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Features
Walker Tries His First McDonald’s Burger?! (… and we explore Centennial Park)
For our first blog of the year, Walker and I wanted to do a cool activity that we figured lots of people haven’t tried at Vanderbilt. After deliberating for a couple of days, we decided on something close to Vandy and even closer to my Minnesotan heart: ice skating at the Centennial Sportsplex. Naturally, however, we both forgot to look at the public skating hours calendar (disappointed, but not surprised) and did not realize until we arrived that it was not open. So instead of skating — which I was not properly dressed for anyways, so maybe it was a blessing — we decided to head right across the street to one of Nashville’s favorites, Centennial Park.
When most people hear the name Centennial Park, they think of the Parthenon and the museum, which of course are stunning and definitely worth checking inside, but what I discovered with this trip to Centennial is how great the place is from a park standpoint. The trail along the park is about one mile long and covers much more area than just the Greek building replica. It made for a great time as we made the loop around the park messing around, swinging on swings, and walking around trees and bridges in just over 30 minutes — and it was completely free! We went around 5:30 p.m. when the sun was setting, which I would highly recommend seeing; I fully believe that people should visit places once in the daytime and once at night to experience the different atmospheres it can have (plus at night, Vandy students can skip the walk back home and Vandy Van back from Towers). Walker also had the genius idea of bringing his airpods with him — check the pods making their debut in our photos — which ended up with us jamming to Mr. Brightside as we walked up to the Parthenon. I was a little ashamed as I sang and shimmied my way past the other pedestrians, but then Taylor Swift came on and I went right back into my zone.
I told Walker we needed to take a photo like the ones on Twitter 
I was a much better photographer 
It took us 5 minutes to get this photo
One of my favorite little surprises about our trip, however, was a sidewalk that led from the park trail to a McDonald’s right across the street. Now I don’t know if I was just hungry or if it was the future-Pinterest-mom in me beginning to emerge, but seeing all of the beautiful string lights that were quite literally leading me to my meal was a magical experience; it even made going to McDonald’s of all places seem like a luxurious endeavor (well, almost). And although I wouldn’t necessarily call our McDonald’s meal “luxurious”, I was able to get two single cheeseburgers for only $2.19, and if that’s not on of the best deals you’ve ever heard of, I don’t know what is.
Now I’m not sure how he managed this (and I apologize to every one of you who grew up with McDonald’s as your parent’s go-to on-the-road meal like I did), but Walker had never had a McDonald’s cheeseburger before. As you would expect, I could not let him live like that any longer, so I bought him my order: single cheeseburger only pickle and documented the glorious moment so he could remember the day his life changed. As you can see in the video, his reaction wasn’t as significant as I hoped, but he did like it and later said he should’ve gotten another one, so I’ll take what I can get.
Seriously though, it took me six months of being at Vanderbilt to go to Centennial Park again, and if anyone has an hour to kill in between classes or on the weekend, I would highly recommend going there. Whether you choose to hammock, study in the grass, check out the museum, or just walk the trail, Centennial Park is a great place to be!
Parthenon Museum Hours
https://www.nashville.gov/Parks-and-Recreation/Parthenon.aspx
Centennial Sportsplex Public Skating Hours (March)
Amber on Artists
Feat. Kevin Liu
Hi, my name is Kevin Liu! I am an artist from Winchester, Massachusetts. I currently reside in Hank Ingram, and I am a Biochemistry and Spanish double major pursuing a minor in studio art.
What is your primary medium of art?
I typically work with two-dimensional media: pastels,chalk, colored pencil, graphite, water color
When did you get into drawing?
This is what my mom says at least [laughs]: I would draw on the walls all the time. So, she was like, “You know what? Let’s put this to use.” So, she signed me up for art classes when I was about 5, and I did them until 10th grade, took a break for a little bit, pursuing art on my own, and then joined again in 11th and 12th grade to just develop my technique.
