Former Cadenza Editor, Brian Stitt (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

It’s a bit of a Cadenza tradition for outgoing seniors to write a farewell article. It’s something that allows them to get anything off their chest that they haven’t had a chance to in the course of their normal article-writing duties. Knowing full well I could not top Matt Karlan’s recently rediscovered “Top 10 Types of People I Hate at Wash. U.,” I’ve decided to take my article in a different direction. It involves free beer. Read on.

I came to Student Life by accident, thanks to my former roommate and good friend Adam Summerville. He introduced me to Cadenza during a transitory time, when all of it’s members were still bitter over Student Life incorporating the formerly once-weekly entertainment magazine into the paper at large. We held our weekly meetings in a dingy basement office populated with stained couches and armchairs, castoffs from local resale stores, no doubt. The walls were littered with a variety of old cartoons and humorous office quotes, although the centerpiece was the proud display of our “Wash. U. Girls are ugly!” banner left over from the war with Emory.

Those embittered Cadenza editors who introduced me to the ways of entertainment journalism wouldn’t recognize our new office: clean, professional and fitted out with the latest in Mac technology (thanks in no small part to our award-winning and anonymous advertising team.) While I wouldn’t dare rail against the gleaming, pristine office we now enjoy or get nostalgic for the threadbare furniture and windowless walls beneath the Women’s Building, I do wonder if we have lost something.

One thing that’s easy to forget as we StudLifers face a diminishing journalism market and a readership generally apathetic to the fact that we actually put out a paper three times a week is that this is still a college newspaper. I admit Student Life has affected some changes on this campus during my tenure here, but I won’t bore you with history because we here at Cadenza had nothing to do with any of them.

A college newspaper should be more than an occasional Sudoku or a source for humorous police beat stories. I personally think a college newspaper should be opinionated, controversial and entertaining. It should push boundaries but, with tongue remaining firmly in cheek, walk the line between important and idiotic. I am proud to say that I have scoured the archives and currently hold the record for most idiotic articles ever written by a Cadenzite. From my impassioned plea to save the Canadian puppet show “Nanalan’” to my (apparently) controversial list of kids movies that are inappropriate for kids, I have a long, proud history of spouting off on subjects about which I am little more than half informed.

So in a bid to give you, my beloved readership, a voice to finally tell me off, I am offering you guys a deal. Anyone willing is welcome to join me at Blueberry Hill on Tuesday, May 5, at 8 p.m. and say whatever you want. Tell you what: You tell me about one Cadenza article from the past four years that you liked or (more likely) hated and I’ll buy you a beer. That’s right, I personally, Brian Stitt, will buy you a beer. Limit one per of-age customer and whatnot. E-mail me with any questions at [email protected]. This isn’t a joke or trick; I’m not that clever. It’s just one last attempt to stroke my ego. Please show up if you like. If you don’t, great; I don’t have any money or job prospects. I’m a journalist. I want to thank everyone at Student Life for putting up with me these past years, especially Cadenza, even more especially Cecilia, David and E for keeping me somewhere between boring and revolutionary. Thank you copy editors for accepting my refusal to use commas and my desire to boldly split infinitives whenever I saw fit. I should thank my family most of all and let them know how much I appreciate my parents telling me that everything I write is terrific and how great it was that my grandmother kept a straight face when I told her I was going to cover the Adult Entertainment Expo for the paper, but I don’t think I will. They already know.