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Spaces with stories: Plas102B
By Kelly Haberstroh
Features Editor
The way a person decorates his
or her space can tell a lot about
them, whether it be in an office
or a dorm room. From what they
choose to display on the wall to
how organized or disorganized
their desk is, those can all be
subtle or obvious hints about
who a person is and his or her
individual story.
W ith the start of the Stu-
dent Success Center, Di-
rector of First-Year Experience
and Orientation, Chris Brown,
moved his office from Falconio
Hall to Plassmann Hall at the
beginning of this academic year.
(1) Along with a new office
comes a new way of decorating.
As soon as you enter his office in
Plassmann 102B, the first thing
that grabs the eye is his door.
Decorated from top to bottom
in door tags, not only is it a fun
touch, but there’s a history be-
hind it, as well.
Before he worked in FYE,
he was a part of the Residen-
tial Education Department as
residential director and hous-
ing coordinator, which was the
position that brought him to St.
Bonaventure University. Dat-
ing back to as early as 2007, the
door tags are all connected with
different students who worked
as Resident Assistants, whom he
has fond memories of. Some of
those students later became staff
members, and the tradition con-
tinued to orientation, where his
orientation tags began.
Even after moving off cam-
pus, he kept the ones he had and
his collection still began to grow,
continuing with his positions on
campus.
Caesar’s album modernizes R&B
By Liam McGurl
Co-Editor-in-Chief
C anadian artist Daniel
Caesar released his de-
but album at the tail end of this
past summer. Naturally, it flew
past my radar, but I’m grateful
to have stumbled upon this effort
– leaking fluidity from the seams
– in these cold winter months.
Freudian, boasting an artillery of
10 warm, soulful ballads, mixes
tonality reminiscent of Frank
Ocean with Sam Smith-quality
lyrical content. Simply put: It’s
everything I look for in an album.
Bold, seductive, storytelling.
I was sold within the first
10 seconds of “Japanese Denim”
popping up on my Spotify. Here,
and on every preceding and
following piece, Caesar’s vocal
excellence is silencing. It feels
wrong to speak over his beachy
chords, and, no matter how me-
lodic it is, Freudian is anything
but background noise. Caesar
commands attention, but com-
pletely unintentionally. Despite
Denim: best when ironed, dyed, embroidered
By Jenna Cosentino
Staff Writer
Y ou may have noticed
on your Instagram
feed, Pinterest boards or in
your favorite stores, basic
denim usage – for functional-
ity purposes – is out and ex-
pressive, fashion-focused den-
im is in. If you haven’t heard
of it or seen it, it is basically
spicing up the simple denim
with creative cuts, layering
and washes of America’s fa-
vorite fabric.
The trend consists of raw
hem jeans, which I am confi-
dent were made for shorter
people. Those who are short
understand the struggle of
having to cuff every single pair
of jeans and the frustration
of dealing with jeans that al-
ways seem to be too long. You
don’t necessarily need to go
The Bona Venture / January 26, 2018
Features
PLASSMANN 102B - The Director of First-Year Experience and Orientation, Chris Brown’s
room holds reminders of his fondest memories with students and experiences at Bona’s.
“Every time I have moved, I
have brought the door tags with
me that I had,” Brown said.
Although some tags didn’t
survive him moving them or got
ripped down while he lived in
an apartment in Shay-Loughlen
Hall, they managed to pile up.
“I never took them down, so
they just kept getting added year
after year,” Brown said.
(2) Then, if you look straight
ahead from when you walk in the
door, there is a cluster of framed
photographs of past orientation
teams sitting on the window
ledge, which he jokingly referred
to as his “orientation shrine.”
“It’s pictures of all the ori-
entation teams I’ve worked with
and just the fond memories of
each group and the dynamics
built while working over the
summer,” Brown said.
(3) To tie into the orienta-
tion-related items displayed in
his office, Brown proudly dis-
plays a copy of Sneetches by
Freudian bypassing Khalid-level
praise, those graced with his
work are seldom unimpressed.
Freudian is everything mod-
ern R&B is, should be and con-
tinues to become: moody and
sexy with experiential senti-
ments. Here, Caesar connects
with listeners throughout, but
takes them to a surreal place –
melodies elevating heads, hearts
and thoughts. It’s a natural high.
Content-wise, Freudian danc-
es on a blurred line between hope-
fulness and distraught – telling a
full-scoped story of love and loss;
it’s a self-aware work, indefinitely
grounded in pain. Every track of-
fers a different dimension of ro-
mance. On “We Find Love,” Caesar
looks unrequited love in the face.
“Loose,” the experience of cutting
losses and moving on. “Trans-
form,” adjusting to difference in
the name of making amends. And,
on “Hold Me Down,” a self-as-
sured, honest call for attention: “If
you love me baby, let me hear you
say it / I know I’m your favorite.”
In tone and production,
buy jeans to achieve this trend.
Head to your closet and get
a pair of jeans that you don’t
mind cutting up. Put the jeans
on and measure where you
want the hem to start. You can
either cut straight across or cut
the front a little shorter than
the back.
Image courtesy of Pinterest
Dr. Seuss, as many may remem-
ber from freshman orientation.
This was no ordinary copy of
Sneetches, however.
The 2016 orientation team
surprised him with a personal-
ized copy of the book where they
pasted their rewritten version of
Sneetches over the original text
to make it Bona’s related to re-
member the summer. The mem-
bers of the orientation team also
signed the front of the book in
Sharpie.
