Upcoming EWWD

Kind of a light week: only 4 smaller lectures, 2 M-shop shows, 1 Greek philanthropy, 1 Reiman Gardens event, and a handful of athletics. 2 new Varsity II movies though (did anyone make it to that French movie? doesn't seem like anything is staying very long there, other than Wall-E, which was there forever.)

Athletics is the big one this week, with the return of Cyclone Football and the Big 12 opener. Since we lost our road games, there won't be a lot of casual interest, but they were both very close losses, so I'm not writing the Cyclones off for this one. Then again, Kansas is ranked #16 in the country. Game time is 11:30, so tailgating will be starting at 5:30AM. The swim team also starts what I assume is their pre-season with an intrasquad meet on Friday; there's also volleyball after the football game.

Lectures are tonight at 8 on Amazonian languages (titled "Challenging Chomsky"); Wednesday at 8 on the Supreme Court; and Thursday there are 2, one at 7 on energy and politics, and one at 8 on "the definition of manhood". All are in the Sun Room except the Energy and Politics, which is in Howe.

The Thursday show at the m-shop is "hip-hop/psychedelic" and probably not that appealing to most of my readers, but the Friday show is jazz/roots, and after a listen on their Myspace page I'd say the Will Bernard band guys have the funk. More info on tickets at m-shop.com.

The Greek fundraiser is at Alpha Gamma Rho (201 Gray Ave) on Saturday morning - the food is waffles, the cause is the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the cost is $5.

There's an artist reception Saturday at Reiman -- info including RSVP details at http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/index.cfm?nodeID=5693&action=detail&eventid=18393

The two movies are the new Woody Allen flick, and a road movie about returning Iraq veterans.

And this isn't entertainment, and it's not walking distance, but it sure as heck is having me doing a happy dance: S. 4th reopens Wednesday. The loss of this major artery has been an inconvenience to everyone in Ames, but especially those of us on the south side of Lincoln Way. I am especially looking forward to having one of my favorite bike trails back (a rails-to-trails that runs from Research Park all the way to 4th, connecting up with the one that runs along 4th and then along Elwood and on to Brookside)

Review: Sweeney Todd

I was warned before going that the movie version of Sweeney Todd was extremely gory. The gore was not so graphic in the stage version– just symbolic in the form of a giant coffin being reused as all the large furniture props and buckets of blood being poured into one another. So now I'm curious as to whether the symbolism was carried over to the movie or if it was all literal in its depiction of violence. The performers were all very impressive -- there's no separate pit for musicians; everyone is on stage all the time playing an instrument (and often switching between them) as well as a part. I wonder if when casting, the director is just looking to fill out the instrumentation and it doesn't matter who plays which, as long as you can play some something -- or if, for example, the woman playing the daughter has to be a talented bassist. If it comes back to central Iowa I would definitely recommend you see Sweeney Todd (assuming the darkness of the subject matter and the symbolic way it is portrayed is your cup of tea.)

Upcoming EWWD: September 22-27ish

This week's featured entertainment within walking distance is Sweeney Todd at the Iowa State Center. Yes, the actual musical. Not one for the kids, obviously. That's Wednesday at 7. $20 for students and $40+ depending on how nice you want your seats for everyone else. Do what I'm doing and go with a group of grad students. Students can get 2 tickets per student ID.

If you don't want to spend the cash, you can still get plenty of high-class culture at Music Hall Wednesday at 7:30, where there'll be a concert featuring Cantus, a nationally known men's choir, singing with ISU's own men's a capella group, The Statesmen. That's only $5, $3 for students. Since I'll be at Sweeney Todd I'd love to hear from anyone who make it to this. The Music department also has a big concert Friday at 7 with symphonic and concert bands, followed by the Wind Ensemble; it's at the City Auditorium so not actually in walking distance for SCAN people. $4 for students, $6 for the rest of us.

In food and fundraising, there's a Greek philanthropy shindig Thursday: Sigma Phi Epsilon Sausage Fest and BBQ; Cost: $3; Proceeds to benefit: Youth AIDS. Sig Eps are at 228 Gray Ave. That's from 4-8.

ISU Lectures has another full week, with feminist icon Adrienne Rich speaking tonight at 8 in the Great Hall and tomorrow morning at 10 in the Campanile room. Tomorrow evening is a lecture on immigration (part of Hispanic heritage month). Wednesday features a talk at the auditorium in the Design Building on architecture and reducing fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. Thursday has two lectures, one at 8 at City Hall (seems to be a theme this week; it's being catered with local foods so I'm still tempted to go) on "Can capitalism save the planet?" and one closer to home at Howe Hall at 6pm, which is a roundtable on energy security. All lectures are of course, free.

No football game whatsoever this week (the last two were away games). Athletics does have a couple of home matchups though: Soccer against Missouri at 7 on Friday and Volleyball against Nebraska at 6:30 on Saturday. Volleyball is only $1 as part of the "cram the coliseum" promotion -- and don't forget to wear gold (not cardinal, don't want to be confused with fans of the evil Big Red) if you go. If I do anything Friday night it'll probably be the concert, and I have a wedding to go to on Saturday, so this week in sports is another area where I'd appreciate my dear readers' reviews.

Wall-E is approaching a status as a permanent feature at the Varsity, and the other screen is still turning over at a weekly rate. Right now it's a French movie, Roman de Gare. Must be in their contract as an indie/foreign movie house to show 1 French film per semester. The initial plot summary -- it's about a novelist -- on IMDB made me think that it's a stereotypical French movie that only an NPR reviewer could love, but the full summary makes it sound like more of a murder mystery, which could be fun. I'll never convince Chris to go unless it's dubbed though. Can't find any information on whether it's subtitled or dubbed unfortunately.

The M-Shop has indie music on Tuesday and Friday, hip-hop on Saturday, and sketch comedy (Grandma Mojo's of course) Wednesday night late (a person could probably pull off both that and either Sweeney Todd or the men's chorus, if they were up for a full evening out.)

That's it for now -- I'll be back Thursday with my review of Sweeney Todd and hopefully a better preview for the weekend.

Review: Constitution Day at the MU

Banned Books Jeopardy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir were the events Wednesday night at the Union. The lecture on the electoral college at the beginning of the Jeopardy event seemed a little tangential, but once the game got going it was a lot of fun. I had initially thought that the 8:00 show was just the movie, but it was in fact the live performance. I'd never heard the first amendment sung gospel-style before; it was a very unique experience.

Upcoming EWWD: September 15-19

I gotta remember to do these on Thursdays -- the Varsity doesn't post the movie that starts Friday until Wednesday, so I only know that Wall-E is still there, and American Teen (a documentary on high school students) started this past Friday; no clue whether they'll still be there this weekend, and if not what's starting. High school is still a pretty recent memory for me, and nothing I'm interested in reliving. Reviews I've seen of American Teen have been somewhat neutral, with the biggest minus being that they tend to pigeonhole the kids into stereotypes, showing more of what reinforces the idea that one kid is a geek, another a queen bee, another a jock, etc. than what might be interesting about them.

In Greek philanthropies, Beta Theta Pi (on Lincoln Way) is hosting "Beta Burgers and Bands" on Friday from 5:30 till 9 -- for $4 in advance or $5 at the door, get burgers and local music and benefit the 10000 Hours Show, a concert for which the admission price is proof you've done a certain amount of community service.

The M-shop has shows tonight, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, all around $10 for the general public (cheaper for students). They all look like current pop acts, varying from electronica/hip hop to alternative/folk/indie. Check out their website for more details.

It's a full week of lectures at the Union, with "What Would Jesus Buy" (a movie on materialism in America) tonight at 7, Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP and the first woman to hold that post in a Fortune 20 company) tomorrow at 7:30, and Banned Book Jeopardy on Wednesday at 7, featuring SCAN's own Fern Kupfer. Competing for that timeslot over at the Design College is an artist, chemist, and industrial hygienist lecturing on the topic "Danger! Artist at Work". Also on Wednesday competing for the 8:00 hour (assuming the 7:00s are only an hour long, you could do two) are an encore of What Would Jesus Buy, and the opening of a gallery exhibit on the subject of assisted reproductive technology. Thursday features Henry Rollins doing a spoken word show at Stephens at 8, and a lecture titled "Civic Professionalism and the Pursuit of Sustainability in the Arts and Humanities" in the Sun Room of the MU, also at 8. And even though I hope to do another Upcoming EWWD yet this week, I want to mention now that a member of the Mythbusters team is going to be at Stephens on Saturday. All ISU lectures are free.

Also somewhat outside of the scope is Sweeney Todd (yes, the actual musical) at Stephens on Wednesday the 24th (next week). Buy your tickets now! $20 for students, $43+ for the rest of us. Students can buy 2 each, so I'm hoping to go with some of my HCI colleagues who are taking their time graduating.

Finally, Reiman Gardens is doing Butterfly Docent Training on Saturday -- I'm thinking about doing this one as a way to schedule my day up a little better while I continue the full-time job hunt. Shifts look pretty flexible. If you want to do it you'll have to RSVP, more info at http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/index.cfm?nodeID=5693&action=detail&eventid=17975

EWWD: A Snack and a Movie

Last Tuesday (gosh, I've gotten behind) was the ice cream social at the new Alumni Center on Beach. As I mentioned on my post on the Kent State game, when I first got a good look at the inside, it's very nice. I got a chance to chat with Jeff Johnson, president of the Alumni Association, who's an all-around great guy, and the staff was on hand to explain various architectural details, such as the pitches in the ceiling designed to remind you of the campanile. I also got a chance to look closely at the university mace, which I believe was introduced at my first graduation ceremony in May '04, so that was pretty cool. Turns out the little gold plates are the names and dates served of all the university presidents. The interesting thing to me was the couple of guys who got stuck doing the interim president thing again and again, and wound up serving longer that at least one regular president. The root beer floats were tasty, too. I wasn't able to stick around for a tour as I had a dinner in Des Moines to get to.

Wednesday Chris and I went to Clone Wars at the Varsity II. As I mentioned in my last "upcoming EWWD" post, we enjoyed the cartoon series, but something was off from the series -- the animation wasn't quite the same, and the darkness that should have been present in Anakin was so toned down that it just didn't seem to fit in the chronology of the prequel trilogy. It also bothered me that they introduced and developed a likable (almost to the point of being a Mary Sue) character that gets killed in Epsiode III as just another Jedi . However, it's not like we paid dodecaplex prices for it, and it is always nice to just walk to a movie, and then just walk home.

Ok, that review was pretty flamboyantly geeky, so I'll move on to researching for Upcoming EWWD for this week.

Neighborhood Business: meeting and letter

So, attendance was pretty good at the meeting. I'm especially pleased with the signups I got for the welcome committee. At this point I only know of a couple of houses for sale -- none sale pending -- so if you know of any let me know. I know Barbara and Leslie didn't get what they were hoping for with signups for the home tour (they need people to check tickets at the door of each home). You get to do the tour free, assuming there are enough volunteers to relieve you from your duties for half the time. It's October 12, a Sunday of a weekend with no home football game.

From the APD reports, it sounds like the Crime-Free Housing initiative is going fairly well, although it's still just getting started. We also heard about the Campustown Safety Walk tentatively set for the evening of October 6 -- if you'd like to walk around the neighborhood one of 8 or so groups consisting of APD officers, city council members, Greek community members and other relevant individuals, they'd love to have more residents volunteer -- just email Adi Johnson, ajohnson@city.ames.ia.us.

Finally, my letter was published by the Daily -- 2 days after they published a similar one (although in my opinion more intrusive in its advice on students' personal lives), giving them nearly identical titles. The previous one has already gotten some negative online feedback, and shows up on the sidebar on every page of the Daily's website as one of the most read stories; I'll have to keep an eye on mine to see if there's any either in print or online. I worry that with 2 letters on similar topics, as well as feedback on people not picking up after their dogs, there will be backlash against all of it. Speaking of which, it appears I have my first comment -- and it's my first flame. I don't see any need to respond to it: if the person who left it is as apathetic about our organization as they claim they won't be back to benefit from a reasoned response. Then again if they were as truly apathetic as they claim they wouldn't have bothered to go online to complain about us in the first place.