[email protected] Technique Entertainment Editor: Zheng Zheng 15 Assistant Entertainment Editor: Friday, Entertainment Patricia Uceda September 10, 2010

John Mayer, Owl City dazzle Lakewood

Photos by Jarrett Skov / Student Publications

Concert fileinto into the the seats seats and and spread spread theirtheir and the easily digested pop both full-volume into his music. the audience, which he did fre- John Mayer and Owl City blankets on the lawn. The venue musical acts offer ultimately can Dressed simply in cargo pants quently. was open air with a covered sec- speak to fans of the other. and a solid grey t-shirt, Mayer Mayer performed a number PERFORMER: John Mayer, tion immediately in front of the Adam Young of Owl City jammed. Although suffering of songs, both singles and album Owl City stage. Several large fans cooled played guitar and sang for the fromform a back injury, Mayer was tracks. None of the songs were LOCATION: Aaron’s the thousands under the roof, duration of his set. He did not still able to excite the assembly. too obscure; there were always Amphitheatre at Lakewood moving the heat, humidity and have much to say and did not Considered a “singer-songwrit- a number of fans singing along. body odor around. connect with the audience. The er,” Mayer is foremost a guitar Although the show was DATE: Sept. 8, 2010 It was a warm evening as the marathon of songs was not nec- player. “John Mayer,” he introduced sun started to set when Owl essarily exhausting, but it was His string plucking and fin- his band and gave them all time OUR TAKE: ««««« City took the stage promptly at rather dull. gers strumming is truly great,great. to show off a little. During the 7 p.m. Seemingly meant for the The only saving graces were andAnd hehe doesdoes notnot trytry to hide it ei- improvised instrumental inter- ByBy Chris Chris Ernest Ernst night with panels of stripes made the visualizations, which played ther. Nearly every song was lon- ludes, Mayer would play along Staff Writer of screens and stage lights, Owl only intermittently, and Adam ger than the album version be- with a ukulele or guitar with a City did not make much impact Young’s youthful, persistent en- cause Mayer would improvise a band member playing a sopranosax, an- The hundreds denied entrance while fighting the sun for domi- ergy. Owl City finished with the section in the middle of the song, othersax, other guitar guitar, or drums. or drums. to John Mayer’s impromptu con- nant illumination. By the end well-known “Fireflies,” exciting sometimes for minutes at a time. After the the last last song, song, the the unsa un- cert at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, of the set, thethe sunsun hadhad dimmed,dimmed the crowd withwith somethingsomething familit was- Mayer would work his magi- satiatedtiated clapped clapped their their hands hands, and which was announced via Twit- and the full effect of the intricate iar.familiar with. cal hands and cast a spell without stamped their feet and shouted ter only a few hours beforehand, dance of lights brought the audi- Overall, there was plenty of words. These interludes were the for more. Mayer and his band had a second chance to see the ence’s attention to the performers energy onstage and true fans of best part of the show. did come out for a one-song en- Atlanta-based singer-songwrit- onstage. Owl City City likely gleaned wanted exponentially exponen- Although not originally from core, much toto thethe delightapparent of thede- er perform. On the night of It still seems odd that an elec- tiallymore morefrom thefrom show. the show. Atlanta, Mayer moved here to spectators.light of the spectators. Wednesday, Sept. 8. John Mayer tronica music “project” would After a short intermission, start his music career. He played Although Mayer is not much headlined Aaron’s Amphithe- accompany a singer-songwriter the lights suddenly extinguished local venues around town, in- of a showman, his sheer skill and ater at Lakewood with Owl City who dabbles in rap and blues. and a discerning eye could make cluding Eddie’s Eddie’s Attic, Attic, before before he kooky wit keep the audience in- opening the show. The semblance of a band that is out figures filing onto stage. The gainedhe came international to international attention. atten It- terested and entertained. The During the Owl City open- really just one person is the oppo- screams were deafening and wastion. obvious It was obviousthat Mayer that enjoyed Mayer show probably ended too soon ing, tardy concertgoers, who site of a man who is accompanied louder than those for Owl City. beingenjoyed back being in Atlanta; back in he Atlanta; said as for some, but it’s always best to made up about 90ninety percent percent of the of by a band. As odd as it may seem, Without any introduction or much.he said Hisas much. enjoyment But it waswas also leave a party while having fun, thefinal final audience, audience, continued continued to fileto there were plentyplenty ofof fansfans ofof both,both preamble, John Mayer launched obvious when interacting with something Mayer clearly knows. 