(11/15/05 5:00am)
"Try to stay as still as possible," said Aviva Gerber '07, the leader of the Meditation Club. "If you feel an itch on your arm, try to let it pass instead of immediately reaching out to scratch it."Suddenly I felt an itch over my right eyebrow. It spread to my left temple, then my leg twitched and my stomach made a burping noise."We spend most of our days thinking about what happened yesterday or about what's going to happen tomorrow," Gerber said. "Try to concentrate on the present."The thoughts were already racing-the reading assignment I dreaded, the time crunch to get this article written... I think I locked my keys in my room. What if my French professor hates me?Gerber rang a small cup-shaped bell three times with a stick and the meditation began. Although inwardly sick at imagining 25 minutes of nothingness, I aimed for positivity.I tried, as instructed, to focus on my breathing. I felt the pulse of my heartbeat and the waves of air flowing to and from my lungs, imagined them inflating and deflating like an accordion.Twenty-five minutes later the bell sang again and we ended. Although slowing my racing thoughts was the most difficult activity imaginable, it was profoundly soothing.I felt a bit awkward at first since the others clearly had more experience than I did, but their friendly attitude and willingness to share the experience eased my discomfort.Gerber gave me some posture suggestions, such as sitting cross-legged on the edge of the pillow-which encourage a straight spine-resting my legs on the floor and relaxing my hands in a comfortable position. The meditation club meets three times a week-Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays-in the Peace Room, which lies off a small corridor in the Usdan Student Center near Levin Ballroom.The club has around 260 people on its listserv, and as many as 10 people come to each "sit," though the numbers average around four or five, according to Gerber.I heard clattering in the hallway as I left."Good thing we meet before the tap dance club," Eli Davis '07 said.
(11/01/05 5:00am)
F.E.A.R. by Vivendi Universalfor WindowsGrade: :)My taste in video games is similar to my taste in music-I'm a single-genre guy, preferring rap to all other forms. When it comes to games no other class gets my blood pumping faster than First Person Shooters (FPSs). Usually the most hyped releases for PC each year, FPSs showcase the latest game engines, with gorgeous graphics and gameplay so immersive you can almost feel the hot rifle blazing in your hands. Lately, though, the big releases have disappointed me, with Doom III and Half-Life 2 failing to live up to their legendary predecessors. I had almost given up hope; that is, until I played F.E.A.R.In development by Monolith for the past several years, the hotly-anticipated F.E.A.R. finally hit retail shelves last week. Upon firing up the game, you are transformed into a new member of the First Encounter Assault Recon squad, a division of the U.S. Army handling paranormal threats. A man named Paxton Fettel, who controls an army of clones, has escaped from the enigmatic corporation that created them and is wreaking havoc through their headquarters, and you alone must go in and take out Fettel, as you are the only one who can enter the scene without freaking out and combusting. During your long pursuit , you have horrific flashbacks, while discovering terrible secrets about the corporation's sins, an unholy experiment and even more disturbing truths about your own unknown past.F.E.A.R. is a truly horrifying shooter-I was always on the edge of my seat, and jumped off it more than a few times. I have not seen such an intriguing story since the original Half-Life. The plot is action-packed, and the gameplay is smooth and immersive, something other recent games have sorely been lacking. The game sports a brand new engine, with superb graphics that run fast and look great even on my old PC. The best part by far though is the enemies; I constantly forgot I was playing a computer, believing instead I was fighting an army of real, intelligent human soldiers. The multiplayer function is a fun addition too, though hardly revolutionary. This title will definitely be a contender for Game of the Year, so I recommend you pick it up as soon as possible-that is, unless you're scared.
(10/25/05 4:00am)
In some ways, being trendy-in what we wear and what we do-is the simplest form of finding common ground with other people. I'm sure most of you have been in a conversation that began with "Nice shirt, it totally goes with your pants," or, "I love your bag." But, have you ever been in a conversation where someone's walked up to you and gone "Hey, nice religion, it matches your poodle"?Apparently, faith-once a mechanism for spiritual attainment-is now the latest fashion accessory, a convenient way to socialize. This spirituality shopping spree isn't unique to the celebrity world; it's here at Brandeis, too.First, let's look the world of the rich and famous. Generally speaking, celebrities aren't exactly "religious." By this I mean that they have extramarital affairs, do drugs and crave money. So to attain spirituality, most join religions of a second tier-religions that were once regarded as sacred, but now, thanks to these stars, have become a buffet of strange offerings. Here are the rules of the buffet line: When sampling, first pick a religion that is fairly trustworthy. Take Kaballah as an example. Kaballism is Jewish mysticism and in traditional Judaism, study of the Zohar-the text of Kaballah-is reserved for scholars over the age of 40 who have mastered most other Jewish texts. Kaballah is not a religion on its own, nor is it a person, a town or a type of soup-as Grace, Karen and Jack from Will and Grace believed in one episode. When celebrities were introduced to Kaballah, they decided to give it a celebrity twist; the pop version is mostly about wearing a red string bracelet and socializing. Just ask Madonna or Britney Spears.Of course, you should pick a religion that is going to boost your career the most. Pick the religion with the most leverage, one that the paparazzi will eat up. Kaballah seems to be losing its edge, so let's look now at the Church of Scientology. The star of Scientology? Yes, indeed, Mr. Tom Cruise. Our lovable hero of Mission: Impossible has got himself into an impossible mission in real life too-trying to convert the rest of the world to Scientology. Why does he believe this is such a great accessory? He believes that psychiatrists are wrongfully prescribing drugs when the person just needs a little bit of lovin' and the magic of time. However, completely denying the benefit of drugs for medical reasons is not a good way to go.At Brandeis, I have often noticed that the "light of religion" within us is not steady, but rather, often lit only during certain days of the year. I am not denying the fact that many students are truly religious-probably more so here than at many schools. I have seen many students in Sherman reading prayer books, but others are just following a trend. Last week, for example, Jews celebrated Sukkot, Hindus Navratri and Muslims Ramadan. But how many students truly know the religious significance of these holidays beyond the social aspects of eating in huts and meeting friends? Of course, these holidays and the socializing they entail can serve as the introduction that sparks a student's interest and motivates him or her to learn more. This week, a student may partake in the dancing outside Usdan for Simchat Torah purely for the entertainment, but may be drawn to study the significance of the holiday. There will be some other students who may be drawn to the event out of curiosity. Here on campus, there are several opportunities for students to build community and seek out and explore other religions and interests.Simply utilizing religion as a fashion statement and a "get-spirituality-quick" mechanism does not work. We must attain spirituality by other means-spirituality is a journey and not a trend. Looking to celebrities as "gurus of religion" is the biggest faux pas we could make as students in college. As for me, the only accessories I need are my friends.
