Friday October 1. 20 michigandaily.com/arts mae@michigandaily.com RTS 5 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 0 KA TE RR3 LS Au Oc 0-4 JM 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 w