Campus Circle Newspaper Vol. 20 Issue 31

August 18-24, 2010 \ Volume 20 \ Issue 31 \ Always Free

Film | Music | Culture

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Editor-in-Chief Jessica Koslow editor.chief@campuscircle.net Managing Editor Yuri Shimoda managing.editor@campuscircle.net Film Editor Jessica Koslow film.editor@campuscircle.net Cover Designer Sean Michael Editorial Interns Kate Bryan, Christine Hernandez, Arit John, Marvin Vasquez

Contributing Writers Christopher Agutos, Geoffrey Altrocchi, Jonathan Bautts, Scott Bedno, Scott Bell, Zach Bourque, Erica Carter, Richard Castañeda, Nick Day, Natasha Desianto, Rebecca Elias, Denise Guerra, James Famera, Sola Fasehun, Stephanie Forshee, A.J. Grier, Zach Hines, Damon Huss, Danielle Lee, Lucia, Ebony March, Angela Matano, Stephanie Nolasco, Samantha Ofole, Brien Overly, Ariel Paredes, Sasha Perl-Raver, Dov Rudnick, Melissa Russell, Mike Sebastian, Doug Simpson, Jennifer Smith, Jessica Stern, David Tobin, Emmanuelle Troy, Mike Venezia, Kevin Wierzbicki, Grady Winn, Candice Winters, M.M. Zonoozy

Contributing Artists & Photographers David Tobin, Anna Webber ADVERTISING Sean Bello sean.bello@campuscircle.net Joy Calisoff joy.calisoff@campuscircle.net Jon Bookatz Music Sales Manager jon.bookatz@campuscircle.net Ronit Guedalia ronit.guedalia@campuscircle.net

Calendar Editor Frederick Mintchell

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04 NEWS LOCAL NEWS 04 NEWS COLLEGE CENTRAL 05 CULTURE GAMES & GADGETS 05 FILM DVD DISH 06 FILM A FILM UNFINISHED Director Yael Hersonski documents life in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII.

CALLING

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Are you looking to break into…

Journalism? Photography? Advertising & Marketing?

06 FILM THE SWITCH Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and a controversial look at parenting.

CAMPUS CIRCLE is seeking a few enthusiastic, creative journalists, photographers and aspiring sales people to join our team.

08 FILM BOW WOW Wins with an All-Star Cast in Lottery Ticket

Intern Perks Include: Free Movie Screenings, Free Music and an opportunity to explore L.A. like never before!

08 FILM PROJECTIONS 08 FILM SCREEN SHOTS

Take the next step in your career: Editor.Chief@campuscircle.net

10 FILM REVIEWS 12 CULTURE EXHIBITIONS Student Art Groups 16 MUSIC CHIEF Croon About Modern Rituals at Sunset Junction Street Fair 18 MUSIC LIVE SHOW REVIEWS 18 MUSIC CD REVIEWS 19 MUSIC FREQUENCY 19 MUSIC REPORT 20 CULTURE L.A. FACES “True Blood”’s Lindsey Haun debuts new album.

20 CULTURE ON THE MENU

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21 SPORTS THE DIAMOND DISPATCH 21 SPORTS GALAXY KICK 22 CULTURE COMEDY 22 CULTURE PAGES 23 BLOGS THE ART OF LOVE 23 EVENTS THE 10 SPOT Cover:Yello, Friends! Credit: Pei-Jeane Chen (courtesy of Yello, Friends!; yellofriends.com); librarietiquette.net

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LOCALNEWS

CALIFORNIA:

Should You Stay or Should You Go? by ebony march, news EDITOR It is perhaps the bleakest financial situation since the recession of the early 1990s. Foreclosures have increased tenfold; unemployment has climbed to over 12 percent. Not only that, but economists are conflicted as to when it will officially end. This dire uncertainty has caused many inhabitants of California to reconsider their choice of home and relocate to other areas.

Since 2008, Texas has become the top destination for many. According to the Los Angeles Times, 135,173 people moved out of California between 2008 and 2009. For some, it is the high cost of living that drives them to other locations.

For others like David Post, it’s the job market.

“I can’t get hired,” says Post.

The 31-year-old architect has been working odd jobs and temping since losing his full-time position in 2009. Post will soon move out of California and try his luck in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“My friends think I’m crazy for leaving, but they all have jobs,” he says. “The housing bubble screwed me here. There, I have my sister and some friends from high school, so it’s a better security blanket if I run into trouble.”

Jennifer Motts-Donner is leaving for similar reasons.

“We grew up on ‘90210’ and West Coast rap. I kind of

Campus Circle > News > Local News believed in that and those stories. But it’s nothing like that in real life,” she says. “We’ll never have a house out here because these houses sell for millions of dollars each. The traffic is stupid – 30 minutes to go up the street? Come on!”

Motts-Donner moved to Burbank with her boyfriend in 2007. After freelancing for a year, she found that getting hired full time was an uphill battle.

“I have a degree, but somehow, I’m a temp?” admits the 26-year-old aspiring actress and chef.

Relocation is sure to squash aspirations of acting fame and fortune, but Motts-Donner is undaunted.

“Hey, I can always do community theater. I’m just not cut out for being poor and living in the boonies.”

So when is it time to stay and when is it time to go?

Bonnie Schwartz, a local life coach, says the decision is clear.

“For most of us, the answer is simple; we feel it in our bones. But for others, it can be hard to give up on your dreams so easily. I usually tell my clients that it might be time to pack it in if they’ve been out of work for over a year or if they haven’t made any significant advances socially or professionally after the same [amount of] time,” she says.

Of course, there are currently no cities in the United States that are completely impervious to the recession and its fallout. And while California has the highest sales tax and some of the worst issues plaguing the individual states, it is still chock full of great weather, unmatched culture, glamour and beautiful natural resources.

Devi Patel regrets her decision to move in January 2010.

The art school graduate packed up her small U-Haul and headed east to Austin, Texas. She is currently saving up to move again.

“I hate it here. I thought Austin would be so cool. I always had fun at SXSW, but I think it’s one of those places you visit

COLLEGECENTRAL

HAPASC

A Place Multiracial Call Home by stephanie forshee Multiracial students at USC like Lauren Perez are devoting time to create a place where you can express every part of yourself. HapaSC is an organization of about 30 USC students that raises awareness for “mixed” students on campus and allows them an opportunity to embrace world change. The phrase “hapa haole” means “half.” The term was originally used to describe people who were half Asian/Pacific Islander and half Caucasian. It has now been shortened to just “hapa.” HapaSC’s purpose is to create awareness for the rapid expansion of multiracial people.

“We understand that identity is something you can choose and it’s always developing, so we don’t put people in a box,” says Perez, last school year’s public relations officer.

“I met one of my best friends and current roommate through HapaSC. Our community is very supportive and many of the friendships I have formed through HapaSC extend beyond the organization and stand on their own,” says Marissa Hui, last year’s vice president and current HapaSC president.

Last April, HapaSC sponsored an art show, HAPArt, at the Hive Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles. The event featured HapaSC’s members’ artwork ranging from acrylic to screen prints to a cotton fabric quilt. There was poetry and even a 10-minute play. Five musicians provided live entertainment for attendees. Visitors were invited to observe the entirety of the Hive’s artworks as well.

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FILM

Relocating can be tough but rewarding. but don’t live in,” says Patel.

“What do I miss [about California]? Everything. I miss the craziness. I miss hiking. I miss seeing the Lakers – courtside,” she says, laughing. “Austin is nice, but it’s slow. Or slow for me.”

Patel hopes to return to Los Angeles as soon as possible, but notes that her relocation may take a while.

“I found work here as a nanny for this really cool family, but I’m making just enough to cover rent and my student loans, so, we’ll see. I just wish I’d stuck around. You know it’s bad when you’ve lived somewhere for six months but you still call L.A. ‘back home.’”

California has been down before, but has managed to bounce back. Still, when choosing whether to stay or go, it may be important to factor in long- and short-term needs and wants first. After all, the grass may not be greener on the other side.

Campus Circle > News > College Central Among the works displayed were three of Perez’s poems.

In her piece, “Mixed Girls,” she opens, “I am mixed. Yes my blood is multinational. It may be rich, but it’s still red.”

“HAPArt was great because it showcased the way we see ourselves and what our own experience is as a mixed person.

It really furthered our cause of highlighting mixed culture as a real thing, not just people who are not ‘enough’ of any particular race or culture,” says Perez.

HAPArt also meant a great deal to Hui. “For me, putting my art on display for other USC students and the public was a way of saying, ‘I’m proud to be mixed,’” says Hui. “We’re a smaller club, but we’re able to pull off such great events,” says Perez. “Everyone is very welcoming and everyone is allowed to be themselves.”

HAPArt is far from the only event the club has hosted.

“Last semester we volunteered at a shelter for mixed dogs.

We chose mixed dogs on purpose because we thought, ‘Hey, they can be mixed race or breed too.’ Sometimes I even call myself a mutt, though a lot of mixed people prefer not to use that term for themselves,” says Perez.

Perez has served as the public relations officer for the past two years.

“I can’t even express how valuable the working experience has been and how much it has prepared me for future work,” she says.

Because it is becoming increasingly difficult for mixed race people to find marrow donors, a representative from Mixed Marrow attended HAPArt to allow multiracial students to register to be marrow donors. Mixed Marrow recruits donors for Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M), a recruitment center for Be The Match Marrow Registry.

Unlike blood or organ donation, this unique contribution

Jayme Tsutsuse

NEWS

HapaSC’s HAPArt show was more than just an art exhibit. is based on genetic typing, not tissue typing. The mixed population is actually the smallest group of donors and the most difficult to match. If you are mixed, there is only a quarter chance that you will match your own sibling.

Mixed Marrow’s Athena Mari Asklipiadis joined the art show to encourage people of mixed backgrounds to donate.

While she is passionate about the organization, she admits recruitment isn’t easy.

“It’s hard because people are afraid of needles,” Asklipiadis says.

Hui feels fortunate that she has been able to see the group develop during her time in the club. Since her start with the club two years ago, it has doubled in size.

As for this year, Hui says, “I’m just looking forward to seeing the club grow and, hopefully, it will become more diverse.”

Stop by their recruitment table at the USC 2010 Involvement Fair on Aug. 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Trousdale Parkway.

For more information, visit hapasc.org.

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DVDDISH

THE GREATEST SPEAKERS

SPECIAL FEATURES

You Have Ever Built

by mike sebastian

by scott bell

The Idiotbox: One of the best dramas on TV, “Friday Night Lights,” returns for The Fourth Season. Set in a small Texas town where high school football is everything, the show follows the lives of several students as well as the football coach and his wife, the principal.

Another small-town ensemble drama, “One Tree Hill,” returns for The Complete Seventh Season. The show centers on two half-brothers from very different upbringings as they navigate tumultuous romances and familial tensions.

Everyone’s favorite serial killer returns in Dexter: The Fourth Season. Now a father, Dexter gets further in over his head with his façade of normalcy. Meanwhile, John Lithgow joins the cast as this season’s nemesis, the Trinity Killer.

NXT’s exciter allows you to create speakers anywhere.

One of the great things about gadgets is that there are always awesome new inventions to obsess over. For the better part of the year, my mind has been blown after seeing the “exciter” technology being put out by NXT. The exciter creates sound by vibrating whatever surface it is placed against, allowing for thinner speakers for flat-screen televisions and other electronics.

Of course, the truly impressive moment came when I saw the exciter turn a lampshade into a speaker.

Granted, the idea that sound comes from vibration isn’t new, but the possibilities of small disks that can turn any surface into a speaker are awesome. If you look around the room you are in, you could probably find five items – from bookshelves to tabletops – that would blow your friends’ minds if you turned them into speakers. Best of all, even the more complicated method is easy enough that you won’t even need to touch any tools.

If you feel like putting in the effort, you can purchase the exciters (Dayton DAEX25 Sound Exciter Pair) that use the NXT technology and an amplifier (Dayton DTA-1) from parts-express.com. With very minimal assembly, which mostly consists of matching red and black wires to the very well-labeled slots, you will have a simple setup that can turn any surface into a speaker.

My advice would be to attach the exciters to a cardboard box (which is a great speaker because it vibrates so well) and write the word “SPEAKER” on it. Imagine the confusion on your friends’ faces when the box suddenly transforms and the sheer joy when they hear deep, clear music coming out of the box.

Best of all, the whole thing costs less than $60, and it is guaranteed to make everyone think you are an electronics genius.

Of course, if you want a one-step alternative to this, then what you need is the Tunebug Vibe. The Vibe is a single triangular box that contains both the amplifier and exciter, so the only thing you have to plug in is the 3.5mm audio cable to connect with your MP3 player, gaming handheld or laptop.

The unit also charges with an included USB connector, so it doesn’t need a separate slot in your surge protector.

More importantly, the rechargeable battery makes the Tunebug Vibe completely portable.

This means that your friends can actually hear the sounds coming out of your portable device without having to share a set of earbuds.

You can share your audio and video presentations with your classmates without having to rely on your laptop’s weak speakers, or you can just rock out when your headphones just won’t cut it.

Plus, of course, you can do that cool trick where you turn a lampshade into a speaker anywhere you go, and it costs about the same as buying the components separately.

If you are coming up with new and unique ways of using this technology, then you won’t be surprised to find that Tunebug has some awesome new options for this technology as well.

The Tunebug Shake is roughly the same size and shape as the Vibe, but it also uses Bluetooth technology. While this is just a speaker and cannot be used to make phone calls, it does let you access your music from any smartphone or Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player.

While you could use the Tunebug Shake to turn a cardboard box into a wireless cardboard speaker, the true genius of this device is that it comes with equipment to attach it to your bicycle helmet.

By vibrating the helmet, the Shake lets you listen to music while biking without plugging up your ears with headphones or earbuds.

This means that you can ride around town and listen to your music safely while still being able to hear the cars and other potential dangers around you. You also get the singular experience of feeling like your music is surrounding your head.

I leave you here to imagine to what you would attach a tiny, powerful vibrating speaker in a silver dollar-sized triangular box.

The opportunities present themselves right out of the box.

In fact, you could even use the box.

Action: When a suitcase full of money falls on his car, Sam (Thor’s Chris Hemsworth) thinks he’s solved all of his problems. But suitcases of money are never without their strings – namely, Pyke (Sean Bean), a relentless British criminal. Now, Sam and his wife have to do whatever it takes to pay back every cent in Ca$h.

South Korea’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird, an over-the-top genre pastiche in the Tarantino tradition, infuses the Spaghetti Western with martial arts for an entertaining blend.

Also available: Dead Man Running with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson

Funny Business:

Nature decides to fight back in Furry Vengeance. Brendan Fraser stars as a housing developer who finds himself in a war with the local wildlife. The always hilarious Ken Jeong (“Community”) and Brooke Shields co-star.

When Katie (Lucy Hale) pledges an unpopular sorority over her mother’s Delta house, she becomes a campus pariah and ignites a catty fight to the finish in Sorority Wars.

Blu Notes: Kate Winslet, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon and Julie Christie are just a few of the all-star cast members Kenneth Branagh assembled for his stunning 65mm unedited adaptation of Hamlet. Set in the 19th century with lavish production design, it’s one of the finest film adaptations of the Bard’s work.

John Carpenter’s classic Escape from New York takes place in a future (1997) where Manhattan is one big prison. When the President’s plane goes down inside, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), convicted bank robber and one-man army, is coerced into navigating the deadly wasteland and rescuing the President.

Rounding out one of the coolest casts ever are Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, Ernest Borgnine and Donald Pleasence.

Before he was a megastar, Brad Pitt was a redneck serial killer in Kalifornia. A pre-“XFiles” David Duchovny plays Brian Kessler, a journalist touring sites of serial killer murders.

Along the way, he picks up two hitchhikers, Early Grayce (Pitt) and his girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis). But as the trip progresses, Early becomes increasingly unhinged and dangerous.

Stranger Than Fiction: Spanning 5,000 years, historian Simon Schama’s epic documentary series A History of Britain gets a new Special Edition release. Schama traces the history of the island from the Stone Age through the 20th Century for a captivating 15-episode story. This new edition features a 30-minute making of and an interview with Schama.

From the Wright brothers to the moon landing, Days That Shook the World: The Complete Series brings to life the moments that have changed the world forever. Using archival footage, eyewitness accounts and dramatic recreations, this six-disc set transports you to those watershed moments.

The Artist Series is a comprehensive series of documentaries covering 20th century art, including the Bauhaus School, Roy Lichtenstein, John Baldessari, Toulouse-Lautrec, Kurt Schwitters and Wassily Kandisnky.

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EVENTS DVD GAMING SPORTS MEDIA BLOGS DVD Dish Interviews Movie Reviews Projections Screen Shots Special Features TV Time

FILMINTERVIEWS

FILMINTERVIEWS

THE SWITCH

A Film UNFINISHED

Jennifer Aniston stirs up controversy.

Living in Das Ghetto (c) Baster Productions, LLC.

by frederick mintchell

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by ariel paredes

Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

NEWS

The Switch isn’t a politically charged movie, but its stars have sure ruffled a few feathers. Usually TV’s talking heads create an uproar over films involving issues like the conflict in the Middle East (any war movie released in the past eight years or so) or historical movies that Jennifer Aniston and Jason fudge or embellish historical facts (Inglourious Bateman in The Switch Basterds). But with The Switch, Bill O’Reilly called Jennifer Aniston “destructive to our society.” I can think of 20 people I know who are more destructive to our society than Aniston, and I’m not exactly hanging out with a bunch of felons, either.

So how is our beloved Rachel Green so destructive to society? At her recent press tour for The Switch, Aniston remarked that women don’t necessarily need a man to raise a child.

Of course, women need a man to conceive a child, which is the premise for The Switch. In the dramedy, Aniston plays Kassie Larson, a single woman who decides she wants child. So her best friend Debbie (Juliette Lewis) throws her an insemination party.

The stud of the evening, Roland (Patrick Wilson), donates his ingredients, which will then be used to impregnate Kassie later that night. Jason Bateman plays Wally Mars, Kassie’s best (and lovelorn) friend. In the midst of a blackout drunken stupor, Wally replaces Roland’s “ingredients” with his own.

Anyone who has a head knows that Aniston has been on the cover of a few tabloids in her time. Between the whole Brangelina thing and her supposed subsequent search for love and children, nary a week goes by that we don’t see Aniston at our local supermarket checkout lane. The whole premise of The Switch eerily resembles the recent tabloid fascination with Aniston, so, of course, (too) many reporters continue to bring this up at the film’s junket.

In response to one reporter’s question about the insemination question, Aniston replies, “Women are realizing more and more that you don’t have to settle. They don’t have to fiddle with a man to have that child. They are realizing if it’s that time in their life and they want this part, they can do it with or without that.”

Because of that remark, O’Reilly called Aniston “destructive to our society” because she’s “throwing a message out to 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds that, ‘Hey, you don’t need a guy. You don’t need a dad.’”

But Aniston is not pro-single parent. At the junket, she went on to say that all families are different; that not every family is a mother and father with two kids and a dog. So no matter what your “family” may look like, Aniston said, love is what matters.

All you have to do is pick up a paper, or log onto your favorite Internet news page, and you can easily find stories about nightmare fathers. Just because a family has a father, doesn’t make it a good family. We are now a global society. Many of us have moved away from our families and have created surrogate families in the process. What I believe Aniston was trying to say is that if you care and support each other, that is what ultimately matters.

Wow, maybe I had my feathers ruffled, too, and didn’t realize it. Anyway, Aniston wasn’t the only star of The Switch to create some controversy this week. Ever since the critically beloved cult favorite “Arrested Development” was axed, rumors have been swirling about a big screen version. Like how Aniston is constantly asked about her love life by reporters, Bateman is constantly asked about a potential Arrested Development: The Movie.

I have to admit I was the guilty party at this junket. (What can I say? I need more of the crazy Bluth family.) I guess at an earlier interview, Bateman jokingly said that, yes, the movie was set with longtime friend Aniston agreeing to a cameo. The blogosphere went crazy within a day. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that bloggers would take something out of context.

So when Bateman and Aniston answered my question, they were very careful to say that, no, the rumors of a “Friends” movie are just rumors, while there is a possibility of an “Arrested Development” movie, but nothing is set in stone yet.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed though, for a Jennifer Aniston cameo in the “Arrested Development” movie. Aniston and Bateman do have good chemistry, and I’m curious about what controversy their next outing together, Horrible Bosses, might create.

A compelling new documentary about the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, A Film Unfinished is about the strength of A Film Unfinished’s director, Yael propaganda films and deciphering between truth Hersonski and fiction.

Everybody has seen and heard of many Holocaust atrocities, yet this film brings audiences something new.

Discovered in 1954 in an East German archive, a lone film simply titled Das Ghetto (The Ghetto) was viewed for the first time. Historians took the four unfinished silent reels as factual knowledge of the Polish Warsaw ghetto, where half a million Jews lived within a square mile.

The film did not have any titles, credits or words, just images of impoverished and wealthy Jews living among one another.

The time was May 1942. The film crew showed starving Jewish children and adults who were too sick to leave their beds, feces piling up mixed with trash in the streets and children who were caught smuggling food into the ghetto being punished at the border.

This was in stark contrast with other images showing Jews living lavishly, enjoying theater, restaurants, sunbathing and generally enjoying the good life living in the ghetto.

In 1998, a fifth reel was found on an American army base titled Das Ghetto. A historian was very familiar with the Warsaw ghetto film and knew that this was another piece of the puzzle. This film contained outtake after outtake of scenes from the other reels, as well as Nazi SS cinematographers directing scenes using “actors.”

“This is what’s so fascinating about propaganda filmmaking: It never relies merely on lies, but a combination also of what is in fact truthful. That is what makes it so efficient and deceiving,” states director Yael Hersonski.

Hersonski brilliantly weaves in actual footage from the film, narration from journals, tapes of interviews from the only camera operator on file and stories from survivors who were brave enough to revisit the horror.

“I wanted to add visual breaks in order to go out of this world of the ghetto and keep your eyes fresh for the following scenes,” explains Hersonski, who received the Writers Guild of America Documentary Screenplay Award for her first feature documentary.

Viewers find out that these “actors” were quite fearful of their own outcomes as they are given direction. Scenes can be matched up verbatim to journal entries kept by residents of the ghetto.

Waitresses were told to line up outside the restaurant looking their best and ignore the begging children with outstretched arms and hands. Food was brought into the ghetto while they were filming to show that they were eating well and lavishly.

This was an effort to show that the wealthy Jews would not share their good fortune.

Starving men shown next to plump women were asked to perform a ritualistic bath for the cameras, which was demeaning.

“You can film a man walking by a corpse and say he is indifferent but not realize that he is terrified that this could be his fate the following day,” says Hersonski. “I was trying to give voices to these silent images.”

The sole filmmaker on file for the footage is Willy Wist.

In the ’60s, his entry permit was found in paperwork, and he refused to testify against his colleagues and swore he knew no names associated with the film. He could only assume that it was shot to juxtapose the rich and the poor while dehumanizing the Jews of the ghetto.

“The last stage of his life he didn’t want to discuss it anymore, but after he passed, his children were released from the guilt and were willing to talk about it and show pictures,” Hersonski says.

No one truly knows why the film was shot or what purpose it was to be used for – only speculation exists.

“It remains an open question, but the Nazis made as many films as possible to have materials to educate the future generations of the Third Reich and snap an image of this community, even if they were creating it,” states Hersonski. “I wanted to create a film that contained both historical and emotional content, while showing people who tried to retain their human dignity until the very end.”

The Switch releases in theaters Aug. 20.

A Film Unfinished releases in select theaters Aug. 20.

Campus Circle 8.18.10 - 8.24.10

“HYSTERICALLY FUNNY!” – Paul Perrello, WESTWOOD ONE

“The Winning Ticket For Big Laughs…The Entire Cast Is Terrific.”

– Pete Hammond, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE

“‘Lottery Ticket’ Hits The Comedy Jackpot!”

– Kimberly C. Roberts, THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE

“It’s ‘Friday’ For A New Generation.”

– Jen Yamato, MOVIES.COM

ALCON ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS A BURG-KOULES PRODUCTION A CUBE VISION PRODUCTION BOW WOW “LOTTERY TICKET” BRANDON T. JACKSON NATURI NAUGHTON KEITH DAVID CHARLIE MURPHY GBENGA AKINNAGBE EXECUTIVE MUSIC COCASTELLUCCI PRODUCERS BRAD KAPLAN ANDREW WILSON YOLANDA T. COCHRAN PRODUCERS ICE CUBE TIMOTHY M. BOURNE STEVEN P. WEGNER TERRY CREWS LORETTA DEVINE AND ICE CUBE BY TEDDY PRODUCED STORY

BY MARK BURG OREN KOULES ANDREW A. KOSOVE BRODERICK JOHNSON MATT ALVAREZ BY ERIK WHITE & ABDUL WILLIAMS SCREENPLAY DIRECTED

BY ABDUL WILLIAMS

BY ERIK WHITE www.lotteryticketmovie.com MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes, Text Message LOTTERY and Your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)

STARTS FRIDAY, AUGUST 20 - CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR LISTINGS Area Codes: (213), (310), (323), (562), (626), (661), (714), (760), (805), (818), (866), (877), (888), (909), (949), (951), (Group Tickets 81)

NEWS

FILM

MUSIC

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EVENTS DVD GAMING SPORTS MEDIA BLOGS DVD Dish Interviews Movie Reviews Projections Screen Shots Special Features TV Time

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Three Hundred Million Reasons to See This Comedy by ebony March We’ve all had fantasies about it. But only one in a large pool will ever be able to say they’ve “hit it.”

It’s the lottery, fool – the little minx that teases us with the promise of a better life, eternal happiness and everything our hearts desire. For anyone who has ever wondered what they’d do if they won a massive amount of money, Lottery Ticket plays up the notion, with the help of an all-star cast.

The comedy stars rapper-actor Bow Wow as Kevin Carson. He’s like many other teens living in the projects, holding on to hopes of starting his own sneaker line. He isn’t a baller; he’s stuck in a dead-end job at Foot Locker and spends the rest of his time hanging out with his best friends, Benny (Tropic Thunder’s Brandon T. Jackson) and Stacy (Notorious star Naturi Naughton).

One fateful weekend, Kevin plays the numbers for his beloved grandmother (Loretta Devine). When her ticket fails to capture the $300 million jackpot, Kevin never banked on the fact that his own last-minute gambling purchase would win. Fortunately, he and his grandmother could use the help and waste no time dancing around their apartment

to celebrate. Unfortunately, it conjures up a litany of issues that can best be summed up in the lyrics of Puff Daddy’s “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.” Now Kevin must spend the entire July Fourth weekend evading the violent threats of a ball-busting ex-con (Gbenga Akinnagbe) who’ll do anything to take away his new fortune, while also protecting himself from the barrage of eager hands waiting for their slice.

Lottery Ticket comes to audiences by way of hip-hop mogul Ice Cube. The prolific former musician-turnedmovie producer also has a part in the film, starring as Mr. Washington, a man who Kevin learns to rely on through his wild, life-changing weekend. Although Mr. Washington is years older than the star himself, Ice Cube loved delving into the chance to play the wise elder statesman of the ’hood.

