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Home Blog Page 1537

Unity Day promotes Haitian culture

The Miami Hurricane
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The Haitian Student Organization (HSO) hosted its annual Unity Day event Friday to promote Haitian culture and get the attention of the non-Haitian community. As this year’s theme suggests, the goal of the event was to promote “Cultural Traditions through Generations.”

“The whole point of HSO is to promote Haitian culture and serve the community,” Marli Lalanne, Planet Kreyol president, said. “We’re trying to do the whole fun and education thing together.”

The first part of the event was a cultural showcase on the UC Patio. Those who wished to participate purchased an all-day pass for $5, which covered lunch and dinner as well as the arts and crafts session.

Red and blue streamers hung from the trees in the UC Patio, and orange, green and white balloons floated nearby. These colors signified the unity of the Haitians with the UM community, one of the messages the event meant to get across.

“We really wanted to focus on bringing people together to see what the Haitian culture is about,” Lalanne said.

Planet Kreyol club members served ethnic foods, including divi avec pua (rice and beans), griot (grilled pork) and mais buconen (grilled corn). The arts and crafts session allowed event participants to decorate straw hats, maracas, beads and coconuts.

HSO also brought special guests to the event. Photographer Marc-Arthur Jean-Louis displayed his photographs of the island and its culture at a table set up in the patio. The Maroons, a group of spoken-word poets, performed two pieces that expressed a history of Haitians through multilingual monologue. Their goal is to promote history and culture to both the Haitian and American communities through spoken-word poetry.

“It is important to keep the traditions alive,” Maroon performer Berwick “Underscore” Augustin told the audience.

Following a visit to the time capsule which was buried at last year’s event and will be unearthed in 2014, a special guest speaker discussed the importance of voodoo in the Haitian culture.

The Unity Day events ended with a dinner in the UC Ballrooms, followed by an after party from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Rathskeller. Although turnout wasn’t as high as the executive board of Planet Kreyol expected, the event did promote awareness within the organization itself.

A portion of the money raised from the event will be donated to support Project Medishare.

For more information on spoken-word poetry, visit http://www.themaroons.net.

Megan Ondrizek can be contacted at m.ondrizek@umiami.edu.

Burroughs’ essays charm readers with humor and wit

The Miami Hurricane
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A New York Times bestseller, Augusten Burroughs dares to write down what everyone is thinking in his book, entitled Magical Thinking. A collection of short stories and essays, the collection is a mix of ridiculously funny moments, warped experiences and sometimes even shocking and twisted tales.

The 27 stories are chock full of Burroughs’ natural wit and seemingly strange perspective on life. While entertaining readers Burroughs manages to make delightfully honest observations and commentary about all aspects of culture, popular or otherwise. If “Tales of a Transexual” and “Ass Burger” aren’t enough of a red flag, the titles of the stories are only a snippet of the brillant writing done in Magical Thinking. Anyone who actually writes down the details of fantasies about the death of enemies is obviously not afraid to speak his mind.

Burroughs defines magical thinking as “a schizotypal personality disorder attributing to one’s own actions…assuming that one has a greater influence over events than is actually the case.” In the case of Burroughs’ book, magical thinking relates to both the nature of the story and the thoughts provoked in the reader.

Joanna Davila can be contacted at j.davila1@umiami.edu.

Candace Bushnell’s saucy Lipstick Jungle a success

The Miami Hurricane
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The stories of three powerful working women in their early 40s are woven together in Candace Bushnell’s latest novel, Lipstick Jungle. Executives, wives, girlfriends, mistresses, mothers and best friends, these ladies are the essence of talented hard-working women at the top of the fields. The novel tells the story of each character-a movie producer, a fashion designer and a magazine editor-as they encounter manners of the heart, issues with motherhood, discrimination in the workforce and of course, their own conscience. This novel draws the reader in and entices with more, especially because the chapters skip from the voice of one character to another while still revolving around the same storyline. This structure allows the readers to get into minds and thoughts of the characters, adding an almost movie-like dynamic to the novel.

