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Show A&EDiversions Page 6 Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 Getting by, one life lesson at a time L ast week I went to a music educator convention in San Antonio, Texas. I learned a lot of inspirational things, in regards to music and education, but some of the most important things I learned from my trip were the realizations of a few inadvertent Life Laws. Life Law Z1: If a hotel is the least expensive hotel in an area, there is probably a reason why. The hotel will probably have a deadbolt problem, and a maintenance man will have to stick a metal wire underneath the door and break into the room in order to let you in. The hotel will most likely have clumps of hair stuck to the walls of the shower from a previous occupant. The hotel will never, under any circumstances, give you the appropriate amount of towels. The hotel will have an elevator that creeps down to the lobby whenever you are running late. The hotel is bound to lack free Internet but will abundantly provide scratchy toilet paper. And, oftentimes, the hotel will have a spectacular view from the window, full of dumpy, vandalized splendor. Consider experience spoken. Life Law :2: When you are bombarded by a myriad of blaring options, sometimes the easiest choice to make is to make no choice at all. In other words, ignore the options being presented. One can suc- cessfully avoid taking responsibility for a conflict through the act of doing nothing or exploring an evasive alternative. The ever-so-famous Riverwalk in San Antonio connects to a shopping mall with a food court that has three Asian restaurants lined side by side by side. The first night I walked past this strip, a man bellowed at me with a toothpicked piece of chicken brushed in sodium enriched sauce in his hand: "Trysomeofmychickenyoucanbuyfo ronly3.99." I am a sucker for samples, so I sampled and smiled, pleased with the flavor, yet not quite ready or willing to make a final choice until I had explored the other eatery options. A few steps later, the lady next door started yelling at me, in one breath, "Yous houldeatmyteriyakichickenittastesmuchbetterthanhisanditisthesameprice." I took her sample and succulently let the piece of meat dissolve into the bowl of my tongue. "Tryanotherflavorthisisaverygoodflavor," she yelled incoherently, handing me another toothpick. I kept walking, much to her dismay, only to be accosted by a third joint. "Trymychicken," the enthusiastic employee entreated, outstretching her body over the countertop as she reached out her edible offering, "Pleasepleasecomeandcomeona ndeatup!" I obliged. Bite, chew, swallow. "Haveanotherhaveanother,"she screeched. I walked back and forth, not entirely certain what decision I should make. All of the delectable samples I had tasted were blurring on my tastebuds, causing my shortterm memory to freak out. It did not help that all the employees continued to scream loudly behind their counters, trying to guilt me into buying food from their respective cash registers. My thoughts swelled with antsy swirls of confusion and mental despair. Eee, which teriyaki chicken should I pick? I chose none. I bought and devoured a Sicilian Chicken Wrap from an alternative restaurant. It is not that I did not want to eat Asian. I did. But I could not bring myself to commit to a decision, especially amid the overpoweringly external distractions. Making a choice is difficult, but choosing not to make a choice, though easier, is an ultimate cop out. If you decide to stop making choices, your life will get stuck in a rut of regret. You will not amount to anything on your empty plate. (But, poof, if it does, you should definitely not hesitate to gorge.) And if teriyaki chicken is not an important issue, then Sicilian Chicken will do. But, readers, please, if teriyaki chicken is what you are looking for, take the time to figure out what type of teriyaki chicken you want to eat. You should not let someone else decide what chicken your palate personally prefers. And blech. Sometimes metaphorical life analogies are taken way too far. Sorry 'bout that. Time for the next Law. Life Law :3: If a situation warrants speed, a job fair can be adequately conquered in 10 minutes. Trust me, if you have a strategic plan previously set in place, it is more than possible. 'Nuff said. Melissa Condie is a senior majoring in music education. Questions or comments can be sent to her at m.condie@ aggiemaiLusu.edu unless you stick to your guns. Wishy-washiness is for the dogs, my friends. If you want some teriyaki chicken, you have to go and get some teriyaki chicken, because it is not about to magically appear Barbeque: Students can bring in this article for a discount continued from page 5 cate his workers and light a passion for barbecue in them. "I want it to be a learning experience for my employees," he said. "I want everybody to learn." Though "barbecue," according to Ford, might be a "really covert way to say party," Brown said he wanted an atmosphere that would fit everyone. "I wanted an environment where you could have a kids soccer team sitting a couple tables from a Harley rally," he said. "I wanted a place where the shoe fits everyone." With every new business, there are going to be challenges. One of the difficulties Smokin' Blues faces, as stated by Ford, is the battle it has against the typical comfort food for residents in Logan. "People in Utah and Cache Valley have their own way of doing things," he said. "The comfort food here is very basic. People are scared to try new things. To come in with something new isn't always as easy as people think it is." Bryan Ezola, manager of Smokin' Blues, said the restaurant stands out in town because of its unique food and vibe. He said, "We're really the only barbecue place in town, and it's really probably the best barbecue in the state. The fact that it is barbecue and the only place in town makes it special." Open since Jan. 1, Brown said he can see a growing love in town for barbecue. "People are passionate about barbecue," he said. "They're talking about it." One of the ways Smokin' Blues stands out is the infusion of music into the atmosphere. The restaurant recruits local bands to play on the weekends and uses a variety of old-time country singers and calming crooners to enhance the southern feel. Brown said, "Music binds us, it's in our souls. I want this place to be a central hub for good eats but also for the arts." Brown said if local artists are interested in performing, they should come in, take a business card and e-mail him. Along with hosting local bands and artists, Smokin' Blues will also hold motorcycle and classic car rallies, and music and art festivals throughout the year to spread the word about the restaurant. Brown said Smokin' Blues will give students 20 percent off their meal, if they bring in this article; though, the staff reserve the right to quiz people. This offer is valid until March 1. Included in this offer is a free meal if the patron can recite all 200 beers available at the restaurant, Brown said. With Johnny Cash playing in the background, Brown finished by saying that Smokin' Blues is more than just food. "It's not just the food, and it's not just the music," Brown said. "It's the whole culture." Smokin' Blues is located behind Maverick on the way to the Stadium 8 theater. Brown said the restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. until the meat runs out. - k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu New Wolfman doesn't bite Benicio Del Toro, Hugo Weaving, Anthony its next victim. When it's eventually revealed, Jen Goodsell there's a sound that echoes throughout the Hopkins, Emily Blunt. All fine actors, and one would suspect a combination such as this Staff Writer theater. The sound resembles someone chokwould make an impeccable movie or, at the 1.0 ing on popcorn but is in fact a laugh being very least, a tolerable movie. Unfortunately for smothered. "di their resumes and the audience members, "The If there was a way to sum up the main weak Wolfman" is anything but. spot of the movie, it's that it tries too hard. The "The Wolfman" begins in England around the gore is over the top and borderline humorous, turn of the 19th century. A talented American the love story seems forced and unnecessary, Grade D actor, Lawrence Talbot, finds himself unexpectand the poor actors produce cliché lines that edly traveling to his childhood home in England "The Wolfman" are predictable and emotionless. Viewers do to help search for his brother, who seems not need to see a character get disemboweled to have disappeared under unusual circumand decapitated, in order to be entertained. stances. When he arrives, he finds himself in the middle of a It's sad to see the art of subtlety so grossly ignored; when dangerous mystery that centers on a long line of brutal and the majority of the time, that is the key to creating a good, gruesome attacks that coincidentally occur around the same scary movie. It isn't an easy task going down the less-travtime as the full moon. Throughout the frightened town, eled road of subtlety but isn't that supposed to make all the there are whispers and speculations of who the culprit could difference? be and many fear that the one responsible is not human but a The legend of the werewolf is classic and worthy legendary beast known as the wolfman. With the help of his enough to fall into the same timeless realm as Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster. The idea of an ordinary man turning father and his recently widowed sister-in-law, Lawrence tries to unravel this mystery, in order to protect the lives of those into a wolf every full moon is enticing, and the psychology dear to him, along with his own. alone would be reason enough to delve into the rich mateThis movie starts off with such a violent jolt it leaves the rial and produce your own rendition of it. Unfortunately, this viewers with whiplash. It's as though the director tried his attempt did not pay off, and the result was a mediocre movie best to hook the audience immediately, by producing a rush that had great potential but sadly missed the mark that has of adrenaline from the get-go, in hopes that it would keep been missed by many before. The good news is, there will them from walking out of the theater. One main problem probably be another remake in about five years and hopewith the film is the over-promising reveal of the werewolf. fully that director learns from the mistakes of those before For the first part of the movie, the wolf is kept in the shad- and takes the road less traveled by. ows. The only thing seen is its handiwork of mutilated bodies - jen.goods@gmail.com and a dark blur as it runs through the woods searching for Reel Reviews Why you can't see live streaming of Olympics , at least not legally By Erik Lacitis Seattle Times SEATTLE — Presumably we could sit in our offices or our homes and stream away on the Olympics. There is a hitch, though. NBC owns the U.S. rights to the Vancouver Olympics, and, for this Olympics, it has clamped down on online live streaming of events. Only hockey and curling will be shown live online, with all other events either shown live on television or held for tape-delay airing on prime time or late night television, says the industry publication Broadcasting & Cable in a story Monday. The Web site for CTV, the Canadian network with rights to the Olympics in that country, is live-streaming events, but NBC has made sure that computers with U.S. IP addresses can't log onto the CTV site. (Quick explanation: IP stands for Internet Protocol, and whenever you communicate with your computer, it sends out an identification number that tells what country and city you live in. That's why when you visit some Web sites, you get pop-up ads aimed directly at your location.) It's not unlikely some might try to find a way around not having a Canadian IP address. That gets into some murky legal and copyright areas. One way is to go to a site such as justin.tv, a San Francisco-based Web site that claims to be "the largest online community for people to broadcast, watch and interact around live video." The site says what it does is not piracy, but simply individuals sharing video. Through their Web browser and sometimes more complicated means, participants can put on the Internet a live broadcast of, say, an NFL game that's not airing in your city. Then visitors can join that particular "channel" and also watch the game. Evan Solomon, justin.tv vice president for marketing, says the site has 30 million unique visitors a month, and more than 40,000 unique broadcasts each day. Probably some members of the justin.tv community will broadcast live CTV Olympics coverage. But be prepared to have that broadcast yanked abruptly. Solomon says a particular live CTV broadcast on justin.tv will end if NBC happens to catch it and make a complaint to the Web site. He says his Web site complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and would "expeditiously remove content" that NBC complained about. Justin.tv is accustomed to tangling with major-league sports and with networks. In December, according to the Kagan Media & Communications Report, ESPN and Major League Baseball complained to a House of Representatives panel about the growing threat of piracy on Web sites that stream sports broadcasts for free. What about any liability for users ofjustin.tv? "Unfortunately, I do not know the answer to your question," says Solomon. "I am not a lawyer, so I wouldn't feel comfortable speculating on the legality of any user behavior." Professor Tom Anderson, of the University of Washington's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, cautions those who are thinking about circumventing the NBC block on live Canadian Internet coverage of the Olympics: "Both sending and receipt of copyrighted material without permission is illegal in the U.S. In the U.S., the penalties for copyright infringement are draconian. "A more productive avenue might be for your readers to urge NBC to make live streaming of Olympic events available on the Web in the U.S." |