Miami Hurricane, March 26, 2002

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ACCENT page 7
UM needs
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OPINION page 11
The Miami H
SPEC FORM
Coral Gables, Florida
Volume 79, Number 41
WWW.THEHURRICANEONLINE.C
CANE
Since 1927
esday, March 26,2002
Bands battle for spotlight, cash
By Rebeca Oliveira
Hurricane Staff Writer
Filled with flying hair, bucket-drumming hands, bouncing groupies, lots of energy and music for all tastes, the first annual Battle of the Rands, organized by Hurricane Productions |HP) and QuantUM, had a rocky start.
Conceived out of two separate events, then somewhat haphazardly put together two weeks before the actual date, the show left many dissatisfied with the way it was orga nized.
Originally, HP had planned a show for Saturday, the 23rd. QuantUM had another scheduled for Thursday, the 21st. When they found out about each other’s events, they decided to unite and co-sponsor one single event.
“We had to compromise," said Zach Lezberg, QuantUM’s president. “We didn’t want to have an event for four hours people would get bored.”
Since HP was planning for three professional bands, they allotted 45 minutes per hand. QuantUM’s event was planned for eight to ten amateur hands playing for fifteen minutes each.
By combining the show’s, HP had to reduce (heir bands' playing time to half an hour per act. which caused one of their entries to drop out of the running.
None of the participating bands were informed of this arrangement, a fact that angered most of the amateur acts-No Such Road, Rizzo, Sondazed, and Crashing Tide. The two professional acts were Active Ingredients and Morisson Poe.
“In the spirit of fair competition, it does not logically follow that the ‘professional’ hands selected by Hurricane Productions would be favored in the length of sets over those selected by Quantum,” said F.ric Valdes, Crashing Tide’s guitarist. “I feel deceived. Had we at least been told it was going to be unfair, we could have dealt with it better”
“We didn’t want to affect any of the bands’ performances, that’s why we didn’t tell them," Lezberg said.
“If we were to start over, things would be different," said Ben Werlin, Friday Groove chair of HP and one of the event’s organizers. “Everyone would get the same playing time, and things would go a lot smoother.”
Despite these challenges, organizers say the event had a high turnout, between 500 to
700 show throughout the night.
Of course, not all the attendees were satisfied
“It wasn’t very entertaining,” said Eric Hochstadt, junior. “Some of the hands weren’t very talented.”
Prizes were awarded as follows: Active Ingredients took home first place and $1000, Morisson Poe got second place and $300, and Crashing Tide won third place and $200.
“I thought the results were right,” Hochstadt said. “At least the judges got it right.”
“We came in second to a really good band, so we’re happy,” said lean Morisson, lead vocalist for Morisson Poe. “it was more important for us to play for everyone than to win first prize."
“We don’t consider it losing, we consider it being inspired,’’ added D. S. Poe, bassist.
“I feel pretty good. I’m less broke now," said Tony Castro, Crashing Tide’s lead vocalist.
Celebrity judges included Brian Capelli from ‘Cane Records, Cujo from 94.9 Zeta, Delaine Matthieu from Channel 7 News and Ethan Schwartz from South Florida |amz. hands were judged on originality, musician
ship and audience reaction.
“We told the judges not to judge on time, but on quality,” Lezberg said.
All the bands save Morisson Poe played completely original sets-of their six-song set, three were covers.
“I think it’s a load of crap,” Hochstadt said. “I don’t think bands should be playing covers at Battle of the Bands.”
In between acts, the emcees gave announcements and plugged various organizations and events. More often than not, their appearance was followed by a sudden hush from the audience. Time between bands was also filled with karaoke and “guess that song’’contests-though the emcee had to offer the audience cash incentives of Monopoly money in order to get anyone to volunteer.
The only two karaoke acts sang “Bye bye bye” by N*Sync and “Don’t Speak" by No Doubt. The “guess that tune” contest went on for a full five minutes five minutes filled with complete silence in the audience.
Of the 25 hands that auditioned, six made the final cut. Decisions were made by a committee, and were based from live performances and demo tapes.
Causes
a priority
forUM
students
By Jackie Pitts
Hurricane Staff Write
While many students were soaking up the sun in Cancún and the Bahamas, a group of UM students had a different idea of how best to spend spring break.
Leaving behind suntan lotion and hedonistic desires, over 70 students spent their vacation divided amongst eleven volunteer sites across the country tor this year’s Alternative Spring Break.
The students were divided into teams of about seven to nine people, based on the cause they preferred to volunteer lor Causes varied, including hunger ami homelessness in (Imago; youth violence in Detroit; wetland restoration in louisiana. Students also worked to improve the lives of migrant farm-workers in rural Florida; enhancing fine arts in city schools in Providence, R.I.; and supporting environmental pmtection in the Smoky Mountains.
