Author Archives: Aaron Gertler

David Rudnick ’09, former host of some of Yale’s best parties, once told me he’d almost managed to get Justice for a concert in the Davenport dining hall, back when they were DJ-famous but not yet hipster-famous. He thought as many as 400 people might have come. That was in another era, before Sonny Moore »

Parties, it turns out, are a fixture of modern academia. The human brain evolved largely to accommodate our skills as a social animal, and every discipline from biology to sociology is incomplete without the study of nightlife. Even Yale acknowledges this.

I step into the November sunshine, knowing quarterback Patrick Witt will tear the Crimson defense to shreds.

He isn’t Girl Talk or Danger Mouse. He isn’t Robyn, Phoenix or Big Boi. His “chief influences” — Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Avicii — have been known outside their bedrooms for five years, max. His voice isn’t unnaturally high or pitch-shifted into breathless robo-pop (as far as we can tell, he doesn’t have a voice). So »

(The following Q&A is part of a series of interviews with professors that will be published every other week.) Maxim Thorne ’89 LAW ’92, teaches the Yale College seminar “Philanthropy In Action.” The buzz behind the class began when those who chose it learned they’d have the chance to donate $100,000, a grant from the »

Q. Have you always known you’d be a Master of Fine Arts? A. Yeah. Growing up, I did a lot of social work and political work, both political art and actual work on campaigns, since my father is a politician in Maryland. I feel like there can be a bridge between the two; politics is »

It’s not every day a Yale student releases a rap album. Actually, I’m not sure that’s happened at all this year, which makes Jacob Sandry’s “Yale Demo” a noteworthy event for the University’s music scene. In just five tracks, Sandry—who records under the name “Yaakov”—covers an impressive range of styles and many of life’s biggest »

Welcome to my first album review, loyal reader! (Readers, plural? I won’t be that optimistic yet). I’m a serious sound junkie who loves living in the most creative musical period in all of history — but having been born in 1993 leaves me a little raw when it comes to catching up on 40 years »

At my first Yale Krav Maga class, I stood face-to-face with the instructor, flat-footed and wearing a nervous smile. Finally, he gave me a gentle shove; it was time for falling practice. Most Yalies know that they live in one of America’s most dangerous cities. In consequence, several campus groups are working to teach New »