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MATTI SCANNELL

ae@technewsiit.com

TechNews | Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Middle-Eastern infused free jazz delivers amazing experience

August Lysy
STAFF WRITER

Although I am a music enthusiast
and have opinions about performances and
content, I am willing to acknowledge when I
am out of my depth: For example, because I
am not very familiar with classical music and
performances, I do not believe I could give a
fair estimation of either This holds true to a
certain extent with Jazz, the particular subject
of this article, and so I will tread lightly and of,
fer the commendation I believe the artists def
serve, although acknowledging I cannot give a
perfectlyeinformed estimation of their artistry

That being said, this past Friday
night I had the pleasure to see SoSaLa at Sure
plus of Options, an independent antiques,
furniture, and obscure art and objects buyer,
seller and trader up on Lincoln Avenue: Inie
tially, after reading the description of the band
and considering the obscurity of the locale, I
expected an amateur, indie efi’ortiakin, per,
haps, to a performance I once saw in a base,
ment in which the “artist" periodically sipped
wine from a bottle and put a microphone in his
mouth to simulate aimelodic electronic crack,
les: Nevertheless, I went because I wanted to
explore music in the city and hopefully make
some contacts for my radio show

To my totallyeunexpected amaze,
ment, what I experienced in the intimate back,
room space of that building so surprised and

overwhelmed me; I can hardly find the words
to describe the experience: my mouth hung
open in a bemused smile for the whole first set,
and I entered altered states in the second:

SoSaLa is Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi,
a tenor saxophonist of Iranian descent: Ace
companying him Friday night were three mu,
sicians he had never even met or played with
before (and the same goes for among them,
too, I think):

They were Steve Marquette on guie
tar, Lucas Gillian on drums and percussion,
and Alex Wing on bass and oud: SoSaLa is
currently based out of New York, but also has
members in Germany (and at least one other
country): As I understand it, SoSaLa picks up
members wherever Saadat goes: this, I am sure,
guarantees an incredibly organic and fresh
sound with every performanceiwhich is ex,
actly what I heard:

SoSaLa, to Saadat’s implicit admis
sion, defies genre in that it incorporates a die
verse amount of influences: avante garde, tra
ditional, jazz, punk, progressive, and the list
goes on: Surplus of Options describes it in their
email blast as “Fueled by improvisation, with
loefi electronics::: [And] various instruments
[making] for an ambient and psychedelic take
on world music:" However, that description
led me to the erroneous expectation described
above: There was no wineeimbibing to be seen
in this performanceiall were consummate
musicians, seriouslyehoned in their craft:

EssentiallyI would describe SoSaLa

as freeeform Iazz with various, exquisitely,
incorporated influences, the most noticeable
and beautiful of which being Saadat’s Middle,
Eastern heritage: Saadat spoke to the audience
between each piece, and although his thick,
towering figure seems intimidating, he quickly
reveals himself to be unassuming and quite
open: It was during these breaks in which Saae
dat explained the intention and history of his
music:

He expressed a great sorrow for Iran
and a keen understanding of the world (this
I attribute to his remark on New Yorlc some,
thing to the effect of it being a troubled city):

I am quite partial to the tenor sax,
and I felt it captured Saadat’s apparent melane
choly over the state of Iran: Each piece seemed
to follow a pattern: usually an intro by the sax
and then a gradual build until an improvisae
tional period at the end:

As I am most partial (and familiar)
to the drums, I was most impressed by Gillian’s
drumming, which powerfully and adeptly
crafted the unique rhythm of each piece, and
added a certain edgy quality to the overall Iazz
feeliby which I mean he tended toward emf
phatic expression (which may not clarify my
initial wording any better):

Marquette’s guitar work was subtle
(or else timid, or too quiet?), but when I fo
cused on his input I sensed an equal passion
tempered by his use of space (ie rests or suse
tainment): This impressed on me the sense he
was very intentional in his playing, working

around the other players:

Wing brought a very colorful versae
tility to the ensemble, playing both bass and
oud, sometimes interchangeably during the
same piece: However, as I am most unfamiliar
with the bass (and utterly unfamiliar with the
oud, a form of Arabian lute) I am least inclined
to comment on his performanceihowever, I
was equallyeimpressed and delighted in it:

The weakest parts of the perfore
mance were the ends of each songia weak,
ness that can be dismissed by the artists’ nova
elty to each other and under the overwhelming
experience they were still able to create:

I have had the experience before
where in the experience of live music I feel
something spiritual is conveyed and impressed
upon me: just such did I feel walking home
last night: So much was I in an altered state,
I can only describe it as an ecstasy: if God
had reached down and touched the soft of my
heart, I would not have felt any more ecstatici
and I quite believe he did:

Unfortunately, the CD I purchased
of SoSaLa, “Nu World Trash," lacks some of
the sparking passion I felt last night: Alas, that
must be the effect of production, in some cases:
I’ll always have the memory, though:

Check out Saadat online at www
Sohrahinfo, and tune in to my radio show Vagae
hond Airwaves on WIIT 88.9 FM (and online)
Sundaysfrom 4 to 6pm. Check online, too for
when I post some excerpts from videos I took
Friday.

