Skidmore College - Scope Magazine Fall 2018

4 SCOPE FALL 2018 C A M P U S V I S I T O R S Simon, Brooks: Christopher Massa; Mouly: Erin Covey Y E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 1 8 RHYMIN’ SIMON. “A cliché when it’s not expected can break your heart,” confided 16-time Grammy winner Paul Simon in a songwriting master class for a group of music and English stu- dents. The 50-year icon of pop music immediately set a vibe that was relaxed, intimate and interactive. When a student began her question with “So, I was wondering...” Simon interjected, “See? You might be able to use that phrase—it’s obviously natural for you” and then said, “Sorry, what was your question?” Simon played a work in progress, demonstrated some purposeful noodling for getting a song started, and discussed his influences and methods. After 90 minutes, he lingered with a ring of rapt students around him and talked more. Later Simon took the Zankel Music Center stage, with President Philip Glotzbach as interviewer (above). He chatted with the standing- room-only crowd and even surprised them with impromptu acoustic performances of “Questions for the Angels” and “American Tune.” SERIO-COMIC. Françoise Mouly, who as art editor at the New Yorker magazine has worked with myriad art- ists to create the magazine’s signature covers every week for more than 20 years, met with students and gave the 2017 Fox-Adler Lecture. With husband Art Spiegelman (of Maus fame), Mouly created the comics anthology RAW , the “Little Lit” series and the “Toon” children’s comics series.  Adept at using the funny to uncover the serious, Mouly en- gaged her audience by show- ing draft New Yorker covers and how they were tweaked by artist and editor working together. Jordana Dym, history professor and director of the Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative, was pleased that students heard about this process. “Mouly highlighted how such work benefits from critique and honing the vision.” CHARACTER AND CULTURE. Citing virtues like “tolerance, civil rights and creativity” along with “sins such as narcissism and a culture of fame,” leading journalist David Brooks spoke about American society’s past and future. Known as a moder- ate conservative, the New York Times columnist and regular commentator on Meet the Press and All Things Considered has written about personal character and social culture in American life. He’s also on the faculty at Yale. In his Skidmore classroom session and public lecture, Brooks described “a crisis of social solidarity.” For him, the election of Donald Trump was “the wrong answer to the right question.” One right answer, he offered, is “to think about commitments as a cure for social and personal ills. It’s our commitments that create our identities, that give us a sense of purpose and meaning.” MARQUEE GUEST SPEAKERS New Yorker covers are some of the artistic and editorial collaborations led by Françoise Mouly.