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Arts&Entertainment
corinthian
Know Artists You OUGHTA (Around Davis) Chege Whidby
Richard Wilson
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ou walk into the band room and you hear the piano playing, you look around the corner and what do you see? Senior Chege Whidby rehearsing one of his many creations. At the age of 9, Whidby started taking piano lessons but stopped to take karate. After receiving his black belt, Whidby’s mom put him back in piano lessons with Garden Kennedy through JANIS. “I’ve grown as a musician and in life just through all the people I’ve met through JANIS,” said Whidby. Whidby began to create his own music as he grew older. “I think there are two kinds of musicians, the ones who teach themselves and the ones who were taught,” said Whidby. Through this philosophy Whidby composed his first piece titled “Marvie Steco Richmes*Yaard”, or “self taught musicians”. While playing the piano is Whidby’s main instrument, he also plays guitar. He plans to study music in college and hopefully make a career out of his talents. Last Saturday night Whidby’s reggae
Katie Burns/THE CORINTHIAN
Michael Barton/THE CORINTHIAN
CREATING MUSIC Senior Chege Whidby playing one of his many creations.
STRUMMIN’ AWAY Junior Richard Wilson rehearsing one of his own pieces.
rock band, Braata, performed in the Hayward Battle of the Bands. The event took place at the Chabot College Performing Arts Center and his band took second, competing with 12 other bands.
s a kid, Junior Richard Wilson played the clarinet, but after a while decided it wasn’t for him. However, a few years ago Wilson’s friend taught him a song on the guitar. When he started to learn the chords
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on the guitar and decided to begin playing the piano again. Now Wilson writes his own songs and lyrics, one of which he performed at the talent show earlier this year. Among the songs Wilson has written, his favorite is “Livin’ the Dream” because it encourages people to follow their dreams. Wilson describes his music as acoustic alternative with simple, meaningful lyrics influenced by Simple Plan and Relient K. “My dream is to be out there with music, but it doesn’t just come to you, you gotta work for it,” said Wilson. That is exactly what he’s doing. Most days you can find Wilson in the band room during lunch practicing on the piano. Wilson recently finished his first album and hopes to record it soon. Wilson plans on passing out his CD for free to kids around Davis. “I want to make sure kids like my music and that it really touches people,” he said. While most of Wilson’s songs are with the guitar, that’s not where his musical talent ends, he also plays the piano, bass guitar, and drums.
Milk inappropriate? Or Modesto conservative? Lenka comes
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sychotic murders, bloody pickaxes, serial rapists… I’m sure you’ve seen them, right? Those movies that leave you feeling nervous, scared, and a little nauseated as you’re leaving the theater. Those are the type of movies that give me nightmares, make coming home to a quiet, dark house at eleven-thirty at night a little creepy…or a lot creepy, really. But seriously – Milk? This movie was the last thing to frighten me. Filled with amazing cinematography, great use of historical footage, and better yet, the amazing recollection of a tragic incident in our own state, Milk is a major political eye-opener. It’s these kinds of movies that our community should be excited to see, no matter their age or political affiliation. I failed to see why I had to travel half an hour to Manteca to view it. But then I remember… I live in Modesto. The Central Valley. California’s most conservative region. The only place where a gay-activist movie would be considered a greater evil than the story of a crazed axemurderer dismembering people and sending their hearts in chocolate Valentine’s boxes to their significant others. Surely a liberal activist movie like Milk wouldn’t make money in this community. But then again… who should decide that? I understand that a giant movie corporation might look at the political geography of the area and decide that a movie wouldn’t make enough money to be profitable in a region, but by denying Modesto citizens the opportunity to view this movie, they are undermining the process of movie making. The goal of movie theater corporations is the same as any other corporation: to make money. So I’m sure when the makers of Milk, Focus
Features, attempted to book their film in more traditional regions, they had a difficult time ensuring that the conservative groups would spend ten dollars to sit through a movie they may or may not agree with. JAMIEE COOK T h e Features Editor director of Milk had a vision, like any director or writer. The story of Harvey Milk was put into movie format to teach the current generation about the struggles of the gay community and how Milk made so many contributions to that fight. Shouldn’t that knowledge be accessible to all people, in all political, social and geographical regions? Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected to major office in the entire country. This movie incorporates real footage of the 70’s riots and protests to the anti-gay legislation and brutal treatment of homosexuals by police officials with documentary-style acting, making the experience as close as possible to viewing the actual struggle of the era. From the moment the movie opened, I could sense that the directing was going to be phenomenal; the flawless transition between Milk’s recorded pre-assassination tape, historical footage and brilliant acting is completely deserving of the eight Academy Award nominations it has received. Milk, played by Sean Penn, struggled through multiple elections before making the board of Supervisors in San Francisco. During his rising political career, he created a haven for gay men facing discrimination, reaching out not only to his own community but to men of all ages from all states in the country. Harvey Milk was assassinated by fellow Supervisor Dan White not long after he took office. Shouldn’t such a monumental event in California’s history be accepted in all regions? Other historical feature films (often filled with much more violence, sex, and
inappropriate language than Milk) have played at Regal and Brenden. Why not Milk? This is the type of movie we should be encouraging our community to see, not avoiding it because of its blatant acceptance of the true event. Not only is it educational, it’s truthful – this type of sexual orientation-based discrimination still occurs today, if not to the extent that it was in the 70’s. How can we encourage our children and youth – the political future of California, America, and the world at large – to be open minded and accepting of differences if we condemn a mere movie as inappropriate? This is the struggle of fellow human beings, their fight for civil rights in a homophobic community… how can we expect an open minded, peaceful society when movies and other forms of media that assert human differences are censored? Despite the way the Central Valley voted on Proposition 8 last November, despite our political history of ardent conservatism, despite the majority opinion that may or may not be present in Modesto… or maybe because of all those things, shouldn’t Milk be playing in this region?
to Modesto
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By Alexandra Falk Corinthian Staff
walked into Modesto Virtual with low expectations. Some singers sound terrible live, so why should Lenka be any different? To say the least, I completely underestimated her. Lenka is a solo pop star on the rise. Her style has been compared to Regina Spektor and Yael Naim, but she has a style all her own. The petite, thirty year old, Australian native, pop singer had a voice that filled the entire room and flowed through every enthusiastic fan in there. She began the evening by singing “Trouble is a Friend” with effortless passion. I was impressed by her comfort and stage presence. She was completely at ease on the small stage in front of an intimate crowd of adoring fans. Her voice live is almost as good as her voice is on the radio, so I really enjoyed being there. Though I had previous doubts about her performance, Lenka had quite the stage presence with her light dancing and interaction with the crowd. When it came time about midway through the show for Lenka to perform her hit “The Show” the crowd was more than eager to participate. Lenka gently instructed for us to sing out the verse “I want my money back” when the time came, and we dutifully fulfilled her request. At one point, Lenka’s band left the stage and she sang solo, all the attention was focused on her and she delivered yet another flawless piece. The concert seemed to end too quickly. Lenka and her band rushed upstairs for water and a quick rest, but hastily came down to mingle with their fans. Overall, I was extremely impressed. Her voice and her lyrics are so unique, they draw you in. I am proud to say that, after her amazing performance, I am a Lenka fan and I enjoyed The Show.