Robert Redford's Sundance Cinema will open in Bayou Place on Nov. 1, taking over the space vacated by the Angelika Film Center last Sept., according to a press release issued last Thursday by the City of Houston.
Rice Theater's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is unconventional and unusual in almost every aspect. It's a musical squeezed into a single act that runs a mere hour and a half without a single scene change; yet even with this breakneck pace, the viewer becomes acquainted with a disparate gang of middle schoolers all competing for spelling bee glory and the chance to continue to the national competition in Washington D.C.
It's almost changeover season on campus - clubs, organizations and college governments are all getting ready to hold elections or tryouts before handing over the reins to a new group of students. Among these new electees, a fresh batch of treasurers across campus will be inheriting the ledgers and piles of receipts that come with the position. More than likely the majority of the new treasurers will also require training from the Controller's Office to be authorized for form signatures and the use of purchasing cards and the electronic BANNER and TouchNet systems.
Don't listen to the naysayers: Tron: Legacy is actually a really good movie. With jaw-dropping visuals, a thundering soundtrack composed entirely by Daft Punk and the revival and continuation of the story of the original 1982 Tron, it's just plain fun to watch. The movie comes up lacking in plot - Legacy essentially recycles the original Tron's story structure, with only a couple of nuances - but name the last time an effects-driven feature had a deep, philosophical storyline. Legacy picks up some 20 years after the events in Tron. Software engineer, ENCOM CEO and arcade owner Kevin Flynn (True Grit's Jeff Bridges) went missing shortly after the events of the first film and his son Sam (Country Strong's Garrett Hedlund) has grown up to be a motorcycle-riding rebel who wants nothing to do with his ownership stake in ENCOM, Flynn's software corporation. Following a mysterious page received by an old friend of his father's, Sam ends up getting sucked into and trapped inside the computer world of The Grid, where his father has been searching for a way out since he first disappeared 20 years ago.
Last week, the Thresher snuck backstage following The Smoking Section's crowd-slaying show at Willy's Pub to hang out with the band and bask in the glow of their fame while asking them deep and soul-searching questions. The conversation covered everything from jorts to, of course, spirit animals.Rice Thresher: So how long have you guys been playing together?
One afternoon last week I sat down with recent Rice grad Nico Gardner (Lovett '10) at the Brochstein Pavilion to talk about what he'd been up to lately. The last time Nico was in the Thresher was back in February for his installation at the student-run Matchbox Gallery ("Intersections: Houston draws lines at Matchbox Gallery," Feb. 5), and now he was just coming off a summer residency at Project Row Houses in Houston, where he had another installation on public display.While we waited on Salento to make Nico's sandwich, I asked him a bit about how he ended up at PRH for the summer and how he came up with the concept for his installation. Initially nominated by Visual and Dramatic Arts Professor John Sparagana, Nico then had to apply to PRH and was accepted to the residency program soon afterward. Best described as a giant marionette, Nico's installation looks like a sort of shaggy creature that can be controlled and manipulated by the viewer via a simple rope and pulley system that runs across the installation space.
Thank God for Last.fm. When the Internet radio station alerted me that Smashing Pumpkins would be playing in Houston in a matter of weeks, I was beyond excited. Understand that I've been waiting to see Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins live ever since my cousin burned me copies of all their albums back when I was in seventh grade. For a good while they were the only CDs that I owned (besides the Harry Potter and Spider-Man soundtracks, but that's a different story), and needless to say, I listened to them nonstop.Unfortunately at that point the Pumpkins had been disbanded for close to two years, so there wasn't the normal process of discovering a new band, listening to all their music and then eagerly anticipating their next show or album - hell, at that age my parents didn't even let me go to live shows. Still kicking myself for missing the newly re-formed Pumpkins when they came to town in 2007 for Buzzfest XX, I scratched together the cash to buy a ticket to their show at Warehouse Live this past Tuesday and enjoyed every deafening second of it.
Last Sunday, to the surprise of many Houstonians, the Angelika Film Center downtown simply didn't open for business. Would-be moviegoers were greeted by an empty box office, brown paper covering the glass front doors and a short note that began with, "We regret to inform you that the Angelika Film Center closed today," taped to the inside of the ticket booth window.I first saw the news on Twitter that morning, then disbelievingly did a quick Google search and found a CultureMap Houston article that confirmed the worst. Suddenly remembering that I work for the Thresher, I grabbed my camera and took the METRORail downtown to see what I could find out. I also needed to snap some photos for my Digital Photography class, so I was killing two birds with one stone.
Even native Houstonians sometimes have trouble navigating the METROrail - my own freshmen can attest to this - but the rail is a Rice student's best friend. It can connect you to all kinds of food and activities outside the hedges; you just have to know where to look. No car? No problem. The METRO can get you where you want to go. First off, if you haven't already picked up your Q-Card from the Cashier's Office, do it. It's free, and the Cashier's Office will refill the card with $50 every time you get low: All you need to do is present your Rice ID with the Q-Card.
New students, you are holding in your hands the very first issue of the Rice Thresher to be published this year. And, if you're reading this, that means you've turned to the best section in the entire paper: the Arts & Entertainment section, edited by yours truly.Every week, you'll find A&E packed with the latest movie reviews, college theater and show reviews, articles about awesome restaurant and dessert joints, the occasional map of where to find good food close to campus - like this week's late-night food map - and a weekly list of nifty events that are happening outside the hedges (The Weekly Scene). Occasionally we also run semi-regular columns on music or movies or topics that wouldn't normally fit in other sections.
