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Show Page 4 Friday, March 2, 2001 Arts & Entertainment By Matt Martin a & e writer The Signpost When one thinks of accapella music, the first thought that comes to mind is of old men standing outside a barber shop entertaining school children. But times they are a changin'. As of late, accapella music has been reinvented. No longer old men in pinstripe coats, the younger generation has now burst onto the scene and added a fresh new sound, making accapella music one of the hottest trends in music today. Combining the traditional acappella sound with electronic enhancement, Ogden's very own T minus 5 is breaking into the big time. Selected as one of 64 groups to perform in the Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella festival in Denver, Col., T minus 5 is optimistic and excited about the upcoming gig. "Just to be selected says a lot about the group," said Tom Woodbury, "It's a really intense competition." T minus 5 is the first group to be selected from Ogden to attend a competition of this magnitude. "This is a phenomenal opportunity for us to represent both the city of Ogden and Weber State University," said Woodbury. "We hope to go to this event and prove to the nation that this area has f t - 5$ Vfr 1 Mi oa 1 Y4 mmim Us. IS Members of T minus 5 include from left to right first row, Jason Salamond, Kent Hyer, second row Jared Allen, Joe Cheney, Jeff Peterson. tremendous talent." The festival is the premier American showcase for vocal harmony music and feature the top accapella groups in the country. T minus 5 consist of five singers all of which have attended or are currently attending Weber State University. The group first came together as a result of the demise of two other bands. Jared "Gummy" Allen, who sings second tenor, provides a majority of the main leads for the group. He is a music major at WSU and looks to Broadway in the future. Jeff Peterson is the middleman of the group singing baritone and his main responsibility lies in picking the notes that nobody else wants. Peterson also handles a majority of the media relations for the group. Kent Hyer is considered to be the master ear of the group. Hyer does most of the arranging and part adjusting. Hyer also sings first tenor along with providing the high note on the harmony. Jason "Fish" Salmond is the anchor of the group. He is responsible for the deep base without which T minus 5's sound would sag. Salmond is a student at WSU majoring in Spanish. Last but not least is Joe Cheney, the group's first tenor. Cheney is also used for showcase notes and vocal percussion.The groups first concert in July 2000 sparked an interest and they have been performing ever since. T minus 5 has visions of greatness for their future.The group has set a goal to become one of the major acapella groups in the west within the next year. Their first CD will be available this year with a release tour to follow. T minus 5 will perform on March 24 in Denver, Col. For more information on T minus 5 check out their Web site at www.tminus5.net. 'Sweet November' eaves bitter aftertaste for audiences By Darren Mitchell a&e writer The Signpost It was T.S. Eliot who said, "April is the crudest month." He obviously never saw "SweeL November." This is yet another story about a dying woman, in this case played by Charlize Theron, trying to assist a shallow, workaholic, Keanu Reeves, in becoming a better man. This is a remake of the original "Sweet November" released in 1968, which is also said to be a real yawner. Nelson Moss (Reeves) is a workaholic advertising executive living in San Francisco.Moss spends his days trying to come up with appealing ad slogans and he is the best in the business, Yeah right! Sara Deever (Theron) plays ahappy-go-lucky character that meets Moss while they are both taking a driving test at the local Department of Motor Vehicles. She is kicked out of the testing room by the instructor for suspicion of helping Moss cheat. When Moss exits the DMV, there she is, sitting on his Mercedes. How did she know it was his car? She then attempts to befriend him but to no avail. The next day, she shows up at his apartment. Taken aback by her unusual loopy attitude, he threatens her to leave him alone or he will call the police. Out of nowhere, and without motivating the audience, she proceeds to harass him about moving in with her for the month of November and promises she can change his life for the better. Yes .shejust met him earlier that day. He says no thank you. After all. he has a fantastic lucrative career and a beautiful girlfriend. Next scene. He gets fired from his wonderful job and his girlfriend moves out. Come on, how convenient.OK, OK, it gets worse. It seems she has a different man live with her every month, no strings attached, so she can make him a better person. The man then agrees, but only for one night, which turns into days, which turns into weeks. What follows for the next hour is an onslaught of "Hallmark" moments camouflaged as a movie plot. "A love story with all the life and death intensity of a heat rash," said Lisa Schwarzbaum in her review for Entertainment Weekly. What do Weber State students have to say about "Sweet November?" "I think it sounds like a chick flick and if I'm lucky, I won't see it," said senior Emil Fiddler. Another student disagreed. "1 liked the movie, I thought it was a great love story," said Renae Barnes. Reeves has received positive reviews for his roles in "Speed" and "Matrix," but it must be kept in mind that it was special effects, that made those movies. Word to the wise; you might want to wait for a dollar day at the theaters for this one or wait for the video, preferrably after it has gone off the new release shelf. Only a game? This is more like an obsession By Peter Mucha TMS Campus "I got my mother addicted," says Jenkintown's Kristen Findeisen, a freshman at the University of Delaware. Anne Willis, a sophomore at the University of Texas, got hooked and passed the habit on to her boyfriend, who gave it to his father, who ensnared people at work. Even Michael Crichton is reputedly a user. So read on at your own risk. No. it's not something sordid. It's Snood (rhymes with dude), a shareware computer game that has swept the country, especially college campuses, where it has lured students into losing sleep, if not losing points off their grades. "You can pretty much go into any dorm and people have it up on their laptop," says Findeisen, 18, who's studying international relations.It's easy to'play the game, which is downloaded from the Internet. A player shoots a disembodied head a Snood at rows of other heads, which grimace and stick out their tongues as they descend the screen. But that hardly explains the passion. At Northwestern University a year ago students dressed up as Snoods to celebrate Catherine Learned's 1,000th game. "We'd be playing so much," says Michelle Austein, 19, who threw the party for her roommate, "when we closed our eyes at night, we could kind of see the pieces." Just 1,000 games? Dartmouth's student newspaper, The Dartmouth, told of a student who played more than 10,000 games. Snood's designer, David Dobson, says he knows of at least one person who racked up 22,000. Dobson estimates that more a million copies of the game have been downloaded from www.snood.com, his Web site. Recently, the number has been about 8,000 copies a day. see Game page 5 i. a. ...... n Vl - Turn - t 1 . j .V .- .t Mini--":'' -i- & 1 Bernie Carlin, a freshman at Temple University, plays Snood on his computer. The shareware computer game is becoming the new Tetris, addicting many on college campuses, and beyond, who try it out. |