Sunday, December 22, 2024

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Features

FEATURES

Hitchin' a ride

Sporting Spartan logos, green and white stripes and blaring the MSU fight song, the Cheat to Win (CTWz) van drives into campus, making its way toward tailgate utopia. Customized last summer, the CTWz's nine owners said the van was created to maximize the tailgating experience and embody the Spartan spirit. A labor of love, the van took nearly four months to complete. "We finally found a van in early spring that we could afford," said Brian Dennis, one of the van's co-owners.

FEATURES

Nevermind the Bush, here's the John Kerry

"Get pissed! Dee-stroyyyyy!!!" Johnny Rotten's a hero of mine. He's proof that a scrawny kid with a penchant for confrontation can change the world. He was the singer for the Sex Pistols - the pioneers of punk and arguably the most influential band of all time.

FEATURES

'Twelfth Night' shines with strong acting

Many people know Shakespearean plays have successfully been set in places such as Britain, Denmark and Italy - but who would've thought in the Caribbean? For the same reasons people loved the creativity of last year's MSU Department of Theatre production "Lysistrata," people will love this year's "Twelfth Night." The production opened at Wharton Center's Pasant Theatre on Thursday with a beautiful purple-hued backdrop against black, cutout palm trees - the unique and eye-catching setting looked as if it were to house any story besides one from the 1600s. The story begins with a shipwreck off the coast of an unknown Caribbean island.

FEATURES

'Friday Night Lights' conveys grit of school sports

A stranger to Odessa, Texas, might think every young man in the small town is a war hero. The 17 year olds there - most with buzz cuts, all of them clean-shaven - are hailed by the local townsfolk wherever they go. Most of the boys respond to their celebrity in that distant, uninterested way, like a returning soldier who refuses to relive his battles by talking about them.

FEATURES

Rock your body

Welcome back to "Rock Your Body," The State News' fitness and nutrition column. Each week, we hit up our local experts with some questions and pass on their wisdom to you. But before we get to the goods, we thought we'd tell you a little bit about who'll be giving you advice. Tom Ostrander: Tom is the owner of Powerhouse Gym, 435 E.

FEATURES

'Shark Tale' script sinks film

Oscar, a downtrodden fish who works at a whale wash, starts off as a nobody. But when a great white shark with ties to the mafia turns up dead and Oscar (Will Smith) is standing over the body, he becomes an instant celebrity.

FEATURES

Make-A-Wish seeks help for girl with an illness

Michaela Dermyer is just like any other 3-year-old girl. She likes Disney movies, sing-along songs and hopes to one day visit Disney World. Michaela, who was born with cardiomyopathy, and her family hopes Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan will help her experience the dreamland of Disney World.

FEATURES

Film explores aging

"The Mother" is a film dependent on its characters. There's no driving plot and no concrete goals - the film is merely the slow look into the lives of a dysfunctional family living in London. Director Roger Michell takes his time in this 2003 British film that explores the hidden personalities lurking inside our mothers. When we first meet May (Anne Reid), she's a dowdy woman whose gray hair is thinly masked with a sandy brown tint and whose outfits generally are in hues of seafoam green.

FEATURES

Hidden treasure

Behind a nondescript white garage door on the second level of Spartan Stadium lies a cache of artifacts most students wouldn't fathom while shuffling past on game days.

FEATURES

'Fahrenheit 9/11' released on DVD, possibly TV

Days before "Fahrenheit 9/11" hit stores Tuesday, Director Michael Moore said he wants to expand the film's audience, even if it means breaking distributor contracts and forgoing a possible Oscar nomination. During a speech on Thursday at MSU, Moore said he wants to get "Fahrenheit 9/11" shown on television before voters head to the polls on Nov.

FEATURES

Artists help fill food bank

Lansing-area "starving artists" fought back against hunger this weekend, not just for themselves, but for others. Young musicians and artists collaborated in the "Starving Artists Concert" Sunday night at The Temple Club, 500 E.