PULSE
X Sunday, March 20, 2011
COMMENTARY
Making contact: The five best UFO films with the unidentified beings who sent them. Aside from depicting that contact in some sort of dreamlike hallucination state, the film spends a lot of time on the issue of science vs. faith. Mathew McConaughey is the religious friend who decries Foster’s lack of faith, and Jake Busey is a crazed fanatic with destructive plans. In the end, Foster’s character is saddled with the unwavering faith that her experience really happened, and the tables are turned.
By Eric Melin Special to the Journal-World
This weekend, the UFO Reykawvik Summit 2011 brought authors, investigators and researchers to Liberty Hall, 642 Mass., to discuss alien abduction and ongoing UFO sightings. Coincidentally, while this three-day conference visited our town, the new alien comedy “Paul,” starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two British nerds who discover an alien in Area 51, opened in theaters. The alien-invasion flick “Battle: Los Angeles” also opened last weekend, and in June, J.J. Abrams releases the highly anticipated “Super 8,” which deals with an alien presence found in 1979 Ohio. There are not a huge amount of films that deal seriously with the matter of extra-terrestrials and UFOs, but this list compiles some of the best. Honorable mentions: “The War of the Worlds” (1953 and 2005), “Flight of the Navigator” (1986), and “Knowing” (2009).
5. “Fire in the Sky” (1993) This low-budget thriller concentrates on the “true” story of a group of loggers in Arizona who experienced contact with a UFO. One of the men (D.B. Sweeney) was hit by a blinding light and disappeared — only to show up five days later, claiming to have been abducted by aliens. The story mostly focuses on his experience coming back home, the police investigation (all the men passed multiple lie detector tests), and the guilt of one of his friends (Robert Patrick) from having left him there. Even though some of the dialogue isn’t the best and it’s overbearingly earnest, the alien abduction scenes are welldone, and the film is a modest success. 4. “Contact” (1997) Robert Zemeckis adapted this Carl Sagan novel for the screen, casting Jodie Foster as a scientist who finds a
Images Special to the Journal-World
“THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL”
“FIRE IN THE SKY”
“E.T.”
“CONTACT” repeating series of prime numbers and a video of Hitler being broadcast from 26 light years away in space. It turns out to also contain plans for a machine that can
Special to the Journal-World
Spring break means time away from school, warmer weather and the chance to hang with friends, but who knew it could be so hip? This spring break, the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H., offers an alternative dance class for children from kindergarten through sixth grade. The theme for the camp is Hip Hop Happening. Teachers and staff at the Lawrence Arts Center will be joined by artists from the Kansas City Hip Hop Academy to instruct campers on the intricacies of urban dance. Founded in 2005, the Kansas City Hip Hop Academy was created in order to teach the art of hip-hop in a positive manner to children in the greater Kansas City area. Now, children in Lawrence have an opportunity to learn the different elements of the genre. Instructors from the Kansas City Hip Hop Academy will be teaching campers on Monday and Tuesday of the spring break session. The arts center teachers will then build from their instructions throughout the remainder of the week. The camp will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. MondayFriday at the arts center, 940 N.H. Lessons will include instructions on pop and lock and other hip-hop dance moves, but dancing will not be the only hip-hop form taught during the session. Campers will learn to write rhymes to incorporate into their own raps and how to hear hip hop rhythms and
Founded in 2005, the Kansas City Hip Hop Academy was created in order to teach the art of hip-hop in a positive manner to children in the greater Kansas City area. Now, children in Lawrence have an opportunity to learn the different elements of the genre. speak with the beat. A disc jockey will be on hand to teach kids about the art and technical aspects behind electronic beats and spinning. For those students who are more visually inclined, an instructor will be there to teach campers the art of tagging, mural work and how to create the hip-hop bubble lettering. Videographer Nathan Cardiff will also be putting together a video collage of activities throughout the camp. At 3:30 p.m. Friday, the camp will put on a Hip Hop Happening performance at the Lawrence Arts Center Theater, which is open to the public. Candi Baker, director of the dance program at the arts center is very excited for this year’s spring break session. She emphasizes that this will not be performances the kids watch, but interactive. “It’s not about showing us what they do, but showing the kids how to do it, too.” Baker first learned of the Kansas City Hip Hop Acade-
2. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) An alien named Klaatu (Michael Rennie) lands a UFO in Washington, D.C., and disappears within the city while his giant robot stands guard. This smart scifi film spends most of its time wrestling with
1. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) Steven Spielberg closes out the list because “Close Encounters” still contains the most convincing alien contact ever put to celluloid. The year was 1977, and the visual effects and models that created the film’s massive flying saucers with rounds of glowing lights are still impressive. Apart from the visuals, Spielberg puts together an even-handed account of one man’s journey (Richard Dreyfuss) to a mysterious UFO landing site, accompanied by the parallel story of a French scientist (François Truffaut) who is putting the mystery of recent unidentified sightings together to build a peaceful welcoming committee for the aliens. The writer/director’s peaceful version of alien contact is a welcome change from the hostile UFO assault movies that came before it, and it has something that other UFO films lack — a soothing resolution.
“CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND’ carry one human visitor to who knows where, and Foster eventually becomes the person who’ll make contact
Spring break opportunity for kids to sample hip-hop happenings By Sarah Aylward
3. “E.T.: The ExtraTerrestrial” (1982) What is there to say about this movie? Yes, it’s a about a cute little alien stranded on Earth who befriends a young boy (Henry Thomas), but it also has some scary undertones of sinister governmental control. Director Steven Spielberg engages the heart(light) and asks the audience to sympathize with poor E.T. rather than wanting him poked and prodded and studied by scientists. It may not have any deep or “serious” message, but by sticking with a view of the story through a child’s eyes, it has plenty of emotional connection. If that’s not an effective way to convince you of the possibility of alien life, I don’t know what is.
mankind’s penchant for war and violence. Klaatu issues a warning that if the world leaders do not terminate their destructive tendencies, “Planet Earth will be eliminated.” His experiences with a World War II widow (Patricia Neal) and her son give him hope, but the military keeps giving him trouble. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” spends most of its time grappling with the big picture of our human footprint and not special effects, and it remains a thoughtful classic. A Keanu Reeves remake in 2008 did nothing to complement the original’s legacy.
my during a workshop by the Lied Center for teachers centered on arts in education last year. Roscoe Johnson, of the Kansas City Hip Hop Academy, presented at the workshop and encouraged the teachers to write a rap about to creative represent their unique qualities. Baker said she enjoyed writing and performing the rap during the workshop. Johnson then re-performed her piece, showing her how to emphasize certain aspects of her rhyme in order to create a rap. The instructors are able to emphasize the positive aspects of hip-hop, “they give the kids a positive chance for self-expression.” Some elements of their instructions can help children with not only artistic expression, but school work, “the rhyming methods taught will help the kids with memorization techniques,” she says, “the goal of their lessons is to empower kids.” Already, 35 students have signed up for the spring break session and the camp could quickly fill. For students who can’t attend this camp, but have an interest in hip-hop, Baker says not to fret, hip-hop and jazz dance classes are offered throughout the year, with adult classes as well. Two teachers from the drama program, one from the dance program and one from the visual arts program will also be teaching throughout the spring break session. “I’m excited,” says Baker, “our kids get to learn something new and fun. It’s going to be a great week.”
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ARTS NOTE Italian organist performing in Topeka This concert may be scheduled for April Fools’ Day, but Italian concert organist Massimo Nosetti really is performing an organ recital at 7 p.m. April 1 as a part of Grace Cathedral’s Great Spaces Music & Arts Series. Massimo Nosetti, born in Alessandria, Italy, in 1960, studied organ, composition, choral music and conducting, and polyphonic composition at the National Conservatories of Turin and Milan, Italy. Following his time at the conservatories, he studied organ with P. Pidoux and J. Langlais. Currently he is professor of organ and composition at the National Conservatory in Cuneo and since 1981 has been titular organist at the Basilica of Santa Rita in Turin. Also from 1979 to 1994 he was director of music at the Turin Cathedral. A collection of his organ pieces, "A Portrait of M. Nosetti," has recently been released by Animus Music Publishing (G.B.). His "Ecce Lignum Crucis,” an orchestral work commissioned for the exhibition of the Holy Shroud in 1998 and 2000, has been performed and recorded by the RAI- Italian Radio Symphonic Orchestra. Grace Cathedral is located at 701 SW 8th Ave, in downtown Topeka. A freewill offering will be accepted and audience members are encouraged to bring canned food to be donated to Let’s Help of Topeka
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