Spinnaker Christmas wishlist

Robert K. Pietrzyk

Perfect gifts are rare finds indeed - but, oh, how difficult to find them on a college budget!

World's Smallest Big Heater
$39.95
The Sharper Image

OK, so Florida isn't the most sensible location for this gift. But there are always those class rooms, dorm rooms and bath rooms that are a little too cold for comfort. Small enough to keep in your backpack, this heater puts out more than enough heat to warm the icicles off your body. Well, maybe it isn't that powerful, but it can definitely help out anyone unfortunate enough to get stuck with a polar bear for a roommate.

"Beatmix Bumblebee"
$39.95
The Sharper Image

Ever thought, "Gee, I love my speakers and all, but is there any way to make them transform into an alien robot who can dance and mix music at the same time?" Well, you probably haven't - but that doesn't mean your little brother or younger cousins haven't, too. Plug an MP3 player into Bumblebee and the destroyer of Decepticons transforms into a break-dancing speaker that can record and remix any of your music.

Turbo Charge cell phone charger
$19.95
The Sharper Image

Like that creepy uncle who drinks too much alcoholic egg nog, everyone has that special someone with no need for a working cell phone. Every time you call them, their phone is off and their message box is full. But with this handy universal charger, their constant excuses of "I can't find my charger" or "I didn't sleep at home last night" will no longer be valid. This reusable, strangely phallic charger gives even the most gluttonous and wasteful abusers of battery power a few extra hours of talk time and comes with adapters for every major cell phone brand.

Brush T
$19.95
The Sharper Image

For nine golf tees, $19.95 seems a bit pricy. But unlike typical golf tees, Brush T's elevate the golf ball above the hard tee on a bed of bristles. The South African company claims they can add up to seven yards to the average golfer's drive and help increase accuracy. Buy them for that cousin you only see around the holidays, your girlfriend's golf-obsessed father, or as further proof that men will buy anything that increases their length.

10x20 Binoculars
$49.95
The Sharper Image

This pocket-sized set of binoculars fits easily in your hand, with quick, easy-to-adjust eye relief and lenses. They make a great stocking stuffer for any sports fans or outdoorsmen in the family. And for all those Facebook stalkers out there, these small eyesight extenders could mark the ideal first step toward your online addiction's surveillance in the real world.

"It's Easy Being Green"
$12.95
Anthropologie

This day-to-day guide is full of simple and practical suggestions for greener living. The book, written by Crissy Trask, addresses subjects like cultivation of a sustainable environment, green shopping, online activism and common myths. This is a good gift for those family and friends who are interested in bettering the environment. Or for any of your friends who love placing books on their coffee tables to make a statement. You know they're out there.

Amish Country Gourmet Popcorn
$5.00
Williams and Sonoma

Not a gift for everyone, but perfect for that elderly relative who never misses the opportunity to tell you how much better "X" (substitute for food, snow, Santa, the economy, war, air, or any other word in the English language) was when they were young. This two-pound bag of do-it-yourself popcorn should save them the unpleasant ease of bagged popcorn with its pre-measured oil, and keep them from rambling about the articulate skill involved in horseshoes as you break in that new Wii.

Contact Ross Brooks at features@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

Student fined nearly $900, rethinks buying a permit

Alissa LaGesse

Josh Longenecker is a record-setter at UNF. He doesn't hold the highest GPA, the best club fundraising numbers, or the fastest time in any cross country events.

Instead, he lays claim to a more dubious title: the most-ticketed student in Parking Services history.

The Spinnaker sat down with Longenecker to try to get at the root of his record.

How much money in parking tickets and fees have you racked up?
This semester, a hold was put on my account for $845.

It was all from parking tickets, late fees and a $50 boot removal fee.

How did you find out you had the record for most parking violations?
The parking lady told me.

So they eventually put a boot on your truck. How did you get around, and what did you have to do to get the boot taken off?
To get the boot off, I had to come up with half the money I owed.

