Columnist

The blossoming of trees throughout the campus, albeit early this year, signals the start of spring, the end of the semester and its climax: May Day. Initially celebrated across many cultures in the northern hemisphere as a festival to celebrate the coming of spring and the end of the planting season, May Day has long been a celebration associated with flowers, femininity, rebirth, May Poles and dancing. May Day at Bryn Mawr, however, actually started as a fundraiser.

In March 1900, a few Bryn Mawr seniors came up with the idea of an Elizabethan May Day to raise money for the proposed students building, according to a thesis entitled, “Big May Day at Bryn Mawr” by Margaret A. Hoag and Salima Ikram. The festival, held on May ,  included four oxen, nine worthies—comprised of historic figures such as Charlemagne—a lady of the May on a white donkey, Queen Elizabeth and a May queen. Three to four thousand spectators paid $2 (worth approximately $50 today) to enter the festival via Rock Arch. From then on May Day was a tradition, with the first “little” May Day in 1903 and the next “big” May Day in 1906 and every fpur years after that.

According to a dissertation written by Victoria Briscoe on Bryn Mawr’s traditions, May Day’s basic structure (the parade, the May Pole dancing, the plays and other traditions) have been very similar throughout its history and were indeed started at the first May Day in 1900. Fresh whole strawberries and cream were always served for breakfast, though for a time in the 1920s, the school served chopped beef as well. Only a few parts of May Day are newer inventions. Hoop rolling was an invention of the ’20s, and the May Hole an invention of the ’60s or ’70s.

The major change in May Day throughout the years is the amount of attention and time the student body has put into it, which has decreased since the Grand May Day in 1936. By 1924 there were mutterings among the student body that May Day had become too commercial, and the emphasis on a highly professional, for-profit production meant that the opportunity for student involvement was less. As early as January of 1924, plays were selected, casting started and folk dancing classes also introduced for those who were to dance around the May Pole. In March and April that year, 380 costumes were made and the community bought tickets well in advance. All other extracurricular activities in the college had been suspended for the entire semester and the profits cleared between $4,000 and $5,000 (worth $50,553 to $63,000 today).

A hand-colored black and white photo of May Pole dancing, circa 1910. Photo courtesy of Bryn Mawr College Special Collections.

According to Briscoe, “the organization of an event as large and complex as May Day required the most extraordinary kind of cooperation among all people involved; it is amazing that Bryn Mawr was able to command the energies and loyalties of so many of its members for the 36 years during which the big May Day tradition continued.”

Indeed this statement is validated by the sheer size of the Grand May Day in 1936. Bryn Mawr sent out 10,000 invitations, made 15,000 paper flowers to festoon the floats and May Poles and sewed 700 costumes; a professional coach choreographed the May Pole dancing.

“After the Easter vacation the atmosphere on the campus will probably be unfavorable to serious scholarly attempts,” the Dean of the College at the time said in February 1936.  By the fall of 1936 students openly criticized that year’s May Day for its aura of professionalism and the fact that each successive Grand May Day tried to outdo the previous, causing unnecessary stress. During World War II, May Day was postponed and in the years following, there was not another Grand May Day until 1978. No modern Grand May Day has ever reached the scale of that in 1936.

May Day was very much a social scene in its early beginnings, as Hoag and Ikram explain.

“Newspaper reviews from 1900 onwards describe a lavish ostentatious fete given by 400 wealthy, elite girls,” their thesis said. Many famous and wealthy people came to see May Day; in 1928 patrons of May Day included foreign ambassadors and ministers, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Supreme Court justices and U.S. senators. This movement away from a society event is another major change between the old Grand May Days and modern May Day.

More interesting is the correlation between changes in May Day and the evolution of Bryn Mawr as a college. Hoag and Ikram said of May Day’s evolution that “by abandoning big May Day, [Bryn Mawr] could shed the finishing school image.”

Bryn Mawr as a college has gone through similar transformations through its history, and its history can be told through May Day. For example, during the ’60s, an era which had closer bi-co relations, Haverford students attempted many times to steal the May Poles. Anti-war demonstrations in the ’70s took place on Taylor Steps during May Day, and the invention of the May Hole during the second wave of feminism in the sixties and seventies follow this trend of Bryn Mawr becoming a more radical and socially aware campus.