(10/25/05 4:00am)
A common gift for students heading off to college these days is a shiny new laptop, equipped with all the latest and greatest hardware $1,000 or more can buy. Yet I've noticed here at Brandeis that most of these cutting-edge powerhouses fail to outperform even my old Dell desktop, which was given to me several years ago because it had been struck by lightning. Why is this? The simple answer is that viruses, spyware and bloatware, or unecessary programs, have become an epidemic on Windows computers, causing even the fastest hardware to perform like it was ten years old, not to mention posing a massive security risk. In this article I will provide you with tips to combat this trend by both preventing and removing these threats from your PC. My hope is that after following my instructions your computer will remain safe, clean and fast again, and you will avoid being extorted out of $70 by Library and Technology Services (LTS) because your computer is "unsafe." Viruses The best tactic to combat viruses is to prevent them from infiltrating your computer in the first place. But, if one does manage to slip by, removal is fairly straightforward. Brandeis provides a free copy of Norton Antivirus, so take advantage of it and scan your computer frequently. Viruses usually have to be opened by the user in order to infect a PC, so vigilance is the best method of prevention. The most common virus around campus right now is the AIM virus, which can be easily avoided by not clicking on links in instant messages unless you ask the person about it first. If he or she doesn't respond, don't click it. You should scan all email attachments from friends, avoid those from unknown sources all together and never run a program file that came as an attachment. Do not run program files from file-sharing programs like Limewire either. When you are on the Web and one of those "Security Warning -Do you trust this company?" messages comes up, the answer is NO, unless you are at a completely 100 percent trusted site like Windows Update or WebCT. Adware/Spyware Less malicious than viruses, but far more of a performance problem, adware and spyware are mainly designed to show you unwanted ads and steal personal info. To remove them, I would recommend using the two tools I mentioned last month: Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy, both of which can be downloaded from download.com. The best strategy is to boot into Safe Mode by restarting, pressing F8 before the Windows logo appears and choosing "Safe Mode w/ Networking" from the menu. Install both applications, update them, and scan for and remove any adware found, then restart. The best way to prevent adware-period-is to use the Firefox Web browser (www.mozilla.org) instead of Internet Explorer, as it stops most of the nasty programs that IE lets through. Another effective tool against spyware is a firewall, which controls what applications can access the Internet. The best free firewall by far is ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com) so download and install it and your computer will be much safer. However, be aware: the first time you run any program that needs to use the Internet, ZoneAlarm will ask if you want to allow it. Click "Yes" and "Remember This" for trusted apps like AIM and Firefox, but if a program tries to access the Internet while you aren't doing anything, disallow it. Bloatware These days retail computers and free programs like AIM and Kazaa come bundled with a ton of crap you'll never use that weighs down performance. Sometimes you can uncheck them during installation, or remove them in the Add/Remove Programs panel, but more often than not you are stuck with them. There is an effective method of ridding yourself of this garbage but it is advanced and should be done at your own risk. Go to Start>Run and type "msconfig." Click on the last tab, called "Startup." This shows a list of all the programs that start up when your computer does. In my experience, they are all completely optional, and are not needed for your system to function normally. Click "Disable All" and restart. When Windows loads again, check the box in the window and click OK; you should notice a significant performance boost.If all else fails... If your computer has been so completely damaged by malware that it is just hopeless, the best idea is to format, meaning reinstall Windows. Make sure all your important data is backed up first. If you are an advanced user, you can insert the system disks that came with your computer and reinstall the system. If you want a completely clean system and would prefer someone else did it for you, LTS will do it for about $70. Remember, no matter what happens to your computer, it can always be restored to a like-new state by re-formatting. So good luck; I hope my tips keep your PCs running clean for at least this semester.
(10/25/05 4:00am)
Part one of a mulseries exploring various clubs on campus.As I navigated the maze of Usen Castle corridors to find the pottery studio, I finally stumbled upon Sarah Basch '08, who was holding her club office hours. Entering the pottery realm for the first time since third or fourth grade, I expressed some concern about my lack of experience, but Basch assured me that you learn as you go, and offered to show me the basics of making a "pinch pot."The club offers lessons on how to throw on the pottery wheel, which is required to make very smooth, professional-looking pieces. However, since the wheel is a messy enterprise and requires a great deal of time and effort to learn, I declined the opportunity.Basch took out a huge bag of grayish-brown clay and used a long, wire string to slice off a slab for me, and then showed me around the studio.Although a small space, the studio, which is tucked above the laundry room in the Castle, is cozily packed with potting equipment. Two of the walls are covered by wooden shelves, some lined with glazes, paints and various tools. Others hold old pieces of delicate, beautifully made pottery, many created in years past by club members now long-graduated. A table used for sculpting stands against the rightmost wall, and a huge metal kiln sits off to the side.Basch demonstrated how to imprint one's thumb into a smooth ball of clay to make a hole in the middle, then evenly pinch around the edges to shape a bowl. Although my attempts to even the sides were miserable, the activity was fairly simple and surprisingly therapeutic.Basch tried to help me salvage my project by bolstering the uneven areas with clay, but pinching clay grew tedious after an hour, so I collapsed the endeavor and called it a day.Looking back, although what began as a bowl ended up replicating a gargantuan ashtray, I owe this to my rusty skills rather than the impossibility of sculpting. I could see myself returning to the studio, and I think I would improve with a second try.The pottery club is not the place to accrue masses of friends. Basch said that it's rare for more than a few people to work in the studio at once; she usually works on the wheel during her hours and nobody turns up.Nevertheless, the club is very well supplied, has a functional workspace and its members-while perhaps a smaller number than those in other clubs-love what they do. The club members also seem genuinely enthusiastic about helping people learn.The club has no executive officers except for one administrator. This year Yael Kreitman '08, who organizes meeting times, serves as a representative to the Finance Board and buys supplies. Kreitman said that the club serves as a sort of substitute for a pottery class since there is no comparable course offering at Brandeis, and that about 35 people go in each week to work on projects.The pottery club is a chartered club, meaning that it can request funding from the Finance Board, and meets eight times a week during student-supervised hours in the pottery studio. It currently has over 300 subscribers to its list-serve, and Kreitman estimated that about 100 of them use the studio.
(10/25/05 4:00am)
After a month away from home, the spectators who came to see the volleyball team at Gosman saw a clear picture of what the team has looked like during its long road trip. Hotly contested points and three tight games led to a 3-0 Brandeis loss against Tufts last Tuesday, before the Judges went 1-4 at the Hall of Fame Tournament this weekend. Their only win came against Mount Holyoke, as the Judges dropped to 11-18."I think we are having some issues mentally with our game," Ashley Powers '08 said. Inconsistency plagued the Judges at the Hall of Fame Tournament. On Friday, the Judges lost 3-1 against Williams College before losing to Wheaton College in the first round of pool play.The Judges advanced into the losing bracket, where they finally found the right side of the net, beating Mount Holyoke in three straight games 30-23, 30-18 and 30-16. The Judges took only one of four games in dropping their next match to Gordon College. "I thought [the Hall of Fame Tournament] went OK," Lorraine Wingenbach '09 said. "We are continuing to grow even as we near the end of the season. We've had some really great up moments and some pretty awful down moments, but I think that is what you get when you have a young team."In Tuesday's home match, points alternated across the board as the score reached an even 20-20 in the first. The game stayed even until the Jumbos edged out Brandeis at the end, 30-24. The Judges fell short in the second game, this time by only two points, 30-28. Tufts dispatched the Judges in the third game 30-24. Lorraine Wingenbach '09 led all players with 18 kills and 23 digs, and setter Violette Ruggiero '09 showed her versatility with 29 assists, 12 digs and 6 kills.Powers said the team has struggled with composure. "I think we get frazzled a lot, and I feel like there are teams that we can beat and play really well against," she said. "But sometimes our mental game gets in the way of our game on the court."Brandeis hosts five teams in the Judges' Classic this weekend. The Judges open tournament play against Eastern Connecticut College Friday at 6 p.m. "I think emotionally, last weekend in St. Louis took a lot out of everybody," Wingenbach said. "It is a tough schedule, especially at the end. We are really working hard to end on a good note and keep working hard for the years to come.
