Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 27, 2003, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 The Blue Banner March 27,2003 Features ‘Willard’ delights and creeps out audiences Caroline Soesbee Features Reporter For those who become squeamish when it comes to rodents, "Willard" might not be the movie to see this weekend. The movie remakes the 1971 hor ror film about a solitary loser who asserts himself by controlling an army of rats. Crispin Glover, probably best known for his teen-geek role in "Back to the Future," plays Willard Stiles, a 30-year old mamma’s boy. Glover throbs with nervous en ergy and goes completely over the threshold of creepy. The actor seems to have an unholy control of muscles located beneath his eyes and to the right of his cheeks, which he can make quiver on demand. A handsome and sympathetic Bruce Davison had the part in the 1971 original. Glover, with his an gular face, plastered-down hair and knack for tics and twitches, is far more fitting as the pathetic, re pressed Willard. Davison does make a few appearances in this newer version through photographs as Willard’s deceased father. The best, and easily most comedic scenes in the film feature Willard and his mother, and they take place earlyon in the movie. During these moments, the film oozes of the original "Psycho" only this time, Norman's mother Review Willard’s business died broke after sell- is company to his mean-spir- ited partner Frank Martin (R. Lee Ermey). They made an agreement that guarantees Willard a job for life, but the boss keeps looking for ways to dump his most incompe- The office looks so glum and gloomy it could use a rat’s presence to cheer things up. Only one em ployee, the office temp Cathyrn (played by Laura Elena Harring) shows sympathy toward Willard. In fact, when Willard goes into a mournful slump, she tries to cheer him up with a gift - a house cat. Unfortunately, the very moment Willard puts the cat inside his home is before the rats have had dinner. Willard has 500 rodent pals whom he feeds in his basement and trains to obey him. He becomes most attached to Socrates, an intel ligent little white rat he saved from a trap, but the muscle behind this outfit is the gray, malevolent, groundhog-sized Ben. Willard vows to protect Socrates, the first, best and only friend in his life. He discovers Socrates will do whatever he tells him to and that the rat can teach his many brothers and sisters, including Ben, to do the The film uses both real animatronic ones. It also uses com puter-generated animation for some attack scenes. An oddball love triangle forms with the appearance of the enor mous rat Ben, who just wants a little furry levin’ for himself. COURTESY OF WW.WlLLARDMOVIE.COM Crispin Glover stars as Willard, a . solitary man with an army of rats. Asheville, a good vegetarian town Mary Wyatt Features Reporter You are what you eat, or so the saying goes. More and more people seem to be taking this phrase to heart and opting not to be chickens and hogs for ethical, health and environmental reasons. "I don’t necessarily have a prob lem with eating meat," said mostly- vegetarian Brian Winslett, a senior environmental science and chemis try major. "It’s the meat industry that inspired me to not really eat A lot of vegetarians choose to ab stain from eating meat because they have beef with the way animals and the earth get treated in the mass production of meat. COURTESY OF WWW.MAXANDROSIES.COM Max and Rosie s vegetarian cafe has nationwide acclaim. Max’s art covers the walls. A vegetarian must balance pro teins to gain the iron and amino Vegetarian cookbooks and Web acids easily gained by eating meat, sites boast of the health benefits of Beans, whole-wheat bread, broc- a vegetarian diet. Diets high in ani- coli and spinach have a high iron mal protein and low in vegetables content, according to "Vegetarian threaten a higher risk of heart dis- Planet Cookbook." irdingto "You have to cook a lot, and it’s vww.eatright.oig. "Bei.ng a veg- ;tarian forces your diet," said environmnetal "But “Being a vegetarian forces you diet, but if you’re a vegetarian if you’re a veg etarian and eat junk food, you’re going to be unhealthy." The health benefits of a vegetarian diet require some time and effort, something a lot of full-time students don’t have after writing papers and studying for tests. "I quit being a vegetarian after 10 years because I felt like my body really needed meat," said Mary LaBianca, a senior art major. "If you don’t have the time, it’s really easy to run yourself down." tot -Geneva Stork, junior environmental science Asheville is this what sustain able eating. Downtown Asheville offers aumber of ctly veg The Laughing Seed, Max and COURTESY OF WW.LAUGHINGSEED.COM, The Laughing Seed, located in downtown Asheville, serves delicious, all-vegetarian, international cuisine. i Kitchen and Melanie’s. Many res taurants that serve meat also cater to the vegetarian crowd. "Even restaurants that are non vegetarian, there’s always several vegetarian choices," said Winslett. "You won’t find that in some towns." Winslett and Stork both claimed Salsa Mexican Caribbean Restau rant as their favorite place to in dulge in vegetarian meals. "Their flavor combinations are like a party in my mouth," said Stork. Even UNCA’s food services have begun to better serve the needs of vegetarians. "I think the cafeteria has gotten a lot better," said Winslett. "But I have problems with Cafe Ramsey and how wasteful they are." Cafe Ramsey, however, has in creased the amount of vegetarian products they serve, such as salads, hummus and bagels. "There’s enough you can eat if you’re a vegetarian, but there’s not a huge selection," said Ellen Wade, an employee of Cafe Ramsey. "More options would be a matter of stu dent input." Students choose to become veg etarians for a variety of ethical rea sons. About 7 billion farm animals die each year in the U.S. for the production of food, according to geocities.com. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an interna tional nonprofit animal protection organization, protests meat-eating, fur-wearing and animal-testing through public education, research and investigations, special events, direct action and grassroots orga- PETA works under the assump tion that animals should not be treated as a possession to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertain ment, according to a PETA bro- Any circus in America typically has representatives from PETA outside protesting. "Spiritually, I didn’t really vv^nt to be eating something that used be alive and feeding its young," said vegetarian Geneva Stork, a jiinior environmental scien People also boycott ronmental reasons. "Through my studies I became aware of the impact of cow f^rts which contain methane, a green house gas, causing global warm ing," said Stork. U.S. cattle belch 60 million met ric tons of methane gas annually, according to Vegetarian Times. It for ei All-American Rejects make you love them Rhiannon Richard Features Reporter Initially^ loving to hate the band The All-American Rejects comes easy. They seem no different from all the other bands on the radio. Eventually, however, you start to hate to love them. "We just write what we know," said Nick Wheeler, one of the two members of The All-American Rejects on their official Web site. "The things we love and listen to the most tend to be radio-friendly, so that's how we write." The songs they write, whether you want them to or not, get stuck in your brain, and they do not come out without a fight. But why fight it? The band’s first radio release, "Swing, Swing" has certainly lodged itself in the head of every teenager listening to pop ra- It can also work its way into the heads of those that normally hate this kind of music. They might even listen to it secretly, or under some other pretext. For example, they could tell their friends that they only listen to the CD in order to write a review of it. But they lie. After five consecutive days with the song "Drive Away" planted firmly in their heads they might tire of the lines "P.S. I love you, forever and today" running through their dreams. COURTESY OF DREAM WORKS RECORDS The All-American Rejects includes (from left to right) Mike Kennedy, Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler and Chris Gaylor. The band produces catchy pop tunes you hate to love. This music does not reach perfec tion. Don’t expect to see The All- American Rejects in the music hall of fame, but that doesn’t make their music any less fun and catchy. If you normally like pop rock this CD provides fiin from the begin ning. If you don’t like pop rock, maybe you should give it a few more listens and see if you can’t begin to appre ciate its catchy nature. The two members of The All- American Rejects did not cross paths, even in their small town. until high school. At that time "It vvas high school," Wheeler said Wheeler met vocalist and bassist on the Web site. "Some people just Tyson Ritter, Wheeler’s current wanted to do the whole high school band needed a new member. thing and weren't serious about the "We didn't have a bass player at band. We the time and when Tyson realized them." that, he was, like, 'Hey, I play bass!' And from this high-school The only thing was, he'd never tality came The Ail- played a bass in his life," Wheeler American Rejects, said on the band’s Web site. Wheeler and Ritter Ritter bought a bass and during both say that this i Christmas break he holed himself line-up of two works up and learned to play. just fine. Eventually that band disinte- "It was kind of ironic that ini- grated. tially, Nick Wheeler and I had less input than anyone else in the band, but when he and I were the only ones left, that's when the best stuff starcsd happening," said Ritter on the Web • "It's definitely not something where you set up in your practice space, start with three chords‘and sing to it," said Ritter. "What we do comes straight from the melody; then goes to the guitar and it gets built from there." What the music gets built into sounds familiar, which could po tentially annoy listeners. One could so easily turn off the stereo and never give them another thought.' It only seems fair to warn of the specific short-comings of the al* Though the songs may get stiick in your head, they all sound similar, and thus you might have trouble figuring out which song wants t6 stand its ground in your memory.' Many of the songs sound like ev erything else on the radio today, and a few sound like songs you may see on a “Back to the 80’s week end.” The lyrics, although catchy, do itually got rid of have much depth, but they mi^- remind some of their own formed relationships. "It all comes frorii TheReje spring. my ex-girlfriends. All my songs are aboilt simple relationship B.S.," said Ritter ori the Web ts tour nation-wide this
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