“The old dudes I know still got their swagger,” he jokes, noting that he spent a lot of time following around his own father and studying his mannerism for helpful characterizations.

As for Bow Wow, whose own life mirrors the overnight success that his character endures, Kevin gave him the chance to look inward for his performance.

“There’s a lot of things I can relate to with Kevin,” says the 23-year-old. “When you make it from nothing to something, there’s a lot of things that can change in your life.”

One such rapid difference that most of the actors have encountered is how money and instant fortune can alter the actions of those around them – a common theme in Lottery Ticket. As news of Kevin’s sudden wealth erupts through the projects, he instantly becomes desirable to the same girl who turned down his advances the day before. His own preacher (played by Mike Epps) lobbies for a slice of the pie, in what can best be described as one of the funnier moments in the film. But the one parallel that most of the actors agree upon

Bow Wow and Ice Cube star in Lottery Ticket. is the need to pay it forward.

Terry Crews, who portrays Jimmy the Driver, knows firsthand the joys that come from sharing financial gifts.

“I was able to write a check to pay off my sister’s school bills,” notes the former NFL star. “She’s a lawyer now.” He even brought her on board to handle some of his personal legal matters.

So, would each of the stars be comfortable having a huge $300 million jackpot all to themselves? The answers might surprise you.

“I’m from Jersey – from the hood,” explains Naughton.

“All that money? I might fall out like Loretta Devine!”

For Jackson, he wouldn’t mind the instant fortune; he would simply use his money for pleasure first, then philanthropy.

“I’m a big fan of [the movie] Titanic, so I would have Leonardo DiCaprio come and re-enact scenes from the movie,” he jokes, adding, “That’s too much money for one man to have, so I’d probably give back.”

Lottery Ticket releases in theaters Aug. 20.

PROJECTIONS

SCREENSHOTS

USA-AUSTRALIA FILM SHOWCASE

THE ANSWERS

Now-Aug. 29 @ Laemmle Theatres by candice winters

The 2010 USA-Australia Film Showcase is here in Los Angeles.

Laemmle Theatres and Emerging Pictures present the first three titles of the showcase, which has already stopped in New York, Vermont and Coral Gables, Fla. Laemmle’s weekend morning series began Aug. 14 and runs until Aug. 29.

Accidents Happen, a dramedy revolving around a dysfunctional family who must learn to deal with tragedy, screened Aug. 14-15. Starring Geena Davis and directed by Andrew Lancaster, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in the United States and at the Sydney Film Festival in Australia.

The Waiting City screens the mornings of Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 21 and 22.

Directed by Claire McCarthy, this film that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival follows a young Australian couple as they venture to India to collect their adopted baby. But when they can’t resist the hypnotizing powers of the exotic country, they are pulled in unexpected directions.

Charlie & Boots set a new record in Australia when it had the best opening weekend for any Aussie film when it was released on Father’s Day in Australia. Directed by Dean Murphy, the film looks closely at depression and how far one son goes to bring his father from its depths. It screens the mornings of Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28 and 29.

It’s a solid lineup of authentic Australian gems, and though there may be no “Crocodile” Dundee, it’s still worth giving it a shot.

For more information, visit laemmle.com.

8

David Lee

LOTTERY TICKET

Campus Circle > Film > Interviews

Campus Circle 8.18.10 - 8.24.10

by zach hines

Below are the answers to last week’s questions.

1) Which one of these films about the Vietnam War was not based on a book? B) Platoon 2) Which film does not feature one of Batman’s vehicles getting destroyed?

D) Batman Begins 3) What film does Quentin Tarantino borrow the opening credit sequence from for 1997’s Jackie Brown? A) The Graduate 4) What film by the Coen brothers is loosely based on one of Homer’s epic poems?

C) O Brother, Where Art Thou?

5) What film was almost directed by Sergio Leone? C) The Godfather 6) Which film was passed on by several studios as a completed film, then went on to win multiple Academy Awards? A) Slumdog Millionaire 7) Which Marvel superhero film did not get a sequel? B) Daredevil 8) Which film by Steven Spielberg was originally going to be directed by Stanley Kubrick? D) AI: Artificial Intelligence 9) Which Alfred Hitchcock film takes place in real time? C) Rope 10) Which one of these films directed by Tim Burton does not star Johnny Depp?

B) Big Fish

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a mystery. a cover up. a crime.

&

one family will risk everything for the truth.

INVITE YOU AND A GUEST TO SEE

“Nothing short of masterful.

A whodunit urgency with an unexpected emotional force.”

-Scott Anderson, MEN'S JOURNAL

“This movie punches you in the gut.

“★★★★. Superb!

-Mark Warren, ESQUIRE

-Stephen Rebello, PLAYBOY

Truth is more powerful than lies.”

The power to illuminate and spur us into action.”

“Gut-wrenching and insightful.”

-Justin Lowe, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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SCREEN GEMS PRESENTS A RAINFOREST FILMS PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH GRAND HUSTLE FILMS “TAKERS” MATT DI L LON PAUL WALKER IDRIS ELBA JAY HERNANDEZ MICHAEL EALY TIP “T.I.” HARRIPRODUCEDS WITH CHRIS BROWN AND HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN EXECUTIVE MUSIC

BY WILL PACKER TIP “T.I.” HARRIS AND JASON GETER

BY PAUL HASLINGER PRODUCERS GLENN S. GAINOR GABRI EL CASSEUS CHRIS BROWN MORRIS CHESTNUT WRITTEN DIRECTED

BY PETER ALLEN & GABRI EL CASSEUS AND JOHN LUESSENHOP & AVERY DUFF BY JOHN LUESSENHOP

A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE YOU MUST NOT MISS...

A feel- good film bursting with courage, energy and overwhelming inspiration...as entertaining as it is astounding! ” WEINSTEIN COMPANY - Rex Reed, THE NEW YORK 1/4OBSERVER PG (4.875" X 5.9") CAMPUS CIRCLE WEDNESDAY: 8/18

To enter for a chance to attend an advance screening of

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ES

register at:

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Screening will take place: Wednesday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Los Angeles Five Lucky Winners Will Also Receive a $ 50 Gift Certificate Courtesy of Exclusive 5150 Clothing.

Exclusive 5150 clothing. A one-of-a-kind clothing line that will keep you a step above the rest! From one of a kind swimsuits to dresses for women, and from your casual looks to custom made suits for men, never look like someone else again!

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FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ‘ DRIVING MISS DAISY ’ AND THE PRODUCER OF ‘SH INE’ No purchase necessary. While supplies last. Each pass admits two. All winners will be drawn at random from all eligible entries for all prizes. Screen Gems, Campus Circle and their affiliated agencies accept no responsibility or liability in connection with any loss or injury incurred in connection with use of a prize. Not responsible for lost, delayed or misdirected entries. All federal and local taxes are the responsibility of the winner. Void where prohibited by law. No phone calls, please. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and is not guaranteed. Five winners will receive the grand prizes. Specific terms, limitations and conditions may apply to grand prizes.

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IN THEATERS AUGUST 27 BW CAMPUS CIRCLE PROMO AD 4.875" X 12" (Run Date: 08 / 19 / 10)

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● ENCINO ❋ IRVINE ❋ ALHAMBRA Laemmle’s Town Edwards University Edwards Renaissance Center 5 Town Center 6 Stadium 14 (818) 981-9811 (800) FANDANGO #143 (800) FANDANGO #438

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Watch the trailer at maoslastdancer-movie.com

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Simon Cardwell/Samuel Goldwyn Films

Campus Circle > Film > Movie Reviews

Amanda Schull as Liz and Chi Cao as Li in Mao’s Last Dancer

Brotherhood (Olive) The title originally threw me off. I had seen another film just a couple months ago with the same name, but the difference between the two films was everything. The first is by American writer-director Will Canon about a fraternity pledge night that goes terribly wrong. Starring some recognizable faces like Lou Taylor Pucci and Trevor Morgan, I could understand the drama centered around college Greek life. This other film by the name of Brotherhood is from Denmark and also depicts a decent amount of violence. However, this is a story of forbidden love, of unpopular beliefs and of tough choices.

Lars (Thure Lindhardt) is our protagonist who is denied a promotion to sergeant when rumors start spreading that he behaves inappropriately with some of his men. After leaving the army, Lars starts running with a small group of neo-Nazis led by a guy simply known as “Fatso.” Lars is initially hesitant about joining the cult-like group, but frustration with his leave of absence from the army and with his parents convinces him to join the band of brothers. Despite the disapproving attitude of his right-hand man Jimmy (David Dencik), Fatso sees Lars’ intelligence and ability for leadership and decides to promote him to an A member, even though it should have gone to another, more experienced member.

To get out of his parents’ home, Lars temporarily moves into the remote summer cottage belonging to the board chairman. Jimmy and Lars originally butt heads, but their mutual attraction overshadows any misgivings they originally may have had. Their love is both emotional as well as incredibly physical; they spend days of fixing up the house and nights together in bed.

The clandestine couple is constantly threatened by the group’s nightly attacks, prejudiced ideology and increasingly dangerous views on homosexuality. Caught between their allegiance to their neo-Nazi brethren and their illegal relationship, Lars and Jimmy must choose one over the other before they destroy each other.

The film is not perfect. There is a certain neglect for the free will of the characters who all seem stern and focused but lacking the ability to make an honest and individual decision. Its intentions, however, are honest. Its dark color palette throughout adds to the intensified mood and dark acting that allows the viewer to support the ambitions of the brainwashing group and to sympathize with the suppressed couple and their forbidden lust.

Grade: B—Candice Winters Brotherhood releases in select theaters Aug. 20.

Mao’s Last Dancer (Samuel Goldwyn)

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Campus Circle 8.18.10 - 8.24.10

If Billy Elliot had grown under an oppressive Communist regime, he might have been Mao’s Last Dancer.

In the hands of veteran Australian director Bruce Beresford, who helmed such tender triumphs as Driving Miss Daisy and Crimes of the Heart, and screenwriter Jan Sardi, who also penned Shine and adapted Nicholas Sparks’ novel The Notebook, Li Cunxin’s autobiography of the same name soars like a grand jeté, though it hits a few faltering steps along the way.

Li (played from youth to adulthood by Huang Wen Bin, Australian ballet dancer Chengwu Guo and, finally, the real standout, Birmingham Royal Ballet principal dancer Chi Cao) grew up in rural China, the sixth son of peasants in a mountain village who was selected by Madame Mao’s cultural advisers to attend the Beijing Dance Academy, a place where young students endured grueling 16-hour days of training. Years later, he attracts the attention of Ben Stevenson (Star Trek’s Bruce Greenwood), the director of the Houston Ballet Company, and is invited to America for a three-month cultural exchange program that leads to his triumphant debut with the company.

After falling in love with American dance, freedom and one lovely woman, Liz (Center Stage’s Amanda Schull), when the time comes to return to China, he opts for a quickie wedding instead, defecting from his homeland and inciting an international incident that insured he’d never be able to return to China or see his family again.

While the film can occasionally feel clunky, such as the night Li experiences disco for the first time or when Liz and Li have a lover’s spat, the beauty cinematographer Peter James (Driving Miss Daisy, Alive) captures is enchanting as he moves the audience from dusty, cold Chinese ballet studios to the warmth of the klieg lights in Texas. But the film’s true rapture exists in the dance scenes, stunningly performed

by Cao, and in Greenwood’s performance. Complex and conflicted, as the puppet master he offers a smorgasbord of mixed emotions that range from calculated manipulation to tender affection, including one stellar scene where he offers the definition of the word “chink” to Li. Unapologetically sentimental and earnestly sincere, Mao’s Last Dancer isn’t without some major structural and narrative issues, but thanks to good acting and absolutely stunning dancing, when you leave the theater, all you want to do is pirouette.

Grade: B+ —Sasha Perl-Raver Mao’s Last Dancer releases in select theaters Aug. 20.

Nanny McPhee Returns (Universal) In the sequel to 2005’s Nanny McPhee, Emma Thompson

writes and presides over the story as the titular character, aiding a farming family during a crisis. Isabel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a mother of three living through wartime in the watercolor countryside, struggles to keep her farm running while her husband (Ewan McGregor) is away fighting.

On the very day that she needs to sell her prized piglets to make the payments on the sole tractor on her farm, Isabel’s sister’s kids from the city arrive to stay at the farm and clash with their country cousins. To top it off, her brother-in-law Phil (played with great fun by Notting Hill’s Rhys Ifans) tries to sabotage the whole plan because he has gambling debts to pay; he spends the entirety of the film attempting in various ways to get Isabel to sign away the farm. But more importantly, the children are misbehaving!

Enter Nanny McPhee, the magical caretaker who grows to look more like Thompson (and thus more beautiful) as the children learn the lessons she has set out for them. Like the first film, the sequel is structured around these lessons, and they are checked off as the film goes on. Yet unlike the first film, McPhee’s magic isn’t dwelled upon, allowing the story to really be about the family.

Where McPhee really shines is in its use of its prestigious adult cast, rounded out by Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes and Bill Bailey.

Grade: B —Kate Bryan Nanny Mcphee Returns releases in theaters Aug. 20.

The Tillman Story (Weinstein) William Tecumseh Sherman once said, “War is Hell.”

In Amir Bar-Lev’s skillfully composed documentary The Tillman Story, the audience gets to see that war is also wasteful, heartbreaking, ruinous and shrouded in deceit.

There are few Americans who managed to escape the tragic tale of Pat Tillman, an NFL star who walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals in May 2002 so he could serve his country following 9/11.

On April 22, 2004, Pat was killed in the line of duty while in Afghanistan. It was a shocking death that whipped the media into a frenzy as every detail of his passing and funeral were documented in exhaustive detail and spun into pro-America propaganda by everyone from the local news to President George W. Bush.

