Collegiate Times

by Nick Smirniotopoulos

The summertime is often when the big films hit the theaters, hoping that having students on summer break will translate into large box office sellers.

Last summer, which I seemed to be the summer for comic book movies, boasted such greats as “Green Lantern,” “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

While this summer doesn’t boast the same comic heroes, there is sure to be a wealth of thrillers and action films drawing a similar crowd.

Here is my top 5 list for this summer.

1. “The Dark Knight Rises” — It may have taken a while to come out with the third installment after the unexpected death of Heath Ledger, but the release is finally coming. “The Dark Knight” made box office records, and I expect this film will follow along in its footsteps.

Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman

Release Date: July 20

2. “The Avengers” — This Marvel comics classic has an all-star cast and follows in the footsteps of last summer’s popular comic hero theme. With a whole host of famous comic heroes — portrayed by famous actors — this film is sure to be highly entertaining, and has already received a positive response from international audiences.

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson

Release Date: May 4

3. “Savages” — Based on the New York Times’ best selling crime novel, this plot sees an unlikely group team up to compete against a drug cartel to raise the best marijuana. This crime thriller, directed by Oliver Stone, is slated to deliver action, drama and heart-wrenching tension.

Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Selma Hayek, John Travolta

Release Date: June 6

4. “The Expendables 2” — While some sequels turn out rather disappointing, this stacked cast is not likely to disappoint. The movie is likely to offer the similar entertaining, action-packed plot line to the first film.

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Release Date: August 17

5. “The Bourne Legacy” — The fourth installment of the popular series leaves Bourne out of the story and highlights the back story of his fellow operative assassin. While the plot will surely miss Bourne, director Tony Gilroy — the series’s former screenwriter — will likely bring the consistency and quality the first three films have displayed.

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz

Release Date: August 3

The fight between superheroes and villains is a reoccurring theme and longtime tradition for many action movies. Children often grow up with their favorite comic book characters and continue to cherish that part of their life into adulthood.

Marvel Comics specifically, has been a longtime producer of comic books and some of the world’s most iconic superheroes. Characters like Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man and the Hulk are simply a few of these well known heroes. The Avengers — a team made up of the majority of the previously stated characters as well as Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and more — have made their mark in Marvel history.

For those who aren’t familiar with this story, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) calls upon different superheroes to put together a team. Yoki (Tom Hiddleston), a Norse god and brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who was banished in the past, is accidentally brought back. He sets off to earth to steal the Tesseract— a cube and powerful energy source. Yoki creates an army, and the Avengers are brought together to combat him and to save the world from danger.

After many of these cartoon characters were individually brought to the big screen, Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ is finally making its debut in America May 4. However, the movie has already been shown in foreign theaters and has been said by the media to have made an incredible impact. Disney, which acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009 released the film, which was said to have made $174.8 million so far. Both critics and fans have been giving the movie high ratings.

Sean Penn receives 2012 Peace Summit Award from former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev

by Nick Smirniotopoulos

I have always felt that having celebrity status should warrant somewhat of an obligation to be use the widespread attention to do some good.

Since celebrities’ claim to fame is based solely on artistic or athletic talent, many would probably not agree with me. But while they may not have authentic political or scholarly experience, garnering public support and possessing a passion to make a change can go a long way.

While some celebrities go about their lives as if their sole purpose is to entertain – sometimes themselves more than others – there are some out there who attempt to take on the responsibility of being in the public eye to make a difference.

Actor Sean Penn was recently awarded the 2012 Peace Summit Award for his humanitarian work in Haiti. Penn has spent much of his time and resources working to rebuild Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake.

Haiti’s poor infrastructure and high poverty lent itself to disaster once the earthquake struck, killing more than 300,000.

Penn is the CEO of the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which manages two relief camps for 18,000 people. Penn’s relief organization works to give displaced Haitians access to basic human services, including housing, education and health services.

Penn received the award Wednesday in front of a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates – quite the crowd for an actor. Despite the prestige and success of those in attendance, Penn was at ease sharing his views and his passion, urging the congregation to not forget about the Haitians, who still need help.

While not every public figure sees their position of prominence as a responsibility, it is nice to know there are some who do.

