featured5

Jim Gaffigan is a man who speaks of many things. Holidays, bacon, and hot pockets are all words associated with his act. He is a man of many voices and often talks as if he’s a member of the audience looking at his show. And although these little facts may be pretty random to anyone who doesn’t know who he is, Gaffigan was able to sell out the Gordon Field House on October 9^th, the first day of Brick City Homecoming weekend.

Gaffigan has released three CD’s and two DVD’s in his career. He is one of the co-stars in the TBS comedy “My Boys.”  He has starred in “Comedy Central Presents” and has appeared on the silver screen multiple times. In the business since 1991, Gaffigan has plenty of material and life experience to draw from, and he does so in his performance.

Gaffigan began his show with new material, and ran with it for a good half hour. Starting with the exciting topic of his shoes, socks and underwear, he tells the audience “You can’t censor me.”  Even he knows his comedy is pretty low key, but with Gaffigan, that works just fine. His new material included jokes about his family, hotel rooms and swimming pools. All outrageous subjects in there own right.

By the second half of the show, Gaffigan brought out the material that everyone bought their tickets for. Gaffigan began his skit on food, a favorite of his. Commenting on people’s obsession with food, he gracefully jabs waffle houses and confesses his love for bacon. In a bit of improvisational genius with the interpreter, he stops his act for a second, looks over, and exclaims in one of the funniest statements of the night “Even the sign for bacon is beautiful!” HE then proceeded to say bacon a number of times, watching the interpreter sign the word. Although the audience was laughing along, Gaffigan was enjoying himself as well.

And of course, no night can be complete with Jim without a little banter about Hot Pockets. When he first uttered the words, everyone cheered and got overly excited; Gaffigan did not disappoint. Describing how Hot Pocket’s transactions in a restaurant would happen, Gaffigan had the whole audience in hysterics. He continued with how unhealthy Hot Pockets are, declaring if you were to eat a Breakfast Hot Pocket, you would have “A Hot Pocket for breakfast, Hot Pocket for lunch, and be dead by dinner” to equal reception.

At no point did Gaffigan fall short. Delivering a well-polished act mixed with old and new material, improvisation and rehearsed act, Gaffigan proved what a talent he is. As the audience leaves, you can hear line after line being quoted by passer bys. Gaffigan gave us all that was expected, and if possible, so much more.

Popularity: 1% [?]

On Tuesday, March 24^th, the School of Print Media held the 2009 RIT Gravure Day, introducing the theme of Networking, Collaboration, and Standardization. The day created an open forum to nurture the understanding of the Gravure Process and allow participants to explore career opportunities within the Gravure Industry.

The day began with a welcome from the Associate Dean of CIAS, Frank Cost, and an update of Gravure at RIT by School of Print Media Professor, Robert Chung. The day then shifted into discussions on the process, roles, and challenges gravure faces today. Presentations were given by Paul Steen, Group Manager, Circular Operations Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN on the Role of Gravure at Target; Tim Flynn, Manufacturing Manager, Gravure Process, RR Donnelley, Lancaster, PA on Meeting the Challenges of Providing Gravure Print Product for Today’s Magazine, Catalog, and Retail Insert Markets; and Rod Sosa, Technical Development Manager Armstrong, Lancaster, PA on the Gravure Process and the Flooring Industry.

The event then shifted into networking offering a one-on-one speed networking with Gravure Day speakers. Lunch was then offered with closing remarks on the day given by CIAS dean, Joan Stone and a closing presentation by Rod Sosa on Graphical Editing Framework and Its Educational Mission.

Popularity: 11% [?]