THE OORACLEVolume 94 | Issue 18 | Free in single copy | April 15, 2011Tennessee Tech University | Cookeville, TN | 38505

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Dance Team affected by lack of interest, support

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The Tennessee Techno-logical University Founda-tion is making plans for how to use the newly acquired Prescott Middle School build-ing and surrounding grounds. Among other things, the property will provide 500-700 new parking spaces that will help with commuter parking problems on campus.

The TTU Foundation purchased the property in 2008 but allowed it to be used by the Putnam County School System until construction on the new Prescott South school building could be completed and classes could be moved.

“We are pleased that the PCSS thought of us as natural partners in continuing educa-tion in the community,” Mark Hutchins, executive director of the foundation, said.

The Foundation is a pri-vate organization that sup-ports University advancement through private donation programs. This means that the Foundation will have fi -nal say in what happens with the property, but it is also re-sponsible for footing the bill for renovations and upkeep. For this reason, no funding for the project will come di-rectly from the University.

Though the acquisition of this property offers much op-portunity for growth, a plan for utilizing the space must

Photo by Christine SeiberEach year fl ags of the world are displayed atop the RUC.

SPORTSPage 3

Window on the World festival returns to campus

Prescott acquisition to provide new parking alternatives

THIS STORY CONTINUES ONLINE AT TNTECHORACLE.COM

By DHIR JOSHI & COURTNEY CLIFFORDStaff Writers

Soon, more than 1,000 seniors will say goodbye to Tech.

This spring, there will be two separate commencements. Tech’s spring commencements are gen-erally larger than fall commence-ment.

“In the Spring of 2006,” said Debbie Combs, special projects co-ordinator, “we fi rst exceeded the 1,000 mark for graduates in a se-mester.

“Our largest class was Spring 2009, when we graduated 1,211 se-niors. At this time, indications are that the Spring 2011 graduating class will be of a similar size to re-cent spring classes.”

Graduating seniors bring an av-erage of about eight guests. Per fi re marshall guidelines, which deter-mine how wide aisles must be, how closely chairs can be positioned etc., the Hooper Eblen Center can have 768 graduates seated on the fl oor and 9,692 guests in the stands and skybox.

The speaker for the morning ceremony is Rep. Diane Black. State Rep. Ryan Williams will speak at the 2 p.m. ceremony.

The morning ceremony will include undergraduates from the school of interdisciplinary studies, the colleges of agricultural and human sciences, arts and sciences and en-gineering. The graduate students of each of these colleges will also be included.

The afternoon ceremony will include undergraduates and graduates from the colleges of Business and Educa-tion.

Black, Williams to speak at commencements

By HEATHER KINGStaff Writer

Window on the World (WOW) is scheduled to begin with the “Middle East Now” symposium at 10:10 a.m. to-day followed by the festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Satur-day in the RUC.

“You are getting to expe-rience the world by coming to the festival,” WOW coor-dinator Melissa Creek said, “through the food, through the sound, through the per-formances. And we also have vendors who come, and they sell cultural items.”

Some of the vendors in-clude Full Circle Art, Peru-vian Artifacts. Mt. Everest (Nepal), International Dolls, Uganda Beads, and One Market World.

There will be several activities to participate in, including music and dance. The dancers will perform for 30 minutes, followed by a 30 minute workshop. Some of the dance workshops include Uzbek, Didgeridoo and Is-land Fusion.

“There are different per-formers that try to pull in the audience,” Creek said, “and give you an opportunity to participate in that.”

Some of the performers include Four Leaf Peat, Chi-nese Lions and Trio Venda-val.

WOW has something for all ages, according to Creek.

“It’s great for families to come to,” Creek said, “be-cause even if you have little ones, the parents are encour-aged to do crafts with the children.”

Children’s crafts will be offered on the third fl oor to anyone at no charge. There will be 10 different cultural crafts from which to choose.

“Anyone of any age can come and learn about dif-ferent cultures,” Creek said, “just by walking around and sitting and listening for a few minutes.”

Global Education Center in Nashville will be offering a free workshop for teachers in the area. Participants will receive professional devel-opment credit. The teacher workshops include “Why Not Make Something Up? A Creativity Workshop,” “West African Drum Traditions from the Great Mali Empire,” “South Indian Culture” and “Dance, and Appalachian Roots: Folk Songs, Ballads, and Singing a Capella.”

