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NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Hope is Precious

By Aisha Kibwana

Precious, a movie adapted from Sapphire's novel Push, is a story of undying hope and painful sacrifice. It takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster and sucks them, phenomenally, into intense swings of the pain, anguish and joy of the characters. Set in Harlem in the late 1980s, Precious revolves around 16-year-old Claireece Precious Jones (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe), an obese, illiterate girl whose sole activities revolve around her struggle for emancipation from the abuse that surrounds her.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Commentary: Money brings wins but forgoes satisfaction

By Casey Michel

I didn't cry when the New York Yankees won the World Series last week. I didn't mope, or bite my tongue, or call home and complain until I turned blue. I didn't throw a trash can at a Baker 13 runner out of anger or spite.Don't get me wrong - I was angry. The veins in my head looked like a roadmap through West Texas. But within the anger was an emptiness, a what's-the-point? voice that made me deflate quicker than Brad Lidge's confidence. After years of battling New York's legacy, trying at every turn to chide them and reprimand them and belittle them, I had never felt more defeated. The energy had quickly drained from me. The Yankees had won. My cause had been crushed.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Deadmau5 brings down the Hau5

By Joe Dwyer

As with the majority of the music in my iTunes library, I first discovered electro house artist Deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse," born Joel Zimmerman) while playing video games. His remix of One + One's "No Pressure," featured on Grand Theft Auto IV's ElectroChoc FM radio station, originally got me hooked on his driving bass beats and smooth electronic melodies. And when I found out a few months back that he was going on tour for his new album, aptly titled For Lack of a Better Name, I was pumped. Swinging through Houston's House of Blues Sunday as part of the North American leg of his For Lack of a Better Tour world tour, Deadmau5 played to a house brimming with electricity. Some folks even went so far as to build their own mau5 heads, some with glowing lights for eyes, and one father had dressed his young child in the bedsheet ghost outfit from the latest Deadmau5 music video, "Ghosts N Stuff."

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Will Rice Theater's latest a Farce to be reckoned

By Joe Dwyer

After a two-year hiatus, the phoenix that is Will Rice College's theater program has risen from the ashes in the form of Unnecessary Farce, a hilarious comedy of errors directed by Will Rice junior Amara DiFrancesco, which involves nothing more than seven people, two motel rooms and eight doors. The plot, originally penned by Paul Slade Smith, starts out simply enough, with police officers Eric Sheridan and Billie Dwyer (played by Sid Richardson College senior Anish Patel and Will Rice freshman Mary Nelson, respectively) staked out in a motel room. The two monitor the video camera set up in the adjacent room that is set to record a meeting between Mayor Meekly (Will Rice sophomore Geoffrey Holmes) and accountant Karen Brown (Lovett College junior Sarah Lyons), who has found some interesting discrepancies with the town's books.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Swimming opens new pool with convincing victories

By Floyd Ray

The setting could not have been more perfect. From the beautiful weather gracing the Rice campus this past weekend, to the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Center adorned with an array of balloons, to the fans on their feet in the bleachers surrounding the Rice Aquatic Center cheering on the Owls, the swim team's first meet in their new pool was all it could have asked for. This past weekend was not only the season home opener for the swim team, but also foreshadowed the first of many meets to come to the new Olympic-sized pool.Head Coach Seth Huston said the team came in ready to give the fans a show.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Photo: We're gonna party like it's 1969

 

Since 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of Lovett College, Lovetteers, like those pictured above bouncing on Lovett's new trampoline, celebrated with a week-long series of college-themed events, including a moon bounce, historical lectures and a Lovett-only scavenger hunt.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

NOD enforces contorted body perceptions

By Johanna Ohm

Okay ladies, NOD is over. We no longer have to worry about fitting into our skimpiest lingerie costumes, and we can once again join the lengthy line for Chef Roger's cinnamon rolls. But was one night's party worth a month's agony trying to pick out a racy Halloween costume that most people, loafing out of post-party hangovers, couldn't recall come Sunday morning?

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Changes to Honor Council increase transparency

By Staff Editorial

As the saying goes, "No news is good news." Which is why students, when contacted by the Honor Council, have always been stricken with fear. The Honor Council has established itself as one of the most mysterious entities on campus, and little of the reasoning behind its decisions have previously been available to students.This year's revision of the Council's Consensus Penalty Structure, however, is far more elaborate than in recent years and may alleviate this problem (see story, page 1). The Council upheld its previous minimum and maximum penalties, but added much-needed clarification. The governing structure now makes public the available penalties between these extremes (see honor.rice.edu).

