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NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

With solid bats and strong arms, baseball is back

By Meghan Hall

It is funny how quickly members of the Rice community get greedy. Though the memories of the Owls winning the College World Series in 2003 - Rice's only national championship in any sport-are still relatively fresh, this team is itching to reach the CWS for the fourth year in a row and end what seems like an eternal five-year championship drought. Though fall ball numbers can be deceptive, they have been nevertheless encouraging for the 2009 season. After four exhibition games, the Owls emerged with a clean slate. They opened the fall season with an 8-4 win over Texas State University, then beat the fourth-ranked University of Texas 13-6 twice and capped off the preseason with a 21-2 trumping of McNeese State University.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Dark Was the Night sets goal for a bright future

By Eric Doctor

I had the pleasure of meeting Bryce and Aaron Dessner when The National came to play here for the All Rice Picnic during homecoming week. They are both rather subdued and unassuming - almost awkward, perhaps. They both sport unshaven faces and unibrows - not the look that one would expect out of indie rock's unofficial curators.The Dessners have assembled a veritable who's-who list of indie darlings - Sufjan Stevens! Bon Iver! Yeasayer! Feist! That guy from TV on the Radio! - into Dark Was the Night, a charity compilation album whose profits go towards the Red Hot Organization, a group committed to fighting HIV/AIDS through pop culture. Since 1989, Red Hot has released 20 compilation albums to raise both funds and awareness. It's kind of like Product (RED), except without the sweatshop controversies and expensive corporate branding.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

100 Days draws 650 students

By Margeux Clemmons

Last week's senior party, 100 Days, launched the countdown to graduation when 650 students, 150 more than last year, mixed and mingled on the dance floor at Club 26ten.Senior Committee Head Dylan Guyer said that the club was filled to capacity after selling all remaining tickets at the door.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Women end long losing streak

By Yan Digilov

Good things come to those who wait. Unfortunately for the women's basketball team, good things are also said to come in small packages, and despite winning their first conference game of the year last week, their efforts may be too little, too late.With four games left before the Conference USA Championship, scheduled for March 5-8, the Owls (6-19, 1-11 C-USA) still have much to do before they can be taken as a legitimate contender at the end of the season. But their solid effort against the University of Texas-El Paso Feb. 12 and subsequent victory over the University of Tulane two days later came with more than just a sigh of relief.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Tennis earns mixed results in Lubbock

By Prem Ramkumar

It looks like the women's tennis team is finding some resolve. The Owls traveled to the McLeod Tennis Center in Lubbock, Tex., last weekend, where they lost a back-and-forth battle with the University of Arizona 4-3 before showcasing their rebound power with a 5-2 route of Texas Tech University. The team is now 8-2 on the year.After a slate of marshmallow opponents and easy home matches, last weekend's lineup was perhaps the toughest three-day stretch the Owls will have during the regular season.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Women's track places fifth

By Natalie Clericuzio

So long as Lennie Waite is running, it appears as though the women's track and field team is practically unstoppable. At only the second full-squad meet of the year, theOwls finished fifth overall while downing a handful of nationally-ranked teams ranging from Texas Tech University to Arizona State University, which was especially impressive since the Sun Devils won last year's Indoor National Championships.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Archis behind on Paris trip funding

By Margeux Clemmons and Cindy Dinh

Sophomore architecture students may have to incur a larger percentage of the funding for their annual educational trip to Paris, France, than in previous years due to the economic downturn and problematic timing of their main fundraising party, Archi-Arts. Baker College sophomore Aya Matsumoto, an architecture major, estimated that 300 people attended Archi-Arts, the annual formal hosted by sophomore architecture students, short of their expected attendance of 500-600 people.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Berkman takes time to reflect on years at Rice

 

Perhaps Rice's most successful professional athlete, Lance Berkman, chatted with the Thresher's Yan Digilov about Head coach Wayne Graham, three-mile runs, couches thrown off Sid and Orientation Week. Rice Thresher: A lot of people look at the 1996 campaign as a turning point in Rice baseball history. Could you tell us about that legendary campaign, in which the Owls won the final Southwest Conference Championship, despite entering as the bottom seed?

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Serveries plan to remove all trays over spring break

By Kern Vijayvargiya

While spring break will only keep students away from Rice for a week, trays will be taking a permanent vacation once spring break is over. Residential dining will go trayless beginning Sunday dinner on Mar. 8, which is immediately following Spring Break, Director of Residential Dining and Catering David McDonald said. On Feb. 9, the Student Association passed a resolution to support the removal of trays from serveries in an effort to reduce food waste by up to 33 percent and reduce ever-tightening budgets. The change is also expected to lead to a reduction in water and chemical waste when trays no longer have to be washed after every meal.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Waltz with Bashir: Embracing the Subjectivity of Emotional Experience

By Philip Poon

Admit it: The choice to use animation seems counterintuitive for a movie that sells itself as a documentary. Wouldn't a more typical, less fantasy-like form be more appropriate for a film that seeks to uncover past events? Wouldn't a normal documentary be more objective, more realistic, and more, well, true?This film challenges this kind of thinking and the notion that truth is specific to a certain kind of filmmaking. Actually, one can argue that it is impossible to be completely objective or "truthful" in any artistic medium.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Phils advance to finals in competition for first time

By Hallie Jordan

For the first time since their founding in 1995, the Rice Philharmonics will advance in an international competition. After competing in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella south quarterfinals last weekend in Athens, Georgia at the Morton Theatre, the Philharmonics will advance to the semifinals on March 14 in Greensboro, N.C., where they will compete against first- and second-place winners from each south quarterfinal.Also competing at the quarterfinals were the Accidentals of the University of Georgia, who took first place, With Someone Else's Money and Noteworthy, also from the University of Georgia and Clemson University's TakeNote.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Sunday's Sports Update: Women turn over win to SMU

By Casey Michel

The women's basketball team closed out its home season with a rough 63-41 loss to Southern Methodist University on Sunday afternoon. LeShandra Hill led SMU with 14 points, followed by Christine Elliott with 12. No one on the Owls was able to muster double-digit points, although the team had five players score a total of 36 points.The win leaves SMU tied for first place in Conference USA with a 10-4 conference record, while Rice's two-game winning streak comes to a close. The Owls are now 2-11 in C-USA.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Bus route shift allows more trips to Rice Village

By Cindy Dinh

Students can look forward to more ventures to Rice Village during the weekdays, as a new graduate apartment bus route features extended service from campus to the Village areaEffective since Jan. 20, the shuttle service for the graduate route now links the campus' Inner Loop Road and parking lots to the Rice Graduate Apartments on 1515 Bissonnet Street and the recently opened Rice Village Apartments on 2410 Shakespeare, which began leasing Jan. 10.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Wednesday's Sports Update: Owls top Cougs in baseball home opener

By Meghan Hall

The first baseball home game at Reckling Park against the University of Houston opened with a bang. UH's Blake Kelso started off the game with a double, which he unsuccessfully tried to stretch to a triple. After another hit and a passed ball, Zak Presley scored the first run for the Cougars when Chase Dempsay hit a double but was again thrown out at third.Contrary to UH, the Owls used aggressive baserunning in their favor in the bottom of the second. Freshman Anthony Rendon singled, then moved to third on senior Jess Buenger's single. Freshman Jeremy Rathjen added to the montage of hits and scored Rendon for Rice's first run. After Rathjen stole second, Buenger scored on a groundout by senior Jimmy Comerota, and then Rathjen scored on a wild pitch. Later, in the bottom of the third, sophomore Rick Hague hit a solo shot to put Rice up 4-0.

NEWS 2/12/09 6:00pm

Meeting mtvU's new stars: Anish Patel and Faheem Ahmed

 

A month ago, an anonymous A&E editor stumbled upon an email titled "Report at the Oscars w/MTV!", inviting ambitious, outgoing college journalists to send in videos showing why they should be chosen to represent their colleges as interviewers at this year's Academy Awards. Nonchalantly, the editor forwarded the message to the Thresher reviewer and Sketch Comedy founder who seemed the most comfortable in the public eye, Faheem Ahmed.Little did she know she had created a monster. A few weeks later, Faheem received a call announcing his and his cameraman Anish Patel's placement in the contest's top ten contestants. Hundreds of Rice kids and other supporters screamed, cried and voted online with fast fingers and high hopes. A triumph seemed near, and on Monday, mtvU announced that Rice's team had made the cut as one of the three picked to cover (and film!) pre-Oscar events and compete for the final honor of Red Carpet correspondent.

NEWS 2/12/09 6:00pm

BSA sponsors King lecture

By Josh Rutenberg

In honor of Black History month, Executive Vice President of Electronic Data Systems Corporation John Castle spoke to students Wednesday about how the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. have transcended racial and generational boundaries. In his lecture entitled "Martin Luther King Jr.: Preacher, Leader, Scholar", which was hosted by the Black Student Association and Leadership Rice, Castle detailed the story of King's civil rights movement and the qualities that made King a successful leader.

NEWS 2/12/09 6:00pm

Sid Richardson RA Stein to leave at semester's end

By Cindy Dinh

Sid Richardson College Resident Associate Evan Stein announced at the Sid Council meeting Tuesday that he will be stepping down at the end of the semester. In addition to his work at Sid, Stein is the associate director of recreation programs.

NEWS 2/12/09 6:00pm

SA presidential candidates, keep these points in mind

By Staff Editorial

Just in case the numerous flyers covering tables at the serveries have not given enough indication, we will make it clear here: The Student Association elections for the 2009-'10 school year are right around the corner. Presidential debates are scheduled for Monday at 10 p.m. in the Farnsworth Pavilion, and the general election period starts Friday. To the three canididates running for SA president, Brown College junior Patrick McAnaney, Martel College sophomore Nicholas Muscara and Jones College junior Matty Weingast, we offer the following:It was nearly two years ago today that the Thresher Editorial Staff crafted a rather scathing indictment of the SA's policies ("SA needs its own Vision," Feb. 23, 2007). Our critique at that time was that the SA was slowly becoming "a rubber stamp for administrative interests." We complained then that SA members had apparent trouble with the concept of providing "strong, clear voices representing [the] majority opinion of their constituency" in the form of resolutions.

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