May Day is a tradition Bryn Mawr has appropriated and made its own, according to Alexandra Spear, BMC’13, one of the heads of the “Sacrifice for a Sunny May Day.” The night before May Day, Mawrtyrs gather to implore Athena to give us good weather for May Day by sacrificing a piñata, an example of Bryn Mawr’s twist on a traditional holiday.

Spear acknowledges that it is a fun and silly tradition, but this is one of the unique things about traditions at Bryn Mawr: they can be fun and silly, as well as important to school unity. This year, as an added dimension of silliness, the only animal-shaped piñata available was a bust of Scooby Doo.

“We are just going to roll with it,” Spear said. “It’s just one of those things life throws at you.”

If the Scooby-Doo-piñata-sacrifice is not enough to stop the rain on May Day this year, it may not be the end of the world, according to Blair Smith, BMC’12, one of last year’s Traditions Mistresses.

“When it rains it’s more magical, but it’s awesome whether it’s raining or shining,” she said with a smile, adding that this year’s traditions mistresses have something exciting planned this year.

As a freshman about to experience May Day for the first time, this author asked Smith what makes May Day unique among all of Bryn Mawr’s traditions. Why do so many Mawrtyrs proclaim May Day as their favorite tradition, and what is the source of the mystical wonder and adoration that can be seen in the eyes of Mawrtyrs speaking about the event?

Smith notes that May Day is unique because it is primarily a celebration, not only of the end of the semester and classes but also of the coming of spring. It is also the tradition that brings everyone together, alumni and non-alumni. May Day is a part of Bryn Mawr you celebrate with everyone; the bi-co and other surrounding community members are welcome. This inclusivity is another unique aspect of May Day, and as Smith acknowledges, is refreshing after “Hell Week as an institutional individual thing.”

When asked if she is nostalgic about her senior year May Day, and saying good bye to her time at Bryn Mawr Smith explains that “there hasn’t been a May Day where I haven’t cried.” She explained that alumni association clubs hold their own May Day celebrations all across the country, and she can therefore celebrate May Day in the future, or even come back to Bryn Mawr to celebrate May Day. This is the joy of the tradition–May Day existed historically beyond Bryn Mawr, and now it exists for Mawrtyrs beyond their four years at Bryn Mawr. May Day is forever.

Though I thought I’d walked into the Hepburn Teaching Theater, I quickly found reality to be a slippery concept; I had actually stepped into the strange world of “Bang.”  “Bang”, a show by alumnae Charlotte Ford ’02, was a commedia dell’arte show that ran from April 6^th to April 8^th and then from April 12^th to the 14^th.

The show began with a cleaning woman vacuuming to the sound of Italian circus music. The office was that of Cat Fancy Magazine and came complete with terracotta carpeting, cubicles, a conference room, fluorescent office lights and a window that peered into the head of the magazine’s office. The cleaning woman stopped in the middle of her work to stuff herself with another employee’s chocolates. As the show progressed, the quirky ensemble of characters grew, each member embodying a different kind of human desire. There was a clean obsessed nerd, a gluttonous diva, a religion fanatic, a hipster alcoholic, a My Little Pony and Pokémon adult toddler, an angry spy, an awkward goody-two-shoes do-gooder, a sex crazed assistant and a fashionista boss. When all the characters were on stage, there was a somewhat normal office rhythm: stapling, coffee drinking, sinking back down into one’s cubicle. Then a meeting was held in the Cat Fancy conference room and things became progressively more insane.

After the do-gooder finished a presentation on how to give a presentation, and the sex fiend assistant made dirty hand puppets on the projection screen, the cleaning woman rushed into the conference room with a radio announcing an apocalypse. Several explosions were heard then followed by the ringing of a doorbell. A pizza delivery boy entered the scene. All of the characters chased him to make him their sacrificial lamb. The religion fanatic shared angry words with her heavenly Father. People gave up all of their desired possessions, ran, yelled, screamed, ripped paper, drew obscenities on the walls and windows, beat one another up, poured cat litter on one another, and continued all of this in such a frenzy until the cleaning obsessed nerd, who poked out from behind her cubicle wearing a cat mask, encouraged everyone to participate in a happy montage of a cat dance party. During the end, a large colorful cat face appeared on the cement wall backdrop; a cross appearing in-between the cat’s eyes as the characters exited to the sound of humming cats.

