4 CULTURE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014
KIGGINLA@MIAMIOH.EDU
Craft beer connoisseur to host Beer Academy CUISINE MADELEINE LAPLANTE-DUBE
FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Beer 101, craft beer tasting and an open bar. That is what the Oxford Community Arts Center (OCAC) has in store for Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Beer Academy Event. Beginning 7:30 p.m., the OCAC will be hosting a U.S. Open Beer Championship and Kona Bistrosponsored Beer 101 class, in which 50 participants will be able to learn about and taste 10 craft beers for the ticket price of $35. Caroline Croswell, the director of the OCAC, calls it “a combination of a class and a social event.” “There will be a craft beer tasting and a discussion on what the heck those beers actually are,” she said. Non-ticket holders are also wel-
come to come to the extra credit event, happening at Kona Bistro, which will be providing hors d’oeuvres from 8:30 to 9 p.m. These participants will be able to take part in the cash bar and live music along with the class participants, who will take part in an open bar instead. Dow Scoggins, director of the U.S. Open Beer Championship and president of BeerInfo.com, will be hosting the class. “We will be tasting 10 different types of craft beer, starting off with lighter beers and ending with the very heavy and very dark,” Scoggins said. Having been in the beer business for 25 years, Scoggins will be introducing those members of the class to the difference between craft beers as well as a little bit of history behind each one. “There’s always a story,” Scoggins said. Having began his stint in the real
world as a computer science graduate, craft beer began to spark Scoggins’ interest when he decided he wanted to start his own business.
It’s all about the community with the craft business. We’re not just selling beers.” DOW SCOGGINS
DIRECTOR OF U.S. OPEN BEER CHAPIONSHIPS
“I always liked fishing, soccer and beer growing up. I couldn’t be a fisherman, and I couldn’t be a soccer player, so I decided to get into beer,” Scoggins joked. Realistically, Scoggins helped start an empire. “In 1985, I read about a small brewery in Vermont in a ‘Times’ article,” Scoggins said. “There
weren’t any craft beers around at that time.” In turn, Scoggins relocated to Canada and began working coast to coast exploring and researching breweries. Scoggins went on to start Georgia’s first microbrewery, and at the time was the youngest brewery owner in the United States. “Today, there are 3,000 breweries in the United States. When I started, I was number 175,” Scoggins said. As the director of the U.S. Open Beer Championships, Scoggins is also exposed to award-winning brews annually. Caroline Croswell wanted to bring in Scoggins as a committee member, but he did her one better. He offered to put on the Beer Academy class. “What we’re hoping [with the Beer Academy class] is to build on the U.S. Open Beer Championships
and also to bring in young people and young professionals into the Arts Center,” Croswell said. The Oxford Community Arts Center is, very community driven, Croswell said. With events like Beer Academy, the Center hopes to create awareness within the Oxford and Miami University community as well as support local arts. “Craft beer is a kind of art,” Croswell said. For Scoggins, the beer business is all about the people, too. “It’s all about the community with the craft business,” Scoggins said. “We’re not just selling beers, we’re selling ourselves and getting people to join in on that.” Scoggins will bring a bit of that community to the Oxford Community Arts Center this Thursday. To be a part of it for an evening, purchase Beer Academy tickets online at ocacbeeracademy.bpt.me.
ANGELO GELFUSO THE MIAMI STUDENT
HARMONIZING IN HALL Hall Auditorium was home to the Miami University Wind Ensemble Wednesday, where they performed a concert conducted by Miami’s Gary A. Speck and University of Texas’ Jerry Junkin, who is also music director of the Dallas Wind Symphony and the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonica.
‘Horns’ balances fear and feeling FILM DEVON SHUMAN
FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Nowadays, it seems that cheap horror movies are a dime a dozen. Every time you turn around, Hollywood is releasing another “Paranormal Activity,” yet another film filled with ghosts and demons and supposedly “based on a true story”. Whether being titled “The Conjuring or Sinister or Insidious,” all of these horrifying flicks are one and the same: they lack strong storylines and character development and instead, derive their terror from large CGI budgets and clever use of visual and sound effects designed to startle you out of your seat. If this is what you are looking for, do not waste your time with “Horns,” the latest from director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes,” “Mirrors”). Though touted as a horror movie and set for a theatrical release on Halloween, “Horns” is not your run-of-the-mill scary movie and is, in fact, not really a horror movie at all. Hiding behind its facade of hellish overtones, creepy setting and music is a love story, and a beautiful, heart-wrenching one at that. Based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Joe Hill (son of horror master, Stephen King), “Horns” follows the story of Ignatius “Ig” Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe), a man in a small New Hampshire town who finds himself in the spotlight after being blamed for the rape and murder of Merrin Williams (Juno Temple), his longtime girlfriend and the love of his life. Shunned by his town and brutally scrutinized by reporters, Ig turns to the bottle and after one night of particularly heavy drinking, wakes up to find that he has sprouted two devil horns. As he goes about his day, he begins to realize that the horns have certain powers. Everyone he talks to suddenly reveals to him their darkest, most animalistic urges and if he wants, Ig can make them give in to these impulses. With his newfound abilities, Ig sets out to
clear his name and find Merrin’s true killer. As a storyteller, Hill is a master at balancing fear with emotion, a trait that was most certainly passed down from his father. In the same way that King paralleled the horrors of prison with Andy and Red’s friendship in “The Shawshank Redemption,” Hill balances Ig’s terrifying situation with the story of his and Merrin’s beautiful, yet doomed, relationship.
