Tag: spot

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Opinions

SPOT Falls Short of Houghton Standards

Crowds filled the Houghton chapel on Homecoming Saturday night for the SPOT talent show. Students stood in line for hours, waiting until the doors opened and the rushing mob could inundate the room and fill every cushioned seat. Excitement and anticipation were tangible as students waited for the lights to dim and the show to begin.

Towards the end of the night, two tall, plaid-shirted guys climbed on stage with their guitars and microphones. The lights shone on them and the crowd sat in hushed shadow. Strum. Strum. Strum. The guitar echoed in the dark room.

“Yeah, yeah, when I walk on by, girls be looking like d*mn he fly.” The words continued to wash over the audience as they sang, “I’ve got passion in my pants, and I ain’t afraid to show it. I’m sexy and I know it.” They swayed. They grinned. They sang, “Check it out,” taunting, inviting the girls to stare as they rocked their hips back and forth, singing, “Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.” The audience joined the chant, and my heart ached.

My friend’s parents and eleven year old brother sat next to her. I sat in one of the chapel’s back rows, and I watched over twenty alumni get up and leave after that song, looks of horror and disgust on their faces.

And it wasn’t just that song. It was the pictures of Miley Cyrus half naked, the rap about breaking all the rules, and the closing “Yeah” Usher song. And sexually showing off our bodies didn’t just begin this fall 2013 SPOT.

As I sat in the darkness and the audience clapped, I couldn’t help but wonder, How did this become okay at Houghton? Yes, we’re Houghton students, and we all know it’s a bubble. There’s a real world out there where songs and acts like this seem harmless. And yes, SPOT is a fun night, a night of student voice and freedom, and yes that is important.

Yet when did so blatantly glorifying sin become so okay? We all knew what we were getting into when we packed our bags and took out loans to come here. Most of us chose Houghton because God and the Bible meant something to us. We wanted to grow, be different. And the Bible has a whole lot to say about sex, sin, righteousness, and what we’re filling our minds with.

spot

During “Sexy and I Know It,” I longed to see people storming the stage and pulling the guys off, just as Jesus overturned tables in the temple. As I left the chapel I felt an ache to tell the students I passed, “God is calling you to a higher standard! He’s calling you to be men and women of justice and righteousness, people after His own heart, men and women of courage who will stand up for the truth! What you saw tonight was not that! God is calling you!”

Houghton junior Olivia Neveu says, “Christians are called to be holy and set apart. This is obvious all over Scripture. SPOT can and should be fun, but it simultaneously can and should be honoring to God.” 1 Peter 2:9 calls us to this holiness: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” It’s an invitation to love God. As Alicia Ucciferri says, “Having fun and loving Jesus are not mutually exclusive.”

SPOT comes around every year with kids, parents, and college-donor alumni attending. Perhaps the document outlining SPOT moral guidelines could start being followed. Perhaps there could be more moral voice in the audition reviewing board. Perhaps students could create acts that are fun, but also pure. And, perhaps, Houghton as a whole could begin to care. We could begin to care more about purity, about following God, and, as Dr. Jordan’s been sharing, about worship. SPOT is just the tip of the iceberg.

This is not a call to kill fun or student voice. It’s a call to holiness.

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Stories In Focus

Worship: A New Vision for Chapel

“I’m very intentional about talking about worship as rooting us in a bigger story,” Dean Michael Jordan said after settling into his office chair. This story is the larger Christian story, but it is also Houghton’s story.”

Jordan_MichaelAlthough the morning was quite chilly, Jordan wore flip-flops with his suit coat, adding to the informal, yet intimate nature of the conversation. “It really occurred to me how lonely people are in general,” Jordan said, going on to talk about the pressure on students at a Christian college and how they feel the need to find God’s will for their lives and to be confident in their spiritual walks when, quite frankly, some are not. Jordan said, “Chapel is about connecting students and helping them see you’re not alone.” Therefore, Jordan hopes that chapel will serve the function of binding people together in a Christian community through worship.