16 • September 10, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT Shwayze entertains, Lil’ Jon disappoints crowd Concert Facebook, we can put it on flyers, Social Studies Tour we can have banners, posters, but if students aren’t paying attention PERFORMER: Lil Jon, to the advertisement we do, we Shwayze, Kelley James can’t put it in their face anymore,” LOCATION: Parking Lot W21 Gamble said in response to com- ments that the event wasn’t well DATE: September 2, 2010 publicized. The night opened up with Kel- OUR TAKE: ««««« ley James, an acoustic artist with a flair for freestyle rapping sponta- By Kumar Thangudu neously during his performances. Contributing Writer “People always ask me what are my favorite cities and Atlanta’s Kelley James, Shwayze and always on the top of the list. For Lil’ Jon rolled through Tech last me...I’ve always been influenced Thursday, Sept. 2 for a free con- by hip hop.....I really respect the cert in the Howey Physics parking scene,” James said. lot sponsored by Muscle Milk and It’s clear that James, arguably Oakley. the least known among the three It was organized by the Stu- part act, has developed a burgeon- dent Center Programs Council ing fan base at Tech. After the (SCPC). Many students heard concert, James played a packed of the concert only hours before late night session at fraternity Phi it began. The day of the concert, Delta Theta. Muscle Milk aggressively adver- Next up was Shwayze, a tised the event by giving away free west coast hip-hop acoustic Photo by Josh Sandler (left), Joey Cerone (right) / Student Publications t-shirts and Muscle Milk drinks. group made up of Aaron Smith Shwayze (left) and Lil’ Jon (right) entertain the students last Thursday night behind the Physics At quarter intervals through- (“Shwayze”- rapper) and Cisco building. The free concert was sponsored by Muscle Milk and Oakley. It was organized by the SCPC. out the concert, Muscle Milk was Adler (producer, musician and still giving away drinks up until songwriter). just put out the music for free, and mixtape entitled Love Stoned un- a highly talented studio producer, the end of the concert. The group had the crowd jump- I’m sure that pisses them off, but der his name Aaron Smith four but a lackluster live performer. “[My committee and I] worked ing with shirt throwing, sweat that’s what we do at the end of the days later on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Ben Townsend, first-year ARCH directly with Muscle Milk and filled, feel-the-bass, stage jumping day, we want the kids to have the Last up was Lil’ Jon, the Atlan- major, said“It was kind of a lame Oakley to bring the tour to cam- antics and the duo was rapping on music, especially the college kids ta based producer, rapper and DJ. DJ set, I expected more.” pus.... [SCPC is] all about bring- top of eclectically gathered music [or] Georgia Tech or anywhere. Unfortunately, this finale proved Perpetually a producer and en- ing events to campus,” said Scott samplings. Shwayze commented We know a lot of kids download to be bittersweet. Many Tech stu- trepreneur, he owns businesses in- Gamble, SCPC concerts com- on the nature of the industry by the music for free so instead of dents came in droves to see Lil’ cluding CRUNK!!! energy drink, mittee chair and fourth-year ME talking about his recently released trying to fight it, we give it to Jon’s performance, but it ended Little Jonathon Winery, his own major. free mixtape. them for free, so they can come to up being just a few minutes of line of Oakley sunglasses and a “That’s one of the problems “As musicians, we’re constantly the show and sing along with us,” hearing him DJ. It was clear that Smyrna recording studio. Asked that’s always faced students... we making music, but because of the Shwayze said. the audience was disappointed as what’s next, Lil Jon replied “Just do our best to get out as many labels and all these things some- Shwayze stuck it to the man many began pouring out of the doing these records, working hard students as possible, but it comes times it takes a long time for the and put his money where his concert soon after. on the album, blowing the album to a point where we can put it on music to get out. Sometimes we mouth was, releasing another free It’s safe to say that Lil’ Jon is up, I’m all over the world DJ’ing.” ENTERTAINMENT Technique • September 10, 2010 • 17 Action-packed Machete lacks cohesive storyline FILM This was apparent from his first satirize the ludicrous rhetoric that Machete feature (El Mariachi), but at the has surrounded recent political time Rodriguez was limited by