The annual Jazz Club Cabaret was held Friday and Saturday January 22 and 23. The two-night event, which takes place in McArdle Theater, featured the area’s most talented jazz combos.
Night one featured the Calumet High School Jazz Experience directed by Scott Veenstra. The ensemble is open to any student with an interest in jazz, regardless of instrument, and director Scott Veenstra has a relaxed approach to teaching. “We focus almost exclusively on improvisation,” he said. “We have been around for four years, and each year we’ve been honored to be a part of the Jazz Club Cabaret. The kids love it.” The band played a variety of tunes ranging from classic Miles Davis to their own composition, Island of the Wicky Wacky. Also featured in night one were Tech’s own ensembles Momentum and Jaztec.
Night two featured Jaztec and Momentum again. Jaztec, who usually rearrange pop songs to their liking, rearranged No Scrubs in true Jaztec form, and Momentum had a blast playing songs like Put It Where You Want It and Electra Glide.
The final performance of the night was local jazz favorite RealTime Jazz Band, which is comprised of local jazz veterans.
Michigan Tech Jazz director Mike Irish, who plays guitar with RealTime, says that they are thrilled to be back on stage after a long hiatus. Overall, he says, the two nights were a huge success. “The audience was great. There were our normal jazz followers who make it to every show, but tonight there were a lot of new faces. Thanks to everyone who could make it out,” Irish said.

On Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010 the brothers of Sigma Tau Gamma will be host their annual Grundy Run.  They will start running from the Wadsworth Hall lobby through campus to the Sigma Tau Gamma house in order to raise money for the local BigBrother /Big Sister chapter.
Aside from collecting regular donations, the brothers will also conduct a ‘sponsorship’ program where individuals, student organizations, or businesses can sponsor a brother during the run.  It is $3 dollars for an individual, $5 dollars for a student organization, and $10 dollars for a business to sponsor a brother.
In addition to the Grundy Run, the brothers of Sigma Tau Gamma will also host a pancake breakfast Saturday Feb. 6, 2010 from 10am-2p.m. at St. Albert the Great University Parish  located at 411 MacInnes Drive, Houghton, MI 49931.
Tickets are $5 dollars for adults and $3 dollars for children under the age of 13.
The brothers of Sigma Tau Gamma will be selling tickets up to the day of the event at the door.  No price inflation will occur.

Read the full story

Dear Sassy,
It has only been a few weeks into the new year and I cannot seem to keep my resolution to exercise. I promised myself that I would work out at least three times a week and I have yet to go to the gym once. How can I motivate myself to make a new me?
Sincerely,
Renegade Resolutionist

Read the full story

The 1,590 people in the SDC gym rose to their feet several times in Saturday’s 82-70 victory over GLIAC South leader Findlay. It was an impressive team performance in almost all facets of the game, but admittedly, several individual performances may have overshadowed even the game’s outcome.
Katie Zimmerman has been a constant three-point shooting threat during her career at Michigan Tech, so it was only fitting that she would break her 1,000-career-point barrier with her third three-point shot of the day. That was not the end for her. She nailed four more in the game to eclipse the school record, which she was previously tied with at six. Danae Danen also broke the career shot blocking record in the contest.
With two more wins under the belt, the Huskies (14-1, 9-1 GLIAC) head back on the road to take on Saginaw Valley State (4-11, 2-8 GLIAC) on Thursday and Lake Superior State (9-5, 6-4 GLIAC) on Saturday. Check out mtulode.com for a complete preview.

This weekend the Michigan Tech Nordic Ski teams will head to the Twin Cities for the Central Super Tour Races on Saturday and Sunday. Tech skiers look to rebound after having difficulties in Anchorage, Alaska when they ran into not only a tough field of skiers but also had a day of equipment problems (waxing issues). The good news to take from Alaska is that Tech skiers fared well against Central Region Skiers.
The Women will be led by Riikonen-Purtsi who finished the weekend in Alaska tied for second overall in the Central Region. Senior Elizabeth Quinley will be counted on if the team has a chance of doing well. Quinley finished with 75 points in Alaska finishing 13th overall. On the Men’s side, the team will lean on two guys who had big weeks in Alaska. Senior Jesse Lang finished 4th in the Central Region and 9th overall. Colin Singleton finished 15th overall with 61 points, but the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt on both sides with the waxing issues that slowed down the times and cost the team points in Anchorage.
With the bad waxing, which hopefully will be avoided this weekend, taken into account it seems as though Tech Skiers should have a good weekend in Minneapolis as they face off against Central Region competition. The next leg of the Central Super Tour will take place next weekend in Cable, Wisconsin.

The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra had its first performance of the year on Saturday, October 17. The concert was a celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn, and featured selections from his most famous work, the music from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mendelssohn, whose music had a significant conservative streak and who disdained many of his contemporaries from their radicalism in music (and thus earned himself their disdain), was until recently somewhat unpopular. However, his reputation has rehabilitated itself somewhat as orchestras around the world celebrate his two hundredth anniversary (which actually happened in February). The KSO also performed Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody and Igor Stravinsky’s Suites No. 1 and 2 for Chamber Orchestra.
The event, which took place at the Rozsa Center, was generally well attended. Following the performance, the audience was invited to the lobby for free cookies and lemonade, and had the chance to meet director Dr. Joel Neves.
The event was Dr. Neves’ first performance with the KSO. Neves, who before working with the KSO had conducted in Cedar City, Utah, was impressed with the result of the concert. “I thought it was outstanding,” Neves told the Lode. “Everyone responded with great energy… it was a thrilling first concert.” He further remarked that the KSO was “outstandingly talented and dedicated.”
The KSO has already begun rehearsing for its next performance. On December 5, it will team up with the Michigan Tech Concert Choir will present George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. Other concerts scheduled for the year are “A Night at the Opera” on February 20, and “The Bernstein Beat,” featuring Jamie Bernstein, on April 17.

Heading into Saturday’s game with a 1-5 record, the Huskies have found just about every way to lose this year: losing by a combined eight points in the first two games, running into a Northern Michigan team that may be the GLIAC surprise of the year, facing the then-No. 1 Grand Valley State Lakers, falling in a snowy weather game while battling countless injuries and some debatable penalties. This Saturday, they discovered a new way: turning the ball over. Michigan Tech fell to Indianapolis 38-20, as the Greyhounds scored 20 points off of five Huskies turnovers.

Read the full story

This Saturday will mark the culmination of spring football practices for Head Coach Tom Kearly’s football squad, as they will take to Sherman Field for the annual spring game, with kickoff slated for 1 p.m.

Read the full story

The fourth week of MLS play turned into the week of the draw as five of the seven matches last Saturday had tie scores when the final whistle blew. Those results killed my record and didn’t give me a lot to analyze going into this week.

Read the full story

Needing a strong showing to salvage what was quickly becoming a disappointing GLIAC campaign, the men’s tennis Huskies grabbed two big wins over the Tiffin Dragons and the Findlay Oilers to pick up their first GLIAC wins of the season.

Read the full story