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One way you’ll improve is to, frankly, [screw] up, a lot. It’s just about sitting and just messing around. It takes a lot of stumbling around.

Esteemed jazz pianist and faculty member Fred Hersch during today's master class with our student musicians

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Jazmyn Berkeley, First-Year Student

I always say that I don’t want to do something that won’t make me happy for the rest of my life. It’s important that I be in a profession that will make me happy. Music has done that for me for the past 18 year and I know it will continue do that in the future. I have no intentions to go into a 9-5 job where I won’t be completely happy. Life is too short to be someplace where you don’t want to be. I just want to perform anywhere anytime. I have the low key dream to be on the x factor.

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Tony-nominated actor and alum Kevin Chamberlin ("Seussical," "The Addams Family," "Dirty Blonde") stopped by today to share his experiences with our actors. Bravo and thank you!

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“You have to let your guard down onstage. You have to be an open book, share your talent, and see how listeners respond to it. It took me a while to get used to that.” - Naomi Anthony, jazz piano/music ed. major. Read the full interview here: Photo by Keith Muccilli

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HERO [heer-oh] noun a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

Rutgers Symphony Band celebrated heroes in a concert on Oct. 17, 2015, at Nicholas Music Center featuring Lo Presti's “Elegy for a Young American,” Gillingham's “Heroes Lost and Fallen,” and Rodgers and Bennett's “Victory at Sea." Photo by Jody Somers

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We had a teacher who made us do tai chi barefoot in the snow, all very helpful in terms of understanding that a career as an actor is not all fun and games.

Alum Kristin Davis of her undergraduate years as a Mason Gross acting student. 

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Sometimes I write on the computer, but it doesn’t feel the same. I like the clackety-clack of the typewriter. It’s as if it answers. There’s a thought, and you put it down, letter by letter, and it answers back.

Kara Walker, our new Tepper Chair in Visual Arts. Read her Rutgers blog at http://art.rutgers.edu/tepper/

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Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

John Lennon, who would’ve been 75 today

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I never give up. Of course, you've got to know if there's a brick wall in front of you. But, there's not often one. Never, ever give up.

Nobel laureate and chemist Harold “Harry” Kroto

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Cinematography class here at Mason Gross, Civic Square Building, Sept. 30, 2015. Photo by Keith Muccilli

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sitz·fleischˈsitsˌflīSH/

noun

US informal noun:

sitzfleisch

power to endure or to persevere in an activity; staying power.

Origin

from German, from

sitzen

‘sit’ +

Fleisch

‘flesh.’

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If your Nerve, deny you— Go above your Nerve—‬

- Emily Dickinson's version of “You can do it”

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My students, even my family, did not visit my studio.

Mel Edwards, sculptor and proessor emeritus of Visual Arts at Rutgers, whose work is on view at the Zimmerli in New Brunswick. Do you keep your studio space off-limits, or do you have an open-door policy?

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To get inspired I need to be bored… When I’m bored I start to think of ideas. The ideas come from my everyday experience, from the things that I witness and from things that happen to me, but I need to be bored in order to reflect upon those things

Nicolás Pereda, new head of the Rutgers Center For Digital Filmmaking. His film "Minotaur" is at the New York Film Festival next month. Meet Pereda Oct. 17 here on campus at our digital film open house. 848-932-5245 for more info.

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You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go

Bill Watterson, “The Essential Calvin & Hobbes”

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Graffiti advice from the stairwell in Civic Square. Amen to that, but we say make bad art too; it's all part of the making. They've been doing some major making this week all over the building at the design, painting and drawing intensives.