Play, `Six Degrees,` unites separate themes

6
Emanuel album: a pleasant ‘Headrush’
Play, ‘Six Degrees,’
unites separate themes
By Lacey Korevec
After his audition, senior Justin Beezer stood
outside of the Yvonne Theater, waiting. He had
spent months studying and preparing for the role
of Paul, the main character of a production that
the theater department has anticipated for years.
The director, Dr. Patrick Chmel, chairperson of
the Fine Arts Department, sat inside the theater,
having already made the crucial decision.
“I just felt that I needed to play that character on stage,” said Beezer. “After everybody was
done he came out, walked up to me and said,
‘Congratulations, Paul.’ And that was it. I had to
bite my lip, walk away and celebrate outside.”
Immediately after, Beezer and Chmel began
working on Six Degrees of Separation, a story that
is funny and upbeat while presenting complicated and relevant themes. Months later, the rest
of the cast was chosen.
Written by John Guare, the play deals with
a young African American man, known as Paul,
who cons his way into the lives of upper class
white families. In order to find the right actor,
Chmel said that he held separate auditions
nearly three months in advance.
“It became very clear to me, at that time,
that the choice for the role had to be Beezer
because he was so incredibly prepared and he
instantly had such a gut reaction and instinct for
what this character had to be,” he said. “I saw
that seed in him in the audition.”
Aside from the issue of race, the play also
deals with homosexuality. This is an important
reason why students should experience the play,
By Bill Greenwood
Genre distinctions in the musical world
are practically meaningless. Any type of music,
if done right, will appeal to just about any listener with an open mind and a keen ear. It is for
this reason that screamo band Emanuel’s debut
album, Soundtrack to a Headrush, should not
be tossed carelessly into the local record store’s
bargain bin. The record–—an energetic mix of
punk, hardcore and good, old-fashioned rock ’n’
roll–—is just the thing to keep listeners’ blood
flowing after a long, boring day.
Emanuel is first-and-foremost a screamo
band, which will alienate quite a few individuals right off the bat. After the style entered
the mainstream with the success of bands like
Thursday and Thrice, a wave of no-talent cashin bands swarmed the scene like locusts, stripping it of its credibility. These groups seem
far more concerned with growling incoherently and looking “goth” than with writing good
songs, but Emanuel takes the opposite approach.
Rather than focusing on his band’s appearance,
lead singer Matt Breen spends his time crafting
intense, yet catchy tracks that resonate well with
both hardcore scenesters and mainstream music
fans.
Photo by Pete Borg
Soundtrack to a Headrush starts things off
Senior Justin Beezer (right) and sophomore David Yashin (left) rehearse for the Fine Arts production Six Degrees of Separation. The play will be
right with a musical punch in the face that is
performed Thursday, April 14, at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, at 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, April 22 and 23 at 8 p.m.
black, white, gay, straight, whatever.”
to deal with and who’s not and letting their “Hey Man!” On the track, Breen screams surprissaid Beezer.
ingly coherently over a guitar riff that wouldn’t
Since Paul is a hustler, Beezer said he and imaginations run wild,” he said.
“Paul is homosexual,” said Beezer. “I think
The story is told through a series of flash- sound out of place on an old AC/DC record.
there are a lot of things that kids on and off every other actor can relate to him, in a sense.
“I think every actor has to be a hustler backs, as characters that came in contact with The next song, “Buy American Machines,” again
campus will be able to relate to, like dealing with
finds Emanuel at its hard-rocking best. The track
their parents, having a different lifestyle at school because that’s what they’re going to be doing for Paul try to piece together who he really is, said makes good use of the momentum created by its
than they do at home and also not being afraid the rest of their lives, you know, meeting people Chmel.
See ‘Six Degrees’ page 5
to interact with people, no matter [if ] they are and finding out who’s fake who’s not, who’s real
IDOL UPDATE:
By Nicole Southern
Artwork by Kristian Hammond
Despite the scare last week when he received
one of the lowest numbers of votes, Anwar
Robinson was able to successfully move forward and into the final eight contestants.
