Special Projects

Martel's Vanish-ing Act

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Martel College Theatre's I Took My Gun and Vanished has much in common with its director-playwright, Martel senior Alexander Crompton. Both Crompton and the original production now showing at his college are hip, nonchalantly ambitious, funny, long-winded and - in the words of Kyle, the character Crompton plays - "not really representative."While the five-person show reflects a variety of personalities found in the liberal early-20-something world, its format is what makes it unique among recent Rice theater. Featuring countless short scenes, jump cuts, extreme realism and no clear plot, I Took My Gun and Vanished resembles a TV show or a movie more than it does a play.

University Council prompted to improve

The relations between the faculty and the Student Association, already significantly improved under the previous two administrations, look to be getting another boost. With the recent appointment of the SA president to the University Council, the students will have yet another conduit of communication between ourselves and the faculty and administration (see story, page 1).While the position is not new, it has certainly seemed to be lacking within the last few years, so much so that the position has lost almost any credence whatsoever with the student body. President David Leebron's office hours have seemed to negate any necessity for the University Council.

Saturday's Sports Update: Rolling Rice offense edges past Tulane's bats

Freshman Taylor Wall got the start for the 20-7 Owls Saturday, as they took on Tulane in the second game of their conference series. The Owls offense was churning again, winning 12-7 with 17 hits.In the bottom of the second, two hits-including a double by the hot freshman Daniel Gonzales-Luna-preceded a two-RBI single by sophomore Michael Fuda. The scoring continued in the third when two walks and a single by the other hot freshman Anthony Rendon led to a run.

Men's track focuses on outdoor season

A few Owls kicked off the men's outdoor track and field season early this past weekend, with a sampling of the members of the men's track and field team competing at both the Texas Southern University Relays in Houston and the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla. Redshirt sophomore Ugo Nduaguba was named Conference USA Co-Athlete of the Week for his automatic qualifying mark of 15.61 meters in the triple jump at the TSU Relays, good for first place, while freshman Clayton Chaney and sophomore Connor Hayes took second and fourth, respectively, in the decathlon at the Hurricane Invitational.

Will Rice rides record times to Beer Bike sweep

The results of Rice University's favorite event of the year, Beer Bike, are out, and Will Rice College broke the women's track record at 16 minutes flat. The record-setting time helped Will Rice seal a sweep of the men's, women's and alumni races.This is the fourth time that Will Rice has swept. Will Rice is the only college to have won all three races in the same year in the over fifty-year-long history of the intercollegiate biking and chugging relay race. Will Rice's last sweep was in 1999, and its previous two sweeps were both in the 1980's.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Men's success pushes them up the rankings

With a racket in hand and a shirt sweated all the way through, Isamu Tachibana looked wiped. But before resting up for singles, Tachibana, a freshman member of the men's tennis team, had one thing to say. Or, rather, scream.

South Alabama brings women's tennis trouble

On the road or back at home-not-so-sweet-home, the women's tennis team is struggling to win these days. With their second consecutive 4-3 loss, their fourth defeat in a row, the Owls fell both to the University of South Alabama and out of the rankings. Scheduled to play at 3 p.m. on the Saturday of Beer Bike, the match was delayed for over an hour due to the men's ongoing match against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Beginning at 4:15 p.m., the delay caused the players to start doubles alongside the men's match play. The match lasted nearly six hours before the Lady Jags ground out a victory at Rice's expense. On the bright side, though, the men were victorious in a 4-3 match.

KTRU Pick of the Week: The Breadwinner

Every week at KTRU, eager DJs scribble out short reviews of music's cutting-edge albums. KTRU's Music Department uses these reviews to judge the quality of the albums it receives and to provide information for the DJs who play them. Each week, a DJ polishes one of these reviews so that KTRU's riches can shine for the larger Rice community.Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet are two creative forces that have been working together to create something amazing, but in order describe the phantasmagoric depictions created by The Breadwinner, one has to first understand its roots.

REMS picks up fourth award for service excellence

Rice's student-run Emergency Medical Services program received the Striving for Excellence Award, which was presented by the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation at its annual conference last month. REMS was one of seven university EMS programs in the nation to be honored with the award.Captain of REMS Michael Pandya said the award is granted based on the level of the program's operations, education and special projects.

