1 FRIDAY, Jaw, 22, 2010 THE DA! I. \ Collegian Rossilynne Skena Editor-in-Chief Holly Colbo Business Manage, About the Collegian: The Daily Collegian and The Weekly Collegian are pub lished by Collegian Inc.. an independent, nonprofit corpo ration with a board of direc tors composed of students, faculty and professionals. Pennsylvania State University students write and edit both papers and solicit advertising for them. During the fall and spring semesters as well as the second six-week summer session, The Daily Collegian publishes Monday through Friday. Issues are distributed by mail to other Penn State campuses and individual subscribers. Complaints: News and edito rial complaints should be pre sented to the editor. Business arid advertising complaints should be presented to the business manager. Who we are The Daily Collegian's edito rial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility. 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AFM initiatives worthwhile Last weekend, members of the American Federa tion of Musicians (AFM) Local 660 held a meeting to discuss their Sustain able Music Venue pro- gram. The initiative encour ages bars to sign con tracts with performers they hire. Such contracts help establish a desirable wage for performers to help both the musicians them selves and State College's performance scene. By paying musicians a steady and fair wage, the performers have more security and subsequently more time and freedom to hone their craft. This will result in better NFi ) (UTIcAw Wcßtil is pvPkP! ‘uw Feud makes By Rich Coleman TONIGHT will mark the first time since June 1, 2009, where I've made a point to sit down in front of my television and watch a late-night talk show Back in June, I wanted to make sure I wit nessed Conan O'Brien's first episode as the host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" Tonight? I want to make sure I witness his last. MY OPINION Unless you've been living under Jay Leno's chin for the past couple of weeks, you more than likely have heard a lot of news about O'Brien's drama with NBC. If this late-night talk show fiasco could be analogous to anything, I'd say it's like a bad love triangle. NBC dumped Leno and started going out with Conan, but NBC still secretly had feelings for Leno and was even seeing him on the side (see: Conan's lackluster lead-in, "The Jay Leno Show"). Now the triangle has been exposed, and NBC has learned the hard way that it can't have its cake and eat it, too. All par ties are bitter to some extent, whether it's Conan, who's out of a job, or Leno, who's out of a good reputation. But the interesting thing to me is that this whole mess start ed over ratings. Conan got bad ratings, Leno got bad ratings, so all hell breaks loose and NBC executives decide Leno needs a half-hour show at 11:35 p.m. and Conan needs to be bumped to musicians at local venues. It also seems fair to do so. Musicians have as much of a right to start a family and live comfort ably as people of any occupation. By paying a higher wage, the scene may even attract more musicians to the area, expanding and deepening State College's musical and cultural scope. So far, 12 local ven ues have signed on. While increases in pay ment may increase covers or prices at venues, many local musicians are not part of the AFM, making the union slightly less effective. But the voluntary nature of the program L.01\6 1-lit. 9Ci INSURAWF--! I The ! r ' NIGER late night TV interesting 12:05 a.m. This did not fly. But since this fiasco has start ed, Conan's ratings for his final few weeks of episodes have gone up significantly. So, why is it that people are now so inter ested in watching Conan O'Brien again? It's simple. Viewers are now being given something they did n't have before: a reason to watch him. Let's face it: We all love Conan, sure. We can all agree he's edgier, funnier and more hip than Leno will ever be. But none of us actually make a point of tuning into the show. And I don't mean watching clips on Hulu.com or D'VRing it so you can watch it the next day. I mean, saying to yourself, "Oh, I need to make sure to watch Conan tonight," and then follow ing up on it. Now, sure, there are some exceptions, but obviously if the majority of us Conan fans watched every night, then he wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. The problem here is the traditional idea of late night talk shows being this topical-form-of entertainment-that'll-get-the- water-cooler-buzzing is stale and outdated. Does anyone really talk about last night's episode of "The lbnight Show" at the water cooler anymore? Do peo ple talk about any late night talk shows at all anymore? Certainly not before Conan and every late-night host on net work television started publicly bashing NBC while preparing their best Leno impressions. The reality is that people will watch Conan, Leno, Letterman and any other late-night pro gram if there's a good reason to watch it. With the NBC drama should make it a well-bal anced system that is ben eficial for all parties. The union has also cre ated specific committees for different musical gen res and performance types and has plans for expanding in the future. This should further help State College's music scene grow in many dif ferent directions, as the group also pushes to diversify the acts booked at bars. The main draw at down town bars remains the drinks. However, the AFM's goal of building a stronger local music scene may be difficult, but it is an honor able goal. 1-04 FRFAir W-WERS going on, every late night host has to put in their two cents and in that way, we, the audience, are viewing a late night war-of the-words play out night after night. Each cheap shot becomes more scandalous as the contract negotiations between O'Brien and NBC become more heated. And it's making for some damn good television. But therein lies the problem. Late night talk shows are only worth watching if something out of the ordinary is happening. Animal Collective is playing on Letterman? Worth watching. President Obama is a guest on Conan? Worth watching. Conan is viciously insulting his bosses and Jay Leno while he negotiates a multi-million dollar exit from his contract after a slew of erroneous actions taken by NBC executives? And it's the last week that he'll be on air? Definitely worth watching. But that'll all change once all this controversy fades away, after Conan has been off the air for a week or two and this is all old news. No one will care to watch Jay Leno after the first couple of weeks, and we'll all just keep ignoring Letterman and Kimmel and Ferguson like usual. Only in the fall, when Conan returns to late night TV will any of us say to ourselves, "Hey, I better watch Conan tonight. This is going to be a big event." Hopefully by then we'll have figured out a reason to keep watching without the aid of con troversy. Rich Coleman is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Collegian's Friday columnist. His e-mail address is rmcso74@psu.edu. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Loss of City Lights Records damages music community In all the years I spent immersed in the State College music community, nothing served me better solace than the continu ous presence of Greg Gabbard's record store downstairs from Metro. Seeing the David Bowie cutout in the window and the shaded gaze of the man behind the count er always meant I could lose myself for an afternoon. It was a feeling no live show in this town could offer me. It was personal. A record store, most people don't realize, isn't for buying records. Hell, you can listen to records anywhere nowadays. Record stores are for finding yourself in music. Live shows very rarely offer that opportu nity as great as they can be. You're sur rounded by strangers, and unless the band you're seeing is truly transcendent, there's always this notion of familiarity in the air. A record store can take you out of your com fort zone and push you forward. And now that Greg's leaving. State College is losing that. I can't say the town ever seemed to understand it as a whole but I know there have been and, until Jan. 30, will continue to be people who under stand it. Greg was the gatekeeper, the shepherd, the last remaining light in State College's music landscape. City Lights Records will be sorely missed, if not by any current students, then by those who have entered its doorway in the past. Goodbye, City Lights. Joni Mitchell told us that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. I'm not sure we'll ever know what we had in City Lights. Renaming street for King would be honorable move In his Wednesday letter, "Murphy a bet ter choice than King for street renaming", Brian Heckmann claimed that honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a street name "would be a disgrace to our commu nity" and that King "has only the most ten uous connection to our community via a singular 1965 speech." For him to make such remarks is insensitive, incendiary and reprehensible. I am in agreement that Lt. Mike Murphy is worthy of being honored by the State College community. He was a courageous man who valiantly served and ultimately gave his life in exchange for another. Dr. King. like Lt. Murphy, risked his life for 13 enduring years as a leader during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. His prominence and resolve to attain racial equality culminated in his assassina tion. He is a Nobel Laureate and national hero who has afforded greater civil rights to minorities. Mirthermore, he appropri ately presented to historically privileged whites like myself that racial discrimina tion and inequality are fallacious. Dr. King is no disgrace to this communi ty His ties are both deeply rooted and abundant. And. we, not as people of differ ent color but people of upstanding moral character, celebrate Dr. King's birthday each year hoping that we can peacefully uproot the deeply seated racial inequality that even today still exists. DeChellis deserves support for efforts on and off court When I read the letter titled "Lack of sustained success shows PSU needs new coach," I was surprised to see the lack of Penn State pride coming from an alumnus. Yes, Penn State is all about pride in suc cess. Yes, the men's basketball team is struggling a bit this season. But, no, this should not be the means of firing Coach DeChellis. This very young team is still growing. They're still learning to play this very familiar sport with not-so-familiar team mates. The way for this team to play together is to stay together. A new coach would bring uncertainty and would only cause more problems. As pointed out in the letter, he has done great things for the Coaches vs. Cancer foundation, not to mention the National Invitational Tournament championship he has under his belt. The Penn State way is never to quit and to have pride no matter what the score. Small World Today is my fourth day in Montpellier, and right now, France is about the little things what I get most excited about isn't necessarily the Arc de Triomphe on the other side of town or the opera house a block from my apartment. It's the tiny dog under the table next to me at the cafe I'm writing this at. It's the random anti-capitalism protest held by several of France's major politi cal parties that I ran into while looking for a farmer's market today. It's getting in a taxi and hearing French voices on the radio. I feel kind of stupid for obsessing over stuff as ordinary as cafes and tram cars, but the little things here are what makes France so different from home. It's about 40 degrees here, and people are still sit ting outside at cafes install heat lamps above every table so everyone can still eat, smoke and people-watch. Read more from Small World and the rest of The Daily Collegian's blogs at psucollegian.com. Kevin A. Doran Class of 2007 Kyle Lewis Ciass of 2008 Maddy Pryor freshman-advertising
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