“I wanted to participate because I feel like people in our generation have become spectators," said |uan Pena, a senior who addressed issues of youth violence in Detroit last week “Whife we go to Cancún and etcetera, people in our country are tailing through the cracks.”
“I felt like I got a lot more out of this experience than what I gave,"said Andrea Sauertieg.a senior psychology major who served as the leader lor the HIV7AIDS site in Washington DC.
Beginning 12 years ago when volunteers came together to help the community after Hurricane Andrew, Alternative Spring Break has since grown into a well-developed program committed to promoting active citizenship.
It is part of a larger national organization called Breakaway, which immerses students in different cultures, heightens social awareness, and advocates lifelong social action.
Yasmin Rootwala. a senior serving as chairperson of this year’s ASB said she had a ten member executive board and 12 site leaders to
See BREAK • Page 2
Hoops-4-Hunger raises funds for homeless shelter
By Seema Gohil
Hurricane Staff Writer
Hoops-4-Hunger helped homeless women.
“No one deserves this. These are real people. There arc a lot of people in this country who are one paycheck away from being on the streets. Homelessness is a growing problem,” said Sarah McGrail, public relations representative for Students Together Ending Poverty |STF.P), a student run charitable organization at UM.
Hoops-4-Hunger was a fund-raising three-on-three basketball tournament organized by STEP, in conjunction with the Wellness Center Intramural Association. The event took place on 23rd March at noon in the Wellness Center.
“We wanted to generate awareness for the cause and basketball is something people play everyday," said Mindy Sevnor, STEP chair.
The funds raised will he donated to Creative Beginnings, a shelter for homeless women and children, organizers said.
“One in four young women are out of a job and it is very difficult to get one without an address The shelter provides them with one," McGrail said.
“There are a lot of mothers and children who have nowhere to go. They are pushed by
being paid to them," McGrail said. “The stories you hear out there are horrifying. Some of these women have actually been raped by policemen.”
“I wanted to help and be supportive since I don’t think our country’s paying enough attention to the cause,” said Kerrol Nelson, one of the players.
“Homelessness is an escalating problem Even in Coral Gables which is an upscale part of Miami, poverty is seeping through, fust driving to UM, you will see homeless people,” Sevnor said.
The funds will be used by the shelter to provide food, clothing and a place to live for the homeless, organizers said.
“People are just coming up with hand aid solutions and not changing the way the gov eminent system works, which is the real problem,” Sevnor said.
“We need to fight misconceptions. Even in a place like UM, a lot of students have never been exposed to poverty,” McGrail said
STEP organizes various on campus events such as the Hunger and Homelessness Week in the fall and visual events and writing cam paigns on World Hunger Day coming up in April.
One upcoming event is “Give A Shirt,”
See HOOPS • Page2~
UMTV game show tests knowledge
By Andrea Alegría
Hurricane Staff Writer
Apartments against Commuters, Greeks against Pearson-the heat is on for the $10 000 prize for the Live Championship Game in the School of Communication courtyard, April 17.
The UMTV produced 30-minute fact-based trivia game show where the questions come from the professors, rallied participants from the five residential colleges, the apartments.commuter students and the Greeks.
The two winning teams will move on to the final championship to battle intellectually in an hour-long show recorded live. The teams from the other residential halls were eliminated in the preliminary round.
Sanjeev Chatterjee, faculty advisor for
I
UMTV, developed the concept for this quiz show and became the executive producer.
Under the direction of senior Rachel Brilla, and with the effort of Terri Maloney, head of post-production, the show materialized.
“I would like to see UMIQ become an event much like SportsFest, where the University community comes together in a competitive spirit where bragging rights are involved," said Brilla.
She explained that Provost Luis Glaser allocated $15,000 in prize money to he used for academic purposes.
This will allow each of the eight players from the losing team to go home with $250 each and also award $ 1000 to each member of the victorious team.
Jacob Vincent, from the Apartment area, said he joined the team because he was
lured by the idea of winning $1000, yet not all contestants were in it for the money.
Cherisson Cuffy of the same team said he did it for the fun of it, and many others said it was their love of competition and the idea of being on TV which led them to participate.
The Greek team, put together by outgoing student government president lose Diaz, said that they were really enjoying themselves in this game and that overall the questions were very fair and somewhat easy.
A sample question could be: “What was the title of the first motion picture to offer sound recording?”
Professors from different fields of study such as history, English literature, chem istry, and motion pictures put together
See IQ • Page 2»<