The Anchor 5/6/13

May 6, 201310 |The Anchor

www.theanchoronline.org

May 6, 201314 |Time Wasters

www.theanchoronline.org

May 6, 2013 Arts & Entertainment| 17

@AnchorRIArts

I saw a ballet, I liked it and now I’m having an existential crisis

Complexions Contemporary Ballet rounds off the Performing Arts Series and causes me to reassess my life in arts and entertainment

JameS lucey a&e eDitor

Since I’ve been covering RIC performing arts for The Anchor, I had never gone to a dance event on campus. Nothing against the Dance Department or the dance companies of the Performing Arts Series. It just never happened. And then, last Tuesday at Roberts Hall, Complexions Contemporary Ballet blew my mind and I regretted every RIC Dance event I sent a staff writer to cover in-stead of going myself.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet was a nice cocktail of dance styles; obviously ballet,

but also elements of hip-hop, b-boy and some abstract moves that I don’t even know how to categorize. At points, the show was more gymnastic Vinyasa yoga than ballet; a lot of stretchy moves that looked like they required crazy core strength. The company has a slight male majority in membership, which shouldn’t have surprised me, because there’s a mostly naked man in a tutu doing some combination Cossack-squat/pirouette on the cover of the program.

After the lights came up in the strangely smoky Roberts Hall auditorium, it took me a while to realize I was watching a story unfold in Act I, “Moon Over Jupiter.” The performers

moved so fluidly I would have been satisfied without a plot. The last Performing Arts Series show of the year began with a bizarre tableau of male dancers elevating themselves on their hands while holding a lotus pose. Slow and controlled. There was some serious athleti-cism on display. The pace was fantastic, en-trances and exits phased in seamlessly.

Really, I had no idea what was happening in Act I. I knew there was a story, but all I could surmise was that people kept walking in on other people having sex, and then everyone got very upset. That exact sequence happened like three times. Beautiful to watch in terms of hu-man movement, though I might be too dense

to follow a story without words.Act II, “Pretty Gritty Suite” was more of a

cabaret-style show. Multiple pop-songs with distinct dance styles versus one long piece of music in a ballet style. The second act was energetic and enthralling and sent audiences home astounded rather than asleep. Particu-larly cool was “I’m Goin’ Back Home,” a gos-pel song. Now, when I think gospel music and dancing, I immediately go to that scene with James Brown in “Blues Brothers.” High energy, 4/4 raucousness. What was amazing about this interpretation of the song was that the dancing was silky and flowing instead of pounding and rhythm driven. If there was supposed to be a story in Act II, I can’t say. But I left Roberts Hall feeling absolutely invigorated.

As an actor, I appreciate movement in an entirely new light having seen Complexions perform. The way this company harnessed lev-els; that is, relative height and distance of the performers, was supreme. There was as much groundwork as there was acrobatic jumping. Arrangements of dancers in the background to accentuate the featured dancers was really appreciated. Is this how all ballet companies do it? Do I like ballet now? RIC, what have you done to me?

Requiem and Wicked RIC Chorus performs opera and musicals in

“Something from Something”Victoria Parker anchor StaFF

Michelle Hill’s soulful voice reverberated around Sapinsley Hall. Perhaps it was fitting that the voice conductor Teresa Coffman described as “when singing, it’s like the heavens open up.” “Something from Some-thing” was a concert that celebrated life, death and love through opera, oratorio and musical theatre pieces.

The concert began on a somber note with the powerful a’capella songs “Dixit Dominus” and “Rex admirabilis” from the “Sound of Mu-sic” (the Broadway musical, not the movie ad-aptation) sung by the RIC Women’s Chorus. A transition to the eleven-member RIC Cham-ber Singers featured another superb solo per-formance with graduating senior Erin Flood. I hadn’t ever seen the actual opera “Dido and Aenas Z. 626,” but listening to Flood’s dynamic vocals and impeccable enunciation, I felt like I was at one. The song also continued the som-ber mood of the concert, featuring such dark lyrics as “Cupid comes to scatter roses on her tomb,” which was eerily repeated throughout the piece.

The return of the Women’s Chorus abruptly reversed this tragic theme, however. Perform-

ing songs from musicals like “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and “Wicked,” the songs were reassuring in their familiarity and modern feel, though no less beautiful than the others. The first, “Hushabye Mountain,” was soft and controlled, emphasizing the peaceful lullaby quality of the piece. Wicked’s “For Good” was another optimistic tune sung in a high falsetto, markedly different from the deep, chanting songs of previous.