battles over illegal immigration. GENRE: Action the quantity of his footage and the The overblown campaign ads STARRING: Danny Trejo, editing methods available to him. within the film for Robert De- Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba With digital cameras and comput- Niro’s Texas State Senator would ers, there is no longer either limi- have seemed ridiculous only a few DIRECTOR: Ethan Maniquis, tation, and the resulting product years ago, but no longer. This un- Robert Rodriguez suffers. Hardly a single moment in comfortable friction with reality is RATING: R the film registers in the mind’s eye where a lot of the power of these before a cut. films lies, but Machete is content RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2010 Thankfully, some of the actors to use it as window dressing for play their parts with a slow burn the carnage instead of integrating OUR TAKE: ««««« that is more fitting with the mate- it into the narrative. rial. Of particular highlight is Jeff It is a wasted opportunity, for By Robert Solomon Fahey, the villain of the original one can have an awesome action Staff Writer trailer, who hisses his lines with movie with a social message. Even angry malice while retaining his if one disagrees with the politics, It is somewhat jarring to see cool. it makes for a more visceral and the modern world invade Robert It is too bad that his perfor- entertaining film. It grounds the Rodriguez’s Machete, as steeped as mance is overwhelmed by the outlandish action in a more fully it is in the conventions of ‘70s ex- sheer number of actors in this realized reality, which makes the ploitation cinema. short tale, as Rodriguez has be- action all the more exciting. This, of course, is to be expect- come enamored with the idea of Perhaps it is the digital camera ed, as the original appearance of casting famous actors in even the that helps to undermine this. The Danny Trejo’s was in a smallest of parts. As such, there camera’s artificiality is highlight- faux-trailer attached to the begin- are no fewer than three main vil- ed not by the images they capture, ning of the Rodriguez/Tarantino lains, as well as four heroes, all of but in the gritty flourishes that double feature Grindhouse. Image courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation whom are given equal screen time. Rodriguez applies such as faux It was the perfect appetizer to it with scenes that are meant to through peon henchmen with an This approach is clearly influ- film scratches. These tricks work the film, a pitch-perfect trailer, match the insanity of the original assortment of blades. Much like enced by Tarantino, but where about as well as the distressed largely due to our imagination fill- trailer. Rather than being exhila- the violence in last year’s Ninja Tarantino succeeds is through clothing items one might buy at ing in the gaps between outland- rating, it is merely fatiguing. Assassin, the blades cut too quick- making his characters memorable the mall. ish scenes. Even in the most ridiculous ac- ly, severing limbs and body parts with subtle gestures, not large Sadly, Machete suffers the same With the feature-length Ma- tion movies, there is often some before the viewer is even aware of sweeping ones. Tarantino’s direc- fate. While this movie might chete being dropped into the down time. Movies such as Shoot what has happened. torial hand disappears at these make for a diverting afternoon burial ground of Labor Day week- ‘Em Up that attempt a relentless In the right hands, this tech- crucial moments, while Rodri- on cable, there is little to recom- end, one is skeptical from the very pace usually fail because the au- nique can increase the impact of guez has no such restraint. mend that can’t be found in more beginning if Rodriguez can fill in dience has no opportunity to an- the violence, but in this case it has In fact, this film has no re- entertaining and authentic forms the trailer’s gaps and create an en- ticipate what is about to happen. the opposite effect. straint at all, which would be fine elsewhere. It is a pale facsimile of joyable flick. Without anticipation, there is no Furthermore, Rodriguez seems if there were only a small hand- the promise evoked by the origi- This skepticism is rewarded satisfaction. to be enamored with the filmic ful of characters to keep track of, nal trailer featured in Grindhouse. by the final result, as ultimately Nowhere is this more appar- cut, which consists of moving the rather than two fistfuls. In fact, I’d recommend merely Rodriguez essentially creates a ent than in the plethora of ac- camera’s gaze from one subject to The saving grace of the film is watching that trailer again and feature-length trailer, cramming tion scenes where Machete cuts the next as quickly as possible. the brief moments that effectively calling it a day.

ENTERTAINMENT Technique • September 10, 2010 • 19 Passionate Dragon*Con attendees flood Atlanta Events vendors were tasked with serving the hordes of attendees. Dragon*Con One change from previous PERFORMER: Fans years in Dragon*Con is that wait- ing lines for events only start an LOCATION: Hilton Atlanta, hour before the event opens, Hyatt Regency Atlanta, but even then there were queues Marriott Marquis Atlanta, stretching as far as several city Sheraton Atlanta Hotel blocks for some of the more popu- DATE: Sept. 3 - 6, 2010 lar panels and guest appearances. Some key events at Dragon*Con OUR TAKE: ««««« included the Dragon*Con Parade on Saturday morning, with a sec- By Andrew Ho tion of Peachtree Street blocked Contributing Writer off to allow legions of storm troop- ????? ers, wizards and dragons to go on The Labor Day weekend tra- display before crowds of attendees Dinosaur Prophet ditionally gives people time to and three world record attempts spend with family at home, par- at gathering the largest number tying with friends or just relaxing of , superhero and steam and enjoying the long weekend. punk costumers in one place. However, another sort of tradition Charity events such as the blood brings people flocking from all drive with Life South and Char- over the country and globe to At- ity Auction for the Lupus Foun- lanta in the form of Dragon*Con. dation of America were also pres- This year, Dragon*Con celebrated ent and raised some much needed its 24th year of unrestrained fan- blood donations and funds for THis is Sparta! dom and passion for pop culture. their cause. Dinosaur Prophet For those who have not heard Numerous costume contests, of Dragon*Con before, it is the fan panels, autograph sessions and Back to the Future world’s largest multimedia and workshops gave attendees an op- pop culture convention that is portunity to share their skills, pas- Photos courtesy of Jabulani Barber / Student Publications aimed at possibly every form of sions and interests with guests and actor in animated shows, having Stan Lee, creator of characters “Cons are great… you always entertainment and genre that one other attendees. begun his long career in the late such as Spiderman, the X-Men see something new at cons. It’s can think of. Among the 400-odd guests in ‘80s with starring roles in Doug and Iron Man. basically a tide of super-dorks, Fans of science fiction, fan- attendance at Dragon*Con this and Ren & Stimpy, two of the The voice actors for Fry and and nerds and geeks and dweebs,” tasy literature, movies, music, art, year, were various actors, writers, first animated series. on , Brandon DiMaggio said. comics and more can find a set of musicians, artists and performers. John DiMaggio started his career Routh, who played / Browncoats, Trekkies, otakus events to attend to meet special Notably present this year was somewhat later around 1994 and Clark Kent in Superman Returns and more endured the crowds, guests or mingle with other at- much of the voice cast from the is best known for his role as Bend- and Summer Glau, starring ac- lines and weather to attend the tendees who share common inter- hit sci-fi comedy Futurama, in- er from Futurama. tress in Terminator: The Sarah four-day festival of everything ests. This year alone it attracted cluding (Phillip J. Fry, Voice actor Billy West was in Connor Chronicles participated in geeky. Dragon*Con is likely to about 40,000 fans, dealers, exhib- Dr. Farnsworth, Dr. ), awe of the amount of people that several of the panels throughout grow even more as it reaches its itors, artists and guests. Founded John DiMaggio (Bender) and showed up. the conference. 25th year in 2011. in 1987 as part of a humble lo- Phil LaMarr (Hermes Conrad). “There’s a sea of people here Actors from other popular As an event that is entirely cal gaming and sci-fi group, Maurice LaMarche (Morbo, Kif and I love it… What are the odds TV series and movies such as the planned, run and supported Dragon*Con has grown to cover Kroker, Lrr) was unable to attend that, over the years, people would Harry Potter movies, Star Trek, by fans rather than commer- the space of five hotels in bustling due to illness, though he plans to line up just to hear you talking? I Eureka, Heroes and Aqua Teen cial interests and media outlets, downtown Atlanta. come to Dragon*Con next year mean, I still can’t figure it out. It’s Hunger Force were also greeted Dragon*Con is a long-standing Even with this amount of with hopefully more of the cast in surreal to me,” West said. with packed crowds of fans. part of Atlanta’s identity as a cul- space, local hotels were filled to tow. Some particularly notable Voice actor John DiMaggio tural center and will continue to capacity, while restaurants and Billy West is a veteran voice guests in attendance included reveled in this chaotic atmosphere. do so for the foreseeable future.