One of the ways the community comes together is through music. After praising the Philadelphia Eagles in one of his recent chapel talks, Jordan mentioned his desire for the college to be fluent in three forms of worship: hymns, contemporary Christian songs, and Gospel music. In doing so, Jordan said his ultimate goal is to help students “love a breadth of Christian music and to be a grateful participant [as]  one.”

His plan seems to be successful judging by the ovation the Gospel choir regularly receives, and the heartfelt singing accompanying hymns such as “Be Thou My Vision.”

“We should ask questions about worship and how each contributes to the service”, he stated. In this way, Jordan believes we can see the value in each form of worship and how all are  used to bring God praise by the various church backgrounds represented by Houghton students.

In addition to music, chapel speakers and their messages are an important topic of discussion on chapel days. As he leaned back in his desk chair, Jordan explained that he chooses chapel speakers in collaboration with the Spiritual Life Committee; they select speakers by looking for people who will share topics they believe are important to the community and ones that will build connections to the outside world. For example, Dr. Lenny Luchetti who spoke in early October came from Wesley Seminary, representing both one of Houghton’s sister schools and a reputable seminary for graduate work. Also vital to picking chapel speakers is finding people Jordan referred to as understanding the difference between teaching and preaching. He elaborated on this distinction as the knowledge of when to present facts and when to realize the urgency of a message, and his or her need to make their intent clear and accessible to the audience, in this case, the Houghton community. One of Jordan’s regrets from his time as a Houghton student is that the speakers sometimes lacked this urgency, so he hopes that now chapel speakers will be able to provide that clarity. On days when Jordan speaks in chapel, the passion he has in presenting God’s word and drawing people together in Christ is palpable, evidenced by post-chapel conversations around campus.

In between his duties as chaplain, SPOT engagements, and family dinners in the cafeteria, Jordan works hard to make chapel the spiritual center of campus life. He hopes that students will stop thinking of chapel as a duty someone has forced them to fulfill; rather, over time chapel will form and shape student if they give themselves to it, he said before taking a sip from his coffee mug. If one does this, Jordan said, one will realize that “taking that time really helped me to look at God differently and understand myself differently and to root me in a community that I wouldn’t have been otherwise.”

Categories
Arts

Homecoming Spot 2013 Review

SPOT hosts Hannah Lily and Will Strowe made their way on stage in sweatshirts and sweatbands, in a tribute to Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky”, to kick start the 2013 Homecoming SPOT this past Saturday. A new spin on the structure of SPOT featured student acts of talent along with the usual videos, skits, dances, and songs that elicited laughter – for the most part. This year’s addition of crowd questionnaires filled in the awkward gaps between acts and kept the crowd engaged, while the surprise stage visits of Houghton graduate celebrities “Beardo” and “Dreads” kept the audience on their toes. From ‘What Does the Fox Say?” to raps to German accents, SPOT displayed a broad array of talents and wit from faculty and students alike.

SPOTCAB was two for two in their video contributions; their “Valentine’s Day” movie trailer depicted the almost inexhaustible joke of awkward Houghton couples and revealed the identity of stars within our midst. Their “Valentine’s Day” video was followed up by a rendition of “The Hunger Games” in which Sodexo kept a careful eye on the fruit to student ratio. First year students were comforted in their fight against the freshmen 15 by Hanz and Franz’s “Buddy Workout” video. The final contender in the video section, a remake of the recently viral YouTube music video “What Does the Fox Say?,” did not disappoint in its ridiculous hilarity and continuously perplexing question: what does the fox say?

While the SPOT videos were largely accepted as solid contributions to the expected humor of the night, the skits faired a harsher fate. Alumni Derrick Tennant, ‘93, received a mixed reaction to his lengthy stand-up comedy act; half the time the audience was unsure whether to laugh or “aww” at the jokes that more often than not poked fun at his own partial paralysis. Other skits, while possibly written with good intentions of entertainment, made light of serious issues and events that crossed the line into rudeness and insensitivity.

