Scene

THE TARTAN WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

The

FRIES, BLUES AND ANIME

take over Five Things
Page 5

Upcoming Events...

September

28- 4

This week at RU:

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Tie Dye T-Shirts
Bonnie Lobby, 11am-3 p.m.

The Discordian Society

returns home to

Thrice continues musical excellence

Major/Minor sees Thrice mixing their best elements and moving forward
JORDAN KAUFFMAN
jmkauffman@radford.edu Thrice has always been one of those reliable bands to always fall back on. No matter what genre phase you are into currently, you can always take comfort in knowing that Thrice ts into your playlists. This isnt to say that Thrice doesnt evolve; that couldnt be farther from the truth. Theyve grown from post-emo/hardcoreish rock on Vheissu to raw, honest Beggars, and everything beautiful in between. The melodies that Thrice brings, soar. The riffs, as well as the low end, growl and bite back. Thrice is such a well-oiled machine, that I almost thought that I shouldnt review their brand new album, Major/Minor, because, honestly, how could Thrice still get better from their last album? Well, heres the good news: they did exactly that. Thrice isnt one of those bands that makes you slightly nervous when their new album comes out because nervous isnt in their musical dictionary. These men know what theyre doing, and it doesnt matter how they do it, they record albums that are 100 percent perfect, one right after the other. Major/Minor is their new album, coming off of a short two-year

29
Faculty Jazz Quartet
Covington Performance Hall 8 p.m.

Roanoke

Ott w/ Kilowatts
Awful Arthurs, Blacksburg, 9 p.m.

30
CALVIN JAMES PYNN
Tug for Ta-Tas
Awful Arthurs, Blacksburg, 9 p.m.

cpynn@radford.edu
The Discordian Society is a band of unusual proportions. Making a return to the area for the rst time in several years this past summer, they blew

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Bonnie Auditorium, 8 p.m.

the audience out of the water at Martins Downtown, a small bar venue deep within the urban makeup of Roanoke, Virginia. In truth, The Discordian

See DISCORDIAN, 6

1
Highlander Festival
Moffett Quad 10 a.m.-5:30p.m.

See THRICE, 6

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Bonnie Auditorium, 8 p.m.

NBC Fall television lineup looks promising

JUSTIN WOOD
jwood9@radford.edu

Lee Hicks leads campus as student body president

KEYLA LENSCH
klensch@radford.edu
Lee Hicks has an important job. He leads the student body to success and speaks for all 10,000 Highlanders at every meeting he leads and attends. He is Radford Universitys Government Association and student COURTNEY EARLL| The Tartan body president. Lee Hicks is a sophomore at Radford University from Virginia Beach, Virginia and is double majoring in Political Science and Social Science with a concentration in teaching. When asked what he wants to do after he graduates college he said, Well, I plan to teach high school American Government, hopefully back at my high school, and then run for public office in the years to follow. Hicks interest in student government was sparked in middle school when he was trying to defend a friend of his from, what was seen as, unreasonable charges. Well, it is a bit of a long story, but I will give you the Readers Digest version, Hicks said. It was 6th grade and a good friend of mine was written up for wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans in school. The assistant principal at the time, Mr. Heft, argued that the white t-shirt and blue jeans were gang related clothing. Well, that made me angry and I wrote letters, petitions, got a meeting with the principal, and my friends charges were dropped. It was then that I learned the power of an active and vocal student voice and the importance of having a student leader that wasnt afraid to vocalize a dissenting opinion from administration. As student body president for RU, Lee has many different responsibilities and goals. My main goal is to create a better sense of community among the

H ighlander of the Week:

2
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Bonnie Auditorium, 2 & 8 p.m.

3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Bonnie Auditorium, 8 p.m.

4
Jack Spardo
McGuffey 203, 7 p.m.

Celtic Fire
Preston Auditorium, 8 p.m.

The fall television season hasnt really begun until NBC begins their Thursday comedy lineup. With the premiers of four major NBC comedies this last week, how does the block fare as they enter a new year and a new season? The block begins with my most anticipated premier this year, the return of Community. Season two, for the most part perfect television, ended with two major cliffhangers. First, Pierce Hawthornes supposed departure from the study group, and second, the unnerving drop in quality in the second half of the season. In this way, the premiere was a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. Community, despite its brilliance in single episode narratives, seems to have difficulty in handling longer arcs, quickly abandoning long term character development, giving the show a cyclic nature that serves as its only major flaw. The premiere, Biology 101, is at least comfortingly solid. Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) returns within minutes of the opening Glee-spoof musical number, along with a gentler less evil personality. This is of course met with suspicion from Community fans, as Pierces personality fluctuates more sporadically than the funniness of Saturday Night Live sketches, but if maintained could be an intriguing shift in the usually inflexible dynamic of the show. Jeff Winger (Joel Michale) once again goes through his cycle of dickishness, alienation and sudden revelation that weve become a little too familiar with, but McHale once again completely sells the emotional roller coaster de-

spite narrative repetition. While some elements of the episode didnt work (Abeds Cougar Town withdrawal being only a fraction as funny as it shouldve been), monkey knockout gas, John Goodmans spiritual domination of Jim Rash, and the promise of Ken Jeongs character Chang back in a position of authority reminds me why theres nothing on TV quite like Community, and for that its worth treasuring. Comparatively, Parks and Recreation starts their new season with confident control, earned by their sudden and recent renovation of their show from The Office knock-off to their own charming and hilarious brand of humor. Everyone is feeling the fallout of last seasons flawless finale, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has to literally choose between love and career, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) has to flee before the impending shadow of his first ex-wife, Tammy , and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) gleefully promotes his useless media conglomerate. The episode Im Leslie Knope confirms what we already knew last year, that Parks and Recreation is self-assured comedy gold, finding its place and existing there without forcing unnecessary drama or resorting to cartoon tactics. Between a perfect parody of recent political sexting scandals and Rons miraculous beard growth, the show also clearly defines the path forward, setting Leslie on the path to political office, making of all of Thursdays premieres, Parks and Recreation, the clearest in setting up what we should expect the rest of Fall. Of course in terms of hype, The Office premiere dominated NBC ad space. With Steve Carell leaving The

See HICKS, 6 See NBC, 5