All of the clowning weirdness of “Bang”, is an exaggerated portrait of human desires and the consequences of giving into the those desires; acquiescing to desire not only creates a potential apocalypse for mankind but makes animals of us all. The show started with its characters expressing their desires somewhat normally, whether their desire was food, cleanliness, divinity, youth, alcohol, sex, or fashion but these desires eventually evolved into chaos and savagery. Though described as a comedy, “Bang” teaches its audience something more about human nature and desire, suggesting that without limits bang will all of us go.

This past Wednesday, audiences at Haverford College were treated to a unique array of stimulants during poet and classicist Anne Carson’s presentation of Cassandra Float Can (an essay on translation) and Bracko (an evocation of Sappho), collaborative pieces with Robert Currie, artist and Benjamin Miller, composer. The two creative pieces, though distinct in topic and production, functioned as an exceptional entity, combing literary criticism, poetry, dance, visual aids, and musical accompaniment.

The performance, sponsored by the John B. Hurford ’60 Arts and Humanities Center, the Distinguished Visitors Program, and the Provost’s Office at Haverford, inaugurated a new series, Classics and Beyond, organized by the Haverford Classics Department.

Carson is a renowned professor of Classics as well as a poet, essayist and translator. In addition to her many translations of classical writers such as Sappho and Euripides, Carson has published poems, essays, libretti, prose criticism and verse novels that effortlessly cross genres. Her awards and honors include the Lannan Literary Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the MacArthur Fellowship.

Robert Currie, a frequent collaborator of Carson’s, is an artist based in New York. Benjamin Miller is composer and conductor for The Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra and solo and collaborative multiphonic soundscape improviser. He gives Graphic Score and Found Sound Workshops and is a member of The Glenn Branca Ensemble.
Deborah Roberts, professor and Chair of Classics at Haverford, helped bring the acclaimed trio to the Bi-Co. “My colleagues and I knew and admired Anne Carson’s work, and we knew that she had a considerable following among bi-college faculty and students,” Roberts said. “I have for some years included selections from her translations in my courses, and each time discovered that I have students who love her work. We also knew that she had in recent years turned increasingly to performance pieces of various kinds, so we thought a visit from her and her collaborators would work well for the new ‘Classics and Beyond’ series”.

The series marks a new initiative to include a more regular program of visitors to the HC Classics department, as a complement to the ‘Classics Colloquia’, currently held at Bryn Mawr. The series brings weekly scholars for lectures and presentations, throughout the year, fostering teas, gatherings, and discussions.
“In fall 2010 we started the ‘Senior Majors Visiting Speaker’ series, in which a scholar chosen by the bi-college senior Classics majors gives a public lecture followed by a reception,” Roberts said. “This performance by Carson, Currie, and Miller marks the inauguration of our second series, which we are calling ‘Classics and Beyond’ which will feature visitors who extend the reach of the field of Classics (and build connections with other fields) in any of a variety of ways, through readings, performances, symposia, installations, exhibits, or outreach projects”.

These two productions have certainly given the series an energetic, provocative start in their intellectual depth and creativity in visual representation.

“Both ‘Cassandra Float Can’ and ‘Bracko’ have been performed before, in different venues,” Roberts said. “’Bracko’ was originally a dance choreographed by Rashaun Mitchell. But each piece is made new in each new performance, partly by the use of local participants”.

This production included six bi-college students (Robindra Banerji, Zoe Fox, Jacob Horn, William Leeser, Jenna McKinley, Hannah Silverblank), one Penn professor (Sheila Murnaghan) and two Haverford professors (Aryeh Kosman and Deborah Roberts).

“Cassandra Float Can” focused on the figure of Cassandra, a Trojan prophetess and daughter of Priam in Greek epic and tragedy, who foretold the fall of the city’s lofty walls and later became the slave-prize of the Greek King Agamemnon. The performance-essay featured Carson herself reading her own prose, slowly and deliberately, savoring each word. She touched upon such ideas as the “veiling” of meaning in language and identity.

The most unique aspect of this performance was Carson’s juxtaposition of her focus on Cassandra with a discussion of the works of Gordon Maddow Clark, an artist who enjoyed physically “cutting” entire buildings to reveal new perspectives. As a “probing into a thin edge”, Clark attempted to form an abstract version of the former structure (just as language can do). Student volunteers carried photos of several of the artist’s works through the audience during the reading.

The next performance, “Bracko”, was an evocation of the poems of Sappho, a 7th Century BCE lyric poet whose majority of works are lost or largely fragmented. Interestingly, the musical score was based on a starmap over the island of Lesbos, where Sappho lived, on the night of her birth. Readers, including Carson, simultaneously read portions of Sappho’s poems (one reciting the non-missing prose, one continually saying the word “bracket” to indicate a missing section or word, and the other footnotes). Students filled the stage, forming their arms as physical “brackets”.