But what managed to evade the microscopic gaze was that Tillman had actually been killed by friendly fire in a series of events typically referred to by the military term: Charlie Foxtrot, aka a clusterfuck.

Told through interviews, news clips, archival footage and Josh Brolin’s gravelly voiceover, The Tillman Story unravels the harrowing reality of Pat’s death, something the military and Bush administration calculatingly covered up in favor of a flag-waving yarn of patriotism that could be used as a party line.

Wisely, the Tillman family wasn’t content to quietly weep into the perfectly folded flag they were given in condolence, instead seeking answers to questions about their son’s death.

As the murky, disturbing truth slowly comes to light, BarLev uses secondhand accounts, photos and a few short video clips to give viewers the opportunity to meet and fall in love with Pat Tillman. While you discover he was a man who loved Noam Chomsky, opposed the war in Iraq, was a natural leader, capably heroic, well educated and thoughtful, the film isn’t a eulogy; it’s an intimate and touching portrait of loss that flings the audience from grief to rage and back again.

Appalling, disturbing, beautifully assembled and emotional, Bar-Lev weaves a documentary that sinks into your bones, leaving its weight behind long after you’ve left the theater, especially when you realize that Pat’s story is one of millions that illustrate the horror brought on by war.

Grade: A —Sasha Perl-Raver The Tillman Story releases in select theaters Aug. 20.

FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ‘THE HILLS HAVE EYES’ AND THE PRODUCER OF ‘300’

DIMENSION FILMS PRESENTS A MARK CANTON/IPW PRODUCTION AN AJA/LEVASSEUR PRODUCTION A FILM BY ALEXANDRE AJA “PIRANHA” ELISABETH SHUE ADAM SCOTT JERRY O’CONNELL VING RHAMES JESSICA SZOHR COSTUME SANJA MILKOVIC´ HAYS MUSICBY MICHAEL WANDMACHER STEVEN R. MCQUEEN WITH CHRISTOPHER LLOYD AND RICHARD DREYFUSS SPECIALEFFECTSMAKE-UPBY GREGORY NICOTERO HOWARD BERGER CASTINGBY ALYSSA WEISBERG, CSA DESIGNER EXECUTIVE PRODUCED DIRECTOR OF EDITED PRODUCTION

BY MARK CANTON MARC TOBEROFF

BY BAXTER DESIGNER CLARK HUNTER PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN R. LEONETTI, ASC PRODUCERS BOB WEINSTEIN HARVEY WEINSTEIN ALIX TAYLOR LOUIS G. FRIEDMAN J. TODD HARRIS WRITTEN DIRECTED ALEXANDRE AJA GREGORY LEVASSEUR BY PETER GOLDFINGER & JOSH STOLBERG BY ALEXANDRE AJA Coming to

theaters

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ARTWORK ©2010 THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Courtesy of Ad Team

Campus Circle > Culture > Art

A sample from UCLA’s Ad Team’s proposal book.

STUDENT ART GROUPS UCLA’s Ad Team

BY denise guerra Every year, over 140 schools across the nation set up makeshift advertising agencies on their college campuses to compete in the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). Companies like AOL, Coca-Cola and this year’s corporate sponsor, State Farm, outline a case study about their product. The students must research and create comprehensive advertising and communications solutions to pitch to a panel of industry judges. If this sounds intense, then welcome to the world of NSAC, where stress runs high and the fiercest competition cuts deep with witty slogans and glossypaged proposal books.

For UCLA’s Ad Team, who came in second place in this year’s district competition, their taste for first place in the overall competition hasn’t been satisfied since 1999. However, Karla Liu, the 2009-2010 Ad Team Supervisor/team leader, has found her final year in Ad Team to be especially rewarding.

Citing it as “one of the best kept secrets on campus,” it was because of her three-year commitment with the team that she was able to gain a job immediately after graduating this June. The account supervisor who currently works for ad agency Daily Ideas talks about UCLA’s process of attack going into this year’s competition and how creativity, planning and research are at the heart of any advertising initiative.

What makes for a strong advertising campaign?

Karla Liu: A strong campaign is one where each commercial or print ad lives on its own and ties back to the larger campaign as a whole. It has to be engaging as an individual piece of art,

12

Campus Circle 8.18.10 - 8.24.10

but at the end of the day, it has to be cohesive with the entire campaign, otherwise your overall message gets lost.

What was your idea for State Farm?

“That’s it.” That was our tagline for everything. In research, our target market was 18- to 24-year-olds; our target didn’t care and was apathetic toward insurance because it was so complex. They needed an easy, feasible solution with a company that doesn’t give empty promises. “That’s it.” was the tagline that brought that message to life.

Our print ads consisted of the idea: If our cars and our things can talk to us, what would they say? We learned through our research that people develop relationships with their belongings, especially young people because they don’t have a lot of things. For our print commercial, the only dialogue was “that’s it” but in different contexts.

“That’s it.” means finality. It means a solution. It means a 100 percent guarantee of service.

What are the aspects of Ad Team, and how do they all come together?

Our research team finds the problem: Our demographic thinks insurance is so complex that they don’t want to get into it. They don’t want to care about it because it’s too hard to care about. That’s the problem, so we create a solution. That leads to a positioning statement.

The planning group comes up with a strategy that this is the direction we want to go with the campaign – usually a creative brief that’s about one page long – and they explain that to the creatives on the team who come up with print ads, commercials and a general theme, and then the designers take that and turn it into art.

What is something important for a creative person to know when joining an advertising team?

What’s really important with creative is that they’re willing to listen to the “research people” and the “ideas people” to really understand the concept of the ad. I think a lot of creatives get caught up in the idea that “I’m so creative” and “I have my interpretation in what I feel the ad should be.”

A lot of people don’t realize how much strategy and how much thinking goes into one print ad. The message gets lost,

and the art comes out different. It may be something tasteful and artsy but does not convey the message at all. It all ties back to what we know about the brand, what we know about the product and what the product actually does. It also ties back to what the target likes.

Now that you’ve graduated, how do you hope UCLA’s Ad Team can better improve against the competition?

It’s really unique because we’re the only team in our region competing that’s totally student run. We do everything ourselves. Our advisor didn’t even come to competition with us.

We funded ourselves. Everything we know about advertising is through what our supervisors and members know.

In advertising, it’s not just the creative. It’s about media placement, marketing and business decisions, and that really comes with knowledge and experience that as a student I’ve gained through internship. We need someone who has worked in media planning in an advertising agency to know what to do, and that’s something we lack.

Has this year’s Ad Team received any special recognition?

One of our creatives quit in the beginning of the year. We were really short staffed this year with only two creatives that were really capable in design Illustrator and Photoshop. Our entire book and all of our presentation, everything was created by two people within the span of one week. I really have to give it up to them; they are as talented as they come.

They had a special, distinct aesthetic. Even the judges made a comment about who were the designers for this year. In my three years on the team, no one has ever made a comment about our book [proposal] or designers. We also won a special research and planning award.

How has Ad Team helped your post-grad life?

It’s so helpful for your career. It helped shape my college experience and helped me to get my first internship in college because the people that have been on the team more than one year (the veterans) help recommend the younger people to internships, and I’ve helped the people below me get internships.

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Carlo Llacar

Courtesy of Yello, Friends!

Campus Circle > Culture > Art

The Yello, Friends!

YELLO, FRIENDS!

From Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design BY denise guerra Let’s rewrite the idiom of the isolated artist living and dying alone. For this story is about art, friendships, imagination and enterprise.

These are friends, and more importantly a set of Yello, Friends! as they call themselves; created out of pure whimsy after they began illustrating and designing a literary magazine to house an array of fantastical and frightful fantasy stories created by the kids at the 826LA tutoring center.

The Yello, Friends! (yellofriends.com) are a ragtag team of designers and illustrators who together pooled their time, money and resources to fulfill their passions for art and design, and more importantly, to do it together. After meeting at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design in the class of infamous copy and typography instructor Lisa Wagner, recent graduates Pei-Jeane Chen, Carlo Llacar and Patrick Leung had ideas to expand their talents into something tangible and real outside of the classroom.

Leung’s girlfriend, Saejean Oh, an art student as well, heard about the group’s plan and wanted in, saying, “I heard from Pat all the things that they were doing [in the class], and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I wish I would have taken it.’ I thought Pat had this big plan to do a project with Carlo, but it turns out they just talked about it a couple of times. And I really wanted to be a part of this cool group of kids.”

“Even when I took the class with them, we really didn’t talk

Saejean Oh examines proofs for 826LA.

either and we really didn’t know each other so we all kind of came together and clicked really well,” says Chen.

Armed with two designers and two illustrators, the group was hoping to contribute something or anything to make their last term at art school worthwhile, and it was sheer coincidence that their intentions would catch the eye of Director of Education Julius Diaz Panoriñgan at 826LA, because it was literally immediately after walking into the tutoring center that their first art project together was born.

“Initially, I thought we would be able to come up with a project, because I know people go into the tutoring center and propose projects to do with kids, but after talking with Julius, he gave us a good idea of doing a ‘best of ’ issue. We didn’t have any big plans walking in, we were totally open,” says Leung.

The “best of ” issue would center around short stories and poems written by the children at 826LA, a non-profit organization dedicated to instilling creative writing skills to students 6 to 18 years old. Stories by the kids were collected and laid out in a type of literary magazine format completely hand-drawn and designed by Yello, Friends!, including two full-length posters and illustration styles that included a play on textures and the use of Photoshop.

Chen explains the process of drawing one piece with Oh: “I would just draw on something, and pass it to her and she would draw on it. We would draw in completely different ways and then meet stylistically in the middle.”

The illustrations have a very surreal, whimsical feeling that is as much about the narratives depicted by the children’s stories as they are of each Yello, Friends! personality. One poster is like a street map of Los Angeles from Echo Park to Venice Beach littered with sights of werewolves, robots and zombies from the children’s stories.

“It’s funny too, we finally have a place for all of our inside jokes,” says Oh, who points to a drawing of their “Yello house,” covered in its signature color with pages of layout designs hanging on its walls. Outside are the Yello, Friends! in miniature dancing in a sea of pages.

In another part of the picture is Lisa Wagner, the teacher who inspired the group’s name by her study of newspapers written completely on yellow paper. Besides their instructor,

Art Center College also provided the group with studio space called “The Chile Room,” named after the classroom’s daytime use for a project involving the pepper.

“Luckily, we had the Chile Room. It was a total separate class and a total separate thing, and on our off time when we’re not working in that room we had a key and total 24/7 hour access, but this was the room to collaborate in. It was crucial to have that room so that we can post up inspiration and stuff we’ve seen,” explains Llacar.

Oh adds, “The only thing was that class was so cold and the air vents so strong, it was really the chilly room.”

Since the publication of the 826LA “best of ” issue, 826LA has been able to use the magazine as a fundraising tool. For Yello, Friends! the project is a first of many.

The foursome have since banded together in a branding strategy that includes a Tumblr blog, video uploads and tweets. They even have cute merchandizing, from buttons to square-shaped business cards.

Their next project for the summer involves a large window display in Sherman Oaks, a project to turn empty windows into an art piece centered around the theme of mistakes; their most collaborative and intimate project to date.

“We came up with this idea of mistakes. We wanted to think about our mistakes, and how they’ve made us,” says Oh. “It’s a reinterpretation of our mistakes and other people’s mistakes.”

Chen adds, “We wanted to create this cathartic experience that started with us, and now we’re thinking about expanding it. Right now, we’re discussing ideas and how to get people out there to contribute.”

As graduates of 2009 and 2010, some of the group members spend their day jobs working for design studios as well as doing their own independent projects, but with Yello, Friends!, their reward is completely intrinsic, spending their own money on both the 826LA magazine and the upcoming window display.

“For now we just want to keep making stuff. Whatever it may be,” says Leung.

As their group motto sums it up: “Love your work like you love your friends.”

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Adam Caira

Campus Circle > Culture > Art

Pepperdine’s Art Rush program put on ARThropology: The Study of Beautiful Things last March.

AIGA AT USC AND PEPPERDINE’S ART RUSH Societies keep art students in touch.

BY denise guerra Within the massive liberal arts campus of the University of Southern California, the general public often overlooks the contributions of artists and designers in the fields of photography, painting and sculpture for their more famous artistic cousins at the prestigious USC School of Cinematic Arts.

This isn’t only true for USC but for a lot of liberal arts colleges where fine arts students are often wanting for a place to call their own. Even at Pepperdine, art majors are the minority.

Art societies, whether created professionally or by

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students, are organizations that allow artists to network, to build their skills professionally and showcase their creativity to the public.

Specifically USC’s AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), one of the oldest professional organizations for designers, and Pepperdine’s student-initiated Art Rush share the common brushstroke of holding large exhibitions and events their whole campus can enjoy.

Pepperdine’s outgoing Arts Chair for the Student Programming Board (SPB), Susan Doe, has worked closely with Art Rush in the execution and planning of their events.

According to Doe, the mission of the club is to create and build an art community on Pepperdine’s campus.

“Our art program is pretty small at Pepperdine, with about 40 art majors total, meaning a graduating class of about 10 each year,” she says.

Created three years ago, their Facebook page poses a challenge for the larger Pepperdine community as a whole, stating: “This group is not for watchers: this group seeks active participation from its audience. It is in group interaction that the collective collaboration becomes a viable force in supporting artists and those interested in art.”

Doe says, “The cool thing about watching how Art Rush came to be is how much of it was grassroots and came from the students. Since the art program is so small, the students did not have many opportunities to exhibit their works. Not only does that limit artists from sharing artwork they create, it also limits the community from exposure to the creative world.”

Last year, the group was responsible for a range of exhibitions, including a recent show in March titled ARThropology: The Study of Beautiful Things held at the Malibu Lumber Yard.

