Special Projects

KTRU Corner: Appalachia

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.

Rice Players' Importance misses mark

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.

Wonders of Texas unique, incomparable

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.

Skill, experience distinguish Parker as mayoral frontrunner

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 shoots for the moon, misses

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.

Love Happens never ges off the ground

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.

Battlesows start season by downing rival Hanszen

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.

Online only: Rosa earns men's tennis singles title

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.

A glimpse inside Houston's mayoral race

With a little more than a month until election day, four mayoral candidates debated with each other at the Rice Memorial Center Wednesday night.

Football stumbles against another Big 12 foe

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.

New Recreation Center boasts bigger space, new equipment, myriad upgrades to facilities

Listen to Rice Sports Roundtable Discussion

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!

KTRU Top 35: Week of Sept. 20, 2009

Letters to the Editor

Specific signals required for bikers

Families weekend begins

This weekend, parents will discover what their sons and daughters have actually been up to in college. Families Weekend began yesterday and continues through Sunday, allowing students and parents alike to experience what Rice and Houston have to offer.This year's Families Weekend theme is "Rice Students. Global Citizens.", according to the Office of International Students and Scholars. This theme is especially fitting, as the university has students representing more than 99 countries, Director of Reunion Programs and Special Events Jennifer Harding said. Rice also welcomed more than 900 new students this year, 13 percent of them international.

Commentary: Staying true to the Gray and Blue this weekend

The last time we saw the football team, they were hoisting a glistening Texas Bowl trophy to the sky, the crowning spectacle to an unforgettable season in which Rice grabbed its first bowl win in 58 years. The stars that night were big and bright, deep in the heart of Reliant Stadium.My, how time flies.

Endowment falls 18 percent

While Rice may not have lost as much as of its investments as other universities, its endowment still took a hit during the most recent recession. For fiscal year 2009, Rice incurred an 18.2-percent loss on the endowment's investment returns, worth about $838 million. The university also spent $215 million of the endowment, $55 million of which was recouped in endowment gifts, according to unaudited reports issued from the Office of the Vice President for Investments Treasurer.

Honor Council flaws highlight need for further modifcation

I was extremely pleased when I read about the recommendations of the Working Group on the Honor Council in The Rice Thresher two weeks ago ("Honor Council working group presents findings," Sept. 11). The council has had trouble keeping up with its caseload for a while, and the measures suggested could greatly alleviate the pressures on the council, allowing things to run much more smoothly.These changes, however, do not address some other major procedural problems with the Honor Council.

Online only: Golf team wins first tourney since 1997

The golf team got the season off to a hot start this Monday and Tuesday at the UTA Waterchase Invitational, scorching the field of 19 while notching their first tournament win since Head Coach Drew Scott (Wiess '98) was in school. The Owls took the invitational by two strokes over the host school, the University of Texas at Arlington, shooting a final round 286 (-2). Rice's cumulative score was 858, putting them six strokes under par for the three-round tournament.

Martel welcomes former ambassador to speak on India

In an effort to increase talks by notable speakers at the residential colleges, Martel College hosted Ambassador Swashpawan Singh last Thursday. Speaking to an audience of about 30, Singh, the former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, gave a talk entitled "The India Story: More Fact than Fiction," where he discussed his country's current success, in addition to its development and obstacles to becoming a world power.