Observer the
The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Volume 44 : Issue 43
Monday, November 2, 2009
ndsmcobserver.com
Irish defend the Alamodome in rout of Cougars Football team, Band receive warm welcome for San Antonio game
Students excited after Irish crush Wash St. in primetime game
By LIZ O’DONNELL
By MEGAN HEMLER
News Writer
News Writer
The Notre Dame community was welcomed to San Antonio with open arms this weekend as the Irish football team traveled to the Alamodome to play their first ever “home away from home” game. Director of game day operations Mike Seamon said the game felt more like a bowl game than a road game due to the abundance of support the team received from the city and fans. “We wanted to have an academic element, a faith element, a service element, a social element and an athletic element,” Seamon said. “We wanted all these different core Notre Dame
The football team may have been 1,000 miles away from South Bend in San Antonio, Texas, but homesickness did not prevent the Irish from dominating Washington State at the Alamo Dome Saturday. In the first off-site home game televised during primetime hours, the Irish came on strong from the beginning, a change from their recent pattern of nail biting wins. “I was really happy to win by more than seven points,” senior Alicia Morgan said. “It was a lot less stressful.” The Irish took an early lead with Golden Tate catching two touchdown passes, includinga 50-yard Hail Mary.
see ALAMO/page 6
Observer launches updated Web site Observer Staff Report
The Observer launched a new Web site Friday with updated features and increased multimedia capabilities. The new site features l i n k s t o T h e O b s e r v e r ’s Tw i t t e r account, The Observer sports blog The Casual Observer, The Irish Insider Podcast and the S c e n e s e c t i o n ’s m u s i c playlist. Vi e w e r s c a n a l s o p a g e through a digital copy of the print version of The Observer. T h e n e w We b s i t e a l s o includes a comment feature. After Friday’s launch, The O b s e r v e r ’s n e w We b s i t e was the most viewed college news site on College Publisher throughout the weekend. College Publisher runs the Web sites of nearly 600 college newspapers. The Observer is currently the sixth most-viewed Web site on College Publisher.
INSIDE
TODAY’S PAPER
VANESSA GEMPIS/The Observer
A mariachi band entertains fans at the Alamo at a pep rally Friday in anticipation. The band was part of a weekend designed to incorporate local culture with the gameday experience.
see IRISH/page 4
‘Loyal Daughters and Sons’ returns to ND By TESS CIVANTOS News Writer
Notre Dame students will have an opportunity to see their most private stories and personal decisions played out on stage three nights this week in the fourth annual production of “Loyal Daughters and Sons.” The play, which is made entirely for, by and about Notre Dame students, began as then-senior Maddison Liddy’s thesis project in the spring of 2006. Liddy used anonymous interviews with Notre Dame
students to construct a play that explores gender and sexuality at Notre Dame. The play has since evolved with new directors and new interview material, but its purpose remains the same — to create healing, education and awareness of sexual violence. “The script of ‘Loyal Daughters and Sons’ is a living document, so there is some old and some new material,” codirector Katherine Khorey said. “Some material is taken from interviews last spring,
WU YUE/The Observer
Meghan Hartmann performs in the 2007 production of “Loyal see PLAY/page 6
Senior filmmaker releases ‘Under the Influence’ By ASHLEY CHARNLEY Saint Mary’s Editor
Photo courtesy of IMDB.com
A screen shot from senior Mark Lyons’, left, “Under the Influence”
Breaking into the film industry is not an easy task, and it is one that senior film major Mark Lyons is growing familiar with. Lyons co-wrote and starred in the film “Under the Influence” with director Joe Wilka. The film was released yesterday on AT&T, Verizon and Charter cable providers. The film, an 85-minute comedy, includes a cast of Lyons’ friends and others who aren’t actually pursuing careers in acting. It was made “just for
kicks,” and Lyons wrote it with Wilka during his sophomore year at Notre Dame. The film — with the tagline “Four Friends. One Night. Infinite Possibilities” — shows the misadventures of four high school friends who decide to crash a party where one of their ex-girlfriends will be. The party is broken up by the police and the four friends are then split up, and the rest of the film focuses on how they try to meet again. Lyons said the idea came because he knew his friends
see FILM/page 6
Jerusalem study abroad program update page 3 ◆ Top five ‘Glee’ performances page 10 ◆ Irish Insider analysis pullout ◆ Viewpoint page 8