This optimism further escalated with whim-sical pieces like “Spinning Chorus” from Wag-ner’s “Flying Dutchman.” Festive and chaotic, the combination of continuous trilling, the re-peated “spinning, spinning, spinning” and the chorus’s choreographed swaying back and forth nearly made me dizzy in my seat (which I think was the intended effect). The following piece from Act I of “Eugene Onegin” was an even more theatrical and amusing piece in which the Chorus merrily sang while at times threat-eningly, at times suggestively, held oranges and apples in their palms.

The celebratory mood culminated with four German Drinking Songs by the RIC Chamber Singers. Although sung with a more formal and, ironically, more sober air than the girls’ playful pieces, these pieces nonetheless celebrated life, youth and, of course, wine.

If drinking songs were the emotional high point of the concert’s storytelling, then the songs that followed intermission were the emotional low points, featuring sad lyrics about struggle and misery with strong reli-gious overtones that emphasized the spiritual discourse. Among the eight that followed in-termission, my favorite was “Vedi! le fosche notturne spoglie” from “Il Trovatore” by Verdi, or as I referred to it as, the “Anvil song.” Unlike the others, this piece contained some of the lightheartedness from earlier, probably due to the incorporation of such an unusual musical instrument as a blacksmith’s hammer and an-vil. To clarify, the lyrics of the song called for everyone to “Lift up your hammers!” Hence, the effect of the steady dinging of the anvil amidst the chorus’s powerful singing, in which the men’s deep vocals played a prominent role.

The remaining songs, though loftier in their grand style and religious lyrics, were nonethe-less interesting pieces. The well-known musi-cal “Les Miserables” made an appearance with “Bring Him Home” while the following “Lib-era me” from Faure’s “Requiem” featured the only male solo of the night with Senior Der-rick Souza’s deep baritone voice. Both perfor-mances by the RIC Concert Chorus could only be described as masterful: each piece demon-strated clear tone, perfect harmony and a full sound.

Overall, the Spring Bon Voyage Choral Con-cert “Something from Something” presented a little bit of everything: humor, tragedy and optimism weaved throughout stellar perfor-mances of both relatively obscure and well-known operas and musicals, demonstrating the Chorus’s versatility and ability.

anchor photo by Jess bourgetMembers of the RIC Chorus perform from the balcony.

May 6, 201318 |The Anchor

www.theanchoronline.org

May 6, 2013 Arts & Entertainment| 19

@AnchorRIArts

Summer movie previewty Dugan anchor eDitor

After Earth (May 31)It’s disappointing when people try

to pigeonhole a director, but M. Night Shyamalan did it to himself. He tries no harder than any other director in at-tempting to have a “hook” or a “twist” in his films, he just happens to be good at implementing them pertly at just about the same time in the third act. In each and every single one of his movies. “After Earth” stars the father/son duo of Will and Jayden Smith as two survivors who crash onto post-apocalypse Earth. The twist is pretty obvious from the trailers, but no one should undersell Shyamalan in such a way. Although “The Last Air-bender” and “The Happening” were to-tal busts, Shyamalan is not a completely useless storyteller and he may still have one or two tricks left up his sleeve.

This Is The End (June 12)A bunch of Hollywood’s most hilari-

ous stars (though not brightest) star as themselves when a Beverly Hills party gets violently interrupted by the apoc-

alypse. James Franco, Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson and so many others ap-pear and dominate the entirety of the trailer reel. This movie should prove to be, if nothing else, a gut-busting riot.

Man of Steel (June 14)Just see this movie. Seriously, Zack

Snyder (“300” and “Watchmen”) work-ing with some of the greatest actors on screen is an equation for total box office domination. We got Henry Ca-vill as Superman himself, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe, Laurence Fishbourne, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Christopher Meloni, Michael Shannon- COME ON! Produced by Christopher Nolan, stamped with the DC Comics approval, the set-up for the “Justice League” film franchise, I mean this movie has everything you want in a sum-mer blockbuster and then some. Plus, it’s Superman.

The Lone Ranger (July 3)Some are complaining that the film

seems to be more about Tonto (Johnny Depp) then it is about the masked vigi-lante himself, The Lone Ranger (played

by Armie Hammer). This is arguable based on what we’ve seen of the trailers, but the story (in the past, as seen on TV or pulp-comic books) has usually been from Tonto’s perspective. Disney and the team who brought you “Pirates of the Caribbean” have all of their fingers in the pies here, so it’s a total flip of the coin here. Heads, it rocks. Tails, it sucks. What can’t be denied is that there will be some serious action.

