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FEATURES

Get the runway ready

Juliana Keeping
February 21, 2001

MSU’s future trendsetters will showcase their creative talents tonight in “Savoir Faire,” a fashion show designers say is more than the traditional catwalk strut. “Around my models, I’ll have about eight people that will watch them and act really weird, because they’re going to be monkeys wearing masks and throw T-shirts at the audience,” said Melanie Cumming, an apparel and textile design senior said. “I just have them go crazy, and it’s funny.” The MSU Student Apparel Design Association has worked at piecing “Savoir Faire” together since August, and students have acted as creative and promotion artists. “Everyone participated,” Robin Wallace, an apparel textile design senior and SADA president said.

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Music critic chooses Grammy favorites

Dan Julian
February 21, 2001

It is time.And in order to mark the special occasion of the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, here are some of my picks for only a few of the 50 awards slated to be given to artists with open arms and teary eyes.I’ve always been a huge supporter of Beck, and really respect how he has progressed as an artist.

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Chili Peppers guitarist solo album offers surprises

Dan Julian
February 21, 2001

John Frusciante To Record Only Water For Ten Days Warner Brothers Recordings When an artist records a solo album, one has to wonder why. Is he looking for a way out of his current band, or is he interested more in simply exploring the boundaries outside of his regular efforts? In John Frusciante’s case, it’s definitely about creating something different than the norm on his third solo effort entitled “To Record Only Water For Ten Days.” The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist does an incredible job with very little on the album, recording his vocals a bit distorted while showing his prowess as a complex and talented songwriter, especially on the epic ballad “The First Season.” Compared to his first two solo albums, 1995’s “Niandra La’Des and Usually Just a T-Shirt” and 1997’s “Smile from the streets you hold,” this album shows a more positive and optimistic Frusciante, exploring more diverse subjects in his intimidating world of immense creativity.

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A capella groups team up for local performace

Aaron M. Miller
February 20, 2001

“I want everybody to look for the vowels,” Phil Johnson told the seven guys standing around him Sunday evening. They began again, each guy’s face showing intense concentration on his task. But it wasn’t an exercise in second-grade grammar - it was rehearsal. “I’m not getting enough first tenor.

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Duo aims to please crowd at E.L. gig

Dan Julian
February 20, 2001

Telecommunication sophomore Jesse Frasure was frustrated back in late 1999 when he was having difficulty finding bandmates who were as focused as him. Then soon after, he found a flier nursing junior Joe Nelson had put up about starting a band.

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Reporter asks for help to cover issues better

Aaron M. Miller
February 19, 2001

It’s a strange world back here on the MS&U desk: My fingers are fumbling on this ergonomical keyboard, my computer wallpaper displays a magnificent city I don’t even know the name of and when I sit in my chair I face west, which feels very different than the east or south I’m used to.

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Reeves, Theron are semi-sweet in film

Vince Estes
February 19, 2001

It just wouldn’t be February, or any other month, without the obligatory romantic team-up of two hot stars - a movie event that’s actors are enough to cause swooning. Too bad we have to wait a month for Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in “The Mexican.” For now, we’re stuck with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron in “Sweet November.” Those wondering exactly who this “Reeves” person is should know he is an actor with particularly granite-faced and emotionless features, a method actor with sizable pecks and an impressive ability to stand up straight.

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Black silent films restored for festival

By BEN DOBBINS The Associated Press ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Most of the scenes in “A Black Sherlock Holmes,” a silent-film farce made mainly for black audiences in 1918, are obscured by a psychedelic collage of swirls, flashes and bubbles of light. The culprit: nitric acid, a volatile ingredient in movies made before 1951 that corrodes rapidly when exposed to warmth or moistness for years on end. It has left few surviving films from a flourishing period in black cinematography.

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Barenaked Ladies are back at U

Dan Julian
February 19, 2001

Meshing together alternative, pop and folk in a unique way is something Toronto-based rockers the Barenaked Ladies know how to do quite well.The Canadian rockers will invade Breslin Student Events Center at 7:30 p.m.

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The Queen comes back to the stage

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY The Associated Press NEW YORK - Before Erykah Badu made her grand entrance at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday night, rapper Common - one of her two opening acts - told the audience to get ready for the “queen.” When she appeared, she certainly played the part. Dressed in regal white with her trademark high head wrap, the slender neosoul diva held court before a capacity crowd of her adoring subjects while incense and a candle burned on a table at center stage. But even queens are human - and it was when Badu revealed her vulnerability and emotions that she made the biggest connection with the crowd. In her third concert on a nationwide tour that ends in Dallas next month, Badu took awhile to let the audience into her esoteric world.

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Grammys dont hold interest for music critic

Dan Julian
February 16, 2001

It’s that time of year again, kids. The Grammy Awards are coming, and to be perfectly honest, who cares? I contacted a lot of students Wednesday for the story you see running just to the right of this column, and the general consensus I got was that students here just don’t care about it - and I can’t really blame them. One student made me chuckle when he replied to me on the phone, “Dude, now’s not a good time (to ask me questions about the Grammys) because I’m with my girlfriend and it’s Valentines Day.” What can people really say about the Grammys?

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Grammy Time

Dan Julian
February 16, 2001

Gary Hoppenstand doesn’t look at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards as just another awards show. “They are sort of the equivalent of the Academy Awards for the motion picture industry,” the professor of American Thought and Language said.

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Weekend Guide

Friday: The MSU Department of Theatre presents William Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” at Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre.

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Pucker Up

Matt Treadwell
February 15, 2001

Contrary to the jokes and stereotypes many believe describe men and women’s inability to understand each other, there is at least one thing they have in common. They both love to kiss. It’s just that women really, really, really love kissing - a lot. There are hundreds of Internet sites that mention kissing, and dozens of Web-based surveys on this subjects. And many of these surveys suggest most women consider the activity more intimate than having sex. “Kissing is more intimate than a hug and more personal than sex,” said Lyman Briggs freshman Rebecca Jurrens.

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19 Wheels returns to U after national tour

Dan Julian
February 15, 2001

Chris Johnston, vocalist and guitarist for modern rock band 19 Wheels, said his band sings about the standard topic for rock and roll music.“Mostly girls, lost love and all the stuff that pulls on your heartstrings,” he said.

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Oscar gamblers bet on Gladiator

LAS VEGAS - Oddsmakers like “Gladiator,” Russell Crowe and Julia Roberts as favorites to win Academy Awards this year. Las Vegas bookmakers starting posting odds by noon Tuesday, soon after Oscar nominations were announced. Joe Lupo, race and sports book manager at the Stardust hotel-casino, said he has “Gladiator” favored at 9-5 because it received the most nominations at 12.

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Singer-actress Lopez calls it quits with rapper-producer Combs

LOS ANGELES - Valentine’s Day was a heartbreaker for Sean “Puffy” Combs, who confirmed his breakup with singer-actress Jennifer Lopez. “Mr. Combs confirmed that he and his love, Jennifer Lopez, have in fact broken up,” his publicist Nathalie Moar said Wednesday. But a breakup has been rumored for weeks. The performers have spent considerable time apart because she’s promoting an album and he’s been on trial in New York on weapons and bribery charges stemming from a 1999 nightclub shooting. “Mr. Combs is confirming this today as he wanted to put all the rumors surrounding their relationship to rest.