The Bowdoin Orient

Visual art and music will unite on Sunday when The Bowdoin College Concert Band presents a multimedia experience. The musical selections to be performed examine the relationship between the often-related artforms.

This Parents Weekend, music, dance and the sound of hefty drums can all be heard across campus. Following the traditions of the weekend, students and parents will be treated to student performances in supplement to highly praised brunches.

While their classmates were climbing Mount Katahdin or sea kayaking, a group of Bowdoin first years stayed right here in Brunswick to work with VSA arts, a non-profit organization that fosters creativity in children and adults with disabilities by introducing them to educational, cultural, and artistic opportunities.

You would think that after Ivies, I would have had enough excitement to last me until the Fourth of July. While listening to Sean Kingston shout "Put your hands up!" over recordings of his songs was exhilarating, I found myself craving just a few more thrills before settling down to the grind of classes and homework. Thus, at precisely 6:55 p.m. on Sunday evening, my roommate and I decided to postpone our mountain of homework for another two hours and go see the 7 o'clock showing of "State of Play" instead. The movie, starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, proved to be thrilling enough to make up for Sean Kingston's performance.

As the weather gets nicer, I've noticed that time during class has started moving a lot slower. My 90-minute classes, which used to move at the normal pace of time, have suddenly stretched out to feel as if they're three hours long. Watching "Sunshine Cleaning" was like sitting in class knowing everyone else is lazing about on the grass in front of the art museum—excruciating.

The last few years, I've seen a lot of movies about students in inner-city schools and the na‹ve, but well-intentioned, teachers who come to inspire them. "Freedom Writers" comes to mind, starring Hillary Swank as a devoted English teacher who overcomes budget cuts, condescending colleagues, and surly attitudes to help her students reach heights thought unreachable. "Stand and Deliver" is another, focused on calculus instead of writing. There are others, I'm sure, but they all have a common plot line: enthusiastic teacher starts school hoping to inspire high school students; high school students don't care and give him a hard time; one day the teacher makes a breakthrough; from then on, the students will walk through fire for him and everyone gets A's. "The Class" hits almost none of the points on this checklist.

I have a confession to make: I hate shopping. The bright lights and music in malls give me headaches. There are clothes everywhere and I get discombobulated with all the colors. And then there's the money thing. I have a hard time justifying spontaneous purchases and end up just putting things back rather than opening up my wallet. I have another confession to make: I loved "Confessions of a Shopaholic." I may not like shopping, but I did like watching a movie about a young woman so consumed by clothes, shoes, jewelry, and bags that she looks like an animated Vogue ad walking down the streets in Manhattan.

It's common knowledge: The day after a date with a guy she likes, a girl will dissect every sentence, every word, and every gesture to try to determine if said guy will call her in an acceptable amount of time to go out again. If he doesn't call within that time frame, then the girl talk begins. "Why didn't he call me?" "Well, maybe he lost your number. Or maybe he got into a car accident and is in a coma. Or maybe he got food poisoning from the salmon he had at dinner and has been puking for the last few days and is afraid to call you when he's throwing up since that's gross."

Before I printed out the list of Oscar nominations, I thought that I had seen many of the films up for nomination. Instead, looking at the list, I felt woefully out of the loop. What were these movies? Why hadn't I seen them? Why hadn't I even heard of them (in the case of "The Wrestler")?

These days, everyone is struggling to make ends meet. Zack and Miri, two best friends who have known each other since first grade, are having just as much trouble as everyone else in the film "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." First, the water in their apartment goes off, then the power, and barring any really creative and exotic moneymaking schemes, their apartment will no longer be theirs. However, a creative and exotic moneymaking scheme is exactly what Zack comes up with: He and Miri can make a porno!

I'm not a city girl (that's why I came to Bowdoin). Bright lights at night, constant traffic, and the sweet smell of sewage just aren't my thing. However, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" instilled within me a deep desire to go from indie club to indie club in New York City in search of an elusive band. Beyond that, though, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" did nothing else for me. In fact, the hour and a half long movie could have been distilled into a half hour of boy meets girl, boy's friends take girl's drunk friend with them and then lose her, boy and girl look for drunk friend and indie band, and finally boy and girl hook up (surprise, surprise).

Until last week, I must confess that the only other Coen brothers' film I had seen was "The Big Lebowski." I am not a Coen brothers' groupie, or even a modest fan of their films. But I liked the look of their most recent work, "Burn After Reading," so I decided to trek down to the Eveningstar Cinema. I was not disappointed.

The beautiful and glittering lives of the rich and famous always entrance those who live with fewer diamonds. In the new movie "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," there are enough diamonds, furs, and caterers to make anyone long for the lap of luxury.

Pianist Anastasia Antonacos has quite a resume. A solo and group performer, a teacher, and an advocate for the arts, Antonacos is a musician in the finest sense of the word. Antonacos returns to Maine and will perform at a Bowdoin Tea Time Concert, having already performed around the world.

The word "orchestra" might bring to mind a sea of formally attired musicians playing Beethoven or Brahms in front of a quiet and contemplative audience.

In the hip-hop world, an even slightly different style from the norm is startling. The Press Project, the hip-hop group who will be at the Jack McGee's Pub next Thursday, does more than deviate just a little?the group takes a giant step away, combining a classic hip-hop singing style with interesting instrumentals that are more reminiscent of jazz, soul, and funk.

The best thing about Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe" is the music, and that's because the soundtrack is essentially "The Best of the Beatles" covered by the actors. This highly sensationalized movie is a bunch of special effects that make it look like the movie, as well as the characters, are on LSD.

When the leaves start to change and the air gets crisper, college students wistfully look back on the long, lazy summer days when they had all the time in the world to listen to their favorite music or watch their favorite movies over and over again. The days are over when they could spend hours with a stack of music magazines and the New York Times movie reviews, making mental lists of what to download and what to see on a rainy afternoon. When classes begin, the time to figure out what's new and interesting disappears under a pile of papers and books. What is a good music/movie/book lover to do?