The show included 33 artists – ranging from Pepperdine students, alumnus, employees, faculty and local professional artists – specializing in various media forms, such as painting, film and jewelry.

“We usually have a combination of musicians and a DJ to create a lively atmosphere. Attendance ranges from 500 to 1,000 per show,” says Doe. As a recent graduate double majoring in Art and Business Administration, Doe explains, “I feel very fortunate to have a business side and a creative side, but I consider myself to be an artist first.”

Doe’s experience as a double major is common for many art majors in a liberal arts setting, says AIGA USC faculty advisor and AIGA Los Angeles education director Haven LinKirk.

Unlike the completely student-run Art Rush, art and design students are able to find a creative community in AIGA, one of the oldest professional organizations for designers with established chapters on numerous college campuses in major U.S. cities.

“For our campus, a lot of students are double majors and minors. Again it goes back to a liberal arts education as opposed to an art school or design school education. If you go to an art school, everyone around you is an artist. It’s easy to find your peers. At a school like ’SC, a handful of people kind of know one another. They need someplace to go to network,” says Lin-Kirk, who has been a part of AIGA for 15 years.

Students can participate in AIGA in different forms, but to receive the exclusive perks that the national organization has to offer students are encouraged to apply for a membership, which includes critiques of their portfolios from around 45 to 70 reviewers in the industry as a way to help students as they transition to the real world.

Lin-Kirk explains that schools like UCLA and USC’s approach to art is on a much more disciplinary nature, including problem solving and theory.

“At USC, there’s a lot of opportunity, but we are worlds apart from the bigger network of designers in Los Angeles.

Our program is not necessarily vocational based,” she says.

The need for a type of real-world, hands-on approach stems from AIGA’s sponsorship of events and exhibitions like speaker series, film screenings and fundraisers, including an event where select students and faculty decorate ceramic mugs.

Though AIGA chapters vary depending on the type of campus they serve, AIGA at USC has the advantage of attracting big-name speakers to the USC campus.

The reason for this is, as Lin-Kirk states, “’SC is a huge campus, we get tons of speakers. Even if we didn’t offer design speakers, Annenberg would be offering it.”

She cites a recent event offered by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism featuring Shepard Fairey of the famous OBEY and Obama Hope posters.

With the help of Annenberg, AIGA at USC has hosted film screenings featuring the culture of modern graphic artists, including the award-winning Beautiful Losers about a group of renegade artists utilizing D.I.Y. (Do it yourself) aesthetics and street art.

The group presents its own weekly special projects, including critiques of each other’s current work and preparation for Emerge, an annual design forum where students all across graphic design programs in Los Angeles are able to display their art and designs.

For members, this is an opportunity to have their work shown to their peers and industry professionals.

Unlike Art Rush, AIGA gears designers for a career, however, both art societies foster a community where art is explored and shared, whether it’s for a career or sheer selffulfillment.

As Lin-Kirk elaborates, “At the end of the day, if you’ve made something that touched someone or sent a message, whether a painting, clothing or product, that’s kind of the whole point of being a creative person and why people go into the creative field.”

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Campus Circle > Culture > Art

LMU STUDENT ART GALLERY COOPERATIVE A Gallery of Their Own

Did you know that organizing a museum gallery is an exercise in manipulating the elements around you: moving and creating makeshift walls, controlling the glow and glimmer of lights?

Organizing a gallery requires a talented eye where the artwork, light and space come together fluidly. It all can seem very Zen. However, before the opening of an art show and before walking into a building filled with order and beauty, there is an entire team of individuals racking their brains organizing proposals and publicity, working with artists and faculty and installing and uninstalling different elements of the gallery space.

At Loyola Marymount University, a group of students have a whole gallery under their control because it’s completely student run.

They call themselves the LMU Student Art Gallery Cooperative.

In its second year, the students have an enormous gallery at their disposal.

“We are the only student-run art gallery in L.A. that’s totally managed by students. Our space is very unique because it was built for students,” says Justin Manzano.

Manzano graduated this May and is the cooperative’s outgoing president.

“We’re trying to give the students the experience of what it would be like to manage a professional gallery,” says Barbara Busse, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts.

“There is a long tradition in art schools of having a gallery that students can manage,” continues Busse.

To begin with, before even starting to put together a show, the group is responsible for seeking submissions from various student groups for use of the space.

“We wanted to have the gallery well publicized on campus and to bring together art history students who want to focus more on curating as well as art students who want to showcase their work. Publicizing it across L.A. and working with other groups was part of our big push this [past] year,” says Manzano.

Proposals came from LMU students, faculty and even outside organizations like AIGA, and it was the cooperative’s job to evaluate each proposal.

“It was a cooperative effort with a small group of students who are like an executive board, and we made decisions on student proposals we felt were well executed,” says Manzano.

Afterward, the cooperative would help to publicize and promote shows and events whether through flyering, online message boards or through partners like the Getty, Red Bull and Nike.

Each show would run approximately three weeks to a month.

They would range from solo shows, curated exhibitions and various artist showcases, like LMU’s Senior Thesis Showcase, considered one of the cooperative’s highlighted events.

Another notable gallery feature was a weeklong

Kelsey Fugere

BY denise guerra

The LMU Student Art Gallery Cooperative is completely managed by students.

performance piece highlighting the theme of art’s time and place by Manzano and other cooperative members.

“It was a good integration of breaking down the idea that art can passively be hung on walls or pedestals,” Manzano states.

“The hardest part of the job is getting everyone’s schedules together and making sure people show up to things because no one actually got paid for it. It was an extra effort to add to your class schedule,” he adds.

“There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes in art shows that people don’t know about,” agrees incoming president and third-year art student Kelsey Fugere.

“It takes a whole crew to install and uninstall a show. It takes people to advertise and publicize a show and send out news releases,” she says.

Even the aesthetics of a gallery layout needed to be carefully thought out.

“The hardest part is working with the space and making it cohesive with what you’re trying to represent. It’s a beautiful building, but it’s not the best designed space in terms of gallery space, just the way the lighting comes in,” says Fugere.

“It’s the interaction between a student’s art works so that when you walk into a space, there is some sort of direction with the objects and the art inside,” Manzano continues to explain.

He says, “They aren’t just thrown together and put on the wall. It’s more of a cohesive environment where one piece interacts with another across the way. Everything is the aesthetics of having enough space so people can walk through comfortably.”

In terms of museum curating, which is more like producing a whole exhibit with administrative planning and paperwork, the cooperative was directly involved with an

LMU gallery class and art students across campus.

“This year we were lucky to have a few art history students that were looking toward curating and sort of working with the artists. Some of the younger ones needed more guidance since this was literally the first time they showcased work in a public setting, ” says Manzano.

As a student-led initiative, there’s a sense of the older generation teaching the younger generation “the way of the gallery.”

Older art history majors often help out freshman and sophomore first-time curators, while older seniors provide the training for younger cooperative members to take over after they graduate.

Despite providing an excellent leadership role, the cooperative presented a sense of community for Fugere.

She says, “I wanted to be involved in the art community on campus, and I thought the gallery was a good way to do that because that’s where all the art students hang out and meet each other.”

Being part of the organization also built anticipation for Fugere’s own art exhibition in the annual Senior Thesis Showcase.

“It was cool to see what all the seniors had to show for themselves. It was something to look forward to in the future, to think about the thesis of my work,” Fugere shares.

As a recent graduate, Manzano recalls what he learned being in charge of the cooperative.

“I got the whole understanding of working with different artists, and I learned how frustrating it can be working with uptight people or people who just don’t care, which is all part of the experience.”

Manzano then adds, “I learned how to properly hang artwork, which is helpful for your house.”

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MUSICINTERVIEWS

Campus Circle > Music > Interviews my first acoustic show there when I was in high school and had an incredible show. Every time Chief plays there, I get to hang with my 15-year-old self and he gives me props.

What is your most treasured memory from playing a show in Los Angeles thus far?

I’m gonna go with the night that we co-headlined the Troubadour with our good friends Dawes a couple years ago.

Our bands both played incredible sets that night, and it was really awesome because it was entirely a team effort.

We were still living in New York and would just come back to L.A. to play shows during the summer, so we didn’t really have a practice space. Dawes had this great band house in North Hills (which is what they ended up naming their album) and insisted we come and use the house and their gear to rehearse while we were in town. There was this great bond happening with the guys, because we’d be hearing each other’s sets like twice a day and then just hang out.

Dawes, [who] has always been great at covering jams, wanted to do something really special for the end of the show, and they decided on Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help From My Friends” and wanted to do it with us. The night of the show, Taylor’s (Goldsmith) dad, Lenny, came up and did all the harmonies with us, and there was this crazy love in the air. The audience loved it, and it was about as much fun as two bands could have with each other.

Great memory.

Chief perform tracks from Modern Rituals at Sunset Junction this Saturday.

CHIEF

you’re most likely jumping in your car and cruising wherever you’re cruising in peace. I love traffic a lot of the time. It’s a chance to breathe.

by yuri Shimoda

Do you have a special place to go for inspiration when you’re writing your songs?

The inspiration is everywhere, but the beach is especially inspiring. When I’m out there, I try not to turn around and see the cars on the Pacific Coast Highway and think about California in its golden years. I picture tribes building fires on the beach and animals running free, and it’s really incredible.

Love Los Angeles

Chief’s story is truly a tale of two cities.

Although brothers Danny (guitar/vocals) and Michael (drums) Fujikawa, vocalist Evan Koga and bassist Mike Moonves are all native Angelenos, they didn’t actually begin their musical partnership until their paths crossed as students at New York University.

As they honed their craft on NYC stages, the City of Angels’ influence could be heard in their songs that hearken back to Love, the Beach Boys and Neil Young. The foursome returned to the West Coast to write and record their debut, Modern Rituals, and Campus Circle caught up with Moonves to uncover some of his L.A. favorites.

Besides your home, where is the first place you head to when you get back from tour?

Moonves: Depending on what time we get back from a tour, we might head to a couple different places. If it’s at night, we’ll probably head over to the Darkroom [7302 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles] to throw some darts and hang out. If it’s during the day, cruising over to a homie’s house is generally the move.

What did you miss most about Los Angeles when you were in New York?

Everyone can obviously comment on the weather. There’s no question that that’s always gonna be there, but it’s definitely not what I miss most.

What I love about L.A. is being able to not be surrounded by people all the time. When you leave your house in N.Y., you’re heading out onto a populated city block. In L.A.,

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What was the first concert you ever attended in L.A.?

My first concert I ever went to was No Doubt at the Universal Amphitheatre [now Gibson Amphitheatre]. I was about 7 years old and went with my dad, my sister and a few of her friends.

I remember enjoying it for a while, but then getting flustered about the noise level and the fact that I was standing on my chair and still couldn’t see a damn thing. I cried until my dad took me home. I still have a strange distaste for No Doubt to this day.

Where do you like to go to check out other bands now?

For me, seeing an outdoors show is always the best. The Greek Theatre and Hollywood Bowl are both so beautiful.

Watching a great show with the moonlight above you is a majestic experience, which is why I must also show some love to the Empire Polo Field in Indio (the site for Coachella).

However, with a large amount of the bands that we listen to, they’re not getting gigs at the Greek or at the Bowl, so going to see a show at the Echo or Troubadour is top of the line for the smaller venues, and they do a great job at those spots.

Do you have a favorite venue in the city to play shows at?

I think it’s gonna have to be the Troubadour. It’s a place with so much history and also a place that hasn’t diminished in its popularity and clout like the Whisky and Roxy have.

I’ve also got personal love for the Troub because I played

Do you have a favorite instrument shop or place to buy gear?

My favorite shop has to be Truetone Music [714 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica]. I’ve been going there since I was 14, and they’ve always been really groovy and know what they’re talking about. They got a good stock of old and new gear and do good repairs. I bought my black ’75 P-bass there.

What is your favorite L.A. restaurant, and what is your favorite dish there?

Right now, I’m freaking out about Al Wazir Chicken [6051 Hollywood Blvd., Ste. 104, Hollywood]. It’s right near Danny’s and my house, and the chicken there is unlike anything else.

My favorite dish is the No. 1, which is the standard chicken platter. Comes with great hummus and garlic sauce as well as a little salad, rice and pita.

This place kicks the shit out of Zankou Chicken, even though Zankou is really good. Wazir is just the best. Check it out! You won’t be disappointed.

Where do you like to shop for clothes?

In all honesty, I go on one shopping day every two years with my sister. She’s a stylist and knows what kind of style I vibe with. So, I get a bunch of gear that one day and then I pretty much cruise to Kmart or Ross to get plain T-shirts, boxers and socks for the rest of the time. I’m a simple man.

What is your favorite bar to hang out with friends?

My favorite bar is probably the Darkroom, because we love throwing darts in our crew. There’s a great smoking section, and we have good homies that work there, which makes it all in all a comfortable spot to hang.

However, I’m also a serious billiardsman, and I try to shoot pool a couple times a week. My pool hall is called Penthouse Billiards [1810 Wilcox Ave, Hollywood].

The joint is never full, and you can feel the old Hollywood vibe of it. The rates are cheap, the beer’s cheap and the jukebox is full of great Mexican pop music, which I’m growing to understand and love. Also, on Sundays, Leila the bartender sometimes brings in some Mexican food she cooks at home and serves it out to anyone that wants any.

You don’t get that everywhere.

Modern Rituals is currently available. Chief perform Aug. 20 at Bootleg Theater and Aug. 21 at Sunset Junction (sunsetjunction. org). For more information, visit myspace.com/chieftheband.

