Diversions

Totally 80s totally rocked

Kevin Brophy
Contributing Writer

Newswire Official Rating:

“Totally 80s Snowball” rocked. Like something straight out of “Square Pegs”, this 80s parody of a high school formal blasted the synthesizers, pounded on power chords and belted out lyrics from the glory days of Sting and Michael. It was loud, it was bright and it was packed with big hair and big laughs.

Jim Springfield

One of the screens that will be seen on the new X-Cash kiosks.

A group of performers covered the songs we all know and love, danced and didn’t stop rocking until the final note of “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Others dressed up as high school seniors, hitting every stereotype from the cheerleaders to the jocks to the notorious geek who snorted after everything she said.

The set up was a dance floor surrounded by a stage with a live band, a center stage for the performers, tables for the audience to sit and a corner for Santa and one of his elves. As performers sang, the high school students danced with one another and asked the audience to join. The football coach would stalk around making no subtleties about being on watch for PDA; at one point he blew his whistle and threw flags at two young lovers in the corner.

Between songs the students would act out a short skit, like when the geek was discovered to be the head cheerleader’s cousin or when the stiff professor and the young, attractive teacher argued over how to teach the curriculum. During one skit one of the girls, in an attempt to stand up to the star quarterback, hopped up on stage and broke out into her own rendition of “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.”

What really made “Totally 80s Snowball” a hit was the music. If you like 80s pop, and you like all the loudness and peppery, catchy rhythms that don’t leave your head for days, then Totally 80s Snowball is for you. It was a great knock off of everything we have come to know about the decade, wrapped tightly around music made for music videos and choreographed dancing.

And what really made the show so much fun was that these classic songs were performed by our very own “Xavier Singers” and was not just a CD scratching through the stereo. They cranked out every note of every melody; one singer even hit the unfathomable lyrical heights of “Take on Me.”

The show was great, to say the least. It was a wonderful way to spend a weekend night, and it seemed like the performers enjoyed themselves just as much. It was fun, it was bright, it was loud—it was the 80s.

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Going on holiday

Emily Hoferer
Diversions Editor

Newswire Official Rating:

What would happen if you traded places with someone for the holidays? Would you just enjoy their house and the sights and sounds of their locations? Or, would it turn your world upside down?

Columbia Pictures

Playing the keyboard has always been super romantic.

This is the very question posed by the two heroines in Nancy Myers’ seasonal romantic comedy “The Holiday.” Kate Winslet plays Iris, a sincere and emotional British journalist who is still swimming in past sorrows of a love whom she can’t let go. But she reinvigorates her life when she goes to L.A. to live in Amanda’s house.

Cameron Diaz plays Amanda, who is a powerful and beautiful business woman who just ended a relationship with her cheating boyfriend (be sure not to miss Diaz’s sucker punch in Ed Norton’s face). Iris and Amanda meet one another in the most obvious of places, the Internet, and hastily switch homes and start to resuscitate their repressed lives.

Of course, two men enter each separate picture. Miles, played hilariously and humanly by Jack Black, is a composer with a true love for movie scores.

Surprisingly though, he is not the only man in the picture for Iris. She befriends Amanda’s elderly neighbor, Arthur Abbott, who turns out to be a famous old Hollywood screenwriter (his claim to fame is putting the ‘kid’ into “Here’s looking at you, kid”).

Iris begins to walk on her own, without the unhealthy presence of her old flame Jasper in her life. She teaches Ed to walk without a cane or walker. Very poetic and symbolic, eh?

Across the pond, Amanda finds herself in the arms of Iris’s good looking brother, Graham, played warmly by Jude Law. What started as a simple, physical fling opens up to be a deep relationship. Amanda is attracted to Graham who, by first impressions, is a ladies man. But, as they get to know each other and learn more, she discovers that Graham does have two other ladies in his life; his daughters Sophie and Olivia.

Amanda is soon faced with a choice: return home to L.A. or stay in England to try things out with the man she’s only known for two weeks.

Even though this romantic comedy is very by-the-book and complete with a happy ending, Nancy Myers has littered it with topics of great depth; the death of a loved one, divorce, adultery, draining relationships and being your own person without another half.

