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Sunday, May 19, 2024 — Houston, TX

Taylor Johnson


NEWS 5/15/08 7:00pm

Column: Life after Rice vague, but clear in nature

As a man of generally few outspoken opinions, trying to choose what to write for my first and last column as an undergraduate at Rice was rather difficult. Looking within the hedges there were many options: From lambasting the administration for the lack of both outdoor power outlets for laptops, among other issues, at the new Brochstein Pavilion, to recommending improvements in writing and communication for the undergraduate engineering education at Rice, no topic seemed broad enough. Looking beyond the hedges to November's election or global warming seemed too detached. In truth, as cliché a topic as it is, the only thing that seemed worth discussing was moving on to the next phase of life and the choices we have outside the hedges as Rice graduates.Looking back four years ago to graduation from high school, it seemed like there were so many choices. In retrospect though, there were few choices beyond picking which school to continue studying at for an undergraduate education. Going to college was not a choice, but rather, a mandate. While not true for every high school graduate, this is certainly true for most students at Rice.


NEWS 5/15/08 7:00pm

RDT spring show offers memorable experience

Rice Dance Theatre's spring show, "Dancing on the Edge," did not keep me sitting on the edge of my seat during the performance. Having gone to see the show on a man-date with my roommate, I recall looking over at him after the first dance after intermission and saying, "There are three dances left? Mistake."Despite the initial negative reaction I garnered from the show, however, it seems much more powerful as I look back on it a month later. The dancers moved across the stage gracefully and beautifully in most cases, and the synchronization between them was not without flaw, but it was admirable. The lighting of the stage was filled with a variety of usually deep and dark, cool colors. One dance utilized a strobe light and included a warning in the program for epileptics. The strobe light turned out to be so weak, though, that I doubt the most sensitive of epileptics could have gone into seizure, and this potentially dynamic visual just fizzled instead of adding sizzle.