In Search of Real School Spirit

By wpengine | April 9, 2003

Cornell sucks. Yes I, the virgin of all curse words, just said that. I know it is something you may have recited after receiving a poor prelim grade, or another parking ticket, but this time it’s for real. Cornell really does suck. Now I know that I only have four weeks of classes left, but I think I’m going to transfer. Do you have any suggestions?

Right now I’m considering Syracuse, and this weekend I’m going to look and see if they’ll accept my credits. The way I see it, they just won the national title, Marshall Street was packed, and everyone was going crazy jumping into chants of “We’re number one.”

The bars in Armory Square were filled to capacity with students and fans dressed in orange and the juke boxes playing “We are the Champions.” What more could you ask for than that?

Leading up to the Final Four, there was a huge pep rally at Manley Field House to show support, all fans donned orange, the students even slept outside in the snow to get tickets to New Orleans. Even cooler, one student waiting for tickets got Carmelo Anthony’s autograph on a malt liquor bottle at midnight just because he couldn’t find paper. And during both the semifinal and the final game, CBS kept cutting to the Carrier Dome to show thousands of fans watching the game together, cheering on their Orangemen!

Or wait, what about Maryland? I mean, at Maryland, they cancel classes when there is a football game during the week. Imagine canceling school for a football game; we don’t even cancel school if there is two feet of snow on the ground. But even on the days when the Terps have to find their way to class, Cole Field House was opened for the students to come and watch the NCAA Basketball championship game together last year.

Wait

Rotten to the Core

By wpengine April 10, 2003

In the opening scene, we see a businessman drop dead onto a glass table in front of some potential clients. Then the curtains of the room are drawn back, revealing chaos in the streets, as people are dying everywhere. Next scene, it’s Dr. Joshua Keyes (Eckhart), teaching bored students about electro-magnetism at the University of Chicago. He’s soon whisked out of class by some nice fellows in military uniforms, who then take him to see these dead bodies. A General Purcell (Richard Jenkins) asks Dr. Keyes to attempt an explanation as to why these people have died. Using his own presence as a clue, Dr. Keyes determines (in under a minute, no less), that every one of the casualties had a pacemaker. After assuring General Purcell that there’s no way a weapon could’ve killed these people by targeting their pacemaker, Dr. Keyes is then sent on his way with a thank you. Not confusing at all. But Dr. Keyes’s curiosity has been piqued after all that, and I guess ours is supposed to have been too. After painstaking research, Dr. Keyes shows his results to a certain famous physicist, Dr. Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci, wonderfully pompous), who tries to assure Dr. Keyes that there is no way his research could be correct. Eventually we find out that Dr. Keyes was correct, that the core of the earth had stopped spinning. When this line was delivered, the whole theatre just started laughing. Never a good sign. It’s not just the ridiculous premise that makes this movie ridiculous, but also the bad script, bad special effects (though some of them were good, so I can’t rag on that aspect too much), and the campy characters. For example, in the role of Rat, the best computer hacker in the world, is D.J. Qualls, most remembered for being the nerdy, skinny kid from the movie Road Trip. Qualls’s character is one big hacker stereotype, right down to the oily skin and jones for Hot Pockets. My favorite line of Rat’s is when he says that he’s going to “Hack the planet.” While campy characters can be great, they generally work better in campy movies. The actors in this movie actually deserve a lot of credit for making this movie tolerable and in many ways fun. As I said, Tucci is wonderful as the guy that we all hate, and Swank brings some real emotion to the movie. Eckhart is adorable as the scientist trying to be tough, though not easily recognizable without the biker moustache and sideburns he donned in Erin Brockovich. These actors can’t help that the science in this film was completely preposterous and mostly made up, or so my Engineering friend informed me. Not that most people would know what the heck the actors were talking about, but it just makes one lose respect for the movie when you know it’s completely wrong. Speaking of losing respect, I’m not sure where director Jon Amiel went wrong. He’s an English grad from Cambridge University and has quite a few beautiful films to his name. Queen of Hearts opened at the Cannes Film Festival and won quite a few prestigious awards, while Tune in Tomorrow won the Prix Publique at the Deauville Film Festival. Then Amiel came to Hollywood and made Entrapment. All I can think is that he must have had gobs of money thrown at him. At some points it seems as if the movie is trying to be a serious action movie and go for the dramatic feel that leaves you clutching either your armrest, or the arm of the person next to you. There were quite a few deaths in the film, and some of them were quite heart-wrenching. Other deaths were dealt with in an almost comical way, prompting me to laugh at a character’s demise. This is a real problem with the film. If it could have chosen to be silly and to laugh at its own ridiculous nature, then it would have been much better. That did come through in some scenes, but not nearly enough. Definitely a weak point in the movie was the tense climax, where the survivors of the trip to the core of the earth are rushing back to the surface, and then there’s a sixteen hour break. Now, that tends to take away some of the tension and immediacy generated in a tightly timed scene. An easy way to avoid that would have been cutting straight to the people still on the surface of the earth, leaving tension as to whether or not the survivors made it back to the surface. I had a laugh watching this movie, though that’s probably not what the director intended. At least it wasn’t just a plain bad movie, but fun and easy to mock. With all the bad movies I’ve seen lately, that’s how I’m beginning to measure them, on their own special scale. And on that scale, this definitely wasn’t the worst movie ever (that dubious distinction goes to Bringing Down the House). However, I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for it.Archived article by Sue Karp
Figure Skaters Win National Title on First Try

