Newspapers / Gardner-Webb University Student Newspaper / March 9, 2007, edition 1 / Page 4
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4i‘,V •. i ’ ' • -M:' music can’t be typecast Photo by:Haley^fack “Lear ReLoaded” presented by the theater department portrayed one of Shakespeare’s plays about King Lear with a more modern twist. ‘LEAR ReLoaded’ rocks Dover Theater opens the play on a power ful note, unites the scenes throughout and ultimately places a heavy rock stamp on the end. If you’re like me, you also have a hard time sitting through a long two or three- hour stage production in a theater with small seats and everyone packed in around you. Again, not a problem •with “LEAR ReLoaded.” The play only runs one hour and 10 minutes, meaning there’s not even time for an intermission. Other than the language, the only thing about ReLoaded” that remi^^a me it was a play and not an actual rock concert is the performance of Matt Frais- er. His role of Tom, a court jester-like goofball provides dominant comic relief in the second half of the play. He produced quite a few chuck les during the performance. “Tom’s a cold” still echoes in my head. Despite the WWE set allusion, the theater was Americana music is not a type of country music. It’s not bluegrass, either. It’s not rock-a-billy or Appalachian or folk. It doesn’t need prefix modifiers like neo-, alt-, re vivalist- or retro-. In fact, 1 think one of the difficulties in talking about Americana music is that when we use this term, we usually think we’re apply ing it to a genre of music, a style or sound as if we should be able to go into a music and easily find it undSR heading, dis tinct like “rock,” “rap” and “country”. 1 think it’s a slippery term because it’s not about a place for music to sit, but a place where it comes from. It’s not so much a type of music as a type of artist. It’s more of an overarch ing term for that organic music that can’t be sup pressed and just comes out of people, rather than music made for purposes of filling bins and airtime and wal lets. Americana music is in voluntary. These are artists, not just musicians. And wrapped up in this type of expression is the very important element of storytelling. And so, Americana art ists are a wide-ranging and restless group who express themselves in so many dif ferent ways it’s no wonder the only folks that seem to be able to apply the term very properly is the listeners and the artists, leaving those involved in running The Ma chine to scratch their heads and wonder what to do with these records. Doc English has been a combat medic and an officer in the U.S. Navy, worked with the USMC as a researcher in the field of Medical >En- tomology and Ecology. He is currently is a professor of Biology in the Department of Natural Sciences and his research involves acoustic properties of mating calls. It may not be coincidental that he also enjoys traditional styles of music, in particular the rich and varied styles of Americana. By Matt Tessnear matthewtl984@earthlink.net William Shakespeare and Scot Lahaie can put on one heck of a rock concert and, as it turns out, Dover Theater is a fine venue for it. Of course I’m refer ring to “LEAR ReLoaded,” Lahaie’s version of Shake speare’s 17th-century trage dy “King Lear,” which was performed last week by the Gardner-Webb University theater department. If you’re like me, you don’t get into all of the Shakespearean culture and language. That isn’t a problem with “LEAR Re Loaded.” What I would call “Shakespearean language” is still used by Scot Lahaie, who wrote and directed the production. However, the speech is much more man ageable and is hidden well behind the pageantry and visual spectacle of the entire production. The set had a very in dustrial feel to it. It also re sembled the set of the World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Monday Night Raw.” In Shakespeare’s original version, set in pre-Arthurian Britain, King Lear decides to abdicate his throne, di viding his kingdom among his three daughters: Gon- eril, Regan and Cordelia. To make a terribly long story short, his daughters turn cold toward him and they turn against each other. The entire family — ev eryone who had a stake in the kingdom - ends up dead. The GWU version be gins with Jacob Jackson, who plays King Lear, enter ing while surrounded by his posse. They pass through the doors and down a ramp to the front of the stage, with guitar music blaring throughout the theater. Keeping with the rock concert theme, Jackson does a particularly good job of being believable as a classic Shakespeare, char acter, with good mastery of the language and dramatic delivery. He also does a fantastic job of looking like a rock star. In essence, Jackson sings lead vocals in the pro duction. Jackson has plenty of characters by his side in “LEAR ReLoaded.” Four teen students comprise the chorus. The chorus does a nice job of singing backup. Their chants foreshadow the destruction of the cast and are reminiscent of clas sic Shakespeare plays. What do they wear? Just imagine that they fell into a large bowl of flour and waded around for an hour in an attempt to get out. That should give you an idea of their appearance. Finally, “the fool,” played by Caleb Moore, brings two things to our Shakespearean rock concert - comic relief and rapping. With the comedy, Moore creates a stand-up comedy club feel. With the rapping, Moore brings Linkin Park to my mind, with the com bination of rock and rap. Jon Lorbacher assumes the role of “The Rock Star,” but I would hand him the title of lead guitarist. Lor- bacher’s guitar play, along with Jackson’s acting, re alty brought the whole play together for me. His music RIAA to down loaders: Turn selves in decked out well. I espe^E ly liked the set in the fcUfi act, when all of the charac ters die. Think crime-scene chalk drawings. Each of the char acters lies down within a body drawing upon their death. I thought it was a nice touch and a simple way of quickly killing off the characters. The lighting also posi tively added to the overall ambiance. “LEAR ReLoaded” was a pleasant surprise. After last year’s “Baby the Mu sical,” it’s my favorite pro duction at Gardner-Wehb. Four stars to the theater department. Rock on! Mission trip has GWU choir traveiing to Costa Rica By Jared Graf jgraf@gardner-webb. edu Dr. Paul Etter, his wife Jeanne and 19 Gardner- Wehb University choir stu dents will head to Costa Rica during spring break for missions activities and concert performances. The group will leave today at 11 a.m. Etter will direct the choir in church performances in the capital, San Jose, and throughout Central Ameri can nation. The students will also work with “Food for the Hungry,” a Christian relief and development organiza tion dedicated to meeting physical and spiritual needs around the world. GWU students will play