EXPRESSIONS
- Happy Singles Day! Ross Brooks
- Some ask if Grammys are obsolete Greg Kot
- Student bands receive local recognition Kellie Conboy
- Billy Joel rocks out first show of tour Sarah Houston
- Give your valentine old-fashion love Ellen Warren
- Oddball Antics Mike Pingree
- SpinnakerÕs ValentineÕs Day poetry contest winners
Happy Singles Day!
When birds of a feather donÕt flock together
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It's that time of year again - Valentine's Day, a day where social norms change on campus. It isn't so strange to see a woman in her 20s walking around with a giant stuffed animal and flowers in tow. A day where one doesn't stop to wonder why there are so many people conjoined at the lips.
As it is with any day of celebration, Valentine's Day means something different for everyone. For some, it means buying chocolates and flowers in the hopes of wooing that special lady.
Others spend Feb. 14 waiting hours to be seated in an upscale restaurant to dine on fancy food and talk about love with their significant others. But what about those single Ospreys out there? How do they spend Valentine's Day?
Kyle Kugler, a junior majoring in nursing, says he plans to spend his Valentine's day at a Grateful Dead cover band concert. Kugler said that while he doesn't have anybody to share the day with, he still likes the idea Valentine's Day tries to convey.
"If you do have someone to share it with, it gives you a good excuse to go out," Kugler said.
There are other students who voice an opposite
opinion from Kugler's about Feb. 14.
Lauren Lipton, a senior studying English, said Valentine's day is just
another day for her.
"It doesn't even phase me that it's Valentine's Day," Lipton said. "It's just like any other day. I'll probably be reading at my house by myself on the couch."
Lipton said it didn't even matter if she had a loved one to spend the day with. Her objection to Valentine's Day is much deeper than that.
"Valentine's Day is just a girly holiday driven by capitalism," Lipton said. "People have the wrong idea, like it's predicated on gift giving. It's like guys are only supposed to buy girls gifts."
The notion that Valentine's Day has become solely about gift giving isn't one that Lipton owns all to herself. However, girls like Michelle Tavss, a senior English major, try to squeeze Valentine's Day for its entire gift receiving potential.
"Valentine's Day is the one day of the year that girls can legally prostitute
themselves," Tavss said.
Among all those who claim Valentine's Day as a day created by greeting card companies and chocolate manufacturers, there stands at least one man who still believes in the splendor of Feb. 14.
"I'm going out to the bars to find true romance with the help of vodka and tequila," said Levi Gallian, a senior Political Science major. Of the claims made that denounce Feb. 14 as a faux holiday, Gallian said "I think it's completely true. But that doesn't have to take away from the magic of it all."
Many Americans are opting to spend Valentine's Day with their pets. More than 63 percent of households in America own a pet, and more than three-quarters of American pet owners give gifts to their pets on special occasions, according to BestFriendsPetCare.com.
Pet owners spent an
estimated $38.4 billion on their pets in 2006, and with
the price of Alpo and Meow Mix not likely to inflate with those of roses and teddy bears, spending Valentine's Day with you pet might
not only be fun but cost
effective, too.
So like it or not single Ospreys, Valentine's Day is here. Prepare yourselves early for a campus full of lip-locked lovers and "No, I love you more" conversations around every corner.
Besides, it will all be over within a day giving those unrequited loves yet another year to grow, with ample opportunity to crush the hearts of their owners the next time around. And for those who hate the holiday and call it a sham, there's plenty of time to rue and think up even more reasons as to why Valentine's Day should be struck from the calendar altogether.
Contact Ross Brooks at features@unfspinnaker.com PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Some ask if Grammys are obsolete
A lot of great music was released in the fourth quarter of 2006. But as usual, none of it was being considered for last Sunday's Grammy Awards.
As a comprehensive overview of the year that was in music, the Grammys always were a little slow to recognize the best music at the height of its relevance.
The voters at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences took a wait-and-see attitude toward artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Public Enemy and Nirvana and never really caught up.
The Grammys could get away with such oversights when they were the only music awards show. Now they're still the biggest, with a national TV audience in the millions. But their credibility and timeliness continue to erode.