Wednesday, April 7, Anwar was given the okay
to move on to the next round. This puts him in
the top eight contestants.
Viewers can watch Robinson, this coming
Tuesday, April 12, at 8 p.m. For the two hours
following the show, viewers can call in and vote
or send text messages. All viewers may vote as
many times as they want. The show that will
air the following evening, Wednesday, April 13,
will let America know whether or not Anwar
will remain on the show.
2. Soundtrack to a Headrush Photo copyright Vagrant Records
Emanuel’s Soundtrack to a Headrush blazed
its way into stores on Tuesday, March 15.
lead-in, delivering the album’s advertised head
rush after only two tracks.
Emanuel’s punk side shines through on songs
like “Breathe Underwater” and “Xeroxicide.”
These tracks showcase a more vocally reserved
Breen, who sings with much more skill than
his fellow screamo peers. However, this doesn’t
mean that the rest of the band feels the need
to pull back on the throttle. Each song’s backing track continues the aggressive, in-your-face
attack established earlier in the record and fits in
perfectly with Breen’s vocal harmonies.
The disc takes a turn for the worse, however, when the first few notes of “Make Tonight”
hit listeners’ ears. The song—a slow, melancholy number—completely ruins the flow of the
album and features some extremely sophomoric
lyrics about love and sex (“I grab her hips and
pull her in closer/ I close my eyes and it turns her
on”) that have no place on a track meant to serve
as the record’s emotional centerpiece.
Despite this shortcoming, Soundtrack to a
Emanuel
3. O’ God the Aftermath - Norma
Jean
4. 22-20’s - 22-20’s
5. The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch
Nails
Headrush manages to restore a bit of credibility
to the ailing screamo genre. The style may have
been drug through the mud by an array of untalented pretenders, but Emanuel is here to remind
listeners why they loved this passionate, intense
music so much in the first place.
By Brian Kibble
By Christian Duncan
“When I come to terms/to terms with this,”
are the first words sung on Tori Amos’ ninth
album entitled The Beekeeper and is a perfect
expression of how any fan of Amos’ work should
feel: unsatisfied.
After her album Scarlet’s Walk, Amos decided
to once again release a concept album. With
every new release, Amos changes her sound
slightly and matures in some fashionable way;
however, it has been a long while since Amos
has created an album where a listener could hear
a song over and over again, reading along with
the words, trying to figure out the puzzle and
complexity of each song.
Like many of her albums, The Beekeeper
follows Amos on a journey, except this time it is
a spiritual one. The album’s songs are separated
into six gardens: the desert garden, the rock
garden, roses and thorns, the greenhouse, the
orchard and elixirs and herbs; however, the songs
are neither presented in that kind of order nor
do they seem to have any significant relation to
one another.
Amos explores relationships, sex, God
and even valedictions, but the ideas are never
explored to the depth that a fan would expect.
Some songs do succeed in both depth and feel,
such as “General Joy,” a lyrically deep song that
has a mellow sound and a slow build-up, which
develops and then slowly breaks back down into
the chorus, presenting a rise and fall feel.
1. Guero - Beck
All-star cast turns Frank Miller’s graphic novels into sinfully exciting cinema
Amos CD lacks
honey’s sweetness
Still in the game
Anwar Robinson continues to bring in
the votes to keep him alive on American Idol,
thanks to help from Rider’s Princeton and
Lawrenceville campuses.
This past Wednesday, Robinson was
deemed safe. This was great news and a much
needed reassurance after last week’s close call,
during which Anwar ended up among the three
contestants with the lowest number of votes.
On a show that aired just over a week ago,
Tuesday, March 29, Anwar sang his own rendition of R. Kelly’s widely-known “I Believe I
Can Fly.” The audience was thrilled with the
performance and erupted into cheers, but the
judges were not as impressed.
Apparently, neither was America. For the
first time since being on the show, Robinson
found himself in the bottom three, which later
developed into the bottom two. Thankfully,
however, his number of supporters was enough
to beat out contestant Jessica Sierra and keep
him afloat in the competition.
