After a student wrote a column panning Chartwells’ food and service, Dining Services, the department that oversees the food service company, moved to make some changes in the student menu.
The same day the column was published, Jan. 25, Leland Rapport, Chartwells’ resident district manager, alerted Mel Tenen, director of auxiliary services about the criticisms.
“We want to stress that this didn’t happen simply because of the column,” Tenen said.
“We respond to any specific criticism that we receive. There is such a level of pride here.”
The column, penned by Hurricane staff columnist Amanda Hoyos, listed five specific gripes: cold pasta, poor quality eggs, lack of fresh fruit, bitter coffee and an unpleasant stench billowing from the kitchen of the cafeteria of the Mahoney and Pearson Residence Halls.
“Most of what I said were opinions of my friends; a lot of people,” Hoyos said.
Five days after the column was published, Tenen phoned Hoyos to invite her to his office to discuss the issues.
“The students, our guests, help us best by informing us of their specific needs,” Tenen said.
“We want to exceed the expectations of the students [at the University of Miami],” said Tenen. “And one way to do that is to respond quickly.”
Soon after new samples of eggs and coffee were ordered and the source of the foul odor uncovered and eliminated.
The smell was coming from a drain inside of a wall that had been overlooked during remodeling at the dorms. The wall had begun to mold, Rapport said.
“By that afternoon, it was cleaned, bleached and repaired,” he said.
On the following Monday and Tuesday, the new samples of eggs and coffee were taste-tested and better products were introduced.
“The problem with the eggs was that, for health reasons, they have to be pasteurized,” Hoyos said. “But they found a variety that tastes better now.”
After the taste-testing, the new eggs were ordered and began to be offered on Feb 5.
Likewise, after the coffee taste-tests, a new Ritazza variety was ordered.
“I have tasted the coffee,” Hoyos said. “It’s better-not as muddy and sick and disgusting as it was.”
The staff at Chartwells was also re-trained by Ritazza on how to clean out the coffee machines in order to assure the better flavor, Hoyos said.
Amongst the coffee, eggs and odor fixes, the staff at Chartwells was also advised to cook smaller portions of pasta and to refill it more frequently to ensure warmer pasta, Rapport said.
Fresh fruit orders were shored up as well to ensure that there would be four choices from which to choose from for breakfast, rather than the usual two, Rapport said.
“To give us that specific direction,” said Rapport, “[student feedback] is the best form of feedback.”
Tenen and Rapport both urged students to fill out the comment cards in the dining halls if they have any further complaints or feedback and they will be addressed quickly and efficiently.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Hoyos said.
“It has a happy ending because administration cares,” Tenen said.
Chartwells improves Quality, variety of food
UM student heads to Hollywood
University of Miami student Alexander Osuna’s tic-tac-toe skills will be tested on Feb. 12 when he enrolls as a contestant on Hollywood Squares.
Osuna, a marine science and biology major, keeps busy by working for the Miami Seaquarium and at the College of Engineering.
To secure the spot, Osuna auditioned when scouts from the program visited UM in late 2001 as part of their annual national college contestant search.
The participating student contestants recently traveled to Hollywood’s CBS Television City to play the game, where each was paired off to compete against a student from a rival university.
“It was great to get that free trip to Hollywood,” Osuna said.
Osuna’s preparations for the contest included studying the show and past contestants.
“I watched the show and studied how the stars bluffed,” Osuna said.
This year, contestants representing 14 U.S. colleges and universities will go head-to-head. Among the universities represented will be the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Denver, the University of Washington and the University of Southern California. Also participating are students from the University of Pittsburgh, Southern Methodist University, San Diego State University, the University of California at Los Angeles, Northwestern University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Southern Florida and Arizona State University.
During the first week of the tournament (Feb. 11-15), the college hopefuls will be testing their tic-tac-toe skills against a celebrity grid that includes audience favorite Jason Alexander, Marlee Matlin (The West Wing), Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Tracy Morgan (Saturday Night Live), Gena Lee Nolin (Sheena), and Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond). Others include Martin Mull (The Ellen Show) and Squares regular Brad Garrett (also from Everybody Loves Raymond).
