Source: famousmenpictures.blogspot.com

4 Entertainment August Network

When I first saw Leonardo DiCaprio’s frozen body sink into the depths of the Atlantic in Titanic, a piece of

my 6-year-old heart drifted away with him. After being convinced for a good six

months that the love of my life was gone forever, I was delighted to find out that Leo had come back from the grave in the form of King Louis XIV in The Man in the Iron Mask. Although I didn’t comprehend any part of the storyline (especially his alarmingly long and greasy hair), I found myself sighing in relief.

That small chunk of my heart was back in place. Everything was right with the world.

Dear Leo (as I prefer calling him) continued to charm me as he appeared as the little orphan boy in Growing Pains and later starred in flicks like Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, and Shutter Island.

However, in his latest movie, he did more than charm me. He literally melted my brain.

Inception can barely be described in words.

Sputtering, choking, and blank stares of awe are all more acceptable methods of expressing the sheer astonishment one will experience only twenty minutes into the movie. Aided by the superb acting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page, DiCaprio creates an alternate dream world that makes moviegoers question their own lives, not to mention their sanities.

Still, I am not here to give a review of Inception; I’m here to recall what an amazing genre Leonardo DiCaprio has created through his movies.

Before the mind-blowing theatrical feat known as Inception came along, DiCaprio had flabbergasted audiences with a variety

of action films, helping to redefine a genre that was long plagued with mixed martial arts, automatic weapons, beautiful women, and bland, run-of-the-mill plotlines.

Through his work in movies like Blood Diamond and Gangs of New York, DiCaprio has set precedent for other

action flicks: a plot which is not is not built around the number of explosions or knife fights (although there are still a good number

of those) but around developed characters whose lives have more meaning than how much blood they spill.

In Shutter Island, for example, DiCaprio’s character conceals a history that’s too horrible for him to accept. No gigantic explosions are needed for the movie’s eerie message to come across.

It may help that he’s good-looking, but the fact of the matter is that I, along with audiences worldwide, continue to be captivated by Leonardo DiCaprio.

He brings true characters to life and places greater priority on extraordinary plots than on buff guys in wifebeaters gunning down civilians.

It is this element in DiCaprio’s movies that attracts so much critical acclaim for movies like Inception. I am proud to call myself a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Who knew my Dear Leo would become such a revolutionary actor?

DiCaprio Has Depth

EveryBODY’s

A girl writing in a notebook. A man dribbling a basketball. A boy throwing a baseball. All of these images do not

seem like they belong in a museum. In fact, not only are these images drawing crowds of attention, they are also the talk of much controversy. The reason? Each posed person is a real human body completely exposed and preserved for a special exhibit new to Omaha.

Located on 10th and Dodge, Bodies...The Exhibition adds a new flare to central downtown. The exhibit has been beating with energy and controversy since its opening on May 1, 2010. This once in a lifetime experience allows the public to examine every muscle, bone, and tendon in the human body for the price of a $22 admission ticket. Before its Omaha debut, millions of viewers around the nation are obsessing over the informative and in depth look into the body. Bodies...The Exhibition originated in Tampa, Florida in 2005 and has since spread across the United States, parts of Canada, and South America.

Each body is meticulously dissected and goes through a process called the Polymer Reservation, which allows it to be preserved forever.

Using liquid silicon rubber, the human tissue becomes permanent within a week’s time and can be posed during this period. For the larger organs, this process could take up to a year before completion.

The finished product is an exact human body in its original shape and form that will never decay.

Each full-body specimen showcases a different system in the human body: skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory, and so on. Frozen fetuses are also on display that have been preserved at different stages of development. Every organ has been isolated for a close-up study and there is a whole section dedicated to the inner workings of the brain.

“It was hard to believe they were real bodies at first, but after seeing all the different muscles and parts it was so cool” Sophomore Maria Roubidoux said. “Seeing how everything works was a great experience.”

But while some people find the exhibit fascinating, others are not so impressed.

“It seems disrespectful,” Dr. Thomas Quinn, director of medical anatomy at Creighton University School of Medicine, told the Omaha World-Herald. “Posing bodies and charging people to see them is like a sideshow.”

Many Catholics also seem weary of the whole idea. The Archdiocese has expressed its concern back in April when Rev. Joseph Taphorn stated, “It (the body) becomes

something that is used for profit, an object to be gawked at.”

Other priests have expressed their concern that it would not be appropriate for Catholic schools to take their students to the exhibit. This brings up the question of whether or not students should view Bodies...The

Exhibition as an informative study into the human body or an exploitive organization.

“I don’t see it as a problem,” Roubidoux said. “These people were going to be put in the ground anyway so using them to learn is a good thing.”

All of the bodies are legally obtained people of Chinese descent and died of natural causes. Dr. Ray Glover, the Bodies Medical Director, posted on the official website that each body undergoes the same process and is treated and displayed with respect.

“Our exhibitions are not anything that has to do with denigrating the body,” Glover said. “The exhibitions are about health and life and encouraging people to take care of their bodies and understand them better.”

Still, many people nationwide do not find the idea of an exposed human body morally or physically appealing. The argument is one that will continue as long as preserved bodies are on display and will only grow as Bodies...The Exhibition makes its way around the world.