The delightful turn for Iris, caring for this old man and realizing that she cares for Miles as well, is refreshing and very modern. Their connection, and one that is not sexual or lustful, is fulfilling for her. Myers continues to run with a theme in her movies: that life can change so quickly just by the wonderful people who one meets. As a director and screenwriter, she balances the joys and downfalls of life.

“The Holiday” is no award winner, nor is it the next big blockbuster, and it includes a little too much random, individual dancing for me. But, all frivolous things aside, the script is a realistic and humorous portrayal of single people and people looking for love. “The Holiday” is sure to fill your heart with all the warm happiness that we truly need this time of year.

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Some help for the holidays

Brandy Williams
Asst. Diversions Editor

The Christmas tree is decorated with lights, tinsel and ornaments. You’ve checked everything off your Christmas gift list and the roast is warming in the oven. As you wait by the fire side enjoying a tall glass of eggnog, you suddenly receive a call from your Aunt Suzie informing you that your out-of-town cousins are coming to spend the Christmas vacation with you. You don’t have any gifts under the tree for them, no Christmas music to grace their ears and nothing planned for them to do.

You could panic or you could use the Newswire’s guide to surviving Christmas.

Christmas Gift Ideas
For those of you who can’t figure out what to get those hard to shop for people in your lives or who just may need a few more gift ideas, here are a few gifts under $20 that everyone on your list is sure to love!

1. CDs: John Legend “Once Again” $9.99 @ Target
2. Books: “Cross” by James Patterson $13.22 @ Walmart
3. Board Games: Risk $20 @ Target
4. DVDs: Miami Vice $17.99 @ Target
5. Gift Certificates: Letting them decide $1-20 @ any store

Great holiday activities for everyone in the family...
• Ice skating
• Building snowmen
• Sledding
• Lights at the zoo
• Caroling with the church choir

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Unrated! with Jeff McMurray

Kevin Brophy
Contributing Writer

Mele kalikimaka, readers. As the holiday season approaches and the weather gets colder, certain questions come to mind. What does your favorite celebrity want for Christmas? Do scientologists celebrate Christmas? Who is winning the war on Christmas? Because I am a dedicated, hard hitting journalist, I have decided to answer these questions for you.

goodshow.net

Santa?

First up, the celebrity wish list. It may seem as if the pop culture icons of today have everything already, but you would be surprised to see that some of them are still asking Santa for a few things.

Lindsay Lohan wants to be done with AA. Britney Spears wants a new pair of underwear as well as new friends. Michael Richards wishes he could hang people this winter. Mel Gibson wishes the Jews didn’t run Hollywood.

Borat wishes he didn’t have as many law suits as he does. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes want a better looking baby. Oprah still wants to be invited to Tom and Katie’s wedding. Rip Torn and Nicole Richie wish they didn’t look like Nick Nolte when they got arrested for DUIs.

And just incase you were wondering what I want for Christmas, I’ll tell you. I want MTV to play music videos instead of shows starring washed up stars from the Disney channel. See the show “Twenty-four-seven” if you are confused.

The answer to the second question is simple; “no.” Instead, scientologists believe that they are immortal beings who have lived past lives. They also believe in an alien ruler named Xenu and his Galactic Confederacy. According to scientology, Xenu and lost alien souls are the cause of the world’s problems today. I’m trying to find a joke here but I think the beliefs of scientologists are funny enough.

I did find one similar thing between scientology and Christmas in my research. Both of these time honored traditions celebrate money and how much you have, so they have that going for them, which is nice.

Finally, there’s the story of the war on Christmas. Sadly, the war on Christmas is like the war in Iraq. No one is winning, and the talking heads think they have all the answers. It did seem like the war on Christmas was over when Wal-Mart decided to say “merry Christmas” to its customers instead of “happy holidays” but early Intel reports say that it was just a ploy to take away interest from all of the bad press they have received in the last year. For more information on this, I suggest you turn to Bill O’Reilly on Fox News; mainly because it was Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly who declared this war.

Well, time to go hit the eggnog. Merry Christmas and happy new year, everyone!

Published since 1915 by the students of Xavier University

Totally 80s totally rocked

Going on holiday

Some help for the holidays

Unrated! with Jeff McMurray

Viewing Party