens are an all-female singing group and Schwa is Whitman’s co-ed singing group.

Schwa started the show with an incredible rendition of Swedish House Mafia’s “Don’t You Worry Child.” Fleming led the T-tones in a jaw-dropping version of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean.” The Sirens closed the show with a hauntingly beautiful rendition of alt-J’s “Interlude 1 (Ripe & Ruin).”

Each group featured veteran and new singers alike. With new voices comes the objective of setting new goals. Fleming is enthusiastic about the new singers and how they fit right in with the T-tones.

“Honestly, a big thing we kinda like is when they’re coming out to audition a lot of them kind of fit our dynamic anyway. And so it moves through and…everyone is a bunch of goofy guys and it never changes the dynamic. It’s been the same dynamic almost every year I’ve been here. We keep the same dynamic going and it’s so much fun. I love it.”

This year, Fleming says, the T-tones are setting their sights high to continue the a cappella legacy at Whitman.

Senior Nate Fleming sings a solo for the T-tones. Photo by Natalie Mutter

“[We’re aiming] just to continue being a great a cappella group at Whitman. Each year we improve more and more.”

To continue that legacy, the T-tones keep it simple.

“We’re a bunch of guys who love singing and love singing great music together, and we enjoy performing for people, really connecting with the audience members, and putting on a great show because that’s what a cappella is really all about.”

This year the Sirens are planning to add new elements to their performance. According to Sophomore Anna Ballew, the Sirens are experimenting with not only the style of songs they sing, but also their style of performance.

“We are trying to incorporate more genres this year and incorporate more choreography.”

Ballew also commented on the thrill of getting new voices in the group.

“Everybody is really, really excited when we get new members and it’s always fun performing with them for the first time.”

Schwa’s goals for the year are to push the limits. Senior Evan Martin is excited about the new incoming voices and how they will help Schwa grow.

“Schwa has added some amazing and talented new members to the group, so now we’re just looking to add new music to our group and share it with people to enjoy. Our goals are just to keep on pushing ourselves as a group, to have a great sound, and perform songs beyond our limits. It only makes it that more fantastic! All the veterans of Schwa are stoked to have these wonderful freshmen on our squad.”

The event was hosted by T-Tones singer Senior Nate Fleming as a fundraiser in the Mr. Whitman contest. Both Fleming and senior Evan Martin, a member of Schwa, are competing in the Mr. Whitman event.

Sounds like the a cappella groups are going to have an incredible year dancing (for the Sirens), beatboxing and, of course, singing.

Walking into a party on a Friday night, something is different. Instead of hearing the bee-bops of Dj-ed dance music, the familiar voices and instruments of fellow students set a different vibe at the party.

Whitman’s students bands bring a musical dimension to campus life.

Each of the student bands adds an element of fun at house parties, diversifying the party experience from that of the “typical party.”

Having live bands at parties gave Senior Cam Hancock a new, different experience.

“When I was a [first year], some of the best parties I would go to had live music and it’s always so fun to have a band there. People engage in the party in a very different way. It’s nice to have something that’s showcased.”

Hancock is a member of the student band The Stay at Home Dads. The Stay at Home Dads is a three person group. Senior Cam Hancock plays the drums, Senior Noah Oltman plays the bass, and Senior Liam Tevlin plays the guitar. They perform covers as well as original songs influenced by some of their favorite artists like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

Photo by Emma Casley.

“It’s hard to know, to track down our specific influences for this band because we all just listen to tons of different music. But you can kind of see parts of maybe a Jimi Hendrix song creep in, or like parts of a Zeppelin tune creep in here and there. But it’s definitely got its own flavor to it. What I like about it is that it is a very new sound. I would say it’s very new inflected with the old,” Hancock said.

The bands older sound also reflects the origins of the band name.

“To be honest, Liam and I took a trip to Idaho, and it was right around when we were forming as a band, and we were staying at this place there and we were just brainstorming ideas. We just noticed as we were moving about the place, and doing things in the morning, we were very dad-like. We had these dad tendencies. We both have been called the ‘dads’ of our group, just kind of the care-takers,” said Hancock.

Once called the TKE Band, Crossing Isaacs has developed into a funk band not affiliated with a Greek group.