To learn more about Penn’s relief organization and how you can get involved, visit http://jphro.org/index.html

COMPILED BY WILL KRAUSE 

Live music and social gatherings will be taking place the entire weekend. Come out and join the Surf Club at Virginia Tech for their “Surf the Streets” longboard competition, which will also host an after party at Cabo Fish Taco. If this isn’t enticing enough, join friends and strangers on the rooftop of the Kent Square parking garage for a fun time.

Thursday, April 26

7 p.m. – Gillie’s – Live music with Jessica Schultz

7:30 p.m. – Hillcrest Hall – Free ballroom dance lessons

5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. – rooftop of Kent Square parking garage – Food, beer and vodka will be available with a $5 donation. Live music will also be taking place.

Friday, April 27

6 p.m. – India Garden – Live music with RagTop, vocal and guitar duo

9 p.m. – BreakZONE – Cosmic Bowling $20/lane

10 p.m. – Gillie’s – Live music with Welcome to Hoonah

Saturday, April 28

9 p.m. – The Cellar – Live music with Black Twig Pickers

10 p.m. – Cabo Fish Taco – “Surf the Streets” after party

Fans gather around the main stage

by Jacob Wilbanks

The biggest three-day music festival on the west coast just finished up its second consecutive weekend.

Coachella is in such high demand that for the first time ever, it offered two consecutive weekends featuring the exact same lineup of bands in order to include as many fans as possible. It is remarkable how quickly Coachella has grown, considering it has only been around for 13 years.

The only difference between the weekends was weather — the second weekend had temperatures that reached highs in the triple digits. However, not even the scorching heat discouraged fans from enjoying three days of quality music in a laid back atmosphere.

Coachella is held in Indio, California and hosts five different stages, which feature a range of relatively unknown bands all the way up to superstar acts like Radiohead, Bon Iver, and The Black Keys. Overall, there were 148 acts at this year’s festival.

The festival features a wide range of music from hip hop to alternative rock and certainly has enough acts to please any music fan. Some prominent hip hop acts this year were A$AP Rocky, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Childish Gambino. The electronic music genre was headed by acts like Swedish House Mafia, M83, and Justice. There were plenty of other artists covering almost every genre imaginable.

One of the most talked about performances was that of Tupac Shakur. He posthumously performed “Hail Mary” and “2 of Americaz Most Wanted” by the nature of a hologram-like projection of his image alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

The event was also streamed live on YouTube so people all across the country could check out their favorite artists’ sets. While they were not able to stream every artist live, YouTube was running three live sets at all times, which covered a fair amount of artists.

Record Store Day, an annual event celebrating independent music stores, fortunately coincided with the second weekend of Coachella. Zia Record Exchange was onsite at Coachella to offer special releases, allowing fans to capitalize on the exclusives.

Coachella can best be summed up as a day of fun in the sun celebrating music, art and culture. This year’s festival was no disappointment, and the success of the consecutive weekends — both of which sold out — seems to suggest that this will be the new format for the music festival.

Taken by Chris Carroll

Having become a Grammy nominated quintet, the members of Imani Winds have made a major mark for themselves in the path of music. This chamber music ensemble has been playing together since 1997 and continues to be unstoppable.

The group attempts to bring together different cultures by mixing music from Europe, America, Africa and Latin America. Having been in existence for several years now, Imani Winds has played at many different venues such as Carnegie Hall and Disney Hall.

Now, they will be performing at The Lyric Theatre right off Virginia Tech’s campus on College Avenue. The event will take place today at 8 p.m. with a cost of $40 for the general public, $34 for seniors, and $16 for students and youth under 18.

BY: LUTHER SHELL

FEATURES STAFF WRITER

A new movie about a charming chimpanzee named Oscar will come to theaters today in advance of Earth Day. The movie, titled “Chimpanzee,” is one of the live action films produced by the Disney subsidiary company Disneynature.

Disneynature has produced other documentary style movies such as “Earth” and “African Cats,” and according to reviews it sounds as if this movie strikes a good balance between information and entertainment.

This particular film is about the young chimp Oscar surviving in the jungle of Ivory Coast after being separated from his family. The trailer for the film hints that another chimp from a foreign clan adopts Oscar. This uncommon bond is likely to be uplifting as the other chimp furthers Oscar’s learning of how to use tools in the wilderness.

As much as the trailers reveal, this heartfelt nature film will have the qualities of other Disney animated features. With goofy jokes, life lessons (in animal form) and Tim Allen conducting the commentary, there are sure to be some laughs for younger viewers.