games and minister to children at various locations. Etter and the mission team have been working on the trip since August 2006. He said it’s exciting to see the efforts come into fruition. The choir earned money for the trip from donations given when it performed at a number of churches. Etter originally planned to take the mission group to Mexico, but said that God had other plans. “Our original intention was to go to Mexico, but 1 heard about small riots,” said Etter. “I was concerned about the safety of my stu dents.” Bark about it! Got a bone to pick about something going on at GWU? E-mail: pilot@gardner-webb.edu or drop off a response at campus PO Box 5192. Include your name, hometown and academic year. Limit comments to 50 words. Bark about it and get vour opinion printed today! Shirts for Sale ^ The Deaf Club is still selling T-shirts, but all orders must be made by today! Shirts are $10 each and payment is due upon order. The shirts, which are navy blue with lime green print, are avaiiable in sizes small through XXXL. A sign for "I love you" is printed in the front, while the "Top 10 Reasons to join Deaf Club" are on the back. Contact Van essa Hawes at 704-406-3615 . or vhawes@gardn’er- webb.edu. You can also contact Aly^ sa Weisenstein (m amwl213@gardneV^ webb.edu. By Owen Praskievicz The Diamondback (V. Maryland) (U-WIRE) COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Record ing Industry Association of America has an idea for university students who il legally download music: Sign a letter admitting their mistakes, make a plea bar gain with the multi-million dollar industry, and then pay them an out-of-court settlement. Then maybe - just may be - the^^ege student will be luckjHI^ugh to avoid a lawsuit. In a new plan targeting college students, the RIAA said last week that lawyers had sent out 400 settlement offers to students at 13 uni versities across the country, demanding settlement mon ey for illegally downloaded copyright material. And al though no students at this university were selected in the first wave of letters, the stramyv signals an au- dacious(^c unprecedented approacl^y the industry to crack down on college students that could soon envelop students at this uni versity. “There isn’t a college student in America today who doesn’t know that the online ‘sharing’ of copy righted music is illegal,” said RIAA President Cary Sherman in a recorded on line news conference with college newspapers. “Yet, file-trafficking on college campuses remains exten sive and disproportionately problematic.” Sherman said the let ters don’t target any specific universities - only students identified as prolific file- sharers. Ohio University appeared to get the worst of the RIAA’s ire this time around — 50 students there were asked to visit RIAA website and pay thousands of dollars to settle threats of impending lawsuits. RIAA lawyers targeted the top 13 universities who have received the most cease and desist warnings - “nastygrams,” as some critics call them - ordering universities to shut down file-sharing hubs and warn students to stop dbwnload- ing copyright material, ac cording to documents pro vided by the association. With more than 300 warnings received here, this university ranked 26th in the country for most warn ings sent, and could be tar geted in a second wave of warnings. Typical copyright law provides for statutory damages ranging from $750 to $150,000 per work in fringed, and RIAA General Counsel Steven Marks said the latest effort will likely rope in a record-high num ber of students, “In the three years since we first filed suit against a university network user, we have sued about 1,000 stu dents,” Marks said. “Under this new program, we will initiate legal action against a similar number of students in just three months.” Sherman said the RIAA will only send the letters to the university, which it hopes will transfer the let ters to the students. At this university, officials have already taken significant steps to placate the RIAA, including revising network guidelines that effectively shut down file-sharing hub Direct Connect last semes ter, commonly known as DC+I-, if only temporarily. But Office of Informa tion Technology officials said last semester they would not defend students sued by the RIAA because it would conflict with the uni versity’s policy against file sharing, which they said is consistent with the law. OIT officials did not return calls for comment on this story. Marks warned that, un like lawsuits three years ago, the RIAA no longer targets only the most “egre gious infringers” who store and share thousands of copyright files. “Today we do not have any minimum amount of files in order to move for ward with a lawsuit,” Marks said. “Students should un derstand that they are not anonymous when they use P2P services.” Blogs and other student sites have blasted the RI AA’s new policy, calling it extortion and saying it will trick some students from seeking out more viable al ternatives to the settlement. The university’s Student Legal Aid Office could not be reached for comment, but in the past it has said it can only refer students to an outside attorney. “Frankly, we’ve found that students know that downloading from unau thorized P2P systems is ille gal, but the chance of getting caught isn’t great enough to discourage them from do ing it,” Sherman said. “By increasing the number of lawsuits, we’re letting them know that the risk of getting caught is greater. That’s also why we’re bringing more lawsuits on a single college campus.” ^ "" Nominate a liv^y studenFl “ I The Alumni Council is now accepting applications for the Justin Scot Alston LIFE (Living In Fullness Everyday) Award. ■ Alston, who passed away in January 2004, was a 2003 Gardner-Webb graduate. During his time on campus, he was SAC vice president, “Future Alumnus of the Year” and a manager of the men’s basketball team. “March I Madness” was one of his favorite events. I His LIFE will be remembered through the positive impact he had on others. In his memory, the award will be presented April 24 at the annual Volunteer I Recognition Ceremony. Students can nominate fellow students. ■ Nominees must: • Be a graduating senior. • Exhibit a positive attitude despite any circumstances. I » Show dedication to all activities. • Treat others equally, regardless of differences. • Be a person of strong Christian character. I • Live life to the fullest everyday. For an application, contact Dawn Anthony, SAC Advisor, at I anthony@gardner-webb.edu. Nominations are due by March 30 and should Vip ISMOCi be si^^tted to campus box 7292 or delivered to the Office of Alumni Rela tions, located beside University Police.
Gardner-Webb University Student Newspaper
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March 9, 2007, edition 1
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