Listen! Listen! It's The Noise Recession!

- London Novak (Sports Editor)
Recent Greenville graduates, Terrard Robinson and Jon Brownhill, have created a new music group that has astounded even me, a wide-eyed professional music listener. Calling themselves 'The Noise Recession', they have produced over twelve songs that are worth checking out.

Jon and T, as his friends call him, were friends and worked together while attending GC, but graduated last spring and moved far out of the state as possible; T going to Nashville, Tennessee and Jon traveling to Portland, Oregon. It was in December that T decided that Nashville just wasn't for him and asked Jon to move in with him. Of course, Jon and his roommate, Lynn Wehner (another GC graduate), agreed to let him stay there. They have now been making music since mid-January.

When asked how they wrote their music, they both replied that they just focused on living 'in the now state of mind'. Their lyrics reveal this present state of living time and time again, making one conscious of it as well. Their funky music makes one want to groove a little, although there are times that make one just want to sit down and chill.

“It's just fun to listen to, ya know?” remarked T, when I asked him how the music made him feel.

The instruments and programs they have been using include their voices, a Korg keyboard, a Mac computer, Garageband, Reason, Logic Pro 8, and their own brain power.

They told me that they'll probably be done making a complete CD by the end of the summer/beginning of first semester next year. They'll be sending out a few samplers that I'll be sure to hand out throughout campus, so if you really really really want one, be sure to tell me so I can get it to you. If you're interested in checking out their music before next semester or before I begin handing out copies, you could go to www.myspace.com/noiserecession or you could Google it and you'll find them. Their Myspace have most of their songs, but not all, so be sure to see what they're all about!

July Movie Preview

Public Enemies (July 1st)
Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Billy Crudup
Johnny Depp plays notorious Depression Era bank robber, John Dillinger, in Public Enemies. Dillinger launched one of the most wild crime sprees in history. During the Depression, Dillinger robbed-from the rich without giving to the poor, deviating from the infamous Robin Hood style. No jail could hold Dillinger, as his charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to many. This endearment resulted from a lack of sympathy from the public for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. Christian Bale got into his character as J. Edgar Hoover’s agent, Melvin Purvis, by studying old newspaper clippings, ancient newsreels, and visiting Purvis’ son in South Carolina.

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (July 15th)
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
The wait is over! Originally scheduled to open November 21st, 2008 Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince is finally coming out. Financial issues caused the push back that sent fans going bananas. I’m not going to waste my time to tell you what the movie is about because I am sure fans already know. But I will disclose that I thoroughly enjoy Freeze Pops in the summer time.

(500) Days of Summer (July 17th)
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
Greeting card writer and hopeless romantic, Tom (Gordon-Levitt), falls for Summer (Deschanel) who does not believe in love. The movie follows Tom as he tries to win Summer’s heart over a span of 500 days. The story moves from the perspective of Tom, who goes from ecstatic giddiness one moment, indulging in a fantasy song and dance sequence at one point, to crippling depression the next. The soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer is worth mentioning too, as Regina Spektor, The Smiths, Black Lips, PAPER ROUTE, Feist and Spoon are just a few worthy mentions included.

Bruno (July 10th)
Starring Sacha Baron Cohen
Late last year you might remember hearing about all the fashion show sabotages. Top runway shows in Paris and Milan kept getting interrupted by a strange man and that strange man ended up being none other than Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen. Bruno is a British mockumentary produced, co-written and starring Baron Cohen. Bruno originates from Baren Cohen’s previous television series Da Ali G Show. Bruno is the third film based on characters from the show, following Ali G Indahouse and Borat: Cultural Lernings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Funny People (July 31st)
Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann
George (Adam Sandler) is a very successful stand up comedian who learns that he has an untreatable blood disorder and is given less than a year to live. Ira (Seth Rogen) is a struggling up-and-coming stand up comedian who works at a deli and has yet to figure out his onstage persona. One night, these two perform at the same club and George takes notice of Ira. George hires Ira to be his semi-personal assistant as well as his friend. Taking another direction than the usual slap-stick comedy made possible by Rogen and company, don’t expect Funny People to be as funny as other Apatow productions but more of a heart-felt comedy.

Miss California Keeps Her Crown

(Courtesy, Micahel Loccisano)
- Caitlin Tadlock (Arts&Pop Culture Editor)
Tuesday, Donald Trump, owner of the Miss Universe Organization, announced at a press conference that Carrie Prejean will resume her title as Miss California. Prejean first came under fire last month during her interview session on the televised Miss USA competition. Entertainment gossip gay blogger, Perez Hilton, asked Prejean if she thought that all states should move forward allowing same-sex marriage to echo the new law in Vermont.

Prejean responded saying, “I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land in which you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage,” and added “In my country and in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

At the end of the night Prejean was named runner-up and stated that her same-sex marriage answer cost her the crown, but her answer reflected her values and she would not take back her answer if she had the chance. As entertainment and news sources talked about Miss California’s comments she became the poster girl for “traditional” marriage and Prejean felt like she was attacked for her Christian beliefs.

The comments blew over for a few days and then pictures of Miss California posing partially nude were making their way through the internet. Prejean made a statement supporting her decision for posing partially nude, “I am a Christian and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recent photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.”

Tuesday morning Donald Trump confirmed that Carrie Prejean will resume her title as Miss California by making a speech and replacing a “Miss California” sash around her. Trump said that Prejean gave an honest answer to a tough, politically fueled question, and that there was nothing wrong with the pictures of her. Prejean elaborated at the press conference on the pictures, saying they were taken by a friend at her home for application and not for publication. If the photos were for “publication” use, Prejean would not have been allowed to enter the Miss California Pageant but since they were for “application” use, (the photos would be used as a tool to be hired for modeling jobs and not for commercial or public use) the organization would allow Prejean to still be Miss California.

After the announcement was made that Carrie Prejean will keep her title, entertainment website TMZ released supposed professional, partially nude photo shoot pictures of Miss California. Is this debate over or will these new pictures of Miss California put her title in jeopardy once again?

Fake IMAX is Fake

- Caitlin Taldock (Arts&Pop Culture Editor)
July 18th, 2008 was the day I was ready for my first IMAX experience that wasn’t forced upon me by middle school science teachers. I purchased tickets for the midnight showing of The Dark Knight. Ronnie’s Cinema on Lindbergh holds the only IMAX in St. Louis besides the St. Louis Science Center’s Omnimax, which is a screen that surrounds a person like a projection dome that shows educational films voiced over by Kevin Bacon.

Everyone was ushered into the IMAX at Ronnie’s like cattle for the midnight showing. When I entered the theater I immediately turned around and went back outside to look at the sign above the theater to double check to see if I was going into the right one. I checked my ticket to make sure it said “IMAX” somewhere on it, and after that confirmation I went to an employee and asked where the IMAX theater was. The employee pointed me in the right direction, which was the theater I originally went into. I was confused but went back and took my seat anyway.

Before the film started a warning came up on screen and a robot told the audience that because IMAX is so extreme one might feel nauseous during some intense action scenes and that one should close their eyes and put their head down so the dizziness and nausea would go away promptly. I was reassured that maybe this will be something spectacular and I would be able to throw up on the row below me. I was sorely disappointed when the movie started. The screen did stretch from the bottom to the top but didn’t wrap around the whole theatre like I experienced in middle school when we watched a Titanic documentary at the Omnimax. I also didn’t get nauseous from the IMAX experience but rather from Christian Bale’s Batman voice effects. The film was digital (DLP) and had a nice quality like those flat screens people have in their homes now.

When ordering tickets at fandango.com the cost for an “IMAX Hollywood Experience” is $11.75 and a regular St. Louis experience is $9.25. I was puzzled as to why a few feet of screen and making a film digital would have such a price increase. I guess I wasn’t the only one. Comedian Aziz Ansari from Parks and Recreation and Human Giant recently discovered a Fake IMAX in LA when he paid $15.00 to watch Star Trek on Friday.

Ansari says that “basically IMAX is whoring out their brand name and trying to trick people. These new ‘IMAX’ theatres are really just nice digital screens with good sound, but they ARE NOT IMAX, in that they don’t have the huge 72 foot gigantic screen which people would expect.”

Theatres have different names for their fake IMAX screens. In St. Louis, Ronnie’s Cinema refers to them as “The IMAX Experience” or “The IMAX Hollywood Experience” to differentiate from the giant IMAX screens people are used to associate with the name IMAX. The definition of the IMAX according to fandango.com dupes customers who pay for the fake IMAX experience; “the IMAX Experience® is the world's most immersive movie experience. Using the world's largest movie format, IMAX delivers breathtaking, crystal clear images projected onto screens that fill the entire field of view and a powerful state-of-the-art digital surround sound system. Visit your local IMAX Theater to experience the feeling of being part of the movie”.

Aziz Ansari decided to write his blog (www.azizisbored.tumblr.com) to warn people about the dangers of fake IMAXs’, and it worked. The next day entertainment blogs like “Oh No They Didn’t!” and Digg.com both featured the entry on their top of the day topics. I doubt that this buzz about the fake IMAX’s will get a petition to start to build real IMAXs’ in place of the fakes but maybe the IMAX will be renamed with a more fitting name like “LIEMAX” or “Digital-Screen-With-Good-Sound-And-Slightly-Bigger-Theater-Than-Others.”

To tell if the IMAX theatre you are going to is either a LIEMAX or an authentic one go to http://www.bigmoviezone.com/ and type in your zip code and check the theater stats. If the stats say “1570” then that is a genuine IMAX theatre, but if it just says “Digital” than it’s a LIEMAX. Don’t fall into the IMAX digitally enhanced surround sound trap!

June Movie Preview

(The Hangover)- Caitlin Tadlock (Arts&Culture Editor)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

A third of the way into shooting The Transformers sequel, the film’s star Shia LaBeouf was injured in a car accident that put his role as Sam Witwicky on a seven week hold. LaBeouf’s hand is permanently damaged and now only has 80% of its original usage. Director Michael Bay pondered over replacing LaBeouf’s hand with a CG hand but decided it too expensive and a “pain in the neck”. LaBeouf and co-star Megan Fox recaps that so far on set they have blew up a fish tank, a helicopter, concrete tubes and a library. The film has broken a few Guinness Book of World records that include being the first film to shoot on top of the pyramids in Egypt.



Land of the Lost

A remake of the trippy kiddie sci-fi television series of the 1970’s and the 1990’s, Will Ferrell and company set to take the sitcom to the silver screen with a big-budget adventure-comedy reboot. The series was about a family that was transported to a bizarre world of dinosaurs, cavemen, and menacing lizard-like creatures called Sleestaks. Ferrell’s character Rick Marshall is a scientist who gets sucked into a space-time vortex with his research assistant (played by Anna Friel) and a dim-witted survivalist (played by Danny McBride). Mary and Sid Krofft, the creators of the television show, are both producers of the film. The Krofft’s say that fans of the series will be pleased with the return of the Sleestaks, Chaka and the original theme song.

The Hangover

The morning after their best friend’s Las Vegas bachelor party, three men wake up in a trashed hotel room with no recollection of why they are half-naked and beaten. Or why a chicken is clucking around the room. Or what happened to the groom. The three men go on a 24-hour comedic quest to find the Groom before his wedding that evening. If marketed properly The Hangover could be another unexpected comedy hit, even though it's not a Team Apatow production. This film could also be Zach Galifanakis’ break out movie according to Burbank, CA test screeners that say this will be summer 2009’s Wedding Crashers, Knocked Up or Superbad.


Away We Go

John Krasinksi plays an earnest expectant father, Burt, who joins his pregnant girlfriend, Verona (played by Maya Rudolph) on a cross-country search for the right place to call home. Allison Janney and Catherine O’Hara are two supporting character actors that give the film a comedic spark. Some people call the film boring, some say it is charming and others are scratching their heads wondering why every new indie movie has the Juno-esque graphics and fonts on the film’s movie posters.


Whatever Works

Larry David plays an eccentric man from Greenwich Village who gets caught up in a series of love stories that get him tangled up with a young girl *played by Evan Rachel Wood) and her parents from the south. Wood reveals that Whatever Works is another classic Woody Allen movie but it is still different than anything he has done. Wood’s naïve character ends up marrying David and trouble ensues.


