Candida DeFonseca

A cadre of talented music students filled Kendall Hall Nov. 17 with the smooth, soulful sounds of jazz as a part of the Music Department's Jazz Ensemble, directed by Gary Fienberg, assistant professor of music. A final performance for students of the Jazz Lab class, taught by Fienberg, the students treated the audience of students and relatives alike to the pieces they learned through the semester.

Rocking Kendall Hall on Nov. 14, Guster, half of whom are from the Garden State and proud of it, played to a nearly full house. The band played the big fall show sponsored by the College Union Board (CUB) on the main stage at Kendall, supported by the New York City-based band Sam Champion.

Friday night, the Mayo Concert Hall was filled to the brim with comedy enthusiasts vying for seats in the sold-out venue to hear Dat Phan, the first-season winner of "Last Comic Standing." As part of the Asian American Association's Experience Asia month, Phan joked about racists, Asian stereotypes, his parents and his childhood.

With Guster coming to the College on Tuesday, Nov. 14 and tickets still on sale in Brower Student Center at the College Union Board table, it was time for a talk with one of the guys in the band. Guster, based in Boston, met at Tufts University in 1991 during freshman orientation.

With voices that give you goosebumps, the members of TCNJ Musical Theatre hit (and held) high notes and sang smoothly through challenging, complex lyrics from a catalog of Broadway tunes last weekend in the New Library auditorium. The songs, from shows like "Avenue Q," "Miss Saigon," "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Wicked," covered a wide variety of topics including love triangles, freedom to pee, killer plants, prostitution and office romance.

Tartuffe, a con of the highest caliber, visited the Don Evans Black Box Theater in an All College Theatre production of the play with the same name written by Moli?re. The performance was riddled with outstanding period costumes, outlandish wigs, challenging and creative dialogue, and a story about a con artist and the gullible man (and his mother) who invites him into the house.

After two failed attempts last year, Straylight Run is again scheduled to play at the College. This time, the show is scheduled for Nov. 3 in the Rathskellar. The band agreed to play for a lower price than it is usually booked for because of the two previously canceled shows.

At this year's first event in the Visiting Writer's Series (VWS), held by 'ink' and the English Department, Brenda Shaughnessy will be reading at the College on Thursday, Sept. 28. She'll be reading from her book of poems "Interior with Sudden Joy" at 7:30 p.

With free NJTRANSIT week upon us, why spend a lot of that money you saved on doing expensive things in New York City? Though New York has a bad reputation for being pricey, there are plenty of things you can do without breaking the bank. In the mood for a laugh? Check out one of the many improv shows.

"Survivor: Race Wars?" That might not be the title of the newest "Survivor" season, but it might as well be. The real name is "Survivor: Cook Islands," in case you were wondering. This year's "Survivor," after suffering from ratings losses and charges that it was not racially diverse enough, has done what anyone looking for attention does - spark controversy.

Princeton, a vibrant and eclectic town, offers a variety of ways to spend a day, or a weekend, off. A 20-minute drive from campus, it's easy to get to with on-street parking available. There are better places for all-day breakfast than IHOP. One of them, PJ's Pancake House, is on Nassau Street in Princeton.

Movies are a great way to meet new friends. Planning a movie night with floormates, classmates or just some random people on campus is always a great way to expand your college social circle and, well, watch a movie. It can be a little daunting to move into a completely new space, live with a stranger and figure out a way to get a handle on the whole "college" thing.

Sometimes, eating campus food doesn't cut it, especially when Eickhoff or the Travers/Wolfe dining hall - T-Dubs - isn't open. With a plethora of restaurants around the College, the varieties of which span the globe, you're more likely to gain your Freshman 15 on takeout than Carte Blanche.

As if getting into college wasn't hard enough, now it's even harder for girls. On March 23, in The New York Times, the dean of admissions at Kenyon College, Jennifer Delahunty Britz, wrote an editorial describing how, nowadays, it's become harder for females to get into colleges than males.