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'Catch' some Zs

By Chris Wisner and compiled by Chris Wisner · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

As I sat down to watch "Catch a Fire," I quickly realized as the opening credits began to roll, I would be flying this mission solo. Not a single person ever walked in, save for the occasional theater employee, and even they didn't want to stay for long. So as I watched the movie and struggled to stay awake during a film that is supposed to be so powerful and exciting, I wondered to myself why nobody would want to see it.

Hello. My name is n00bkilla007

By C. Warner Sills and Kasey Hawrysz · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

Submachine gun in hand, Hamstar walks slowly so the terrorists will not hear his footsteps. Suddenly, he launches a flash grenade into an enemy hideout. His foes blinded, Hamstar rushes in to disarm a terrorist bomb. Mission accomplished. Hamstar will advance to the next level in the computer game "Counter-Strike: Source." But come Saturday, Hamstar and his real-world alter ego, sophomore Chris Roberts, will emerge from their respective lairs to face new competition.

The Indiana Daily Student

Idle hands, boring movie

By C. Warner Sills and Michael Mellini · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

By the third time around, you're going to know whether you'll like "Saw III," based on your opinions of the previous two. You'll be able to look past the implausibility of a near-death old man (Tobin Bell) and his sole assistant's (Shawnee Smith) miraculous ability to kidnap so many people and create such elaborate torture devices within a horror warehouse. And how this man happens to know everything that has happened to his victims in the past few years... and how he can somehow plan out every action that will unfold over the next weeks... because damnit, who cares -- you just want to see some good old-fashioned torture scenes. You sick bastard, you.

Prom of the living dead

By C. Warner Sills and Tyler Moore · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

There's a puddle of blood with footprints tracked through it outside of Jake's on Walnut Street. On any other night, this sight would raise several questions, but tonight it just means someone has dropped a bottle of fake blood. The creative minds behind Axis of Evil, Bloomington's premier gothic industrial dance night, are putting on their first Halloween event. The Zombie Prom has descended upon the nightclub. With live performances by Turn Pale and Wyldfyre, a costume contest with prizes from local businesses and hordes of dancers dressed in their best zombie finery, tonight promises to be perfectly suited for Halloween. As the club begins to fill in response to the relentless beat, Axis of Evil's motto seems to be on everyone's mind: You Will Dance.

Not-yo best effort

By C. Warner Sills and Alyson Brodsky · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

Where do I even start? Well, how about this: Don't let the fact that "Nacho Libre" is written and directed by Jared Hess fool you. Hess is best known for writing and directing the hit "Napoleon Dynamite," but let me forewarn you that "Nacho" is nothing like the 2004 smash that got Hess recognized. It's as if "Nacho" tries too hard to outshine "Napoleon" with its humor. It ends up failing miserably.

Building a theater of the morbid

By C. Warner Sills and Ryan Corazza · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

My Chemical Romance's newest effort, The Black Parade, oozes with theatrics. From its loose concept theme about a cancer patient -- effectively named "The Patient" -- in a hospital to its rock opera-esque sound reminiscent of Queen and David Bowie, lead singer Gerard Way directs his band mates through the 14-track disc like a modern day Music Man. Although some cuts such as "The Sharpest Lives" and "House of Wolves" harken back to MCR's in-your-face screamo roots prevalent on 2004's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, or 2002's I Brought You Bullets My Bullets You Brought Me Your Love, The Black Parade jumps around the musical spectrum, splicing in different styles and genres. Sometimes, it's acoustic guitar and piano. Other times, its vaudeville, with the aforementioned hint of Queen and Bowie. In the album's

Aniston goes on another 'break'

By C. Warner Sills and Alyson Brodsky · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

Stubbornness can be a rabbit hole. You take a stand to start with, and then, without realizing it, you're so far stuck in your own mess, you can't get out. Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston -- making the most out of two shallow characters -- can relate. Although she turns him down the first time, they meet at a Cubs game, the two end up dating and after an excessively long montage of pictures of the two together, the movie picks up with the two in a serious relationship, sharing a condo together. Within the first 15 minutes of the film, Brooke, frustrated that Gary can never recognize her needs, calls things off. However, the two fail to discuss their living situation, and as Brooke claims the bedroom to herself, Gary turns the living room into his domain; the two go head on as they each argue to keep the condo themselves.

Tidying up the mess for the sake of convention

By Olivia Morales · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

At one point in Augusten Burroughs' life, he went to see a Lina Wertmüller film festival and commented on how odd it was that in French films, a clown shows up crying while an erstwhile heroine lays in the foreground. "I don't get it," he says, "Not yet, anyway." The genius of Burroughs' book is that there always seems to be something semi-normal going on in the foreground, while an odd and out-of-place clown seems to be crying the whole time in the background.

