After last year's production of RENT, Martel, Brown, Jones and Duncan Colleges have combined forces again to bring us The Wild Party. A departure from the mainstream musicals produced in the past three years, The Wild Party features several strong performances but is plagued by technical problems and inconsistent acting.Based on the narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March with book, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, The Wild Party tells the story of Queenie and Burrs (Jones junior Lilla Pivnick and Duncan freshman Ben Hirsch, respectively), two vaudeville performers in an abusive relationship. Determined to get revenge on Burrs for hitting her, Queenie decides to throw a party where she can publicly humiliate him. Her plan unfolds around Mr. Black (Brown junior Jordan Morgan), the most recent lover of Queenie's best friend Kate (Hanszen College sophomore Nupur Jain). The party quickly devolves into an orgy and emotions run high as Burrs becomes increasingly belligerent, culminating in a showdown with Mr. Black.
On the page, Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman deftly blends violence with comedy so that the reader both laughs out loud and winces. But it takes a live production, played with exuberance and conviction, to really make the script sing. Wiess Tabletop Theater's production of The Pillowman is full of moments that are guaranteed to impress you. Director Jocelyn Wright, a Wiess College senior, and the rest of her cast largely succeed at bringing this production to life through a myriad of little details that suggest they have put in a lot of rehearsal time. The basic framing device for The Pillowman's plot is the tried-and-true police interrogation scene.
As we see in the new movie Waiting for Superman, there's no question that too many schools in the U.S. are failing or under-performing and that in many places, the "system" is broken. What really ails public education in America is the fact that the distribution of these schools is not simply uneven, but rather easy to predict. With a map and some census data, it's not difficult to locate where the best and worst schools are most likely to be.Like many problems in the world, one of the fundamental problems with the education system in the U.S. is inequality - of both opportunity and outcomes. It's not that all of our schools are failing or that all of our children are not meeting academic standards, but the fact that failure and low performance are concentrated - in our urban school systems and in our schools that serve underprivileged, low-income and minority students.
Where better to find students spending hours in front of the computer coding solutions for programming problems while competing against the clock and other students than at the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest? On Oct. 29-30, five Rice teams, consisting of three students each, competed against teams from other colleges such as the University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, the University of Tulsa, Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University in the 2010 ACM-ICPC - more commonly known as "Battle of the Brains" - South Central USA Regional Scripting Contest. The team "Give a Hoot!" - Lovett College freshman Ryan Dewey, Lovett sophomore Eric Lee and Wiess College freshman Olyver Yau - placed the highest out of all the Rice teams, winning fourth place out of 69 teams.
Chowl Bhangra performs a traditional harvest dance at the annual SAS Dhamaka.
"Healthy" is a common buzzword these days. I can't count the number of times I've heard things like: "I shouldn't be eating this; it is so unhealthy," or "This frozen waffle is made with whole grains, so it must be healthy!" But what exactly is "healthy?" It seems like most of the time this word is thrown around arbitrarily without much thought as to what it actually means to live a healthy lifestyle. Too many people readily accept what others - friends, family, the media, the food industry - tell them is healthy, rather than figuring out what it means to be healthy for themselves. In my opinion, being healthy is a matter of lifestyle choices that, as a whole, suit you best and allow you to be the kind of person you want to be.
There comes a point in everyone's college career when they really, really need some pizza at 2 a.m. After a long night of teaching each other how to dougie, Dan and Siggy decided to reward their hard work with a visit to Late Nite Pie in midtown. Late Nite Pie is a rather hip place, so they gathered up their hipster friend (appropriately named) Austin and headed out to get some fairly standard pizza in a pretty neat venue.After driving onto a gravel parking lot that's likely to take out one's muffler, one is immediately attracted to the extensive artwork that covers the outside of Late Nite Pie. The entrance features a large, light blue Ren and Stimpy-like happy face, sure to make anyone in the 18-30-year-old demographic simultaneously nostalgic and creeped out. The art doesn't stop when you enter the place, either: We sat at a table underneath a picture of five scary-looking alien things. The best thing about Late Nite Pie is its local, underground vibe, and the artwork definitely compliments that. The place has three areas, divided in order of brightness: light, dark and outside dark. The dark room has a defunct pinball machine, along with a stage for their weekly live music. We were going to look up when exactly they have bands over, but their website doesn't work.
On Nov. 18, more than 1,000 Rice wizards and witches will get the magical opportunity of a lifetime to ride the Hogwarts Express all the way to Edwards Cinema to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I at 8 p.m., four hours before the movie premieres to the Muggle community. The movie, based on the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, will be the second-to-last film installment of the series because of Warner Brothers' decision to split the final book into two films. Part II is scheduled to debut July 15, 2011.
There is something exciting about going to a restaurant as popular as Niko Niko's. On the weekend, the lines frequently stretch out the door, making you feel like you're waiting for a rock concert. Many of the other people in line are regular customers and can recommend their favorite dishes or the best place to sit. Once you reach the counter and the menu, vegetarian options clearly abound, with appetizers and entrees alike catering to vegetable lovers. Each vegetarian dish is marked with a little leaf, a practice I dearly wish other restaurants would imitate. Unfortunately, there is no separate designation for vegan dishes, so you have to ask the person at the counter.All vegetarian dishes are not created equal. Niko Niko's offers some stunning dishes, and some that are merely passable. While I rarely praise hummus, as it is ridiculously simple to make, starting your meal at Niko Niko's with pita and hummus gives you the right Mediterranean feel; also, pitas are a Niko Niko's specialty. I advise eating a lot of them, even with different dips or sauces like the Melinzano Salata, an eggplant dip with tomato and onion. Although I've had better versions of the Salata elsewhere, it was lovely on the pita.
