Features Editor:
John Liebhardt
johnliebhardt@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, April 11,2002
Music, music, more music
Columnist Dave Depper explores the
abundant spring harvest of new releases.
Page?
H
HALF-life is art
■Graduate student Elizabeth Parr’s gallery show
celebrates the idea that decay is beauty
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
In today’s world of anti-aging cream, cosmetic surgery and
crash diets, the idea that decay and imperfection can be beau
tiful may seem like an absurd notion. But graduate student
Elizabeth Parr has demonstrated the beauty of decay in her
paintings and drawings using the human form and abstract art.
Parr celebrated the opening of her art exhibition,
“HALFLIFE,” Friday and will continue showing her paintings
and drawings noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays through April 26 at the
Temporarily Maude Downtown Gallery. The Gallery is located at
68 W. Broadway on the downtown mail.
Parr said her artwork explores the dichotomy of beauty and
decay from many angles.
“I think in our culture (the idea of decay) is a really negative
thing and a scary thing to a lot of people,” she explained. “But it
can be really genuine and really reassuring. ”
Even the materials she uses, such as dry wall, masking tape
and Elmer’s glue convey a sense of non-permanence.
Heather Russell, a fellow art history graduate student at the
University, said most artists have an interest in preservation, but
Parr does the opposite, and she seems to concentrate on the mes
sage having an interesting idea—not on trying to make it last.
Imperfections are another important aspect to her art, Pan
said, and she tries to pick out the oddities that are normally
Turn to ‘HALFLIFE,’ page 8
■ Organizers expect the 2002 UO Student
Film and Video Festival to have many more
sponsors and awards than in 2001
By Ryan Bornheimer
for the Emerald
Cinephiles don’t have to go to Cannes or
Venice to catch the newest creative minds in
the world of film.
The University has its own share of fresh film
talent, which will be on display at the second an
nual UO Student Film and Video Festival. The
festival kicks off 7 p.m. Friday in 100 Willamette
with a reprise presentation of2001’s festival.
The entries for this year’s festival won’t ac
tually be shown until the end of the term, as
many of the student films are final projects for
spring term classes.' This year’s festival will
feature the newest batch of student projects
Graduate
student
Elizabeth Parr
(above) finds a
sense of peace
through the
catharsis of
creating art.
Many of her
works are self
portraits (left).
Thomas Patterson Emerald
Film festival lets fresh talent shine on campus
covering a variety of categories, including: Mu
sic videos, animation shorts and experimen
tal productions, all produced by University
students. Advertisements, public service an
nouncements, dramatic short features and
news items are also included in the collection.
The free public re-screening Friday showcases
36 entries from last spring’s festival.
An event of this kind may not have been
possible just a few years ago, said Dan Miller, a
journalism professor and festival organizer.
“Digital media has finally advanced to the
point where students can produce broadcast
quality work relatively inexpensively,” he said.
Miller organized the festival with fellow
journalism professor Ken O’Connell and stu
dents from the University chapter of the Na
tional Broadcasting Society. Miller said last
year’s event “exceeded our expectations.,”, , ,
FestivafCommittee Chairwoman Cqsjsie.fJi-,
bbert agreed.
“The place was packed,” she said. “People
were sitting in the aisles. It was great.”
The festival committee thought the reprise
presentation of last year’s entries would be a
great way to stir campus interest in the 2002
festival as well as offer guidance and inspira
tion to those interested in submitting projects.
“The best communities feed off each other,
and this is a great way for students to share
ideas,” said festival advisor Rebecca Force,
also a journalism professor.
She said the amount of creativity that came
out of last year’s festival was “remarkable,”
and she is looking forward to what this year’s
festival will offer.
Because of the overwhelming success of last
year’s event, the 2002 festival promises to be
■,y / Turn to Film festival, page 8
Regional
hip-hop
influences
hit campus
■ Four Eugene bands will
display the variety of local
talent at a concert Friday
By Alix Kerl
Oregon Daily Emerald
Many students may have thought the
hip-hop scene in Eugene was limited.
But they were wrong.
“Down & Dirty,” a celebration of Eu
gene hip-hop, will feature four local
hip-hop bands. The show is 9 p.m. Fri
day at Agate Hall.
The four groups, Logic, Texassippi
Boiz, 13th Tribe and J2MIH, represent
an eclectic mix of styles that show both
the past and future of hip-hop.
The diversity of the groups playing
Friday is representative of the multi
farious nature of the Eugene scene.
Texassippi Boiz consists of Clientel
from Texas and Spydaman from Mis
sissippi. The two are new to the area
but are veteran MCs from the south.
Their music is highly influenced by
this background.
Logic has two vocalists, Katie Steven
son and Cortez, one DJ and three MCs.
13th Tribe is a trio of piano, drums
and trumpet, and plays soulful music
influenced by hip-hop, jazz and rock.
Drummer Mike Shuman said the band’s
varied influences give it eclectic style.
“(Keyboardist) Jonathan calls our mu
sic ‘tribal astrofunk,”’ said Shuman.
The members of 13th Tribe have been
playing together for a year, but their mu
sical experience started long before that.
"We all come with our own style,
and we try to blend it together,” Shu
man said.
Shuman grew up in Southern Cali
fornia playing music with his brother,
who played in several jazz groups
throughout California.
J2MIH, whose name stands for the
Juice to Make it Happen, is a high-ener
gy group that plays catchy beats and
melodic chants. The group consists of
eight MCs, two bass players, a DJ and a
clarinet player.
"There’s so many of them on stage
that you don’t have a choice but to get
excited," said Gabe Sechrist, a Universi
ty student organizing the show.
Sechrist described the group as high
energy and vibrant, with well-planned
lyrics. The group identifies their music
as thoughtful,*new hip-hop.
“Our lyrics are pretty conscious,”
said Ethan Virin-Brown, an MC and
bass player for the group. “We don’t rely
on words as a crutch, and we don’t rely
on cuss words.”
Sechrist is in the midst of organizing
a student hip-hop group that would
bring together people who have talents
in graphic arts and music, as well as
other creative talents.
“We’re trying to unite hip-hop and
make something fun for students,” said
Sechrist. “We’re getting a lot of interest
from different groups. A couple groups
of breakdancers have been coming out
to the snows.” Sechrist is also putting
on several other hip-hop shows
Turn to Hip-hop, page 6