I don't post here too often anymore, but I have been absolutely livid about this all day and I feel the need to vent my frustrations somewhere which I can get all of my ideas out in text.

If you haven't heard yet, the almighty Gunther is coming to Yale.

http://yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=31418

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Gunther sings such classic, poignant ballads as "The Ding Dong Song", "Tutti Frutti Summer Love", and "Teeny Weenie String Bikini". And the Yale College Council, in its [in]finite wisdom, is bringing him here on February 3rd for a Master's Tea and an hour-long set.

For $16,000.

Those of you who know me well realize that I am generally politically apathetic, that I don't care that much about governmental matters, and that I even abstained from a closely contested election for Ward 1 Alderman in the city of New Haven this year. Having said that, this inconceivably stupid decision by the YCC has me absolutely furious, and not just because I think it's a waste of money. Let me outline some of my major problems with this idiocy:


1. The volume of the money spent. I don't know what typical Yalies value $16,000 to be. Those of you who don't go here (or current Yalies before you came here) probably have preconceived notions of your standard Elis sitting in velvet armchairs, sipping on port, eating caviar, and lighting their Cuban cigars with a flaming $100 bill. I will be the first to tell you from my cramped, somewhat modern single, wearing a 6-year-old shirt and staring at the $15 left in my wallet that this is not entirely true, and that the Yalies I know value their money just as much as, if not more than, the average Joe. But when you spend $16,000 -- 62% of the alloted budget for the Student Activities Fund -- to fly an internet hack over to the states from Sweden to perform his overplayed-on-repeat one-hit-wonder song for the [supposed] masses who won't care about a single other song he'll have to play, it makes me think of just how much $16,000 means to these people, and why they're so content to crap it away. $16,000 is more than my family makes in a year -- that includes my two jobs which pay more than $10 an hour. And we're wasting it on something because twelve immature-but-somehow-well-connected frat-boy-rejects thought it'd be funny to continue their obsession with their freshman fad.

2. The absolute lack of public information given to the Yale undergraduate body by the YCC. I know at least one of you has stated that they knew about this at least a couple of days ago. You, plus select members of Saybrook '08 and '07, plus the YCC and their closest friends. At the maximum, that's how many? 150? There are over 5000 undergrads at Yale. Nice sample size. I sat with 11 people at dinner tonight and asked them to raise their hand if they'd heard about this travesty before the YDN article came out in today's paper. Three of them raised their hands -- two Saybrook '08, one Saybrook '07. Between the rest of us, three of the four classes and six of the twelve residential colleges were represented. Most of the people I know who follow politics closely and actually do have vested interests in student government hadn't heard shit from the YCC about this. Spring Fling, the traditional Yale "concert" held every year, involves a campus-wide poll conducted to see which bands they would prefer to see at the show. Not only was there obviously no choice given here, but there was no warning. I can assure you that as one of the people who actually paid that $50 Student Activities Fee this summer, I would have made my objections known had there been a specific window in which to make them. Instead, the YCC played the sleazeball, only announcing the show 10 days before the scheduled performance, with absolutely no time to counter the decision before Gunther's arrival and performance. I hope to God he doesn't understand a word the 12-pack asks him.

3. Fucking lack of talent. You could have spent $16,000 on watching apes pick insects off of one anothers' backs and feed them to one another and you'd have a greater display of God-given ability than Gunther and the Sunshine Girls will bring to taint the holy sanctity of Commons Dining Hall. Yes, I used taint. That's how much this pisses me off. You had people after Spring Fling '04 who were lining up to declare Third Eye Blind the worst band ever, and you have people lining the streets screaming to see Gunther live in... concert? Exhibition? Sideshow? Whatever you want to call the heresy that will take place. Everyone will praise Gunther time and again because he's so catchy and hilarious and, who can forget that quote in the YDN, "ridiculous". What you won't hear a single person calling him is talented. Why? Because he isn't. For as much as Yalies criticize the rest of the mainstream world for buying into four-chord rock songs and baseless pop singers and mindless rappers, my congratulations go out to the YCC for falling directly into hypocricy to the tune of $16,000 and the loss of the respect of half of the campus.


Yeah, I know that was pretty damn pissy, but I'm pretty damn pissed off. Regardless, I meant every word, and I'm absolutely dumbstruck that we're supposed to be an institution of higher learning that the rest of the country looks up to for their basis of intellectualism. Today, for the first time ever, I felt a slight pang of shame and embarrassment for being a Yalie, for being associated with this bullshit.


(P.S., I would have made a few links in this e-mail but forgot how and was too lazy / too angry to go back and look for how to do them. Examples of links would have been to Gunther's shitty website, the shitty lyrics for the shitty songs I listed, and a Herald article from two years back on how the Third Eye Blind performance at Spring Fling was the best testament to what a Spring Fling really should be -- and how it'll probably never happen again.)

(P.P.S., At one point, I thought the Gunther tune was catchy, too. Catchy. Then I heard it for the fourth time in ten minutes. Don't call me a hypocrite for moving on from a simple fad which didn't die nearly fast enough. I don't see you clamoring for us to spend $16,000 to get Lou Bega here to perform the Mambo #5.)