Jim Leach, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa and chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), gave a speech at Herring Hall on Nov. 4 about the importance of civility in a democratic society to students. Leach prefaced his speech with a short history lesson about the founding of the United States and the values that it was founded upon.
To the Editor:So much is said about bikes and cars on this campus, but it's been my experience recently that our biggest problem is foot traffic. It's as if no one knows how to safely cross the street without holding his mother's hand. To all of those who need some help, it's pretty simple. There are three steps. 1) Look both ways BEFORE stepping into the street. Sure, you have the right of way. Yes, it's supposedly a one-way street. But sometimes it's dark; sometimes there are bushes; sometimes the driver or cyclist is texting his mom. He might not see you. If you pop out from behind a tree like a ninja, he's not going to notice you until you're a hood ornament. ?2) If there are no cars or bicycles coming, or they have stopped, cross the street. Look for bikes, too. They move at about the same speed and will hurt if they hit you. Some bikes and hybrid cars are quiet, so you actually have to look - particularly if you have headphones in. 3) Keep looking both ways. You might have missed someone. Do not stop to chat with that girl from your ECON class in the middle of the street at 2 a.m. when you're both wearing black. Do not strut across the street like you're on a catwalk. Also, please stop riding your bikes in the wrong direction on the street. This is especially important if you don't have lights and it's dark. Bicycles are vehicles and must follow traffic laws. You can buy lights for $10-$15, and the Inner Loop is just over a mile. Take the long way around; you'll live through it. I almost hit four pedestrians and a cyclist tonight while driving 10 mph with my highbeams on. Please use some common sense. I don't want to have to get the dents you'll put in my car buffed out.
Invited as a part of the 2010 Campbell Lecture Series, British author Zadie Smith performed a reading in the Grand Hall Wednesday to an audience of more than 300 attendees. Her first novel, White Teeth, became an international best-seller in 2000 while she was a student at Cambridge University. A tenured professor of fiction at New York University, Smith was named by Granta, a UKbased literary magazine, as one of 20 best young writers in 2003.
Some of you may change the world one day as a successful doctor, lawyer or politician - but none of you were as close to Justin Bieber as I was on the evening of Nov. 6, 2010.The story starts in August when I purchased an early bird ticket to attend Austin's FunFunFun Fest, which was the weekend of Nov 5. Jumping at the chance to see a ton of bands perform over the course of three days, I gladly spent $100 on my weekend pass. Little did I know, things would change.
In conjunction with Rice's push for an environmentally friendly campus, students from ENST 302: Rice into the Future have brought a surrey bike to Rice. The students involved in the project are hoping to promote sustainable transportation by introducing surrey bikes to Rice as a replacement for at least some of the golf carts used by Facilities, Engineering and Planning and Housing and Dining. The environmentally friendly golf cart alternative has been peddled around campus for the past two weeks for a trial run. The surrey at Rice is a three-seater, two-pedaler side-by-side tandem bicycle. Each set of pedals has its own set of gears so that the individual pedalers can choose a comfortable speed. The surrey also has headlights and taillights for nighttime visibility and a canopy to protect riders from rain and sun. The surrey will be on campus until Tuesday, while a group of students from ENST 302 studies how much energy will be saved by using it. Lovett College senior Alicia Hernandez, who is a member of the group, said the goal of their research is to have surreys permanently on campus soon.
John Doerr (Lovett '73), a venture capitalist whose gift made the opening of the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership last year possible, returned to campus a week ago to share some career advice with students at RCEL. "Rice engineering students are well known for their excellent technical education," RCEL Director Mark Embree said. "However, we haven't consciously challenged our students to develop the other essential skills that will enable them to make their greatest possible mark on the world."
More than 1,000 fifth- through eighth-grade girls gathered on campus Nov. 6 for the Rice Space Institute's annual Sally Ride Science Festival, an event geared toward helping young female students explore and gain a deeper understanding of science. The fair was jointly hosted by science education company Sally Ride Science and professional services organization Deloitte, and featured astronaut Wendy Lawrence as a keynote speaker, discovery workshops for both children and adults and a street fair. The festival had a registration fee of $20, though some companies sponsored scholarships so that more girls could attend. Keynote speakers from previous years have included the astronauts Sally Ride, Eileen Collins, Peggy Whitson and Ellen Ochoa.
Within the Inner Loop lies a congregation of students, faculty and staff representing the university through a number of academic and athletic pursuits. Inside the hedges, new discoveries are unearthed and exploits are inaugurated every day, be it the buckyball or a quest for a pole vaulting national championship. But for the men's basketball team, some of the biggest offseason accomplishments were made more than 6,000 miles away from campus. To find one of the highlights of the summer for the team, you would have had to travel to Turkey, where sophomore forward Arsalan Kazemi competed valiantly at the FIBA World Championships against the highest level of talent that the game has to offer. Kazemi averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game for the Iranian team, including a 14-point, five-steal effort for Iran against the gold medal winning U.S. team, anchored by the likes of NBA stars Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. Despite Iran's 1-4 record in the tournament, Kazemi's team played competitively throughout and played the heavily favored U.S. side closely for most of the first half of the match-up before the more talented side prevailed.
