| OCR Text |
Show AggieLife Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 Page 5 Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Hammocking By COURTNIE PACKER features editor Go big or go home, safety first and when in doubt pray about it are the three rules members of the Hammock Club International (HCI) must follow. HCI President Steve Gunderson said the student-organized club was created to let students enjoy the outdoors while relaxing in the comfort of a hammock. “Eveybody loves hammocks,” Gunderson said. “It is a great place to study, hang out and relax.” Gunderson, graduate student getting a master’s degree in electrical engineering and business administration, said HCI was organized as an excuse to meet people, enjoy a hammock and socialize in the outdoors. HCI was the idea of four friends who enjoyed taking their Sunday naps in their hammocks while in the outdoors. Gunderson said they would set up hammocks in the trees at Second Dam to sleep, study or read. “We decided we should make this into an unofficial club, and we started getting more ideas, such as I.D. cards and shirts, to get more people involved,” he said. Gunderson said I.D. cards were created, the three rules were put into place and T-shirts were designed and made. A Facebook group was then created to spread the word about the club. Gunderson said the name Hammock Club International was agreed upon because individuals, as far away as Australia, became members of the club. Gunderson said HCI currently has more than 110 members and has distributed more than 60 T-shirts. One of the favorite activities for some members is sleeping in a hammock during weekend backpacking trips. HCI equipment specialist Loral Godfrey said the worst two things about the outdoors are sleeping on uneven ground and having rocks dig into a camper’s back. He said hammocks help the camper avoid the uneven soil, eliminate the need to carry around a large foam pad for sleeping and allow the camper to rest his or her back off of the ground. Godfrey, undeclared sophomore, said he enjoys HCI because it MEMBERS OF HAMMOCK CLUB INTERNATIONAL sleep in their hammocks at Mount Elmer up Logan Canyon in the Naomi wilderness. HCI currently has more than 110 members and has distributed more than 60 T-shirts. Photo courtesy of Loral Godfrey - See HAMMOCK page 6 A recap of summer’s most popular flicks Summer 2009 Ben Roden had some huge staff writer cinematic potential. Did it live up? Well, it depends on your criteria. The season was a popcorn paradise, but, as is common with sum- The summer’s best mer blockbusters, and worst movies cerebral impact was a bit rare. Here are, in no particular order, five of the films for which I had the most anticipation, and how they turned out. Transformers 2 If you were born in the ‘80s and have been sentient for the majority of your life, you should probably know what transformers are. If you still don’t know, and “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen” is your introduction, you may be led to believe that Transformers are robots who disguise themselves as vehicles and then impressively transform into racial stereotypes. Let’s face it, Michael Bay has about as much prowess with plot structure as do the writers of Blue’s Clues, but to make a movie this awful considering the subject matter and budget is unconscionable. Giant robots, Mike. GIANT ROBOTS. How can you mess that up? Chapter one of the toy-turned-cartoonturned blockbuster was dumb and loud and stupid, but lovably so. Chapter two is oversexed, Reel Reviews under thought, and most surprisingly, quite dull. Public Enemies Michael Mann makes really cool movies, with really cool protagonists and really cool dialogue. “Public Enemies” is no exception. It tells the story (kinda) of John Dillinger in the golden age of the gangster. The attention to detail is impressive, and the costuming and set dressing is charming. The film looks and sounds beautiful. Mann uses the Viper FilmStream, a digital camera that he also used in two of his recent productions, Collateral and Miami Vice. The Viper has a unique, high-ISO look, which is especially apparent in low-light shots. The aesthetic thereof clashes at times with the period feel, but renders action sequences beautifully. The film starts with a bang and hums along smoothly for the first act, but by the middle it begins to lag terribly. The relationship between Johnny Depp’s Dillinger and Marion Cotillard (Big Fish) is charming and well depicted, but 7wÁ®¨w ¸ Y®Á ¸® z¾^®>°®°w^® ,z^¥¨zY^®E® >¥ z >¨ * Fun and friendly social environment * Within walking distance of Campus * Bus stops right in front of Riverside * Filled with hardworking students like you * Riverside located accross from the football staduim weighs down the middle third of the picture and fails to advance things quickly enough. By the end, neither the characterizations nor the action are enough to place “Public Enemies” above any of Mann’s other work. Terminator Salvation I credit the lasting success of the first two Terminator movies to the intelligence and care of James Cameron. They’re movies about robots and time travel – two of the potentially sloppiest plot devices in all of cinema. Cameron, however, carefully validates each new fantastic revelation with a grounding element, and the result is a duo of films that play to the blockbuster audience, but can be appreciated by slightly more analytical viewers. (Terminator III is a heresy, and shall not be mentioned here.) “Terminator Salvation”, despite a bleak setting and gritty production design, fails to live up to the impress mythos of the originals. It definitely is a movie that dresses to impress. The effects are impressive, and the late Stan Winston’s brilliance comes through in the design of the various Terminators and vehicles and myriad robotic nasties. The plot, though, is slipshod and patchy, and the characters are mostly lame. Christian Bale is a stereotypically flat action protagonist, Bryce-Dallas Howard is seriously short-changed by an emotionally void script. - SeeMOVIE, page 9 435.787.4985 1251 North 800 East |