For the final week of the tournament (Feb. 18-22), Center Square Whoopi Goldberg and Garrett will be joined by an entirely new team of celebrities, including Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean, musical superstar Patti LaBelle, model Tyson Beckford, Cedric “The Entertainer” (The Steve Harvey Show), the always-electric Carmen Electra and frequent Squares celebrity guest Kathy Griffin.
Hollywood Squares is aired every weekday at 7:30 p.m. on WFOR-TV (channel four), the local CBS affiliate.
Student says UM tends to needs
Nicky Saltzburg is one of about 10 students at the University of Miami who trek around campus in a wheelchair. .
The second year graduate student in counseling mental health has been physically disabled since she was born and is mobile only with the use of a wheelchair. But Saltzburg still manages to maintain a normal class schedule and social life at school.
“There are so many little inconveniences about being disabled,” Saltzburg says. “But UM is really good about supplying us with all the resources we need to have a regular college experience.” Saltzburg’s days are not all too different from anyone else’s: She even has to deal with parking problems.
“It really bothers me to see people with handicapped tags that obviously aren’t real, or aren’t necessary,” she said. “Parking is an issue for everyone and parking in spaces reserved for other people complicates the problem.”
Saltzburg said she also gets annoyed when students park in the hash marked areas by the handicapped spaces, which allow ample space to get out of their cars and into wheelchairs.
“If you leave the handicapped space empty, but park next to it, you might as well have parked in the space,” she said. “It’s worth nothing if you can’t get out of your car.”
Saltzburg has a manual wheelchair, as opposed to a motorized one, so she has to wheel herself wherever she goes.
“There is a way to get everywhere,” she said. “But it might be a roundabout way.”
For example, students walk from the Mahoney and Pearson Residential Colleges to the Merrick Building on a brick pathway that runs past the cafeteria and the business school.
Saltzburg, however, can’t take this path because of a set of five steps about halfway between the dorms and the Merrick Building.
This means she has to go in front of the Lowe Art Museum and around the Business School to get to class, often having to leave her friends who are walking on the path and don’t want, or can’t afford, to take the extra time to walk around.
Entrances to buildings are also difficult sometimes.
“Several buildings on campus are just old. The doorways were poorly designed and sometimes it’s hard to get through them. And you have to take chair lifts instead of elevators, which are not as reliable,” she said.
“The Cox science building is the worst! You have to switch elevators to get to different floors,” she said. Fortunately, no matter what the problem is, there is a solution to it.
“You just have allow more time to get places, that’s all.”
Saltzburg has not encountered any acts of prejudice against her during her time at UM, she said. However, she is treated differently than other students because of her disability.
“Professors go out of their way to ask if I have special needs, if what we are doing in class is acceptable considering my circumstances, etc. Everyone has been very willing to help,” she said.
But Saltzburg said she doesn’t need much help. That, she said, is because the people at the Office of Disability Services do their job well.
“They’re really great,” Saltzburg said. “If I have a problem getting to classes on time or getting to a particular room, they make sure my schedule is changed.”
Program focuses on violence
Two shoes, a baby’s and a woman’s, tied together by a string, told the story of a mother and child stabbed to death-not by a stranger, but by the father.
There were as many tragic tales as there were shoes lining The Rock this week for “Guns ‘N Violence Awareness Week. ”
Each shoe represented tragedy, innocence lost, and broken dreams.
Every shoe placed on the steps symbolizes those who were killed by a gun, violence, and above all, ignorance.
Some of the shoes were tied together, representing families or groups of people who died as a result of gunfire.
Baby shoes were placed in the front in order to capture people’s attention.
“Guns ‘N Violence Awareness Week” was sponsored by LINK, a programming board of the Volunteer Services Center.
“The shoes are a silent march for those who have been affected [by guns],” said LINK co-chair Azuree Ashby.
Many curious students stopped by the display to inquire about the shoes that were placed on the steps.
Many of them left distraught after realizing that each shoe meant one life lost, the victim of tragedy.
For every shoe there was a piece of paper attached to it telling the story of those killed from gunshots.
“We want to raise awareness about what is going on,” Ashby said.
Another story was about a 17 -year-old with law school aspirations who was instantly killed by a bullet to the head.
