Friday
October 1. 20
michigandaily.com/arts
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Beethoven and Ravel come to
Rackham via the Takacs Quartet
By Meredith Graupner
For the Daily
The University Musical Society
will be opening its Chamber Series
with the renowned Takacs Quartet
and pianist Garrick Ohlsson. This
program will surely please its audi-
ence with quartets by
both Beethoven and s
Maurice Ravel and a
piano quintet by Ernst TA]
von Dohnanyi. QUART
The Takdcs Quartet, GAR
formed in 1975 at OH]
Budapest's Liszt Acad-
emy, is considered one Rackham,
of the world's greatest Sun.(
string quartets. Their $2
success was recently U
recognized at the 26th
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LS
Au
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formers have come far since the for-
mation of their group.
Andras Fejer, cellist and one of
two founding members, grew up in
a very musical family, which
inspired him to pursue classical
music as a profession. "At the time
we were hoping to make a living as
a quartet, but knew
that we would experi-
ence some hardships,"
kCS said Fejer. He feels
T AND that it is sometimes
ICK challenging to find a
SON balance between the
many creative ideas
uditorium within the Quartet, but
t. 20 it is this milieu of
40 opinions that has lead
S to the success of the
Quartet today. "After
At the performance this weekend,
the Quartet will be performing a
quintet by a composer who has just
recently been revived throughout the
classical music community. Though
other musicians are just now discov-
ering Ernst von Dohnanyi's music,
for the Quartet they are merely
revisiting an old friend. It has been
15 years since the Quartet last
recorded this piece and they are
looking forward to performing it
again, this time with pianist Garrick
Ohlsson. They find this piece espe-
cially appealing because it was writ-
ten as a first piece when Dohnanyi
was only 17-years-old. According to
Fejer, "it is an original piece that
sounds mature, extremely thought
out and pleasantly witty."
The audience will surely enjoy
this evening of classical music that
will be "fresh, vivacious and color-
ful," according to Fejer. "We would
like to believe that our music will
get to the audience. We want to hold
them at the edge of their seats."
The guy from "Snatch" likes his packages bound and gagged.
Ti
Great action sequences triumph
over plot i*n 'The Transporter'.
Annual Gramophone Awards where
they won the 2002 Award for Cham-
ber Music for a recording of
Beethoven's Middle String Quartets,
Op. 59 "Razumovsky" and Op. 74
"Harp." It truly shows that these per-
all," Fejer says, "the goal of every
quartet is to know how to interpret
... and compromising between your
own will, your fellow musicians'
and what you feel the audience will
enjoy is especially important."
By Ryan Lewis
Daily Arts Writer
Frank Martin makes his living transporting every-
thing from suitcases to people in an illegal and extreme-
ly dangerous world. No questions asked. His precision
and effectiveness has made him prolific and highly
desired amongst the most illegitimate of crowds. He has
three rules that govern every job he takes: Rule one -
once an agreement has been reached, nothing can be
changed, Rule two - No names, and Rule three -
Never open the package. Rules are made
to be broken.
"The Transporter" is a highly stylized,
power-pumping action thrill ride. Rarely
does the movie lag, even though the plot is
a barren wasteland of incessant nothing-
ness and it always has an explosion or
brawl waiting around every corner. The
premise is terrific and the fighting
tremendous. Jason Statham ("Snatch")
takes charge in a manner that no other
action hero has performed this summer.
TH
TRANSP
At Showc
Quality
20th Cent
Dominating, charismatic and surprisingly agile, he adds
a swagger to the character of Frank that few actors
could match. Surely Statham should be included on the
short list of actors being considered to fill the shoes of
007.
A fantastic chase scene transporting burglars, skill-
fully utilizing a BMW and the narrow streets of Nice,
introduces Frank's lucrative and specific job. Frank is
an ex-Special Forces operative and lives by exact guide-
lines - any unheralded variations in transportation
agreements are fixed immediately, as one robber dis-
covers. Soon after finishing this job, he arranges anoth-
er, less overtly unlawful, transport. Problems arise when
a tire blows out causing him to discover a body as the
package. Rule three is broken when he opens the pack-
age finding a girl bound and gagged. He benevolently
allows the girl a bathroom break, where she promptly
tries to escape and breaks Rule one. The real trouble,
and subsequent action, begins when the recipient real-
izes that Frank has seen the package and tries to take
him out.
This angers the military man significantly - he
returns to the recipient's (affectionately called Wall
Street) house, pummels everyone in sight and takes a
decently attractive Mercedes for redemption. Unbe-
knownst to him, he has taken Lai (Qi Shu), the package,
along for the ride as well.This provokes Wall Street and
his many uncontrolled, very accessible crew members to
high levels of anger and desire for redemption. The rest
of the plot, with the exception of Frank's only confi-
dant, a cop named Tarconi (French actor Francois Berle-
and) is a muck of uninteresting and unnecessary
motives and information.
