Sir Shelby the Chivalrous

By Tom Rogers

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Bearly Built Page 2

By Tom Rogers

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Art Feature – Eddie Kihm

By Eddie Kihm

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College Security Report: July 12-25, 2010

July 12
11 a.m. — A SCAD student reported to security that her bike had been stolen from her off campus residence. She stated that she left the bike unsecured in her yard on July 9 and that she noticed that the bike missing on July 11. Savannah-Chatham Metro Police responded to the scene.

July 14
5 p.m. — A SCAD student reported that his 50cc scooter had been stolen from the north side of Arnold Hall. He stated that he left the scooter unsecured at 5 p.m. and the scooter was missing when he returned at 6:30 p.m. The student did not want Savannah-Chatham Metro Police notified.

11:59 p.m. — Security observed two black males attempting to lift a scooter over the gate at Turner Annex. Savannah-Chatham Metro Police was called and an operations manager responded to the scene. The two males fled when they noticed security approaching. Police arrived but did not complete a report because the property was recovered.

July 19
5:45 a.m. — Security was contacted by Sonitrol. A Strobe light alarm was activated at Turner House. A Security operational manager and supervisor completed an exterior and interior patrol of Turner House. No discrepancies were found. The alarm was silenced and reset.

11 a.m. — A building manager called security informed them that a former student was being arrested for previously stealing from Montgomery Hall. The theft was recorded by CCTV.

July 23
7:10 p.m. — Security responded to a power outage at Casey House. The power was restored at 7:21 p.m. and it was determined that the outage was caused by the City of Savannah doing utility work on River Street.

7:10 p.m. — Security responded to a power outage at Norris Hall. The power was restored at 7:21 p.m. and it was determined that the outage was caused by the City of Savannah doing utility work on River Street.

7:10 p.m. — Security responded to a pull-station alarm activation with evacuation at Hamilton Hall. Savannah Fire Department responded to the scene and it was determined that the false alarm was caused by the City of Savannah doing utility work on River Street.

7:11 p.m. — Security responded to a trouble alarm at Trustees Theater. The alarm reset itself. It was determined that the false alarm was caused by the City of Savannah doing utility work on River Street.

7:11 p.m. — Security responded to a trouble alarm at Gordon Hall. The alarm reset itself. It was determined that the false alarm was caused by the City of Savannah doing utility work on River Street.

July 24
10:06 p.m. — Security responded to a call box activated at Bergen Hall. A patrol was conducted of the area, but no one was discovered in the vicinity of the call box.

July 25
12:31 a.m. — Security responded to an alarm activation at Boundary Village. The alarm was determined to be a false alarm and was silenced and reset.

4:02 a.m. — Security responded to a trouble alarm activated at the rear print room of Poetter Hall. The alarm was determined to be a false alarm and was silenced and reset.

Bearly Built Page 1

By Tom Rogers

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Palin’s New Word

By Tom Rogers

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A new kind of heist: Your mind is their mission

By Katelan Cunningham

You fall into a dream without knowing how you got there. You dream that you’re falling, but not hitting bottom, and then you wake up—that’s called “the kick.” You can also wake up by getting killed in your dream. How do you know that it’s you who’s dreaming? Your totem. It’s a small weighted object that is yours alone so you know when it’s your dream you’re in, and when it’s someone else’s i.e. dream sharing.

You got that?

With only a few exceptions, 2010 summer flicks have been a bit of a snoozefest. Where are the explosions? Where are the mouth-gaping shots of vast foreign places with the heroes emerging over the horizon? Where’s the adventure, the fast cars and the big guns? Leave it to Christopher Nolan to put out just what you’re asking for. But “Inception” is more than an adventure on foreign soil; it’s an adventure on land that we’re all foreign to: the mind.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, the best in his profession of extraction. With the technology to enter people’s subconscious through their dreams, extractors go deep into people’s minds and find and steal information. It’s a kind of theft that leaves no fingerprints, only a remnant of something you can’t be sure even happened when you wake up.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is his pointman, Arthur. Gordon-Levitt has been on a spell of indie movies, playing anything from a calloused gay prostitute to a hopelessly romantic greeting card writer, so the only surprise in adding this role his resumé is that it’s not something you can see at the Sundance Film Festival.