(4) Sitting next to his copy of
Sneetches is a picture of the out-
side of a church with the words
“pax et bonum.” This was taken on
a pilgrimage to Assisi that presi-
dent emeritus, Sr. Margaret Car-
ney, O.S.F., asked him to attend
with Nichole Gonzalez, the interim
vice president for Student Affairs.
For Brown, this is repre-
sentative of Bona’s, as “pax et
bonum” means ‘peace and all
good.’ He said the picture is not
only a sentimental re-
Caesar banks on his trade-
marked, stripped-down sound.
It’s just his voice weaving be-
tween simple accompaniment:
a plain guitar riff, a subtle high-
hat, a few chords on the piano.
He brings a number of
equally eclectic artists onto the
tracks, too.
H.E.R., a rising R&B singer
who prefers to remain uniden-
tified, appears on “Best Part.”
H.E.R.’s soulful vigor is a perfect
parallel to Caesar’s, an octave
higher and floating just as ef-
fortlessly. Kali Uchis’ few verses
in the later portion of “Get You,”
the album’s lead single, provide
a break in Caesar’s enchanting
sound. Charlotte Day Wilson
joins him on “Transform,” argu-
ably the most fluid collabora-
tion on the record; Wilson gives
a nonchalant approach to the
track with casual, Liana La Ha-
vas lines.
In all this unconventional
approach to crafting a narrative,
Caesar made the decision to in-
troduce “Freudian,” named after
Also, another style with
raw hem denim is fringe hem.
This is where the hem is about
one or two inches up from the
bottom, and it is cut into fringe.
You can treat this as a DIY proj-
ect, as well. Just pick the length
you want, cut off the bottom
hem and cut slits all around,
making it into fringe. The more
you wash and dry the jeans, the
more they will fray, giving you
that distressed look.
Another way to spice up
your denim is two-toned jeans.
This look is created when the
inside section of the pant is a
lighter color then the outside or
vice versa. There are also styles
color-blocked with the two-
toned jeans, but making them
look funky. Basically, each dif-
ferent part of the denim is either
a darker color or lighter color.
The other trend is embroi-
dered jeans, with either floral
5
Liam McGurl / The Bona Venture
minder of his trip, but where he
made connections to the origins
of peace and all good.
“I have a better understand-
ing of the university’s traditions
and why it’s a part of the Fran-
ciscan tradition,” he said.
(5) As you continue around
his room, on the top shelf of his
bookcase in the corner of his of-
fice is every All Bonaventure Reads
book since the program began with
each author’s signature.
“I’m still looking for a way
to display them so they’re out
and available because in my old
office in Fal, the covers of the
books were on the wall and we
moved those out into the main
hallway as a public display,”
Brown said.
(6) Hanging from the lamp
in the back corner on the other
side of his office are two tassels,
from the graduating classes of
2013 and 2014. As the class ad-
visor for those two years, Brown
Image courtesty of The Carleton Music Bar & Grill
the record, as the last track on
the work.
Here, Caesar provides a
transparently damaged bal-
lad of appreciation for a lover.
He attributes being alive, well,
stable to his love, confessing,
“I just want to thank you for
saving my life, yes / I just want
to thank you for all your advice
/You are the reason, the reason
I’m alive.”
patterns or patches. The floral
embroidered jeans are perfect
to jump start spring, but get-
ting a darker pair of denim is a
cute way to give an outfit a little
twist. Having jewels or pearls
all over the front is also a fun
way to spruce up an outfit.
There are many stores that
you can find these styles at, even
Image courtesy of Pinterest
worked closely with the class
officers and watched them
progress from freshman to se-
nior year.
“It was fun working with
them through all the senior
events, commencement events
and activities, so I kept the tas-
sels from each of those years,”
he said.
(7) On the edge of his desk
sits a wooden box filled with
four different silver toys and
a maze, which Brown recently
brought into his office from a
box he unpacked in his apart-
ment. Since bringing it to his
office, Brown said he mainly
uses it when someone is talking
with him.
“If a student is coming by
and we’re talking about some-
thing, they can pick up one of
those puzzles and fidget while
we go through whatever we’re
going through.”
However, Brown also uses
them as a time killer. He said
one of the toys he’s only been
able to solve four times, and the
most recent time, he didn’t even
realize he had completed it.
“All of a sudden, it works,”
he said. “Like this morning, I was
talking with a grad student and
fidgeting with it and then it was
apart in my hands and I didn’t
even know how it happened.”
Anyone who walks into
Brown’s office can clearly see
how it’s filled with items re-
lating to his time at Bonaven-
ture, whether it be a banner he
has hanging up on his wall, a
painting from the Quick Center
or endless mementos of his dif-
ferent roles on campus.
habersk15@bonaventure.edu
And, so, there’s a chance
Freudian, in all its honest dis-
cussions of love, loss and lust,
is a collective of memories gar-
nered from a singular romantic
interest – one impactful enough
to inspire a well-crafter master-
piece like Freudian.
mcgurllt14@bonaventure.edu
if you are on a budget. If you
are not looking to spend much,
check out stores like Forever21,
Shein, Garage and Old Navy. If
you are not on a budget, check
out stores like Asos, Urban
Outfitters, Free People, Zara
or different in-store and online
boutiques. Different keywords
to look out for while looking for
these different styles of denim
are raw hem, spliced, striped
and embroidered.
You should not be afraid
to try out these denim trends.
There are so many styles out
there, depending on your com-
fort zone with fashion and/or
your style. Throwing on a pair
of boyfriend jeans with pearls
all down the front of it and a T-
shirt tied to the side makes your
casual class outfits a little spicy.
cosentjr15@bonaventure.edu