Foo Fighters Announce Upcoming Tour Dates

The American rock band Foo Fighters announced the dates and locations of their 2015 North American tour on Nov. 18. The tour includes 28 concerts throughout the United States and Canada, which will commence July 4 in Washington.

            This announcement came just a short eight days after the band released their eighth album “Sonic Highways.” The album, which had been in the works since early last year, is unique in that each of its eight songs were recorded in different, musically historical cities across the country, with the help of iconic musicians from said cities.

            Although the Foo Fighters will not be joined on tour by the various musicians who helped them produce “Sonic Highways,” we can expect they will integrate their new material into their set lists alongside tried and true crowd favorites, if their recent performances can be any indication.

            According to Setlist.fm, during a concert at the Irving Plaza in New York on Dec. 5, the Foo Fighters played five songs from the new album – “Congregation,” “In the Clear,” "Outside," "I Am a River" and “Something From Nothing” – along with classic rock covers and songs from each of their previous albums.

            The first single from “Sonic Highways,” “Something From Nothing,” which was officially released on Oct. 16, has quickly become a frequently played song at concerts. Since the Foo Fighters played the song on Oct. 17 on the Late Show with David Letterman, they have done 13 live performances to date. “Something From Nothing” was featured at 10 of them. In comparison, other new songs like “Congregation,” and “In the Clear,” have each been played six times since their release.

            Although the Foo Fighters are certainly looking to introduce their audience to their new work, they seem to respond to their audience in turn by playing what is already popular among their fan base. This is not only true of “Something From Nothing,” – which has over 3,500,000 views on YouTube – but of the band’s much older songs. In fact, according to Setlist.fm, the three songs that the Foo Fighters have played most often in concert are “Everlong,” “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero,” all of which were recorded for their 1997 album, “The Colour and the Shape.” The band has not given up on playing their classics to make room for new songs, either; all three songs were featured at their most recent concert on Dec. 5.

            Appropriately, during the Foo Fighters’ 2015 North American tour, the band is set to return to five of the eight cities where they recorded songs for “Sonic Highways”: Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tenn. The Chicago show, set for Aug. 29, is already sold out according to the Foo Fighters’ Facebook page.

            Royal Blood will open for the Foo Fighters from the July 6 show in Camden, N.J. to the Aug. 25 show in Pittsburgh, with the exception of the July 18 show in Boston, where Mission of Burma will play.

It is reasonable to wonder whether some of the musicians that played a role in the production of “Sonic Highways,” could also join the band for select shows along the way, considering they are returning to many of the cities where the album was produced. It has already been determined that the kick-off Washington show will feature performances by musicians from almost every city the Foo Fighters visited during production.

            The band introduced a box-office only pre-sale on Nov. 22 called “Beat the Bots,” which is designed to curb ticket scalping. With the exception of the Washington concert, which made online ticket purchases available right away, and the two concerts at Fenway Park in Boston, all shows offered a “Beat the Bots” presale.

            Online pre-sales began Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. and the general public was able to buy tickets starting Dec. 4. Those who are interested in purchasing tickets should visit the Foo Fighters’ website for a full list of concert locations.

By Shelby Ashline

Written for Amherst Wire

Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies has 'something that interests everyone'

Near the northeast corner of the University of Massachusetts campus lies a faded brick building. Set off of East Pleasant Street by a tree-lined driveway, the only indication of its presence to passersby is a small white sign.

Although it is unknown to many students and townspeople alike, the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies attracts scholars from around the world. With more than 40,000 books and six gardens filled with only Renaissance-era plants and a theater, according to Director of the Renaissance Center Arthur Kinney, the center has a lot to offer to anyone who enjoys studying the Renaissance.

The 28 acres of land on which the center sits was willed to UMass in 1996 by Janet Wilder Dakin. Her estate included the house – which was built in the style of a Renaissance cottage in Shakespeare’s Warwickshire, according to the center’s website – as well as a barn and shed.

Former UMass Chancellor David Scott made the decision to transform the property into a center for Renaissance studies and it was officially opened in 1998. The barn was changed to house the Black Box Theatre, where the center holds plays.

According to Kinney, the center “subsequently has served both the campus and the community” in a variety of ways.

For example, the gardens bring together the Five Colleges and the local community. Students from Hampshire College and Smith College influenced the creation of the six Renaissance-era gardens.

All plants within these gardens can be found in “Gerarde’s Herball,” a book which was published in 1698 and is essentially an encyclopedia of Renaissance-era plants. One of the six gardens is made up entirely of flowers that were mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays.