As the Internet accelerates the way music is distributed, consumed and evaluated, fans can turn to many credible and far more timely outlets to find the year's best songs and albums. Increasingly, the Grammys can't help but be perceived as a relic of a time when MP3 files didn't exist.
Yet the Grammys roll on, tied to an outdated schedule.
Academy voters were allowed to consider music released only from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006. This October-to-September schedule has been in place for decades; it was created to give the academy time
to poll its 16,000 members and then recruit artists to perform on its nationally televised awards show.
Yet that schedule does a disservice to the industry the Grammys purport to honor. The last three months of the year are when the major labels release their biggest albums, to capitalize on the holiday gift-giving season.
October through December 2006 was no exception: Major albums by the likes of John Legend, Jay-Z, My Chemical Romance, Clipse, Tom Waits, Gwen Stefani and the Game were released after the Grammy deadline. Many of these albums are represented in year-end polls compiled by blogs, e-zines, magazines and newspapers. Yet they won't be eligible for Grammys until 2008.
The academy's tardiness is magnified by the high-volume, high-speed exchange of music on the Internet, which is rapidly making official release
dates obsolete.
Lily Allen was among the most talked-about new artists of last year based on the songs streaming on her MySpace.com page, and she made countless year-end best-of lists. But her music wasn't officially released on an album in the United States until last week, which means she won't be up for Grammy consideration till
next year.
With Web sites such as YouTube.com, MySpace.com and pitchforkmedia.com presenting new music around the clock and weighing in on new songs and albums months before they're officially released, the Grammys
can't help but come off as
late-comers.
Of course, the Grammys have never been particularly hip. But now they're falling even further behind the culture they purport to reflect.
More up-to-date surveys of the year's best music can be found on the Web.
By the first week of 2007, the Idolator.com Web site had polled 497 critics and posted the results. Just as timely are heartonastick.blog-city.com, which has already posted the cumulative favorites of 641 blogs, and indieforbunnies.com, which chimed in with the results from 236 blogs. This week, the Pazz and Jop poll will post its 2006 results in the Village Voice.
All of these lists take into account releases through the full calendar year, and they brim with artists whose albums came out too late for Grammy consideration: Joanna Newsom, Clipse, the Decemberists, the Hold Steady.
Their inclusion on so many year-end lists suggests that the Grammys, and the viewers who use them as a barometer, are missing out on a lot of great music. In the mouse-click world, the gap between what the Grammys honor and what the rest of the world is listening to is only going to widen.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Student bands receive local recognition
Some University of North Florida students do more than just go to classes. Many of them, including members of local Florida bands Matlock, Shadow Agency and The Dauntless, also juggle the responsibilities of being musicians, attending band practices and playing live shows.
Matlock
Adam Page has been playing music since he was eight. He played piano for two years and lost interest. Then he was forced to take guitar lessons when he was 14, but after a year of that he stopped taking formal lessons and began creating music on his own.
Now the 21-year-old communications major at the University of North Florida lists acoustic, bass and electric guitars, the banjo and the mandolin as instruments he can make "sound tolerable."
"But I can not play the drums at all," he said. "It's frightening."
Page's band, Matlock, formed six months ago and has already encountered successes.
Last October Matlock entered Murray Hill's "King of the Hill," contest. It advanced through two rounds of semifinals and played the final competition Dec. 16.
The competition was judged by members of more successful bands, music executives and photographers, and was based on three categories: musicianship, stage presence and crowd draw.
Matlock got full points for crowd draw each time it performed for the competition and won the contest in front of an audience of more than 300 people. The band members took home $500, earned designated recording time and a photo shoot with Studio Edge.
One of the judges for the "King of the Hill" contest was the artist and repertoire representative Edgar O'Neil from Vision Sounds recording studio and independent record label. He approached the band after the competition.
"He took us out to lunch and talked possibilities and what we were willing to sacrifice," said Page. "No offers have been made yet. Producers still need to hear us."
Vision Sounds has worked with other Jacksonville bands such as Evergreen Terrace and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
"We hope that many, many people hear our music and connect with what we have to say," Page said. "Of course we would love to have a record deal, that's when most musicians aim. But we love playing regardless. Record deal or not, that won't stop."
