Oh, my beloved fellow Cal State Long Beach students, how lucky you are. Not just lucky, but truly blessed.
And why you must ask? Your tuition is not cheap, your neighbors don’t really want you to park or ride a bus anywhere near their lawns — yet they probably boast about living in a college town — and you live in a gimme gimme society.
So why must you feel privileged to attend The Beach? Diversity, my loyal readers. Sure, I’ve boasted at times about diversity in this column, but October at The Beach seems to be flourishing with it.
If celebrating diversity is not enough to draw you out, how about some freebies?
By the time you have this newspaper in your hands, National Coming Out Week will have passed, but not been forgotten. I hope you attended, since it was a free event.
On Oct. 1, the film and electronic arts department began hosting the 2009 Latin American Studies Film Series “Crossing Borders.” A film will be shown every Thursday — except Oct. 15 — through Oct. 29 in the William Link Theatre, formerly the University Theatre.
Beginning Oct. 14 — and every Wednesday until Oct. 28 — the German Embassy’s nationwide “Freedom Without Walls” will host its own movie night titled “Ostalgie-Stories From The GDR” in Lecture Hall 151.
Now, if free events are not enough for you because you have a thing about being on time, then head over to the Academic Services building — the one next to the Beach Hut. Run, don’t walk, to the 3rd Floor and check out photographer Peter Frischmuth’s “Berlin Kreuzber SO36” Exhibition.
I did, but not alone. I enlisted the guidance of fellow journalism student Helene Harder. She also happens to be an international student from Germany and my very own personal German graffiti translator.
“You can see [the years] in his face and how he gets older,” Harder says as she points to one of her favorite photographs “Horst Weinke.” “It shows a part of our history and how a political decision can have such an affect on people.”
The photograph, which is divided into two panels, depicts the same person. The first panel is the man in 1984 and the second one is the same man in 2007. The exhibition focuses on Kreuzberg, a district in the center of Berlin, and how it looked like before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Harder brings up the issue of the division of families and how people had a hard time getting from one part of Berlin to the other. Suddenly, you had all these Kreuzberg residents caught up in politics. It is in fact the pictures with children playing soccer, teenagers being teenagers and older couples hanging out by balconies that have the greatest emotional effect.
You can see how fed up residents would take to leaving messages along the Berlin Wall imploring that it be taken down; not unlike the wall separating the United States from Mexico, or the barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
You have until Oct. 23 to go check out the exhibition before it moves on to Atlanta. Take a date or just put on your iPod and check it out on your own. Either way, don’t let these events pass you by or you’ll miss these free cultural buffets. Or whatever.
— Julio Salgado