“Every part of WOW is going to educate you,” Creek said.

Food vendors from all over the world will be set up,

including Bosnia, Colombia, Filipino, India Palace, Mexi-can, Nepal, Saudi Club, and South Indian.

“I would encourage peo-ple to actually go around and sample all the different foods and not just spend all their money at one booth,” Creek said.

Some other groups with food booths are German Club, French Club, Japanese Culture Society and Amigos Spanish Club.

Creek suggests attendees to bring $5-$7 for food.

“We do encourage all the vendors to have dollar items at least,” Creek said.

There will be several ac-tivities held on South Patio, including Earth Day, a jazz ensemble, a book sale and cricket.

“Earth Day, they’ll have lots of things going on with that to kind of promote and encourage people to take care of the Earth,” Creek said.

New to the festival is the TTU Amateur Radio Society. They will have a ham radio set up, so attendees can talk to other people in different parts of the world.

The International Busi-ness Society and Study Abroad have joined togeth-er to offer Skype, through which attendees can commu-nicate with students whom are studying abroad.

“Most people come to WOW for the food and the entertainment and the chil-dren’s crafts,” Creek said. “Those are the top three things people want to see and participate in.”

Ada Haynes’ sociology class will have a cultural ta-ble set up with visa stamps. Attendees will get a passport they can get stamped for each country they visit.

According to Creek, there will be 62 fl ags hanging on the wall, each representing a country from which Tech has a student.

“There are 62 countries represented at Tennessee Tech,” Creek said. “That alone is enough reason why people should come out to get to know their neighbors, to understand and be part of the community.”

Creek said that it is im-portant for us to celebrate cultural diversity and for us to understand what other cultures are about.

Taj Massood will be offering an art workshop throughout the day for at-tendees interested in making their own mandalas.

fi rst be solidifi ed.To start the process in

motion, the Foundation board paid an architect to create a master plan for the property. This plan will tell how to best utilize the space available. Some ideas for space usage include meeting and teaching areas, offi ce space, a banquet space and an area that will most likely house the entire University Advancement di-vision.

“The property offers the University great opportunity for growth,” Hutchins said. “Not all universities have the chance to purchase 14 acres

adjacent to campus.”Once the plan is settled,

renovations must be made to the property before any Uni-versity offi ces or classes will move. While the property does comply with all fi re and building codes and has a sol-id foundation, it will require some cosmetic work.

“We would like to see cosmetic upgrades,” Hutchins said, “to make the property representative of the best our campus has to offer.”

The renovations project will also include building a lighted walkway across the railroad tracks that will con-

The Mandala Award will be received by Katie Kumar, previous WOW coordinator.

“She has faithfully served as a WOW coordinator for the past 11 years,” Creek said. “She has promoted cultural harmony and understanding through her many acts of ser-vice.”

Creek encourages every-one to attend WOW.

nect the new building to the rest of campus.

The Foundation Board will meet at the end of April to discuss the fi ndings of the master plan. The Foundation is also continuously looking to raise donations to go to-ward the project. Since all the funds for the renovation pro-cess will come from private donors, renovations cannot start until the funds for the project have been raised.

For more information on the TTU Foundation, go to www.tntech.edu/founda-tion/home.

THIS STORY CONTINUES ONLINE

AT TNTECHORACLE.COM

Williams

Black

Photo by Daniel Flatt

The western parking lot of Prescott sits across the railroad tracks from the new dorms.

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OPINION

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CHRISTINE SEIBERCHRISTINE SEIBERManaging EditorManaging Editor

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DAKOTA WEATHERFORDDAKOTA WEATHERFORDDHIR JOSHIDHIR JOSHI

Ad AssistantsAd Assistants

TALLULAH GILLIAMTALLULAH GILLIAMCopy EditorCopy Editor

SARAH TOWNSENDSARAH TOWNSENDEditorial EditorEditorial Editor

CASSIE TESAUROCASSIE TESAUROAsst. Editorial EditorAsst. Editorial Editor

BRANDON GOODWINBRANDON GOODWINSports EditorSports Editor

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BRENDA WILSON, Faculty AdviserBRENDA WILSON, Faculty Adviser

BEAT REPORTERS:BEAT REPORTERS: Brittany Anderson, Jillian Boreing, Brendan Bowers, Brandi Campbell, China Chafin, Courtney Clifford, Olivia Clinard, Jackson Cresswell, Sarah DeRossett, Zachary Edwards, Julie Graham, Candice Goodman, Candice Griggs, Emily Haile, Elizabeth Harper, Justin Hill, Heather King, Shelby McDonald, Amanda Miller, Logan Nickleson, Justin O’Dell, Alek Peterson, Brittany Ritzman, Andy Rutherford, Will Sheckler, Logan Shrum, Ashley Smith, Niklas Trzaskowski, Katherine Vaughn, Suzanne Vaughn, Aaron Vick, Jacob Walker, Lindsey Wallace, Emily Weinzetl, Gerri Anna Wilson, Casey Woodard, Camille Woods

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LETTER TO THE EDITORChartwells’ exercise room: great idea?

Last Friday, while run-ning to get food before all the Chartwells’ food ser-vices locations closed at 6:30 p.m., I took the time to read an article the April 8, 2011 issue titled “Cafeteria employees gain exercise area.” It was like Chartwells had read my mind! Just last week while eating under-cooked rice and room tem-perature pizza in the caf-eteria, I thought to myself “this food would be great if only the Chartwells’ staff were not so chubby.”

I do not know about you, but when I am paying so much for a meal plan,

I do not want my over-cooked pasta being served by a fatty.

This is why the exer-cise area for Chartwells’ employees is so great. I am so glad that Chartwells has the student’s needs in mind. It’s not like there is anything like it with in walking distance from the cafeteria.

Maybe if this catches on SGA and Chartwells could get together and build a larger one for all students and staff. Maybe they could even place it near the Hoop.

In all seriousness though, Chartwells’ might want to rethink their pub-licity strategy. Announcing that they have spent mon-ey on an exercise area for Chartwells’ employees only

at the same time an article on how they do not have enough money to provide more/better dinning op-tions (“Meal plan differ-ences exist between Peay and Tech”) is like saying: “We can not give you what you want because we need more money. Oh by the way we just installed a staff only money slide.”

We already have to deal with freshman being re-quired to have a meal plan, their inconvenient hours and their subpar food. If Chartwells wants any more increases in funding, they need to show that they are going to be fi scally respon-sible fi rst.

Michael Beckmwbeck21@

students.tntech.edu

SARAH TOWNSEND

Editorial Editor

How you can help: Join the Green Committee

As this spring semester draws to a close, some cam-pus groups and activities are just gaining momentum. Tech’s Green Committee is working on multiple projects.

Last month, the Beehive Design Collective came to the STEM Center and discussed the true cost of coal, and this week I got to sit down with TTU Green Committee leader Josh Donegan (who also chairs for the Green Fee Committee) to talk about the committee’s goals and ongo-ing projects.

Recently, the TTU Green Committee made a deal was with Caney Fork to repair found and donated bicycles to start up our own bike share.

Though the bike share

has been in the works for a while, this deal will hopefully result in communal bikes on campus as early as the com-ing fall semester. If you walk around campus most of the time (like I do) that is really good news.

“We will do some work on it (the bike share) over the summer when everyone isn’t so busy,” Donegan said.

Though Tech already has a departmental recy-cling program, a campus-wide recycling program was just approved by SGA. This program, also scheduled to launch this fall, will focus on recycling plastic and alumi-num as well as paper.

Our previous recycling efforts were mostly for paper, which is great, but the new program will be a high step

up. By recycling non-biode-gradable (or slower degrad-ing) materials, we will keep a lot more of our campus waste out of landfi lls.

Another exciting event is coming up is the Earth Day celebration on South Patio on Thursday, April 21, since April 22 (Earth Day) falls on Good Friday, and we will be out of classes for the holiday. There will be live music and activities from 11-3 p.m.

One reason the Green Committee is holding the event is to raise funds to send some of the commit-tee’s most active members to Washington D.C., for Power Shift, a rally held every year where young activists work on a campaign for green ener-gy and other environmentally friendly pursuits.

I encourage you to attend a Green Committee meeting, donate if you can when they hold events or do so tell them your idea for a greener cam-pus. For more information on Power Shift visit www.powershift2011.org.

Working at The Oracle has been quite the ride: some-times a blessing and some-times a burden, but always a learning experience.

My propensity to re-search random facts and to correct people’s grammar has been put to good use the last two years as copy editor. I hope that it was enough and that the paper wasn’t too mis-take-ridden during this time, though I know of several in-stances when errors made it through to print and suspect many more went entirely un-detected by myself.

I regret this but feel it was bound to happen. I’m a stu-dent correcting the work of other students, and copy ed-iting is but one of many hats I wear. I’ve devoted much time and energy to the pa-per and wish I’d had more of both to give to each issue. Being limited in these areas, as well as in my knowledge and capabilities, has helped me grow.

First, I strive harder to overcome my limitations, so The Oracle and my other work make me proud. Also, I accept that I am a fallible per-

son, just like everyone else. If I tried my best and still made mistakes, the mistakes are just that: mistakes. It’s only important that I try to learn from them.

It’s this knowledge and a plethora more that I will take with me from Tech as I con-tinue as a student of life.

I hate that the ride has to end, but it certainly was a good one for me. I hope it was, and will continue to be, for the readers as well.

SENIOR GOODBYES

Fall 2011 staffORACLEFOR

THE

Managing EditorAsst. Managing Editor

Ad ManagerAsst. Ad ManagerAsst. Ad Manager

Editorial EditorAsst. Editorial Editor

Sports EditorAsst. Sports Editor

Entertainment EditorCopy Editor

Will HousleyNicholas Rollins

Bridgette BuchananDakota Weatherford

Sarah DeRossettCassie TesauroJonathan Frank

Ross HarveyAndy RutherfordChuck AchesonBrittany Ritzman

It’s tradition for graduat-ing seniors on staff to write a farewell, but I’m using my fi nal Oracle article as an exer-cise in persuasion. The Oracle recently advertised job open-ings, and the response was disappointing. Although the positions have been fi lled, here are fi ve reasons why you need(ed) to apply:

1. All majors are welcome

While The Oracle staff is a majority of journalism or public relations students, the paper is looking for a fresh outlook, which some-one studying another fi eld can offer. For instance, the new Advertising Manager is a math major, a subject that turned many students (in-cluding myself) into journal-ism majors.

2. A paycheck

Sure, the pay won’t help you fi nance a new car, but look at it this way—many

Oracle staff members are also involved with WTTU and The Eagle, which also offer paid positions. Combine that pay, and you’ll make enough to pay bills and buy food that isn’t laced with high-fructose corn syrup.

3. A resume plug

If you write for the enter-tainment, opinion or sports sections, your opinion is pub-lished nine times a semes-ter. That’s nine articles in a portfolio to show potential employers.

The Managing Editor oversees all facets of The Oracle and coordinates with beat reporters. The Assistant Managing Editor gains Internet journalism experi-ence by maintaining tntechor-acle.com, the copy editor can tell employers that he/she ed-ited all the stories for a week-ly newspaper and the adver-tising staff gains skills that can be carried to other profes-sions, such as marketing.

4. Professional training

All section editors gain management experience, and everyone becomes com-fortable with InDesign, Photoshop or photography. Over the course of the se-mester, staff members fi nd that The Oracle isn’t as time-consuming or daunting as it seems. Some editors become able to write articles and de-sign pages in under an hour.

There isn’t a fi fth reason. I told you numbers weren’t my thing.

That being said, I’d like to thank my family for their unrelenting support, my best friend for leaving the porch light on when I had late dead-lines, the journalism faculty for maintaining a thriving program, and past/current Oracle staff for sympathy concerning the post-grad job market.

Tallulah GilliamCopy Editor

Christine SeiberManaging Editor

Lack of support is hinder-ing one of Tech’s biggest sup-porters.

The Golden Girls dance team participated in the Na-tional Dance Alliance’s Col-legiate Nationals in Daytona over the weekend. While there, the team realized just how much of a disadvantage they have compared to col-leges that get more support not only in attendance, but fi nancially as well.

“I just think that we sup-port football and basket-ball whole-heartedly,” said McKenzie Simon, three-year member, “but we don’t get support in return.”

“Tech does offer a great deal of money toward Athlet-ics,” said Casey Owens, two-year member. “However, they neglect the dance team, which takes just as much ef-fort, if not more, than the other sports. The dance team brings spirit to the school and gets hardly anything in re-turn.”

The Golden Girls com-peted with two different dance routines in two differ-ent categories at NDA’s na-tionals. In the fi rst category, Open Division 1, the team competed against 13 other Division 1 schools. The sec-ond category, Hip Hop 1, put the team against 15 Division 1 and 1A schools. Nearly all of the schools Tech was against have dance as a major or mi-nor and have support for that school’s dance program. Most of the schools also offer schol-arships to their dance teams.

Sam Houston State Uni-versity’s dance team was the winner of the Open Division 1 category. The team is com-pletely supported by the uni-versity.

According to SHSU’s website, “The team is sup-ported both fi nancially and

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Page 3 | April 15, 2011

Dance team affected bylack of campus support

Don’t worry. We’ll return

September 16in print and

online.

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O

Last edition of the

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By EMILY HAILE & KATIE VAUGHNStaff Writers

administratively by the uni-versity, which makes partici-pation with the squad very affordable. The university, through student service fees, pays for a number of ex-penses that the typical high school and/or junior college may not be able to afford. For example: all uniforms, poms, duffel bags, summer camp expenses, choreography fees, and travel expenses are paid for by the university. Danc-ers pay for their own summer camp outfi ts and shoes, which average about $175.”

Each member of Tech’s dance team has to buy his or her own shoes, competition costumes, practice clothes, bags, and the cost of travel to and from competitions. This year, each member had to pay more than $350 out of pocket.

The team does not have a studio in which to practice. Instead, they rely on using the gyms in the Fitness Cen-ter. The lack of mirrors and a dance fl oor hinders the team.

The team does not re-ceive any scholarships, so members are more likely to quit throughout the season. For the 2011-12 school year, 22 people were chosen, but only 14 members made it to the competition.

Co-captain Amanda Dunham said, “Most people don’t realize we work hard year-round. We spend time, energy and money support-ing other TTU Athletics pro-grams during football and basketball seasons.

“On top of that, we have our own competition season. We put in three practices per day and travel to compete

against schools in the SEC, ACC, and the Big East. We love all the different things the team experiences but would like to be treated and funded as the athletes we are.”

“We don’t get anything at all,” said Senior member Leah McCaleb. “We should at least get our uniforms paid for.”

The team relies on fund-raising throughout the year, but fundraisers alone don’t cover everything. The team collected enough money this year for some new uni-forms. After the uniforms were bought, there was not enough money left over to buy anything else.

The team only has enough money to pay for a choreographer every other year. The years they can’t hire one, the team relies on each other to come up with routines.

“We work just as hard as any other athlete,” sopho-more Ashlee Maynord said. “Just because dance isn’t as focused on as other sports doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get the same scholarships or support.”

Heather Howard, two-year member said, “It’s defi nitely discouraging to not have administrative or monetary support from the school and student body re-ally makes you look at the situation.”

Sophomore Preston Weaver said, “Getting noth-ing at all after all our hard work is a really low blow to us.”

Just because dance isn’t as focused on as other sports doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get the same scholarships or support.

“Ashlee MaynordTech Golden Girl

CAPITALS

CANADIENS

PENGUINS

LIGHTNING

BRUINS

RANGERS

SABERS

FLYERS

CANUCKS

BLACKHAWKS

DUCKS

PREDATORS

RED WINGS

COYOTES

SHARKS

KINGS

Fill in your 2011 NHL Playoff BracketEAST WEST

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2010-2011

Tech baseball finding winning ways as postseason approaches

The Tech baseball team is hitting its stride with a little over a month left in the regu-lar season.

They have won four of their last six, including a sea-son best four-game win streak that started with beating Lip-scomb and Alabama A&M on the road last week

“We have a good club,” head coach Matt Bragga said of his team. “We keep playing hard, and we’re improving with every game.

“We had a very good week and we hope to contin-ue that success.”

Tech added the last two wins of the streak by taking both halves of a doubleheader on Saturday from Southeast Missouri State, 9-5 and 5-4, at the Averitt Express Baseball

By ANDY RUTHERFORDStaff Writer

Complex before falling 13-8 on Sunday in the last game of the series.

“On Saturday,” Bragga said, “we had good, solid pitching and defense. Those will always give you a chance to win.

“We also had some time-ly hits, and that led to the vic-tories.

