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NEWS 11/18/10 6:00pm

Kinders give for research

By Brooke Bullock

Rich and Nancy Kinder announced a $15 million gift to Rice's Institute for Urban Research on Wednesday. The institute has been renamed in their honor as the Kinder Institute for Urban Research.An event was held at Baker Hall to announce the newly named institute as well as to thank the Kinders for their donation to Rice. Speakers at the event included President David Leebron, Houston Mayor and Rice alumna Annise Parker, Sociology Professor and Co-Director of the Institute for Urban Research Stephen Klineberg and Rich Kinder. Many prominent figures of Houston attended the event, such as religious leaders, heads of museums and local government members like City Council member Oliver Pennington.

NEWS 11/18/10 6:00pm

My Dark Twisted Fantasy: West's comeback album

By Siegfried Bilstein

Hip-hop is about stories and the people who tell them. Kanye West is one hell of a storyteller, and his latest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, cements his place as one of the most important artists of our time. His most personal album so far, Kanye makes a great departure from his previous albums musically, lyrically and in content by telling the story of his comeback from the nadir of his career. Unlike his previous albums, Kanye is no longer appealing to every man; there is no "Good Life" to sing along to on this album. Instead, Kanye delivers a brilliantly crafted, occasionally dark and empowering story of redemption and triumph.This album's story really begins more than a year ago. Whether it was caused by the "Fishsticks" episode of South Park (that prompted an all-caps response on Kanye's infamous blog) or the MTV Video Music Awards snafu with Taylor Swift at the end of 2009, Kanye's public image had completely deteriorated. Kanye stayed under the radar, except for a little known short film released in October 2009, directed by Spike Jonze, that is essentially a metaphor for Kanye's public relations suicide - until he leaked the song "Power" in May. "Power" is an appropriately strong entrance back into the limelight. Cleverly using a King Crimson sample, Kanye simultaneously addresses his detractors for obsessing over him and proudly proclaims his influence on the music industry. Combined with his weekly music releases via his G.O.O.D. Fridays music program, the leak primed fans for the most exciting comeback album in recent memory.

NEWS 11/17/10 6:00pm

Rice in a Box finalized

By Tina Ou

Twenty-five, 50, possibly even 100 years from now, with the help of a few boxes of memories, it will be possible to reconstruct the college experiences of Rice students. This is the goal of Rice in a Box, a Student Association initiative designed to collect the history of student experiences at Rice for each graduating class.According to SA Secretary Georgia Lagoudas, the name "Rice in a Box" is intended to be a fun representation of the project premise. She said boxes for collection of memorabilia will be placed at colleges and around campus and will later be stored in the off-campus Fondren Library storage facility. Examples of items for Rice in a Box include brochures, pamphlets, T-shirts, glassware, photos and event programs.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Societal intolerance of gays unfounded

By Cody Shilling

In September, a Rutgers University student named Tyler Clementi jumped off of a bridge and fell to his death because his roommate invaded his privacy and transmitted a live broadcast from a webcam of Clementi having a sexual encounter with a man in order to humiliate and degrade him. Clementi was 18, with all the normal worries of school, activities in college and desires to live ?his life. In the same month, Seth Walsh died from injuries sustained while trying to hang himself in his family's garden in a town in California after being harassed and bullied by both peers at school and neighbors. He was 13.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Harry Potter 7 pre-screening a major accomplishment for RPC

By Staff Editorial

The Thresher would like to commend the Rice Program Council for procuring six theaters at Edwards Cinema for an exclusive Rice pre-screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (see story, page 6). After all, for a university that has so much in common with Hogwarts - the House Cup is the President's Trophy, Hogsmeade is the Rice Village, Leebron is Dumbledore, the Grand Dining Hall is the Baker College Commons, the Sorting Hat is a computer in Lovett Hall and Slytherin is Sid Richardson College - it is only fitting that Rice students should be privileged to see the penultimate film of the series four hours before our peers.The RPC truly planned outside the box in orchestrating this event. It is not only a unique event in itself, but it is one that captures the interests of a near majority of the campus. Of course, there is no one single event, whether it be a musician, show or performance, that captivates every student on Rice's campus, but Harry Potter comes pretty close.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Errata

By Staff Editorial

In last week's issue, two sentences were erroneously added to Evan Mintz's letter to the editor.Last week, the Thresher incorrectly identified Chef Annette Burnam as Salento's head chef ("Class project greens Brochstein"). Burnam is Salento's local jam supplier. Additionally, the survey offered at the event was made to gauge if customers would pay more for other local products to be put in different menu items. The coffee discount mentioned in the article was not a one-time promotion, but instead is still in effect.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Student-athlete grad rates go up