In addition, students from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture planted an orchard on the property two years ago, according to the Renaissance Center’s librarian, Jeff Goodhind. Townspeople are also allowed to plant flowers in honor of family members.

The 40,000-volume library in the basement of the Renaissance Center attracts scholarly attention for its quality. Of its vast collection – much of which was received by donation – 1,000 books were written before 1700. A bible from 1495 is its oldest book that is fully intact.

Among the dozen Renaissance centers throughout the world, the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies is set apart, according to Kinney.

“(The other centers) certainly don’t have the number of rare books we do,” Kinney said.

Although all of the books are searchable through the W.E.B. DuBois Online Library, they cannot be checked out. Because of their age, they are very fragile and the staff of the center want to keep them in the best condition possible.

During the fall semester, the center hosted a variety of scholars, including a student from Harvard University and two students from the University of Tuebingen in Germany.

Each semester, the center holds at least two conferences involving guest speakers and three concerts, which Goodhind said are almost always free and open to the public.

An Italian Renaissance Harvest Banquet is held each fall, featuring only Renaissance-era food, jugglers, flute players and more.

Each spring brings the Renaissance Festival, which is the center’s most popular event. Kinney said that as many as 650 people attended the 2014 festival, a record number for the event.

Despite rainy weather, students and community members came out to experience blacksmithing, falconry, basket weaving and theater, musical and dance performances.

“It’s one of those ‘something-for-everyone’ kind of events,” Goodhind said.

Kinney and Goodhind believe that so many UMass students enjoy studying the Renaissance due to the diversity and overwhelming importance of the period.

The Renaissance attracts English majors, comparative literature majors, history majors and foreign language majors, in particular. The Renaissance period is one of the three largest focuses of study in the English department.

“The Renaissance was art, it was history, literature (and) theater,” Goodhind said. “It encompasses everything so there’s something that interests everyone.”

By Shelby Ashline

Flashnotes.com a new form of income for college students

Across the country, college students are getting paid for doing what they normally do on a regular basis: go to class, take notes and study.

Flashnotes.com, a website that was founded in 2010 by Mike Matousek, allows students to buy and sell digital notes, study guides, flash cards and other learning aids.

Matousek, who is also the company’s CEO and president, said he came up with the idea for the site while taking a statistics class at Kent State University, a required class for finance majors like himself.

“I switched majors a couple of times and when I finally settled on finance, I had already taken a statistics class, so I understood statistics,” Matousek said in a phone interview. “For whatever reason there was just a disconnection where the other students couldn’t learn or understand the concepts from the professor’s teaching. So I started creating study guides and I sold (them for $10 each) and I made over $1000.”

Matousek’s personal experience made him consider how he could expand this friendly sharing of knowledge to all college students who struggle to understand the subject matter of their courses.

“My main vision for (Flashnotes) was to give students a voice in how they study and learn,” Matousek said. “We’re not using this for any other reason than to truly make a difference in the number of students that don’t graduate. We believe having focused, course-specific, high-quality content can actually make a difference when students are walking out of class thoroughly confused about what’s going on.”

According to Matousek, three months ago, he and his employees redesigned Flashnotes, making it easier for users to find content and providing sellers with “additional tools to help promote their content.” A significant change was the addition of a “live video component” by which students can directly pose individual questions to other users.

Backed by $11.2 million from two venture firms, Stage 1 Ventures and Cengage Learning, the site is currently run out of Boston by 22 employees. Flashnotes has over 100,000 users from 1,600 colleges and universities across the country, most of whom are buyers.

Oddly enough, what a user pays for a piece of studying material is left up to the seller. Sellers set their own prices for their work based on its quality and educational value.

Although the average is $31 per hour (meaning an hour spent either in class or organizing notes outside of class), student salaries range from $1.99 per hour to $36 per hour depending on the content’s worth in the eyes of the seller.

Sellers receive 70 percent of what buyers pay. The remaining 30 percent goes to the company.

To date, student sellers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have uploaded 323 items to Flashnotes. UMass student Kristen Sarno has sold 63 copies of the 9 items she has made available since she first started selling with Flashnotes on Oct. 28, 2014.

Sarno, an undeclared sophomore from Plainville, said Flashnotes helps her afford the expenses of living off-campus and helps her pay for college while still spending a lot of time learning her class material.

“Flashnotes lets me focus more on my classes than if I were to work 25 hours a week somewhere else,” Sarno said. “My grades have definitely improved since starting it too.”

By selling notes, study guides and flash cards for two of her classes, communications 287 and classics 100, Sarno estimated she has earned $490. She said she usually spends four to five hours preparing a piece of material for the site. One of her study guides is 30 pages long, double-spaced.