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LIVESHOWREVIEWS Circa Survive Aug. 3 @ Bootleg Theater Circa Survive are something of a big band these days, y’know, to say the least. The smallest venue they’ve played in recent history was the Troubadour, and that was years ago when their first album came out. So to go from seeing the band play to thousands on Warped Tour stages to playing a living room-sized venue is likewise something of a big deal itself.

Though the intimacy of the venue would’ve made even a half-hearted set feel exponentially more awesome, the band pulled out all stops for the show. Playing songs from their latest, Blue Sky Noise, along with favorites from older albums, the band came out swinging with their hardest rocking tracks when they took stage. Effortlessly translating the sprawling cinematic vibe of Blue Sky to live performance, the new material felt right at home among the big-sounding, more epic selections from Juturna and On Letting Go. As frontman Anthony Green howled and wailed into his microphone with wide-eyed ferocity, his intensity was matched word for word by his audience, whose collective yelling overpowered even the venue’s speakers and amps at times. As evidenced by the wide grin that Green sported for the duration of his set, however, it was clear that the seasoned frontman wouldn’t have it any other way. —Brien Overly

Leopold and His Fiction Aug. 5 @ Viper Room The three-piece psychedelic rock set of Leopold and His Fiction was like jumping in a portal between the 1960s Hendrix guitar daze and today’s hardcore rock scene to the likes of the White Stripes. Entrancing and catchy, the small stage at the Viper Room did not provide enough room for the epileptic attack of sound coming out of three distinct

Campus Circle > Music > Live Show Reviews personalities: the hippy persona from the bearded Daniel James, fedora-wearing Jon Sortland playing the keyboard and the drums at the same time as well as the feminine mystique of bassist Micayla Grace.

This trio is a trip to watch, boiling and smashing a diverse range of musical genres that is both ethereal and bombastic.

James’ Southern-style vocals are what make Leopold so unique, but just watching the band perform amid strobe lights was a grand moment. It was too bad that we couldn’t hear more; a set that was short and sweet. —Denise Guerra

We Are Scientists Aug. 6 @ The Troubadour One thing the L.A. music scene undoubtedly provides is a lot of really good indie music, that much is undisputable. The hipsters who make up that scene, however, aren’t particularly known for having the best sense of humor. Maybe it’s one of those things where humor is inversely proportional to one’s sense of irony, and the more you have of one, the less you have of the other. But if ever there was a band that could prove to be the exception to the rule, it’s We Are Scientists.

Bantering back and forth between each song, singerguitarist Keith Murray and bassist Chris Cain made for an endearingly snarky and sarcastic pair, though both showed themselves to have the technical know-how to back up their offbeat stage personas. Both Murray and Cain’s fingers were a blur on their respective string instruments, showing exactly how they manage to make such big-sounding rock using only the bare minimum of instrumental components.

Playing tracks from their new album, Barbara, the two – and drummer Andy Burrows – managed to get a mixed venue of indie scene kids and general-purpose music consumers to both dance and sing along. If that’s not a strong enough

CDREVIEWS American Hi-Fi Fight the Frequency (Hi-Fi Killers) American Hi-Fi is back with an edgier album, Fight the Frequency. You’ve probably heard of them. Then again, maybe not since it has been way too long since their last release. Perhaps this will help: They had a hit pop rock song back in 2001 titled, “Flavor of the Weak.”

So, how’s the comeback? Well, they haven’t lost their flavor. Stacy Jones (singer/guitarist), Drew Parsons (bass), Jamie Arentzen (guitars) and Brain Nolan (drums) are still doing the pop rock thing, but their tunes are more expressive (“Lost”), addictive (“Fight the Frequency”) and grownup (“Where Love is a Lie”).

American Hi-Fi deserve some space on your iPod. Download a free song (“Lost”) by visiting their MySpace and see why they haven’t completely lost their rock ’n’ roll juice.

Grade: B —Christine Hernandez Fight the Frequency is currently available.

The Dollyrots A Little Messed Up (Blackheart) Kelly Ogden, the singer for the wonderfully named trio the Dollyrots, can be quite catty when she chooses. And she’s clever while she’s flashing her claws too.

The chorus of “Big Mouth” finds Ogden slamming a would-be rival, singing with faux sweetness “Kissy kissy to a

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testament to the band’s musical ability, you might have more troubling deficits than a lack of humor. —Brien Overly

HARD Summer Tour Aug. 7 @ L.A. State Park HARD Summer’s lineup always features a plethora of artists who keep people dancing from midday to late night to diverse genres like dubstep, house, dance, industrial and techno. It has made a name for itself as an expansive music fest overflowing with abundantly awesome artists and their devoted attendees and fans spreading love at this all-day blowout festival.

Held in Los Angeles State Historic Park, it boasted food trucks and two beer gardens. HARD Summer 2010 had a bevy to offer for music fans with two stages featuring the music of such acts as Flying Lotus, Digitalism, Soulwax and Breakbot. For those who dig electro house, DJs Erol Alkan, Green Velvet and Tiga spun records into the late afternoon and dubstep fans got their fill with London exports Benga, Skream and Caspa, who kept the crowds incredibly elated and rowdy into the night.

The major players of the night were Crystal Castles, whose stage presence captivated the audience and kept the front row on their toes with vocalists Alice Glass’ impromptu stage dives. Diplo, an electro house and hip-hop DJ/producer (known for creating M.I.A.’s hit “Paper Planes”), was paired with Switch, a creator of fidget house and London-based DJ: Together these two created a powerful team as Major Lazer, a collaboration of their respective fields in a harmonious reggae amalgamation.

With HARD Haunted Mansion right around the corner, it’s easy to see why there is such a readily available fan base for such a spectacular event. —Danielle Lee

Campus Circle > Music > CD Reviews face/And stabby stabby on the case.” But then she moves in for the kill: “How’s this sound?/The vet should put you down!”

About half of the material on A Little Messed Up is in this vein; stinging, rocking guitar-filled power pop that owes a lot stylistically to the main woman behind the band’s label, Joan Jett. The remainder of the songs finds the Dollyrots going for a more mainstream audience as Ogden channels the likes of Gwen Stefani, Katy Perry (“Just Like Chocolate”) or Avril Lavigne (“California Beach Boy”). Fans playing along on air guitars to the raucous “Rock Control” may not dig the bubblegum-ish cuts here, but there’s little filler in this memorable made-for-summer album.

Grade: B —Kevin Wierzbicki A Little Messed Up is currently available.

The Last Felony Too Many Humans (Lifeforce) Very rarely does a death metal album get an A grade; it’s one of the most imitated genres and rarely perfected, let alone inspired. But the Last Felony breaks the mold and takes the listener in a new direction with Too Many Humans.

Blazing fast guitars supply the fuel for this political album that beckons the question of our own humanity. It’s not just fast guitar playing, but technical and rhythmic. The drums back up the rhythm and push things forward, which allows

the vocals to take on their own life. Yes, it’s heavy with lots of growling, but there’s range and real singing, not emo whining.

With bands like Suicide Silence showing us how heavy you can sound, producer Chris Donaldson has taken that intensity and given it musical appeal. This Canadian group of men shows that there is hope in metal. Take a listen and be sure to download the track “Televisionary.”

Grade: A —David Tobin Too Many Humans is currently available.

Ra Ra Riot The Orchard (Barsuk) Syracuse, New York’s Ra Ra Riot present their second fulllength recording that’s rich with sound and illustrative, colorful lyrics. The Orchard’s unique album photography is a breath of fresh air. It’s painted skies and clouds parting to let the resplendent orange sun set beneath the lush, grass hills. It’s expressive. It’s art.

The feel-good music hits every note right and creates a vibe that makes it worth repeating. Listening to the songs at full volume gives you a sanguine boost. The songs even work as great company when taking long, drawn-out walks in forest parks, lit-up cities or on golden sand beaches.

Band members Milo Bonacci, Alexandra Lawn, Wes Miles, John Pike, Mathieu Santos and Rebecca Zeller make The Orchard more than just an album. Complete with guitar, cello, violin, drums, bass and wonderfully deep vocals, this release is love at first note.

Grade: A+ —Christine Hernandez The Orchard is currently available.

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FREQUENCY by brien overly

Rocco Bizzarri

Prima Donna

Benny Benassi wants you to join his Musical Ride Through California.

by kevin wierzbicki Biking With Benny Benny Benassi is consistently rated one of the top DJs in the world, but he could have been famous for spinning bicycle wheels instead of tunes. While he was a teenager, Benassi raced for several teams in his native Italy and his passion for the sport nearly caused him to become a cycling pro. Music won out in the end, but Benassi still loves to hop on his bike whenever he gets a chance while he’s out on tour.

This September, Benny launches the Benny Benassi Bike Tour: A Musical Ride Through California … Without Breaks, a unique tour that’ll have the DJ pedaling his way to five gigs along the West Coast from San Francisco to San Diego. Fans, musicians and fellow bicycling enthusiasts are urged to join Benassi on the road or just follow his progress on the Net. The bike tour starts at the Golden Gate Bridge on the morning of Sept. 11; it’ll be Sept.

18 before Benassi rolls into Los Angeles for a show at the Music Box. Each performance showcases music from Spaceship, the new Ultra Records release Benassi drops later this year. bennybenassibiketour.com.

Sex, Drugs and Bon Jovi Rich Bozzett, the tour manager for Bon Jovi in their early days, has written a tell-all book entitled Sex, Drugs and Bon Jovi. The book tells the story of how the band went from being an unknown act to bona fide superstars in a mere six years and dishes the dirt on some of the seedier things that came along with fame. Bozzett tells about the drug use of various band members and hook-ups with groupies, band financial problems and how the group’s management was raking in money from cocaine and marijuana trafficking.

Bozzett is also honest about why he split with the group, and that partially has to do with his not being paid what he was promised by management, but it also has to do with his handling of a situation dealing with some soft porn pictures involving models and Jon Bon Jovi. Yes, some of the pictures are included in the book. sexdrugsbonjovi.com.

OohLaLa Festival Returns Did you get a chance to go to the OohLaLa Festival last year? The French music showcase returns to various venues around the city this fall and brings some of the hottest French acts. Sebastien Tellier headlines opening night at the El Rey Theatre Sept. 30 where Acid Washed, Turzi and DJ Kavinsky also appear.

The action moves to Spaceland Oct. 1 for a show featuring Revolver and the psychedelic/folk collective the Bewitched Hands on the Top of Our Heads. The festival closes out at Club Nokia Oct. 2 with a lineup including Gotan Project, General Elektriks and El Hijo de la Cumbia. The 10th anniversary of French record label Record Makers will also be celebrated during the festival. oohlalafestival.com.

Fear Factory Escape Bus Fire An overheated tire and wheel caused a fire that engulfed Fear Factory’s tour bus while they were motoring to a show in London. The bus and its contents were a total loss, but according to guitarist Dino Cazares, the band and crew got out with only minor injuries.

“At about 3:30 a.m., the bus driver noticed smoke coming from the back right wheel,” says Cazares. “He stopped and jumped out and noticed a flame underneath the wheel well and tried to extinguish it but the flames were just too much. Everyone on the bus was awakened by the crew yelling and everyone grabbed their bags and got off the bus.

Then someone noticed our merchandise guy was still asleep on the bus, but he got out just minutes before the bus was completely in flames. Our eyes were burning and we were coughing from the smoke. Some of us lost wallets, money and computers, but that’s not important compared to our lives.”

The band’s gear was in a trailer and was not damaged, and after regrouping Fear Factory continued their European tour behind their latest album, Mechanize. The band’s next hometown show is Oct. 15 at the Key Club.

Aug. 19 @ The Troubadour Everyone could use a little more glam-punk styled classic rock in their lives. Having just by chance seen these guys play in some of the dingiest and diviest bars the rest of the country has to offer, I can say with the utmost confidence that their brand of dirty rock ’n’ roll was meant for legit stages right here in their hometown.

Showmen of the highest caliber, the fivesome also have the musical skills to back up their bravado, hearkening back to a time when rock was simple and epic above all else.

Ha Ha Tonka

John Mayer dazzles on the guitar Aug. 22 at Aug. 20 @ Spaceland the Hollywood Bowl.

I first discovered this band when they were opening for Murder by Death a few months back, so already, before even hearing what their music sounded like, the odds of them completely winning me over were in their favor. As should be expected from a band that has earned the compliments of the Murder clan, I was most definitely not disappointed by the set I bore witness to that night.

When so much acoustic indie-folk falls into the deathly pit of monotony and taking itself way too seriously, the Ha Ha Tonka foursome manage to bring a little Southern soul to their music.

Anthemic and dynamic despite low-fi production, infectious and memorable while still feeling raw and spontaneous, these guys do it all without sounding the least bit pretentious.

The Maine Aug. 22 @ House of Blues Anaheim Aug. 24 @ House of Blues Sunset Strip I was planning on starting this article by saying something pretentious, to the effect of “I remember seeing the Maine back in 2007 on Warped when no one knew or cared who they were. And I had to walk in the snow to get to their stage, despite it being the middle of August and the tour being in Miami or Phoenix that day.” Or something.

Then I thought to myself, “Wait, I did see them while they and I were on the tour, didn’t I?” And while trying to quickly research this to verify my claim, it seems their existence on the ’07 Warped Tour has been completely erased from the Internet’s collective memory.

But it definitely happened.

I definitely saw the Maine play in some godforsaken dirt field in the boondocks of like, Idaho or somesuch.

But … the point of this is to say that they’ve come a long way in those three years, and I give a lot of credit to bands that have paid their dues, as opposed to the prepackaged media stars that seem to populate this scene right now. Even more credit is to be given for the fact that their brand of emo-pop is actually palatable on top of all that and doesn’t fall into the some of the more common clichés.

Also along to open up these shows are This Century, who I’ve grown to like quite a bit in the few short hours between starting this week’s column and getting to this point in writing. Much in the same musical vein as the Maine, the Tempe-bred foursome write sing-along pop jams that are girlfriend-friendly, but still feel like you’re listening to a grownup band.

