NEWS
10/1/09 7:00pm
Commodores set sail in second half to drown Owls
(See the slideshow at the bottom of the page!)Another second half collapse and another loss.
(See the slideshow at the bottom of the page!)Another second half collapse and another loss.
Imagine a futuristic world in which humans no longer travel beyond their front door. In this world, people stay at home plugged into a control chair, experiencing life vicariously through personal robot representatives. In the new sci-fi thriller Surrogates this far-fetched idea is brought to life.Based on the eponymous 2005 comic book series, Surrogates at first seems like a strange combination of The Stepford Wives and The Matrix. In a society where all public interactions occur via surrogates, physically-perfect robotic representations of humans, people have come to believe that the surrogate world is superior to their mere humanity. With the use of these surrogates, people experience "life, but better," as crime, injuries and other negative aspects of humanity are rendered virtually nonexistent.
For the past several seasons, the women's cross country team has enjoyed myriad successes, not the least of which includes competing in the national meet for the past three years. After the impressive performances of the freshmen at last weekend's Islander Splash, held at Texas A&M- Corpus Christi, the cross country team has no reason to worry about continuing their tradition of success. Freshman Heather Olson (17:00) led the Rice finishers, placing third overall as the first varsity athlete finisher behind unattached Rice runners junior Becky Wade (16:45) and senior Britany Williams (16:49). Sophomore Marie Thompson, freshman Halsey Fowler, freshman Johanna Ohm and sophomore Michaela Reynolds placed seventh, 11th, 14th and 17th, respectively, to help Rice finish-in-second behind the University of Texas. Olson's performance earned her Conference USA Athlete of the Week honors.
Last week's article, "Endowment falls 18 percent," stated that the loss in endowment funds entailed a "5 percent budgetcut for each department [and exactly] what will be cut has yet to be determined." According to Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins, schools and divisions were notified of the cuts last winter which were factored into the current fiscal year 2010. The Thresher regrets the error.
Men's tennis finds mixed results at Baylor tournament
It was Saturday morning. I was sitting in the commons perusing that morning's edition of The New York Times, and though I had a mountain of work that screamed for an appointment with Fondren, I was going to neglect it. This year's Families Weekend brought students' families to the Rice campus, featured a smorgasbord of diverse, exciting events and provided a great excuse for students to step out of their dorm rooms and appreciate Rice from a non-student perspective.
We would like to commend the Rice University Police Departmentand the Houston Police Department for their diligence in solving
BackPorch Revolution is a small label that focuses on ambient noise, drone, electronic and experimental music from New Orleans. One of its most important releases was the compilation album Proud To Swim Home: A Backporch Revolution Compilation for New Orleans, produced to aid New Orleans in recovery after Hurricane Katrina.One of the most interesting artists from this label is Mike Karnowski. Otherwise known as DJ Potpie, Karnowski specializes in chaotic mixes of instruments, like a sine wave generator, turntables, low-fi samplers, theremin, guitars and toy organs - basically anything that he can use to extract a sound.
Over a century after its first performance, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is still one of the funniest plays ever written. It is also one of the most popular, since theater troupes know that any production of this fast-paced, laugh-a-minute work will be a hit. But for a new production of Earnest to be truly memorable it has to really stand out. This week's staging by the Rice Players does not.
There are things about Texas that are distinctly and exactly "Texas," that are only Texas: our little Alamo, filled with men beset with love for their great endless brown land; the 10-gallon hats and snakeskin boots that you don't see enough of anymore; the lone star, white against blue and red, unabashedly whipping 100 feet above car dealerships lining the interstate; the ridiculous "heavy-duty" trucks people insist on; Friday night football; real ranches with guns, cattle, spit, moustaches and beehives; signs on the roadside that say it all with three letters: BBQ.Jarritos, pecan pie and those mammoth, cool avocados we've got most of the year; brisket sandwiches and baked potatoes smothered in soupy hot barbeque sauce; Willie Nelson, salsa verde and the big bottles of Sol you can barely wrap your hand around; big hair, big "y'alls," big space and big, earnest Texas-sized smiles to fill it.
