Chat with Emmy Award-Winning Artist Karin Fong and Secrets of The Yale Record Initiation

Old Owls,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Hoot, the Newsletter for The Yale Record Corporation, the alumni group of The Yale Record. In this issue, we invite you to join an online chat with Karin Fong, report on the 2021 student initiation from inside a coffin and show you what it takes to join the 2021-2022 staff of The Yale Record.

The Yale Record is hosting a chat with Karin Fong, O.O. ’93, at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific on Tuesday, January 25th. Karin is an Emmy Winning title designer, who was also one of the first artists and designers of The Yale Record when it restarted in the early 1990s.

Karin is a co-founder of Imaginary Forces, a design studio/creative agency that specializes in cinematic design and storytelling. This can mean anything from films, documentaries, trailers, commercials, large-scale projections, and immersive installations. The firm is probably best known for its work in title sequences. These are the little movies at the beginning of TV shows and movies that play over the theme songs. Karin has created wonderful sequences from everything from Spider-Man: No Way Home to Bill and Ted's Face the Music. Check out some of the cool stuff she's done! While building these films, she infuses the humor and bad pun-making that she learned at The Record.

Zoom Info:

Topic: The Yale Record Chats with Emmy Award Winning Artist Karin Fong
Time: Jan 25, 2022 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82074328576?pwd=bU1zVmUzbFA3Wk4zSGtENzVKYVdkZz09

Meeting ID: 820 7432 8576
Passcode: OwlPellets

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Meeting ID: 820 7432 8576
Passcode: 1895232721
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Sam Leone, Chair, Reports on the 2021 Yale Record Initiation Ceremony

Over the years, The Record has developed a formal process to take new and malleable students and turn them into Record material. For more information about what it takes to be a member of The Record, scroll down to the bottom of this email. One once they have met all of their requirements, the students are initiated into the Record fold in a humorous and creative ceremony that changes each year. Here's how it went down in 2021. To add some context, the key players are me (Sam Leone, Chair), Joe Wickline (EIC), Diana Kulmizev (Online EIC), and Ayla Jeddy (Publisher).

On November 13th, 37 of the Record's youngest members embarked on an unforgettable journey, a journey which they began as "Heelers" but ended as Staff. Heelers were made to assemble at one of several locations, where they were blindfolded and escorted to the funeral of Sam Leone (me!), the late CEO of Leone Property Holdings LLC. The heelers joined as the newest company recruits as control is given to sleazeballs Tony Runt (Joe Wickline) and Rona Spatch (Diana Kulmizev) as the new CEO and Online CEO.

The first order of business: figure out who killed Leone. For this, every heeler got "interrogated," where they read aloud three facts given to them, collected in advance — two lies, one truth. Many of these facts, perhaps by design, happened to be funny. Turns out, Runt and Spatch whacked Leone to get their big promotion (fair enough), and their first order of business is to start cracking down on the tenants. The new recruits were then sent out in teams around campus to collect debts owed to the company by characters like Mrs. Szekely the Polish Sausage Saleswoman, Father Rocco and his closet boy, the Sassy Secretary, and Noam Chomsky (all played by current staff). We, of course, used our very own currency, which I was told is not "legal tender." When they weren't blackmailing priests or enjoying Polish sausage, employees could earn a few extra bucks on the side by completing miscellaneous tasks like "acquire a doorknob," grabbing the lightbulb from the top of a lamp post or trying to spend the "money" at a real store (which did not go well).

When all was said and done, the company was saved and one team of recruits was crowned victor and all the others were fired. In another sense, of course, they were all winners, because, in the real world, they all became Staff members! Staff members who are going to write for some very neat, exciting things around the corner, so stay tuned!

Sam Leone
Chair

Thank You for Donating

For those of you who could donate this year, thank you for giving to the YRC in these difficult times. As you can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic has dried up the already anemic New Haven ad market. Thank you for coming through with your support this year.

In addition to directly supporting the student magazine, the YRC also preserves The Yale Record archives, administers prizes, and organizes alumni gatherings (including digital events).

If you haven't donated recently, or if you'd like to up your pledge, please Give a Hoot and support The Yale Record at https://www.yalerecordcorporation.org/donate where you can make a one-time or recurring donation.

How to Students Join The Yale Record These Days

The Yale Record has a rigorous policy to join its staff. To join The Record, "heelers" collect points in one of a few paths! They can choose to heel by specializing in one area, whether it be writing, art & design, or business & publishing, and get at least 7 points in that category. Alternatively (and most popularly), heelers can collect 3 points in each category, or simply 12 overall points. How do you get points? Writing a piece, selling an ad, visiting a business, designing an issue, all the things the Record needs to do to be a well-oiled machine! There are also big points for serious undertakings like performing stand-up with us or designing the cover of an issue!

We've included a sample of these requirements for this year so you can test your mettle and see if you'd have what it takes to be a member of this year's Record.

Thank you for your help and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Best,
Rob Schlaff O.O. ‘99
Alumni Relations Chair
The Yale Record Corporation