The new inclusion of purely talent acts was most evidently displayed in the dance performances. The audience was impressed by the skills stepped, jigged, lept, and tapped across the stage, such as when a student trio performed a tap from the Broadway musical “Newsies.” And while there was no stepping, jigging, leaping, or tapping done by the goat brought in for Taylor Swift’s song “Trouble”, he was an automatic crowd pleaser.

An historical crowd favorite, Danny Kim came back to his former glory as a “big deal” with a rap performance that, despite slip-ups, was carried off with style by him and Cory Martin. “Matilda Jane” however displayed less style and more confusion – who is Matilda Jane again? And no doubt was left in anyone’s mind what dessert the Hardy twins ask for their birthday. Modified songs from Hercules, Veggie Tales, Pitch Perfect, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon vocalized the musical talents and creativity of various students; and Dean Jordan apparently originated from Mt. Olympus not Philadelphia, as previously understood.

While some acts fell flat of their intended comedic effect, resulting in boredom or downright offense, homecoming spirits created an atmosphere of camaraderie and geniality that encompassed both the audience and performers.

 

Categories
Arts

Spot: Boom Roasted

Thank you (pause, followed by mood-setting piano music) Colin Lauer and Graeme Little (pause) for being one of the very few original and genuinely funny SPOT acts of the night.
My own opinion aside, from what I’ve heard, the general consensus among upperclassmen who have witnessed some very popular previous SPOTs is that the annual Purple and Gold variety show fell flat this year. The jokes were repetitive, the show was too long, and some humor was in bad taste.

“I think this year’s show had some issues,” said senior SPOT performer Sarah Jacoby. “It did not seem as well organized as past years. I know there was some trouble getting auditions, which I think was a factor.”

If the unsuccessfulness of the night can be partially attributed to disorganization, another key influence was duration. “It definitely went too long,” said Jacoby. “I know there have been SPOTS that have gone longer, but by the end people were ready to go. I think the length contributed to how people felt about the night.”

In response to how the show could have been better executed Jacoby said, “More cowbell. But seriously, I liked the SNL theme and thought that if the hosts stuck to that it would have given the night more structure.”

Despite difficulties, according to Jacoby there were some featured strengths of the night. “Mike Amico did a great job. Also, I really enjoyed the stepping act and the pitch perfect medley, because it’s nice to have things that are actually more talent than comedy,” she said.
“The community sweater was unique and funny, but overall the community jokes have been beaten to death. Colin’s last thank you was very appropriate.”

Senior class president Sydnie Cunningham shared similar sentiments to Jacoby’s.
“I did not enjoy SPOT as much as previous years,” said Cunningham. “I felt that most of the acts weren’t funny and some were border-line offensive, especially regarding Sodexo.”
Cunningham enjoyed having a DJ in place of a stage band, but thought that the organizers should have been more selective concerning the acts. One aspect of last semester’s SPOT which Cunningham found to be effective was its cohesiveness and she wished that tactic could have been employed this semester.

“In the fall Anthony and Scott went above and beyond to plan out a theme and create good transitions,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham also commented that SPOT may have been stronger if it were less Houghton-conscious. “It was a good idea to have Shirley Mullen in the weekend report, especially since that is a consistent act, and it was nice of her to participate, but people need to realize that you don’t have to make fun of Houghton to be funny,” said Cunningham.

Senior Liz Chevalier agreed with Jacoby and Cunningham’s overall assessments.
“It was longer than it needed to be and there were some acts we could have done without,” said Chevalier.

Chevalier acknowledged that she wishes the hosts would have done more skits themselves. She also echoed the praise for Amico’s remixes and the thanks to Lauer for “putting the community joke to rest,” and commented that the offenses committed during this SPOT were more implicit than explicit.

Like Cunningham, Chevalier speculated that future SPOT skits may be fresher, more creative, and better received if they do not exclusively revolve around Houghtonisms. “We should think about what’s funny to people outside of Houghton, things that you don’t have to go to Houghton to understand,” said Chevalier. “Most of the Houghton jokes are way overused, so for the sake of originality we should step outside of what is normally joked around about.”