When I asked one student
how they would describe what happened
in the McArdle Theater on MTU’s campus this past weekend, they were able to sum it up in just one word, “epic.” As twenty groups of musical wonders made their way across the Keweenawesomefest
stage over the course of three days, college students, high school students, adults, and toddlers alike swayed, jumped around, and sang.
The weekend of awesomeness began on Thursday. Keweenawesomefest
Night Zero, as it was dubbed for all of the computer junkies at Tech who think counting
starts at zero, featured four area favorites. Starting off the night, a local favorite, This is Deer Country, who credit Keweenawesomefest
as being one of the main reasons they formed, warmed up the crowd.
Matt Jones and the Reconstruction
made the trek up from Ypsilanti
haunted concert-goers with his Indie/Folk music, and as WMTU’s
website says, the best way to describe it is “everyone loves Matt Jones.” If his set wasn’t enough for MJ lovers at Tech, he then played the drums with a similar group from the A^2 area, Drunken Barn Dance. Along with them, Chris Bathgate made the journey from Ann Arbor, and as usual, he didn’t disappoint.
Friday night had eight more groups lined up to dazzle the crowd, and dazzle they did. Between
Cedarwell’s “monkey noises”,
White Pines’ incorporation of the crowd in a repeating melody in the song “Foot of the Cross”, Drink Up Buttercup’s “Beatles-y” sound, and Cotton Jones’ extremely
original “psychedelia-tinged rock”, there was something for absolutely everyone.
Thom Sullivan, an MTU first year, said his favorite part of the night was Drink Up Buttercup, because
of their stage presence and how well they connected with the crowd. A personal favorite was the Photographers, with their breathtaking
harmony and extremely amusing “Mustache Song” which expressed that that’s the way to get the ladies; not with a little bit of peach fuzz, a full-grown mustache,
a la Salvador Dali, Col. Sanders, Friedrich Nietzsche, Zorro, and Burt Reynolds.
Saturday night was just as exciting,
with one of the highlights being Graham Parsons & The Go ‘Rounds from Kalamazoo. Parsons
has been entertaining the Keweenaw for quite some time now as a solo act, and as a member
of the Squeaky Clean Cretins, as he grew up north of Calumet, but this was the first time that the Go ‘Rounds have made an appearance
at Kfest.
Millions of Brazilians also rocked out the McArdle, and won the affection of one student in particular,
James Mills, who said the best part about the weekend for him was their high energy performance.
Listeners weren’t the only ones who had a good time though; it appears as if MOB had an equally awesome experience. Their Facebook page’s status update
from Monday claims “the 20+ hours of driving for one show was definitely worth it, HOUGHTON
was uh-mazing.” In fact, MOB weren’t the only musicians who praised the weekend. White Pines’ status claimed “White Pines is still reeling from his week with Cotton Jones. So fun, so tired… thanks to everyone who helped us with shows, it was truly a magical trip.”
And last, but in no way whatsoever
least, Electric Six showed Houghton exactly why their Myspace
profile has more than a million
views. One critic’s review of them says, “The Electric Six have a knack for mixing a dash of Saturday
Night Fever with a whole lot of MC5 and just a smidgen of Jack Black” and that’s exactly what we got. With their hits such as “Gay Bar”, “Body Shot”, and “Danger! High Voltage”, Electric Six left their mark on Houghton.
Overall, the three days of musical
awesomeness were a huge success, with Saturday night not only selling out the McArdle but going beyond that, were simply unbeatable. Why is the weekend such a success? Gabi Elser said, “I really liked how personal and intimate the whole event was. The McArdle is a small theatre and I felt like I had one on one time with the band.” Mills wasn’t a man of many words on the subject,
and was able to just sum it up with two, “simply awesome.” To listen to the bands, purchase CD’s, and anything of that sort, you can go to wmtu.mtu.edu to see a full list of who entertained at the event, and most groups have a Myspace site. For pictures of the event, you can visit Mostly Midwest
Photography at www.mostlymidwest.
com.

On Tuesday morning, nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. The announcements were made by Tom Sherak, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and actress Anne Hathaway.
This year’s Oscars, notable for the fact that it will be the first time since the 1943 Academy Awards where more than five Best Picture nominees will be featured (there will be ten in all), will take place on March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Among the films nominated for Best Picture were science fiction thrillers “Avatar” and “District 9,” as well as expected Oscar nominees “Up in the Air,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “Inglourious Basterds.” Expanding the field to ten films did bring about some surprises though. Unexpected nominees included The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man,” Pixar’s latest animanted film “Up,” and “The Blind Side.”
The other award categories went more conventional. Best Actor nominees include favorite George Clooney for “Up in the Air,” Jeremy Renner for “The Hurt Locker,” and Morgan Freeman for his portrayal of former South African leader Nelson Mandela in “Invictus.” Best Actress nominees notably include Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side” and Meryl Streep for “Julie and Julia,” portraying renowned American chef Julia Child.
Among those nominated for Best Director include James Cameron for “Avatar,” Quentin Tarantino for “Inglourious Basterds,” and Jason Reitman for “Up in the Air.”
This year’s Oscars is also notable due to the fact that it represents the first real threat to Pixar’s domination of the Best Animated Feature category. Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated feature “Fantastic Mr. Fox” has been very highly regarded amongst critics, and is seen as a viable contender for the award.
This year’s Academy Awards will take place on March 7, and will be broadcasted live on ABC. The show will be co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who both were recently features in the film “It’s Complicated.”

After an intial limited theater release, The Lovely Bones will debut nationwide on Friday Jan. 15. The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as the parents of a murdered child. Also featured in the film is Saoirse Ronan as their deceased child, as well as Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli.
The film is about a girl, Susie Salmon (Ronan) who is murdered by her neighboy George Harvey (Tucci). Upon Susie’s death, from on high, she observes the shattering of what remains of her family, namely her parents Jack and Abigail (Wahlberg and Weisz, respectively), who gradually drift apart of the murder of their daughter. She also observes her killer preparing to strike again.
This marks director Peter Jackson’s first film as a director since 2005 blockbuster “King Kong.” Although this film isn’t as grand in scale as The Lord of The Rings trilogy, adapting the screenplay from Alice Sebold’s novel presented challenges in it’s own way.
“One of the challenges that we’re discovering now is that, when you’re adapting, you know you’ve got to realize that you’re only going to get half the book into the movie,” said Jackson in a conference call with student media organizations, including the Lode. “You’ve got to start making decisions about what the most important aspects of the book are.”
Jackson also commented on the intended audience of the film, and the importance of leaving it open for a broad group of people. Specifically mentioned was his intent to keep the film from receiving an “R” rating, and how he wished to make the film in a way so that his own daughter could watch it.
“We wanted it to be a PG-13. We didn’t want to make an R-rated movie,” said Jackson. “We’ve got a daughter who was 12 years old when we made the movie, she’s 13 now. And we wanted her to see this film.”
On particular actors that he really enjoyed working with during the project, Jackson turned his attention to Michael Imperioli, a former castmember of The Sopranos, who plays a detective in the film.
“Interestingly enough, I worked with Mike Imperioli as well, and we cast him, because he did an audition for us, and we thought he was terrific,” said Jackson. “He was a great actor, too, a really nice guy.