“It’s disturbing that each of the shoes out here represent one person’s life,” said junior Bianca Barkley.
“There should definitely be a law about gun safety,” said sophomore Mike Baluyot.
“Eventually these shoes will be donated to the Miami Rescue Mission,” Ashby said.
LINK also provided a display of statistics of gun-related violence.
“Guns kill 34,000 Americans every year and 13 children everyday,” read one poster.
“Child abuse kills more children in America than does accidents, falls, choking on food, drowning, fires, or motor vehicle accidents,” stated a banner at The Rock.
The display also allowed students to post their thoughts about violence and fatal encounters with guns.
The showcase also served as a type of memorial for those who died in such circumstances.
“In October 2000 a young man, Louie Demedieros took his own life…stop unregistered guns and stop the killing,” read one memo.
For each day of the week, LINK also focused on specific issues surrounding guns and violence. Monday focused on those who were affected or killed by guns. Gray armbands were distributed at The Rock for those who wanted to support gun safety and awareness.
Tuesday centered on racism and hate crimes, and orange armbands were passed out.
On Wednesday LINK concentrated on child abuse and youth violence, and gave out blue armbands.
Thursday focused on domestic violence and date rape, represented by the green armbands that were handed out.
Today is dedicated to all those people who died as a result of violence or guns.
In honor of all the victims, their names will be read aloud, and purple armbands will be distributed.
I interviewed to be a ‘Hot Date’
Editor’s Note:
The Hurricane sent its news editor, Danielle Scott, for an interview with a Hot Date Escorts representative. Below is her account of the Wednesday evening meeting.
I could start out at $150 an hour for my services. I could even make up to $500 in a weekend if I worked for Hot Date Escorts.
This was what Dennis, the escort service head, told me when we met Wednesday night.
Once one of my reporters alerted me of an escort service advertisement posted on a campus bulletin board, I jumped right in and set up an interview with Dennis to find out what UM female students could potentially be getting themselves into.
“The men want someone they can talk to. You would be perfect,” the sandy-colored haired Dennis told me.
Now, the flyer Dennis gave me-not the one put up at the Learning Center- displayed a beautiful blonde with the words “Full service!” emblazoned over her breasts.
“Full service?” I asked.
“That means strip-dance, role-playing, massage, maybe dominatrix,” Dennis quickly explained.
“Sex is not involved,” he said. “Of course, if you like a client we have no problem with you having sex with anyone you want to, but you are not allowed to charge.”
Hot Date Escorts provides everything for you, Dennis said: drivers, whips, chains, even leather, if need be.
“If they want leather, we’ll provide it,” Dennis said.
From what I learned, Hot Date Escorts was no less legitimate than any other escort agency.
They get about 30-50 percent commission from their girls who are officially “independent contractors” so that they don’t have to pay taxes, Dennis said.
Of course, the biggest concern for any aspiring ‘hot date’ is safety, right?
Well, Hot Date Escorts provides their girls with drivers, checks the driver’s licenses of their clientele, and calls them every hour or less to make sure the girls are safe, he said.
“If you want us to call you every 15 minutes we will,” Dennis assured me. “You don’t have to go with any client you don’t want to. If you get there and they are drunk, you can just go home.”
The work is ‘freelance’-if you will-and girls can choose their clients and the hotels they will or will not go to and exactly what they are willing to do, Dennis said.
“If a client calls and he wants whips and chains, I would not even bother to call you,” Dennis told me, “I have other girls for that.”
Hot Date Escorts, he said, advertises for girls on many different college campuses.
“We have a lot of girls from Barry,” Dennis informed me.
As for the rigorous screening process applied to advertisements posted on campus, Hot Date Escorts “just got the keys from someone,” Dennis said.
Hot Date Escorts also advertises in the New Times, The Street, local Russian newspapers and on their website, www.hotdateescorts.com.
The three-man operation has been in business for about a year and there are about eight girls working for them, Dennis said. They have just begun a new advertising campaign and are hoping to gain a lot more clientele.
“February should be a big month,” Dennis said.