The band consists of senior Brenna Feeney as a female vocalist, senior Nate Fleming as a male vocalist, sophomore Jake Barokas as a guitarist, junior Isaac Berez as a bassist, sophomore Steven Aslin as a drummer, sophomore Jeffrey Gustaveson as a trumpeter, junior Peter Ramaley as a tenor saxophonist, sophomore Hunter Dunn on the keys, and junior Milo Cantor on the keys.

Barokas spoke about the band’s goal to keep the music scene on campus alive and strong.

“One of the band’s goals is to re-establish live music as a central part of social life around campus. To do this, we have worked hard to make the current group sound as tight as possible so as to bring high quality music to the stage. We also want to make sure that quality live music remains part of the Whitman social scene so we have been talking to other musicians around campus and will hold ‘unpretentious auditions’ near the end of spring semester to fill open spots,” he said.

Though Crossing Isaacs has developed beyond the original TKE band, they still keep the same funk origins.

“It’s funk with a twist,” said Feeney.

Though bands like the Stay at Home Dads and Crossing Isaacs are veteran bands, new bands also spring up on campus.

Additionally, this year a new student band has emerged. The band, which is composed of first-years, is named “Where the Fuck is Graham.”

The band has Simon McMurchie as a vocalist and guitarist, Bassel Jamali as a bassist (self-proclaimed band leader), Alec Anderson as a guitarist, Graham Dean as a drummer and Sam Tabbutt as a guitarist.

Jamali explained the backstory of the peculiar name.

“I’d be sitting around, waiting for Graham to get back so that we can all go over to Simon’s house, and Graham wouldn’t be there cause he’d be somewhere, and then his phone would be dead. So we’d just sit and think to ourselves, ‘Where the fuck is Graham?’ and that’s the name.”

McMurchie commented on the overall vibe of the newly-emerged band.

“It’s a very casual, fun thing. But it’s also good. It’s very good. We take it seriously and not seriously.”

Watch a video of student bands.

Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and squished into any available seat, Whitman students gathered to listen to poet Andrea Gibson share their provoking and emotional poems.

In Reid Coffeehouse Basement on Friday, December 5, The night began with Whitman students Paige Dempsey and Shireen Nori reading their spoken-word poems about both personal experiences and social problems.

The 10th annual Equality Coffeehouse this year was hosted by co-presidents of FACE (Feminists Advocating Change and Empowerment) Junior Ione Fullerton and Sophomore Megumi Rierson, who worked hard to bring Gibson to campus.

“FACE decided to bring Andrea Gibson because they share with such vulnerability. Their vulnerability, their openness on identity, white privilege, sexuality, gender, is striking. We hope that Equality Coffeehouse is a space where people can let themselves be stricken by Andrea’s poems,” said Fullerton.

Andrea Gibson’s poems covered such topics as gentrification, racism, homophobia, sexism, and explaining the human condition to her dog Squash.

Gibson’s conviction while performing was felt throughout the entire room. Gibson left the audience riveted, provoked, inspired, and, maybe even a little disturbed.

The feminist poetry group Gibson worked with inspires each of their performances.

“I used to work with a group called Vox Feminista and their motto was to ‘Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,’ ” so I think of that every time I go on stage,” Gibson told The Pioneer.

During the show, Gibson rearranged the set list to personalize her experience at Whitman.

“That happens every show, but not as much as it did tonight. Tonight, I got on stage and basically without a set list at all. I just had a bunch of poems out that I might read and I did that because I thought it would help me be more present, and it did help that.”

The truth and personal history that weaved throughout Gibson’s poems were accessible to any listener, calling to action the audience out of silence, whether it be applause or in response to the social issues they addressed.

Megan Falley, who is a poet as well as Gibson’s girlfriend, also performed some of her poems during the night. Falley’s poems addressed the issue of societal pressure put on female bodies.

“I’m part of a feminist spoken word duo, and usually our goal is learning about consent and giving language around rape culture and being able to identify it and fight against it and sort of comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, and rally people for change. I guess when I’m doing personal shows: just the power of truth and that your truth is the best poem,” said Falley.

The truth in both Gibson and Falley’s poems acted as gateways for the audience to explore other social and political truths.