Similar to Bushnell’s worldly famous Sex and the City, these ladies find strength within themselves and within each other throughout the course of their turmoil, sending a strong message to all women: It is possible to be successful, married and a mother. Leave it to Bushnell to continue to write interesting, thought-provoking novels about women without allowing her characters to be too wrapped in sex and men.

Joanna Davila can be contacted at j.davila1@umiami.edu.

Down South hip-hop stars meet young R&B heartthrobs at THE BEAT DOWN

The Miami Hurricane
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Each year around this time, Miami’s radio stations host mega-concerts, each trying to up the ante by bringing in the biggest or most played artists of the year. 103.5 The Beat made no exceptions this year by catering to a strictly female audience, made evident by the all male roster. While Mike Jones and the reunion of SWV were no shows, there were still more than 12 artists on the bill. Trick Daddy, Three 6 Mafia, Dem Franchize Boyz, Youngbloodz and others composed the down-South-crunk-hip-hoppers section while Ray J, Trey Songz, Marques Houston, Omarion and headliner Bow Wow made up the R&B/rap heartthrobs who were obviously the main attraction.

Dre, producer turned rapper from the production duo Cool & Dre (Fat Joe, Trina, The Game) started the show performing his radio hit “Naomi” and was followed by short term groups Dem Franchize Boyz and D4L playing their hits, “White Tee” and “Laffy Taffy” respectively. Virginia native and R&B newcomer Trey Songz proved why everyone from Trina to Twista have decided to enlist him on their records; his five-song set was mostly sung by himself with some help from the audience.

Three Six Mafia kept it crunk by performing some of their classics “Sippin On Some Syrup” and their new hit “Stay Fly.” Brandy’s brother Ray J came out performing songs off his album Raydiation, including his current radio hit “One Wish.” Special guest and “Mayor of Miami” Trick Daddy performed his classics such as “Nann Nigga” and “Thug Holiday” with expletives and all.

While the show seemed to be going according to schedule, a major roadblock came in the form of two of the biggest stars not showing up on time. After a 50-minute delay and the obvious disapproval of the audience, Marques Houston and Omarion finally made their way to the stage. Performing on his 21st birthday, Omarion performed the shortest set of the night. His high energy performance of “Touch” must have left him out of breath to do much more, because he only performed the chorus of his first solo single “O” before walking off the stage, leaving the crowd a little confused.

Headliner Bow Wow proved that he had grown up, opting not to perform the songs that made him a teenage star when he was 13. Bow Wow ran from one side of the stage to the other, performing less to the crowd in the middle. While he brought Omarion back onstage to perform his #1 single “Let Me Hold You” off of his latest album Wanted, he didn’t perform his current single “Like You.”

All in all, fans did get to see their leading male idols, but for those who they wanted to see the most, it was short lived. One attendee was a bit disappointed with Omarion’s long delay but short performance.

“I was very, very upset with that long intermission,” she said. “I think he should’ve performed more, even if it was his birthday.”

Marcus Washington can be contacted at m.washington2@umiami.edu.

things the audience didn’t see:

During Bow Wow’s set, he made reference to his relationship with singer Ciara and a young teenager in the front row stuck up her middle finger to show her disgust along with saying a few choice words.

Youngbloodz member J-Bo forgot his group member’s (Sean Paul) name while trying to get his attention to pose for a picture with a fan.

The 50-minute delay wait for Marques Houston and Omarion was because they hadn’t arrived at the venue. Although Bow Wow was already there, he refused to take the stage before the two others arrived.

Briefs – ROWING

The Miami Hurricane
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Rowing

The University of Miami rowing team turned in solid results, claiming two gold medals in the final day of competition, at the 25th Annual Head of the Hooch Regatta that took place Saturday and Sunday in Gainesville, Ga.

“Overall, it was a really good weekend,” said Head Coach Debra Morgan. “This weekend showed that we have a lot of depth. We’re getting positive feedback from all the work that they are putting in. I’m really happy with the results.”

