"Celebrating 35 Years! A Tribute to Dance at Trinity," presented by the Theater and Dance Department as part of Austin Art's Guest Artists Series, can be summed up with the word "eclectic." The performances had little uniting them besides the stage, and they were further broken up as the house lights were raised between each piece.
Voices Organized in Democracy, Trinity's own liberal-left activist group, sponsored a showing of the film Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price at Cinestudio this past Saturday. The film argued that the Wal-Mart chain, which has over 5,000 locations around the world, including one here in Hartford, is harmful to its employees, the communities where stores are located, the economy, and society in general.
Murderball won the audience award for best documentary at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and the film deserved it. Directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro followed the U.S. Wheelchair Rugby team for two years, from the 2002 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Sweden to the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece.
As 2005 winds down it's time to look back and take stock of where the music world has gone in the last 12 months. Over the last year the industry has seen the inevitable sub-par releases by big-name bands riding the coattails of their own earlier albums, as well as a host of mainstream imitators rising to the top of the charts without bringing anything remotely new or different to the airwaves.
As I sat in a crowded movie theater, surrounded by anxious and rowdy fans, waiting for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith to appear on the screen before me, I experienced an intensely bittersweet moment. I was painfully aware that this third prequel marked the last time a Star Wars movie would premiere in theaters.
