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Features

FEATURES

Beatles tribute band, public sing-alongs highlight festival

Vanessa Notman
February 3, 2006

Curtis Remington might look like your average businessman by day. But by nightfall, khakis are traded for bright colors, keyboards for guitars and short haircuts for wispy wigs. A graphic artist by day and a Beatle by night, Remington is the rhythm guitar and harmonica player for the Beatles tribute band Yellowsub Marines, and he loves every minute of it. "This isn't a full-time job, this is a full-time passion," Remington said.

FEATURES

'Feast' on new food-themed (SCENE) exhibit

Melissa Talon
February 1, 2006

The Oreos on display don't twist or crumble, and you definitely can't bite into them. The popular cookies are just a sampling of the smorgasbord of art in the victual-themed "Feast Your Eyes" exhibit at (SCENE) Metrospace, 303 Abbott Road.

FEATURES

'90s TV shows now abundant on DVD

Margaret Harding
January 31, 2006

When I browse through the DVDs at Best Buy or FYE, the last emotion I expect to feel is nostalgia. Yet that yearning for yesterday hits me time after time when I see the shows I grew up watching available to the masses again. The biggest shock has to come from learning that "Beakman's World" — the science-experiment show that featured Beakman, the dour Lester the Rat and Josie — has "The Best of Beakman's World" on DVD for the low, low price of $5.97 at Amazon.com. As a kid, I loved watching Beakman perform experiments to answer questions about rainbows and why the sky is blue.

FEATURES

Locally filmed movie debuts in Lansing

Alessa Thomas
January 31, 2006

"Last Night Out" describes the night before Brandon's wedding as Joshua takes a reluctant Brandon out on the town. The characters are played by Brandon Bautista and Joshua Ortman, whose first names correspond with their characters'. Ortman begins the night by flaunting his bad boy persona — he hits on girls, drinks excessively and enthusiastically takes Brandon to a strip club against his wishes.

FEATURES

Five favorites

Every week, The State News presents five things going on in the world of pop culture that might make your life a little bit better.

FEATURES

Queen tribute band resembles real thing

Ryan Mccormick
January 30, 2006

The Union Ballroom hosted an almost contradictory event Friday — an arena rock show in an intimate environment. Contradiction or not, it was definitely a hand-clapping good time for audience members when Almost Queen — a Queen tribute band — hit the stage with screaming guitar solos, monstrous drum beats and heavenly vocal range. "Really, we started the band when we found a guy that looked exactly like Freddie Mercury," said Tom Cavanagh, guitar player for the tribute band, before the show. Cavanagh, who has a striking resemblance to Queen's guitar player Brian May, was right about his band mate Joseph Russo looking like Queen's late great lead singer Mercury. Russo wore the trademark white tank top with white jeans and, of course, sported the Mercury mustache.

FEATURES

Lewis strays from genre

By Erik Adams Special for The State News As you can read in any rock magazine of note (Spin and Harp, for instance), Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis set out to make her solo debut, a soul album in the vein of 1971's "Gonna Take a Miracle" by Laura Nyro and LaBelle.

FEATURES

Online dating won't work; Internet sites provide daters with false sense of status

A sick feeling hit my stomach all of a sudden. While sitting at my desk in my dorm room surfing the Web and eating an evening sandwich, I couldn't help but feel rather repulsed. The fact that I blew off studying for a test — MacGyver marathons get me every time — did not have an overall effect in deterring my appetite. I had just received a pop-up from www.AdultFriendFinder.com, the popular Web site with its home page indicating that it is in fact "the world's largest sex & swinger personals site." After nearly regurgitating the sandwich, I was caught off guard by the (ahem) revealing shots in the member profiles. Being a self-described rugged bachelor, I curiously decided to take a gander at what the site had to offer. Filled with thousands upon thousands of "sexually liberated members" with such names as "2HoT4u" or "BuTtErCup420," these swingers were more than willing to "hook up" or allow access to their "sexy webcam videos." Long walks on the beach need not apply.

FEATURES

Number puzzle gains popularity

Margaret Harding
January 24, 2006

Crossword puzzles across campus are feeling spurned as more and more people turn to the number game Sudoku to tease their brains. The game that requires no math has become a staple in newspapers around the country, including The State News. It was reintroduced to the nation last spring, according to an article about the game in the current issue of American Scientist. Some students, such as accounting junior Sean Brennan, imported the game after spending the summer abroad. "I went to Ireland over the summer and they had that all over the newspapers," Brennan said, who now has a Sudoku day calendar and completes about two puzzles a day. Sudoku puzzles can usually take between 10 minutes and a half hour, depending on the puzzle's difficulty and player's skill, according to www.sudoku.com.

FEATURES

Five favorites

Every week, The State News presents five things going on in the world of pop culture that might make your life a little bit better.