Hiding behind its facade of hellish overtones, creepy setting and music is a love story, and a beatiful, heart-wrenching one Using the same non-linear storyline as Hill, coupled with clever use of musical score and cinematography which the written word cannot provide, Aja captures this balance perfectly. In one scene we have a nostalgic flashback to a scantily clad Merrin dancing seductively against a sunlit backdrop to the tune of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” while in the next we see Ig in horns and a hoodie, driving alone on a rainy day. In this sense, Aja’s adaptation of the novel is spot-on, and in fact, he comes close to nailing it overall. In addition to capturing the dark and beautiful tone of the book, and imitating Hill’s Tarantino-esque, non-linear storytelling technique, Aja finds the same balance of devilish humor and pathos evident in the novel. Due to his unique powers, Ig begins to have interesting interactions with his peers. Some add comic relief to the story, such as when he convinces two reporters to beat each other up in order to win an interview with him. Others, however, tug at our heartstrings such as when his mother reveals that she hates being around him. Helping Aja strike this balance is Radcliffe himself who shows a true
actor’s range in his ability to make us both laugh and cry. Putting on a surprisingly believable American accent and truly becoming the defeated, yet defiant character of Ig Perrish, Radcliffe achieves his stated goal of proving he is more than just Harry Potter (although this doesn’t mean that you still won’t lose a little bit of your childhood when you hear your favorite boy wizard drop the F-bomb). Alongside him is a flurry of other great acting performances, from David Morse’s emotional depiction of Merrin’s lonely and depressed father to Heather Graham’s portrayal of the giddy waitress who wants a slice of the limelight. Despite the attention to detail and wonderful acting, where Aja’s adaptation ultimately fails is in its inability to capture the in-depth themes and psychology behind the book. Where the novel explores the ideas of sin, suffering and heaven vs. hell, the movie chooses to stay at the surface and focus solely on Ig’s search for Merrin’s killer. One cause of this is the poor performance by Max Minghella as Ig’s best friend and lawyer, Lee Tourneau. While in the book Tourneau is a rich and complex character, Minghella fails to show more range as an actor than Wilson in “Castaway.” To his credit, however, he had very little material to work with. Time that was spent on overly indulgent special effects, such as a full frontal shotgun head shot or an excessively trippy drug overdose, should have been devoted to fully developing Minghella’s character’s backstory and motivations. If Aja had succeeded here, he would have come close to a perfect adaptation. Ignoring the novel for a moment, however, what we are left with is a great stand-alone film, a refreshing break from the current onslaught of cheap, shallow horror flicks. “Horns” explores the themes of love, friendship and truth, and forces us to confront who we are and what we believe in.
A cappella community to collaborate in concert MUSIC NORA MOLINARO
FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Miami University’s a cappella ensembles, Open Fifth, The Misfitz, The Treblemakers, Just Duet and Soul2Soul, are hosting a joint concert to showcase their talent and love for music 7 p.m. Oct. 18 at Hall Auditorium. Every year, the a cappella groups gain new members through auditions. Each group is unique in their own way in style and voice. “We sound best when we sing R&B music, but we’ve sung almost every genre at least once,” Open Fifth music director and Miami senior, De’Aaron Isaac, said. Open Fifth is an all-men a cappella group that formed in 2013. With 17 members, the men of Open Fifth are well prepared to get everyone clapping and dancing in their seats. “One song we really are excited about, is singing ‘Beautiful’ by Christina Aguilera,” Isaac said. “We can’t wait to share it with our fans and really bring the beauty of that song in the form of a cappella. For the future, we are really excited to sing ‘Rather Be,’ which will be a joint song with The Misfitz.” The Misfitz is the oldest all-female a cappella group at Miami, with 17 current members and 70 alumni. “Looking back, auditioning for The Misfitz was the best decision I could have made for myself because I probably wouldn’t have met more than half of these girls at Miami if I hadn’t joined. We are all involved in different groups, backgrounds, majors and lives on campus and I love that,” The Misfitz President Tara Rissmeyer said. “For the A Cappella All-Stars concert, the Misfitz are performing ‘Ain’t It Fun’ by Paramore, ‘Bang Bang’ by Jessie J and
‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor, with a couple surprises here and there throughout the set.” Another all-female a cappella group, The Treblemakers, are also ready for their performance at Hall Auditorium. The Treblemakers was formed in 2010 and stands today with 16 girls total. “I absolutely love performing with my girls,” The Treblemakers Treasurer Julia Schroyer said. “We’ve really grown together as a group over the course of my four years so it’s fun to perform and show off the hard work we put in.” The Treblemakers PR chair, Miami Elizabeth Stermer, said hearing all the other groups and the songs they have been working on and are showcasing is always really fun, especially since they’re all pretty good friends within the groups. Just Duet, formally known as The Mergers, is currently the only co-ed a cappella group open to all majors. The rename happened in 2013, in an effort to make the group open to anyone on campus. Just Duet has seventeen members: nine women and eight men. “I have always felt that music is something that brings people together. It creates this special bond between people and that’s exactly how I feel with Just Duet,” Kristen Condon said. Just Duet will perform “We Owned the Night” by Lady Antebellum, among others. Soul2Soul consists of 18 men that pride themselves on making meaningful connections with everyone in the audience, and making a significant, positive difference in their lives through song. Soul2Soul performs a variety of songs including an upbeat EDM medley and “Break Free” by Ariana Grande. Tickets for the A Cappella All Stars concert are available at the door or for pre-sale at the Shriver Box Office.