Escort service advertises on campus
This week flyers advertising the Hot Date Escort Service agency were posted around the University of Miami Coral Gables campus, including at the Whitten Learning Center and the apartment area.
Enclosed in glass-cased bulletin boards accessible only by lock and key, these ads were stapled to cork bulletin boards behind the locked glass, next to all the other more generic advertisements relevant to student life, such as those announcing MCAT and GMAT tutoring classes, used books sales, or students looking for roommates.
The flyers advertised job opportunities for “female college students interested in making serious money” offering “top pay, flexible hours, cash daily, [and a] choice of your transportation or ours.”
Any interested party was told to call the phone number provided for a confidential interview.
The Hurricane asked UM freshman Laura Levitan to call the number.
Upon doing so, she was informed by a man who called himself Dennis, that the Hot Date Escort Service is looking for girls who are willing to meet with their customers at hotels in Miami.
The mentioned hotels included the Marriott and Hilton, Levitan said.
Would-be escorts must be willing to do “lap dances, role-playing, [and] be a sexual friend,” Levitan said she was told.
The service’s employees can make between $100 and $300 per hour “depending on their level of experience,” Levitan was informed.
Administrators at the office of the Dean of Students said flyers must be approved before they are tacked on to bulleting boards.
“All flyers that are put up around campus must first be screened before they can be put up,” said senior secretary to the Dean of Students, Rose Marie Slusser.
“Certainly the University of Miami as a character-building organization we would not want an escort service to be advertised on campus,” said Dr. Pat Whitely, Vice President for Student Affairs.
The administration said it did not know who posted the ads.
“I have no idea [how these flyers were placed in the boards]. Sometimes people break into the cases and put their own flyers up,” said Mary Ortiz, senior staff assistant at the University Center. Ortiz is in charge of screening flyers that are placed in the Bowman Foster Ashe Building, at the UC and the Breezeway.
“I reject any flyers that are not proper, not decent,” Ortiz said.
“Flyers can only be submitted by students,” Slusser said.
At press time, none of the administrators contacted for this article said they did not know who had jurisdiction over the bulletin boards at the Learning Center.
“I will look into it,” Whitely said. “At my level of power I can do something about this.”
‘Collateral Damage’ Hurts
On Tuesday night, the Cinematic Arts Commission showed a sneak preview of what is supposed to be ‘Ahnuld’s’ comeback film, Collateral Damage. The term “collateral damage” is used to describe innocent bystanders who are killed or wounded in military or terrorist action. It makes prefect sense then to make this the title of the film, since there are innocent bystanders that are wounded: members of the audience.
First off, the story. The former Mr. Universe plays Gordon Brewer, L.A. fire captain, loving father and devoted husband. His life gets ripped a new one when his family gets blown up in a building, courtesy of “The Wolf,” one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Frustrated with the lack of progress the authorities are making, Brewer decides to go after the man himself, a manhunt that leads him to South America where more stuff explodes.
Along the way he meets two Johns: Leguizamo and Turturro, both of them secretly asking each other: “Why are we in this movie again? Oh yeah, money.” There’s really nothing that stands out here; the actors do their job in trying not to laugh at Arnold when he tries to be serious. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) does an even-handed job, and the script, well, it’s there. But you won’t see any of this, because there are tons of explosions to hide the fact that this movie isn’t a movie; it’s crap. Suffice it to say, from what was shown on the screen, it doesn’t look like Mr. Maria Shriver will be as big as he used to be back in the 1980s.
Ah, the 1980s. When Arnold why-can’t-I-have-a-decent-last-name made action movies that were stupid, yet entertaining to watch. Now he just makes action movies that are stupid. A big reason for that is that in all his good films, he played people that were larger than life: cyborgs, a CIA agent, a gov’t assassin, etc. Now he tries to play ordinary guys that find themselves in unbelievable circumstances, which he is not cut out to do. Why else did End of Days and The Sixth Day end up in the garbage? If people think that this movie will be anything close to those action flicks, forget it. One would rather go rent Hercules in New York than go out and watch this drivel.
