Opera is a beautiful melange of narrative, orchestration and song, woven together in hopes of creating a renewable, potent force that enthralls audiences each time they view it. Fidelio, now playing at the Houston Grand Opera, embodies the essence of these three elements to a breath-taking degree.
When something as essential as basic infrastructure breaks down, most of us would call the government. When that's not possible, there's Engineers Without Borders, a national organization that travels worldwide to act as the engineering component in vital developmental projects. The Rice University chapter of EWB is responsible for three projects involving bridge construction, health clinic building and water purification.
A new schedule planning aid has been created in an effort to make the registration process a bit easier for students (see story pg. 1). The tool creates a calendar of potential courses in a Google Calendar format. The most significant addition is the feature which allows courses to be sorted by both professors and time slots. It also allows students to select multiple classes of interest, even those in the same time slot, and then narrow them down. Students will definitely benefit from being able to see a schedule overview laid out on a calendar.
The Rice University community prides itself on the culture of honor and open-minded acceptance that permeates the university, as shown through Rice's Honor Code and the level of diversity in the Rice student body.
The landscape is barren with a few stacks of hay, and somehow it looks very, very cold. Something about the farm looks uninviting, dangerous even; it feels uncomfortable and makes your skin crawl, even though nothing out of the ordinary is happening. This is the unnerving setting for the commune that title character Martha joins in Martha Marcy May Marlene, a new film that pushes the boundaries of independent-film tropes.
After a nearly catastrophic meltdown over a six-game stretch which saw it compile a 1-4-1 record and move from third to seventh in the Conference USA standings, the soccer team righted the ship just in time on Friday, as they tied the University of Houston (6-11-2, 3-6-2 C-USA), 1-1. With a tie, the Owls locked up a spot in the conference tournament.
While the Conference USA Cross Country championship has been characterized by the expected, 2011 was a different story for Rice, and not for the better. While the women expected to compete for first place and the men expected to finish in second or third, the Owls came away disappointed with their results from Monday's C-USA championship at the Wildcat Golf Club in Houston, Texas.
In the midst of the past four years of political turmoil and partisan politics, we all have witnessed the rise of two particular movements that, while initially offering populist messages, have grotesquely transformed into influential and divisive partisan movements, corrupted by our two-party system just as every other political movement of recent times. What I'm referring to, of course, are the Tea Party and Occupy movements.
Ginsberg said it best: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness/starving hysterical naked through the streets at dawn looking for an angry fix," and so Hunter S. Thompson, author of the The Rum Diary, the book that served as the inspiration for this movie, lived :raving, cynical and relevant. HST gave birth to gonzo journalism, a fast-paced, gritty writing that places the journalist at the epicenter of the story, in search of "truth," a fix to appease the deadline, often slathered in alcohol and drugs. That all came later, post the 1959 manuscript that lay fallow until 1998, when it was finally published under the name The Rum Diary.
Mosquitoes were not the only ones buzzing around campus this weekend. Oct. 20-23 marked Rice's annual Families Weekend. Over 2,200 families entered the hedges to participate in a variety of events, ranging from sitting in on classes to attending tailgates and even a 1920's-themed public party at Baker College, Baker Blues.
After suffering a loss the previous week, the swim team got off to a dominating start against the University of Miami (Fla.) and never looked back. The Owls' swimmers posted a 131-74 dual meet victory over the visiting Hurricanes this past Saturday afternoon at Rice Aquatics Center Competition Pool. It was the tandem of freshman Erin Flanigan and senior Alex O'Brien, who each won two events, that set the pace for Rice, which as a team won even of the meet's 11 events overall.
Approximately 1,800 scantily-clad witches and wizards are expected to show up for Harry NODder, to be hosted by Wiess College this Saturday. Organized by Wiess Social Vice Presidents Emily Nichol and Gabi Chennisi, this year's NOD promises a host of new offerings for partygoers to enjoy.
On the morning of Oct. 6, two adventurous Martel seniors, Batoul Abuharb and Shamsa Mangalji, took to the streets of Houston to interact with hundreds of enthusiastic participants participating in the Occupy Houston movement.
Yet again, the volleyball team had an up-and-down weekend in more ways than one. The Owls (12-10, 7-4 C-USA) had an irregular home/ road split this weekend as they played at home Friday against the University of Memphis (15-9, 4-7 C-USA) and went on the road Sunday to play the University of Alabama-Birmingham (18-5, 8-3 C-USA). The joy of home on Friday was over whelming for the Owls, but they could not keep the momentum as they left the comfort of the hedges to go to Alabama.
For the second straight week, Rice (2-5, 1-3 C-USA) simply did not look ready to play in the first quarter. In a winnable game, the Owls quickly fell behind – giving the Univer sity of Tulsa (4-3, 3-0 C-USA) momentum, and digging themselves into a pretty deep hole.