Chicago 2013 Zine Fest showcases city's thriving zine scene

Robin Babb
TECHNEWS WRITER

The zine community in Chicago is
unquestionably thriving: Every art student
and punk kid in the city with access to a copie
er seems to have their own zine: Whether it’s a
stapledetogether, simple little black and white
number or a fully illustrated graphic novel,
the accessibility and freedom of content in,
herent in the zine format has made it quite a
popular art form recently This popularity is
nowhere more apparent than at the annual
Chicago Zine Fest, which took place this Fri,
day and Saturday at Columbia College:

In its fourth year running, the fest

App Review:

has managed to gain a massive cult follow,
ing of dirty hipsters and super cute lesbians:
This time around there were three floors of
a Columbia building dedicated to the event,
each packed, endetoeend, with over 200 zine,
covered tables: The sheer amount of stuff at
this place was crazy: zines, posters, stickers,
patches and pins: There were established art,
ists selling their hardcover books, and broke
art students giving away flimsy little pame
phlets about this or that marginalized social
group: People from all over the country come
to this event to sell and trade their wares,
hobnob with fellow zinesters about the come
munity, and collaborate on future projects: It’s
the locus of tons of creative energy and new
media:

Temple Run 2 a fun challenge

Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

In the last week’s TechNews has had
reviews for movie tickets, transit, GPS, and
more: This week I’ve decided to jump over to
another exciting theme, Games: Yes, this week
I’m looking at one of the most downloaded
apps on Apple App Store as well as Google Play,
Temple Run 2: The sequel to the popular end,
less runner game Temple Run was launched
last month and it has been a success: It has re,
corded a massive 170 million downloads in the
Google Play

The first comment I would give is
it’s a superb game: With enhanced graphics,
environments, and obstacles, as well as more
powereups and achievements, and special
powers for each character, the game is addice
tive: It takes all the same game play rules from
the first edition, i:e:, escaping from ravenous
monkeys and collecting coins while running
through an ancient temple, ducking, jumping,
and swerving around to avoid obstacles: But in
Temple Run 2, there are some very good addie
tions to the running route: Now, the route has
curves, hills, and dips and because of this, it’s

automatically more diflicult than its predecese
sor There are no more straight line paths and
right angles as before which has increased the
excitement: In addition, there are new modes
of transportation like ropes to slide down and
train carts to ride, which are thrilling inclue
sions:

With these sorts of exciting routes
to run and powereups, this game sometimes
crashes, either due to my phone being unable
to support it or a software bug: Also, come
pared to the first edition of this game, they’ve
removed too many of the best features: You
can no longer upgrade the magnet to double
or triple coin values, and you can only work
on three upgrades at a time: This really slows
down your ability to make progress in a game
to the point where it isn’t fun

I would say that there is literally no
end to this game, as it is always making you
want to try to beat your high score: Again, I
would say graphics has been the biggest posie
tive factor for this game which makes it smooth
to play and very challenging: If you haven’t yet
started playing, go and start running:

Got an app on your phone thatyou
think other students should try? Send an email
to ae@technewsiit.com and we will review it.l

 

I was only able to go to the second
day of Zine Fest (Saturday, March 9), but
nevertheless was impressed by the scope of
the event: Besides vendors, there were pane
els, workshops and readings, and even a bake
sale to raise money for the future of the fest:
The general political bent of the zine commue
nity was apparent through panel titles such as
“Writing about Health, Disability, and Accese
sibility in Zines," and through the many femie
nist and queer publications like Motor Kitty
City Besides these, there were zines about
gardening, sex, food, music, having really
good roommates, growing up in the city, and
just about anything else you can think of

This was the second year in a row
I had been to the Zine Fest, and I was just as

Game Review

impressed this time as the last: For being run
by a young, volunteerebased outfit, this event
has been well attended and organized on
both occasions: Despite the space being uni
comfortably packed with people, there never
seemed to be the slightest of tiffs

And how could there be, with so
much awesome stufi’ in one place? I came away
with a snarky feminist zine, some cute pins, a
free little smut pamphlet, and some names of
artists that caught my eye and require some
further Googling: With most things under
ten dollars, it’s pretty easy to come away with
plenty of souvenirs for you and your buddies:

Ifyou missed Zine Fest thisyear, I’m
sorry Go next year. I promise it’ll be worth
your time.

Sims 3: University Life

Melanie Decelles
STAFF WRITER

This week EA released the new,
est expansion for their insanely popular Sims
series: The Sims has become one of the most
popular PC games available, selling escapism
to the masses: In The Sims, you can look how,
ever you want, be whomever you want, and
even own a pony With expansions that allow
you to train and breed dogs, become a singing
sensation, and learn how to give tattoos, there
is no failed life dream that can’t be acted out
with these tiny virtual people:

The community in The Sims is large
and involved, with fan made challenges that
usually span multiple generations of Sims fame
ilies: This means The Sims can be as complie
cated as you want, with hundreds of different
ways to play

I was ecstatic about the new expane
sio: With diligent playing, it’s easy to exhaust
even the most limitless of worlds: I found my
Sim spending her Sundays catching up on
laundry and playing with her cat, hardly an ex,
perience I need to simulate, so I was thrilled to
hear about Sims University Life:

In this expansion, any young adult Sim can en,
roll in college: Once enrolled, you can decide

how long you want to attend, how many credits
you want to take while there, as well as decide a
major: Your Sim is then whisked ofi’ to a small
college town where they cam live off campus
and pay rent or dorm for free: A notable differ,
ence from previous Sim games is the addition
of a phone that allows your Sim to join social
networks based on interests: The life goals of
your Sim can now include becoming a street
artist or a famous blogger One of the major
selling points of attending college is that it al
lows your Sim enter into their chosen career
above entry level: It also allows them to meet
people who can help them be promoted faster
That’s right, not even the Sim world is a merie
tocracy anymore:

This expansion seems to have been created
purely so the developers can try to connect
with the twentyesomething members of their
fanebase: This is complicated by the fact that
they seem to believe we dress like it is the 80s
and all want dreadlocks of varying colors: In
the end, the game still manages to be entertain,
ing in a strange way What can I say? There’s
something relaxing about attending classes
that don’t matter, while I attend classes in the
real world that get increasingly complex: I rec,
ommend this game to anyone who wants to
watch a slightly more popular and attractive
version of herself take a final: