Seen & Heard
QUOTE UNQUOTE "The role wasn't written particularly for an African-American. I think they were just trying to cast the right actress." AISHA TYLER '92 ON HER FOUR-WEEK RUN AS ROSS'S AND JOEY'S LOVE INTEREST ON NBC'S FRIENDS
USoperaweb.com
For those of us who were at Dartmouth while Michael Lowenthal '90 was a student on campus, it should come as no surprise to learn he has stoked some controversy with his latest book, Avoidance. Safe to say Lowenthal tackles several taboos head on, including homosexuality and excommunication (from an think more complexly about an issue that can be confusing and complicated," Lowenthal, a creative writing teacher at Boston College, told the Boston-based Newsweekly. "I wanted to test the boundaries in this book. The character is in a situation where any decision he makes has adverse reactions."...Time for an Aisha Tyler '92 update: the former stand-up comedienne and Talk Soup host on E! Network bounded into sitcom heaven for a few episodes on Friends in April and May. As a Dartmouth grad, it seemed only appropriate that she played a professor; the twist is that she was caught in a love triangle with Joey and Boss....On a different sort of stage was Michael Roberts '00. Roberts wrote a rock musical during his Dartmouth days titled Lotus Blooming In a Sea of Fire, a fictionalized account of the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam. While he performed Lotus in Hanover as a student, Roberts brought a full-fledged production to Blake High School in Tampa, Florida, in February. With the Iraqi conflict looming, Roberts told The Tampa Tribune the timing was ironic. "The play does take on a political influence," he said. "It's a cautionary tale of what can happen when you put a bunch of kids in a situation larger than they are."...Amy Dobrian '87 loved doing origami as a kid, and now, as assistant manager at the lowa Artisans Gallery in lowa City, she's turned it into a career. Dobrian creates origami figures for greeting cards. "Each card I produce is unique and handmade," she told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. 'And they aren't just original; they are very much a collage, very much a composite."...Another Amish community). While some book critics have simply avoided the novel, Publisher's Weekly and Vanity Fair found it riveting. "The best praise that I could ever get would stem from the fact that it has helped people Big Greener making an impact on the lowa City community is Jesse Bradley '92, pastor of university and young adults at Parkview Evangelical Free Church. He helped develop "24/7," a Thursday night event featuring videos, dancing and comedy along with messages about Jesus that draws hundreds of students from the University of lowa. "From talking to students, [I learned that] a lot of them felt church was really rigid," Bradley—a soccer standout at Dartmouth who played professionally in Zimbabwe and Scotland—told the lowaCity Press-Citizen. "We want 24/7 to be a place where they can experience God and feel spirituality.".. .A November issue of Supermarket News lauded 50 "Visionaries" in the field, including Allen Bildner '47, who was listed No. 4 for his ability to respond to emerging trends, especially in the shift in marketing from price to quality and service. A number of the things we now take for granted at our local market—ready-to-eat foods sold throughout the store, seafood sold open and displayed on ice, value-added foods such as cut fruits and vegetables—were brought forth by him. "What people don't realize even to this day is that customers add to the price equation," Bildner told the magazine. "The value has to do with the treatment, information and service they receive."...Sometimes Dartmouth alums can make things twice as nice: Two former Big Greeners were featured in The Arizona Republic's Athletes Among Us section during January. First it was MikeShiaras '73 of Paradise Valley, a former shotputter who captained the track team his senior year. He put the shot away after college, "but then I'read a story about the Grand Canyon State Games and I told my wife, 'You've never seen me throw the shot, so let's go...'" he told the newspaper. Now he is a three-time national masters champion gunning for the world indoor record, though "it's more on a genteel basis, he says. "None of the nastiness you have as a kid." Three weeks later the newspaper's focus was on Ralph Heins '53 of Tempe, a former ski-patrol member at Dartmouth who is big into cycling. He rides a recumbent bike—"it's much easier to ride, much more comfortable; it's like riding a recliner"— and he still hits the slopes, too. At age 71 he has no plans to slow down: "I want to ride indefinitely," he said. "I know a guy who's 80 who still skis and rides."...When Richard Owen '45 isn't sending New York's most dangerous mobsters up the river, the federal judge is working out the arrangements for his next opera. As a judge, Owen has presided over cases involving the Gambino family, terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and a plagiarism suit against former Beatles guitarist George Harrison. As a composer, Owen enjoyed rave reviews when his most recent opera, Rain, based on Somerset Maugham's tale of passion and violence on the South Seas, premiered at Lincoln Center in February. Owen sees some parallels between the courtroom and the stage: "Being a trial lawyer or a trial judge is theater, just as writing an opera is theater," he told USoperaweb.com. Music is a passion Owen shares with his family: His wife, Lynn, and their children, Richard Jr. '93 and David, have performed in many of Owens operas (Lynn was lead soprano and Richard conducted the premiere of Rain).... JeanLarson, Adv'72, made history at the College when she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1972. Nowadays she is again leading the way, this time as chair for the University of Florida Faculty Senate, where she is a math professor. "I have more of a collegial leadership style [than some of my predecessors]," she told The Gainesville Sun in January. "I like to start by listening and trying to see things from all sides before making a decision....You may recall the piece Brad Parks 96 wrote in the May/June 2002 issue of this magazine about the annual Trip to the Sea, in which a group of Dartmouth students and alums canoe down the Connecticut River to the Atlantic Ocean. For those of you who have made the Connecticut River descent and think paddling naked through Hartford is nerve-racking, consider the 15-day, first-ever descent Peter Stark 76 made of the Lugenda River in Mozambique. Some highlights: Hummer-sized hippos staking out their territory on the river, wild elephants on the riverbanks, and crocodiles trying to sink their teeth into the plastic-hulled kayaks all in one day. Fortunately, Stark survived the wildlife—and the unmapped waterfalls and the villagers carrying AK-47S—to write up his adventures for Outside magazine, where his "A Trip is Born story appeared in March.
Michael Lowemthal '90
Michael Roberts '00
Mike Shiaras '73
Peter Stark '76
MIKE MAHONEY is associate director of athletic media services at Northwestern Universityin Evanston, Illinois, and the 92 class secretary.
QUOTE/UNQUTE "I read a story about the Grand Canyon State Games and I told mv wife, 'You've never seen me throw the shot, so let's go. -NATIONAL MASTERS CHAMPION MIKE SHIARAS 73)