“Bracko” really highlighted the frustration and, equally, delight, which accompanies the ambiguity of fragmented ancient works. The texts can almost seem deliberately (though often distractingly) absent of certain portions, allowing the reader to him or herself fill in the gaps to create meaning.

“Cassandra Float Can” and “Bracko” truly carried through a night of visual, auditory, and intellectual delight for both the Classics academic community and a wider audience, effortlessly molding distinct themes and modes of expression.

The Icelandic sextet is a folk-rock band combining their bright melodies with a fierce passion for performing.

In August 2011, Philadelphia’s Radio 104.5 debuted Of Monsters and Men’s triumphant wall of Icelandic sound “Little Talks.” Fast forward to April 2012 and the sextet has sold out shows in a matter of minutes across the U.S. even before their album “My Head is an Animal” hit American soil. They are often called the Icelandic counterparts to Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire.

Their Tuesday night show at the Theater of the Living Arts was part mysticism and part celebration and coincided with the American release of “Little Talks.” The night highlighted one of the most appealing aspects Of Monsters and Men: their passion for live performance. They seemed to be having as much fun, if not more fun, than their audience, often exchanging smiles as if to say to one another, “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Armed with charming accents, tambourines, a trumpet, accordion, and every other instrument imaginable, Of Monsters and Men took a stage was adorned with Christmas tree lights and delivered a jubilant show.

The band took the crowd through their debut album with a few surprise add-ons. The Icelandic upstarts showed off their versatility, shining on the upbeat, soaring numbers and during more delicate moments.  “Lakehouse” was an excellent example of the band’s attention to melodies, as the crowd joined the Monsters a capella for the outro The sextet performed a praiseworthy electric rendition of The Cure’s song “Close to Me.”  Of course, the highlight of the night came with their captivating single “Little Talks,” which was positioned near the end of their regular set.  This was by far the biggest sing-along in a night full of sing-alongs. Accompanying the rousing chorus was a glorious trumpet solo that flooded the TLA with nothing short of pure musical joy.

Following their regular set, the band came out for a three-song encore, much to the excitement of the crowd. They ended with the last song on their record, the fragile yet magical “Yellow Light.”

Given their outstanding success and passionate fan base, Of Monsters and Men seems to have every reason to feel as elated as their performance suggested. Their song “From Finner” seems to speak to their sentiments best: we are far from home but we’re so happy.

Set List:

Dirty Paws

From Finner

Numb Bears

Slow and Steady

King and Lionheart

Love, Love, Love

Your Bones

Close to Me (The Cure cover)

Mountain Sound

Lakehouse

Little Talks

Six Weeks

Sloom

Beneath my Bed

Yellow Light

Nestled within the walls of the Rare Book Room of Canaday Library is a new exhibition exploring rich themes such as artistic design and cultural life in modern Greece, topics not easily confined in a single space but extraordinarily presented in this artistic display

“Colors of Greece: The Art and Archaeology of Georg von Peschke” is the first retrospective of the work of the painter, printmaker, and illustrator Georg von Peschke (1900–1959). The exhibit was curated by Kostis Kourelis, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at Franklin & Marshall College. It features oil paintings, watercolors, prints, and drawings of Greek landscape and domestic life, particularly on the island of Skyros, the home of Peschke’s wife

Notably, the artist was influenced by Post-Impressionist art, and was a member of the League of Greek Artists, whose explorations in abstract form and Greek subjects led to the creation of a distinctively Greek Modernist style. He exhibited to large acclaim in Greece in the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1935 curated a significant exhibit of contemporary Greek painters in Vienna.

Peschke’s life and works have strong ties to BMC, as Brian Wallace, Curator for Arts and Artifacts and Coordinator for this exhibit, noted:

“Several of my colleagues connected with scholar Kostis Kourelis, who, in the course of his investigation of Peschke’s work and life, came upon numerous links between Peschke and Bryn Mawr,” Wallace said. “As the idea of an exhibition took shape, Bryn Mawr expressed great interest in helping the project come to fruition. It has been a great collaboration between faculty, staff, and undergraduate and graduate students–and the family members and other lenders to and supporters of the exhibition and related public programs.”