(10/25/05 4:00am)
A sprinkler head on the sixth floor of Pomerantz Hall in East Quad burst on Sunday evening, causing at least several hundred gallons of water to flood the hall and residents' rooms.Several students playing football hit a sprinkler head in the middle of the hall, activating the sprinkler system and fire alarm, Director of Residence Life Maggie Balch said Sunday, as facilities workers drained water.East Quad Director Megan Drangstveit said members of the administration would meet Tuesday to determine where financial responsibility for the damage would fall.Rooms in the middle of the sixth floor were flooded, but the outer edges of the hall stayed dry. Water also leaked into rooms on the fifth floor. This marked the third such incident in as many semesters. Sprinkler heads burst twice in Ziv Quad in the fall of 2004, once on Aug. 29, and again two days later.Jason Fenster '08, who lives on the fifth floor, said he sped to his room from play rehearsal when he heard about the incident around 7 p.m. When he arrived, he found water leaking through his ceiling and walls. He said his neighbor's room "got hit worse" than his. "We got towels and [Tupperware] and trashcans and buckets taking in water," Fenster said. "We moved everything away from the walls where the water was coming in." Several students said the sprinklers were going off for more than a half an hour, but Director of Public Ed Callahan said "facilities worked as quickly as possible to turn off the system."Collins said that even once the sprinkler system was shut down, it took longer for all the water flow to stop.After shutting off the sprinkler system, facilities drained all the water from the affected floors and had a plumber replace the broken sprinkler head, Collins said. Community Advisor for the sixth floor Andrew Eilbert '08 estimated that two feet of water had accumulated on the floor."People in the middle of the hallway were hit hardest," Eilbert said. "In the stairwells, it was raining."The sprinklers, a fire prevention system, are attached to a network of piping that is constantly filled with water under pressure, Collins said. The sprinklers release water when the head is either tampered with or melted off from the heat of a fire. There was "70 pounds of pressure coming through the pipes," Collins said."Even after the sprinklers went off there was still water coming in because there was still water leaking through the ceiling from the standing water on the floor above," Fenster said.Fenster said the smell on his floor is the worst part of the experience"The steam pipe is spewing out smelly things," he said. "The water's mildewy and gross and towels are going to rot, so it's pretty nasty."Balch asked residents to make lists of damaged personal items, in order to help the Administration assess the extent of the damage.East Quad Senator Jacob Baime '08, who met with most of the affected residents on Sunday night, expressed concern for students with damaged mattresses."Some people whose mattresses got extremely wet did not receive replacement mattresses that evening," he said. "Several residents are exasperated that it took so long to shut the sprinkler off and that it was so sensitive in the first place."Carly Field '08, who lives on the sixth floor, said the students who set off the sprinklers should be held at least partially responsible. "I think Brandeis needs to do something, either reprimand the people who did that or reimburse [the affected students]," she said.
(10/18/05 4:00am)
To the Editor:I write in response to Ilya Sobol's '08 article. Upon first reading this piece, I tried to dismiss it as the self-congratulatory ramblings of an individual who falsely identified himself as the average college male. As time went on, however, I came to feel personally attacked and humiliated as a female on this campus. What put me over the edge, and forced me to write this letter, is my role as a Community Advisor for first-year students. These bright and talented women came to Brandeis to learn not only about their academic field, but, as Sobol puts it, "about people and how to communicate with them." What message does it send to them about their safety on this campus when an article published by the most widely read Brandeis newspaper marks them as targets for intoxicated men out looking for their next victim? Ilya Sobol should be ashamed of the treatment of women he has encouraged and condoned. What's more, the Justice should be ashamed of publishing such an article. The media should present the news and promote positive discourse. Their willingness to enable Sobol to spread his dangerous, disgusting and sexist message is just one more case of unscrupulous conduct on the part of the Justice staff.-Kate Pouilliard '06
(10/18/05 4:00am)
Early in Robert Johnson's career, he was considered a mediocre delta bluesman, mostly disliked by his contemporaries and never mentioned in the same breath as someone like Son House or Bukka White. A myth says he went down to the 'crossroads' one day and made a Faustian deal for his guitar skills. Today of course, Johnson is thought of as the most well-known and greatest bluesman to ever live. Johnson's story is one in a long line that plays into America's uncanny cultural proclivity for creating new personas and larger-than-life back stories-for reviving the past and reinventing it. So it's not so outrageous to say that the reissuing and repackaging of artists' works is a particularly American phenomenon-it's just one more particularly monetary form of it. Reissues, by and large, are releases of albums on compact disc that have not ever been on CD, have gone out of print or are getting a sound quality boost. With the advent of CD technology, a majority of pre-1985 albums were released on CD immediately. The technology for transferring tapes was primitive at the time, so many early CDs sounded shoddy. During the '90s, companies quietly went through their back catalogues to put out better transfers of albums. The reissuing and repackaging of albums, as we know it today, only became popular toward the turn of the century, once its commercial viability was proven.David Bowie is one of the founders of this particular trend. In the early '90s, he took control of his own catalogue to oversee its reissuing. He went through all his old sessions' tapes, and included three to four bonus tracks at the end of each disc-either demos, incomplete rehearsals or live takes. These were then packaged with the "David Bowie Collection" seal of approval and marketed to fans as if part of some sweet commemorative Elvis dinner plate collection, incomplete unless taken as a whole. But reissuing is not inherently bad. Inevitably, new technology will eclipse old, and any excuse for hearing that drum sound on "Be My Baby" more vividly should be taken as necessity. The problems begin with the needless reissuing of albums that have already been reissued, and are not sonically improved. Of course, it is the companies, not artists, who make the bulk of the profits from this dubious practice.The one complete success of this trend is the reissue of albums that have gone out-of-print or never been on CD. So many lost classics have finally been given the attention they deserve. Recently, that includes Gary Higgins' brilliant folk-plea Red Hash, recorded in 1972, months before he was sent to jail for possession of marijuana. The entire works of Bill Fay were also unknown to even the most well-versed listener until earlier this year when, at the insistence of producer/musician Jim O'Rourke, they were finally put out on CD. Fay's Time of the Last Persecution is a treasure, one that likely could not have been discovered without its reissuing. Repackaging is just as two-headed as reissuing-take Elvis Costello, for example. Rhino Records has been re-releasing all of his albums for the past four years, including second discs that sometimes include twice as much bonus material as the regular albums. The bonus material here is compelling, largely because Costello is such a prolific songwriter. The worst of these repackages have been released by Sony's Legacy Series, which, for example, charges 30 dollars for the Clash's London Calling with a poorly-recorded early version of the album called The Vanilla Tapes tacked on. Even a completist like myself finds this pointless. The most egregious example of Sony's repackaging is last December's reissue of Jeff Buckley's Grace, his only full studio album. Buckley was notorious for recording little during his short life, so the bonus materials included are awful. When the regular album costs eight to 10 dollars at discount price, why waste all this other money for an extra 40 minutes of crap? What we are left with is a double-edged sword. Revealing lost classics and improving sound quality will always be welcome in the music world. This is obfuscated, however, by the profiteering companies who wouldn't release these gems originally, and whose only interest in the albums is to sell people something they already own. I have bought Blood on the Tracks three times; how many more times will this circle be unbroken?
(10/11/05 4:00am)
To Ilya Solbol and the Editors, I write in response to the October 11th article entitled, "In the Eye of the Typical College Guy, it All Boils Down to Sex." Upon first reading this piece, I tried to dismiss it as the self-congratulatory ramblings of an individual who falsely identified himself as the average college male. As time went on, however, I came to feel personally attacked and humiliated as a female on this campus. What put me over the edge, and forced me to write this letter, is my role as a Community Advisor for first-year students. These bright and talented women came to Brandeis to learn not only about their academic field, but, as Solbol puts it, "about people and how to communicate with them." What message does it send to them about their safety on this campus when an article published by the most widely read Brandeis newspaper marks them as targets for intoxicated men out looking for their next victim? Ilya Solbol should be ashamed of the treatment of women he has encouraged and condoned. What's more, the Justice should be ashamed of publishing such an article. The media should present the news and promote positive discourse. Their willingness to enable Solbol to spread his dangerous, disgusting, and sexist message is just one more case of unscrupulous conduct on the part of the Justice staff. Sincerely, Kate Pouilliard, '06CA, Massell, Usen 1
(09/27/05 4:00am)
Flightplan - one star out of fiveDirected by Robert SchwentkeStarring Jodie Foster, Peter SarsgaardThe opening scene of Flightplan is artistic and engaging. The plane takes off, and it's all downhill from there. The problem is that it is missing a thriller's most essential component: thrill. The mind-numbing action sequences and weak plot will leave audiences waiting more eagerly for the credits than the story's resolution.Jodie Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, an engineer who is traveling home to New York after the mysterious death of her husband in Berlin. Her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) disappears mid-flight, and Pratt discovers that not only does the airline have no record of the child, but also that none of the passengers even remember seeing her. Pratt, questioning her own sanity, has become her daughter's only hope.As exciting as an action mystery 40 thousand feet in the air sounds, Flightplan doesn't deliver. The plot is predictable and repetitive, largely consisting of Pratt repeatedly storming into the cockpit, demanding that specific parts of the plane be searched, witnessing the skeptical crew returning empty-handed and beginning the pattern anew, all resulting in an anticlimactic and drawn-out ending. It's especially hard to believe that an airplane's crew-who first accuse Pratt of being either a drunk or a pill-popper-would be so reluctant to search for a missing child, and a number of tasteless references to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks add no class to this film. Foster's performance is feeble, and her character's emotions are generally limited to hysteria and determination. You'd think that Foster-winner of a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in The Silence of the Lambs-would have mystery thrillers down to a science by now.We can give the writers credit, however, for covering up potential plot holes. Even the smallest details prove important, and keeping track of these minutiae is probably the only fun thing about Flightplan. Director Robert Schwentke has made a noble attempt at creating a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat thriller. With only a few redeeming qualities, however, Flightplan is hardly worth seeing.-Sara O'BrienTim Burton's Corpse Bride - three stars out of fiveDirected by Tim BurtonStarring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Richard E. Grant, Christopher Lee, Danny Elfman, Michael GoughMore than a decade after his last venture into stop-motion animation, Tim Burton makes a lukewarm return to the medium with his latest film, Corpse Bride. On the heels of the director's popular remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride was filmed in the same style as the popular The Nightmare Before Christmas, employing a painstaking process which takes much longer to film and is generally more expensive than live action or drawn animation. The film centers on the unfortunate Victor (voiced by many-time Burton collaborator Johnny Depp) who, while practicing his wedding vows by placing his ring on a tree branch, unwittingly marries a corpse. The deceased bride (Helena Bonham Carter) was killed on her own wedding day, and isn't about to take no for an answer from her new and still-breathing groom. As the film progresses, Victor is torn between his ghoulish wife-whom he develops genuine feelings for-and his actual fiance, Victoria (Emily Watson). Like many of Burton's films, Corpse Bride weaves an atmosphere both dreamy and macabre. The people are spindly, with exaggerated limbs and heads. The buildings are gothic and foreboding, but somehow the scenery becomes endearing as the movie progresses. The film's great irony is simple: With its musical numbers and fun denizens, the land of the dead is more alive than Victor's Victorian land of the living. Even the disgusting little details-such as maggots popping out of the bride's eyes or the occasional dismemberment--are charming.Unfortunately, that charm is about the only thing this film has going for it. It's a brief 77 minutes, but even at that the film's ideas are exhausted by the time the credits roll. And while Corpse Bride might have worked better as a part of a collection of animation shorts rather than as a feature-length film, no one will leave the theater without a smile. -Matthew Wright
(09/06/05 4:00am)
Green Day played at Gillette Stadium last Saturday for the first of two performances, the second of which will be held this Thursday during the NFL season-opening Patriots game. Green Day entered the stage ready to conquer New England with the fanfare of champions, opening with "Also Sprach Zarathustra." Immediately ripping into the title track from American Idiot, Green Day energized the crowd and drew cheers, which were magnified when front-man Billie Joe Armstrong crowned himself with a Red Sox cap borrowed from a fan. The Northeastern love was echoed throughout the night, as Armstrong referenced the region no less than a dozen times.Opening band Rise Against mirrored the Green Day of a decade ago. Like Armstrong and co., Rise Against started on an independent punk label but later signed to major label Geffen. Playing a scratchy pop-punk with occasional flourishes of softness and vulnerability, the band also was full of leftist idealism-several members are part of the no-sex, no-drugs straight-edge movement, and all the band members are vegetarian.Jimmy Eat World also performed a short set drawing from their new album Futures. Although the crowd was somewhat unresponsive at first, the few songs Jimmy Eat World played from their previous effort Bleed American-especially their summer anthem "The Middle"-managed to energize the audience.Perhaps the best experience of the concert was seeing the audience. The mix of soccer moms, gutter punks, twelve-year-olds sporting mohawks and other unlikely combinations of people helped hammer home Green Day's career trajectory. There has probably never been a larger collection of people in red ties and eyeliner on the face of the planet.The audience was not disappointed with the concert, which was as theatric as a band like Green Day could make it. Fiery explosions interrupted songs and jarred those fans not paying attention, Armstrong pretended to masturbate and the band even covered the Isley Brothers' hit "Shout," complete with a collapse on stage and an intensifying crescendo as they stood back up. But the biggest spectacle of the night occurred when the band picked teenagers as replacements, handing over their instruments.The show was not without political commentary. American Idiot helped position Green Day as one of mainstream music's harshest critics of President Bush, and Billie Joe continued his band's assault during the concert. The singer indirectly mocked the president and encouraged the crowd's youths to change the world, exemplifying Green Day's political bent. Despite the popularity of American Idiot, the most popular songs of the night were from Dookie, the ten-times platinum album that introduced the band to America. Green Day ended the night with the ballad "Good Riddance," performed to the backdrop of a moving Statue of Liberty, emphasizing the song's newfound role as a 9/11 memorial. The audience's lit up cell phones, combined with the stadium's dimming lights, provided one of the most surreal moments of the night, one that would awe the most jaded rock critic. The song ended with an impressive display of fireworks, which was wasted on an audience struggling to avoid the parking lot traffic.