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CAMPUSFOOD.COM! 20 • September 10, 2010 • Technique ENTERTAINMENT The American fails

as FILMactionbuilds drama a gun. The American There are occasionally mo- ments of spy thriller action, but GENRE: Drama/Thriller anyone who has seen the trailer STARRING: George Clooney, has seen almost every scene in Violante Placido which these moments occur. Most of the film is taken up by long, DIRECTOR: Anton Corbijn beautifully-filmed sequences that RATING: R always seem to drag on a bit too long. While the cinematography RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2010 is excellent, the pacing seems a bit stretched. The major events of the OUR TAKE: ««««« film are about 20 minutes apart, and while the climax is suspense- By Daniel Fuller ful, it still doesn’t pack the excit- Contributing Writer ing punch that other spy movies do. George Clooney’s latest film, Sometimes films sacrifice ac- The American, fails to deliver on tion in order to slow things down any expectations that might have and focus on character develop- arisen from the trailers. Anyone ment, but even if that was the in- expecting another Bourne Identity tention of The American, such was will be sorely disappointed. Trail- not the result. ers make out the film to be fast- There is little dialogue paced, action-packed and filled throughout the film, so any with philosophical dialogue and gleams of character development clever one-liners. arise from the few scattered con- It is none of these things. Even versations. The “show-don’t-tell” the title has very little to do with mantra might have applied here if the film, considering that the sto- the film had spent significant time ry takes place in Italy and the fact showing anybody besides Jack. that the main character is Ameri- Unfortunately, The American can has no significant impact on is a bit of a solo act (as might be the plot. expected from the title and the After years of cinematic his- choice of lead actor) and never tory, audiences might be used fleshes out anyone besides the to movies that are different than lead. But even with this narrow trailers. This is not necessarily a focus, not many of Jack’s actions sign of a bad movie, maybe just reveal anything about his charac- bad advertising. However, in the ter and the audience is left to infer case of The American, the movie what little they can about Jack as portrayed in trailers would have they watch him go about his busi- been much more enjoyable than ness. the actual film. The pacing is It is clear by the end of the film slow, the story is uneventful for that Jack has undergone change, the most part, and as a whole the but there still seem to be gaping movie feels rather bland. holes in what is known about his Over the course of the film, personality. very little happens. Most of the Clara develops strong roman- plot revolves around an assassin, tic feelings for him because he played by Clooney, who goes by is a “good man,” but when he is both “Jack” and “Edward” in the around her he acts distant, both- film, building a gun for another ered and distracted, never pausing assassin as his last job before he to express kindness or affection. tries to get out of the business. Overall, The American is a Other important characters rather boring movie. It is decisive- include a sagely priest and a local ly not an action movie, yet it also prostitute with whom Jack be- fails to be a character-driven dra- comes romantically and physically ma. It is unclear what the movie entangled. wants to be, do or say. It just hap- The subplot with the prostitute pens. There are many beautiful, Clara, played by Violante Placido, well-framed images that compose is the most compelling part of the the bare bones of a plot, but there story, but it is mostly overshad- is never any depth. Even dedicated owed by endless scenes of Jack re- Clooney fans might want to con- alizing how lonely he is while he sider passing on this one.