Indeed, Peschke’s colleagues and friends included Rhys Carpenter, professor of Classical Archaeology at Bryn Mawr and Dorothy Burr Thompson (Bryn Mawr AB ’19, PhD ’26), who visited Skyros with Peschke and his wife in 1931, where she photographed the town in Skyros and some of Peschke’s favorite models. Some of these photographs and a painting are featured, as are paintings purchased in Greece by Richard and Agnes Stillwell (Bryn Mawr AB ’27).

The works, depicting social scenes and activities such as religious festivals and the colorful, sprawling architecture of Greek villages reveals the artist’s remarkable sense of the power of cultural reception.

“Peschke combines an intimate awareness of his subjects with a keen sense of formal concerns: he, like many in his social, artistic, and intellectual circles, was finding his way towards a modernism that was internationally legible and deeply personal,” Wallace said.

Of the intimately and colorfully designed portraits of modern Greek persons and landscapes, several works stand out such as a painting of a funeral on the island of Skyros, “…because it captures the paradoxical openness and oppressiveness of such an event” and an illustration of a then-recently unearthed mosaic floor published as documentation of an important archaeological excavation “…because it documents an ancient image in both an accurate and a lively manner,” Wallace said.

“Colors of Greece” exemplifies Bryn Mawr’s adopted role to masterfully study and present the depth of significant cultural and academic works and themes.

“The exhibition shows how central Bryn Mawr has been to a wide range of cultural and academic activities,” Wallace said. “The college has produced generation upon generation of sometimes hard-to-categorize but consistently essential scholarship: the mix of archaeological, artistic, literary, and other inquiries found in the circles Peschke operated in is unique in its details but not atypical in its breadth”.

“Colors of Greece” is open to the public Monday through Saturday, noon to 4:30 PM and will run until May 27.

Chimes and a piano delicately ring. A drumbeat gradually appears. A bright and soft melody begins playing. Tom Chaplin’s voice sings, ”In a city like mine there’s no point in fighting/ I close my eyes and see, you and me driving, if I am a river you are the ocean. Got the radio on, the wheels in motion.” Tom Chaplin takes his time to emphasize each lyric. A powerful chorus booms into a Keane euphoria: “We were silenced by the night, but you and I we gonna rise again, divided from the light I wanna love the way we used to when.” This song “Silenced by The Night” about love and hope in a dark world is Keane’s latest single on their new album “Strangeland”, set to release on May 7th. It has been two years since Keane has released the EP Night Train so Keane’s upcoming album is particularly exciting for fans like me.

Composed of singer Tom Chaplin, piano and keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley, and drum player Richard Hughes, Keane’s musical journey has been inconsistent. What started as a subtle alternative rock band, famously known for using a piano as the primary instrumental has evolved into a more techno and futuristic ensemble, which all started with the album “Perfect Symmetry” (2008). One can tell from “Silenced by the Night”, however, that Keane has returned to its piano roots; the single resembles the band’s older songs such as “Bedshaped,” “Is It Any Wonder” and “Crystal Ball” but remains fresh and new. Chaplin’s vocals toward the end of “Silenced by the Night” resemble the same climatic touchstone of the song “Perfect Symmetry” and “Sovereign Light Café,” another song from the new album, shows promise of a return to the old Keane days. These new songs feature a new Keane band mate, Jesse Quin, (bass) who has performed with Keane before and has also collaborated with Tim Rice-Oxley on their album “Mt. Desolation” (2010).

So what will Keane fans do until the greatly anticipated release of “Strangeland”? There will have to be some waiting, waiting and more waiting, but until fans can find “Silenced by The Night” on Keane’s website and a recent Jimmy Kimmel Live performance on YouTube. After that, fans will just have to quench their unbearable Keane thirst by repeating “play” on their computers “Again and Again” (no Keane pun intended), until the arrival of what Keane believes will be its best album to date.

McDermott, slim and dressed in a blue-violet dress and smart black pumps, stepped up to a particularly eager audience in the Goodhart Music Room. Despite her impressive accolades, McDermott was strikingly frank, funny, and grounded during her leisurely reading of her yet unpublished short story “A Nice Kid.” McDermott explained to the audience that the story came about during a conversation with her students in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins. The conversation concerned simple versus elaborate story titles; the three simple story titles the class agreed upon were “A Good Dog,” “A Happy Day,” and that of McDermott’s story, “A Nice Kid.”