The Noise? Zzzzzz...

By C. Warner Sills and Brian J. McFillen · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

Noise Floor is a collection of non-album singles, B-sides and covers -- conveniently gathered up for you Conor Oberst completists out there. And that is, indeed, who should get it -- folks who adore Mr. Bright Eyes and can't get enough. Folks who have not only embraced all the things that divide music fans over Oberst -- the quavering, slightly nasal voice; the sincere (or contrived) lyrics; the minimalism -- but who are content to listen to him unleash one very similar-sounding song after another. Because, for a collection of odds and sods, Noise Floor gets surprisingly repetitive -- formulaic, even.

The Indiana Daily Student

A 'Tetris' and trance cocktail

By C. Warner Sills and Chris Freiberg · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

"Tetris" on acid. That's really the only way to describe "Lumines Live!" Like in a lot of other "Tetris"-inspired puzzle games, blocks of four squares drop down from the top of the screen to be matched with like colors and form ever larger squares of the same color, while another line moves from left to right to clear the new super blocks. It's a simple concept that gets turned up to 11 with constantly changing thumping electronic beats and crazy pulsating background graphics called "skins."

Saturday Fever

By C. Warner Sills and Whitney Mitchell · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

They file in one by one, congregating in a cluster in a corner of the waxy gym floor. Vigorously scuffing the suede underside of their elegant ballroom shoes with a wire brush and unrolling their toned legs, they chat about travel arrangements for next week's trip to Purdue University. The only other sound besides the side whisperings is the clickety-clack of high-heels worn by a loner waltzing across the floor.

A long way to legendary

By C. Warner Sills and Patrick Hurley · Thursday, Nov. 2,2006 12 a.m.

I'll start with the positives because there's only one: John Legend can carry one hell of a tune. Now, to the negatives. The first: song-writing. The first song, "Save Room," is repetitive to say the least (the word "save" is sung over 25 times. I mean come on, grab a thesaurus). It's also his inability to mask his themes, even just slightly, behind metaphors that are detrimental to his lyrics. He named a song "P.D.A." for God's sake. Along with his repetition, he seems to love writing the cliché love songs full of obvious rhyme schemes. While good song-writing can sometimes go unnoticed; oftentimes, the bad will glare at you and smack you in the face.

The Indiana Daily Student

Lengthy 'Dracula' production sucks energy from audience

By Ashley Wilson · Wednesday, Nov. 1,2006 11:58 p.m.

Before the Monroe County Civic Theater decided to include the stage version of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" as part of its 2006 season, the show had only been performed once before in its original form. That was in 1897, when Stoker cut out passages of his novel, added stage directions when necessary and premiered his work to a live audience in order to retain stage copyrights to his story.

The Indiana Daily Student

Bread, not bombs

By Alyson Brodsy and Jonathan P. Rossing · Wednesday, Nov. 1,2006 11:39 p.m.

On Monday, Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel, spoke at the IU Auditorium. His take-home message stressed that nothing should weaken our resolve and sense of purpose in our mission to defeat terrorists unconditionally. Then he added a more humanitarian dimension -- we must never forget the "poor of the Earth," those suffering with AIDS, those without access to education or basic human needs, those on the other side of the gap in living conditions. For Barak, not only must we fight terrorists, we must develop a "world community" characterized by trust and cooperation and help those who are left behind.

The Indiana Daily Student

Eye of the storm

By Alyson Brodsy and Peter Chen · Wednesday, Nov. 1,2006 11:38 p.m.

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- Whenever I ask people in the posh city of Aix about last year's riots, they'd usually rather change the subject. Those who do talk tell me all about how the riots don't really represent France as a whole, how the media blew things out of proportion. Despite all the images of flaming Peugeots, the mostly upper-class French folks with whom I've spoken don't see it as a big deal.

The Indiana Daily Student

Generating passes and controversy

By IDS staff and Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Nov. 1,2006 11:36 p.m.

The FBI and Transportation Security Administration are investigating an IU doctoral candidate after he developed a Web site that allowed users to generate fake Northwest Airlines boarding passes. Chris Soghoian of the IU School of Informatics claims to have never printed a fake pass himself.

The Indiana Daily Student

N. Korea wants financial access

By Alyson Brodsy and Burt Herman · Wednesday, Nov. 1,2006 11:29 p.m.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Wednesday it was returning to nuclear disarmament talks to get access to its frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency.

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