Year One

Judd Apatow’s sitting in the producer’s seat for this new film. Year One is about two really bad hunter-gatherers in a Stone Age tribe that get expelled from the group and venture out into a world they didn’t know existed. Jack Black and Michael Cera embark on a quest that traces the Book of Genesis and allows them to sound off on their opposing views of religion. Cera plays a terrified existentialist, afraid of everything while Black believes there is a God who is mapping things out for him. The movie is characterized by director Harold Ramis as “just a good, dumb, broad comedy”.

The Rescue Hits St. Louis

(Kristen Bell 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' along with some IC founders at the LA Rescue Mission.)-Beth Borger
What do Oprah, Billy Boyd (Pippin in Lord of the Rings), and Switchfoot have in common? These celebrities along with nearly one hundred others pledged to support and advocate for Invisible Children’s Rescue effort. All across the world on April 25,nearly 100,000 people peacefully protested the mistreatment of the children in northern Africa. The Rescue was put on by Invisible Children to raise awareness about Joseph Kony and the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel army that has enslaved thousands of children for several years. Many of these children have escaped; however, a majority of the escapees have been mutilated, abused, and hardly resemble the children they were before they were taken from their homes and forced to fight in a dead war.
32 students from Greenville College participated in the Rescue event held in St. Louis, Missouri. Nearly seven hundred students participated in the somber walk from the Edward Jones Dome to the Arch at 3pm on April 25th. After completing the walk, students waited on the steps of the Arch to be “rescued” by both the media and a celebrity. The media showed up within a few hours and several radio stations broadcasted the event. The group continued to wait for a celebrity rescuer.
At 10pm the whole group moved to the “camp” around the Arch and set up their sleeping bags. After midnight, the hope of Taylor Swift showing up after her concert was slowly dwindling, especially considering the gunshots heard from a block down. Sunday afternoon at about 1:30pm St. Louis Rams linebacker Chris Chamberlain came to the rescue of the group and pledged his support.
By this time, there were only nine cities still waiting to be rescued in the United States. Every city in America had a mogul show up with the exception of Chicago, who continued to wait. A constant five hundred people remained for nearly a week in Chicago participating in this protest. Oprah Winfrey finally agreed to put the Invisible Children’s founders live on her May 1st show.
Even though the Rescue event has ended, Invisible Children will not stop raising awareness and urging thousands to protest. Instead, on June 22nd and 23rd thousands across the nation will travel to Washington D.C. to deliver letters and urge senators to find a way to end this war in Uganda. According to the Invisible Children organization, “the program will include lobbying trainings, VIP speakers, a kick-off rally and will culminate in an unprecedented outpouring of activism on Capitol Hill, with hundreds of meetings taking place between Members of Congress and their constituents.”
There are several things that can be done now that the event is over. Invisible Children sells merchandise which goes to benefit the child soldiers and the actual rescue efforts going on. The organization is also doing a TRI pledge. This pledge is asking each student to give up a three dollar cup of coffee at Starbucks in order to help the Invisible Children efforts. The donation is taken off of a credit or debit card each month. You can donate and purchase merchandise at InvisibleChildren.com and attend the lobby days in June at Washington DC. More information can be found at HowItEnds.tv. Please contact Beth Bounds or Jared Pitts if you have any further questions.

Blackroom Cafe Comes to a Close

Seniors Jess Kamm and Steph Plant performed at the last Blackroom Café of the year on Tuesday night. Jess, who just returned from a Best Semester study at Martha’s Vineyard, opened the night by playing 3 original songs. Steph Plant who was the first act of the school year for Blackroom Café was also the last performer of the school year. Steph’s senior art show will be held this coming Sunday from 6pm to 8pm in the Maves Art Center. The spring semester Blackroom Café CD will be on sale this summer. You can purchase the CD by contacting Lucas Harger at lucasjharger@gmail.com The CD costs $5 and the fall semester CD is still on sale. During the fall 2009 school year Blackroom Café will be held every other week with an outside artist performing every other Blackroom Café.

Steph Plant Performing @ Blackroom Cafe

Bradley Hathaway @ Off Broadway

- Caitlin Tadlock
The always arrogant Bradley Hathaway played a show at St.Louis' Off Broadway. Greenville College's own Hot Fever opened the night.
Hathaway performed songs from his past few albums and refused to do any of the poems that made him famous.
I don't know how he still has fans, his music is mediocre.
Here is a video from the show.

myspace.com/hotfevermusic
myspace.com/bradleyhathaway