“A Nice Kid” is narrated by a teenager named Kevin who is interning with Mr. Albert Burke, an old high school friend of Kevin’s father from their days at St. Ignatius Prep. Kevin, who is ostensibly a regular teenage boy, takes on the rather dull internship as a “resume builder” as his own father describes it, an opportunity to work with someone who has been successful in business, law, real estate, and philanthropy. Mr. Burke is a wealthy but impatient and often, unpleasantly honest man Kevin regards with a mix of contempt, respect, and fear. Kevin accompanies Mr. Burke on a trip to the hospital emergency room when Mr. Burke’s former mother-in-law experiences a serious fall; it is during this event that Kevin begins to see a different side of the difficult Mr. Burke.

McDermott’s language in her short story is simple enough but effectively detailed and nuanced. The humor puncturing “A Nice Kid” is a pleasant counterpoint to its more austere revelations. Among the most memorable excerpts from the reading included the biting statement “your work sucks, God; it blows” and the story’s central question, “Would it kill you to acknowledge the presence of a human being?”

The questions during the Q&A following the reading covered a range of topics concerning McDermott’s career as a writer and instructor. McDermott described the process of writing a difficult one, particularly for beginning writers with a case of the nerves. She explained that teaching students to “write into the darkness” and to “let go of first intentions” among the most important lessons she teaches. When asked about her early ventures in writing, McDermott told a story about a non-fiction writing course she took as an undergraduate. Following the first assignment—an autobiography that McDermott laughingly admitted was apocryphal—McDermott’s professor gave her a then surprising comment. “I’ve got bad news,” he said to McDermott, “You’re a writer and you’ll never shake it.” As McDermott’s well attended reading suggests there are many readers of fiction who are happier for it.

Columnist

In the last eight games, power forward DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings has averaged 26.9 points, 13.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 blocks. These beastly stats are a typical day at the office for players like Kevin Love and Dwight Howard, but not for the King’s hot-headed big man. Even more surprising about Cousin’s strong play is his consistency considering the turmoil that surrounded the Kings at the start of the season.

After a dreadful 2-5 start to the season, which saw the Kings lose by large margins, the team fired head coach Paul Westphal. The situation was met with great controversy since the head coach had been openly feuding with Cousins–who has a reputation for being a difficult to coach because of his immaturity and short-fuse temper.

Ever since the Sacramento brass replaced Westphal with Keith Smart, Cousins has been excelling. He has increased his scoring production each month this season from December through March, averaging 13.0, 15.5, 19.0 and 19.8 points respectively. On the season, Cousins is putting up 18.2 points per game and grabbing 11.1 rebounds, up from 14.1 points and 8.7 rebounds the previous year.

Cousins’s incredible play has grabbed the attention of his teammates.

“He’s a new player,” Tyreke Evans said. “I’m happy for him. He’s done a great job of just going out there and playing and helping us. No arguing with nobody on the team. Just staying focused, and I’m happy for him.”

Opposing players have also notice his development.

“He’s getting better and better,” said the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan. “Every time we play them, he’s getting better. He’s getting more comfortable with his role. He’s expanded his game and he always plays hard, so he’s getting better.”

The switch to head coach Keith Smart, left, has helped Sacramento Kings power forward DeMarcus Cousins, right, greatly improve his game this season. (Courtesy of aroyalpain.com.)

Although the firing of Westphal has done wonders for Cousins this season, Cousins has shown maturity like never before. In the past, he saw his draft stock drop because of his hot temper. However, he has come a long way since then and credits his new found maturity to former Sacramento Kings’ superstar Chris Webber.

“He just gives me advice, tells me how to handle situations,” Cousins said. “He went through similar situations, so of course he has advice for me. I guess you can say [he's] a big brother looking over me.’’

During this dominating stretch, Cousins has also upped his energy on the defensive end, leading the NBA in the number of charges drawn. Although he is not a premier shot-blocker, the fact that Cousins is willing and determined to take charges shows his increased focus in the game on both ends of the floor.

Despite the disappointing start to the season, Kings fans should be excited with Cousins’s progression and the promising direction of the team. Cousins has the makings of a dominant power forward for the years to come: size, strength, length, developing post game, footwork and a soft touch around the basket.  Furthermore, he has the impressive ability to make things happen when he doesn’t seem to be in the position to do so.

