This Week in the Voice: A Cooper Union Student's Eye for an Education

The typical college student's time abroad is used primarily for escaping into lands of legal-age drinking and assorted other debauchery. Cooper Union student Emily Henochowicz ended up doing something slightly different with her time: protesting in the West Bank this past May. That was when she lost her left eye after being blasted by a tear-gas canister in the head. She returned home seeing the world in an entirely different way. Village Voice staff writer Steven Thrasher reports: A Cooper Union Student Lost an Eye Protesting in Israel--But None of Her Vision.

Elsewhere in the Voice, we're finding our own unique schooling with The Voice Education Supplement:

• Patrick Arden wants to know if NYU's Building Boom Bubble is doomed to pop?
• Michael P. Ventura sees The Problems with CUNY's New Sexual Assault Policy, which leaves anonymous reporting behind.
• Fahmida Y. Rashid wants to know: Can the Kindle and Its Ilk Ease Textbook Inflation?
• And what's all that education good for? Stacy Cowley goes over the depressing truth: Latest Stats Show Rising Costs, Falling Wages for College Grads.

This week in News, we're trying to bring what's important into focus:

• Legendary Voice writer Nat Hentoff has a message for our NYPD chief and one of his more talked-about policy initiatives: Hey, Ray Kelly, Frisk This.
  
• Tom Robbins gives the blow-by-blow on the politically bloody NYC Charter School Grudge Match.
  
• And columnist Michael Musto chats with Little House on the Prarie star Alison Arngrim, who is now apparently a "Prarie Bitch," according to the title of her memoir. No, really. In other news: We just work here.

This week in Music, we're staring down soundscapes. With our ears:

• Spiritualized will never live down the out-and-out success of 1997's ethereal Britpop classic Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In Space. Michael D. Ayers talks to the band about the little thing that managed to "take away the pain" for their legions of fans as they prepare to revisit it in its entirely during a special concert at Radio City Music Hall later this week.
• Phillip Mlynar thinks Long Island's undersung hip hop legends, Son of Bazerk, were ahead of their time, which is coming up about right now.

Meanwhile, your eyes will inevitably be bigger than your stomach after taking a look at some of this week's Food:

• Voice culinary Magellan/food critic Robert Sietsema travels this week to Nigeria by way of Clinton Hill at Buka, who sees an expansive menu and goat head stew worth traveling for.
• Further up the G-Train, Voice food critic Sarah DiGregorio finds "the best salad of the season" at Mrs. Kim's, a Korean joint. In Greenpoint. They also serve a drink called the Tiger Woods. You should already be sold.

In Film, we're seeing stars, for better or for worse:

• Robert Wilonsky talks to Dinner With Schmucks' leading man Paul Rudd, wondering whether or not he's an actor.
• Incidentally, Dan Kois just finds a bunch of rich guys (Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd) dicking around in his review of Dinner With Schmucks, and not much else.
• Other reviews this week include a documentary about the original New York paparazzo, Ron Galella, Smash His Camera; Nicolas Rapold leads the way into the Film Society of Lincoln Center's retrospective of British director Ken Russel's work; Bill Murray and Robert Duvall's new morose quasi-buddy pic Get Low gets our high marks; and a DVD viewing of Brooklyn-bred Jackie Gleason chutzpah-homeboy, Phil Silvers, gets our once-over.

Finally, in Arts, we're taking note of the strongest visions in the city:

• Voice editor Rob Harvilla has read the best piece of anti-iPhone propaganda out there, and it's novelist Gary Shteyngart's third book, Super Sad True Love Story.
• Voice theater critic Michael Feingold thinks a new New York musical (Transport Group's See Rock City & Other Destinations) and a new New York play (the Lincoln Center Festival's The Battle of Stalingrad) could afford to think bigger thoughts.
• Meanwhile, Voice theater critic Alexis Soloski thinks Second Stage Theater's Bachelorette is delivering a blow to feminism that Sarah Palin never could. Which, for scale, would almost be impressive. If it were at least good. Meanwhile, it's hard what to make of what The Last Dreams of Helene Weigel... is doing damage to, though it might be the texts of Karl Jung, which are recited alongside sung "ditties" by a troupe of lingerie-clad actors.
• Finally, Martha Schwendener shows us just how much more there always is than meets the eye, as takes a worldwide tour by lens visiting photography exhibitions at the Jewish Museum, the Studio Museum, and Yossi Milo Gallery, each evoking their own subject-producer questions.

All that, plus more Music, Art, Theater, Film, Books, Dance, Restaurants, Michael Musto, Free Will Astrology, and Dan Savage. And then some.

Here at The Village Voice, we strive to bring you the best of everything in sight, out of sight, every time. See what we did there?

[fkamer@villagevoice.com]