Miami opened the regatta with a fifth-place finish in the championship 8+ with a time of 16:34.50, only six seconds behind first place finisher Tennessee. The Hurricanes were also merely two seconds behind in-state rival UCF, who finished fourth in a time of 16:32.50.

Miami placed all of its quad boats in the Top 13, including the bronze medalist crew of Meghan Leydecker, Marenda Chamberlin, Kelly Amsler, Marleena Eyre and Bethany Krawec, who crossed the finish in a time of 19:23.50.

The varsity eight crew of Laura Comeau-Cox, Marenda Chamberlin, Kelly Amsler, Marleena Eyre, Laura Coltman, Molly Wilson, Rachel Sporko, Elizabeth Skidmore and Jaquelene Heywood claimed Miami’s first gold medal of the regatta.

Miami’s crew of Emy Huntsman, Natasha Lejer, Bethany Krawec and Taurii Coyne also claimed a gold medal when they finished first in the quad ahead of Atlantic Coast Conference foe Duke.

The Hurricanes return to action Saturday, November 12 at the Florida Fall Classic in Melbourne, Fla.

Coach’s Corner

The Miami Hurricane
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How do you get your team to not overlook Wake Forest after such a big win?

It’s not that hard because we haven’t gotten to where we all want to get to at the end of the season yet. And when we look at Wake Forest, they have some pretty good talent, so we definitely can’t take them lightly.

What impressed you the most on Saturday?

The intensity with which our defense played I think was tremendous and really helped our football team win that game.

Tyrone Moss is done for the season with an ACL injury. Do you see the running back job being in the hands of only Charlie Jones or a combination of all the backs?

Well our number one guy now is Charlie Jones, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see Derron [Thomas] or Andrew Johnson. And we also have to throw Quad Hill in there too.

When looking at Wake Forest, how much do you go back to the tape from last year’s game to see what worked so well in the blowout win?

We definitely go back to take a look, but one of the main things we do is look to see if they are doing the same things this year as they did last year.

Did Marcus Vick have an off day, was it the tremendous defense, or a combination?

Well I don’t know about Marcus; you’d have to go ask him if he had an off day, but our defense was so quick and just played tremendous. They definitely took Vick out of what he likes to do.

Send questions for Larry Coker to e.kalis@umiami.edu.

Full Steam Ahead

The Miami Hurricane
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The Miami Hurricanes (7-1) will look to keep rolling this Saturday when they travel to Wake Forest (4-6) for the first time since 1971.

The Hurricanes have won seven in a row, including its biggest win of the year last week, defeating then-No. 3 Virginia Tech 27-7 on the road.

When the Demon Deacons visited the Orange Bowl last year, it was Brock Berlin who threw all over a weak defense and led Miami to a 52-7 win. This year, Wake Forest has a younger defense that is allowing 373 yards per game. Miami quarterback Kyle Wright will look to add to his touchdown total of 11 touchdowns.

With starting running back Tyrone Moss out for the season with a torn ACL, sophomore Charlie Jones will be thrown into the job. But it isn’t like this will be his first experience. He came in for an injured Moss at Virginia Tech and ran for 97 yards and a touchdown.

As for the defense, there’s not much more that can be said, other than the fact that the numbers don’t lie. The squad is No. 1 in total defense (214.75 yards/game), pass defense (117.38 yards/game) and pass efficiency defense (73.09). Last week, the defense made a one-time Heisman Trophy candidate, Marcus Vick, turn the ball over six times, including four fumbles and two interceptions.

The Miami defense has allowed only one score in five of the last six games and outscored its opponents 197-43 during that period.

This week, the defense will have to deal with a strong Wake Forest offense, especially on the ground. The Demon Deacons are averaging 204 rushing yards a game and are led by senior running back Chris Barclay. He has gained 1,022 yards and scored nine touchdowns on the season. Last year at Miami, Barclay ran for only 57 yards and a touchdown.

