CEC and General Representative 1 office successfully kick off first Bruins Night Out
By Leah Christianson
Nov. 12, 2011 2:14 p.m.
For the first time in my three years at UCLA, the streets of Westwood were packed.
There were people milling slowly from store to store in packs, music from various boutiques competing as it escaped into the streets, and lines for restaurants stretching on for blocks.
This Thursday was the year’s first Bruins Night Out, a result of a collaboration between Campus Events Commission and the General Representative 1 office. With it came a plethora of deals on food for UCLA students and a free sneak peak of “Immortals” at Westwood’s Regency Theatre.
“Our office is making an effort to bring the UCLA community back to Westwood, and tonight is a huge step in the right direction,” said General Representative 1 David Bocarsly at the “Immortals” sneak peak.
It was nice to see the usually sparsely populated streets of Westwood filled to the brim. It was like a scene from a stereotypical college movie, with friends calling to each other from across the street while lights flash a bit too brightly in the crowded street.
There were some disadvantages: In order to take advantage of the many deals Bruins Night Out offered, hungry students had to endure long lines. The line at Chipotle, which offered a buy-one-get-one-free deal, reached all the way to Barney’s Beanery.
The “Immortals” sneak peak was exciting, if only for the fact that it was a “sneak peak.” Only Bruins were allowed in the theater, and Bocarsly led the audience in an eight-clap before the movie began. It was many students first time in the historic Regency Theatre ““ a place that has housed countless Hollywood premieres. It was an experience that was distinctive of UCLA ““ sitting in a seat that Justin Timberlake could have occupied only weeks before, surrounded by good friends, watching a movie that is not yet open to the general public.
Bruins Night Out successfully breathed some life into Westwood on Thursday night. It was a valiant effort to bring UCLA back into the city it used to run, and it will hopefully continue to appear in quarters to come.
