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Design is Everywhere:
Students Learn
the Basics and Apply Them Every Tuesday and Thursday in Creative Arts Room 102, bet-ween 1 and 3 p.m., students have been learning about design (Art 125A). story 'Iguana' Boasts Superb Acting Four troubled lives cross each other at a coastal hilltop Mexican resort in a pleasantly performed Tennessee Williams' play, The Night of the Iguana at the Diego Rivera Theatre on the Phelan campus.The trouble for each is character is different. story |
Traditional Chinese Music Return
Keeps Music Alive Reflections on Sept.11 |
Ben Affleck Says No to Changes in Film
Filmed before the Setp. 11 attacks and from a 1991 book, Sum of All
Fears
By Adrian D. Varnedoe
A&E Editor
After the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Was-hington D.C.,this years summer movies with a terrorist theme or a scene with the World Trade Center in them were rushed back to the editing room and adapted. Sum of All Fears wasn't one of them.
 Ben Affleck from "Sum of All Fears" |
"We didn't change a thing," said Ben Affleck, over the phone. "We filmed it before hand, but there is nothing in the movie I felt needed changing."
With its fictional story line of a terrorist attack on American soil, using the big bomb on the screen, this political thriller launches the cold war (USA and Russia) mentality like never before.
But before it comes down to pushing a button and using more bombs, Jack Ryan, a new CIA analyst played by Ben Affleck, tries to prevent total war.
"The movie is a quote-unquote thriller," Affleck added. "And became a drama, not because the movie changed, but because the world changed."
Sum of All Fears opening March 31 is the fourth movie made from a Tom Clancy (Executive Producer) book, and begins where The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games ended.
Affleck doesn't act in movies he thinks the masses would like; he tries to do movies that are different and the kind of movies he has liked since he was a kid.
He said he talked to Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin (he work with on "Pearl Harbor") before he took the role, looking for "Probably a blessing or approval . . . it was out of respect."
Next Affleck meet Clancy at his home in Maryland. They talked about the book and the movie they were about to make.
"I think the most important person to talk to is the writer," said Affleck, because it is the writer's character Affleck portrays on the screen.
"My fear is that something so terrible will happen and the world will change, " he said, at the end of the interview.
Design is Needed
Everywhere:
Students learn the basics and use them at work
By Adrian D. Varnedoe
A&E Editor
Every Tuesday and Thursday in Creative Arts Room 102, bet-ween 1 and 3 p.m., students have been learning about design (Art 125A).
On this day, it's 1:05 in the afternoon, and students are quietly sitting and working on their latest work, a room with a view. There are five men and 16 women. The instructor, Raymond Hol-bert, is a few minutes late.
Holbert enters the room carrying an artwork case; he puts it down on the counter, turns to the class and tells them that he needed to go to his office for supplies.
He leaves the room; some of the students continue their work while a few leaves the room as well.
A few minutes later Holbert returns with more stuff in his hands and asks the class if they need film containers. A few students say yes and Holbert hands them out. After that, he asks if anyone needed help. A few raise their hands, and he goes over to one woman and helps her.
He moves from student to student, helping them with their designs.
"I'm transferring to state next year," said Farzaneh Shadi, a former dot-comer, on why she's taking the class. "And I'm going to be a designer."
Shadi said that she loves the class and that it has helped her become a better designer.
She worked as a web page designer without much design training. She thinks she will be better web designer if the dot-coms rebound.
There were seven basic design classes in the spring, one this summer, and there will be eight in the fall.
For Mikihiho Hashimoto, a 21-year-old film major, the class should help him be a better film maker by allowing him to draw outline drawing before filming, and a better film maker by being able to design the scene and the sets.
Like most people on campus, Aurora Tucker, 27, was undecided on her major; then she took the design class.
"I was unknowingly interested in design, and it helped me pick my major."
Tucker said that she has taken other art classes, but it was the problem solving of design that helped make up her mind.
"I feel it's important for everyone," said Holbert, "because the very word design means to plan; to organize."
Traditional Chinese Music Return Keeps Culture Alive
By Tomas Valdespino
Guardsman Staff Writer
Music is a universal language.
No matter where you are on planet Earth, there is music to tell the story of a person's loves, hates and everything in between.
 Professor Joshua Law plays the Xiao flute |
It bridges the gap between the past and the present, since many cultures and traditions have been preserved in song, keeping values and history long after the people who first sang the songs have moved on from this world.
On Mar. 22, a concert featuring traditional Chinese instrumental music was performed at the Diego Rivera Theatre. The concert gave the nearly 400 people in attendance the opportunity to get a glimpse into a rich and historical culture they might not know.
"There were many instruments that were used in the concert and they were all very unique." said Professor Joshua Law, head of the Asian Studies Department.
During the concert, various instruments were play-yed; among them was the zheng.
The zheng is a large table harp whose soundbox is made of wood. Historical texts describe the zheng as a instrument that has changed throughout many generations. From 206 BC to 420 AD the zheng was described as having only 12 strings. In the years to follow, the number of strings increased to about 24-26 strings, as it is today.
Each string is suspended over the upper sound board by a single adjustable bridge as a device for fine tuning. The idea is to give the strings all a different tuning, so they play three completely different octaves.
Another featured instrument was the zither, also in the zheng musical family. It is a horizontal chordiphone, meaning, the strings found in the instrument are plucked rather than pulled. Of all the instruments Law teaches to his students, the zither is the most popular.
In addition to teaching the zither, Professor Law also teaches the Chinese flute and violin.
There are two kinds of Chinese flutes, the horizontal and the vertical. The horizontal or Di flute has a closed pipe which gives the flute a distinctive sound. The vertical or Xiao flute is a open pipe and is similar to a recorder. The Xiao's sound is subtle and used for drawn-out, exquisite and elegant tunes.
The Chinese violin has only two strings. Its bow is clasped between the strings. In comparison, the western version of the violin has four strings and the bow is separated from the instrument and is not used in between the strings but rather on top of them.
These are but a few of the many instruments that represent traditional Chinese music.
What Law hopes people get out of future concerts like the Mar. 22 event is that by hearing the music, they can better understand the culture behind the music.
"About 27 percent of the population of San Francisco is Asian and I think something like the concert is helpful for everyone to learn about the beauty of the culture," said Law, who added, "There is so much that can be found in the ethnic music of any race. Music provides a gateway into the hearts and minds of the people who play it."
Iguana Boasts Superb Acting
Adrian D. Varnedoe
A&E Editor
Four troubled lives cross each other at a coastal hilltop Mexican resort in a pleasantly performed Tennessee Williams' play, The Night of the Iguana at the Diego Rivera Theatre on the Phelan campus.The trouble for each is character is different.
Take Shannon (Joshua Hayden) for example. He's a former pastor, now a bus tour guide who can't control his taste for teenage girls or his mental breakdowns that twist his thoughts and emotions.
Then there's Maxine (Melyssa Jo Kelly), a cleavage-flashing, middle-aged, bitter widow in debt who just makes everybody's life miserable because she needs control of everything.
Adding to the mix is Hannah (Manjit Singh), a confused girl in a woman's body traveling with her 97 year-old grandfather Nonno (Chris Boudeau), who's working on his greatest poem.
The characters are a delight; they make the play a must-see. Hayden is great, his looks and presence brings life into the play.
Singh is like a bright rose, a light glowing in a dark sky. Her acting ability blossoms with innocence as the play goes on.
But no one comes close to Jo Kelly, a woman that reeks with wicked deviance and a laugh that can double for the sound the chalkboard makes.
The set is open and clear for all to see what the people are doing.