The candidates for Houston's mayoral election visited the Rice campus last Tuesday, discussing issues important to the Latino community. During the unimpressive equivocations and political posturing, it became clear that the decision for Houston voters this year will be based more on the candidates themselves than their near-identical policies.The candidates, a trio of Democrats and a lone Republican, seem to agree on the basic outline for Houston's future. First, there needs to be an emphasis on economic growth through creation of a department/committee/czar for economic development; second, more coordinated police efforts through better cooperation and new technology; and third, improving traffic through changes in infrastructure and future improvements in public transportation. What's new?
Bright Star is a high-minded, intellectual film, if you can somehow translate "intellectual" into a lot of staring, a lot of breathing, a lot of silence and a whole lot of boring.One would think a film about Romantic poet John Keats would feature dialogue akin to that of a poetic master. But while Bright Star places an emphasis on Romantic poetry and beautiful scenes, it neglects essential elements of a good film, such as realistic character interaction and a plotline that actually develops.
Someone, somewhere, is terrible at naming movies. If you wanted to see a movie about love, you would think Love Happens would be for you. Nope.Now, if you are looking for a movie about coping with death, then maybe this film is more up your alley. Love Happens is sure to attract groups of giddy females on a girls' night out or cute couples holding hands, all expecting a romantic comedy, but most will find themselves shaking their heads, slowly trying to wrap their minds around the train wreck they just finished watching. A better title for this movie would have been Death Clouds Your Life, But Flowers Can Help. I'm certainly not a professional, so when I can come up with a better title, you know there's something wrong.
After a relatively quiet first week, the powderpuff season took flight last weekend with a number of headline match-ups filling the slate. Two teams made their season debuts, as Wiess College took the field for the first time against Hanszen College and the Will Rice College-McMurtry College tandem squad made its season debut in a match-up with Brown College. While the focus of both of these teams was a solid start, it was the finishes that highlighted a highly-entertaining weekend of football. Both Jones College and Lovett College earned memorable victories over the weekend, each in suspenseful and unique fashion. And while the Jones-Sid Richardson College finish was one for the record books, it was not the focus of our Game of the Week. Wiess and Hanszen squared off on Sunday in a rivalry game that needed to play a few extra minutes before a winner was declared.
Bruno Rosa did not get a chance to play in the men's tennis team's season-opener two weeks ago, but the senior made the most of his opportunity to shake off summer's rust last weekend. Rosa ended up on top of the singles draw at the 10th Annual Midland Invitational last weekend, winning five straight matches over the three-day tournament. Rosa, the tournament's No. 1 seed, opened up the Midland, Texas, draw by sweeping the University of Texas at Arlington's Dmitry Minkin and the University of Oklahoma's Ionut Beleleu. In the quarterfinals Rosa battled back to down Baylor University's Maros Horny 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a semifinal meeting with teammate Oscar Podlewski, a junior transfer from Elon University. Podlewski put up a solid audition for why he should crack the team's rotation, but Rosa bested the younger Owl 6-3, 7-6.
With a little more than a month until election day, four mayoral candidates debated with each other at the Rice Memorial Center Wednesday night.
If you wanted to, you could say that the football team's game last weekend looked no different from the previous two. The Owls (0-3, 0-1 Conference USA) fell to 16th-ranked Oklahoma State University 41-24, their third-straight double-digit loss to run their season into an early hole. But the score was misleading, because the feeling of the game was vastly different than the previous exasperating losses against the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Texas Tech University.
This week the Thresher sports staff sat down and discussed what's happening in Rice sports. We thought y'all might enjoy listening in on our conversation about the golf team's historic tournament win, two cross country meet titles and what to expect from the football team this weekend. Enjoy!