Lincoln Park, KORN, and Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson are three singers that diners at Cutter Ziskind (or Cutter Z as nicknamed by students) might hear while waiting in line, thanks to the multi-genre playlist that blasts through the speakers. Adam Lueb, a sixth-year dining staff, longtime rock music fan, and the curator of the dining hall playlist, recalled the beginning of Cutter Ziskind’’s acoustic history. One can often identify him by his pink hat with “bald-headed” embroidered on top.
When the pandemic started, all of the dining at Smith switched to grab-and-go boxes. The school allowed the dining hall staff to play music because of the reduced student-staff interaction. According to Lueb, playing music helped the time to go by faster. “It was a lot of waiting around,” he said, and added that the music helped “to keep the dining staff from going crazy.” Cutter Z resumed indoor dining this fall, but the music stuck around.
Lisa Cao ’24, a Cutter Z resident, first noticed the music the afternoon before Convocation. “It was very happy and cheerful,” Cao said, “the music always suited my mood, especially on Friday.” Although Lueb can’t recall the playlist on Convocation, he firmly attributed the “cheerful” songs to his colleague, Scott, who thinks Disney music is the most suitable for the dining experience. He is currently working at Comstock and has brought his music there. Mr. J, another dining staff member, plays a 90s-centric playlist at Cutter Z when Lueb is not on shift. “We tried to get good diversity in there,” said Lueb.
But most of the playlist comes from Lueb’s personal taste, which includes many rock songs. Lueb especially enjoys the music by Bring Me the Horizon, a rock band famous for songs like “Can You Feel My Heart” and “Sleepwalking.” “I know waiting in line sucks. It’s been difficult. This whole semester has been really difficult,” Lueb said. He is happy to see that heads are bobbing while people wait in line. To him, rock music is his way to relax and prepare himself for tasks ahead. “A lot of people are like, you find that music relaxing. It just allows me to breathe and calm down,” Lueb said. He is glad that his music might help students to feel similarly.
Lueb also believes that his music taste helped him to connect with students. “One time I was eating lunch there, which rarely happens, and heard the song. So I was like, ‘no one is listening to that song these days,'” said Sapphire Tang ’22, a fan of KORN and Jack Johnson–two artists featured in the dining hall playlist. “As an international student, I don’t always listen to lots of popular songs in the States. I happened to hear two songs that I know.” Tang said, “How can I not get excited?”
Tang’s friendship with Lueb goes beyond the music and started when he would always leave her food after her afternoon practice. Two years went by, and Lueb still said “hi” to her every time. Tang said, “If some students have special requests for food, he will literally try his best to help students out.” Tang recalls once when she asked him for Chinese spicy sauce; Lueb gave her a brand new bottle.
“I try to make it like home for you. If you want to come down and if you’re like, ‘Hey, can I have a snack?’ I tried to give it to you.” Lueb explained his philosophy, “Because if you’re at home, you could go get a snack whenever you want.” He thought a lot about interacting with students, especially seeing many students who came from half of the world away. In Lueb’s opinion, music and food have a closer bond than people might see. “Music definitely helps bring the mood up. It makes you put more love and joy into your food. That could also be a reason that the food’s good because the cooks are always listening to the music in the back.”
“The staff bring positive emotions to all the student workers. Having music, high-five, if you feel hungry, then just stop and eat something.” said Jiayi Sun ’25, a student worker at Cutter Z. “Adam has the closest relationship with the students and the student workers. He knows all of us by name.”
The folks working at Lamont were always playing funk, jazz and jam bands (and playing frisbee in the parking lot during the down times). They are/were such sweet folks, I don’t see them much anymore, seems like they got scattered.
One of the guys told me that at one point you could pick where and who you wanted to work with and that some of the kitchen staff at Lamont had been together for a long time. Not sure if this is the case anymore, tho.