CP FuseB6 fuse editor jenna burleigh▪ friday, sept. 17, 2010▪fuse@cardinalpointsonline.com

PSUC ‘right size’ for new professorBy Jenna Burleigh

fuse editor

She has traveled the world. She rides a motorcycle. And she likes to play with pup-pets.

When Professor Erika Grayson was offered a full-time position in the theater department this summer, she jumped at the opportu-nity.

“It was the right sized school for me, the right sized program… It had everything I was looking for,” she said.

Grayson has replaced re-tired theatre department faculty member Timothy Palkovic, and will be teaching three classes this semester, which include introduction to acting, world puppetry and production design.

She said that her experi-ence so far has been positive.

“The faculty here are great. The staff here are wonder-ful,” she said, adding that her students have been enthusi-astic thus far.

Plattsburgh State student Aaron Kaplan, who takes a class with Grayson, said she is a great teacher.

“She gets you into what you’re doing,” he said. “She doesn’t make things difficult at all.”

Kaplan said he likes the class that he is taking with Grayson.

“I’m looking forward to the rest of the semester with

her,” he said.Theater has always been

a passion for Grayson, who said she couldn’t imagine her life without it. She once lit up the stage acting in various plays, but eventually grew to love production and design.

And then there were the puppets.

“They aren’t your typical Muppet,” she said, describing

the puppets she worked with when she studied abroad in Japan. Those were called “bunraku puppets” and need three people to make them move properly.

Grayson estimates that she has visited about 19 coun-tries, among them Australia, Russia and England.

When she isn’t globe-trotting or playing with

puppets, Grayson can typi-cally be found enjoying the outdoors, she said. She likes hiking and cycling, among other activities. As an un-dergraduate, Grayson used to ride her motorcycle, a 1961 Triumph Cub.

“I know, I’m old school,” she said about her antique motorcycle.

Since her college days,

though, she hasn’t taken her motorcycle for a spin. She’s debating whether or not she will bring it to Plattsburgh, but she said it’s unlikely.

So for now, Grayson will race around on her bicycle, although this probably won’t happen for a little while, due to an injured right arm.

“The students like the story that I wrestled a bear.

The dean likes the idea that I saved the world from a nuclear holocaust. But in ac-tuality,” she said, “I fell off my bike.”

Grayson grew up in Virgin-ia and moved to Plattsburgh only after accepting the job offer. She is still the new pro-fessor on the theater block, but she said she thinks she fits in pretty well. Other fac-ulty members agreed.

Kim Hartshorn, chair of the theatre department, was involved in the committee that interviewed Grayson for the position.

“Like any other interview process, we weeded (ap-plicants) down to a smaller group, and we ended up hir-ing Erika,” he said.

Hartshorn hasn’t known Grayson for very long, but he said he believes she will be a good addition to the depart-ment.

“The puppetry aspect adds a really interesting compo-nent to the department,” he said.

“That was a little bit of a bonus.”

Hartshorn said that the hiring committee looked for applicants who had a degree in theater design, with some experience as a director. Grayson has both.

“I think she’s going to be a real asset to the de-partment,” Hartshorn said. “We’re all excited about her being here.”

Jeff Carpenter/Cardinal PointsNew professor Erika Grayson brings fresh talent to PSUC’s theatre department. Grayson specializes in puppetry, as well as production design. A Virginia native, she says Plattsburgh is a good place for now and hopes to stay a while.

Turning down headphones could save student ears, study saysBy Melissa Erny

staff writer

Parents, teachers and li-brarians constantly tell teen-agers that they need to turn their music down, and ev-eryone from age 13 to 21 has told them to give it a rest.

Recent studies prove that the saying “if it’s too loud, you’re too old” will soon be following “that’s the bomb” and “cool beans” to the grave.

The Journal of the Ameri-can Medical Association released a study that one in five American teenagers now suffer from some hear-ing loss, a 30 percent in-crease from 1995.

Doctor of Audiology prac-ticing at Champlain Valley Audiology Sharon Macner said she has seen an increas-ing number of children and young adults developing signs of hearing loss, thanks to electronic devices such as iPods and their MP3 coun-terparts and how loud we listen to them.

Evolution has made the ear a very sensitive organ, made to hear the faint sounds of someone following you late at night, or the simple differ-ences between the soprano

and bass in a chorus—not blaring trumpets and pound-ing bass beats at top volume.

Jake Geoghean, Platts-burgh State student, loves listening to his iPod Touch whenever he can.

“When I’m not in class I have my iPod with me,” he said.

He likes his music “very loud” and listens with the volume turned almost all the way up, making it so loud

that the quiet classroom can hear everything coming from his headphones.

However, he said that he hasn’t experienced any signs of hearing loss, despite his listening habits.

Geoghean, like others, said he turns up his headphones because he just likes listen-ing to his music loud.

The first signs of hear-ing loss include a ringing in the ears called tinnitus, or

your ears feeling constant-ly clogged, making some sounds muffled. Macner said that if a student or a family member experiences these signs that they should con-tact a doctor of audiology.