Graphic by MollyRakoczy

Bodies...The ExhibitionSomething Everybody Needs to Know

Source www.bodiestheexhibition.com

Where: 1002 Dodge Street, Omaha NE

Price: $22 for students

How Long It Is Here:May-November 2010

When: 10am-8pm Sunday-Thursday 10am-10pm Friday-Saturday

What:An exhibition all about the body and its many parts

Where Else To Find It:Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Navada, Canada, New York, Missouri, Arizona

TalkingBrookeUrzendowski

MollyMisek

Check out The Network Online for more stories and pictures!www.omahamarian.org/netpaper

LizProsser

“People biting into popsicles.” junior Sarah Singer

“A quiet room and all you can hear is someone texting.” freshman Megan McClanahan

“The new SunChips bag.” sophomore Erin McQuillan

“The sound of computer paper rubbing together.” senior Joy Leick

Graphic by KaitlinJohnson

I Can’t S t a nd the Sound of...

Source: famousmenpictures.com

Entertainment 5August Network

SEPTEMBERMarian Events:

1Half DaySophomore Seminar

3FlygirlAuthor Presentation

6 No SchoolLabor Day

9 & 23 Marian Moms

15All School MassServants of Mary

21Progress ReportsCheck your e-mail!

11Middle School Dance7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

24Walk

AThon!

Tommy and Chuckie race around the neighborhood in the Reptar wagon. Louis pulls yet another prank on Ren.

Helga calls Arnold a “football head” for the 300th time.

These were all too familiar scenes from our childhoods as we were growing up in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. One could argue that this period was a “Golden Age” of children’s television, with networks like Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network churning out hit after hit with the elementary-school crowd.

Watching shows like “Hey Arnold!,” “Doug,” “Boy Meets World” and “Rocko’s Modern Life” (by the way, did you know Rocko was a wallaby?) was as ingrained into our daily lives as Candy Land and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. We lived in half-hour increments of paradise.

Unlike the Rugrats, who managed to stay babies for more than a decade, children’s TV has changed drastically over the years. Kids are no longer roaring with laughter at “All That” or being kept up at night by “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”. There is no more idolizing Jett Jackson or fighting over which Powerpuff Girl is the best. Even “Boy Meets World” has gone from constant daily reruns on Disney Channel to the ever-so-popular 6 a.m. time slot on ABC Family.

What has happened to the TV shows and characters that not only graced every child’s television screen but every lunchbox, backpack and bedspread?

Nowadays, a typical Nickelodeon daily lineup consists of “iCarly,” “Victorious,” “Big Time Rush” and “SpongeBob Squarepants,” which has miraculously survived the entire first decade of the 21st Century. All of these, with the exception of Spongebob, are sitcoms set to laugh tracks and aimed mostly at preteen girls. It’s a far cry from Nick’s cartoon heyday of the 90’s.

Disney Channel has also followed this path in recent years, with sitcoms like “Suite Life on Deck,” “Sonny with a Chance,” “Jonas LA” and, of course, “Hannah Montana” dominating the airwaves. The network has even been criticized by the media for pulling

away from Walt Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck and gearing their programming toward preteen and teenage girls.

Another alarming trend in children’s television today is the common plotline of characters searching for stardom. Disney has made billions of dollars off of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, and the success of their respective TV shows has gone through the roof.

But it’s not just limited to international superstars. “Sonny with a Chance,” “Big Time Rush,” “Victorious” and a handful of other programs also focus on the main characters’ pursuits of fame and fortune. Even Disney Channel Original Movies, such as “Camp Rock” and “Starstruck,” have followed suit, although the number of “DCOMs”

produced each year has decreased considerably over the past decade (anyone remember “Smart House” or “Phantom of the Megaplex?”). It’s as if the sole purpose of Disney and Nickelodeon is to turn teenagers into pop stars that can sell out arenas and have their faces plastered on every 12-year-old girl’s bedroom wall.

However, these networks have still followed

the tradition of providing appropriate programming that has important moral lessons to teach today’s youth. Even so, it seems as though children’s television has become too commercial and contains plotlines that are too mediocre and interchangeable.

Kids today aren’t able to experience the same joy and hilarity from the television shows that made our childhoods so memorable (honestly, what we have done without characters like Beans from “Even Stevens?”). These were more than just 30-minute installments of mindless entertainment; they were daily tokens of the innocence of childhood. Most importantly, they always reminded us that, in the end, the characters we idolized on television were just like us.

So, Marian girls, hold on to your “Tiny Toons” lunchboxes, “Arthur” pillowcases and “Lizzie McGuire” backpacks, because, for years, those are the things that defined what it meant to be a kid.

From Jett Jackson to Joe Jonas:A Review of the Kids’ TV TransformationErinO’Brien

Graphic by MeganMorrissey

“Even ‘Boy Meets World’ has gone from constant daily reruns on Disney Channel to the ever-so-popular 6 a.m. time slot on

ABC Family.”

What We Were WatchingBlast From The Past:

Graphic by LizBerigan MeganMorrissey

Source: crazyabouttv.com