(04/12/05 4:00am)
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking..." diploma. Chuck Palahniuk was on the right track with his rendition of contemporary society in his novel Fight Club: We are the all-compromising, all-gluttonous crap of the world.My eyes are shut. I'm breathing. I'm only breathing. The air is crisp and fresh. I open my eyes. I'm lying in an empty bathtub in a beautiful green field surrounded by luscious green hills. Besides the goats and cows, there isn't anybody around for miles. There are two little houses about half a mile from here, one for me and one for the cattle.I dream of New Zealand, but I've never seen it, aside from in the movies and postcards I've come to treasure. It seems like a place instilled with a simple purity that makes it, for a lack of a better word, beautiful. It is a society not driven by monetary gain-it's everything that I wish I was.One of my areas of concentration is economics. My future seems to lie in finance. I get a warm and fuzzy feeling from understanding and modeling people's behavior. I get giddy at the idea of interactive markets. But the deeper I dive into the apparent focus of my life, the more I hate its presiding object of affection, money.Some people build houses, some grow food and others repair cars. I appreciate and understand the value of their existence. Their success, unlike mine, is defined by what they have created. Predicting markets, buying and selling stocks or evaluating risk-these professions are by nature nothing but money changing hands. Therefore success seems to be determined by how much money you manage to get into your pocket. People begin their jobs with the intention of supporting their lifestyles, but careers in finance often have the effect of turning all interests into one: money.I am not giddy with joy when I look at my potential life to come. Make money, more money, I need more money. Work hours, long hours, longer hours. Can't go home because I need more money. When the day finally ends, I drown my worries in two glasses of responsibly, reasonably enjoyed whiskey. When I finally retire because of my inevitable stroke or heart attack and try to enjoy the senseless money I've "earned," I won't be able to.I'll sell my soul-I'll be old and unhealthy; a washed up, betrayed, pathetic version of the man I used to be. I'll take vacations with other stupid tourists in some resort on some island where I am greeted by locals who sell me fake smiles and a false indulgent version of what tourists think the island should be. Soon after I will wither and die, after a wasted existence in which my only goal was to take advantage of an economic disequilibrium. I'll have the opportunity to do everything I've ever wanted, but I'll be unable to do so because I'll be fat, dying and still consumed by greed. I know I could avoid all this by going into research or trying to aid the world through the study of development-I understand we are equipped with tools to do something that is not purely for monetary gain. The Millennium Development Goals set out to do just that: poverty, education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS and many other issues are being tackled by economists every day. I could also follow in the footsteps of economists who serve as educators of the masses, trying to convince politicians to raise wages, increase welfare benefits or encourage ethics in economics. But give me the opportunity to make money in a culture that is immersed and obsessed with nothing but the display of wealth, and I'll likely fall into the trap of making as much as I possibly can. Given the situation, I am too insatiable to stop myself from falling over that edge.The more I think about it, the more I would rather settle for less money and enjoy my life one moment at a time by making it peaceful and pure.I wish I could make the world into what I fear I am not brave enough to embrace by myself-a place where we are defined by our accomplishments, not the number of zeros on our paycheck. As the world is now, I don't think I could face the shame of not succeeding in other people's eyes. I am Amartya Sen's textbook case in his book On Ethics and Economics. He comments on the motivational problems that seem endemic among economists who, like me, are consumed by a need to see immediate results. Sometimes I revel in psychotic, Fight Club-esque renditions of how I will destroy society's preconceived perceptions of success, but I realize I have to create this life by myself. I have to embrace my definition of success.I think that if you want that life, you can have it. A simpler life, not a hippie life-I hate hippies. We can be strong, productive and, most of all, happier without the assistance of an expensive car and a large house. I don't think there's anything wrong with liking nice things, but if to acquire them you have to kill yourself then it's just not worth it. Work fewer hours or use your education to help people-if need be, completely change your life and become a farmer who occasionally writes a book. You can work a job without your paycheck being your only motivation. You can work with a passion for the market without being obsessed with its presiding object of affection. Sometimes the most profitable action is not necessarily evil. Just take a look at Jeffrey Hollender, CEO of The Seventh Generation-a leading brand of natural household products-who has taught us that the loyalty created by ethical practice can be far more profitable than its immediate monetary value. You can play with money and be responsible on both corporate and social levels. Don't let yourself become greedy. It might sound strange that you get the greatest utility from life by living, but consider the alternative-not living-and you may understand what I'm trying to explain. Palahniuk wrote, "This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time." Don't forget it.
(04/05/05 4:00am)
Sin CityDirected by Robert Rodriguez and Frank MillerStarring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Jamie King, Josh HartnettMore violent than Kill Bill, dark as any film noir and possibly the best comic book adaptation since Spider-Man, Sin City is the most visually stunning film audiences can expect to see this spring.Based on the graphic novelist Frank Miller's iconic series, Sin City revolves around three anti-heroes fighting for good amid the crime-infested Basin City, where even priests are deadly sinners. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is an aging detective with a weak heart trying to save a young girl from a child molester; Marv (Mickey Rourke) is a disfigured ex-con hoping to avenge a slain lover; and Dwight (Clive Owen) protects Basin City's well-armed prostitutes from the mob after the murder of crooked cop Jack Rafferty (Benicio del Toro).Robert Rodriguez, made famous with his "El Mariachi" trilogy, brought Miller to the production to ensure faithfulness and accuracy to the original graphic novels-a decision that ultimately led to Rodriguez quitting the Directors' Guild of America because the organization only allows one director per film.The movie is itself a work of pulp fiction: a slew of hard-edged characters in gritty vignettes strung together loosely in a broad narrative. For some of its many stars, Sin City is a departure from the parts for which they are most famous-witness Elijah Wood in a very un-Hobbitlike role.Rodriguez and Miller combine their talents with near symbiosis, capturing perfectly the beauty and rawness of the graphic novels. Their sweet tooth for stylistic bloodbaths, the female form and an intriguing story of redemption and revenge offers a perfect framework for the green-screen technology that encapsulates the film's comic-book aesthetic. With uniformly wonderful performances by an ensemble cast set to the stunning backdrop of high-budget filmmaking's future, Sin City's world is dark, depraved and all the more magnificent for it.
(03/29/05 5:00am)
Having one of your Final Four teams knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament is like running a marathon and finding out after the gun fires that your shoes were tied together.Having your next Final Four team knocked out in the second round of the tournament feels a bit more like running an eighth of the marathon and then getting flattened by a renegade oil tanker. Quite simply, after that first weekend of tournament action, the only thing more damaged than my bracket was my mangled ego. But on Easter weekend, my two saviors came through in a big way. With the field whittled down to four, I still have my predicted championship game intact: the University of North Carolina against the University of Illinois. And when the Tarheels beat the Fighting Illini, I will celebrate the resurrection of my bracket.There is no doubt that UNC will be the national champion this year. Illinois versus UNC in the championship game is the pick everyone shied away from in the beginning because it was just too obvious.But since they both emerged from the melee unscathed, there is just no doubt that they will both be there in the end. When the two best teams during the regular season come to the tournament and dominate, it reinforces the notion that they're good. But when those teams both come within a hair's breadth of elimination and make the clutch plays needed to stave off an upset, it's clear that they came to win it all.On the biggest of stages under the brightest of lights, only star players lift their teams to championships, and UNC has two stars: center Sean May and swingman Rashad McCants. May leads the Tarheels in scoring, but McCants was injured for a large chunk of the season and that gives him motivation to excel. They were both money in the regional final against Wisconsin; McCants had 21 points and four assists, while May scored 29 points with 12 rebounds.One of these players will be the hero of the tournament, and junior point guard Raymond Felton is one of the guys who will make sure of it. He is averaging 6.9 assists a game, and it is because of his tremendous ball-handling that UNC can run at such a break-neck offensive pace. He is extremely adept at getting the ball into the low post for May or driving in and dishing out to McCants for the three-point shot.The Fighting Illini are the definition of a solid basketball team, with five players averaging above 10 points a game and the best group of guards in the country. But while they are talented, none of them are stars of the caliber of May or McCants, and that gives UNC the edge.The Tarheels have been beaten and bruised, disgraced and dismissed, but since Easter Sunday, everything has changed. Just two years after Roy Williams' triumphant return to his alma mater, UNC will be fully resurrected from the dust and take its place at the top of college basketball.And along with the Tarheels' rise to glory, my bracket will emerge victorious.
(03/15/05 5:00am)
Imagine it's 1998. In the two years since the violent murders of iconic rappers 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G., mainstream hip-hop has drifted away from the hard-edged style prevalent during the first half of the 1990s. Artists-cum-entrepreneurs like Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Master P now dominate the radio waves and MTV, polishing their gangsta roots with a commercial sheen. Having pulled their lyrical foci from America's ghettos-and placing them squarely in the realm of night clubs, Jacuzzis, Cristal and bling-hip-hop has become further removed from its old-school roots than ever before. It was two young rappers who, in the summer of that year, provided an intelligent alternative to the hip-hop status quo. Channeling old-school progenitors like Run-DMC and KRS-1 and the early-'90s jazz-rap collective Native Tongues, Mos Def and Talib Kweli released one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time: Black Star. Just as Native Tongues' socially-conscious rhymes and jazz-inflected beats had brought a positivity to counterbalance gansta rap, Black Star's unique Afro-centrism and informed, philosophical style provided a foil to less substantive artists like Combs, catapulting the two rappers to the forefront of the hip-hop conscience and heavily influencing the mainstream and underground rap communities ever since.That same iconoclasm will come to Waltham on April 7 when Mos Def-who in the seven years since the release of Black Star has crafted an acclaimed solo career and dabbled successfully in acting-brings his intricate, energetic flow to Gosman Gymnasium.Born Dante Bez in Brooklyn in 1973, Mos Def reached maturity during the 1980s-the golden age of hip-hop. He was influenced not only by the vibrant music scene, but by the surrounding culture as well, developing a strong social conscience that would later influence his music. He began rapping at age nine and eventually formed the hip-hop ensemble Urban Thermo Dynamics in the early '90s, which released the single "My Kung Fu."After that group dissolved, Mos Def was invited to join the Native Tongues crew and he appeared in songs by members De La Soul and Bush Babees. This provided the impetus for his rise in New York's underground hip-hop community and he soon became a regular performer at the famous Lyricist Lounge. He first collaborated with Talib Kweli in 1996 on the single "Fortified Live."Mos Def and Talib Kweli were thrust into the national spotlight two years later with Black Star, named after black nationalist Marcus Garvey's Black Star shipping line. As its namesake suggests, the record sought to infuse the hip-hop community with a political conscience absent since the early days of Public Enemy, as well as to counteract the violence, negativity and even the pop sheen prevalent at the time. One year later, Mos Def released his critically-acclaimed solo debut Black on Both Sides, which elaborated on Black Star's Afro-centric themes and jazz-rap beats by exploring genres like reggae, soul and hardcore punk.Several cameos notwithstanding, Mos Def disappeared from music until last year, when he formed the all-black rock group Black Jack Johnson, which hoped to revive the legacy of '80s rockers Living Colour. Although they have not yet released a record, Black Jack Johnson appeared on several cuts of Mos Def's sophomore album, The New Danger, released last fall. While it received mostly lukewarm reviews, the album proved even more adventurous than Black on Both Sides.Long before his rap career took off, however, Mos Def had built a solid rsum as an actor. After his graduation from high school in the late '80s, he landed a number of television roles-most notably on the short-lived The Cosby Mysteries. After the success of Black on Both Sides, he returned to acting, appearing on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, on television in MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera, and on the big screen in Monster's Ball, Bamboozled, The Italian Job and The Woodsman. He will star in an upcoming film adaptation of Douglas Adams' A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
(03/15/05 5:00am)
Down by three to Fasho-Fasho-Fasho with just seconds remaining, time was running out on Monometalic's intramural basketball season. After two desperation three-pointers fell short, a Monometalic player grabbed a rebound, dribbled out to the left wing and drained a three-pointer as time expired to extend Monometalic's season into overtime. Despite the buzzer-beating heroics, Fasho-Fasho-Fasho prevailed in two overtimes to advance to the men's A Division championship.Intense competition and close games were typical in this year's new and improved intramural basketball league, thanks in large part to the efforts of Tom Rand, the assistant athletic director for recreation, club sports and intramurals.A Division sported 10 teams while B Division had 20 squads, a major improvement over past seasons. An exclusive women's league was created this year, too, as opposed to past seasons when the only opportunity women got to play was in a coed bracket. The presence of referees who called fouls, electronic time and score-keeping were also welcome additions to intramural basketball this year.In the end it was a team called Game Over that took advantage of the more competitive landscape, beating Fasho-Fasho-Fasho 58-45 in the A Division championship game on Monday night.Team Uganda won B Division with a 45-38 title-game victory over The Blazers, while K-FO toppled a team AwesomeHott, 37-31, for the women's division title."It was a