Pacific Rim (July 12)Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Laby-

rinth”) has not released a lot of info about his next flick, but we know for a fact that it’s a monster versus mechas film. Humanity builds “Jaegers,” gigan-tic robots, to take on the insurmountable threat of inter-dimensional monsters. It’s everything the Power Ranger/Beetle Borg/Godzilla fans have been praying for and more. This should be amazing.

The Wolverine (July 26)Yes, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

sucked. But with “X-Men: Days of Fu-ture Past” in development now, and Bryan Singer, Fox Studios and Marvel working so hard to preserve the fran-

chise, it is safe to bet that (based on the trailer alone) enough time and effort has gone into this to try to salvage the crit-ical character that is Wolverine. Hugh Jackman makes his return as the savage, grizzly, Canadian mutant. This time the story is set in Wolverine’s early train-ing-years, learning his fighting skills and how to balance his power while traveling Japan and (what else?) battling ninjas.

Kick-Ass 2 (August 16)So remember that time some kid de-

cided he thought it was more impressive to emulate a super hero vigilante than a pop-star, so he put on a crappy leotard, took some batons, and went out and got himself stabbed under the codename “Kick-Ass?” Well, that was based on a comic and Mark Millar penned it. He’s been writing the second one, the is-sues aren’t even completely out yet, but the film is on it’s way to theaters. This time, Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Mortez) and Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) team-up with a whole new group of heroes (in-cluding Jim Carrey as Cololnel Stars & Stripes) to go up against The Mother Fucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the new band of super-villains. A war of the costumes and expect all the inane humor from the first “Kick-Ass” to come with it.

To the ponderousTerence Malick’s latest falls flat

aDam taWFik anchor StaFF

In spite of their tremendous contribution to the finished product, filmmakers generally remain anonymous, except to industry insiders and film afi-cionados. Only a few directors are identi-fiable to a larger audience, often for their eccentric reputations as much as their films. Terence Malick, whose newest film “To the Wonder” recently played at the Cable Car, is one of the biggest anomalies in the American film industry.

Highly nonconforming and reclusive, Malick infuriates several of his col-leagues including George Clooney and Christopher Plummer; both of whom have publicly stated that they would never work with the unpredictable direc-tor again. Malick famously blindsided au-diences, the press, distributors and above all Adrien Brody, when the final cut of his 1997 war film “The Thin Red Line” relegated Brody – whom everybody was led to believe was the star- to what was

essentially a bit role. Critical reception to his works are usu-

ally polarized, with some hailing him as an auteur (and his more films receiving several Oscar nominations), while others decry his works as pretentious bores. Un-til now, I never could render an opinion either way, as I have never seen a Malick film before. My gut feeling was that he made plodding, incoherent messes.

My gut is again spot on. The plot (amazingly, there is one) concerns a thir-ty-something couple; the American Neil (Ben Affleck) and the French Marina (Olga Kurylenko), and their volatile on and off-again relationship. There are the additional haphazard subplots of a priest, Father Quintana (Javier Bardem) who is disillusioned with his faith as he vis-its the poor and the decrepit and a brief doomed romance between Neil and an old flame (Rachel McAdams).

Considering the simplicity of the basic premise of Malick’s screenplay, Malick’s floundering direction is inexcusable. Even though Marina and Neil receive al-

most non-stop scrutiny, their characters remain excruciatingly sketchy through-out the entire film. Take for instance, the extended (seemingly non-stop) prologue of a romantic European vacation which theoretically establishes the beauty of young(ish) love and Marina’s desire to settle down, but instead sets the stage for a general sense of incoherent humdrum.

The acting is on par with Malick’s di-recting and writing. Kurylenko, who has the misfortune of being the film’s protag-onist, conveys a gamut of emotions, but since her character has no depth (or any definition) she simply comes across as an idiot who endlessly frolics about. But, the real travesty is Affleck, who is utterly zombie-like in his role. It is inconceiv-able that a man this stiff could engage in passionate, steamy relationships with two women as beautiful and energetic as Kurylenko and McAdams. To add further injury, Affleck, who speaks most of the English lines in this film, is only compre-hensible about five percent of the time, not that it matters. Affleck has never been an outstanding actor, but he’s never been this terrible. Hopefully he’ll consider di-recting full-time.

Most of the supporting players fare no better. Bardem, a usually vibrant and powerful presence, cannot generate any life out of his colorless role. Worst of

show in this category has to go to Romina Mondello in the ridiculous part of Mari-na’s annoyingly touchy-feely French friend who convinces our protagonist to be free like a gypsy. (This “transforma-tion” translates into more frolicking, with an occasional flashing of the breasts). At least McAdams as an improbably coiffed rancher commands some attention, not for her role, but for the sheer pictorial pleasure of the old-movie star glamour. Pity she’s around for only about five min-utes.

Malick’s screenplay (if there even is one), bears the most responsibility for the film’s vacuous tone. Its abundance of voice-over narration (from the four principal actors) merely illuminates the inanity and superficiality of the charac-ters and situation. Although the dialogue is sparse, all of it is jarringly banal. The most heinous offense is that it impinges on legendary cinematographer’s Em-manuel Lubezki’s ability to make any-thing meaningful out of his luminous images.

“Wonder” is worse than the inane pop-corn flicks because the slow pace made me hyper conscious of every second of the two hours of my life that I was losing. The only bright side of this excruciating “arty” experience is that I can proudly watch and advocate for smut.

May 6, 201320 |Sports

www.theanchoronline.org

anchor photo by Janice WangFreshman Dean Grasso runs the bases.

A Keene

performanceeDDie Pannone SPortS eDitor

It was playoff time for the An-chorwomen lacrosse team and they had to face a red hot opponent in Keene State. The third seeded Owls had won 3 in a row and 8 of 9 com-ing into the match, and showed why they were a top seed. The team won 16-5, advancing in the tournament and ending the Anchorwomen’s season.

The Owls didn’t wait around to start the scor-ing. Senior Nicole Curry scored the first Keene State goal just 51 seconds into the game. That was just the beginning, as 5 more players scored in a span of 5 minutes to give Keene State a com-manding 6-0 lead.

Jessica Ricci finally responded for RIC, get-ting them on the board with a goal at the 22:37 mark of the first half. Lauren Maisano assisted on the goal, and the score was 6-1. Now 7-1, Ash-ley Signoriello capitalized on a free position shot to cut the deficit back to 7-2. Keene state ended the half with 4 straight goals to take an enor-mous 11-2 halftime advantage.

Signoriello started off the second half well for RIC with an unassisted goal, but the Owls re-sponded with three straight goals to go up 14-3.

Signoriello scored unassisted again to make the score 14-4, but more Owl offense made things 16-4. Ricci ended the scoring for the Anchorwomen with a goal assisted by Maisano, and that would be the last goal of 2013. The final score was 16-5.

Erin Taylor started in goal for Keene State,

making 4 saves. Libby Curran and Christine Collins split duties in the second half, stopping a combined 3 shots. Taryn Carbone recored 16 saves for RIC in the loss. The Owls out shot RIC 41-14 and are now 4-0 against RIC in the LEC Tournament.

each offense off the board through the first 3 innings, but it was RIC

that scored first in the fourth. Matt Foley and Alex Verrecchia got on with out, and Rainville plated Foley with an RBI double. Costa would add an RBI single to make the score 2-0 after four. After a scoreless fifth, both teams would score a run in the sixth to make the 3-1.

With the score 3-2 in the ninth, the Anchormen offense came to life, scoring 5 runs to open things up. Foley hit a 2 run single to right field, followed by an RBI single for Verrecchia. Rainville ended the scoring with a 2 run triple, and the Anchor-men won their season finale by the final of 8-2.

Tsoumakas was brilliant on the mound, earn-ing his second victory of the season. In 8 innings, he allowed 1 earned run on 7 hits, 3 walks and 7 strikeouts. Cody Gilchrist was dealt the loss, al-lowing 3 runs on 8 hits in 5.1 innings. Foley was 4-4 on the day with 2 RBIs, while Rainville ended 3-5 with 3 RBIs. Verrecchia, Albunia and Costa each ended with 2 hits.

On the season, Foley and Kevin Carey led the team with a .331 average with Zach Hubbard’s .321 average right behind them. Hubbard led the team with 51 hits, 28 runs and 14 walks. Foley was also the team leader in homeruns (7), RBIs (29) and doubles (14).

what could have been a Saturday for the ages.

The Anchorwomen began the day by eeking out a 2-1 victory of top-seed and hosts Eastern Connecticut (28-14). Sophomore third basemen Justina Thoma knocked in two in the top of the first and Sylvestre did the rest, hurling all seven innings. Having to defeat the winner’s bracket champion, Western Connecticut (23-22), twice, RIC wasted no time, scoring three in the first off a Pokora rbi single and two unearned off of a Colonial throwing error. RIC tacked on one more in the third and two more in the fifth while Sylvestre tossed her fourth straight complete game, allowing four hits in setting up a win-or-go-home championship game.

West Conn pitcher Alexandra Sabith got herself out of a jam in the second by striking out the side after Pokora led the inning off with a two-baser and again in the third after loading the bases. Mean-while, RIC’s Sylvestre had held the op-position scoreless for sixteen straight innings when she came out for the bot-tom of the fourth. WestConn cleanup hitter Julia Bocek walked to lead of the fourth and with one out pinch hitter Kylee Ruther singled up the middle, ad-vancing pinch runner Brittany Virgulto to third. Virgulto then scored when Al-exandra Sabith singled to right-center field, helping out her own cause and giving West Conn a 1-0 lead.

Justina Thoma led off the top of the sixth with a single but RIC could not muster any other offense that inning. In the seventh, still down 1-0, Sylves-tre and freshman left fielder Abigial Francis led the inning off with back-to-back walks. Senior right fielder Jess Borden grounded out for the first out off the inning but advanced Sylvestre and Francis to second and third. The next batter, shortstop Kate “Nug” Sykora, reached second on a fielder’s choice but Sylvestre was out number two courtesy of a play at the plate. For the final out of the season, senior Missy Jandreau fouled out to West Conn right fielder Corinna Hus-sey.

Michelle Sylvestre concluded her epic five-game stretch by pitching five complete games, allowing 25 hits, striking out seven and walking two over 32 innings; ironic because the tournament’s winning run got on base via a walk. It was the last game for the careers of Missy Jandreau, Ni-cole Clemens, Jess Borden and Emily Johnson.

SOFTBALLFROM PAGE 24

BASEBALLFROM PAGE 24

anchor photo by Janice WangSophomore Ashley Signoriello.

May 6, 201322 |Sports

www.theanchoronline.org

Pawtucket offense on fire

eDDie Pannone SPortS eDitor

When the PawSox got off to a 9-1 start, the best start in franchise history, it was to be expected that a drop-off would hap-pen at some point. That is what has happened in recent days, however, the team still is look-ing good. As the Boston roster has gotten more and more healthy over the course of 2013, Paw-tucket’s roster has received more talent. This starts with the young OF Jackie Bradley Jr.

After a great spring, Boston gave Bradley a chance to start in left field. He showed off his patience and plate discipline, but also struggled mightily after the opening series versus the Yankees. He was only 3-31 at the plate, strik-ing out 12 times. It was clear that he needed time in Pawtucket, and with the way Boston’s injury situation played out, he was able to be sent down once David Ortiz returned. With Pawtucket, he is performing well, batting .302

with 7 walks, 4 RBIs and 13 hits in 11 games. His strikeout rate is still a little high, as he has 13 in Triple-A, but the 22 year old looks to im-prove on that as the season continues.

When Stephen Drew came off the disabled list, Boston was forced to send SS Jose Igle-sias down to Pawtucket. Fans know of his elite defense, but Iglesias was very impressive at the plate. His .450 average was unexpected for someone who has been labeled a “weak hitting shortstop.” He had several well placed

bunts and timely ones as well, moving runners along and getting on base from the 9 spot in the lineup. His average is only .235 so far in Pawtucket, but has shown more pop with 3 home runs. This equals his totals over the last 3 seasons. Whether this is something he is specifically working on or not, it is nice to see the long ball and small aspects of his game improving.

It’s not just one or two players carrying the PawSox offense. Everyone is contributing and

pitchers seem to never have an easy at bat against this team. C Ryan Lavarnway is bat-ting .328 with 2 home runs and 12 RBIs. Bryce Brentz leads the team with 20 RBIs, but his plate discipline remains a question as he has 25 strikeouts. He is batting .248 with 5 home runs and 7 doubles, so it is nice to see him able to get extra base hits and drive in runs. Justin Henry leads all PawSox with a .350 average, and he has been able to bat all around the or-der as well as play several different positions in the field. Brandon Snyder has arguably been Pawtucket’s best offensive threat early in 2013, batting .329 with a team leading 6 homers and 19 RBIs. His 15 extra base hits also lead the team.

The pitching hasn’t been dominant, but it has still been good. Allen Webster, who earned a recall to Boston earlier this season, has been the best starter for the team. The young Web-ster is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA and averages over a strikeout per inning. Ruby De La Rosa is an-other young pitcher the team is high on, but is still being gradually worked into action after Tommy John Surgery. He’s averaged less than 3 innings per start, with an ERA over 7. Ex-pect him to get better as the season goes on. Alfredo Aceves had wanted to be a starter in Boston, but unfortunately for him he will only be one for the PawSox. In his first start for the team, he pitched 6 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits, 4 walks and 6 strikeouts.

Pawtucket starts a week long road trip be-fore returning home on May 14th.

courtesy of kidsmealcrowd.com