by Bracey Wilson | Jun 7, 2010 | News Slider
Dr. Briley teaches Old Testament and Hebrew studies. Dr. Terry Briley, likely one of the few Lipscomb professors to ever attend Bonnaroo, first went six years ago to chaperone his younger son. But he’s returned three times since. He says the common perception of the festival and its attendees isn’t entirely accurate. Once you get to Bonnaroo’s 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., you see that “people there are more diverse than you might think.” The crowd does not consist of young people exclusively. Briley says he enjoyed the atmosphere, describing it as “a flashback to the ’60s,” when he was just a boy. He stresses that there is no need for anyone to be afraid while there. Certainly there are people participating in activities of which Lipscomb does not condone, but there is no need to worry about someone hurting anyone else. “One time I was taking pictures of a group of people who were dancing around in funny costumes at a concert,” Briley says. “ One of the guys noticed that I was taking pictures and came over to ask why. Although I told him I was just taking them for my own use, he asked me to delete the one with him in it because he was supposed to be ‘out sick’ from work while he was at Bonnaroo.” Going camping on a farm in Tennessee at the beginning of the summer is not the most comfortable thing in the world. The main complaints are the heat, the dust, and the inability to bathe in anything but sulfur water. Campers must pass through two checkpoints and wait in...
by Bracey Wilson | Apr 6, 2010 | News Slider
Clash of the Titans is a cheesy action movie. Even someone who is a huge fan of mythology would be disappointed with the liberties that director Louis Leterrier takes in constructing the story of Perseus. It was heavily adapted to please the shallow thrills of action-movie junkies. Having voiced my opinions about the plot, the special effects and visual experience of seeing the movie were outstanding. The mythological creatures like Medusa and the Pegasus seemed to be real. Even the depiction of Mt. Olympus was feasible, considering the difficulty of imagining a city in the sky. My criticism of the cinematography lies in the action sequences—they were so fast-paced that everything seemed to blur together. Watching the movie in 3-D, it was difficult to appreciate the details at such a quick pace. Perseus (Sam Worthington) is the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Danae (Tine Stapelfeldt). He is a demi-god even though he spends his life fishing with his adoptive parents. He is aimed against the gods after his adoptive parents and siblings were killed by Hades (Ralph Fiennes). As a result of their death, Perseus is motivated to defy the Gods, even Zeus, his real father. Perseus does not know that he is a demi-god until Hades visits the city of Argos, threatening to destroy it. Hades demands the sacrifice of Andromeda (Alexa Davalos), Argos’ princess, to prevent the wrath of the Kraken from destroying Argos. Hades created and controls the Kraken that destroyed the Titans, who ruled before he, Poseidon, and Zeus came to power. Perseus’ mission is to destroy Hades, the god of the underworld, the...
by Bracey Wilson | Mar 8, 2010 | News Slider
Alice in Wonderland is a great family movie. It is rated PG and produced by Disney. Beside some complex wordplay intended for adults, the film is made for children. The only difficult things to understand are the intricate metaphors. The images in the picture are amazing and don’t require any analytical skills to enjoy. Tim Burton’s work in 3D is about as close as film can come to a hallucinogenic experience for the viewer. The combination of computer-generated animation, special effects, and make-up almost make the cartoon version more realistic than this one. Once entering Wonderland, the new film’s plot is mostly similar to the book by Lewis Carrol and the 1951 film version with Kathryn Beaumont as the voice of Alice. However, Burton’s version does have some differences in the plot, such as depicting Alice at almost age 20. Instead of visiting Wonderland, she is returning to Underland, where all the characters are at odds about whether or not she is the same young woman who came to visit them as a girl 13 years earlier. The prologue tells how Alice — before falling into the rabbit hole that leads to her adventure — is the daughter of Helen Kingsleigh. With her father Charles dead, Alice is about to marry the son of Lord Ascot for the security of his family’s wealth and status. A crowd of hundreds watches as young Ascot asks for Alice’s hand in marriage. She retreats to the garden, following a curious rabbit, instead of attending to the pressing matter at hand. Once falling down the rabbit hole at edge of the Ascot’s property, Alice encounters...