I have to thank my mom for all of this. I was really lucky in that in our neighborhood, there were a lot of kids who were really interested in art. We were about 5 years apart in ago, and every Tuesday she would bring all the kids together and hire an art tutor to give us lessons. The emphasis in the first three years especially was on technique, so we’d do a lot of still life’s where they would put an object down and we would draw it. It feels weird saying it like that, because for me it was just Tuesdays. [laughs] After about three years it became more creative, which is what I really liked, so we’d still have an object that we would base our drawings on, but he gave us the liberty to make a background and build a story around it, which is what I really fell in love with.
Your parents seem very supportive of you and your creative interests? Was there ever any push back?
Their intent was to expose me to different fields—they put me in music and sports, too. As I got older, it became clear that although art is good as a hobby, I should be looking into different things. But I do have to thank them for giving me the exposure and for being so supportive. Like, they didn’t ever say, “This is great, but you should focus on your studies”. They would be like, “Oh, this is great. I like what you did here. Keep making stuff,” which I’m very appreciative for.
What does art mean to you?
It’s very hard to define art. It’s something that’s unique to every person. Every person that makes it, every person that looks to it.
I look at art as a puzzle. I like to do surrealism in my pieces and try to find ways to express abstract and intangible concepts, and say how can I present this, not necessarily concretely, but visually. As something that people can see.
Art to me isn’t just an activity, it’s something that affects everything—especially how you view the world and events. Sports are great, but a lot of times there may be equipment you need, there may be space you need, there may be other people that you need. Music is wonderful too. You can always listen to it, but in order to create it—unless you’re a vocalist—you have to have an instrument and space to perform. But, for me, art is just the essence of creativity. And part of that is just seeing the world in different ways. Like, you can look at this one way, but what if I change the angle and change the light. And that’s something you can apply that in your everyday life.
The Girl Next Dore: Midterm Szn
Okay people, we all know its #MidtermSzn, so I decided to go with an unconventional post this week. Hope y’all laugh or at least look at some cute doggos!
TL;DR? — there are puppies at the bottom of this post!!!!
The past two weeks have been #ruff because of exams, essays, life, etc … I’ve read (mostly) something like seven books this term, and my eyes are slowly starting to glaze over every time I pick up my computer to write another essay. Basically …
I have a feeling my midterm grade in Art History is not looking so hot, and I contemplated skipping class today so I didn’t have to get my test back (likely reaction below), but that probably wouldn’t help.
I keep telling myself all of my professors are cramming these assignments in last minute, but really … they’ve been on the syllabus all term. Either way, though, I’m pretty over it …
But … the bright side? Well, for starters, we still have half of a term to potentially turn our grades around? … right?
AND! In three short days it’s SPRING BREAK!
We’ll have NINE DAYS OFF to sleep, or dance, or eat real food …
So, while I know this week is terrible, hold on tight! Finish strong! I know y’all can do it …
And, in the meantime … enjoy these puppy gifs … because we all need some doggies, and these are arguably the only thing that’s going to get my through today.
Good luck with the last few days!
Anchor down,
Brooke
QUIZ: What Munchie Mart Item Would You Be?
As a first-year student, you will never feel as full-bellied as you are now with three meals a day and what feels like 24/7 Munchie runs. If you’re ever at a lost of what to get, take this quiz and go for your spirit Munchie snack!
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The Girl Next Dore: The Year To…
As I sat in Commons trying to write this post an hour before it was due, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to blog about this week. I realized I was cold, and grabbed my new sweatshirt from my bag. As I pulled the “Vanderbilt English” sweatshirt over my head, I realized what I could write about… writing.
It seems so simple, but I guess I took telling y’all I love writing for granted. I felt like it was implied because, well, I’m writing these posts. But today, I’m not taking that for granted.
I love writing. I try to write as much as possible, and this year I decided I was going to start a Bullet Journal so I could try to write more.
I know it’s already February, but the front page of my Bullet Journal says “the year to…” with a graphic of a few things I wanted to focus on this year. Some of these things are directly linked to my writing, and some are not. But they’re all important to my goals and my use of that journal, so I thought I would explain what each of the graphics mean.
“Call home more” — I need to call my mom more. You probably should too… our parents miss us.
“Listen” — as a reminder to be a thoughtful listener. Not everything needs a response, but everything deserves to be heard.
“Escape sometimes” & “Know my limits” — to make sure I’m being cognizant of my own needs, and allowing myself to take a break if I need one.
“Let Him in” & ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” — I want to focus on my faith more this year. Trusting in Christ who loves us so well.
“Love more; myself & others” — because this world needs a whole lot more love.
“Embrace Mondays” — They can be terrible… I know… but it’s just another day. A fresh start. This year I’m going to try and use that as a good thing.
“Focus on my words of ’19: congruency, devotion, reflection” — This year I didn’t give myself a “New Years resolution.” I gave myself three words to try and live out each day. “Congruency,” or “agreement and harmony; comparability.” I’m trying to live this by being congruent in my words and my actions. Following through. “Devotion,” or “love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.” I’m a very determined person, but sometimes that leaves me too focused on a colder side of things. Devotion has a more soft, human quality, and that’s how I want to work this year… devoted to things. And finally, “reflection,” or “serious thought or consideration.” Basically, am I actually being congruent? Devoted? Am I loving more? Embracing Mondays?
“Get my paragraph right” & “Remember to look up” — both of these are taken from an amazing book by Beck Dorey-Stein called “From the Corner of the Oval.” She opens one of her chapters with a quote from one of Obama’s Presidential speeches. It reads something like “we are all just living in this world that is one big paragraph. We need to get our paragraph right.” For me this means I need to focus on making sure my impact on this morning, this school, someone else’s life, is positive. Remembering to look up is my reminder to stop and let the good times sink in before they are gone.
“Be positive” — because we all need that reminder.
“Read” — because I love a good book.
“Drink a little less coffee” — because 2019 is the year to stop my coffee addiction… wish me luck.
This Bullet Journal certainly helps me to write. But it also helps me to remain aware of the goals I set for myself this year.
What are your goals? What can you write about?
Get your paragraph right this year.
Anchor down,
Brooke
Amber on Artists
Featuring Shun Ahmed
© Photography by Shun Ahmed
Hi, my name is Shun Ahmed! My hometown is right here in Nashville, TN, and right now, I live in Memorial House. I am planning on majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Political Science and minoring in Communications.
What is your primary medium of art?
Right now, I take photography, videography, and film. I mainly do photography, though, for both business and creative purposes.
What spurred your interest in cameras?
When I was super, super young, my dad got me a camera. It was a $20 camera from the thrift shop. A Sony AX 6, I think, like the second oldest version of Sony. It was super old and completely broken, but my dad got it for me, because he knew I wanted to find a hobby. Plus, both my parents are refugees, and they didn’t go out much. They didn’t like me going out with people they didn’t really know. So, they brought that home for me when I was around 4 or 5 years old—you can’t expect parents to know exactly what a kid wants. I was so bewildered and happy. So then, I played around with it for a year and started reading up in the library about how a camera worked. Tried to fix it myself. I think I broke like half of the camera, so I can’t use the flash anymore, but I still got pictures out of it. They were super grainy, but I worked with it.
When I was in 5th grade, I got a fully clear picture to come out. It was of my little sister. It came out, and I completely fell in love with it. She smiled and said take a picture, and I looked at it and said, “Holy shit, this works!”. After that happened, I started trying more and more to take cool pictures. And then at the end of 5th grade, I was pushed into this poetry competition—I did spoken word for a while before this—and I won the first place prize which was an actual camera. From then on, I bloomed and did photography at concerts and weddings, networked a little bit and pushed myself for 2 years. And now, people ask me to take pictures for them.
You mentioned that the first clear picture was of your little sister. Who or what is your favorite subject to capture now?
Concerts. They produce the coolest lighting and the coolest pictures.
I love music. And watching someone perform, you can see how magical they turn when you take a picture. Plus, a lot of the concert lighting makes it seem like they have this different aura to them. One of my good friends Cameron, who is a musician, asked me to take pictures of his show. I took a picture of him singing his heart out and surrounded in blue lighting, It was the purest moment of he’s in his happy place. The next picture was of the audience, all of them looking at him in awe. You can’t capture more magical moments than this, because it’s someone doing what they love in front of everyone.
The first concert that I went to that had me actually fall in love with everything was Cursive the band, which has the weirdest group dynamic because it’s a bunch of 40-year-olds who look like failed gym school teachers. I remember getting a picture—on the grainy camera—of a lady with an electric violin flipping her hair. It came out perfectly. She was gleaming yellow; she was literally golden. And I was like, this is what I want to do.
Before you leave us: do you have any photographers or other content producers that you really love and would highly recommend checking out?
Bertie Gilbert – a filmmaker who works with contrast in lighting. I’ve fallen in love with every one of his short films, especially “Stomping Ground” and “Let It Be”.
KickThe Pj (PJ Liguori) – a YouTuber who creates fantastical ghosts and monsters and sci-fi ordeals.
Hunter Long – my friend here at Vanderbilt. He has a very good eye for what he does.
If you are a performing musician or just want spectacular photos of yourself or an event, hit Shun up!
Phone: (615) 674-7921
Email: [email protected]
Insta: @shunahmedphotography
Welcome to the Nashville Wanderers!
Hey y’all welcome to our new blog on MyCommons Life! We’re just a couple of Vandy students who love to explore Nashville in our free time. We’ve noticed throughout our first year on campus that it can be difficult to budget time and money to explore our city, but our goal is to minimize those problems by finding affordable, time-conscientious activities that anyone can try. Some categories we’ll be exploring are:
- Figuring out the darn bus system
- How to spend $5 or less on a day in Nashville
- Exploring beyond downtown Nashville (12 South, East Nashville, West Nashville)
- Finding new places within reasonable walking distance
Hopefully through these adventures we can inspire you to venture off campus or out of your apartment in ways that don’t break the bank or your patience!
Walker House
Howdy! I am a first-year studying Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Science. I’m currently involved with Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science, Nashville Navigators, and Alternative Spring Break. My life here at Vandy can become crazy demanding at times, but I want to make time to explore the unique culture of Nashville without forking over my bank account. Moving to the Music City has been an amazing experience so far and there are many more fun (and inexpensive) adventures yet to come!
MacKenzie Gleason
I am a freshman studying Human and Organizational Development with a minor in Business. I’m involved in Original Cast, Nashville Navigators, and Vanderbilt Recording Studio on campus, and I love to play music in my free time. Living only a couple of minutes away from downtown Nashville, I believe that there’s so much opportunity for Nashville college students to explore the beauty of the city that they’re in, even on a budget. My hope is that we can help simplify your Nashville experience and make getting off campus a feasible option during the week!
VandyRadio: Q and A with Ben Dabney
In honor of VandyRadio’s upcoming Valentine’s Day broadcast, we sat down with Ben Dabney, the student station manager, who is here to answer all of your burning questions about this student organization.
What is VandyRadio?
VandyRadio is Vanderbilt’s premier popular music station, playing all over campus. It is entirely student-run and operated, with shows covering everything from classic rock to live sports coverage to bad movie reviews.
What is your role at VandyRadio and how did you first get involved at the station?
I’m the Station Manager, so my job is to make sure all of VandyRadio’s moving parts are working properly. I work with an exec board to keep everyone’s shows running smoothly and collaborate with other student groups. I was…aggressively recruited my freshman year at the org fair and I’ve been involved every year since!