Short pieces about mud and numerous infomercials are
more entertaining and engaging than the story surprising-
ly created by the mastermind Luc Besson.
Although Besson fails to duplicate to his
previous successes (works he wrote and
directed - "The Professional" and "The
E Fifth Element,") his script does allow direc-
tor Corey Yuen to exhibit a truly awesome
ORTER piece of achievement overflowing with cap-
ase and tivating combat sequences. Surprisingly,
y 16 very few people actually die, which is quite
impressive when considering other modern
ury Fox action movies. One scene of particular inter-
est has Statham fighting a mob covered in
oil and using bicycle pedals to his advantage. On a truck,
in a bus, through a door, nothing is left unused in the
movies action, and it all proves to be more engrossing
from one moment to the next.
Outside of the work by Statham and Berleand, the
acting ranges froni sub-par to atrocious. Even though
her attractiveness radiates, Qi Shu's performance severely
suffers due an insurmountable language barrier. Although
the dialogue did "Transporter" no justice, the actors cook
up a dismal display, lacking talent. However, the stuntmen
and actors who perform all the fighting seqeunces do com-
mand respect. Regardless of their delivery, these men can
certainly put on a spectacle through their brawling.
"The Transporter" offers all the excitement and mus-
cle it promises. Statham is impressive outside of his
comfort zone of Guy Ritchie films. It might be a point-
less film full of mindless tripe, but it explodes with the
fun of guns, knives and fists. Fighting in the traditional-
ly choreographed, non-camera manipulated fashion is
the main focus of the film. Come for the action, but stay
for the originality filled homage to the pre-"Matrix"-
era. Forget the story and overlook the acting and this is
certainly one of the best, naturally portrayed, action
movies this year.
Nintendo and Microsoft lower
prices to compete with Sony
By Luke Smith
Daily Arts Editor
Almost simulaneously two-thirds of the video game
market re-packaged their consoles in time for the begin-
ning of the 2003 holiday season. Microsoft's XBox will
feature two pack-in games and the new S-controller.
Despite the inclusion of two games, XBox will still
retail for $199.95. The computer giant is including
games exclusive to its system, "Jet Set Radio Future"
and "Sega GT 2002." "Jet Set" is the sequel to the pop-
ular "Jet Grind Radio," released originally on the now
defunct Dreamcast. The included S-controller is a
smaller version of the chubby XBox standard controller.
Initially only released in Japan, the controller was later
released stateside and has since sold well.
Nintendo GameCube's holiday bundle will include
the platform's flagship title "Super Mario Sunshine," a
Memory Card 59 and the indigo-colored version of the
console. The GameCube bundle retails for $189.95.
Despite the upcoming Nov. 5 release of "Metal Gear
2: Substance," Microsoft is entering a holiday season
where many of their biggest games have been delayed
- hence the repackaging of their system.
Comparitively, Nintendo's offer is the weaker of the
two. The system bundle, equates to far less savings than
Microsoft's holiday effort. Consumers will get the
$149.95 GameCube, $49.99 "Sunshine" and a $14.99
Memory Card 59, all for $189.95, amounting to roughly
$35 in savings. Contrastingly, XBox users are getting
two games for free and a smaller controller to boot. The
larger XBox controller will still be available in stores.
Courtesy of Sega
"Jet Set Radio Future" now comes with XBox.
University Renal Research and Education Association (URREA) is an internationally respected not-for-
profit health outcomes research foundation specializing in epidemiologic, health policy, and health
economics studies. Please see www.urrea.org for more information. We are seeking part time employees
to fill various positions within our organization. Part time employees will be paid an hourly wage up to
$10.00 and would be expected to work from 10 to 20 hours per week. Schedule is flexible.
URREA Communications/Media Assistant
The assistant will help the medical/technical editors in:
" Establishing and maintaining a research library comprised of an EndNote database and hard copy
reference material.
" Maintaining a publications database with detailed records on all URREA manuscripts and abstracts.
" Preparing manuscripts for submission to scientific journals.
" Other editing, writing, research, and organizational tasks as projects arise
URREA Research Assistant
The assistant will assist Project Coordinators and Research Associates in:
" Data entry of study questionnaires
" Meeting and conference planning
" Preparation of presentation materials
" Filing, file/record organization
" Mass mailings
URREA Administrative Clerk
The clerk will assist administrative team in:
" Writing cover letters, memos, and correspondences
" Updating Microsoft Outlook contact database
" Assisting with office errands
" General office and clerical tasks
" Providing telephone support
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