No, unfortunately there are no dread-locked aliens chasing Arnold through the jungle, and he’s not hunting down Sarah Connor in this waste. He’s not even trying to avoid getting repeatedly kicked in the groin by Sharon Stone. Arnold, a word of advice: You can’t be what you once were, you can’t even make a decent film anymore. Stop trying. Light up a cigar, kick back and laugh at how Hollywood kept paying you millions of dollars to do nothing, and reminisce about the days when Robert Patrick chased you down the streets of L.A. with a mack truck. Just please, for the love of God and everything that’s holy, don’t make any more movies.
Collateral Damage: rated R. Featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Leguizamo,John Turturro, Elias Koteas and Francesca Neri.
Entertainment News
February 8
Polo Jeans’ men and women’s Spring/Summer 2002 Collection Preview with music by DJ JoJo Odyssey at Level. Show starts at 10 p.m. with an open bar until 11 p.m. For info visit www.levelnightclub.com.
Experimental rockers The Effect and Faller performing live, as well as listening parties for the new Hefner and Chemical Brothers’ albums at Revolver, 5922 S. Dixie Highway. For information call 305-661-9099.
February 8-10
Magician David Copperfield will be performing at the Jackie Gleason Theater. Show times vary. Tickets are $27.50-46.50. For information, call 305-358-5885.
February 9
Bob Marley Festival with Lauryn Hill, DMX, AZ, Erykah Badu, and the Marley Family at Virginia Key Beach. Tickets are $22.50. For information, call 305-358-5885.
The Dead Kennedys without Jello Biafra performing at Orbit. Tickets are $16.50. For information, call 305-358-5885.
February 11
Little Leroy’s Lyrical Lounge featuring performances by Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh. Also featuring disc jockeys Irie, Epps, Khaled and Sugar at Level. Show starts at 11 p.m.
February 12
Shallow Hal starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow playing at the Bill Cosford Cinema. Show starts at 8 p.m. For information, call 305-284-4606.
February 16
Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band will be performing at the National Car Rental Center. Tickets are $28.50-59.50. Show starts at 8 p.m. For information, call 954-523-3309.
February 24
Le Tigre featuring Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and the Butchies performing at the Polish American Club, 1250 N.W. 22nd Ave. Tickets are $15 and doors open at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.epoplife.com.
‘Dogtown & Z-Boys’
Watch out, because the kindred teens of Dogtown have grown up and made a film that relentlessly marks their territory, and deservedly so, all over the trunk of skateboarding’s family tree.
Dogtown and Z-Boys appeared at the recently completed Miami Film Festival to a packed premiere at South Beach’s Colony Theatre and a rowdy sold-out showing at the Beach’s Regal Cinema, where it found considerable buzz and warm praise from students and locals.
Raging with nostalgia, colorful modern urgency and a sacred rock and punk soundtrack, the documentary traces the exploits of twelve misfits on the Zephyr skateboard team, a band of kids who changed the face of skateboarding forever by injecting the same fierce street mentality that they picked up in their home of Dogtown.
Dogtown was a former California wasteland in the 1970s located between Venice and Santa Monica. It was the type of place where gangs set their own dead end roads, the homeless took shelter under piers, and all types of food fought in the air for your appetite. What made the place unique, however, was a huge amusement park that had gone financially bust in 1967, leaving wealthy businessmen to quickly scatter elsewhere, while the park’s fate was left at the mercy of the ocean.
The beginning of the film features footage of surfers, many of whom would later become Z-boys, riding on a death wish as they dodge rusted, giant roller coaster rails both above and beneath the water’s surface. Witnessing this in the theater is truly observing the uncut, triple X version of “X-treme” sports’ ancestor in its purest form. The absence of sponsors hanging from every imaginable place, there is gratefully no capitalism to be seen. To the lower class kids pulling off this stuff, all they had was the elite fix and satisfaction from doing it, a sense of belonging and gutsy pride that was kept forever. During these scenes, even actor Sean Penn, who narrates the film, lies low and lets the stunning footage speak for its self.
According to Z-boy testimonials, surfers from outside of the area were not allowed to surf in Dogtown and often faced being hit with rocks, buckets of sand or anything else that was at the disposal of the territorial locals.
“The funniest thing I saw was someone paddle out in the water with the guy’s carburetor on top of his surfboard and go: ‘Hey does this belong to you?’ and drop it in the water,” said Z-Boy Jim Muir.
Skateboarding took its first hold on the youth of the nation in the 1950s. But it was more like a corny Frisbee revolution than something that actually took balls and skill to pursue. When skateboarding faced a bleak extinction in the 1960s, the Z-boys stuck with it and ended up salvaging a debatable sport/art form/lifestyle for the 20 million kids who currently skate around the globe.
“If you wanted a skateboard back then, you had to go to a thrift store, buy a pair of roller skates with clay wheels, cut ’em in half, then go out in your garage and find an old drawer out of a dresser…carve it into a surfboard shape, screw on the wheels and go,” said director and former Z-boy Stacy Peralta.
The invention of the polyurethane wheel in 1972 sets the flick off in full gear, as the Zephyr team uses the new wheel’s speed and versatility to imitate the moves of their favorite aggressive surfer, Larry Bertelman, on the black top playgrounds of Southern California.
Footage of the Z-boys and lone girl, Peggy Oki, riding smooth concrete waves in unison, wearing torn jeans with the wind possessing their soft blonde locks is both visually powerful and relaxing in its assaulting innocence. The film contains faux guerilla editing techniques as it switches back and forth from original 16mm footage to the colorfully stark photos of Glen E. Friedman, and then throws in candid humorous present day interviews with people from the era.
The climax of the film is the segment on Jay Adams. One of the youngest members of the Z-boys, Adams was also the most talented and craziest. When skateboarding blew up again in the 1970s, the Del Mar Nationals was organized in 1975 to showcase competition. While other skaters were still perfecting the kooky headstands and simplistic maneuvers of the 1950s, the Zephyr team came to the contest as a self- described “hockey team at a figure skating contest.” Decked out in navy blue T-shirts screen printed with a DIY Zephyr logo and matching navy blue Vans, the team made total jackasses out of every other crew that day. Mocking the uncreative flat surface that was reserved for competition, Adams pulls sharp curves in every direction with such intense force that it purposely takes his board off of the court’s edges. The scene is magnified with a blaring rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady as he flies totally off of the court and lands, leaving the audience to ponder what the hell it has just seen. With Adam’s performance, the team took first in the competition, and made every conservative judge and lame skate crew in attendance feel like their time had expired like spoiled milk.
Adams’ segment features commentary by the man himself. Now serving time in a Hawaii penitentiary for drug possession, Adam’s speaks on camera with a calm demeanor. Ye,t his dark focused eyes, tattooed neck, and husky voice tell you that the guy has lived through more than just hangovers- he is the member who never wanted to face the business end of skating and instead rebelled in every means for an escape. Neil Young’s Old Man strums in the background as a black and white snapshot of a young goofy faced Adams is blown up on the screen. The words Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you, are incredibly symbolic coming from the speakers. They seem to ask people who have never been willing to respect or understand skating to find a point of realization. This an art form that has rebellious roots, but also a genuine heart and purpose.
As they trespass and skate empty upper class swimming pools, with some inevitably becoming egotistical rock stars, the film poignantly sounds out that these are just kids finding out who they are, having fun and testing the levels of danger.
Stacy Peralta and other contributors of the film, now “old” themselves, are a reflection of skateboarding’s longevity. They are the first men to look back on what they were a part of, the first members of an elite counter culture that will hopefully always remain two steps outside of the mainstream, even when and if the mass population ever comes to accept it.
New Gallery
The current exhibition at the New Gallery on campus, appropriately named “Earth 2002,” is displaying an eclectic collection of works responding to significant ecological issues by various artists from around the nation. The exposition, under the curatorial direction of Sherry Gache, is one of several that will be featured at the gallery.
“Earth 2002” opened on Jan. 18 and will end its run on Feb. 15, when the art pieces will be moved to another exhibition and replaced by new works. Furthermore, in accordance with the theme of “Earth 2002,” a special lecture presented by the gallery will feature two University of Miami environmental experts, Ellen Prager, of the marine biology department, and Hal Wanless, of the geological sciences department. The presentation highlighted substantial ecological issues ranging from sea level rise to changes in ocean life.
Walking through the gallery is an enlightening journey inside the fretful minds of artists who have created a unique, aesthetic perspective on the existing effluences that permeate a green world of nature contaminated by the dark fumes of pollution. The artists in this exhibition respond in disparate ways to the problems brought about by today’s environmental changes, each expressing their concern in visually stunning works.
The first piece at the entrance, which encompasses the words introducing the exhibition (“Earth 2002”), is an unconventional work entitled “Exchange of Echoes” by Paul Hitopoulos of South Carolina. It consists of many rows of grass attached to a wall. To compose the piece, he used 150-year-old crown molding, soil and vegetation; in this way, the molding becomes part of the gallery’s architecture. In a statement about the work, Hitopoulos comments that the work bridges the gap between what is and what is not art. The grass, in a certain metaphysical way, fills the literal and metaphorical gap between these two logics. “To my sensibilities,” writes Hitopoulos, “preservation of what exists is good, suburban sprawl and contemporary single family architecture (construction) are evil.”
A three-print work by Aimee Joyaux from Indiana titled “The Earth is one day thinner” has a haunting feel that will make you strongly contemplate certain environmental problems. Three silver toned prints surrounded by steel frames show a close-up of hands maneuvering hay and soil as the ghostly words in the middle print exclaim, “the Rock is one day thinner.” Joyaux is interested in creating works that deal with contemporary issues and exploring the ways photography and language can represent and shape personal identity, sexuality and gender. He notes that his work in mixed-media “combines the devices of narrative sequence, installation and construction to explore a scrambled auto-biography.” Here, the idea is a sequential work portraying a man-made rape of nature.
New Jersey-native Maria Lupo presents a bizarre, enigmatic series of object sculptures that may symbolize the indigenous relationship between different animals and animals with humans. “Pig Baby” is a baby doll lying on a soft cushion with a pig nose and a pig tail attached to it. “Piscis Ostensus Series, #1A” has a pig nose attached to something resembling the body of a fish with plants which make up the scales; it hangs floating from the gallery’s ceiling. “Genius Series, Elephantus locklen” is a strange object with a body of black feathers and a gold elephant nose. On a lighter note, next to these works, Augusto Arbizo showcases “Reef” a dazzling, abstract acrylic painting of greens, blues and yellows that embody the forms of the ocean’s reef and coral.
An oil painting by Mia Brownell, a Connecticut native, has a sharp, pink-and-purple background with black polka dots. The right center is “decorated” with a headless, wingless, skinned chicken’s body. This work is part of the artist’s ongoing series called the “Stomach Acid Dream.”
“I am expanding classical still life painting to include symbolic imagery and pop abstraction in order to express a reaction to the overwhelming expansion of genetically modified foods and other manipulations of what we eat by biotechnology,” explains Brownell about her work in progress.
She finds that biological manipulations of the natural foods we eat bring a new hazard to the consumer. She wants to combine traditional painting along with various industry symbols (here, the polka dots are connected by lines, resembling a molecular chain) such as chemical and advertising logos.
The two works by visual artist Kyle are also interesting. His “Not harmful to humans” is an acrylic painting on plywood with cubic forms-reminiscent of Piet Mondrian- in dark shades of blue that fade out into cut-outs of images showing various pictures of homes, people lying down (asleep, dead or strapped up on a bed) and, in the middle, a dominating image of a mosquito. His “Trace Elements” using spray enamel, acrylics, plastic buildings and organic miniature trees on a table of plywood, recreates a suburban ground that looks like a board game, surreal and fantastic in its own nature. Kyle describes his work as a combination of made and found objects with painting which become constructions that are “frozen moments of dimensional human drama.”
The only installation piece at the gallery is by Alexandria Searls from Virginia. Her “Meadowcreek Tire Installation Project” compiled with maps and plans, an “e-mail battle” with the governing authorities and real rubber tires. There are e-mails taped all across the walls of the installation with words written in red chalk across some of them : “Save the park, don’t pave it!” and “Keep going going going”.
High school students from the Living Education Center for Ecology and the Arts in Charlottesville have made a video of an art installation they completed in protest of a road. Tires aligned along the proposed path of the road, accentuate the damage that would take place in the environment. Searls comments about her installation at the gallery: “It shows, in tires, what will be lost from a community when yet another road is built to aid our hurried car culture, more interested in getting somewhere without hindrance rather than in having somewhere beautiful to go.”
These are only a few of the remarkable pieces presently being shown. Unfortunately, many students do not hear about the events at the New Gallery due to scant publicity on campus, which may be due to the inconspicuous location of the gallery. A frequent gallery visitor commented that most of the people who have visited the exhibition were affiliated with the art department or the local art scene.
This establishment, often under-exposed to Miami’s college students, is a vital institution that can help nurture the development of art on campus and serve students as a intrinsic link to the art community outside the university. Moreover and more importantly even, the New Gallery is an interactive forum itself that can encourage a greater awareness of the contemporary scene in visual arts through a number of lectures and diverse programming. Students need to become attentive to its importance.
Gache mentioned that the gallery might be undergoing some renovations in the future, but could not discuss specifics at this time. In the meantime, the gallery will be featuring three more exhibitions before the end of the semester. The next one will expose works by Anthony Barboza with a series of provocative and controversial photographs by the well-known New York photographer. After that, some fine arts students will exhibit their work. Plans for the last exhibition are still being discussed. The gallery is open from 12 to 7 p.m. on Thursday and 12 to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
Thumbs Down
It’s no wonder the biggest fans of the French film Am
Sports Briefs
WOMEN’S TENNIS
The No. 38-ranked Miami women’s tennis team remained undefeated after beating No. 25 South Alabama, 4-3, Saturday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. The match came down to No. 2 singles where senior Marcy Hora went to three sets with Silvia Sosnarova of South Alabama. Hora was up 4-1 in the third set when South Alabama head coach Joey Scrivano became upset with a call made by the lines judge and was penalized a game penalty. Scrivano continued to argue and was penalized a match penalty to give Miami the win over Jaguars. The Hurricanes entered singles play down 1-0 after losing the doubles point. Sophomore Sihem Bennacer won the first point for UM at No. 4 singles beating Nienke Scheltens 6-2, 6-2. Miami was down 3-1 after falling at No. 3 and No. 6 singles. Newcomer and 69th-ranked Mari Toro beat No. 32 Viktoria Stoklasova 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 at the No. 1 spot, and Ewelina Skaza beat Katarina Palenikova 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 at No. 5 to tie the match at three-all. Hora’s defeat over Sosnarova gave Miami the 4-3 victory over the Jaguars. The women are back in action Friday, hosting No. 48 Mississippi State at 3 p.m.
SWIMMING AND DIVING
Christine Williams set the fastest time in the 100-yard freestyle (51.74) so far this season for the UM women’s swimming team and Miami defeated FAU 161-143 in Boca Raton last Saturday. The Miami men’s team lost 194-81. Williams took first in the 100 free and third in the 50-yard free. Sophomore Manon van Rooijen won the 200-yard free with a time of 1:52.24 and the 100-yard fly at 58.18. For the Miami men, senior Wes Stoddard won the 1000-yard freestyle (9:52.84) and finished second in the 400-yard IM (4:11.35). Junior Kevin Kerrick finished first in the 200-yard free (1:46.09) while freshman Josh Laban had a season-best 1:00.18 time in the 100-yard breaststroke.
TRACK AND FIELD
Sophomore Andre Johnson set a meet record in the 60-meter dash by running a 6.85 at the J.D. Martin
Invitational in Norman, Ok. on Saturday for the UM men’s track and field team. Johnson broke the previous meet record of 6.88 seconds set by Mesut Yavis of Arkansas State in 2001. Freshman Willis McGahee (6.88), Roscoe Parrish (6.92) and Tanard Davis (6.95) joined Johnson in qualifying for the Big East in the 60-meter dash. In the pole vault competition, junior Jabari Ennis and senior Aaron Moser set NCAA provisional marks by clearing 5.20 meters (17-00.75 feet). Junior Jeff Gaulrapp finished second in the 3000-meter with a time of 8:43.20 while sophomore Kenny Frank finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.28 seconds. Miami competes in the Big East championships in Syracuse, NY on Feb. 15-16.