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.

Borat: A review by Chris Garton

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, and Pamela Anderson. Directed by Larry Charles

Who it’s for: People looking for a good belly laugh, but not offended by a bit of naked wrestling and slandering (all in good fun) of pretty much anything you may or may not believe in.

Who it’s not for: People with delicate dispositions who are offended easily. Also, if you are asthmatic, at least make sure you have an inhaler. This movie is a workout.

The plot of this movie is easy to recap. A small time journalist from a small town in Kazakhstan decides to come to America to make a documentary about what makes us so great. Hilarity ensues. While watching TV in his New York hotel room, he sees Pamela Anderson in a rerun of Baywatch. He falls in love. Hilarity ensues. He convinces his producer to go with him to Hollywood so that he may marry this Pamela Anderson. They buy a vehicle and take a cross country road trip. Hilarity ensues.

I don’t want to give away too many of the punch lines, but this is not a comedy that relies on punch lines. Cohen is a master of the ambush, dependent upon the reactions of people who are not in on the joke. To us, who are in on the joke, the situations he gets in are almost unbelievably hysterical for the simple fact that the situations are almost unbelievably uncomfortable for the participants who are not in on the joke. It is also remarkable that Cohen and his team did not get arrested during the making of this film. They may have, for all I know, but that gives you some idea of the lengths this man is willing to go to in order to get the laugh he wants.

Besides being one of the funniest movies you will ever see, there is something else extremely interesting about this film. Borat himself is a raging anti-Semite (Cohen is actually Jewish himself) and incredibly misogynistic. There are several scenes that, besides being very, very funny (I’ve run out of synonyms), also highlight some of America’s deep-seated fears and prejudices. Borat exposes these fears, and we laugh at the hypocrisy, and are inwardly horrified that such beliefs still exist. There is a scene where Borat is at a Rodeo in Texas, talking to one of the cowboys. The cowboy tells him that people get nervous around individuals who look like Muslims. He tells Borat he might want to shave his mustache, so he’d look more Italian, maybe. He says “I see somebody who looks Islamic, I get to wondering what kind of bomb he’s carrying around, know what I mean?” Borat points out that he is Muslim. One message I took from this movie is that, often, those most easily offended are the ones doing the most offending.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this. Borat is, in the end, the funniest movie of the year. Sacha Baron Cohen has an uncanny ability to stay in character in situations where I would have trouble controlling my bladder. He is one of the best at improvisation, and he even shows some acting range in this movie with a couple of quietly moving scenes in between hilarious bits. Unfortunately, this type of comedy depends upon the unsuspecting participants not knowing that they are talking to an actor, so this pretty much wraps it up for Borat. I give it five out of five stars. *****

Quotation of the [Whenever we have good quotations with which to update]

Alert Reader Josh Briscoe suggested we make the blog more updatable, including quotations, interesting blurbs, et cetera. So here you are; don't spend it all in one place.

“Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.”
--Greg Anderson

Volume 98, Issue 4

The Pharos is pleased to announce the release of its fourth issue of the semester. Copies are available at the switchboard and around campus.

As always, we appreciate your responses to the issue. Reach us here via comment, at x. 8004, or by email at pharos at wvwc dot edu.

We are still working out some bugs, as we recently switched to another publishing program. We appreciate you patience as we work out issues with our photographs.

New Issue

The Pharos announces the release of Vo. 98, Issue 3. The newspaper is now available in front of the post office and in many buildings around campus.

Please excuse some minor glitches as we continue to improve our paper. Namely, there are no page numbers and page 4 is on page 2. We apologize and hope that these problems are fixed next issue.

The Departed: A Movie Review by Chris Carton

The Departed, Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Vera Farmiga. Directed by Martin Scorsese

Who it’s for: Fans of The Godfather, Donnie Brasco; people who like good acting, writing, and directing.

Who it’s not for: Those of you who deplore blood and violence, and get upset that there’s only one female character who is not portrayed as a sex toy.

Martin Scorsese, Godfather of the Mafia movie (no offense to Francis Ford Coppola), has finally recognized that the Irish can be mean as hell too (yeah, I know Gangs of New York was about the Irish. I didn’t see it. You got something to say about it?).

Based on the Hong Kong thriller Internal Affairs, The Departed is set in present day Boston and features Leonardo DiCaprio (a Scorsese favorite) in a stunning role as Billy Costigan, a young cop from a no good family who wants to do something useful with his life. He is offered a job undercover in the operation of Frank Costello (Nicholson), a brutal mob boss who the entire police force is looking to bring down. Costigan reports to two people and two people only, Sergeants Queenan and Dignam (Sheen and Wahlberg). Nobody else knows his true loyalties. Meanwhile, Colin Sullivan (Damon) is a young officer on the fast track up, with an impeccable record. He also happens to be an informant for Costello. So the stage is set for a ruthless game of cat and mouse, as each side tries to smoke out the other side’s rat.

This movie poses many interesting questions and moral dilemmas. Is there a difference between good and evil? While Costigan shakes down bookies, beats men unconscious, and acts as an accessory to murder in the name of taking down the organization, Sullivan acts from his office, tipping Costello off at every turn. Is it easy to see which one is the good guy and which one is the bad guy? The film also does a very good job at contrasting the lives of these two men. Costigan lives in fear for his life, horrified at the things he is witnessing. He’s a man constantly on the edge. Sullivan, on the other hand, has a comfortable job, a steady girlfriend, and a nice apartment. How is this fair? What incentive is there to be a good person, and to do the right thing? What is the right thing?

This movie drives home a fact that I believe many people have overlooked: DiCaprio can act. He is right up there with many of our finest actors, and this movie features many of our finest actors. Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen have already established themselves as some of the best of the best. In Nicholson’s case, I might go so far as to say he may be the best of the best. This movie doesn’t weaken my case. He has the ability to look incredibly intimidating (and crazy) without actually doing anything. Matt Damon is certainly one of the strongest actors of his generation, and all of his considerable talent is on display here.

Scorsese’s directing melts into the background. No flashy camera gimmicks here. No blow you away special effects. The Departed relies on character to hold your attention, and if these characters don’t make you snap to, you may want to seek professional help.

I want to say something about the soundtrack. Irish punk rock bagpipes. If they don’t get your blood pumping. . . maybe you’re not Irish.

I believe this to be a contender for Best Picture. Expect lots of nominations when awards season comes around. I give it five out of five stars. *****

Welcome, Josh Arthur.

The Pharos welcomes freshman Josh Arthur as our new Layout Editor.

Check the next issue of The Pharos for a look at Josh's handiwork. We're sure you'll be pleased.

The next issue of The Pharos will appear on stands October 18, 2006. Until then, we hope you enjoy our latest issue and continue to send your comments.

The Black Dahlia: A movie review by Chris Garton

The Black Dahlia, Starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hillary Swank, and Mia Kirshner. Directed by Brian De Palma.

Who it’s for: Mystery buffs who don’t mind being confused.
Who it’s not for: Fans of the book will probably get mad.

There are several different ways to adapt a book to a movie, and most of them will leave at least some fans of the book disappointed. Most of the time, you can't fit everything from the book into the movie, so you're going to have to make cuts. The first way to accomplish this is to take a rough outline of the plot, and then rewrite the entire story, keeping the themes in mind. That way you have a movie that, while it may not follow the book exactly, is good in its own right, and follows the spirit of the original story. Some people will not like the changes, but so be it. The second way is to take the parts of the book where the key events happen, smoosh them together, and call it a movie adaptation. This will leave people who haven't read the book confused. People who have read the book will still be disappointed about the parts that were left out, but now also about the movie sucking.
Josh Friedman elected to use the second method when he adapted James Ellroy's darkly fascinating psychological study, The Black Dahlia. The result is a confusing movie whose only redeeming quality is some good atmosphere.
Set in the late 1940s, the plot concerns two LAPD police officers, Bucky Bleichert (Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Eckhart). They are partners in the Warrants division, and best buddies. Lee lives with a woman he met while working on a case, Kay Lake (Johansson), but they have a completely platonic relationship. When Bucky enters the picture, the trio become inseparable—a condition that can’t last. Shortly after New Year’s, the body of a young woman, Elizabeth Short, is found in an empty lot. She is horribly mutilated. Lee, for reasons that are not clear at the moment, becomes completely obsessed with the case. The press takes to calling the girl “The Black Dahlia.” Relating the rest of the plot would not only spoil some of the rather weak surprises, but it would also be tedious, as it gets complicated.
The best parts of this movie by far occur when you aren’t trying to figure out who did what to whom and why these two people are hitting each other. The casting videos found of the Dahlia are the most powerful scenes in the film. Mia Kirshner, whose acting credits include a character arc in “24” and a role in Showtime’s “The L Word,” brings a sophisticated pathos to the role of Elizabeth Short.
These scenes are shot in black and white, and the melancholy evident in her eyes during these scenes makes you forget the shortcomings of the rest of the movie for a moment.
Unfortunately, the film ends weakly, being wrapped up all too nicely, quickly, and dumbly. The acting wasn't bad, but the script moved from one plot point to the next so quickly (and without nearly enough explanation) that we never got a chance to really see them playing characters. They were just playing caricatures. Too bad really. I thought it had great potential. I give it two out of five stars.

The Pharos acts both as a source of news and as a forum of free expression for the West Virginia Wesleyan community. The Pharos and its staff operate with editorial freedom and responsibility. The views and editorials printed within the Pharos and its affiliated forms reflect the opinions of the individual writers and not the college or the Pharos staff as a whole.

Print Delay

Due to difficulties at our print source, this week's edition of the Pharos will not be available until Thursday, October 5 at the earliest. We apologize for the delay.

Welcome

Welcome to the online blog of West Virginia Wesleyan's student newspaper, the Pharos. This serves primarily as a supplemental editorial forum where writers can hone their skills; however, we may also post small stories that fall outside of our printing timeline and letters to the editor as we receive them. Feel free to comment on the blog or submit work for the blog by emailing your piece to pharos at wvwc dot com.

The Pharos acts both as a source of news and as a forum of free expression for the West Virginia Wesleyan community. The Pharos and its staff operate with editorial freedom and responsibility. The views and editorials printed within the Pharos and its affiliated forms reflect the opinions of the individual writers and not the college or the Pharos staff as a whole.