professionally run league this year," Game Over's Aaron Katzman '05 said. "I refereed last year. I had a stopwatch and they used a flip scoreboard that was manual to keep score, and players had to call their own fouls. [Rand's] done a great job and created a lot of support for the school with intramurals.""He did a great job this year just letting people know exactly what was going on," Game Over's Aaron Szekel '05 said. "He just did a fantastic job putting it all together, and they really got a lot of the best guys that aren't on the basketball team. Even those guys that never thought they'd play basketball at this school got the opportunity to play through [the B Division and the women's-division.]"Competition in A Division was both fierce and balanced. In a league with 10 teams, four had winning records, two leveled out with .500 records, and four had losing records. The top three teams in the league only had two losses between them. Game Over was the clear favorite to win it all heading into the playoffs after putting together a 6-0 regular season record while outscoring their opponents by an astonishing 28.7 points per game. The team averaged 69.8 points a game, 11 more than Monometalic.The championship game pitted the Game Over juggernaut against the talented Fasho-Fasho-Fasho that featured four former varsity basketball players. The game got off to a slow start as both teams struggled to find a flow. A sluggish first half ended with the score tied 25-25."It wasn't a pretty game," Game Over's Mike Lavner '08 said. "We didn't come out with the intensity that we hoped we were going to come out with in the first half."Fasho-Fasho-Fasho started the second half on a tear and quickly built a 10 point lead as Game Over struggled to execute on either end of the floor. The tables quickly turned however, and Game Over turned a 10-point deficit into a seven point lead with about 6 minutes to play. Jesse Barglow '07 and Sid Coren '07 led the turnaround for Game Over, finishing with 20 and 17 points, respectively. Fasho-Fasho-Fasho was forced to take tough outside shots as the deficit grew, and the game was effectively over with just under three minutes to play."After talking it over and calling an early time out, the guys on our team stepped it up and we really came together, and played real hard and left it all out there on the court," Lavner said."It's all basketball," Fasho-Fasho-Fasho's Charles Mann '05 said. "You win or you lose based on how hard you play and whether you play defense or not. We didn't play defense and we didn't play hard enough. We lost."Game Over cruised in the semifinal round as well, crushing TYP. TYP had easily won their first playoff game, but lost to Game Over by more than 40 points. The other semifinal game between Fasho-Fasho-Fasho and Monometalic was easily the most exciting game of the intramural season. Both teams played extremely hard in a game that featured tight defense, hard fouls, a game-tying buzzer-beating three-pointer, and two overtimed. Emotions were on edge, especially in the second half, when Joe Haynes '05 threw a basketball that hit a referee in the stomach in response to a call against Monometalic, resulting in a technical foul.A play-in game between the eighth and ninth ranked teams started the playoffs with a bang, as the Underdogz eked out a 50-49 victory over a higher ranked The Show. In the quarterfinal round, Game Over asserted their dominance, defeating the Underdogz by 30 points. Two points decided the only close quarterfinal game, as Fasho-Fasho-Fasho edged The All-Stars 36-34.Intramural competition evolved into an organized and competitive league in Rand's first year.It was a time of rejuvenated competition in Brandeis athletics, one which will likely continue under Rand's tenure. "I thought [the divisions] were all pretty competitive," Rand said. "The turnout was better than I thought. It just worked out great."
(02/15/05 5:00am)
The justArts sat down to discuss this year's Oscar nominations: Animated Feature Arnon Shorr: Shark Tale is out of the running-it just wasn't all that great. The two real contenders are Shrek 2 and The Incredibles. The Incredibles has an edge because it's not a sequel and it does a better job of making fun of the movie industry and mocking pop culture than does Shrek 2. Jenn Rubin: The only edge Shrek 2 has is that it is now the top-grossing animated film of all time, which could give its nomination some push. Jennifer Morrow: The Incredibles had a marvelous script. On one hand it was a kids' movie, but on the other hand it was a great coming-of-age story and a great tale about middle America and "fitting into the groove." It was a very complicated plot for an animated feature, and that's probably what the Academy is looking for: not just a kids' film, but something that goes above and beyond the call of duty. Supporting ActorShorr: Looking at this list, I'm particularly surprised by the presence of Jamie Foxx and Alan Alda-both of whom began their careers in comedy and who are nominated here for serious roles. Foxx's role in Collateral was a very significant change for him, a very dramatic reversal from his usual roles. I think for that he will get the win.Morrow: Jamie Foxx probably will win for Ray, so I think it's going to be Clive Owen for Closer in this category. Owen's the next big thing, and the Academy likes to give it to the up-and-coming actors who look like "decent enough chaps." Rubin: I completely disagree! I think the Oscar should go to Thomas Haden Church for Sideways, because he really showed a lot of depth in his performance. The scene when he finally broke down in the hotel really touched me. As for who I think will win, I'll go with Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby.Benjamin Freed: Morgan Freeman's role in Million Dollar Baby is another one of his old, wise mentor characters. I actually think Alan Alda could and should win. He was, in my opinion, the only really bright spot of The Aviator, which was an otherwise lackluster movie.Amit Shertzer: I think Thomas Haden Church is going to win because he put in a very emotional performance in which he showed a lot of diversity in his acting skills. Supporting ActressRubin: I think it is a tragedy that Virginia Madsen from Sideways was nominated in this category. In no sense was her performance worthy of an Oscar nod-she had maybe one good monologue in the film. I loved Laura Linney in Kinsey, but I hope it will go to Natalie Portman. Like Jen (Morrow) said, the Academy likes to give it to the up-and-coming actors and actresses. Portman's role as stripper in Closer was her first real grown-up performance on screen, and she proved she could actually act, too.Morrow: I also think that Natalie Portman will win, but for a different reason. I call it the "Down and Dirty Phenomenon of Oscars," which is when an actress does something slightly embarrassing on screen-takes off her top, or covers herself in ugly, deforming makeup-she gets an Academy Award. The Academy likes to see actresses-the clean-cut, America's sweetheart types- go a bit "out for their art." Shorr: I am impressed that Natalie Portman is somehow surviving her "Star Wars curse." She's certainly a hefty actress, but the fact that she is managing to pull away from Star Wars in a way that many of the major Star Wars actors did not succeed in doing is a testament to her ability to pick roles and to really move past that unfortunate phenomenon. That being said, I feel quite strongly that Cate Blanchett will win for her rendition of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. Many of the folks voting at the Academy probably knew Hepburn and certainly all know Hepburn's work. Blanchett's rendition of Katherine Hepburn was just frighteningly good. So, I think that just for the sheer ability to mimic the great actress of the silver screen, Blanchett will get it.Leading ActorGalil: Jamie Foxx-you got to give it to him for Ray. He was one of the producers, he put the film into motion, and he basically carried the film. However, like with the best supporting actress category, I feel like this category was very weak as well. Rubin: I completely disagree with Leor. I am very happy with this category, and I think the people who deserved to get nominated got nominated. I am so happy Paul Giamatti got passed over for Sideways. I think it was a one-dimensional performance, and the script did not finish his character development. Jon Fischer: Underdog Don Cheadle is going to win it. Leading ActressFischer: I'm not even sure if this is an issue-all the buzz is around Hilary Swank. It's