To get around, I just bummed rides off my friends.

How long did you leave the boot on your truck?
About a week and a half. It would have just stayed on there, but I wanted to go home for Thanksgiving.

Did anything happen to your parking privileges? Did your parking permit get revoked?
Well, I have never actually had a parking permit.

Last year, I got a ticket almost every day, but I never had a permit, so they never knew to charge it to my account.

It worked for a year, so I got through my freshman year doing that.

Sometimes, I would get two tickets a day. I'm 99 percent sure that most of the tickets that I got last year weren't even put on my account.

So what made you continue parking illegally after your first few tickets?
You know, the first time I got a parking ticket, I opened it up and it said, "white-and-red F-150" and it had my license plate number written on it.

I started thinking, "You know, they are probably not going to run my tags, because it's the UPD," and they never did. They never ran my tag to see whose truck it was, so I thought, "Well, I'm going to get away with it. So I just kept on getting them.

Have you had to make any lifestyle changes to compensate for the money you owe? How did you come up with the $845?
Yeah. I had two jobs, and now I have three. It's been rough with school and three jobs.

Was it worth not buying a parking permit now that you've had to work harder?
Now I feel like an idiot, but if I would have gotten away with it, I would have felt like "wow." Was it worth it? No, but it inspired me to get three jobs and work even harder.

Is there anything else you'd like to add about your situation?
If anyone would like to donate...

Contact Alissa LaGesse at features@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

Local winter wonders provide entertainment over break

By Alissa LaGesse
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Third Annual St. Johns County Festival of Trees at the World Golf Village displays trees and wreaths decorated by community organizations and families, inside the St. Johns Convention Center.

The festival opened Nov. 30, and runs through Dec. 9.

The festival is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and admission is free.

The First Coast Wind Ensemble, an all-volunteer community music association, will perform its Holiday Concert at Christ the Redeemer Church, 190 South Roscoe Blvd. in Ponte Vedra Beach. The free concert is Dec. 9, at 6:30 p.m.

The Times-Union Performing Arts Center will host the Home for the Holidays concert event, performed by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

The event will take place Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., Dec. 15 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. Admission ranges from $25 to $65.

Contact Alissa LaGesse at features@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

High-octane 'No Country' runs out of gas near misplaced highbrow end

By Robert Orndoff
STAFF WRITER

Paramount Vantage

Javier Bardem plays the "ultimate badass" as a psychopathic hit man named Anton Chigurh.

Good: Action scenes that will stop your breathing and blinking.
Bad: All of the action is wasted as the film shifts gears.
Ugly: Several shots of needles piercing flesh, and more than one dog shot dead.

If there is one thing worth knowing before going to see "No Country for Old Men," it's that expectations are useless. Even if none are brought into the theater, they will still develop - and for many, destroy - the ability to understand at all what this movie is about.

On one hand, the first three quarters of this movie alone would have made the best movie of 2007 and possibly the best thriller of the last five or 10 years.

On the other hand, everything that part of the movie does right is undermined in the final quarter as three incredible characters in a fantastically thrilling and tight story are hurled toward an ending that everyone in the audience wants badly, but the creators evidently felt was not important to give.

Instead, the film makes a huge change in pace, form, style and protagonists. It's as if it comes running up to you in a hurry, panting, trying to say "Wait - before you go any further, I forgot to make a deep, cerebral point."

And that is exactly what the film tries to do in the last quarter. The only problem is that the audience is in thriller mode the whole way through, but is suddenly expected to turn its critical thinking skills back on near the end.

As an audience, we are expected at one point to accept that a very weird-looking man with a gun the size of his leg and a silencer the size of his fist is able to walk past reception in a downtown office building in Texas.

That requires turning those same critical thinking skills off - and man, with characters and action like this movie has, it's easy. Trust me.

The film stars Josh Brolin as a Vietnam War veteran and a welder living in Texas who stumbles upon a drug deal in the desert that left everyone dead and a case filled with $2 million.