By wpengine April 10, 2003

Winning a national championship does not happen every year, and the road to victory is not always easy. Over the past four years, the Cornell figure skating club has been making a name for itself within the collegiate skating community. On March 28-30, the club traveled to Denver, Col. to compete in the National Collegiate Figure Skating Championship. Cornell entered the competition as the clear underdog. Was it possible for a coachless club to compete against varsity teams from across the country? The club answered its skeptics with a resounding yes by bringing home a national championship trophy. Senior co-captain Robin Abraham first saw the potential for a competitive figure skating at Cornell as a freshman when she entered a competition at Boston University. Abraham was the lone competitor representing Cornell. When she arrived, she was surprised to see 20-member teams hailing from up and down the East coast. Until this point, Cornell’s figure skating club had only been recreational. However, this changed when Abraham met co-captain Kendra Floods. Since then, the two skaters have guided the fledging club to its first national title. This year, Cornell has had an outstanding season, placing third at Delaware in November, third at BU, and first in the Cornell Invitational. By the end of the season, Cornell had finished third in the Eastern region, which qualified the club for nationals. As the club prepared for nationals, it maintained an optimistic attitude. “We knew we had the talent on the team, we knew we could do it,” said Abraham. “I think we are very lucky; our skaters are very good.” The national championship is comprised of nine schools from the Pacific Coast, Midwestern, and Eastern regions. Cornell called on its 14 skaters to compete in four different events: solo dance, team compulsory maneuvers, freestyle programs, and technical programs. When the first day of competition ended, Cornell was in first place. With an 11 point lead, the club headed into its final event, team maneuvers. Divided into three levels, Cornell competed and lost at the lowest level, but came back to win the intermediate level and place second in the senior level. Cornell finished the competition with 87.5 points. Delaware, last year’s national title holder, placed second with 80 points, while Miami came in third with a team total of 75.5. The strength of Cornell’s figure skating comes from skilled athletes at all levels. At nationals, the club entered skaters in the novice, intermediate, and senior levels, which allowed the team to capture the greatest number of points possible in each event. In the short program, Cornell garnered first and second place wins in both the novice and intermediate levels. Sweeping these two spots in the short program contributed greatly to Cornell’s first-place finish. “To win a championship, you need athletes not just at the top of the sport; you need strong people at every level. We have that at Cornell because we have so many people,” said Abraham. Abraham and Floods have each played the role of coach and competitor throughout the season. “We drive the vans to the meets and we help put the girls on the ice,” said Abraham. Serving in both capacities is not an easy job for these two seniors, but their love of the sport and a desire to see future Cornell students compete at the collegiate level has carried them through the season. “This opportunity to continue skating in college is very unique and it’s very new,” said Flood. “We are all skating because we love to skate. I think our team has a very strong sense of camaraderie. We are all very supportive of each other, and I think it might be because we don’t have a coach.” “This is not something one person can do alone,” Abraham agreed. Both captains agree that a national championship title should help Cornell gain the recognition it deserves within the college skating community. They hope that their title will broaden the interest level of potential club members, and encourage skaters to keep the trophy on Cornell’s campus. “I hope that the team keeps going this direction. I think they can have skaters go again to nationals next year,” noted Flood. To generate publicity and interest in the sport, the club holds open skate nights for Cornell students and the surrounding community. The road to success this year has included overcoming adversities ranging from practicing and competing without a coach to making use of limited ice time at Lynah Rink. However, by working hard and dedicating themselves to a sport that is both physically and mentally demanding, the skaters have accomplished the unexpected by bringing a national title home to the East Hill.Archived article by Adrienne Dunbar