Tuesday, April 9, 2013 |

TechNews

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MATTI SCANNELL

5

‘Place Beyond the Pines' satisfies unmet
longing for challenging, engaging film

August Lysy
STAFF WRITER

The Place Beyond the Pines is as wiste
fully enigmatic as its title The movie, writ
ten and directed by Derek Cainfrance (Blue
Valentine), plunges into the vivid emotional
landscapes of two generations of men struge
gling to navigate the complex, social fabrics of
responsibility and fatherhood, all while learn,
ing to balance individual and relational goals
through sacrifice If I wished to relay the mood
concisely, I would suggest listening to the
closing song, “The Wolves (Part I and II)" by
Bon Iver (which might explain the inordinate
amount of bearded hipsters present); if I were
to describe how the movie affected me emoe
tionally, I would say, imagine a brick tied to
your heart, descending leagues into the sea:

Pines opens with Luke’s story (Ryan
Gosling): a motorcycle stunt driver who turns
to robbing banks in order to support his baby
boy (Anthony Pizzaiyes, even the baby’s got
creds) and the mother of his child, Romina

(Eva Mendes): The story then hands off to Ave
ery (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop whose life
becomes entangled with Luke’s after a fateful
encounter, and whose futureelife as a District
Attorney brings both him and his son, A]
(Emory Cohen), fatefiillyeyeteagain into con
flict with Luke’s nowegrown son, Jason (Dane
DeHaan):

As I implied above, the movie lays
on thick layers of emotional and moral con
flict, and in such a way as to directly tap into
the ennui and disillusionment of my genera,
tion, in particular: I would argue that is pre
cisely why the audience demographic was,
as I dryly remarked above, 207307s0mething
hipster, young adults: Both Luke and Avery are
forced to make principled choices for theme
selves and the ones they love, and bothiwhile
hitting closeimiss the mark in some way

In such a way is tragedy written, but
I would argue that the successful delivery of
this film relies heavily upon the skills of the
writer/director, cinematographer (Sean Bob,
bitt), and music department, and not specifi
cally the lead actorsithough the lead actress

Shimer students

Matti Scannell
A&E EDITOR

A small (even by Shimer standards)
group of students have devoted several times
a week to preparing their performance of
Sarah Rulil’s play, Eurydice, this semester: The
product of their labor will be presented later
this week in Cinderella Lounge at Shimer
College, located in 3424, on the second floor:

For those unfamiliar with the story
of Eurydice, the study revolves around Eu,

rydice, daughter of Hades, who tragically
dies during her marriage to Orpheus (in the
original myth her death occurs after the mar
riage):

After her death, Eurydice descends
to the underworld where she travels through
the waters of forgetfulness: She does not re,
member her husband and does not recog
nize her father, but instead mistakes him for
a hotel porter: Meanwhile, distraught with
the loss of his beloved, Orpheus goes to the
underworld to retrieve her: Eurydice is then
faced with the choice of continuing to live in

Facebook unveils Android
home screen application

Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
launched the new Facebook Home app last
Thursday In his words, it’s neither a phone
nor an operating system; it’s something that’s
a whole lot deeper than just another app: In a
broader sense, it replaces your standard An,
droid’s home screen with an immersive Face,
book experience featuring fullescreen photos,
status updates, and notifications

Facebook Home can replace any An,
droid handset into a “Facebook phone" by put,
ting the social giant right there on the home
screen and all of its products at the forefront
of the user interface It isn’t a phone made by
Facebook: But, yes, we can think of it as a come
bination of “app" and “operating system:" an
app erating system:

“Our phones today are designed
around apps, not people We want to flip that
around," Zuckerberg said at the unveiling
event in Menlo Park: Home will put the up,
dates from social network right on the home
screen via a feature called Cover Feed, which is
quite similar to the HTC One which has a live
Flipboardelike interface for its home screen: It
will give you live updates on what your friends
are doing without you having to launch an app,
or even unlock your phone You can even like
a post or comment on it from the home screen
rather than viewing it on Facebook: In other
words, content from Facebook takes up the

entire screen, and users can navigate through
updates simply by swiping The builtein Gale
lery app lets you share directly to Instagram,
Facebook Messenger and Facebook Camera:

Another great feature of the new
Facebook Home is the new messaging system
called “Chat Heads:" In this new system, mes,
saging is built directly into the user interface
So, one doesn’t need to pop in and pop out of
different apps to chat: When a friend messages
you, their profile picture pops up as a small
circular icon; you can tap and open up the
message thread: One can even have multiple
conversations as well, with all the Chat Heads
you like on your screen: After you’re done with
messaging, you can simply swipe the Chat
Heads away from the screen: The new Chat
Heads in integrated with Facebook messages
and SMS, but not thirdeparty messaging apps
(Hinting on WhatsApp):

Facebook Home is hitting the
Google Play store on April 12: Currently, it
would be available directly on a new HTC
phone, ie “HTC First" and for download to a
halfedozen other HTC and Samsung phones:
The app will have a new Facebookefocused
home screen that puts instant messages, news
feed updates, and photos front and center on
the smart phone home screen:

In simple words, Mark Zuckerberg
wants to turn the Android phone into a simple
sharing device By that, he means he wants to
turn it into a Facebook phone So after iPhone,
Android phone, and Windows phone, we will
have something “Facebook phone"!

