Red, blue & green

As winter approaches, Penn is putting all things energy on top of its list. The school now leads the nation as the top purchaser of wind-produced electrical energy. Come blustery days, the Exelon-Community Energy Wind Farm in Somerset County will parcel out 30 percent of its pollution-free energy to the school. And Penn’s forward-thinking energy policy won’t end there. Vice President of Facilities Services Omar Blaik said the campus community is encouraged to participate in the energy conservation policy. The energy saving plan proposes simple adjustments such as shutting off lights, space heaters and computers in unoccupied spaces. Lowering thermostat settings to 68 degrees for occupied spaces and 65 for unoccupied spaces are also a part of the proposal. Throughout the winter season, the schools, centers and Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety will advise changes and improvements.

Pre-MTV

In the old days, the performance was gone and only the memory lingered on. A recent donation to the Penn Library’s Judaica collection of approximately 2,000 video clips will allow the performances themselves to linger on so researchers get a chance to experience them firsthand. The performances in the archives include musical theater and jazz classics like Paul Robeson singing “Old Man River” and Paul Whiteman hitting the sustained note at the beginning of “Rhapsody in Blue.”

The Harvey Sheldon Jewish American Music Video Research Library, dedicated Oct. 25 with a screening of a few of the clips and with donor Harvey Sheldon in attendance, is the first archive in the nation with such research resources, said Arthur Kiron, curator of Judaica collections at the library.

Sheldon, a songwriter, disc jockey and co-creator of the “Bunny Hop,” also spoke: “Europe preserved Bach and Beethoven. I think we had to preserve this.”