Although often playing a quick-witted angsty youth in films like “Juno” and “Whip It,” Ellen Page is the architect on this team of dream pioneers. Her character, Ariadne is hired to work on the next near-impossible assignment: inception.

Instead of stealing an idea, inception is planting an idea. While it sounds simple enough, “no idea is simple when you have to plant it in someone’s mind.” Inception is pure inspiration and therefore must be buried so deeply in the subconscious that it can’t be traced. It needs to look like an original thought or it will not stick. It’s a feat most find impossible, but Cobb (DiCaprio) and his team take on the challenge.

The client: Saito (Ken Watanabe), a major player in the business of energy.

The goal: To implant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the leader of an opposing energy corporation. This idea is intended lead to the end of his father’s energy empire, which borderlines that of a world superpower.

While attempting inception, Cobb must battle his own memories, his wife and the guilt of his past in order to make a future for himself and his children. Inception can be his way out of his own tunnel of dissatisfaction with reality.

Big money productions are charted territory for DiCaprio, star of “The Departed,” and more recently “Shutter Island.” Just like in those roles, DiCaprio is entrancing as the lead with a mysterious past and a torturous motivation. Page’s character is more openly compassionate than any other roles we’ve seen her play, and while she was only ten when DiCaprio starred in “Titanic,” she shows no lack of experience acting alongside the blockbuster icon.

It’s no surprise to see Gordon-Levitt in his role as Arthur, or any role, really. He continues to play characters who push him in a different direction than he’s tried before. Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner for Best Actress in 2008 for “La Vie En Rose”), has an elegant, but villainous and disturbing performance as Cobb’s wife.

Other than the paternal, British guidance we expect from Michael Caine, his name on the poster doesn’t seem to be more than a nod to the fact that this is a Christopher Nolan film. But it’s not hard to see that this is written and directed by the same guy who did “The Dark Knight.” The movie is big. Big names, big chase scenes, big explosions, big crime.

The film is, at it’s heart, a heist movie. A team is assembled, each with their own expertise. A plan is devised. Research is done. There are glitches, bad guys and guns along the way. But when nothing in a dream is quite as it seems, the next move is harder to predict.

When you can live in your dream, and build it up or tear it down at will, reality seems foreign and confining. In this place where you acknowledge all of the possibilities of your subconscious, you can create a new reality, but it’s all still in your mind. Five minutes in the real world is an hour in your dream, so you can live for hours, days, even years, and wake up as though you’ve stolen time. So if you had the option of that escape, would you take it? And how far would you let it take you?

It’s a question which I challenge anyone to try and tackle while finding yourself deeper and deeper into the dream realms Nolan has created. “Inception” takes the audience to a world where the subconscious is not a state of mind, but a location more concrete than we can comprehend. “Inception” is complex and imaginative without boundaries. At times, the complexities have you feeling a little perplexed, but you are in the careful hands of the man who brought you “Memento” and “The Prestige” and before you know it, you can take a deep breath, and you’ll surface all the wiser having seen the unreality of a dream.

Contact Katelan Cunningham.

Edward Sharpe rolls through Savannah with passion

By Jennifer Sparkman

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros came alive with the heart felt sound of pianos, guitars, trumpets and tambourines at Trustees Theater July 11.

Before Mr. Sharpe, alias of Alex Ebert came onstage, his Magnetic Zeros played a small set. Ebert was present, but stayed out of the limelight. He sat down with a small drum set on the floor and kept the beat.

At first I thought it was going to be a boring sit-down show. I felt I wasn’t allowed to stand up because I would get in the way of others in the audience. It took one brave soul to get up from his seat and start dancing with his girl to get the whole audience moving, but it happened.

