Providing another thing to do this sum­mer, the FSU Alumni Office will be con­duct­ing a bike tour through Big Rapids on Saturday, June 29.

The scholarship-supporting com­mu­nity event promises fun, food and exer­cise for fam­i­lies, friends and solo rid­ers alike. The event offers five care­fully cho­sen bik­ing routes of vary­ing lengths, all begin­ning at the Ferris Student Recreation Center between 8 and 11 a.m. (more…)

Tubing, tub­ing, all the time
Tubing is as close to a required sum­mer activ­ity as there is in Big Rapids. Activities on the river—tubing, canoe­ing, and kayak­ing— are the go-to out­door fun for Big Rapids res­i­dents. Nature is the town’s biggest sell­ing point. Michigan’s sec­ond longest river, the Muskegon, cuts through town, and busi­nesses such as Sawmill Tube and Canoe cater to the wide­spread desire for a long float that’s brought out by the sum­mer sun. (more…)

With high hair and even higher heels, Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance’s (DSAGA) Drag Off blew the roof off the swel­ter­ingly hot Rankin Student Center Dome Room.

The annual event had pro­fes­sional drag per­form­ers per­form­ing with ama­teurs from on cam­pus, stu­dents brav­ing the nerves and the stage to com­pete for the titles Mr. and Ms. Hot Crimson.

The win­ner of Mr. Hot Crimson, Ferris fresh­man (major unde­cided) Dillon Marcus, com­mented on what it was like to get up on the stage. (more…)

Paramore — “Paramore”

The revamped Paramore still car­ries those qual­ity traces of emo, pop and rock ‘n roll, but the band’s first album since the big shakeup is frus­trat­ingly inconsistent.

The trio tries its hand at stan­dard fare of var­i­ous genres—upbeat puppy love pop (“Still Into You”), win­dows down ‘90s alter­na­tive emo (“Fast In My Car”), a pop punk fist pumper (“Anklebiters”), a bit of atmos­pheric post-rock (“Future”) and even con­found­ing coun­try pop (“Hate To See Your Heartbreak”). The self-titled album is 17 tracks and 64 min­utes, which is five tracks and 20 min­utes too long. (more…)

After weeks of buildup, the best man has finally won.

“The Best Man” is a Tony-nominated play penned by Gore Vidal in 1960. Though intri­cately tied to the dirty  pol­i­tics of the time, the play lives on through an ever-relevant plot.

The polit­i­cal drama was put on by Ferris State Theatre. What was pre­sented was a some­what sparse affair, tense con­ver­sa­tions and witty asides tak­ing place in only two shock­ingly iden­ti­cal hotel rooms. (more…)

The Knife

“Shaking the Habitual”

The crit­i­cally adored and per­pet­u­ally impen­e­tra­ble Swedish sib­ling duo returns with the follow-up to 2006’s “Silent Shout” with “Shaking the Habitual,” a hugely polit­i­cal and mind-numbingly expan­sive work. (more…)

Kids are won­der­ful, right? They’re adorable, inno­cent and fun-loving. Who doesn’t love hav­ing a child all their own? That said, I plead with you: Do not have kids.

For now, at least.

I have four younger sib­lings rang­ing from ages 8 to 18. They are adorable, I love them uncon­di­tion­ally and I wouldn’t trade them for any­thing. I myself was born to 18-year-old par­ents. That said, I often look back and won­der, incred­u­lously, what in the world my par­ents were think­ing. (more…)

Paint It Black — “Invisible”

With age comes respon­si­bil­ity, but that doesn’t mean punk rock par­ents can’t still rage.

Paint It Black returns with a new, six-song EP and a few more fam­ily mem­bers, bran­dish­ing a belief decry­ing the idea that punks can’t age properly.

As they say on No Idea Records’ web­site: “It’s about the com­pro­mises we refuse to make, but also about the sub­tle nego­ti­a­tions between ideals/aspirations and day-to-day prag­mat­ics.” (more…)

Ferris will be hold­ing the 25th annual International Festival of Cultures as an oppor­tu­nity for stu­dents to learn more about those around them.

The fes­ti­val is set to take place on Sunday, April 14, with the The Big Event sched­uled for the pre­vi­ous day. The International Festival of Cultures will offer another oppor­tu­nity in this week­end of out­reach for stu­dents and com­mu­nity mem­bers alike to expand their hori­zons, fol­low­ing a day of embrac­ing the com­mu­nity with an after­noon of actively learn­ing about the many cul­tures with which they share a cam­pus. (more…)

They Might Be Giants, those most nerdy, delight­ful pur­vey­ors of pop, return with their 16th album in their two decades of existence.

Unsurprisingly and adorably titled “Nanobots,” the album is another diverse yet con­sis­tent release from the band. It’s that same old inim­itable blend of play­ful­ness, exper­i­men­ta­tion, pop savvy, intel­li­gence and nerd cul­ture ref­er­ences that is to be expected from the wily, grin­ning group. (more…)