12 1:!!3 BECCAWATERLOO ae@technewsiit.com Tech'N'ews | Tuesday, March 29,2011 Blue Man Group oddities entertain, shock students By Ustav Ghandi CAMPUS EDITOR I knew that Blue Man Group was go, ing to be an experience unlike any I had be fore as soon as I had the ticket in my hand My friends had told me to expect the show to be interactive and enlightening at the same time , and with these expectations I walked into the Brair Street Theatre and Cabaret on Thursday night And it certainly didn’t disappoint meI Using some innovative efforts to interact with the audience and a unique come bination of music, dance, technology, art and comedy, the oneehour, fortyefive minute per, formance never had a dull moment Starting ofi’ with a unique preeshow instructional message regarding cellephone use age (and the works) which was anything but serious in tone, the trio appeared on stage to resounding applause , accompanied by a band which played with relentless energy through, out the show One of their most interesting acts during the night was three giant iPhones which they called ‘GiPads’ , or gigantic iPads , and this act was specifically aimed at discuss, ing the trend rampant in American teenagers as they multitask school work with texting and media , which is clearly detrimental to their academic progress Trying to hold the audience’s atten tion on the three screens simultaneously , one with Literature homework, one with media software running and the third detailing the facts about the worrying study habits of Amer, ican high school students , it was clearly evi dent that it’s a case of trying to be engaged in too many things at once, and not doing a good job in any Toward the end of the show, they also enlightened the audience regarding how diflicult it is in this day of text messaging and Facebook chat to have a ‘real,’ faceetoeface cone versation , and how this effects our relation, ships An alarming fact they highlighted was that parents these days have an average of five minutes of meaningful conversation with their children every day , this tells you that there are some things that need to be fixed! Apart from this, there was an ime mensely entertaining ‘rock concert’ at the end with one unforgettably catchy song enlisting at least two hundred different synonyms for the human posterior, a ‘Human Paintbrush’ art creation before our very eyes (yes, it was exact, ly as the name suggests), and some innovative use of pipes to create music This may sound gross, but there was one particular act where they invited an audie ence member on stage, a girl who was visibly frightened and clearly repelled by the looks of the Blue Men, to have dinner with them, and in the process, regurgitating food through holes in their chest, vacuuming figures ofi’ paintings behind them while eating and brandishing out a huge fire extinguisher as the girl went for ward to light a candle on the table All in all, it was an interesting time spent there, and the Blue Man Group con tinued its reputation of providing oITbeat but immensely enjoyable entertainment It is cer tainly recommended to get a break from the humdrum of daily school life NEED LUNGH IN A PINGH? T'S A CINGH! DEANDFA N. — WASHINGTON. Il- JIMMYJOHNSLOM T0 FINI] THE “NATION NEAREST YIJlI VISIT JIMMYJIJHNS£0M AMEFIGA'S FAVOFITE SANDWIGH DELIVERY GUYS!” @2011 mm mum's muculsl. Lu: ILL Klan"; FESIKVW. PODCAST OF THE WEEK: Photo of the Week: PHOTOGRAPHER: Henry Arul Savarimuthu Thomas Photo of the week is back! Submit your entries to assteditor@technewsiit.com and give a brief description, phrase, or quote describing the inspiration behind the photo, Photographers of published photos wins a TechNews button! .-u...-.uoouuu...--.o..-u...--.o.--.oo..uoo.--.o.--.oo.-. Wait wait...don't miss a Chicago classic By Sand Ip ASSISTANT EDITOR Averaging a five star review with a little under 700 ratings, NPR’s Wait WaitmDon’t Tell Me is currently sitting at number two on the iTunes top ten podcasts of all time The show features Peter Sagal as the host and Carl Kasell as announcer and official score keeperI The score is kept for three guest panelists who answer questions regarding the past week’s news in hopes of winning the title “News quiz champion" by the end of the night The show has been airing since 1998i As nerdy as it all sounds, the highlighting of the irony and absurdity in current events ace centuated by humor and blunt criticism makes the show quite amusing and as NPR calls it “oddly informative? ' The show is features listeners calling in to answer three questions about the news and should the listener answer two of three ques tions correctly, he wins Karl Cassel’s voice of his home answering machine The show also invites a guest star each week to play “Not My Job," a portion of the show where Sae gal asks the star questions regarding a subject that is indirectly related to the star For ex, ample when actor Jesse Eisenberg, star of The Social Network, was on the show, he was quese tioned about people of the antiesocial network, hermitsr Another round of listener participa tion is done with callers filling in the last word of newsy limericks, and finally panelists round of the evening by playing “lightwing fill in the blank" where the supply one word answers to news hintsI Two Thursdays ago, the editoreinechief and I had the pleasure of attending a live tape ing of the radio show at the Chase Auditorium in downtown Chicago Though it be a fifty minute long show, the taping actually lasts for about two hours Dialogue between Sagal and the panelist flow casually like conversation and panelists often interrupt with unscripted come mentary The show is made just under an hour after editing parts out That week, the show in, vited Judy Collins to play “Not my Game," Some frequent panelists, usually consisting of comedians, humorists, and journalists, in, clude Roy Blount Ir, Tom Bodett, Amy Dick, inson, Paula Poundstone, Roxanne Robertsm and M0 Roccai Some critics claim that in order to enjoy the humor, one would have to be aliberal and even then, the sarcastic, pompous tone of the host can be too much to bear I say simply listen to the well researched show and recognize that besides stating facts, the only injection of any opinion stems from a little common sense Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me airs nationally on Saturdays at 11 am and the podcast is avail, able for download on the same day as well