800 wins add another chapter to Graham's lore

Although it may seem like just yesterday that he was collecting a trophy for 700 wins, Head Coach Wayne Graham will soon have more hardware lining his mantelpiece. With the baseball team's 4-3 road win over the University of Southern Mississippi last Friday, Graham collected his 800th win of his coaching career, a mark rarely seen in college athletics. This mark was but one of numerous highlights for the fourth-ranked Owls (15-6, 2-1 Conference USA) last week. After blitzing the University of Houston 8-1, Rice took two of three against Southern Miss (13-9, 1-2 C-USA) before taking on Lamar University on Tuesday. The contest started sloppily, but the finish of the contest against the Cardinals (16-8) was well worth the price of admission. The Owls' 12-inning, 9-8 win at Reckling Park was an appropriately exciting start to their nine-game homestand.

Spring brings strong start for women's track in outdoor season

Now that spring weather is here to stay, the indoor track season has concluded and the women's track team has moved its competition outside. Rice began the airy competition last weekend taking an abbreviated squad to the Texas Southern University Relays, held in Houston. Although the meet was not scored, the Owls did quite well, winning four events and placing competitors in the top three in eight other events.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Resident Evil 5 Review

Capcom definitely had its work cut out when it announced a sequel to Resident Evil 4, the critically acclaimed 2005 bestseller. The game was such a departure from previous titles in Capcom's beloved Resident Evil franchise in terms of pacing, gameplay and plot that it seemed like a completely new experience, and gamers ate it up. Resident Evil 5 may play like Resident Evil 4 with a new paintjob, with several elements that have been copied over from its predecessor, save for a few major changes, but that works just fine.The game continues the patchwork canon of the venerable survival-horror franchise with players stepping into the shoes of Chris Redfield, who has traveled to Africa to investigate reports of bioterrorist activity. Aiding him on his mission is Sheva Alomar, a native of the region who also works for the same anti-terrorist organization as Chris. What they discover goes far beyond the black-market weapons deal in the game's fictional Kijuju region: Umbrella and Wesker are back with a vengeance and, as always, it is up to the good guys to save the world from undead, tentacled destruction.

Golf team places 10th at Border

Fighting cold temperatures, gusting winds and driving rain all three rounds, the golf team gutted out a 10th-place finish in one of the strongest fields they have faced all year. Rice's three-round score of 902 (+38) tied the Owls with 36th-ranked Vanderbilt University at the Border Olympics, held this week in Laredo, Texas. The Owls next travel to Austin for the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, which runs March 30-31. The tournament, hosted by the University of Texas, features a field headlined by third-ranked Oklahoma State University, Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University. The Owls have 15 days between tournaments and will look to use the time to try and regroup as a team following a period in which they played two tournaments in six days.

Letters to the Editor

"Com(MAN)d" slogan misinterpreted

Newspapers indispensable to education

As part of its latest round of budget cuts, the administration of Rice University has decided to cut one of the most important resources that a university campus can have: a subscription to a daily newspaper.At the same meeting where President David Leebron announced a 5 percent increase in tuition, a tripling over the past 20 years - even accounting for inflation - he informed students that their daily subscriptions to The New York Times and the Houston Chronicle would be terminated.

Commentary: In Kobe vs. LeBron, the final verdict reads...

When I told my friends about writing a column to determine the best player in the NBA, they all threatened to write letters to the Thresher office to complain about my tremendous bias. True, I am a diehard Lakers fan; I was born and raised in Los Angeles. However, I am first and foremost an NBA fan, so I would rather be true to the game by making an unbiased assessment of the basketball titans of today. The argument boils down to LeBron James, a.k.a. "The Chosen One," and Kobe Bryant, a.k.a. "Black Mamba." (Sorry D-Wade, but you've fallen down more times than you've gotten up.)

KTRU Pick of the Week: Dr.Ragtime & His Pals Self-Titled Bonus Disc

Every week at KTRU, eager DJs scribble out short reviews of music's cutting-edge albums. KTRU's Music Department uses these reviews to judge the quality of the albums it receives and to provide information for the DJs who play them. Each week, a DJ polishes one of these reviews so that KTRU's riches can shine for the larger Rice community. Jack Rose's dual album is a compilation of some excellent bluegrass-folksy-bluesy music that provides interesting insight into the experimentations of an artist that is sure to catch your ear. He takes a combination of old and new and blends the two to form something that borders on growing into a wholly new style that is both enjoyable and soothing to listen to.

FIRE free speech criticisms unfounded

If you can read this staff editorial, then you will understand why we cannot help but laugh at the "red light" the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has given Rice for the university's free speech policy (see story, page 1). As an organization that deals solely in media, we at the Thresher believe we are in the perfect position to chide FIRE for giving Rice the worst possible rating. FIRE is an organization that, for all intents and purposes, seems to lack credibility as a watchdog organization. We strain to believe that Harvard University, Emory University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago could join Rice in the "red light" category, while Southern Methodist University earns a "yellow light."