“I don’t skimp,” Sarno said. “I want people to do really well. I don’t want them to pay for something and not get a good product.”

However, Sarno said she has received mixed reviews of her work. On the one hand, some of her classmates have thanked her and asked her to put up more study materials, having noticed an improvement in their grades after using them.

“Other people get really upset that they have to pay for it,” Sarno said. “(But) if you didn’t understand the material you’d end up going to a tutor. That would cost way more than using a $10 study guide or $8 flash cards.”

Sarno said she would recommend Flashnotes to both buyers and sellers because of the site’s benefits, convenience and ease of use.

“Making an account is really easy (and) simple to do,” Sarno said. “The Flashnotes people are really nice to work with…They’re really helpful if you have any questions.”

Matousek encourages all students who have a good understanding of their class material to get involved with Flashnotes, both for their own benefit and for their classmates’ benefit.

“We always want to target the best sellers and we really encourage students that do have a great grasp (on their class topics) to join,” Matousek said. “Not only can you make the additional money, but our sellers really do make a difference for other students in their class.” 

By Shelby Ashline

Office of Emergency Management continues preparations for security drills on campus

At least twice each semester, sirens echo across the University of Massachusetts campus. Students hear a monotone voice call out over the speakers and feel their phones buzzing, with text messages and e-mails conveying the same information as the voice –“This is a test of the UMass Amherst Alerts System.”

The Office of Emergency Management conducted this semester’s first test of the UMass Amherst Alerts system last Thursday, Oct. 2, at 11:15 a.m.

Although the test may have seemed routine, Jeff Hescock, director of University Emergency Management and Business Continuity, said improvements made to the system over the summer sped up the delivery of the messages on Thursday.

“(The new system) allows us to be more streamline in the way that we send the message,” Hescock said. “Once you hit ‘send’ you’re sending (the message) to both e-mail and text at the same time versus before we had two different systems…We kind of went from having two red buttons to one red button.”

Hescock assessed last week’s test as being “extremely successful,” and said he and his staff have not run into any problems with the system that need to be addressed.

Before each test, the Office of Emergency Management staff members are positioned around  campus to act as spotters. They give Hescock feedback once the test is over regarding how well they could hear the sirens and the voice.

Hescock explained that even though there are eight strategically placed outdoor warning sirens across campus, depending on the day of the year, time and weather conditions, people might have more difficulty making out the voice’s message. All the same, hearing a warning siren indicates to the 30,000 students and faculty on campus that they should check their phones for emergency emails and texts that will provide them with more information.

“Through the years, (the sirens) have been tested so much, we really feel like we have great coverage on the campus,” Hescock said. Federal law requires that UMass test the UMass Amherst Alert system at least once per semester, according to Hescock, but the Office of Emergency Management chooses to test twice per semester and once during the summer.

Hescock emphasized that part of the purpose of testing the system so frequently is to gauge the sound quality of the sirens and voice so adjustments can be made, if necessary, in addition to combatting any potential problems with delivering the automated e-mails and texts.

“Preparedness is key,” Hescock said. “We’re always practicing before we respond (to) an emergency. We update our procedures, update our plans and update our checklists.”

Hescock and his staff’s preparedness extends beyond just the tests of the alert system. He and the Campus Emergency Operations Center Team, which consists of 18 people from different functional areas across campus, have regular meetings where they perform tabletop exercises, practicing how they would respond to mock scenarios. Additionally, the Office of Emergency Management conducts a full-scale mock exercise each year.

This year, the Office of Emergency Management, in collaboration with UMass Police Department, received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for $106,500, which will fund an all day, regional exercise sometime during the spring semester. According to Hescock, it is expected to integrate all of the Five Colleges, campus, local and state police forces, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the Campus Emergency Operations Center Team.

However, the UMass Amherst Alert system is not only used during tests or to alert people of danger on campus. During particularly harsh winters, the system is utilized to alert students, faculty and staff when the University closes due to weather conditions.

“We probably used it a half a dozen times for school closures this past year,” Hescock said.

Although the system doesn’t need to be used frequently, Hescock is convinced that when and if an emergency situation does occur, he and the Campus Emergency Operations Center Team will be ready to respond because of their extensive preparation.

“At the end of the day…when (the Campus Emergency Operations Center Team needs) to come together, we do so effectively because we’ve trained, we’ve exercised, we all know each other…We can kind of finish each other’s sentences at some points,” Hescock said. The UMass Amherst system in turn “becomes kind of a well-oiled machine.”

Hescock encourages anyone who has not signed up for text message alerts to do so to further enhance communication of the urgent messages.

By Shelby Ashline