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A&E

In the life of a BAMF

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A look into the thought process of band member Joe Bauer’s mind.

Q:”How did you guys come up with your band name?”

Alternate answers

“It just poured into my thought ike warm cider on a cold Autumn Afternoon”

“It was the reasult of terrifying night, spawning from a misdosege of childrens Motrin, and a wrong turn into an abandoned sewage plant.”

“They where the last words of my dear Aunt Bertha.”

“The ghost of Robert Downey Jr. came into my bedroom and whispered the name into my ear.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Madonna’s hit single “Like a Virgin” when played backwards distinctly shouts the phrase Big Acorns Make Fat Squirrels, over and over again.”

“I stole the name from Matt Balmer’s Judas Priest Cove Band.”

Photos from Big Acorns Make Fat Squirrel show at FFC in Clarksville.

All photos used with permission by Raven Miller Band Photography.

A&E

Vengeful Adaptation

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By Joshua Green

Staff reporter

During recent years comic books have been adapted into film versions, and V for Vendetta is no exception.  The movie adaption of V for Vendetta was similar to its comic book counterpart, but proved to be quite different.  For whatever reason the movie was dissimilar, it still proved to have the same key underlying themes.

   The film adaptation for V for Vendetta was written by the two Wachowski brothers in the mid 1990’s.  Only after the Matrix trilogy was completed was the screen play given any serious consideration.  The Wachowskis offered James McTeigue the director’s role in the production of the adaptation.  The three working in conjunction came up with a final skit that closely mirrored V for Vendetta, but applied elements that linked better in our modern times.

   V for Vendetta was filmed both in London, United Kingdomand Potsdam, Germany, but the majority of the filming was done on indoor sets.  Only three scenes required specialized locations in Berlin in order to be shot.  The last scene of V for Vendetta actually required getting the British government involved in order to use Westminster in London. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s son is said to have added in granting access to the location, but the calms were denied by the film makers themselves. The film makers stated that it took several months and negotiations to gain access. Filming began in early March 2005 and continued until June 2005. V for Vendetta was shot by cinematographer Adrian Biddle, who died shortly after production due to a fatal heart attack.

   The film was choreographed in order to reflect David Lloyd’s noir styling he used in the comic. Dark scenes and gray tones give the feeling of a lifeless totalitarian government. The Shadow Gallery, V’s home in the comic book, was made completely by hand due to the lack of places with similar features. The Shadow Gallery is well built making it hard to tell if it truly exists. Anything of old culture that the government tried to erase like in the comic book are all contained inside V’s home with minor differences, but feels almost identical to the comic.

   The story of the movie does not take place after a globalnuclear war like in the comic book, but is separated by war and terrorism.  Great Britain is in shambles when the fascist reactionary force Norsefire comes to power.  Norsefire purges Great Britain from most of its woes but creates greater ones due to the loss of freedom.  The view of Norsefire quickly changes after a biological terrorist attack that kills a large number of people, allowing the group to seize total power.

   The film is full of Matrix like fight scenes that show the extent of V’s abilities. Action isn’t the main focus of V for Vendetta like it was in the Matrix, but shows the Wachowskis unique idea of action sequences. Hugo Weaving did an excellent performance as V despite his limitations of wearing the Guy Fawkes mask. His voice acting and body language helps visualize what V is feeling beneath the mask. Natalie Portman plays the film adaptation of Evey Hammond. She did well for the role considering she doesn’t quite fit the idea behind the comic book version of Evey. Portman is much older the Evey in the comic, and also does not fit the character of Evey well. The supporting characters appearedto have made up for the lack of accuracy in the film adaptation. All the roles are well played and the special effects are good for 2006. 

   V for Vendetta is worth watching even though to truly understand the movie I had to watch it a second time to understand the symbolism involved in the story.

A&E

Creators clash over Facebook debacle

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By Amanda Millea

A&E Co-Editor

In a time before friend requests from strangers, before relationship statuses, before people knew what you were doing at every waking moment, there was an idea for a social network that would have all of these features, plus more. The question is who really came up with the idea for this social network? Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a Harvard Undergrad and computer programming genius, claimed to have come up with a social networking site that allowed people all over the world to communicate.

At first, Zuckerberg started small, restricting the social network only to people who attended Harvard. This was where Zuckerberg’s first law suit came into play. The Winklevoss twins (Josh Pence and Armie Hammer) said that Zuckerberg had stolen their network idea, where anyone with a Harvard.edu email address could join. Naturally, the “Winklevii” decide to sue for ownership. Somewhere in the midst of his first law suit, Zuckerberg gets hit with law suit number two, provided by none other than his best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Saverin was the one that provided the originally small company with the money it needed to expand. Saverin was supposed to be a cofounder of the company, originally known as “The Facebook,” but in the expansion process, Zuckerberg and Saverin’s ideas clashed. The clash began when Napster founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) started giving Zuckerberg advice Saverin didn’t necessarily agree with. Eventually, Parker practically pushed Saverin out of the company and off of Zuckerberg’s real life friend list.

This movie was different in the way that it depicted not only one view, but three—three perspectives and three completely different truths to a story everyone assumed to be one-sided. Screen writer Aaron Sorkin adapted the screen play from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires. Sorkin did an excellent job leaving most of this story to the imagination. The different perspectives leave the mind wondering where the truth lies, and will have people talking, even after the movie ends.

“The Social Network” takes a deeper look into the social networking world most teens visit on a daily basis. After the movie, the first thing I did was get on my Facebook. The movie opened my eyes to how truly addictive Facebook is. The movie itself proved to be equally addictive. Although it seemed long at times, the audience is immediately invested in the plot of the film. When the movie was over, I had mixed feelings about the actual ending. I was glad it was over because it was a rather long film, but the plot still seemed like it had so much more to it. By the end, my opinion on who had invented Facebook had not changed. Facebook was created solely by Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s character says it best, “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.” If Zuckerberg was lying, all I have to say is well played, Zuckerberg. Well played.