How may Vanderbilt students participate as DJ’s/hosts at VandyRadio?
Currently we have almost 35 students doing weekly shows, with 4 trainees in the works. This semester especially has had a lot of new people interested in [VandyRadio].
How can students listen to VandyRadio?
You’ve probably heard us somewhere already! We play in Rand, Commons, EBI, and the Pub. Off-campus, we have a livestream on our app and website (vandyradio.com), as well as an Alexa skill on the Amazon store.
Why should students tune in to VandyRadio instead of Spotify or other listening choices?
Unlike Spotify or Pandora, VandyRadio content is managed by college students, for college students. Everything from the music to the news coverage is designed to appeal to that audience, because it IS that audience! That level of involvement just isn’t there with a corporate streaming service.
Tell everyone about your upcoming live Valentine’s broadcast?
On February 13, from 6-9 PM, we are doing a show live in the Commons Atrium. We’ll be playing music and giving out chocolate, but most importantly we’ll be reading notes submitted by students for their special someone. If you’ve been looking to tell them how you feel, this is your chance! (We all know everything sounds better in a “radio voice.”)
How can Vanderbilt students be a part of this live broadcast?
We need your notes! There are heart boxes in Commons Center, Branscomb Lobby, EBI Lobby, and Local Java to collect them. Leading up to the broadcast, we should also have an online form for last-minute entries. The day of, you can come visit us or just tune-in for the show! And don’t forget to tweet song requests to @vandyradio, we need some good love ballads.
Does VandyRadio take requests all the time, or just for this live event?
We take requests at most live events, but we let hosts manage their own playlists. If there’s something you want to hear, you can always call into the station during a show, or maybe try the booth yourself! It’s your hour; what you do with it is up to you.
Any other special upcoming broadcasts or events that you’d like students to know about?
Most importantly I want everyone to know that VandyRadio is always looking for new hosts! Training is a year-round event, and no experience is required. You could be up and running in less than two weeks as part of the soundtrack of campus life. Coming up, we are providing the music for the VALE Awards ceremony, and we may or may not be planning something special for St. Patrick’s Day. Stay tuned!
The Girl Next Dore: Nothing Like Plastic
For the past several months I’ve desperately wanted to see Mean Girls on Broadway. I wanted to go so badly not only because it’s Mean Girls (I mean come on) but also because I’ve seen the lead, Erika Henningsen (who plays Cady Heron), perform before, and I knew how amazing she was.
I was finally able to get tickets over Christmas break, and I was so excited! When I realized what day I would be going, though, I felt a strange sense of deja vu. My Mean Girls tickets were for December 30th, 2018, and this date felt eerily similar.
Flash back to December 30th, 2015– I walked into a small theatre in Wilmington, DE that I grew up acting at. I was there to see a little-known show written by Sheryl Crow that was waiting to get picked up for Broadway. That night, I was floored by the brilliance and beauty of Diner. Erika Henningsen played one of the leads in that show, and I was instantly in awe of her. Since then, I’ve followed her on social media, and have been constantly impressed by her talent, grace, and activism. When she landed the role of Cady in Mean Girls, I knew I had to go.
So what I realized looking at my Mean Girls ticket was that I had seen Erika Henningsen perform for the first time exactly three years before! After the show, I waited at the Stage Door for Erika, and I told her my small-town story. This might not feel like a huge deal, but it was actually pretty impactful. It felt like a total full-circle moment, and it was an amazing reminder to myself and Erika that the best parts of life happen in mysterious ways. Sometimes I can get so wrapped up in reaching for my goals that shifts in my path can feel overly-dramatic. I’m sure Erika didn’t necessarily want to spend two months living in a small, somewhat antiquated town, but now she’s on Broadway! This weird occurrence was a sweet reminder to stay faithful and trust that life will work itself out– and maybe even provide you with some amazing musical theatre along the way.
Trust in something this week!
Anchor Down,
Brooke