“Sunday, we played hard; we just made some costly mistakes.”

Tech traveled to Mur-freesboro Wednesday eve-ning to take on the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders for a midweek game.

The Golden Eagles found themselves down two going into the ninth. Chad Oberack-er drove in Michael Morris on an RBI single to cut it to one, but that was all they could get as they lost a heartbreaker 6-5 that dropped their record to

13-18This weekend, the team

will travel to Charleston, Ill., to take on the Panthers of Eastern Illinois (11-19, 5-3) in a three-game conference se-ries.

“All games are impor-tant,” Bragga said. “The key for us is to continue to im-prove to get to where we need to be.

“We need to make good plays consistently. If we can do that, I think it gives us a great chance of winning any game.

“I believe we will get bet-ter and have some success.”

The Golden Eagles return home at 6 p.m. Tuesday to host the Belmont Bruins (17-17, 6-9).

For more information on scores and upcoming games, visit www.ttusports.com.

Western Conference Quarterfi nals

Nashville Predators (1-0)vs. Anaheim Ducks (0-1)

at 9:30 p.m. today

The same year that hoards of teenage girls were packing theatres across the country to see a vampire love story, Tennessee fi lmmaking collective the Deagol Brothers were premiering their own independent fi lm featuring zombie romance.

Luckily, Hendersonville High School “bros” Andy Duensing and Christopher Doyle didn’t follow the obvi-ously underthought, cheesy route of hiring Murfreesboro zombie-themed rockabilly band Zombie Bazooka Patrol to score the fi lm. Rather, they commissioned a legitimately biological set of brothers from Nashville, Eric and Jordan Lehning, to compose and per-form music for the fi lm un-

www.tntechoracle.com Page 4 | April 15, 2011

ENTERTAINMENT

By KASSI THOMASSpecial to The Oracle

‘Atlas Shrugged’ adaptation opens in theaters today

By MATT KNIELING | When not searching for hidden meanings in “Garfi eld” comics, Matt Knieling writes and draws funny pictures for The Oracle. Find more of his comics at inanimateshorts.com or on Facebook at tinyurl.com/mattartfb.

Multi-Purpose Room Stage

10:00 Uzbek & Eastern Mix

10:45 Mandala Award

10:55 Middle Eastern Dances

11:00 Dor L’Dor

12:00 Irish Step Dances

12:30 Greek Dances

1:00 Chinese Lion Dance

1:15 Chinese Cultural Dances

2:00 Four Leaf Peat

3:15 Djembefole

4:15 Indian Dances

4:45 Saudi Arabian Dances

Tech Pride Room Stage

10:00 Camerata, Renaissance Music

10:30 Flamenco Guitar

11:15 Ugandan Music

11:30 German Accordion Music

12:00 Eastern Dances

12:30 Trio Vendaval

1:00 Didgeridoo Crafting & Playing

1:30 Scottish Bagpipes, DrumAnd Dance

2:00 Indian Dance

2:30 Latin American, European, And American Music

3:15 Celtic Music

4:00 Island Fusion (Polynesian Dance)

TTU’s InternationalFestival 2011

A Center Stage EventSponsored by the

College of Business

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By CHRIS DOBROGOSZSpecial to The Oracle

In 1957, writer and philos-opher Ayn Rand published a book that she considered her magnum opus. Atlas Shruggedis the story of man’s mind and spirit escaping the bond-age of a repressive society that demands mediocrity and punishes success. Though the story initially received a wide mix of praise and criticism, it became an almost immediate bestseller.

In recent years, it has seen a sharp increase in popularity with more than 300,000 cop-ies sold in 2009 alone. Con-sequently, there have been multiple attempts at creating a fi lm version over the past several decades, but none have ever made it out of “de-velopment limbo” until now.

In mid-2010, fi lmmak-ers announced that “Atlas Shrugged Part 1” would be hitting theaters the follow-ing year. The fi lm is directed by Paul Johansson (who also plays a cameo role as the mysterious John Galt, appear-ing briefl y in silhouette form), and stars Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler as protagonists Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden.

While this certainly seems to be a downgrade from past rumors of Angelina Jolie and Russell Crowe playing the parts, it hasn’t stopped long-time fans of the book and its message from eagerly antici-pating the fi lm’s release today (purposefully set on what is traditionally tax day).

