Article Tags

“Jonathan Schwartz”

The reason we are using this potentially controversial meme is to pique your interest in an upcoming post by VC '14, re: yellow fever, Asians, etc. Yeah, STAY TUNED! Also, browsing the Princeton memes site makes me homesick for campus. Also this comment is fiendishly long. I apologize.

The reason we are using this potentially controversial meme is to pique your interest in an upcoming post by VC '14, re: yellow fever, Asians, etc. Yeah, STAY TUNED! Also, browsing the Princeton memes site actually makes us really homesick for campus. Aww. Also this comment is fiendishly long. I apologize.

First up, shout out to our incoming freshmen! Princeton 2016 is getting all worked up this week – with good reason, since they’ve received both their res college assignments and chance to flip through the fall frosh seminars catalogue.  It includes the classic free trip (!) seminars with promises of fall breaks in Costa Rica or Cyprus – but also a range of gems like “Bad A$$ Asians” (the namesake of this Ink post), a Joyce Carol Oates fanfest, and the chance to literally spend $50,000, as long as it’s philanthropic and approved by Stan Katz. Protip: pay attention to the prof teaching your seminar, not just to the topic. Like, Nancy Malkiel’s “Coeducation” course sounds great, but incoming GPA-sensitive, grade-deflation-fearing premeds might want to do a little background check first…

In any case, we remember those overexcited, over-sharing-on-Facebook days. (Upperclassmen, bored at your internships? Go back and look at the posts your friends made in your class FB groups when you were prefrosh. GUARANTEED LAUGHS.) We think it’s cute! And we welcome you in all your enthusiastic, over-enrolled glory! Case in point, see The Princeton Tiger’s thoughtful suggestions for where to put all the extra frosh:

10. Re-purpose unused Firestone carrels
9. Quad
8. Build a Forbes Annex Annex
7. During Frosh Week, erect large fences around Cloister’s backyard
6. Charter boat, discover new continent
5. All CA groups now focused on building housing for themselves
4. Make OA year-round, Princeton-based
3. Lift the ban on the steam tunnels
2. Rutgers
1. University of Princeton® online

No really though, UPC loves frosh and wants you all to apply for journalistic futures with us. Check out our res college reviews, written last year but very much valid for your incoming lives. Of course you may be placed into what we used to know as Wilcox’s yoga studio and art room, or a Whitman study room, but whatever. Princeton is Princeton and you’ll love it.

Teaser! Click through for the full comic.

Teaser! Click through for the full comic.

Jumping straight from pre- to post-Princeton, our endowment also made headlines this week with the announcement that Aspire, STilghz’ 5-year fundraising campaign, exceeded its $1.75 billion goal by raising $1.88 billion, the highest in Princeton history. Meanwhile, our 2011-12 Annual Giving campaign also broke Ol’ Nassau records by raising $57.2 million. Bad A$$ (more like, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$) indeed.

We leave you with two pieces of Princeton Internet Gold. From a still-undergraduate perspective, we love and identify with this comic from Willa Chen ’13. It was crafted in response to this much-forwarded article on elite education by William Deresiewicz. Agree? Disagree? Comment! Go!

And last, it’s good to see that our former USG president CDY and his Nassoon/Amazing Race BFF Jonathan Schwartz, both favorites of UPC coverage, are still alive and well and contributing great things to society:

Bad A$$. We rest our case.

2010. A year of the same old Princeton happenings–bitching about Dean’s Date, bitching about grade deflation, bitching about bad FML posts. But there were a few things that we think set Oh-Ten apart: Robot Unicorn Attack, Supreme Court dominance, and the demise of Four Loko.

Here’s what happened in 2010:

  • January: There were exams. There are always exams. For the four years you are at Princeton, you will never have a January that isn’t at least partly awful, on account of exams. However: Dean’s Date liveblog. —DCW
  • February: Chatroulette was just starting to become a campus phenomenon, and by phenomenon, we mean something that people would do at parties when they were drunk. In February, we brought you the story of three friends who ran into each other on Chatroulette–while 16,216 other users from around the world were also chatting and nexting each other. -AW
    All month, we crossed our fingers and it happened: February 10th – Snow Day! With classes cancelled, Princetonians’ inner five-year-olds came out to play. The day unfolded like a story — like Beginner’s Reading story from Highlights For Children where nothing bad ever happens ever and instead the characters perform one wholesome recreational activity after another until it’s time to go home and get warm and Mom’s made hot chocolate with marshmallows oh yeah! It was simple. It was uncool. It was so, so wonderful. It was: Snowball fight in the Junior Slums! Quick now sled down Whitman Hill! Hide out in an igloo! Build a snowman on Alexander Beach! How could you not go to bed that night with a smile? — DCW
  • Continue reading…

    As you may have heard by now, SchwartzDY were eliminated last night on the Amazing Race. I’ll have a post up sometime in the near future about What It All Means, perhaps bundled with similar reflections on Jane Randall’s more successful run on America’s Next Top Model.  And by “in the near future,” I mean, “probably three months from now.”