“They are the only special-ists for hearing loss,” she said.

The only way to prevent damage is to monitor the way students listen to their iPods or MP3 players.

The Occupational Safety

and Health Administration has provided safety guide-lines for workers, saying they can only work a total of two hours when exposed to sounds at 100 decibels, while an iPod at maximum volume produces around 130 dB.

Listening to music this loud for a half hour at the most should not damage ears, but it is not recommended.

A safe volume for extended

use of headphones is around 40 percent.

Even regularly listening to an iPod at 50 percent for sev-eral hours can cause harm to ears.

An expensive alternative would be purchasing technol-ogy such as noise-cancelling headphones, which cancel out those external sounds causing students to crank the volume.

Rick Haskins, a Plattsburgh State student and member of a local band called “The Ccoommiittee,” loves listen-ing to his MP3 player.

Haskins knows how im-portant his hearing is on and off the stage, so he uses noise-cancelling headphones most of the time.

“I have been listening to music through earphones for most of my life, and up to this point my hearing is great,” he said.

In Macner’s opinion, the number one thing someone can do is turn down the vol-ume.

“They need to be able to keep the volume on the de-vice low enough so they can keep a conversation with somebody who is at least three feet away,” she said.

Country music ousted from Plattsburgh bar sceneBy Ian Tully

associate fuse editor

Skippy Dubrey, owner of the Krazy Horse Saloon located at 14 Margaret Street, is look-ing to revamp his bar’s image with a new logo, a fresh coat of paint and a change in music.

The bar that once boasted its being “New England’s Premiere Country Night Spot,” will no longer host country bands due to the genre’s waning audience among college stu-dents.

“We are stepping back from the picture and trying to give our bar what it really needs,” Dubrey said. “Just like the mechanical bull we had, the country had to go.”

Along with a new facelift, the Krazy Horse has hired George Facteau, a new manager and long time friend of the owner, who is no stranger to getting a crowd’s feet moving.

Facteau is a nightlife veteran of downtown Plattsburgh, having once owned a former sports bar called Chi-Booms, which became the current day Green Room.

Facteau has been disc jockeying and

working downtown for 22 years, and though he professes a deep love of music, he is not a fan of country.

“We used to have 700 to 800 people in Chi-Booms on a crowded night, and I always tried to learn ev-eryone’s name,” said Fac-teau about his old bar.

Though he is now in the employee of Dubrey, the two have swapped roles.

Dubrey used to DJ at Chi-Booms before building a country bar in a building that had once housed Woolworth’s.

“Things have kind of come full circle,” Fac-teau said in reference to his new manager spot.

To cater to a younger crowd on weekends, the Krazy Horse is going to be hosting a DJ every Friday night complemented by $1.50 bottles of beer.

The bar is looking to attract college stu-dents by hosting bands playing top 40 rock

singles on Saturday nights. “We have a good relationship

with the college, and don’t usu-ally charge at the door. We will probably charge at the door when bands play, but a student ID gets you in for free,” said Du-brey. “Party Wolf, Square Pegs, Glass Onion, Sirsy is a band we are going to have up from Albany. We are really trying to get people dancing and having

a safe, fun time.” Facteau made a point that the label-signed

crowd favorites will not be the only ones on stage at the bar. They are open to the idea of hosting local bands, student or not, ranging from hardcore to jam bands.

“This is a big enough venue to put on a real good show.”

While management and the 28 staff mem-bers at the Krazy Horse are optimistic about the bar’s new musical direction, patrons voiced mixed reviews.

Heidi Dragoon, a Plattsburgh local, said that she would be more apt to come to the

bar when informed of the switch.“I am not a fan of country,” Dragoon said, as

she and two friends enjoyed a game of darts.Charles Meyer, a senior at Plattsburgh State

said he was not a fan of the change.“I liked it as the different bar. I’ve been go-

ing here three years and it is one of the bet-ter bars in Plattsburgh.” Meyer said he would have to “wait and see” if he would be more inclined to visit Krazy Horse now.

Whatever the case, Dubrey is not one to shy away from a tough job.

Originally a Florida native, Dubrey began his stint as a bar owner by coming north on vacation, with a friend asking him if he wanted to go halves on building a country bar.

Six years later, after having built much of the bar’s interior by hand, buying out his former partner, and shaking off his bar’s old mantle, Dubrey is ready to embark onto the next leg of this race mounted atop his Krazy Horse.

“It’s been a long road but we’re still walk-ing. I don’t mind country music; it’s just hard to sell,” he said.

Ben Rowe/Cardinal PointsAt maximum volume, iPods exceed 100 decibels, a level that poses a hearing loss risk, according to The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Audiology experts say that the only way to reduce this risk is to turn down the volume, but students who listen to music at these potentially damaging levels say their hearing has never been better.

“It’s been a long road, but we’re still

walking. I don’t mind country music; it’s just hard to sell.”

Skippy Dubrey Krazy Horse Owner