John Mayer Aug. 22 @ Hollywood Bowl Aug. 24 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Not infrequently, I’ll say it’s impossible to not like an artist I’ve chosen for a show pick that particular week, and usually I’m pretty right on with those assertions. This time is a little different, though. John Mayer is admittedly very easily unlikable.

I’d even go so far as to say he’s very easily dislikable … as a person, though. Not as a musician.

No matter how much of a d-bag he comes off as in interviews and via his Twitter, moms and girlfriends still inexplicably love him. Apparently none of them have Internet connections, but that’s a different story. Point being, you’ll earn some major points for scoring tickets to this show and, at the very least, the dude is really, really good on his guitar, despite the personality behind the hands.

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L.A.FACES

LINDSEY HAUN The Haun Solo Project strikes back. by anna webber Lindsey Haun likeS cowboys, but won’t be singing country. She loves to eat, but she’s on a juice fast. She’ll melt you with a smile, and she’ll melt you with her rock band in a sweaty crowd-filled venue.

She has a successful acting career, but she’s getting very excited about her new record to debut next month. Neon Gods is a deeply emotional album with a psychologically tapping message that reaches a bit into the dark side.

Haun walks into the photo studio with a huge smile on her face and a giant rack of amazing vintage clothes, hats and shoes.

“I’m a collector,” she says with a wink and a smile.

Haun has been recently added to the cast of the hit series “True Blood,” and in the midst of her busy schedule, she’s pulling together this new record. Her band – the Haun Solo Project – often holds residencies in Los Angeles at the Cat Club, and according to an intuitive fan, sounds like a mix between Joan Jett and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Another fan describes it more like Queen and Fiona Apple mixed with Tool.

“We’re a little bit dramatic but also have that rebellious, classical sense,” Haun describes. “That fan was sorta dead-on!

Campus Circle > Culture > L.A. Faces My grandfather was an opera singer so I’ve trained in jazz and opera and rock and pop. I need to incorporate a theremin into the live show because I sing a lot of the notes on the record, but need to get a theremin in order to do it in a venue.”

After being on a label and touring nationwide with Toby Keith, Haun let it all go to pursue a project that was not only hers, but also her own dream.

“When I originally signed the deal with Show Dog records, Toby’s label, we were going to promote my song as part of a country soundtrack for the film Broken Bridges, and then move on to me doing my stuff,” she says. “In the end a lot people said to me, ‘If you’re walking away you’d be walking away from these 40,000 people calling your name. Can you do that?’

“A lot of people were hoping that would seduce me into the life, and it didn’t. I mean I grew up in L.A. I was in a hard rock band for five years, and country just wasn’t who I am.

When I was in Nashville I thought about how many blonde blue-eyed girls there were that were so talented and realized I was living someone else’s dream. I kept thinking, ‘What am I doing? I’m not even appreciating this.’ I didn’t want to lie to my audience, so I left.”

Talking about how the record was made, Haun describes how she locked herself in a cabin for a week and picked up a pen and a guitar and sort of emotionally purged this record into being after a tough break-up. The record, however, isn’t exactly an emo sad song soundtrack, but it talks about bigger things in life “like leaving a label, figuring out who you are, what you wanna do,” she offers, but “within the context of a relationship. I’ve always wanted to be the healing event in people’s lives like some of my favorite artists have been for me.”

The title of the album, Neon Gods, comes from a Simon

ONTHEMENU

LILLY’S FRENCH CAFE & BAR 1031 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice by erica carter France is one of my favorite places. Many modern recipes and menus come from the French. Look through a culinarian’s library and most likely you’ll come across Auguste Escoffier’s beloved book, Le Grande Culinare, a bible of techniques that most chefs use today. It’s evident the chefs at French bistro Lilly’s have done their homework. This restaurant has been around for years, as has their loyal fan base, but the menu has been updated to keep with the everchanging face of Venice.

As you walk up their brick steps, you enter what could be best described as a comfortable living room with lounges facing bay windows and soft candlelight enveloping the area.

Up another small set of steps, you find the bar, providing a bit of seclusion and a great setup for the Happy Hour bar menu.

The Crab & Avocado Tower with Papaya Dressing is delightful. The mold of lightly seasoned crab atop precisely cut avocados is adorned with bits of vinegary tomatoes and papaya. Papaya is not one of my favorite fruits to eat, but when prepared this way, I will make an exception.

A French classic, the Napoleon, gets a shot of layered complexity with the eggplant, tomato and basil sauce complimented with mozzarella cheese. Another classic, the

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Anna Webber

NEWS

“True Blood”’s Lindsey Haun just released a new album. & Garfunkel lyric from their song “The Sound of Silence.”

One of the lines from the song says, “All the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made.” Haun interprets this lyric in the context of the material things of this world that people worship or are obsessed with.

“Like Britney Spears is a neon god, caffeine is a neon god and alcohol is a neon god. All of these things that we worship are a neon god,” she says.

Neon Gods is currently available. For more information, visit haunsolo.com.

Campus Circle > Culture > Food tartine, gives you many choices, including brie, walnuts and fig or a bolder barbecue short rib paired with wild mushrooms.

Pair these with a dry Tariquet wine, festive sangria or champagne all priced below $8 for Happy Hour.

Maybe after a few appetizers and drinks, you’ll want to head out to the ivy-lined patio for dinner. The dinner menu has new additions like the pecan-encased chicken balanced with sweet potato fries and a buttery, whole-grain mustard sauce.

Make sure to ask what the special of the evening is. If it involves fish with lobster sauce, order it without hesitation.

Mine was a generous portion of whitefish atop a medley of vegetables, including Brussels sprouts, surrounded by the decadent lobster sauce.

A true sign of French technique is when your plate is hot but your sauce is not broken: Chef Francis Bey and company make sure that doesn’t happen. Even with the Hachi Parmentier, a fusion of shepherd’s pie with short ribs and Gruyère-browned potatoes, the wine reduction was just the right consistency. When you dip ribs into the sauce, it covers the meat and the fork without clinging. This sauce means business!

I giggled a bit when I read the description of the Steak Tartare & Frites. I’ll never forget my first time ordering this dish at a French restaurant years ago. When it arrived, it was raw and I was flabbergasted. I sent it back, and the chef came out and scolded me because that is the way it’s served. Lilly’s menu reads: “classic raw beef tartar.” It’s an acquired taste, a delicacy that is not for the faint of stomach, but so delicious should you choose to order it. If you must have your steak charred, you won’t be sad with the cross cut New York steak, and you can order a choice of classic sauce, ranging from Béarnaise to Roquefort.

Lilly’s Moules Frites (black mussels with fries) If there’s something the French are known for, it certainly is desserts. Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Mousse L’Orange, Apple Tartin: They’re all there waiting for you. The candied oranges atop the chocolate mousse give texture to the fluffy chocolate mixture. And how can you go wrong with the sugar-coated crème brûlée? Just make sure you have some tea or coffee to go along with it, and you’re all set.

Brunch gets an honorable mention simply because that was my first meal in Venice several years ago. The Salade Frisée aux Lardons was my initiation, and I judge every restaurant I go to by how well they make it. The ingredients are simple enough – frisée, poached egg, bacon and croutons – but the mustard dressing is the clicker. Between that, the Moules Frites (black mussels with fries) and a glass of champagne with Cointreau with fresh blackberries, one can spend every Sunday in France.

For more information, call (310) 314-0004 or visit lillysfrenchcafe.com.

Join CAMPUS CIRCLE www.campuscircle.com THEDIAMONDDISPATCH

GALAXYKICK

BASEBALL IN THE AGE OF THE APOCALYPSE

GALAXY COLLECT MOST IMPRESSIVE WIN THUS FAR

Part 2

by dov rudnick When Dodger owners Frank and Jamie McCourt announced their intentions to divorce last October, it signaled not only the end of a marriage but the final demise of the fantasy world they had constructed. For many Dodger fans, the separation and ensuing argument over ownership was profoundly disillusioning. The same couple who had promised so much in the way of a Dodger renaissance would now be focusing their energies on gauging one another for whatever they could get. Most alarming is the cold chill of it all. After 30 years of marriage and four children they would now take it to court and argue over signatures on papers. All families fight about money, but this argument would have direct implications on the city’s beloved baseball team and their ballpark. What’s more is the sense of betrayal on the part of fans who were asked by the McCourts to imagine a brilliant future while the present turned more and more distasteful.

In the previous installment of this article, I talked about the capacity of baseball to offer us moments of spiritual uplift. The game itself contains a balance between stillness and sudden action, which serves as a metaphor for our lives. The fierceness of a pitcher’s delivery, the desperation of a would-be base stealer, the prayer of a watched ball as it sails into the outfield each provides glimpses into our own humanity. The occasion of going to a game and watching the action unfold offers the viewer an authentic experience. It is for such reasons that we love the game and hold it sacred.

Dodger Stadium has been regarded as one of the premier ballparks in the country for watching baseball. Its midcentury modernist design emphasizes clear sightlines and symmetrical dimensions. The surrounding hills with trees and seasonal flowers calls to mind America’s rural past and a connection to nature. For most of the stadium’s history, advertising amounted to a few 76 logos. In the past 20 years, however, Dodger fans saw a steady encroachment of more and more advertising in their ballpark. Beginning in the latter days of the O’Malley era and gaining momentum under Fox News Corp., it grew ever more pervasive under the McCourts so that now to attend a game is to be bombarded with tens of thousands of images of advertising. Despite all of this, the improved performance of the team under the McCourts made many fans hopeful. They were willing to listen when the grand stadium renovation plan, the “Next 50” was unveiled two years ago. The plans, which can still be viewed on the team’s Web site, called for the development of the stadium parking lot to include landscaped plazas, sports bars, merchandise boutiques, a museum of Dodger history and an enormous patio above the upper deck with views of the stadium and the surrounding city. The proposal also called for the unpaving of 15 acres of parking space to make room for the development. Included in the proposal was an “environmental initiative” that planned for increased recycling, energy-efficient lighting, water-saving technologies and storm water treatment and reduction.

What is absent from the “Next 50” proposal is a consideration of what the world will be like in 50 years time. Nor is there mention of what has transpired in the last 50 years. This could be useful in determining certain trends. In the 50 years since Dodger Stadium was constructed, the world’s population has used up more of the earth’s resources than all human generations before it, a hole has grown in the ozone layer, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has grown exponentially and there is unprecedented species extinction, including a massive reduction of the ocean’s phytoplankton attributed to global warming.

What does all this have to do with baseball? Don’t we go to the ballpark to escape the problems of our world? If it were ever the case, it is no longer possible. The game of baseball has always reflected American life. These days that culture is defined by rampant consumerism and the two hundred billion dollar advertising industry that propels it.

Advertising preys on our deepest emotions and insecurities. Its function is to constantly reinforce the idea that happiness and security are accomplished through consumption.

This in turn requires greater production, which then exacts a greater toll on the natural environment.

Frank and Jamie McCourt are themselves tragic victims of the consumer culture that enriched their pocket books in the form of advertising revenue. With their multiple mansions, expensive clothing and $150,000 annual haircut budget, they lost touch with the very values they once championed, such as family and community life. The game of baseball actually predates the rise of the advertising industry that followed in the footsteps of the industrial revolution. Originally played on the outskirts of towns in open pastures, the game remains fundamentally the same as it was 150 years ago. A game of infinite dramatic possibilities, it excites the imagination and energizes our spirit. Great moments in baseball have the quality of a spiritual reckoning, moments of heroism or human frailty that give us access to our own humanity. The challenges of our generation are severe and highly personal. It is literally up to us to reverse the perilous path of our civilization, and unless we can reach into our inner soul, we don’t stand a chance.

by marvin g. vasquez

A trip to New York did not matter. A star-filled lineup did not either. The Los Angeles Galaxy earned an impressive 1-0 victory against the Red Bulls on the road in front of a sold-out stadium crowd.

With their seventh road win, the Galaxy keep stamping their name in the MLS books.

They are now 13-3-4 overall and stand alone atop of the Western Conference standings with the best mark in the league with 43 points. Los Angeles is 7-2-2 when away from home, and this has certainly amounted to their collective success, which has been led by striker Edson Buddle.

Buddle scored the lone and eventual game-winning goal in the 10th minute. The tally was his 13th of the season, which is a league best thus far. Brazilian playmaker Juninho sent a pass to Buddle, who escaped the Red Bulls’ defense for the 10-yard score from the box.

Buddle leads the MLS in scoring even though he missed five matches due to his more than a month stint with the United States men’s national soccer squad at the World Cup in South Africa. Buddle is averaging nearly one goal per game played, having nailed 13 in 15 affairs.

Midfielder Landon Donovan follows with five scores, but he has 11 assists to go along with the goals.

“We’re back to the way we played in the beginning of the year,” Donovan tells lagalaxy. com. “There’s been a lot of talk about N.Y. in the last few weeks, and we wanted to let people know who the best team in the league is.”

And the Galaxy certainly did just that even though the Red Bulls had a lineup that included three stars players in that likes of Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel, French striker Thierry Henry and Mexican defensive midfielder Rafael Marquez.

“You can see the difference in the skill level, the intelligence, the work rate, the positioning,” Donovan goes on to state. “You can tell when guys like Henry and Marquez are on the field that they bring something a little different, and they’re going to make our league a lot better.”

Marquez made his home debut and second start for New York against the Galaxy.

“I’m not happy at all. I need more time to perform at my best level,” Marquez tells newyorkredbulls.com. “It’s hard to know how long it’s going to take.”

New York is currently in second place of the Eastern Conference with 31 points (97-4), six behind leader Columbus Crew. Even at home, N.Y. could not top the best in the west.

