Winter Break

The Pharos would like to wish everyone a safe and happy break, and a bright return in the new year. The Pharos itself will return shortly into the new semester; please stay tuned here for updates and further information.

Thank you for your comments and support throughout Fall Semester 2006.

Quotation of the [whenever we have good quotations to post]: Vo. 2

"No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow."

--Alice Walker

"Let me tell something to you." Happy Feet Lives Up to the Hype: by Chris Garton

Happy Feet, Starring Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, and Savion Glover. Directed by George Miller.

Who it’s for: Lovers of ‘80s and 90s music, kids of all ages, and those who don’t mind an environmentalist message with their humor.

Who it’s not for: People who did not find themselves laughing during Shrek.

This movie starts out one thing, and ends up something different. This has been done well in other movies. Million Dollar Baby comes to mind. In this movie, however, I feel that either one of the directions it tried to go would have been fine on its own, but when you try to put them together, they get in each others way.

The first half of this movie deals with a young penguin named Mumble (Wood), who, in an unfortunate accident, was dropped onto the ice when he was still an egg, which leads to him being slow to hatch. When he finally does break free of his shell, his dad, Memphis (Jackman) immediately senses that something may not be right with his boy. His feet are constantly moving. “Whatcha doin’ with your feet there, boy? Better stop, people will think it’s strange,” he says. Soon after this, Mumble learns that he has a terrible singing voice. This is the real tragedy, as a penguin’s “heartsong” is what they use to find a mate. Mumble taps out his heartsong with his feet, but his strange ways don’t catch on in the tribe. Without a heartsong, Mumble has no hope of winning the heart of the girl he is smitten with, Gloria. He is shunned by the Emperor penguins, and eventually winds up in the company of “the amigos”, a ragtag group of penguins led by Ramón (Williams).

The movie continues in this vein for a while, and we think that eventually Mumble will convince the tribe to accept him, get the girl, etc. etc. What happens instead is that there is a fish shortage, and Mumble sets off to find the aliens that have been mysteriously abducting birds and putting strange yellow bands on their legs, and asking them to stop taking all the fish. There is a heartfelt environmental message at the core of the second half of the film, and I’m all for environmental messages, but it just doesn’t mesh well with the first half.

The best part of this movie is the music. There’s plenty here for a music lover to laugh at. There are lots of great 80s and 90s hits, with Queen, Prince, and Earth Wind and Fire being represented as well as Elvis Presley. There is also some music influenced by other parts of the globe. The Amigos impart a distinctly Latin flavor to the numbers they sing.

I can’t end this review without mentioning the man behind the Mumble. Elijah Wood may provide the voice, but Mumble’s character really comes out through his feet. It is Savion Glover’s feet we see, captured by the computer, which has even picked up Savion’s habit of practicing while he’s standing still. Savion was a regular on Sesame Street for several years, and has been in films such as Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. and Spike Lee’s Bamboozled. I hope he gets enough credit for doing this movie, because in my opinion, he carried it.

I enjoyed myself at this movie, but it seemed like it was struggling to figure out what sort of movie it wanted to be. Should this deter you from going to see it? I hope not. It’s certainly worthwhile. I give it 3.5 out of 5.

Wintersong: A review by Sarah Wilkinson

Title: Wintersong
Primary Artist: Sarah McLachlan
Essential Tracks: "Song for a Winter's Night," "Wintersong," and "Silent Night."
Producer: Pierre Marchand
Label: ARISTA Records
Running Time: 45:39

It's no secret in the recording world that Sarah McLachlan has one of the best vocal instruments of our time. But let me add to this: She has one of the best vocal instruments of our time when she wants to use it. Although she gives some breathtaking performances on her new Christmas album, Wintersong, most of the songs on the album feel as though she just didn't want to exercise her vocal cords to their full potential. This, coupled with some bad arrangements of classic songs, leads to a merely decent album.

The album opens on a very appropriate note with her cover of the John Lennon classic "Happy Xmas (War is Over)." Although she sings the song in a more serious tone than the dearly departed probably intended, it serves as an excellent opening to the album, and the addition of a children's choir is brilliant. From here, we are forced to sit through her version of "What Child is This? (Greensleeves)." Though her lilting voice does bring a haunting air to the piece, she is performing an arrangement that seems to have left the melody out; it’s not the "What Child is This?" that we all know and could sing along to. It sounds as though she arranged it and just decided to write only the alto line. She took too many liberties with an already haunting and beautiful piece.

However, after sitting through that, we are rewarded with her version of Joni Mitchell's "River." I have to confess, I've heard both the original and the Linda Ronstadt versions of this song, and never liked either of them. Then I heard Sarah McLachlan's version, and now it makes sense. McLachlan puts the needed emotion into the piece that previous vocalists neglected. This song was correctly selected as the single from this album.

Next up is her original piece and the album's title track, "Wintersong." This is the song for true Sarah McLachlan fans. Here she gets back to her roots, with simple piano and soft, sentimental lyrics. It is quite melancholy, but it brings a different air to Christmas music than many other songs out there. It may take time, but I foresee this song becoming an eventual classic. After "Wintersong," we hear fairly simple versions of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Though there isn't really much to say about these, she does demonstrate that she can arrange and not trash the songs. These are simple, classic, and quite lovely.

After those two tracks comes the song that I think caused me the most consternation, "The First Noel (Mary Mary)." I adore what she did in this arrangement. She melded together the folk "Mary Mary" with the classic "The First Noel," with the use of everything from harps to African drums, and it's fantastically done. However, she opens the track with a stunning almost-operatic chorus of "The First Noel" that shows off her range so perfectly I really just want her to keep doing that over and over. I think it would have been wise to record a classic version of just "The First Noel," simply because it's so beautiful.

Next are, in my opinion, the three best tracks on the album, "Silent Night," "Song for a Winter's Night," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." These, like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" show that McLachlan can do an excellent job of arranging when she wants to. She shows us her range beautifully on "Silent Night" and "Song for a Winter’s Night," and incorporates a big band style on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" that, though a huge risk for her to take, she pulls off nicely. However, after this trio of beautiful songs, she delves back into things that are almost impossible to listen to. Her version of "In the Bleak Midwinter" is fairly traditional, but her vocal performance kills what would otherwise be a nice song. She arranged it so that it crosses her vocal breaking point constantly, and to the listener, hearing her go from singing well to ungracefully trying to hit notes that are too high gets old quick. The last song on the album, "Christmastime is Here," is even worse. You'll of course remember this song from A Charlie Brown Christmas, but don't expect Snoopy to make an appearance here. It is excessively slow and lacks the jazziness that made the song work for our bald-headed friend and his beagle. I personally think she should have left the song alone, but if it had to be on the album, it and "In the Bleak Midwinter" should have both been placed in the middle somewhere, and let the three or four good songs in the middle bring a nice ending to the album.

Overall, Wintersong captures the melancholy of winter and reminds us of the religious side of Christmas. Although there are some lackluster performances, it is an album worth at least one listen. I give it seven out of twelve candy apples.