Last week’s scare must have been all that
Robinson needed to kick him back into shape.
This week he delivered a performance of the
song “If I Ever Would Leave You,” from the
Broadway show Camelot, that even Simon
could not say anything bad about.
America’s votes poured in and on
7
Friday, April 8, 2004
Photo copyright Sony Records
Tori Amos’ ninth album, The Beekeeper, hit
record stores on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Some of the other highlights on the album
are “Sleeps with Butterflies,” “Sweet the Sting,”
“The Power of Orange Knickers,” which features
Damien Rice and “Marys of the Sea.” Still, the
album has some low points in songs like “Barons
of Suburbia,” a song that begins with a resonating piano and drums that have a heavy and reverberating feel, but is soon lost amongst vocals that
are not solid. There is no firmness or steadiness
in her voice, and the complete end of the song is
just irritating; it is a song of mumbles that collapses into itself. Some other songs to avoid on
this album are “Original Sinsuality” and “Cars
and Guitars” where she has a ridiculous accent
that makes the song sound unpolished.
The Beekeeper has some really exceptional
songs but, at the same time, really weak songs.
Most of the album is mediocre and good for
listening to in the car when driving to the beach
on a sunny day.
A cop trying to save an innocent girl. A
tough low-life trying to solve the murder of his
lover. A boyfriend trying to stop a gang war.
This is the set up for the movie adaptation of
Frank Miller’s film noir graphic novels Sin City.
Sin City is really three films in one. There
are three stories that each follow a different main
character. Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is a cop on
his last assignment, trying to save a girl from a
pedophile. Marv (Mickey Rourke) is a toughguy living in the rotten parts of Sin City, trying
to uncover who murdered his true love and why.
Dwight (Clive Owen) is trying to stop a barelysuppressed war from erupting between the police
and prostitutes by covering up a murder.
Sin City is possibly one of the best comic
book films made to date. Solid and engaging
stories are supported by excellent acting. The
cast is full of big name stars. Interacting with
Willis, Rourke and Owen are Jessica Alba, Elijah
Wood, Rosario Dawson, Nick Stahl and Benicio
Del Toro, just to name a few. All the actors play
their roles well, most notably Rourke as the
hulking Marv. He plays his character as a likable
anti-hero who takes much delight in torturing
people for information and revenge. When he is
on screen, all eyes are focused on him.
Directed by both Robert Rodriguez
(Desperado) and Miller himself, Sin City was
filmed entirely on blue screen in black and
white. Certain objects are in color, which adds
to the highly stylized look and feel of the film.
It is hard to fully describe how the film looks
except that it is visually stunning. This is because
Rodriguez and Miller took the graphic novels
and literally put them on screen. The outcome is
Photo copyright Dimension Films
Sin City burst into U.S. theaters on Friday, April 1. The film features an all-star cast, including
Clive Owen, left; Bruce Willis, right; Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba.
something that both the fans of the comics and
movie-goers alike will all agree is different from
anything they have ever seen before.
The film’s score, by Rodriguez, John Debney
and Graeme Revell is a perfect match for the film
noir stories, characters and feel of the movie.
Just like the scores for old film noir movies, Sin
City’s music perfectly sets up the atmosphere and
action scenes in the film. The movie is just over
two hours long and has a decent pace to it. At
times it does feel slow and long but those scenes
pick up rather quickly and overall make for an
enjoyable time.
Sin City is not for the squeamish. Its “R” rating is for stylized violence, nudity and language.
The film is full of all three.
The three stories are not really linked to
each other except for a few characters crossing
over into the other stories where they are not
integral, but just there in appearance. This is
because the three stories in the film are actually
three separate stories from the graphic novels.
Although the stories are loosely tied together for
the movie, it does not distract from the film as a
whole, but could leave some audience members
slightly confused.
Being a film that is completely unique visually, with an excellent cast and enthralling film
noir stories, Sin City will thrill fans of graphic
novels. For those wanting something out of the
ordinary or a break from other comic book films
about superheroes, Sin City will not disappoint.