    Perhaps my procrastination is for the best. In all likelihood, you, like me, are just not Over It enough to really reflect on all that happened to Team Nassoon between the starting line and their Swedish sendoff.  Even using the past tense hurts right now, knowing that it’s all over for them, for us. One minute people you semi-know are mushing dogs and pitching tents in Lapland, and the next they’re just gone?

    It’s like, is that it?  Is that the “real” we’re supposed to take away from “Reality TV” — that people just leave, and there’s no reason why, and we’re all supposed to be a-OK with it? How bleak. How horribly bleak. How cold and hard and bleak that is, like the frosty tundra our boys got stranded on as the Race passed them by:

    race

    But wait! All is not lost. Apparently someone eventually remembered about the permafrost-bound Princetonians, because here they are arriving at Elimination Station:

    Continue reading…

    This is like OA for the real world. (via ew.com)

    This is like OA for the real world. (via ew.com)

    Remember when ex-Student Body President Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 got a special graduation ceremony and skipped the whole “walking across a stage” thing this past May? And then, remember when we told you CDY and best friend/Fantasticks star Jonathan Schwartz ’10 had actually skipped graduation because they were starring on the upcoming 17th season of the CBS hit reality show The Amazing Race?

    Well, that’s happening. Yes, ScwhartzDY™ (don’t try stealing that CBS) will be one of 11 teams throwing themselves into challenges around the world for the chance to win one million dollars. How’s that for your first paycheck outta college?

    CBS today started promoting the event, and here are the guys introducing themselves on the Race website.

    Look at that! Witty, tricky, and they got the whole “we’re best friends!” thing going on to boot. Everyone’s gonna be rooting for these tigers. (Not to mention “Relationship: Ivy League A Cappella Singers” — that’s one for the scrapbook.)

    The two also answered some questions for CBS. Schwartz’s answers are particularly hilarious:

    If I could switch places with someone: Yanni

    Role model/hero: My parents, Mother Theresa and Kenny G (not necessarily in that order).

    What are you passionate about? Tweezin’ the old unibrow

    What would you do if you won the million dollars? If I were to win the million dollars I would buy a pony, but just one.

    People would be surprised to learn: That my name, “Jonathan,” is translated to mean “gift from God.” Coincidence? I think not.

    Continue reading…

    3045549519_a3dba04a38Even with the outcome potentially spoiled, CDY on the Amazing Race is just so fascinating to me.

    In my pre-Princeton life I followed The Amazing Race as fanatically as some people follow football or baseball or the Academy Awards. I would flip out at the announcement of a new destination (“We’ve never been to Ethiopia before!” I’d exclaim, as if I were actually along for the ride instead of bouncing on a beanbag chair in my basement), bawl at the elimination of my favorite teams, and spend hours poring over game analysis on Reality TV message boards.

    It was weird, I know. But when you’re a high schooler looking to use pop culture as the means of escape from your so-called teenage life, you really have to commit to your obsessions. Polite interest in a show or team or band doesn’t really get you anywhere – and me, I wanted to go everywhere, skip out of Delaware and cross the whole world three times over, preferably with a CBS camera crew in tow.

    What I’m saying is, given this past obsession, the prospect of any old Princeton student on the show would be compelling to me.  But what makes CDY on the Amazing Race­ especially compelling – like I said, out-and-out fascinating – is that CDY wasn’t just any old student during his time at Princeton. He was one of our private college’s public figures – politically, at least, our big man on campus.

    Continue reading…

    Since it’s summer and we know you’re busy at your super-important [insert bank here]/[insert NGO here]/[insert research institution here] internship or backpacking across Europe or voraciously watching back episodes of Gossip Girl, we here at The Ink round up the week’s news so you don’t have to. Today we’ve got some graduations stuff, some art crime stuff, some reality TV show stuff, some fratty stuff, and generally, stuff.

    First up this week: Alumni swarmed Princeton this weekend, as you might have guessed, for Reunions. There was debauchery, there was dunko (as per the Wall Street Journal), and good times had by old people. God reportedly attempted to smite the revelers, but only knocked out a few trees. Fun!

    A tree near Dillon Gym faced the wrath of nature

    A tree near Dillon Gym faced the wrath of nature

    Also, graduation happened, which is weird to think because that means a quarter of the student body has moved on into the real world. At Baccalaureate on Sunday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ’86 told the Class of 2010 about his grandmother and to be kind.

    And then NBC news anchor Charlie Gibson ’65 cracked some jokes, along with Class Day speakers Zach Zimmerman ’10 and Becca Foresman ’10. Reports indicate everybody had a good time. Too bad superstar student body commander-in-chief CDY wasn’t there, because he was racing with Jonathan Schwartz ’10 while filming an episode of the CBS reality show The Amazing Race.

    The Class of 2010 marched on anyway, and 1,166 seniors passed through FitzRandolph Gates, with some special guests. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was given an honorary degree for a bunch of stuff, among them being a trailblazer for women’s rights and being pretty old.

    Valedictorian David Karp (who had 29 A’s and A+’s!?) spoke, along with salutatorian Marguerite Colson, who gave her address in Latin to a bunch of people who couldn’t understand her:

    Because few students today know Latin, the new graduates follow along using printed copies of the remarks. These include footnotes telling when to applaud (plaudite) and laugh (ridete). Guests and other audience members do not have the annotated copies, a practice dictated by tradition because the salute is directed to the members of the class.

    Here’s a slick video Princeton made of the happenings. Money shot’s near the end, with the Class of 2010 on the steps of Blair Arch, doing the creepy Heil singing “Old Nassau.”

    We’ll miss you guys!

    And then, that huge sucking sound you heard on Wednesday? That was campus being evacuated for the summer. News grinded to a halt, but stuff still happened, apparently:

    Continue reading…

    Guess someone took our advice!  CBS’s globe-trotting reality show The Amazing Race kicked off the filming of its 17th season on May 26.  Among the 11 pairs of two vying for the show’s million-dollar prize is Team NassoonFormer Student Body President – and Pyne Prize winner – Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 and Fantasticks star Jonathan Schwartz ’10 (check out our linked interviews with the two Racers).

    Filming began in the Boston area on the morning of the 26th.  First came an introductory segment filmed in Gloucester Harbor (Connor and Jonathan are the “Green Team” — you can catch a glimpse of them at around 4:15 in this video).  Then the teams made their way to Logan Airport, where they were photographed by bystanders not affiliated with the show.  Here’s Connor and Jonathan at the airport en route to the first leg in England (more details after the jump):

    TeamGreen

    Continue reading…

    Folds, listen, youre doing it wrong.

    Folds, listen, you're doing it wrong.

    Remember when Ben Folds came and played Richardson McCarter a while back? Remember getting there all excited, finding an a cappella group, and wondering exactly why?

    Well, those were the Nassoons and they joined Folds on stage because they’re featured on his new compilation album, Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!, released on Tuesday. The album’s a collection of sixteen Ben Folds tracks re-recorded by university a cappella groups from across the country (with Princeton being the only Ivy featured on the album; yeah, that’s right, eat it Whiffenpoofs).

    Paste Magazine recently interviewed some of the contributing acts, including our very own (and recently Ink-featured) Jonathan Schwartz ’10. This guy’s on fire right now: off-broadway star, a cappella record release… What’s next? Lawnparties ’10?

    Excerpts from the interview and a kind of awkward submission video after the jump.

    Continue reading…

    schwartzOFF-BROADWAY ACTOR IN THE FANTASTICKS DRINKS CARROT JUICE, DAYDREAMS ONSTAGE, HATES THE STREET

    Name: Jonathan Schwartz ’10
    Age: 20
    Major: Sociology
    Hometown: Cranford, N.J.
    Eating club/residential college/affiliation:
    Independent Wilsonite
    Activities on campus:
    Nassoons, PUP musicals, making short narcissistic films with friends.

    Who’s your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?
    Jimmy Stewart. When I was first thinking about Princeton, I visited LA, and when I saw his handprints (at Grauman’s Chinese Theater), I put mine on top and they fit perfectly. I took it as a sign and that’s partially why I’m here right now (I’m a very indecisive person…)

    What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in Princeton?
    Filet Mignon at Elements (opened earlier this year).  Filet Mignon is usually my measuring stick of how good a restaurant is. But Carousel is pretty up there as well.

    In one sentence, what do you actually do all day?
    Do just enough work to pass my classes, watch ‘The Wire’, and then sing, sing, sing.

    Continue reading…