By Justin Ng

While the football team might be struggling on the field, Rice athletics retains its dominance in the classroom with the release of the most recent student- athlete graduation success rates. The annual study of student-athlete graduation rates by the National Collegiate Athlete Association placed Rice sixth of 120 NCAA Division I-A schools in the nation, according to both the NCAA's graduation success rate and the federal graduation rate released in an online NCAA report two weeks ago.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

CSO clarinettist to teach in fall

By Jennifer Shen

The Shepherd School of Music is getting ready to welcome Richard Hawley, currently the principal clarinetist for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), as the new professor of clarinet in 2011.Dean of the Shepherd School Robert Yekovich said Hawley was selected from three final candidates because of his extensive orchestral experience, knowledge in chamber music and reputation as a teacher.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Donation program criticized

By Ruby Gee

The One Planet Books donation program has been accused of selling donated books for a profit by the Habitat for Humanity chapter at the University of Michigan. The Rice bookstore, as well as other Barnes&Noble bookstores nationwide, participates in this program, which is run by Barnes&Noble's sister company MBS Textbook Exchange.How the program works: When students try to sell their used textbooks to Barnes&Noble, the store refuses to buy back some of the books deemed "no-value." As an alternative to throwing these books away, the store asks students if they would like to donate the book to the One Planet program instead. Some store locations have set out decorated cardboard bins near the buyback area of the bookstore.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Rice emphasizes student portion of student-athlete

By Staff Editorial

Athletics and academics are a difficult duo to balance; however, it seems that Rice athletes have a knack for doing just that (see story, page 1). With many sports programs in the top five of national graduation rates, Rice has truly integrated its notable academic reputation into its athletic programs.Making this accomplishment even more legitimate is the fact that Rice does not create specific or special courses or tracks for athletes to follow in their academic career. While athletes have access to special advising and tutors, it would be very difficult to maintain that an athlete's degree is less than that of a non-athlete.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Women's Basketball 2010: Talented young guards look to be emotional leaders for team; Owls need frontcourt to step up in order to move up in C-USA

By Teddy Grodek

Women's basketball Head Coach Greg Williams (Hanszen '73) knows the expectations that his team faces this season, with a core group of returning players that began playing up to their full potential at times, while lapsing at others. They were young last year and are still relatively young compared to some of the other teams in Conference USA, but that should not stop the Owls from competing for a conference title and an NCAA tournament berth."Our team goal this year is to do better than last year," junior guard D'Frantz Smart said. "My biggest thing this year is winning road games. We kind of struggled last year, and hopefully that won't happen this year."

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Due Date has proven actors, but is still a miscarriage

By Anthony Lauriello

Of all the events and milestones in a lifetime of movie watching, perhaps none is more salient or monumental than one's first R-rated movie. Mine was John Hughes' uproarious buddy-comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Director Todd Phillips' (The Hangover) latest offering, Due Date, is, for all intensive purposes, a remake of this '80s classic, except with a lot more drugs and a few more masturbation jokes. However, despite a few laughs, it fails to live up to its predecessor.The plot of the movie follows the straight-laced and unfortunately named Peter Highman, played by Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and the lovable oddball Ethan Tremblay, played by the poorly groomed Zach Galifianakis (also of The Hangover), as fate and comic mishaps bind them as travel buddies. The two first meet in the Atlanta airport, and, after exchanging some poorly phrased words with an air marshal, Peter reluctantly agrees to hit the road with Ethan to Los Angeles. As the title implies, Peter is expecting the birth of his first son by Caesarean section in several days, which gives the plot its obligatory timeline. Ethan is travelling to Hollywood to make it big as an actor.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Volleyball drops conference matches at home

By Daniel Elledge

Heartbreak is a major part of all sports. Volleyball is no different, as the team learned this weekend, losing two five-set matches to the University of Memphis (15-11, 6-8 C-USA) and the University of Alabama-Birmingham (8-18, 5-9 C-USA). This marks the second time this season that the Owls have lost to UAB in five sets. Rice is now 14-13 overall on the season with a 9-6 record in conference and is currently tied for fourth place with the University of Southern Mississippi.On a chilly Friday night, the Owls hosted Memphis in Tudor Fieldhouse. The Tigers dominated early, as they took the first set 25-18, but the Owls would not back down, as they took the second set 25-20. Memphis cruised to a 25-12 victory in the third set, with Rice fighting back for a dominant 25-13 fourth set. In the deciding fifth set, Memphis and Rice exchanged the first 14 points, before Memphis pulled away and eventually won the set 15-12 and the match 3-2. Sophomore middle blocker Nancy Cole had 16 kills, while junior outside hitter Jordan Meredith added 13 kills. Senior setter Meredith Schamun had 36 assists and senior libero Tracey Lam had 30 digs.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Football swept aside by Golden Hurricane passing

By Teddy Grodek

An offense being forced to score more than 30 points every single week in order to win will lead to a disastrous season, one with a definitive losing record. And, with the Owls failing to hold an opponent under 30 points all season, including Saturday's 64-27 loss to the University of Tulsa, it is clear that that burden is one the offense has failed to overcome.The defensive bloodletting continued this week for the Owls, as opponents have scored an astronomical 105 points in the last two games, 20 more than Texas Christian University has given up in 10 games this season. In their trip to Tulsa, Okla. last weekend, the Owls continued the trend by going down 41-7 at the half. Rice had hoped Tulsa would still be reeling from their emotional victory over the University of Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium the weekend before, but the Golden Hurricane was clearly ready to play.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Men's Basketball Preview 2010: The competition

By Jonathan Myers

UTEP ended Memphis' seemingly unshakable reign over Conference USA last year, winning the regular season championship behind senior guard Randy Culpepper who took home the C-USA Player of the Year with an average of 17.9 points last season. Memphis looks to have the most young talent in the league, but Southern Miss returns all five starters from their squad last year. MEMPHIS: Second-year coach Josh Pastner had last year to serve as his honeymoon, but it's clear the Memphis faithful will settle for nothing less than an NCAA bid this year after making a foray into the National Invitational Tournament last year. The team will be led by a trio of big men in Wesley Weatherspoon, Will Coleman and Angel Garcia. They will be assisted by the best freshman class in C-USA, including Joe Jackson, the leading high school scorer in Memphis city history.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Online only: Public information request reveals Rice-UH KTRU email correspondence

 

Recently the Thresher was given access to a collection of email correspondences pertaining to the sale of KTRU's transmission tower, broadcasting license and frequency. KTRU obtained these records from the University of Houston by filing an open records request. The information below will update throughout the week, and a succinct overall analysis will appear in next week's print and web issues.Each of the emails can be found in PDF1 or PDF2.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Soccer falls to in-state rival SMU in first round

By Jonathan Myers

Defense wins championships ... supposedly. With the way the soccer team played defense this season, the Conference USA championship trophy should have been theirs for the taking. After giving up fewer than one goal per game on average, Rice stormed into the C-USA Tournament needing just three victories to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in team history. Their opponent: fourth-seeded Southern Methodist University, who fell to the Owls earlier in the season 2-1. Rice came into the match assuming that senior goalkeeper Catherine Fitzsimmons would be able to post a clean sheet against the Mustangs, an assumption that would prove to ?be correct.

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Insanity on in Noises Off

By Anthony Lauriello

My decision to end my acting career after my role as "chorus member" in Sunset Mesa Elementary School's stellar and mandatory musical The Prince and the Penguin has longed caused consternation and sadness among theater lovers. It also made me feel a little out of the loop while watching the Rice Players' latest offering, the Michael Frayne satire Noises Off, directed byprofessor Justin Doran. The play whimsically satirizes the experience of being a thespian as it follows a dysfunctional group of actors performing the terrible and raunchy comedy Nothing On. People with experience in the performing arts will likely enjoy the play the most, as they can relate on some level with the disastrous mistakes made during the play within the play, but Noises Off still has some laughs to offer to those of us unfamiliar to theater.Act I gets off to a slow start, as we see the mock production company doing their final and rushed rehearsal of Nothing On. Director Lloyd Dallas (Wiess College junior Dustin Tannahill) expresses his exasperated rage at his unprepared actors as we are introduced to the various characters and their on-stage and off-stage personalities. The play begins to pick up in Act II, as the set twirls around and we now see the first scene of Nothing On that was in Act I from backstage. The situation spirals out of control as various relationships and drama between the actors becomes revealed. Finally in Act III when we once again see the same scene - this time again from the perspective of the audience in Act I - everything has reached a fever pitch of mayhem and insanity as the characters spoil their bodies and their minds in a desperate and futile attempt to make the "show go on."

NEWS 11/11/10 6:00pm

Wild Party is tame

By Matt Banks

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.

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