Along with raising awareness of the Oscar’s life and his chimpanzee family, Disneynature has committed to make a personal donation for each moviegoer during the opening week — April 20-26 — by donating 20 cents of the ticket price to the Jane Goodall Institute for the Disneynature Tchimpounga Nature Reserve Project.

If you are interested in an easy way to make a contribution in the spirit of Earth Day, go see Chimpanzee to fall into the beautiful nature of the African jungle, and it won’t even feel like work.

The film is rated G and runs 1 hour 24 minutes.

Come out and enjoy a few outdoor activities to celebrate this year’s upcoming Earth Day.

Thursday, April 19

9:15 p.m. – The Lyric Theatre – Last screening of “A Separation”

6 p.m. – Due South BBQ – Live music with The Floorboards

7 p.m. – Gillie’s – Live music with Moonlight Mariners

9 p.m. – The Cellar – Live music with The Dirty Hairies

Friday, April 20

6 p.m. to 9 p.m. – Gourmet Pantry – Wine pairing class with food tasting and required registration

7 p.m. and 9 p.m. – The Lyric Theatre – First screening of “Climate Refugees”

Saturday, April 21

7:30 to 11 p.m. – YMCA Center Dance Room – Blacksburg Contra Dance

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – SEEDS Nature Center – Environmental education celebration festival for Earth Day and Arbor Day.

9 a.m. to noon – Boatwright House Tree Nursery – Arbor Day tree planting

COMPILED BY KAILA TAYLOR

I’m sure everybody knows about the whole Kony situation by now. A 30-minute video was released several weeks ago informing the nation on the situation that was and currently is still occurring in Uganda, Africa. The Invisible Children organization strived to make a difference in the world with the intent of arresting Joseph Kony and receiving justice for the children in Uganda.

After the release of the first video, individuals were criticizing how it was done. News anchors and other public figures claimed that Jason Russell — creator of the first video — had no idea what he was talking about and did not have his facts straight. Shortly after his video Russell was also arrested for public indecency, which didn’t help his case.

Recently however, another video came out and focused specifically on Cover the Night, a night where everyone will get together to make Joseph Kony “famous” around the nation by putting up flyers, banners and so on. In my opinion, this video was a lot more informative than the first one. The first one gave you an outlook on what was happening but it didn’t really provide any meaningful information from the people who are experiencing it.

This time around, there were several interviews from people who live in Uganda and have been affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group in Uganda, which made the video more personable. The approach to this video was very effective. It also showed the progress of this movement, explaining where the nation is in the process as of today, which I found compelling.

This Cover the Night action is supposed to be taking place this Friday at Tech. Now, I’ve been hearing things from different sources saying that people are getting together to cover the campus that night. If the rumors are true, then I guess we will all wake up Saturday morning to a surprise. If you haven’t seen the video, make sure to find it on YouTube. Type in “Kony 2012 part II- beyond famous” and it should be the first to pop up.

Guns N' Roses gets inducted to Hall of Fame

by Jacob Wilbanks

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held its 27^th annual induction ceremony Saturday.

The induction ceremony can often feel lackluster and extremely aged. To be eligible for induction, an artist or group must have released an album over 25 years ago.

This year’s Hall of Fame inductions actually included several well-known acts and groups still relevant to today’s music industry. The Beastie Boys, Guns N’ Roses, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were all inducted in this year’s class.

The Beastie Boys were pioneers in the development of modern day Hip Hop. Their album “Paul’s Boutique” is considered a revolutionary album that popularized the world of sampling to hip-hop producers. The Beastie Boys are also extremely important in crossing racial boundaries, being one of the first groups to garner both black and white fans. The state of modern-day rap owes a lot to the white Jewish trio from Brooklyn.

Guns N’ Roses are one of the most popular rock groups of the late 80’s and early 90’s. They have been credited for reviving the hard rock scene which, at the time, was heavily overshadowed by dance music and heavy metal. Their debut album “Appetite for Destruction” has gone platinum multiple times — it boasted hit singles like “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Welcome to the Jungle.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers gained popularity for their fusion of funk and rap in the late 80’s and have been a mainstay on the Billboard charts since. They have produced popular singles such as “Californication” and “Give It Away.” While the band has had numerous lineups over the years, drummer Chad Smith has been with the band since 1989 and singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea have been in the band since its inception.

Other acts inducted this year include Donovan, Freddie King, The Small Faces, Laura Nyro, and several other groups.