Being right at the foot of the stage gave me a sense of closeness with the band, who felt like a family hanging out on stage, creating a memory with their new friends. Being so close to such creative spirits was inspiring as an artist and kept me deaf for days.

As the show kept going, barefoot Ebert danced around stage and high fived his fans in the audience. You could truly see how much he and his band loved performing. It seemed like a throwback to the hippie generation, from their appearance to the band’s equipment (which included and accordion, trumpet and a really well worn piano).

Jade Castrinos, singer in the band, asked the audience towards the end of the show if “everyone wanted to go ‘Home?’” and, of course, the crowded screamed yes. By “home,” Castrinos was talking about “Home,” an instantly classic country-folk song from the band’s album “Up from Below.” It is a song that talks about where you make your home and who you spend it with and has become one of the band’s most well known.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is one of the most inventive bands I’ve come across in a long time. There was a point in the show where they didn’t have any more songs to play and they made one up on the spot. Ebert told us he wanted to improve and it was magical being apart of them making a new song. Creativity like that makes a lasting impression. As a result, it was a night to remember.

Contact Jennifer Sparkman.

District Quarterly asks, “What is student media nostalgic for?”

By Jennifer Sparkman

As the third part of the “What is student media nostalgic for?” video series, District Quarterly asks more of the SCAD student media staff in Keys Hall to answer the question, “What are you nostalgic for?” In this installment of the video series, Emily Tolan who’s currently the summer Music Director, loves a certain type of animal.

District Quarterly is now accepting nostalgia submissions of any medium. The deadline for submissions is August 20.

Visual content needs to be 300 dpi
Written content: less than 1700 words
Video and audio submissions: less than 15 minutes

For more information check out the website and check out new videos every week as part of the “What is student media nostalgic for?” series leading up to the submission deadline.

Contact Jennifer Sparkman.

“Knight and Day” offers formulaic fun

By Christopher Smith

“Knight and Day,” while a predictable action movie, offers some chemistry with its leads that make the movie an enjoyable fare.

Tom Cruise is the handsome devil-may-care Roy Miller, a federal agent who goes off grid in order to secure a mysterious device called the Zephyr. He is a precise, clean and efficient spy who carries the charm despite the grisly body count. June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is not. Forget espionage and conspiracy, she’s just trying to get to her sister’s wedding on time. However, when a series of unlikely events pair these two together, Diaz’s character falls for the thrilling adventure and the rugged charm of Cruise.

Cruise carries the bulk of the movie. In fact, his absence is felt when he steps off-camera. Diaz is funny enough as the girl-next-door turned spy, but only when the two work together the movie really shines. Cruise, as the skilled and wisecracking antithesis to Diaz’s panic and miscalculation, works surprisingly well.

The action sequences themselves are done with professional ease. The camera never disorients and the action always runs like a smooth ride. Car chases, showdowns, shootouts and everything you’d expect from a spy movie never leave one feeling alienated or confused. The globetrotting nature of the movie also brings some really impressive shots of far away places like Austria and Spain, even if the flick lacks real depth or commentary.

If anything, the movie faltered with its rushed nature. A balance between action and character is hard to find, but it becomes clear that secondary characters are truly secondary. All chips are laid down for Cruise and Diaz, leaving other characters undeveloped and flat. Paul Dano of “Little Miss Sunshine” is thrown in as a young genius who offered up some pretty funny moments himself, but he is soon moved out of the limelight for more Cruise wit. Meanwhile, the central villains (portrayed by Peter Saarsgard and Jordi Molla) remained stock characters. They’re bad because they’re bad and to ask why they are evil would betray the nature of the movie as strictly fun. Still, its a problem worth noting. How basic can a villain be portrayed before they become forgettable?

Overall, it is a formula movie and never tries to be something more. Comparing it to other summer action flicks from this summer might extenuate its flaws, but its not a bad movie. Yes, it has fewer laughs than “The A-Team.” And yes, it lacks the intensity of “Predators.” However, “Knight and Day” is still a fun summer flick worth seeing, if only on DVD.

Contact Christopher Smith.

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