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

50-year plan lays out ambitious developments

By Staff Editorial

We know that the 50-year plan University Architect David Rodd showcased at Monday's Student Association meeting is little more than a contingency plan, but we can't help but express our excitement for some of the plans readied for the university's policy-makers (see story, page 1). It is comforting to know that Rice is looking with wide aspirations toward the first half of the century, and we commend Rodd on an informative and comprehensive speech to the student body.Some students seemed to think that Rodd's presentation incorporated only ideas set in stone, which, thankfully, couldn't be further from the truth. There are too many variables, too many factors, to know what life 50 years from now will entail. Automobiles may be obsolete. The Baylor College of Medicine may be the Rice College of Medicine. Rice football may be Houston's main pigskin attraction. No one can say otherwise. Thus, it is comforting to know that some of these ideas that Rodd has put forth are far from completion and are little more than gestating right now.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Owls wipe out Green Wave for first time since 2005

By Paul Fitzgerald

The volleyball team's biggest victory of the season occurred last Friday, and it heralded the end of a multi-season losing streak against conference opponent Tulane University. The Owls (18-8, 10-5 Conference USA) then followed up that win with a defeat of University of Texas-El Paso Sunday afternoon that extended their winning streak to four matches in a row. Rice entered Friday's match in New Orleans without a win over Tulane (16-8, 11-4 C-USA) since 2005, and had weathered a three-set loss to the Green Wave earlier this season at Tudor Fieldhouse. The Owls knew a victory at Fogelman Arena would be no easy task - the Green Wave were 6-2 at home entering the game. However, the Owls emerged from the match with a three-set victory, 26-24, 25-23, 25-19.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Success is born on the bayou

By Paul Fitzgerald

At the David Toms Intercollegiate three weeks ago, freshman golfer Jade Scott was hot. Really hot. Five-birdies-in-a-row hot. The kind of hot that Tiger Woods and only a handful of others know, the kind that is seen only rarely in a college tournament. The kind of hot that is almost never seen in Rice gear. It was only his fourth collegiate event, and Scott was cruising, somewhere deep under par. Two rounds of 67 (-5) and 72 (+1) had left him tied for eighth place in the field of 75, but a rapid-fire string of birdies to start the third and final round shot him up the leaderboard.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Brochstein receives award for innovation

By Scott Norgaard

When it comes to design awards, the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion has received another jewel to add to its crown. The pavilion's most recent award, the Ideas2 Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction, was presented Oct. 28 to the steel designers of the structure, alumni Larry Whaley and Wally Ford (Hanszen '75).

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Baker masters search begins

By Seth Brown

The Baker College master search began two weeks ago with the selection of its search committee co-chairs, Baker senior Bradley Houston said. Houston said Baker President Kathy Kellert asked he and Baker sophomore Peter Borden to be co-chairs. They formed the search committee the following week from a pool of 18 applicants.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Master plan presented at SA meeting

By Jocelyn Wright

While many of the current members of the Rice community may not be around to see it, University Architect David Rodd is working on a master plan for campus that outlines the potential growth of the university over the next 50 years. Rodd presented his Master Planning Study at Monday's Student Association meeting.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Penny for the guy!

By Juliana Serrano

From the elaborate make-up and costumes, to the captivating story line, to the bewitchingly surreal voices of the main actors, The Threepenny Opera is guaranteed to keep viewers enthralled and lost in another time and place more distorted than our own: one filled with poverty and corruption instead of problem sets and college systems. The show, first written in 1928 by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and based on John Gay's 1728 The Beggar's Opera, is an ironic satire of the political state of Victorian England. Penned as a Marxist critique of the capitalistic world, The Threepenny Opera was supposed to be the opera of the beggars who could not go to the traditional, opulent opera of the time.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Committee seeks provost replacement

By Josh Rutenberg

Following Provost Eugene Levy's announcement to step down from his post in September, a provost search committee has been formed to find a suitable alternative. The committee is composed of 16 members: 12 faculty, one member of the Board of Trustees, one staff member, one graduate student and one undergraduate representative. Former Dean of Natural Sciences Kathleen Matthews will chair the committee. Sid Richardson College senior Claire Shorall and graduate student Nastassja Lewinski will serve as student representatives.

NEWS 11/12/09 6:00pm

Photo: For a limited time only

 

Helping kick off Homecoming Week on Tuesday, the Rice Program Council set up a yard sale at the Rice Memorial Center in an effort to spread more school spirit with bushels of trinkets and T-shirts.

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