As someone deeply inter-ested in politics and philoso-phy, I took it upon myself to read Atlas Shrugged in its en-tirety this past summer, and although it took nearly all summer to fi nish (as it is near-ly 1,100 pages long), I came to understand the book’s popu-larity.

It was easily the most challenging and powerful story I have ever read. I found the plot so intriguing and the characters so strong and re-latable that I was naturally ecstatic when I fi rst heard that a movie was in the works. Upon further investigation, however, I began to have my doubts.

As is to be expected from any fi lm adaptation, “Atlas Shrugged Part 1” has done some molding with the origi-nal storyline, most notably

that it is set in the year 2016, rather than the actual era in which the book was written. One can assume that this is to make the fi lm more relat-able to modern times and/or serve as foreshadowing for America’s potential future.

The fi lm has also been constructed on a rather con-servative budget of about $5 million. Now, I fi rmly believe that dialogue and story struc-ture determine how good a movie will be, but when a story describes as many stun-ning visuals as this one does, the possibility of cheap, sec-ond-rate animation occurring on a grand scale is embarrass-ing to think about.

The chief concern from most Rand fans seems to be whether the fi lmmakers have a deep enough understand-ing of the book’s themes to translate them properly. The fi rst unsettling sign was when director Paul Johansson mis-pronounced the author’s name, saying “Ann” rather than “Ayn” (pronounced “eye-n”) in an interview with Reason.tv.

Johansson has expressed that since the fi lm is writ-ten as a trilogy, he will only be working on Part 1, which, hopefully, means a better ac-tor will be taking on the ac-tive role of Galt in Part 2 (that is, of course, assuming Part 1 generates the kind of popu-larity needed to make Part 2).

Though the opening will initially be limited to select theaters (in Tennessee only in Knoxville, Nashville, Frank-lin, and Memphis) anyone can go online to www.atlasshrug-gedpart1.com/demand and demand it be brought to other towns (Cookeville currently has only 20-some demands, fi ve of which are mine).

I could easily go on about why I’m somewhat skeptical of the movie living up to its potential, from the conspicu-ous absence of key characters, to seemingly inappropriate choices for the characters that are present.

Nonetheless, in spite of my characteristic pessimism I feel obligated to recommend this movie to all students in-terested in the philosophy of Ayn Rand, so long as the phrase “never judge a book by its movie” stays in your mind, and when the fi lm pres-ents its immortal query “Who is John Galt?” remember that the answer is probably not Paul Johansson.

The Non-Commissioned Officers’ ‘Money Looking for Thieves’der the name the Non-Com-missioned Offi cers. “Make Out With Violence” (2008) won awards at fi lm festivals throughout the southeast, including Best Soundtrack at the Nashville Film Festival.

I don’t know that the work of the Non-Commis-sioned Offi cers was initially intended to live beyond writ-ing songs for a movie about the undead, but as the Non-Coms played live shows in Nashville over the next few years, the undeniable power of their dance-pop took hold.

Eric Lehning, the band’s spastic front man, always seems to resemble a used car salesman from the 1970’s in his traditional performance get-up of oversized rose col-ored shades and an ill-fi tting suit. His determined delivery, combined with the hypnotic keys and driving energy of the six-piece as a whole, earned the Non-Coms a dedicated

local following. Nearly two

years from the day the “Make Out With Violence” soundtrack dropped at SXSW 2009, an evolved line-up of the Non-Commis-sioned Offi cers, released “Money Looking for Thieves” on March 11 of this year. This record isn’t a soundtrack, but it may lead you to believe that your life is a John Hughes fi lm.

The nine-song LP harkens back to the 80’s, expounds upon the ensemble’s trade-mark Eno-esque composition, and features some brilliant, sentimental lyrics. While the entirety of the album exudes dance-ability, “Rich Stuff” and “Love Will Conquer All” surfaced as my favorites. The fi nal track, “Party for 40

Bucks,” is literally affi rma-tion in the value of thrifty social gatherings.

From start to fi n-ish, “Money Looking for Thieves” only spans 30 min-utes, but as quality trumps quantity for this Nashville powerhouse, you’ll be thanking the resurrected, undead savior of indie rock for allowing you to play through these beats twice

Courtesy of Non-Commissioned Offi cers