Playing in its final game of 2005, Wake has beaten East Carolina, Clemson, N.C. State and Duke this season and is primed for an upset on senior day in Winston Salem, N.C. Quarterback Cory Randolph will be making his final appearance in a Wake Forest uniform. Randolph has thrown five touchdowns but is only averaging 88 yards per game. Benjamin Mauk has also gotten some time under center; the redshirt sophomore has thrown for 132.5 yards a game but has thrown five interceptions and only one touchdown.

This game was originally scheduled for Nov. 17, but Hurricane Wilma forced it to be moved up five days to Saturday afternoon at 3:30 on ABC. With this week originally scheduled to be an off-week, the coaching staff made plans for NFL scouts to come in and take a look at the team. About 50 scouts still came this week, and Head Coach Larry Coker didn’t mind one bit.

“I think the timing is pretty good,” Coker said. “They had a chance to view some film and we make this pretty open for them and for our players. I think it’s a pretty good motivator. It would motivate me if I’m trying to be an NFL player. If a guy is looking at me and taking notes, I’m probably going to try to do something.”

Douglas C. Kroll can be contacted at d.kroll@umiami.edu.

Starting Five

The Miami Hurricane
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Guard Denis Clemente Freshman 6-0, 165

Clemente, a highly-touted newcomer and fellow countryman of Guillermo Diaz (Puerto Rico), will have to step in as the starting point guard until Anthony Harris returns from a foot injury in three to six weeks. When he returns, expect Clemente to be the first guard off the bench.

Guard Guillermo Diaz Junior 6-2, 192

Diaz, a preseason All-ACC and Wooden Award candidate, needs 109 points to become the 28th UM player to reach the 1,000-point mark. A starter since his freshman season, Diaz has a career scoring average of 15.1 points per game.

Guard Robert Hite Senior 6-2, 190

A senior leader and four-year starter, Hite will play a big role in determining how far the Hurricanes advance in postseason play. Hite was an honorable mention All-ACC selection last season, finishing second to Diaz in scoring (17.3 ppg) and starting 28 of 29 games.

Forward Raymond Hicks Sophomore 6-7, 230

Hicks appeared in 23 games as a freshman, averaging 1.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per contest. He had his best game on the road against Clemson, when he scored seven points in the final five minutes of the first half.

Center Anthony King Junior 6-9, 235

The Durham, N.C. native was chosen to the ACC All-Defensive Team last season. King recorded the first triple-double in UM history last Nov. against Florida Atlantic, tallying 11 points, 10 rebounds and an ACC-record 13 blocks.

Tourney or bust

The Miami Hurricane
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There is a buzz sweeping through the University of Miami campus and the rest of South Florida, but it is not because the football team handled Virginia Tech.

The uproar is for the men’s basketball team, which has high hopes this year and is expected to contend for an NCAA Tournament bid.

“We won’t sneak up on anybody,” Head Coach Frank Haith said. “I think that is a good thing when people place expectations on your program. That means you’re making improvements.”

Haith’s squad will try to build on its breakthrough season last year, when it finished 16-13 overall and sixth in the ACC with a 7-9 conference record. The Hurricanes are picked to finish seventh in the preseason ACC poll.

Despite returning four of five starters, Haith will be looking to get contributions from his four freshmen. Denis Clemente will be asked to step up quickly and start at point guard due to the injury to junior Anthony Harris, who is out 3-6 weeks with a hairline fracture in his right foot.

“Putting a freshman in that position is pretty tough,” Haith said. “I don’t care who we play. He is going to have his moments of not playing well.”

The team has other possibilities at point guard. Backup point guard Lee Butler saw some time in the exhibition game against Nova Southern and recorded three assists in 12 minutes of work. The other option is putting the Hurricanes’ top playmaker at the point: junior shooting guard Guillermo Diaz.

“A lot of the players look up to me,” Diaz said. “They see me as a leader.”

Diaz will be asked to help pick up the slack to replace the double digit scoring of Harris. The option of using Diaz allows senior guard Robert Hite to revert back to shooting guard, which is more natural for him, and to bring in freshman Brian Asbury to play at small forward and bring some height onto the frontcourt.

Asbury is 6’7” with long arms that allow him to get rebounds down low. He is also a threat from the outside, hitting both three-pointers he attempted in the exhibition game against Nova Southern.

“If coach calls on me, I can give them a spark off the bench,” Asbury said.

Haith said the team is very excited about all of the young kids, including Jimmy Graham.

“He’s still trying to figure out how to use his body; he is just so big,” Haith said.

The Hurricanes have tough challenges awaiting them on the schedule this year. The non-conference schedule brings Florida and Louisville to the Convocation Center, and the Hurricanes must travel to Temple and Michigan as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Boston College will join the ACC one year after winning the Big East regular season crown.

The Hurricane players seem to have confidence in their ability to have more people play significant minutes so the team does not tire at the end of the season.

“We are going to the NCAAs, most definitively,” junior center Anthony King said. “That is our goal. Anything less than that and our season was a bust.”

Denis Brown can be contacted at dbrown@umsis.miami.edu.

Recently destroyed Pit is worth fighting for

The Miami Hurricane
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One day in late August, I walked by the area commonly called the Pit to find that all but the most insignificant trees lining its rim had been felled. I sat on a step beside the area with mixed emotions, most of the negative ones being geared toward whoever had operated the chainsaws that put the ficus and palms to their fate in the depression.

Why had this happened? I unwisely jumped to the conclusion that, once the tree trunks that rats now scrambled upon had been covered with soil, sod would be put over one of the best spots on campus to set a nice canvas for yet another FIU style-biting sculpture. The notorious but glorious stoner associations that The Pit had earned, fueled by rumors of Janis Joplin and/or Sylvester Stallone’s toking at the site, had, I worried, finally brought the Man’s hard hand down on the Pit. I shuddered at the thought of having to pass by yet another rusty, phallic sculpture on campus, this time on a grave.

As I was unversed in how to wedge out answers from the UM administrative strata, I took the step that I saw most fit for someone who puts off phone conversations strategically: I posed an electronic question to the most relevant information resource I could find, askUM on the miami.edu homepage. My query, a few sentences ending with “What does the University intend to do with the [pit] area?”, was met with a response eight days later (not the “two business days” that had been claimed, but I’m not punctual myself). What is significant, though, is that in those eight days, Hurricane Katrina came through.

Katrina made the response I received very confusing. An administrator for the askUM service claimed on Aug. 30 that “The trees around the pit were destroyed by a nasty storm. Unfortunately, over the last few days many more trees were also destroyed. The University is currently evaluating how to best restore damaged trees.”

I was pleased with the fact that trees would be replanted, but what was this “nasty storm” they were talking about? What kind of a storm took out just the trees around the pit?

Things got more mysterious and less optimistic when I received another e-mail the same day from askUM that paraphrased a response that came directly from a Real Estate, Campus Planning and Construction official of UM. The words that impacted me most read: “A simple visual inspection [of the pit] appears not to warrant its recreation with ficus trees and sabal palm,” and later “the distinctive features of the sinkhole always seem to be the foliage…and that is now totally gone. Unless there is a documented value to the hole from a historic/archeological and/or student life perspective, I would suggest that we consider filling it in and landscaping as we do other areas of campus.”

It appeared as though I was right. The Pit would be covered in emerald green sod and the lawn-extending would begin.

In my search for information about the Pit’s geologic value, which was an aspect that seemed important to the Pit’s fate for the administration, I learned a lot. Blase Maffia, a UM biology lecturer, said, “The Pit is a unique geologic feature right on campus. It would be a shame to fill it in.” Pamela Reid, an associate professor, was equally passionate in an e-mail correspondence: “The Pit has long been one of my favorite places on campus and I regularly take students there on field trips-it is a spectacular example of a sink hole and has great exposures of the Miami oolite, the 125,000-year-old limestone on which the University of Miami campus is built.” I’m down with oolite too, Dr. Reid.

Happy yet somewhat nebulous conclusions about the Pit came in staggered succession into my mailbox until I was finally satisfied Oct. 10, over a month after my first query was posed. First, I heard that trees would definitely be planted around the pit. Second, a director for contract administration e-mailed me and specified that it was Tropical Storm Dennis that originally took down the trees by the pit (and then, I assume, every single damaged tree was sawed down) and finished with a clear message: “We would never take down trees before a storm.” That’s what I wanted to hear.

Ryan Eavey can be contacted at r.eavey@umiami.edu.

MAROONED – You think we’d lose to VTech? In your faces!

The Miami Hurricane
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The ‘Canes are certainly a destructive force. Our great performance against Marcus Vick and his band of no-goods at Blacksburg was great (seeing an entire stadium of Hokies getting progressively quieter before finally making the walk of shame was priceless), incredible, heart-stopping, inspiring. At least that’s what all the sports pundits are serenading all over the airwaves, newspapers and the Internet now that we’ve shown the nation we mean business. The best part is, these are the same pundits who, before the game, derided and downtalked our team so much, you’d think Virginia Tech was slated to play Duke on Saturday.

They said at the beginning of the game that we wouldn’t pull this off. They ranted and raved about VT’s inevitable grasping of the ACC title. They swooned over how the rowdy fans in Lane Stadium would boost morale there and intimidate us. They proclaimed that Marcus Vick would nab the Heisman Trophy. By the end of the game, nay, third quarter, VT would wait another year for a shot at the ACC. The morale-boosting fans would not throw off the ‘Canes and had fallen mysteriously silent. Vick could kiss the Heisman goodbye. And the pundits began to sing another tune.

By the end of the game, Miami not only had a clear shot at the ACC but also the national championship, as long as one of the juggernauts from USC or Texas fell through. We were a force to be reckoned with, and woe be anyone who dares stand in the storm’s path. Now, everybody in this school knew this already-so what took the sportscasters so long to figure it out?

It’s simple: a fundamental flaw in the wonderful world of sports media.namely, a complete lack of objectivity or consistency in opinion. ESPN, for instance, is notorious for bias; it’s impossible to watch the network for five seconds without getting an opinion. Thus, I really love it when humbled commentators retract unfounded (or just plain wrong) opinions, as happened on Saturday. Kurt Herbstreit, you were wrong. Very, very wrong, as you yourself admitted. We now officially own you. Lee Corso, I’ll give you a freebie for picking us to win, but now you have to constantly praise us to make up for all the (always misguided and usually wrong) comments you’ve made about us.

So now that the sports media has jumped on the bandwagon and has nothing but praise for us, we’ve got to figure out a way to make sure that doesn’t change (if not to stroke our egos, then definitely for the sake of consistency). I, for one, suggest getting rid of the current pundits and putting everyone in The Hurricane’s sports section jobs as full-time commentators. Hey, there’s a Seminole on Sportscenter (Corso). Let’s balance it out.

And as for the ousted commentators, let’s get them jobs at Fox News-they’re more than used to that network’s standards of truth and objectivity.

Jay Rooney can be contacted at j.rooney@umiami.edu.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Miami Hurricane
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Sharing the VTech Victory

Dear University of Miami Band and Students:

A very special thank you from the coaching staff and the University of Miami Hurricanes Football Team for the warm welcome we received on our arrival from Virginia Tech early Sunday morning. Your support is greatly appreciated by all of us.

It was great to share our victory with the terrific student body at the University of Miami.

GO CANES!

Coach Larry Coker, Staff and

Miami Hurricanes Football Team

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The Miami Hurricane is the student newspaper of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The newspaper is edited and produced by undergraduate students at UM and is published in print every Tuesday and online everyday during the academic year.

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