“They showed that they were a better team on the day and they deserve to be where they are,” Henry says to newyorkredbulls.com. “But I think we have good potential, and when this team’s going to be ready, we’re going to be able to compete with them. But we couldn’t compete with them today.”

The Galaxy are no longer the most offensively threatening unit on the pitch since Real Salt Lake has taken over that statistic, but their true success has come at the hands of the defensive effort.

Defensively, goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts has shined with 10 shutouts, allowing just 13 goals in 19 starts. Defenders Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter, Sean Franklin, Todd Dunivant and A.J. DeLaGarza have cemented their names with consistently solid performances throughout the entire 2010 campaign.

Los Angeles looks to continue its victorious ways Saturday as they visit the San Jose Earthquakes. Kick-off is at 1 p.m.

Coach Out Due to Illness Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena traveled with the team to New York over the weekend but was not on the sidelines to direct the squad. Arena, who watched from a private box, spent two nights in a hospital with what may be Dengue fever, which is attained through mosquito bites in the tropics.

The Galaxy made a trip to Puerto Rico Aug. 4 for a CONCACAF Champions League contest against the Islanders.

Beckham Starts Training A week ago English midfielder David Beckham joined the Galaxy training sessions en route to begin rehabbing, conditioning, practicing and strengthening his latest injury (torn left Achilles’ tendon). Beckham could make his 2010 debut in September or earlier.

He traveled with the team to New York; he sat on the bench watching his teammates.

English Premier League asset West Ham United has expressed interest in signing the Spice Boy through a loan deal.

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COMEDY

WHITNEY CUMMINGS

Shows Us the Money Shot by m.m. zonoozy I could say a lot about comedian Whitney Cummings. I could mention that she is a rising star on the stand-up circuit. That she’s making quite the stir in what most consider a boys’ club. That she’s smart, witty, sharp-tongued – the whole shebang. But honestly, who cares about all that? All that really matters is whether or not she’s funny.

You may know her from Chelsea Handler’s roundtable pop culture bash-a-thon, “Chelsea Lately.” As a regular guest, Cummings has a knack for tearing celebrities apart.

“Stand-ups, we really have a thing for being able to be mean off the cuff. Being horrible people, it’s very easy to come up with that stuff,” explains Cummings. “It’s like I’ve been preparing my whole life, i.e. my bad childhood.”

That ability, coupled with a relentless work ethic, has landed Cummings in good company. Last summer, she made her dais debut on the “Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers.”

Still a fresh face, Cummings was ribbed by peer Greg Giraldo as he noted, “Whitney Cummings is here … for some reason.”

As piercing as his observation, it wasn’t to say Cummings hadn’t earned her spot. As a writer on the prior roasts of Bob Saget and Flavor Flav, Cummings had already written everyone else’s jokes – it was her turn now. So, she elbowed

Campus Circle > Culture > Comedy her way onto the starting lineup after sending in a tape of her charity roast of New York Giants owner, Steve Tisch. How’d she do? Arguably, she did better than Giraldo, taking home joke-of-the-night with “Joan, I loved you in The Wrestler.”

“The bar was really high in terms of how mean and funny to be,” explains Cummings. “It’s a skill. A lot of really amazing comedians aren’t great at roasts, and a lot of mediocre comedians are very good at roasts. It’s a weird skill to have.”

It’s a skill Cummings has in excess. On stage almost every night and writing all the time, she has built her comedy muscles to juicehead proportions. You’ll notice that when you watch her one-hour Comedy Central special on Aug. 21.

“My comedy picks up where ‘Sex and the City’ left off. It’s basically all about sex and relationships from a twisted, dark point of view,” describes Cummings. “Personal things happen and then it just blossoms into this big rant.”

It wasn’t always all sex and relationships for Cummings. At first, while pursuing her communications major at University of Pennsylvania undergrad, she took a foray into journalism and came out with some interesting viewpoints.

“Local news is so much funnier than stand-up. It’s so stupid how ridiculous it is. It’s a bunch of trannies talking about dogs getting stuck in fountains,” Cummings proclaims.

On summer vacation from school, Cummings had signed up for an internship at a local NBC station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. Eventually, she and the other interns were given the opportunity to be filmed reading over the teleprompter in order to create a newsreel.

“I was trying to read it, and I was hysterically laughing at all of the horrible stories,” Cummings recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m clearly not cut out for this. I think terrible things are funny.’”

So that was that for journalism and Cummings. Instead, she graduated college and moved out to Los Angeles to be

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COLE YAVERBAUM

Shares Life’s Little College Admissions Insights BY arit john Every day hundreds of letters – thank you notes, invitations, bills – arrive in mailboxes around the country, bringing good and bad news to the general public.

With a few exceptions, the most important of these letters is typed up on university letterhead and determines where you may end up spending the next four(ish) years of your life: the college acceptance letter.

Besides forking over $60 to send in an application, to get an acceptance letter students join clubs, study hard, take prep classes and buy tons of self-help books, some more dense and challenging than others. One such book on the market, Life’s Little College Admissions Insights: Top Tips From the Country’s Most Acclaimed Guidance Counselors, is a compilation of answers from (you guessed it) acclaimed guidance counselors from various schools to the sorts of questions students have in the months leading up to acceptance letter season during the spring of senior year.

“There are tons of college guide books that are completely intricate and so dense – it’s really overwhelming for students,” says Cole Yaverbaum, a soon-to-be college freshman who co-

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Whitney Cummings is so mean ... and so funny. a stand-up comic. No one has been keeping score, but ever since: Local News: 0, Comedy: 1.

Cummings has become a big player in what she herself calls the “golden age of comedy for women.” She is being mentioned on countless lists of “Comics to Watch” and is finding her way onto the silver screen. Through all that, Cummings has maintained a cool and amiable demeanor and kept herself from pretending – perhaps her most impressive and attractive attribute as an entertainer.

“It’s just about being honest. It’s important to be who you are on stage as who you are off stage,” advises Cummings.

“Never say anything on stage that is not true. Never say anything that you don’t believe. Because when you’re trying to be something you’re not, it’s blatantly obvious.”

But then again, none of this really matters. All that does matter is whether or not Whitney Cummings is funny.

She is.

“Whitney Cummings: Money Shot” airs Aug. 21 at 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.

Campus Circle > Culture > Books authored the book along with her father, Eric Yaverbaum. “We wanted our book to be a little more accessible. We made a list of six pretty basic questions and e-mailed them to thousands of guidance counselors.”

The book was written during Cole’s college admission process. While Eric, CEO and founder of Ericho Communications, has written several self-help books on leadership and public relations, this is Cole’s first writing credit. Father-daughter relationships vary between most families, but Cole’s account of working with her old man is positive.

“He’s one of my best friends,” she says.

Though her father is use to dealing with businessoriented professionals, the pair was able to work together, says Cole. Her father found time to work with her not only as a coauthor but as a father, meaning road trips to college campuses and everything else that helps narrow down the laundry list of possibilities to a few top schools.

According to Cole, this narrowing down should start at the beginning of junior year.

“At the beginning of your junior year you should start thinking about where you want to visit,” says Cole. “By the end of the year you should have a list of where you want to apply.”

Life’s Little College Admission Insights came out in January of this year, a couple of months before Cole received her admission letter from Colby College in Maine. But her closeness to the subject gives her an insight into what college hopefuls want and need to know, an insight that older, more seasoned writers of college guides are too far removed to remember or have ever known.

The sort of advice she has for people applying to college, advice found in Life’s Little College Admission Insights, ranges from what sort of timeline students should follow to how

to stay open-minded about schools once you have found your dream school. The book is, in part, shaped by her personal experiences and the lessons she learned.

“It’s not wise to visit your top choice first; the other schools won’t seem as good,” says Cole, who applied to around 10.

Cole says she started the college application process off with an “uninformed goal,” Cole Yaverbaum a dream school she hadn’t researched. Part of the college application process, or any application process, involves being open to previously unexplored possibilities.

Though the age for college admissions may have passed you, some of the tips Life’s Little College Admission Insights offers are timeless. Whether you’re applying to school for your B.S., your M.A. or your Ph.D., it always pays to start early and be realistic. And, if things don’t work out with your dream school, keep everything in perspective. “[Being rejected] wasn’t really that tough,” says Cole. “It was easier than I thought it would be. The rejection came with a lot of acceptances.”

Life’s Little College Admissions Insights is currently available.

Join CAMPUS CIRCLE www.campuscircle.com

CALENDARTHE10SPOT

Going on Now!

BY FREDERICK MINTCHELL TUESDAYAUG. 24

Specially marked discounts on Toys, Apparel and Lubes throughout the store!

The Art of Surfboard Shaping Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; hammer.ucla.edu Legendary surfboard shaper Scott Anderson has been making custom surfboards at his Venice shop for over 20 years and has helped advance the evolution of surfboard design. Anderson discusses the physical properties of different models, design experiments and failures and the process of tailoring a custom board to the individual. 7 p.m.8:30 p.m. $7 for museum admission.

WEDNESDAYAUG. 18 Mike V’s Glory Bound Skate Park Tour SkateLab, 4226 Valley Fair St., Simi Valley; mikevallely.com The world-renowned skateboarding hero created this monthlong traveling festival, which features “a unique mix of skate competition, entertainment and fan participation like no other event of its kind.” $10.

THURSDAYAUG. 19 Latino International Film Festival Mann Chinese 6, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; latinofilm.org The 14th annual festival includes a full lineup of international award-winning features, short films, panels, workshops, musical performances and networking events. Runs through Aug. 25.

THURSDAYAUG. 19 Manhattan Beach Open Manhattan Beach Pier, 10 Manhattan Beach Blvd.; avp.com Players say once you win in Manhattan Beach, the “crown jewel” of the AVP Tour, you really have made it. After winning his first Manhattan Beach title in 2009, Sean Rosenthal hopes to add his name to the Pier again in 2010. The best men’s and women’s beach volleyball players compete every day through Sunday.

THURSDAYAUG. 19 Venice Art Crawl Kick-Off Party Venice Oceanfront Contemporary Art Gallery, 215 Ocean Front Walk; artedesayulita.com/vocaartgallery The kick-off party for this monthly art event that happens every third Thursday of the month features a live paint-off, DJs, dancing, stilt walkers, fire dancers, refreshments, a visit from Venice’s own Treeman and, of course, art from local artists. 5 p.m.-9 p.m. FREE.

FRIDAYAUG. 20 Power 106 Comedy Fiesta Gibson Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City; power106.com Scheduled comedians include Joy Koy, Kevin Hart, Craig Robinson, Maz Jobrani, Jeff Garcia, Earthquake, Joey Medina, Al Madrigal and Aries Spears. 8:15 p.m.

SATURDAYAUG. 21 Red Bull Flutag Rainbow Lagoon, Shoreline Drive, Long Beach; redbullusa.com Teams build homemade, humanpowered flying machines and pilot them off a 30-foot high deck in pursuit of aviation glory. College rivalries are in high gear as teams from USC, UCLA, Northern Arizona University, Cal State Long Beach, UC San Diego, University of Irvine, Arizona State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo take to the skies to compete for school pride. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. FREE.

SATURDAYAUG. 21 Speakeasy drinkeatplay.com/speakeasy The event (location is only disclosed to pre-purchased ticket holders) brings you back to the ’20s, complete with jazz bands, mixologists and over 100 top brands of gin, bourbon and scotch. Admission includes unlimited tastes and an opportunity to try creations from Los Angeles’ top mixologists. 7 p.m.-10:30 p.m. $40.

SUNDAYAUG. 22 Writers Faire UCLA; happenings.ucla.edu Get your creativity flowing, meet Writers’ Program instructors, visit with local writing-related professional and community organizations and enter a drawing to win free courses. Each hour features “mini-classes” and panels hosted by more than 60 professional writers who teach in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. FREE.

MONDAYAUG. 23 Inglorious Burlesque 3 Clubs, 1123 Vine St., Hollywood; mondanighttease.com The third annual burlesque tribute to Quentin Tarantino features parodies of his films, including Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. 10 p.m. Tix start at $20.

For more events, visit campuscircle.com/calendar.

To submit an event for consideration, e-mail calendar@campuscircle.net.

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THEARTOFLOVE

Q&A by lucia

This guy at my gym flirts with me whenever he sees me. He’s always very complimentary, telling me how beautiful I am, and once he even said, “I want a woman who looks just like you.” My first thought was: Why not me?

Despite all this flirtation, we’ve never gone out. He mentioned it casually once and I said yes, but he never followed through. I thought I would take matters into my own hands and ask him to meet up with me and my friends at a nightclub. He said he would, but didn’t come.

What should I do?

—Alex French author and journalist Max O’Rell said: “Flirtation is attention without intention.”

This guy definitely sounds interested but is unwilling to take things to the next level. This usually means a guy is afraid of being rejected or already attached – married, engaged or girlfriend.

Since you’ve clearly shown interest by saying yes when he asked you out and then inviting him out yourself, it’s probably the latter reason. Maybe he’s a flirt and says the same thing to many women, or maybe he’s sincerely interested but isn’t willing or able to go out with you.

I know it’s frustrating, but there’s actually nothing you can do. Even though his words say one thing, his actions show he’s unwilling to act on them.

The foundation of any strong relationship is friendship. Continue to engage in playful conversations with him and let him see you’re a cool girl. At some point in the future, if and when he becomes available, you’re sure to be at the top of his list.

Write to Lucia at theartoflove.net. Read an excerpt from Lucia’s Lessons of Love at lessonsoflove.net. Listen to Lucia live every Sunday at 3 p.m. PST on latalkradio.com.

Remember: Love inspires, empowers, uplifts and enlightens.

Campus Circle 8.18.10 - 8.24.10

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