Shadow Agency
Stephen Carey, a 22-year-old business management major, is the most recent member of Shadow Agency, a Jacksonville band that formed almost three years ago. The band has seen many lineup changes, the most recent when Carey replaced bassist Warren Cooke in July 2006.
Carey has been playing music since he was 11 and attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. While in high school, his third band, Far From Eden, was formed.
"That was the most fun I ever really had," Carey said about the band. Far From Eden performed at the Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2005 but broke up later that year.
When Cooke left the band, Shadow Agency called Carey to see if he'd fill in.
"I was good friends with all the guys," Carey said. "I had sat in with them before. I guess that's why they called me when they needed a bass player."
Since its inception, Shadow Agency has played shows throughout the east coast and southern United States, it has played Warped Tour twice and Taste of Chaos twice.
"We have barely begun to do what this band will do by the time it's done," guitarist Joe Van Dyke said.
Carey wants to continue to pursue music once he is done with college.
"After college I plan to write and play music until I die and never grow up," Carey said. "Unless that doesn't work out, because then I could use that sweet business management degree I got at college."
The Dauntless
Chris Fenech is a 21-year-old graphic design major and plays drums for the indie dance band The Dauntless.
Fenech is the only member of the band who lives in Jacksonville. The others, lead vocalist and guitarist Rob Hendrickson, bassist Chris Gray, and lead guitarist and keyboardist Mike McVicar live in Gainesville.
"Stereotypically everyone practices at the drummer's place because for everyone else that only has their guitar and their amp, so it's never that big of a deal," said Fenech. "But the drummer has, like, everything. So, I don't mind driving the hour-and-a-half because I really like the band, I really like playing, but it just stinks having to haul everything over there. But it's worth it."
The Dauntless started out as Fenech on bass and Hendrickson playing guitar and singing when they were in high school. They didn't take the band seriously until Gray and McVicar joined the band.
The Dauntless is Fenech's first band, but he always wanted to play music.
"I guess it's kind of everyone's dream in a way," he said. "It's like, 'what do you want to be? A rockstar!' I know it's like a delusion of grandeur, because I'm realistic about it, and it's like an activity/interest/side-thing, because realistically I know it's not going to take me to fame. But I enjoy it just in itself, just being little ol' Dauntless from Gainesville."
On top of the difficulties of having to travel to another city to practice with the rest of his band, Fenech also has to find time for his academic responsibilities.
"I just try to get everything done," Fenech said. "Usually they practice on Sundays, and whenever I can, I go over there. There's definitely a balancing act you have to perform."
The Dauntless has played with bands such as Ok Go and Mason Jennings, and is starting to develop a fan base.
"Our little fan base we have in Gainesville, just seeing people actually enjoy our music [...] it's probably the coolest thing in the world when someone genuinely comes up to me after a concert and is like 'you guys are really good, I really enjoyed it,'" said Fenech. "That's the greatest feeling in the world."
"I definitely want to, at least on the side [keep playing music]," he said. "I love music, I love playing music, I love performing. I definitely always want something to be there, no matter what."
Contact Kellie Conboy at uspinnak@unf.edu PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Billy Joel rocks out first show of tour
It's 8 o'clock on a Wednesday, the regular crowd shuffles in.
Piano man Billy Joel played the Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville at a near capacity for the opening concert of his tour Feb. 7.
The surprising mix of the crowd reconfirmed the idea that Joel has been around forever. He has released more than 20 albums ranging from Cold Spring Harbor in 1971 to Moving Out in 2002. Joel's newest album is All My Life which is set to be released Feb. 27.
The arena was filled with concert-goers anxious to see Joel. I overheard many reminiscing about when they had seen Joel perform in the past.
Loud grand music played in the background then suddenly the lights went out. The audience screamed in anticipation.
Joel and his 7-person band walk out on stage to greet the crowd. The circular stage gave the whole crowd a chance to feel involved in the performance.
Joel, in jeans, a black shirt and blazer sat down
at the large black piano center stage and he immediately began playing. With a long intro to the song,
the audience didn't hear him sing a word for
two minutes.
Joel took a long look around at the crowd, almost seeing what he was getting himself into. He even played the piano sideways at one point to look at the audience behind him and smiled.
The setup of Joel's stage allowed seats behind the stage to see everything and he made sure to look at the fans seated behind the musicians. Because I
was one of the audience members sitting in this
section it assured me that we were not left out of
the main performance.
I saw something interesting as I looked down at the front of the stage and spotted a small black box with white words. Then, the words started scrolling. Could this be a teleprompter? It was. I felt a little betrayed at first. How could he not know his own songs after all these years? Then as the song (and concert) went on, I was put at ease when I noticed that he didn't even seem like he was using it.
The first song ended and Joel took a bow to the audience without saying anything.
With mainly white lights on stage and some accents of blues, the lights changed with each beat of the drums.
As the audience clapping and dancing with smiles on their face, Joel moved straight into his second song, "My Life."
Finally, after the second song is complete, Joel spoke to the crowd for the first time to thank them.
"There is nothing like being back in the states," Joel told the audience.
Joel seemed quite comfortable in front of the crowd and cracked jokes about people having "shitty seats." He then turned his piano around 180 degrees.
Another funny part in the concert occurred
when his microphone wouldn't stay in an upright position.
"I hate when that happens," Joel said to the audience as everyone laughed.
Joel admitted that he was taking some chances with this tour playing a few songs that he hasn't played since the '70s. He would say a song that he was about to play and only a few people screamed in the audience which made him laugh.
Joel started to introduce a song from the "River of Dreams" album but he stopped when an audience member yelled a request to him.
"You want to do that one," Joel said. "Oh, we can do that one."
After playing for more than two hours, Joel left the stage. Everyone stood screaming for the encore. Joel came back out to finish the concert with one of his biggest hits, "Only the Good Die Young."
Joel then pretended to walk off the stage as everyone knew he had not played his biggest hit yet, "Piano Man." He milked the crowd by slowly stepping away from the piano as everyone booed then stepped toward the piano to hear everyone cheer.
He did this for quite sometime then finally sat down to play the infamous song, a perfect ending to a memorable night.
Contact Sarah Houston at features@unfspinnaker.com PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Give your valentine old-fashion love
Love is grand.
Love expressed with a sweet card on Valentine's Day is even grander.
And grandest of all is the special Valentine that you can't run in to Walgreens and buy at the last minute. In the game of love, there are bonus points for planning and ingenuity.
A handwritten poem or heartfelt note created especially for the beloved is always the best choice. If a lacy paper doily accompanies heart-shaped Valentine, all the better.
But let's assume for a minute that original poetry doesn't come easily. Or that arts and crafts, even the minimal skill of using scissors to make a cutout, are just not your thing.
Here's a suggestion that can make you a romantic champ: a vintage Valentine specific to the one you love.
Cards can be purchased for a few bucks on eBay, where old Valentines abound at this time of year.
It turns out that virtually every hobby, sport, obsession and profession has been embodied in the Valentine-makers' art. "I'd fly to your arms," says the pilot (or the trout fisherman). "Loving you is as easy as pie," a baker declares. "Pulling for you to be my valentine," says the dentist, holding a single tooth.
There's bowling, polo, baseball and canoeing. Trains, squirrels, puppies and, to signify the mammoth size of your love, a herd of elephants. If there's a barber in your romantic sights, a talking shaving brush is "in a lather over you." Did you meet her in a coffee shop? A steaming coffeepot "can't help spouting my love."
One more tip if you aspire to the Valentine's Day Hall of Fame: You can't go wrong with a foot massage.
Distribted by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Oddball Antics
IT'S NOT JUST A SLOGAN, IT'S A PHILOSOPHY
Two men tried to entice a 12-year-old boy into their minivan at a school bus stop in Davenport, Fla., but fled the scene when the boy ran away. Police caught them after the kid gave them a description of the vehicle, calling attention to the "I Love Porn" bumper sticker.
HEY, SARGE, HERE'S A CLUE
A man broke into his place of employment in Steubenville, Ohio, after a big snowstorm, and stole some money before walking back to his nearby home leaving a clear set of footprints for police to follow.
DO YOU HEAR SOMETHING CRACKING? ... SPLASH!
While covering a story about thin ice on Big Muskego Lake in Milwaukee, a television news crew drove its truck out onto the ice, and was able to report authoritatively that the ice was, in fact, too thin to support a television news truck.
I TOLD YOU, SVEN, IT'S OVER
After a split with his girlfriend, a 55-year-old man in Karlstad, Sweden, tried to win her back, first by bombarding her with text messages, then, when that didn't work, standing under her window and serenading her with love songs for an entire evening. She found the episode "incredibly uncomfortable," and had him prosecuted for harassment.
HEY, COPPER, UP YOURS ... CRASH!
A man was arrested for drunken driving in Charleston, S.C., after he made an obscene gesture at a county sheriff as he sped by him on the Interstate, and then had the bad fortune of crashing his car into a guardrail.
MMMMM IS THAT OREGANO?
A juvenile detention officer in Roanoke, Va., opened up a pizza delivered to his home, and found a small bag of marijuana that the deliveryman had inadvertently included.
SIC `EM, BOYS!
A man snatched two bags of coins from a vending machine truck in Corsicana, Texas, and took off on foot, but he did the crime not far from where a training seminar was being held for dozens of police dogs. The animals were pressed into service for the full-scale manhunt which immediately followed. He was arrested.
JUST RELAX, MADAM, WHILE I LOOSEN YOUR CLOTHES
Women, seeking a ritual spiritual cleansing, went to a Lancaster, Pa., shopkeeper for a massage with jasmine oil, and were shocked when he methodically groped, kissed and licked them. The ladies went to the authorities who charged him with rampant indecency.
SO YOU SEE, I'M REALLY NOT SUCH A BAD GUY AT ALL
A man, accused of the serial murders of dozens of women in British Columbia, was playing it very coy in the courtroom when he was being questioned by an investigator for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He kept saying "no comment" in response to questions, and then, exasperated, said, "You make me out to be more of a murderer than I am." He hinted that he killed two, maybe three women at most.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Spinnaker's Valentine's Day poetry contest winners
Kitten on the prowl
I am a woman,
hear me purr,
Like a lioness sleeping on the plain,
With pride, of course.
I can be ferocious, yet timid,
Strong, yet delicately toothless,
Gnawing my way through life.
Not unlike a forlorn, wet kitten crying in the rain.
In a world of make-believe,
Mufasa would sweep me off my paws,
And save the day.
But this is real life.
I must fend for myself,
oh cruel world.
I'm just a cat on the street,
Where beauty doesn't matter.
Do I really care that you haven't
Purloined my Valentine heart?
Am I really slipping into the despair
Of a spinster looking for her
King of the Jungle?
Prrrrrrrrrrrr...
Annabel Brooks,
Events coordinator
and research associate at
UNF's Women's Center.
"Half the distance from the sun"
for my beautiful Empress.....
On a hill half the distance from the sun
I ponder thinking of beauty in its quintessence,
how it is begun
flowing hair streaming in the wind from her gallant stride
like continual and ever-rippling rotations of
the ocean colliding with the tide
Hues of hope; the colors emitted from her eyes
Created like awe-inspiring rainbows after bouts of torrential rain from the skies
the soothing sound her soul's lips bring
resonate like the clash of flowing waterfalls
into rivers, a sign of lovely spring
Mother nature's version of a
Rembrandt of VanGogh
an impetus toward a sea of admiration,
as if a natural love undertow
her presence even delays the transition
of night to day,
as the sun wishes to forever shine, never to stray
true beauty blooming in orchards of
picturesque perfection
aligning solar sequences of the soul and spirit in
total connection
On a hill half the distance from the sun
I ponder thinking of beauty in its quintessence
how it is begun.
By Ethan Lauer
Junior, history major
There's beauty in the wispy dew-flecked cattails;
There's beauty in the purple sky at dawn;
There's beauty in the gentle touch of a baby
Asleep in the velvety darkness of night;
And there's beauty in the sigh of my true love
When sweet Valentine caresses fall softly on my cheek.
By Tom Cain
Marketing & Publications
Information Specialist