At 20-42 on the season, Cousins’s improved play may not seem that it has had much of impact, but the team is playing in a stacked Western Conference and has dealt with injuries, a head coach change and personnel changes throughout the season. Even with these distractions, Cousins has kept improving on both ends of the floor and should be a serious contender for the Most Improved Player Award. With his current skill set, there is no doubt that he will be multiple-time All-Star and will eventually lead the Kings to the elusive playoff berth.

Columnist

It has been little over a year since Carmelo Anthony bullied his way to the New York Knicks in hopes of forming a “super team” along with Amare Stoudemire. Anthony lighting it up at Madison Square Garden was a strong aspiration–for both sides–so much so that the New York Knicks were willing to part ways with practically a starting five in Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov and Danilo Gallinari for just Anthony and an aging Chauncey Billups.

Before the trade, the starting lineup with Stoudemire was posting a 28-26 record before the Anthony trade and was starting to form great chemistry under former head coach Mike D’Antoni’s system. However, during Anthony’s tenure with the Knicks, the team sports a mediocre 39-39 record and experienced an embarrassing first-round sweep to the Boston Celtics in last year’s playoffs.

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony will be essential to the team's success following the injuries to Jeremy Lin and Amare Stoudemire. (Courtesy of bleacherreport.com.)

Indeed, Anthony’s record with the Knicks has an imaginary asterisk over it, simply because of injuries that plagued both Anthony and Stoudemire during the stretch. But the Knicks’ unimpressive record should also be blamed on the lack of chemistry between Anthony and Stoudemire–exhibited offensively–under the D’Antoni system. Both players have not had the proper time to gel with one another, with Anthony arriving toward the end of last season and the shortened training camp limiting their practice time with one another this season.

As a result, scouts have started to question whether Anthony was even a right fit for the D’Antoni system. The same offensive system made Stoudemire a multiple-time All-Star back in Phoenix because the up-tempo style of play meshed well with his physical gifts. On the other hand, Anthony has been struggling under the same system, averaging his lowest points per game average (20.2) since his sophomore campaign seven years ago.

Anthony’s struggles could be lingering effects from his off-season elbow surgery or the wrist injury from earlier this season, but it seems more likely that they are due to the fact that Anthony is a half-court player who thrives in isolation–something that was not part of D’Antoni’s system. But it is very clear something isn’t right with Anthony, who is shooting a lowly 40 percent from the field and a dismal 30 percent from three-point range on the season.

Despite these shooting woes, the New York brass stood by Anthony and sacked D’Antoni in what was reported as a mutual decision. Under new head coach Mike Woodson, the Knicks are now sitting in the seventh seed in the standings and are 3.5 games behind the Boston Celtics for the Atlantic division lead.

During this “Woodsanity” era, the Knicks and Anthony are, to a certain degree, red hot, but they have also had two huge casualties in both Jeremy Lin (knee) and Amare Stoudmire’s (back) injuries. The Knicks now need Anthony to lead the Knicks –on both ends of the floor–in order for them to solidify their playoff seed and to possibly capture the division crown. To do so, the Knicks will need Anthony to get out of this shooting slump and be the prolific scoring threat that he’s known to be, a scoring machine that has once scored 30 points in a single quarter.

Recently, Anthony has been bothered by critics saying he is too selfish to play alongside Lin.

“It’s a tough situation. I’m human at the end of the day, so it’s like damn, where is this coming from?” Anthony said. “I know I’m not a selfish player. People around me know I’m not a selfish player. I do everything I can to make people around me understand I’m not a selfish player.”

However, Anthony may need to embrace this “selfish” style of play during this stretch to keep the Knicks winning since both Stoudmire and Lin are an essential part of the Knicks’s current offense. It seems that Anthony is starting show signs of shooting touch again, especially after scoring 25 points on 9-15 shooting from the field in a blowout win against the Orlando Magic.

It will be really interesting to see how Anthony responds during this stretch because this where Anthony fought to be when he stiff-armed his way to the Knicks last year. He wanted the spotlight and to be “the man,” and now is his chance to do so. There is no room for error given that he doesn’t have Stoudemire to back him or Lin to work miracles right now. Anthony must lead by example with great energy and motivation to inspire his teammates to play hard every night and to keep collecting wins.

Say what you will about Anthony’s record with the Knicks and rumored strife with former coach Mike D’Antoni, but the Knicks need him desperately for the playoffs now more than ever. In fact, one could say it was Anthony’s destiny to end up in Madison Square Garden, given that his name, Carmelo, is Hebrew for “garden.”