a great performance, possibly rivaling her role in Boys Don't Cry. She has it in the bag.Leor Galil: I would love to see Kate Winslet win for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I also think it's a shame that the movie got snubbed for Best Picture. Everyone's saying Hilary Swank, but still, Annette Bening was good in Being Julia, and people loved Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace.Morrow: The Academy loves Hilary Swank, and the Academy loves Clint Eastwood, so Hilary Swank plus Clint Eastwood equals Oscar gold.Best Director/Best PictureFischer: Scorsese is going to win for The Aviator. This is like Denzel Washington winning the Academy Award for Training Day and not Malcolm X. Scorsese is far too respected a director not to have a statuette, and it's a good enough movie in a weak enough year for him to win. For Best Picture, I think The Aviator and Sideways could easily split each others' votes and Million Dollar Baby could take it, much like what happened when Shakespeare in Love won for Best Picture in 1998. Galil: Even though Scorsese hasn't won yet, I don't think that he should win for The Aviator. Clint Eastwood did a much better job for Million Dollar Baby, and I also think that will win Best Picture.Freed: Clint Eastwood will get robbed for a second year in a row, and Scorsese will get it. Yes, The Aviator was better than Gangs of New York, but it was still not Scorsese's best work. Winning the statuette would be equivalent of Scorsese winning a lifetime achievement award. I want Million Dollar Baby to win Best Picture; there's no Lord of the Rings to steal Clint Eastwood's achievement this year.Shorr: One of the things that struck me when I saw The Aviator is that Scorsese took Leonardo DiCaprio, who not too long ago was a sickeningly popular teen heartthrob, and managed to strip him completely naked, put him in a room and make him completely unattractive. I think the fact that Scorsese managed to do that, with an actor who not too long ago would not have been able to do that, is a testament that he should win. Shertzer: I loved Sideways. I thought it subtle, beautifully made and acted. So for best picture, I choose Sideways because I thought I could identify with the characters. For best director, I choose Scorsese. I thought his aerial shots were very strong, and the way he built up tension in the film was masterful.
(02/15/05 5:00am)
Harvard Professor Gregory Nagy delivered a lecture titled "The Three Songs of Demokodos in Odyssey VIII" to the Brandeis community on Feb. 9 as part of the first annual Jennifer Eastman lecture in Classical Studies.Classical Studies professor Leonard Muellner, a student of Nagy's in the 1960s, introduced the "revolutionary" professor and prolific author as the foremost scholar of Greek literature of his generation. Nagy is also Director of the Harvard center for Hellenistic studies in Washington and an award-winning author.Nagy's lecture focused on his latest research concerning the performance of Homeric poetry in ancient times. Nagy proposed that performance of the Iliad and the Odyssey have evolved throughout time. "To understand the ancient texts," Nagy said, "you have to make contact with it and it has to make contact with you." Nagy spoke about the transformation of Homeric poetry from encompassing a variety of epics to including only the Iliad and the Odyssey. These works were performed in Athens until around 520 B.C., Nagy said, when actors could perform nothing but Homeric poetry."Homer has become the poet of only the Iliad and the Odyssey," Nagy said. Classical Studies Chair Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow said the annual lecture, which is open to the general public, was made possible through the donation of Jennifer Eastman '68, a lifelong student of the classics. "Jennifer Eastman gave us her gift to stage lectures...on the importance of Classical Studies in the world at large to all of us," she said."The direction of the series is definitely to get cutting edge classicists, classical art historians and archaeologists, or ancient historians and philosophers to come to talk to Brandeis students about their work and the excitement of our field, to engage the students in their research interests and problems," Koloski-Ostrow said.Koloski-Ostrow said she had hoped the donation would demonstrate to the administration the support that exists for Classical Studies. But she said nothing so far has seemed to have "captured the attention of the administration." "The lecture series will continue to give the department more visibility," she said.
(02/08/05 5:00am)
Can Arrested Development save the sitcom? Though it may be too early to tell, Arrested Development (Sundays at 8:30 p.m on Fox) has brought a new twist to an old Fox concept: the dysfunctional family. Having aired shows like Married... With Children, The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle and Family Guy (and, to a much weirder extent, Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy) Fox consistently explores family values by smashing them into pieces. It truly is the anti-Cosby network. Even after winning five Emmy awards, Arrested Development has not received the respect it deserves. The premiere of the ratings-starved comedy's second season was pushed back two months to find a better time slot. With only about six million viewers an episode, Arrested Development seems to live on the edge of cancellation.Narrated by director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), Arrested Development is about a family-owned development firm whose president, George Bluth Sr. (Jeffery Tambor, There's Something About Mary), has been arrested. In his father's absence, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman, Dodgeball) is left to run both his father's business and his own dysfunctional family.While they have been compared to The Royal Tenenbaums, the Bluths are a different type of family. Since only he and his incarcerated father have any brains, Michael is left as the only glue holding his crazy family together. Among other frustrations, he fights a constant battle to connect with his own son, George-Michael (Michael Cera, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind).The show requires an intelligent and patient audience. Every week, its writers push the envelope by using extraordinarily dry, witty and subtle humor. There is no laugh track, and the characters never pause to indicate the end of a joke. The cast deadpans their lines, and only Michael seems to even question his family's oddities. The show's tightly-knit continuity requires viewers to pay close attention to each episode. In the beginning of season two, Michael's sister and brother-in-law separate. Though his sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi, Ally McBeal) has no success in her constant attempts at dating, his brother-in-law, Tobias FAnke (David Cross, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) decides to seek counseling. While flipping through the phone book, he comes upon what he thinks is a support group. It ends up being an audition for performance artists The Blue Man Group. Tobias, thinking that this is his calling, decides to try out and paints his entire body blue. Although he is unsuccessful, blue stains are found on his walls, furniture and clothing for the entire second season, reminding us of the incident.Anyone can relate the Bluths to members of their own family, but-as other Fox anti-Cosby family comedies-Arrested Development's eccentric cast take its characters to the extreme.The family's classic, underachieving momma's boy Buster (Tony Hale), one of Michael's brothers, tells his family he is joining the army. But after failing to do so, he does not want to disappoint his family when they entertain guests for what they think is his father's funeral. So he asks his other brother George Oscar "Gob" (Will Arnett)-a wannabe magician turned family company figurehead-to get him an army outfit. George Oscar, also an ex-stripper, asks an old friend to get him a costume. Buster then shows up at his father's funeral in a stripper's faux-army outfit, complete with a fake gun strapped around the arm. With its extremely talented cast and great regular guests (including Henry Winkler and Liza Minnelli), scenes like this consistently leave Arrested Development's small but devoted audience in stitches. "This is such a huge honor-and, I fear, a giant mistake," said creator Mitch Hurwitz (Golden Girls) in his Emmy acceptance speech. The only mistake is that you haven't been watching.
