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Julie Armstrong

NEWS 3/26/09 7:00pm

Martel's Vanish-ing Act

By Julie Armstrong

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.

NEWS 1/22/09 6:00pm

Austin's Achachay making cold hot since 2008

By Julie Armstrong

Who knew even Rice graduates could become rock stars?Anyone acquainted with Rice alumnus Jordan Myska Allen (Sid '08) has been hearing that message for a while. Throughout his college career, the ebullient, long-haired religious studies major persistently proclaimed his desire to be a rock star, even listing "roquerismo" as a second major on Facebook. While most Rice students searched for internships and slaved in research labs, Allen formed the funk rock band Moxie with Evan Davies (Brown '08), Andy Whitten (Brown '07) and Aaron Taffett (Sid '08), acting as a lead vocalist and guitarist. The band went on to win KTRU's Battle of the Bands two years in a row and even tour throughout the United States in the summer of 2007, chugging slowly across the continent in "Funkwagen von Tatkraft," their less-than-dependable tour van.

NEWS 12/4/08 6:00pm

"The Wake" is a complex web of drama

By Julie Armstrong

Students taking a break from studying this weekend by sitting down in front of the T.V. for some cathartic viewing might as well replace that Lifetime movie with a visit to the Martel College Commons. But even among the Spirit Committee's decorations, they'd better not expect to find Christmas cheer.From death to alcoholism to arguments over rape and domestic abuse, Martel's new student-written play by Brown College senior Klara Wojtkowska, co-directed with Martel senior Tony Parce, progresses like ten melancholy country songs combined into one.and translated from Polish.

NEWS 10/2/08 7:00pm

Pie with the Popo: a rock in stormy times

By Julie Armstrong

On Saturday, Sept. 13, disaster struck our formidable city. Despite living in what many have called the energy capital of the world, Houstonians found themselves plunged into darkness. Suffering through round after round of Boggle by candlelight, undergraduates at Rice gave thanks for crowded hallways and lenient dry campus enforcement, dreaming of brighter nights.Another calamity, however, soon overshadowed the direct effects of Hurricane Ike's destruction in our lives, hemming us behind the hedges more effectively than an orgo study session and Pub combined, in addition to removing our most basic comforts. That catastrophe was the citywide curfew.

NEWS 8/21/08 7:00pm

Beer-spitting good time: a local music perspective

By Julie Armstrong

It's that time of year again - Orientation Week is upon us - and as more freshmen swim into Rice with the tides, I can't help but reflect on my own O-Week three years ago.Unlike most new students, I didn't enjoy it all that much. I hadn't heeded the "get sleep" warning and had trouble letting loose. O-Week improved substan-tially, though, when my group left the hedges and took a trip to The Chocolate Bar, where a bluegrass band known as the Medicine Show lit up my life and made me optimis-tic about Houston.

NEWS 4/17/08 7:00pm

Phils So Good puts "aahh" in a cappella

By Julie Armstrong

Growth fosters change, and the world of collegiate a cappella is no exception to this rule. With over 1,200 student-run groups in the United States alone, the movement the Yale Whiffenpoofs began in 1909 has become a genre with its own trends. In the 1980s and '90s, student a cappella groups shifted focus from classical and jazz arrangements to more beat-driven pop tunes. In the 2000s, the growing popularity of amateur mixing and mastering tools established the voice-filtering standard for studio albums. Now the proliferation of a cappella rating web sites and professional companies specializing in vocal mixing have raised the standard for these albums. Not to be left behind, the Rice Philharmonics have taken exciting leaps with their latest recorded effort, Phils So Good, mixed at North Carolina's Liquid5th studio and scheduled for release on April 26.In essence, Phils So Good presents two art forms in one: the rearrangement of original songs using only human voices, which defines a cappella, and also the use of professional editing and mixing equipment to create the ambient listening experience unique to a studio album. Although the Phils fan who seeks the feel of a live recording may find the filtered style disconcerting, the alteration creates smooth, yet complex waterfalls of sound that showcase the arranging skills of the group's members and add greatly to the listening experience.

NEWS 4/10/08 7:00pm

The buzz with BotB winners the Social Insects

By Julie Armstrong

At KTRU's 17th Annual Outdoor Show on Sunday, Rice's population of music fans and lawn loungers might find themselves distracted from the buzz of mosquitoes by the sounds of some much larger insects. As the winners of this year's Battle of the Bands, also sponsored by KTRU, the eclectic trio of Will Rice College students known as the Social Insects ---- made up of senior Mary Jane "MJ" Kwan, senior Kellie Simon and junior Josh Levin - has embraced their newfound campus fame like a child dropped in a swimming pool: With surprise, flailing limbs and a grasp at what had seemed impossible. The Thresher invaded their practice session in Will Rice Room 204 to preview the Insects firsthand and is still scratching the itch.Thresher: How did you get together? Have you played together in the past?

NEWS 3/27/08 7:00pm

Are you experienced An interview with the makers of The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience

By Julie Armstrong

The Rice Thresher spent a few quality moments in the RTV5 studio getting to know the faces in front of and behind the camera of the new Rice Sketch Comedy spin-off, The Connor O'Hoolihan Experience, before the satire-driven show takes on an independent life of its own.The mock news phenomenon stars Baker College sophomore Connor Hollowwa as the show's namesake and features writing by Jones College junior Barr Reed. Hanszen College senior and Thresher cartoonist Dan Derozier heads up filming and production. The show's third episode premiered online on Thursday.

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