Image courtesy of Focus Entertainment ENTERTAINMENT Technique • September 10, 2010 • 21

Theme Crossword: At Wick’s End By Robert Zimmerman United Features Syndicate 45. Her face launched 78. Compass point a thousand ships 79. Catkin ACROSS 46. Wham! 81. Noise color 1. Hoax 47. Sea eagle 82. Prop for the King 5. Double-ripper 48. Toy-piano sound of Pop 9. Rascal 49. Container 83. Aromatic 14. Colewort 50. Coastal phenomenon 85. Pen 18. Bring onboard 51. Jade’s cousin 86. Posted an angry 19. Gold, of old 52. Outraged online message 21. Electroshock 53. Shankar or Zacharias 87. Limb weapon 54. Part 2 of quip 88. Yoked animals 22. -- Fyodorovich 56. Substantive 89. Vole cousin Stravinsky 57. Pierced 90. End of the quip: 4 wds. 23. City in India 58. Individually 98. Female servant 24. Kind of wave 59. Part 3 of quip: 3 wds. 99. Dial and muscle 25. Pimpinella 63. Immature insects 100. Henri- -- -Benoit 26. Lunar plain 65. Forming a line of Matisse 27. Start of a quip by rotation 101. Festive Steven Wright: 4 wds. 66. Cheats 102. Jot 31. Equine animal 67. Part 4 of quip 103. Deliver a speech 32. Middling 68. Animal sound 104. Ceremonies 33. Era upon era 69. Birds, bees, etc. 105. Orenburg’s river 34. Pre-Raphaelite, e.g. 71. Sawbones: abbr. 106. Horse’s gait 36. Adult 74. Guests at a reunion 107. Of one’s birth 38. Sequoias 75. Auditorium 108. Sleep 43. Mutilates 76. Is without 109. Wall Street 44. Rudd and Simon 77. Herr’s mate acronym

DOWN 13. Antedate 38. Inhere 1. “Pygmalion” 14. Robe 39. BPOE member playwright 15. Chinese gelatin 40. Thought dreary ...” 72. Glowing review 86. Weald 2. Lofty 16. Parrot 41. Twelve: prefix 56. -- ordo seclorum 73. Took legal action 88. Greek letter 3. Eye-catching 17. Word in a 42. Malmo native 57. Cooking surface 75. Biddy 89. Air and square 4. Intervening period palindrome 44. Two-dimensional shape 59. Hummed 76. Cry weakly 90. -- vincit omnia 5. Scented bag 20. The gents 45. Place of refuge 60. Void of thought 77. Accessory for a paparazzo 91. Cold War era org. 6. Enticed 28. Hardy heroine 48. Trimmed 61. Glorify 79. Microbrews 92. Ibsen heroine 7. Blore or Ambler 29. Black birds 49. Holiday songs 62. Bony plate 80. Measure of blasting 93. Fly 8. Russian parliament 30. Bean or boom 50. Musical groups 63. Pointer’s light power 94. Giant in Norse myth 9. After Lenin 34. Word of agreement 52. Hawkeye 64. Originated 81. Sandwich cousin 95. Mouthful 10. Wicker craftsman 35. -- avis 53. Blue blood 69. -- accompli 82. Oversupply 96. Woe is me! 11. Seemingly: 2 wds. 36. Way of walking 54. Truncheons 70. Stake 84. Something passe: 2 wds. 97. Lock brand 12. Tableland 37. Finnish poem 55. “Once -- -- midnight 71. Caravan animal 85. Double-crosser 98. Island in a stream

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www.nique.net 22 • September 10, 2010 • Technique COMICS

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham Non Sequitur by Wiley

Crossword Solution from page 21 COMICS Technique • September 10, 2010 • 23

Non Sequitur by Wiley DILBERT ® by Scott Adams