Javier Bardem plays an assassin hired to kill the hapless Texan and retrieve the money.

This character becomes one of the coolest bad guys in a movie in a long time, representing something of a mix between pure evil and quirky lonesomeness. Bardem's presence is equal to something much larger than just a killer. In several scenes he has the ominousness of a dark, gathering storm, ready to blow away an entire town.

Tommy Lee Jones is in his element as a Texas sheriff chasing after both characters.

It is difficult to suggest this movie to anyone.

It has some of the best characters, action and set-ups in recent film history, but it wastes all of them on a highfalutin point no one in the audience is in the mood for. In fact, the creators of this movie send their audience out of the theater unsatisfied on purpose. It is part of the message.

If you're paying $7 or $8 for a message, run and go see "No Country for Old Men." If you're paying to see a movie, on the other hand, watch the first three quarters, then, when it seems like there is a climax coming in the next scene, run out of the theater, write your own ending, and send it to me - because it can't be worse than the one you missed, and they won't give me my $7 back.

Contact Robert Orndoff at features_staff@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE

Ensemble brings made-for-TV opera to UNF stage

By Laurel Wright
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR

Almost everyone has seen a made-for-TV movie ("Parent Trap" ring any bells?). But while finding someone who has seen a made-for-TV opera might seem impossible, chances are that if you (or your parents) had a television between 1951 and 1966, you probably watched at least one opera made especially for TV.

"Amahl and the Night Visitors" was the first opera made specifically for television in the United States and was played annually on Christmas Eve for 15 years. Although the opera rarely finds its way onto TV screens anymore, it is still considered a Christmas classic on the stage.

The UNF Opera Ensemble, with members of the UNF String Ensemble and the UNF Chamber Singers, will perform this classic opera to give guests an alternative to the ubiquitous "Christmas Carol."

"It's a fun piece, and another way to put you in the spirit," said Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, head applied voice professor and director of the performance. "It's in English, and it's not a stereotypical work."

The opera, written by Gian Carlo Menotti, focuses on a not-so-common portion of the Christmas story. It follows a poor disabled boy named Amahl, his mother, and a visit they receive from three kings who are on their way to see the Holy Child.

Since the show was written specifically for television, one of the biggest challenges when performing it on stage is working around the sections of the performance that have no transitions, Biernacki said.

"We have to adjust all of the movements to real time," he said. "You can't simply cut and paste like they do in film."

This opera presents other obstacles for UNF performers, like being the first time some of the students in the performance will both act and sing.

"Once we learn the music, we have to add action and emotion," said Angelique Perretta, a junior classical voice major, who plays Amahl's mother in the production.

"We have to be musical in a pretty way and do everything given to us in a physical way," Perretta said.

Brandon Thornhill, a senior classical voice major who plays a king in the performance, agrees.

"We are singers before actors," he said. "It's a challenge to sing and act."

"Amahl and the Night Visitors" will be the second opera preformed by the UNF Opera Ensemble, but they are not alone in the production. Jacksonville Children's Chorus, the Florida Community College at Jacksonville's scene shop, and dancers from Jacksonville University are helping. Area musicians will also perform in the full chamber orchestra.

Performances will be 8 p.m. Dec. 5-9 at the Robinson Theater, with a 3 p.m. matinee on the last day. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the box office or online at www.unfopera.com.

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Oddball Antics

By Mike Pingree
MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE

Will you people be serious?!
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has asked citizens to submit suggestions for a motto summing up Great Britain in five words or less.

Some of the suggestions thus far: "Drinking continues until morale improves" and "At least we're not French." That's not the only game you were playing

q A soldier returning from Iraq accused his wife of cheating on him while he was away after he checked his Wii video game console and found that she had spent several nights playing video bowling with another man. The cartoon character of the guy she created for the game looks "strikingly similar" to the man he says is her wife's lover.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE