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The California Tech [email protected] VOLUME CXVII NUMBER 15 PASADENA, CALIFORNIA TECH.CALTECH.EDU FEBRUARY 24, 2014 Caltech puts on fun, lively performance of RENT The cast of Caltech’s production of RENT delivers a spirited performance during the song La Vie Boheme. -Professor Sergio Pellegrino CASEY HANDMER deluded homicidal florist, Caltech’s the rock opera won three Tony’s with generous institutional describe what Sean Connery once Contributing Writer theater groupies bring you for Best Musical, Best Score, and support, and RENT is no exception! said to Michael Bay, and freshman “RENT”, the acclaimed musical by Best Book, not long after its writer It is difficult to believe that a show undergraduates starring as lead Following the highly successful Jonathan Larson. RENT features Larson tragically died. Set in of this magnitude could ever be characters in their first show. 2013 run of “Little Shop of an array of Caltech undergrads Manhattan’s East Village during produced on a shoestring, let alone RENT played before great Horrors”, starring former Ruddock including actors Daniel Gomez, the year 1990, the story follows in only six weeks. A formidable crowds last Friday, Saturday and Hovse President Jeff Sherman as a Peter Lommen, Rebecca Tang, the lives of an ad hoc family of team, comprised of undergrads, Sunday, where the cast was joined Lucy Chen, Daniel Ilyin, bohemian misfits as they come to grad students, staff, alumni, JPL by Professors Julia Greer and and Harrison Miller, terms with poverty, addiction, and engineers, and members of the Melanie Hunt performing the In this issue musical director Jetson terminal disease. community have met the challenge coveted ‘squeegeeman’ cameo. Leder-Luis, musicians As emphasized by Phil Baty’s with the same intensity they bring There are two more performances Juliet Su, Evan Davis, Andy article in the Times Higher to bear on their day jobs. Catching this weekend at Ramo Auditorium Zhou, and Angela Gui, and Education on 2/6/2014, Caltech’s a break back stage it’s incredible on Friday, February 28, 2014 at crew Nikhita Poole, Stella unusual success often comes down to swap stories with engineers 8:00 PM and Saturday, March 1, NEWS Wang, and Andre Ramos. to a small core of highly dedicated who worked on the Curiosity 2014 at 1:30 PM. Tickets are $5 for Pianist performs First performed in 1994, enthusiasts pursuing their passions rover, Hollywood set builders who students. at Disney Concert3 Hall News briefs from around the globe Helping readers burst out of the Caltech bubble OPINION A look at Scott Need to know < 100 words about the world this week – topics sorted from good to bad Lynch’s books4 by The Tech Eds Medals of Honor given 24 veterans previously subject to prejudice will finally be honored [TIME] FEATURE Nailen checks out G20 members set goal 2% increase ($2 trillion) in countries’ GDP set as goal in next 5 years [BBC] Glitch Mob 5 Major drug lord arrested 13 years after escaping prison, most-wanted drug lord caught by US [NYT] Ukraine president flees 1 day after peace talks with opposition, “coup” leads pres. to flee Kiev [NYT] SPORTS Women’s tennis CO leak found too late 27 hospitalized, 1 dead from carbon monoxide leak in NY restaurant [CNN] scores victory 7 Thai protestors killed 2 dead, 20+ wounded from attack on anti-govt. protestors in Thailand [BBC] Bus station bombed 11 killed, 15 wounded in bombing at busy bus terminal in Pakistan [ABC] EWS 2 FEBRUARY 24, 2014 N THE CALIFORNIA TECH Food with Mannion! 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Comparing the personalities detectable throughout the rich and you can imagine Prokofiev Contributing Writer in the piano. Beautifully realized of Chopin and Prokofiev at age textures of the four movements. smirking to himself when he wrote by the twenty-six year old pianist nineteen, the program notes state Urbański upped the stakes in a it. To some people, “Casual Khatia Buniatishvili, the piano’s that a performance by Chopin sense by choosing to conduct this One last comment about the Friday” means no suits, lowered part in the first movement manages would be a “kiss blown to his work without a score, indicating acoustics of the hall: Prokofiev’s expectations, and an overall less to be very technical but also sing. audience,” while a performance that had a deep familiarity with the Symphony sounded brilliant in intense workday experience. To the But it’s the second movement, by Prokofiev would be taken as structure of the piece, and the types the room, but Chopin’s Piano members of the Los of phrasings and moods Concerto did not sound as great as Angeles Philharmonic that the instruments it could have. however, it only should strive for – and Through a combination of means the first part. there were many. The first the piano lid directing the sound They need to play movement, a moderate only one direction away from the the same lengthy tempo one in a major stage, as well as a possible slight pieces of music just key, has quiet moments dynamics imbalance between the as well as they would of delicacy which then orchestra and piano, the piano on a normal day. It gradually crescendo sounded muffled from behind is no easy task, but into loud fanfares. the stage, where this reviewer on Friday, January They aren’t normalwas sitting. So, while Walt Disney 24, 2013, at Walt fanfares though: while Concert Hall might be acoustically Disney Concert the strings play in the great for a large symphony, it is not Hall, the LA Phil original key, the lower the best possible venue for a piano once again surpassed brass instruments play concerto. expectations with dissonant notes, creating Still, those particular acoustic performances of a very untraditional problems didn’t detract appreciably Chopin’s Piano sound. Prokofiev’sfrom the performances. In fact, it Concerto No. 2 and ear for combining was hearing the music played live Prokofiev’s Symphony the modern and inside the hall which really gave No. 5. traditional techniques it life and meaning. In both of First, let me “set peeks through in other these works, the composer infused the stage,” so to speak. places, like the second his own personality and cultural Walking into Walt movement, which is a background, making them highly Disney Concert Hall, much faster and lighter personal pieces. one sees the jarring movement which You might think that that shapes of steel outside, sounds like a Russian prevents modern listeners from and then the similarly dance. Melodies switch appreciating the music, but I jarring shapes of wood between minor and think the opposite. It’s the unique inside. The hall itself is major very quickly, but personality these two pieces have strangely shaped: seats still flow easily, and which make them so memorable completely surround sigh motives, pairs of and different from other works the stage to the point descending notes that in the same form, and even a where it feels like the -gramophone.co.uk sound like someone modern listener, far removed stage is in the center of the hall, not marked Larghetto (slow) where a “slap in the face” against the sighing, are used with changing from nineteenth century Paris at one end of it. Above and behind the piece really shines. Beginning establishment. The Prokofievmeters and tempos. At the very end or twentieth century Russia, can the stage is a gigantic pipe organ with a deliberate but delicate major that wrote Symphony No.