 

was the strongestiboth as an actor and as a
character: This last (rather bold) claim is ace
cepting most of the supporting cast: in partice
ular, the two youngest actors (excepting little
Mr Pizza), Cohen and DeHaan, who I thought
completely captured misguided adolescence
in the face of a weak, paternal figure; and Ray
Liotta, who plays one bad cop (g0 figurel), and
Ben Mendelsohn (Killing Them Softly), who
completely embodies his role as Luke’s back,
woods, bank, robbing acquaintance

As far as Gosling and Cooper go: the
first never convinced me he was anything oth
er than the mysterious, handsome character
he seems to play so well (ie this character is
not unique; a la Drive and Blue Valentine); the
second, (and I write this while acknowledging
my sincere desire to see him shed his Hangover
stigma) lacked a certain gravity in his charace
ter (it’s his eyes, they’re too playfully dreamy)
and has not quite convinced me he’s a serious
actor yetialthough crying on his knees in the
woods with a gun to his head is a step in the
right, dramatic direction.

Returning again to the success of

this movie as a whole, Cainfrance has a strong
voice as a writer and knows how to weave a
beautifully rich and engaging plot: Bobbitt, I
think to credit with the emotional tone pre
sented by the visuals, but certainly Cainfrance
has his stamp there, too: In any case, as its
poster suggests, this movie’s visuals communie
cate the brooding, unmet desiresithe pining,
if you williof these characters: In fact, the title
itself evokes strong feelings of emotional isola
tion: Lastly, the music department succeeds in
creating the perfect soundtrack to accompany
the rich visuals and to complement the dense,
emotional landscape (the last scene, with Bon
Iver’s voice and lyrics, is haunting in these re,
gards): The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie
for the current generations of adolescents and
young adults (now with ages stretching into the
forties, sadly) who are wise enough to discern
the challenges of the postmodern, fatherless,
moraleabolitionist age This movie transports
you beyond the pines of unmet longing to that
sublime pinnacle from which to observe that
winding course back through to your mend,
ing; perhaps some will heed its message

erform ‘Eurydice'

the underworld with her father or returning
to live with Orpheus: Orpheus is told that
if he can exit the underworld alone without
turning around, Eurydice can return to the
world of the living:

This play would be a great way to
familiarize yourself with a classic Greek myth
(seriously, I’m pretty convinced that this story
has been represented by pretty much every art
form): For those students who are already fa,
miliar with the story, Sarah Ruhl’s script offers
a new and often very funny takes on the clas
sic story Notable twists include Eurydice be

ing lead out of the wedding by a man claiming
to contain a letter from Hades and Eurydice
calling out to Orpheus as he walks out ofthe
underworld Given the amount of time def
voted to this production, the strong script,
and the cheap ticket price (free!) it would be a
shame to miss this play

Eurydice will be performed Thurs,
day, April 11 and Friday, April 12 at 7:00 pm:
in Cinderella Lounge at Shimer College Tick,
ets are free but must be reserved due to limit,
ed seating, reservations can be made at: http://
wwweventbritecom/event/5870391499/

Chicago YarnCon

Robin Babb
TECHNEWS WRITER

The recent rise in the popularity of
fiber arts like knitting and crochet has caused
an equal rise in the prevalence of small, artie
sanal yarnemaking companies: For those who
partake in the crafts that involve yarn, choose
ing the right material for the project is a crucial
factor in the outcome of the finished producti
every good Etsy seller knows you can’t use just
any yarn to make really quality dog ponchos:

But really though, one of the reasons
that many choose to make scarves and sweat,
ers for themselves and others is that it allows
them to control 100% of the end product They
can dictate the size, color, material, pattern,
etc: of their work: With the power of infinite
customizability in their hands, they tend to pay
pretty close attention to their options:

For those of you who are a part of
this yarny, crafty world (or want to be a part
of it), there is the Chicago YarnCon: YarnCon
took place in the Chicago Iourneymen Plumb,
ers Union Hall this past weekend (April 677),
when hundreds of fiber and textile enthusiasts
gather to show their wares, exchange wisdom,
and pick up some new yarn for their next proje
ect: Since I was interested in taking a peek into
this crafty subculture that I know so little about
(and since there was no admission fee), I def
cided to stop in on Saturday

There were vendors from all over the
country selling exquisite smallebatch, hand,
dyed yarn made from every animal under the
sun, expert crafters selling their handiwork,
and plenty of needles, looms, hooks, and all
other sorts of yarncraft paraphernalia for sale

Whether you’re a dedicated fiber artist orilike
meiless of a crafter and more of an Iecane
sewetheebuttonebackeontoemyecoat kind of
person, there was plenty of opportunity here
to get inspired by the work of the pros and get
supplies for your next project

There were also workshops available
to crafters of every skill level: You could learn
to dye fibers with KooleAid, make slippers out
of old sweaters, or just learn the basics of croe
chet:

Additionally, there was a talk by
Susan Gibbs, the creative director of the yarn
company Juniper Moon Farm: Gibbs talked
about her experience starting her company,
from a “this is my calling!" revelation in a book
store in New York, to the spureofetheemoment
purchase of her first flock of sheep, to the trials
involved in making it into a national yarn come
pany and the world’s first and only yarn CSA:

My main takeaways from YarnCon
2013: 1) crafting is an expensive hobby, and 2)
it is one that a lot of people are really passion,
ate about: Although I figured that buying the
materials and making one’s own hats and mite
tens and such would, logically, be a much more
costeefi’ective method of building a wardrobe,
most of the yarn for sale here cost way more
than anything in my closet: That being said, I
can still understand the appeal of making your
own things from scratch: it’s a creative outlet, it
allows you to take part in this immense come
munity of skilled, likeeminded people, and it
gives you a definite sense of accomplishment
when you’ve finished your project: You’ve just
got to be willing to invest a bit of time and
money, and to accept that the first few things
you make will be completely impossible to
wear: