52nd Singarama to hit Collins this Thursday

Months of hard work will soon pay off for students involved in Lipscomb’s 52nd annual Singarama, which opens this Thursday in Collins Alumni Auditorium. This year’s Singarama production is Ready, Set, Go! featuring groups led by student directors Anne Claire Smith, Carolanne Deaton and John Alex Foster. This year’s hosts and hostesses are Delaney Brown, David Austin Lowery, Michael Oruma, Caitlin Phelps, Tyler Russell and McKenna Smith. Aaron Sain is the host and hostesses director. “Go” is the story of a window washer who wants to enter the world of business. It features songs such as “Status Quo” from High School Musical, “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake and “You Can Go Your Own Way.” Clubs participating in “Go” include Delta Omega, Delta Sigma, Kappa Chi, Sigma Omega Sigma and Tau Phi. Delta Sigma member Laney Overton has especially enjoyed bonding with students from other social clubs. “Being in a social club you sometimes are confined to your social club, and Singarama’s a really great opportunity to branch out and meet new people from other clubs,” Overton said. Students have been working on their shows since January, often practicing five days each week. Frequent practices do not bother Singarama first-timer Tiffany Best, though. “Whenever I’m stressed or busy or upset I can just take my mind off of it and sing my heart out,” Best said. Anna Grace Wolfe of Delta Sigma has also enjoyed the practices but is especially enthusiastic about taking the stage at Singarama for the first time. “I’m excited to be on stage and the moment where we first walk onto the stage,” Wolfe said. Overton, who participated last year, is looking forward...

Highly anticipated events return to campus

As October comes to an end, Halloween isn’t the only thing on the mind of Lipscomb students. Many highly anticipated events are returning this fall and promise to bring even more fun and excitement. Paint the Herd returned Friday, Oct. 25, in it’s fourth year under the sponsorship of the Lipscomb Student Government Association. Student Activities Director Louis Nelms said Paint the Herd started his junior year in 2010 at Lipscomb University, and it has been a hit every year since. “It’s one of Lipscomb’s bigger events,” Nelms said. “There is always several hundreds of people there. It’s going to be one students talk about for a while. It’s one that students look forward to all year.” “It’s fun, it’s this Friday, and it’s going to be a blast,” he added. Paint the Herd isn’t the only exciting event that has been planned. The always popular annual dodge ball tournament put on by Campus Ministry is also just around the corner. This years ninth annual tournament is comes back to campus on the first of November in Bison Square. “It started off as just a goofy event for people to dress up around Halloween and play dodge ball and it sort of evolved into this massive celebration of what I think is the Lipscomb culture,” Nelms said. “I always tell people there is two ways to win dodge ball. One, you can win the actual tournament and you take a trophy home, but no one remembers you. Two, you can have the best costume and everyone remembers you.” If getting paint on your body or getting hit by dodge...

Lumination’s 2013 Fall Slate

Before the semester becomes too overloaded with events and calendars gets completely booked, Lumination would like to offer a handy guide to all of the events coming up during the fall semester. September looks to bring a full slate of men’s and women’s soccer games. Pledge week also kicks off in September as Bid Night took place Sept. 12. Some of Lipscomb’s most anticipated events begin in October starting with the Tau Phi Cowboy show on Oct. 5, Paint the Herd on Oct. 30 and Haunted High Rise scaring students on Oct. 30. The women’s volleyball schedule kicks into high gear during October as well. Lipscomb’s annual Dodgeball tournament will start November off with a bang. The men’s basketball team will open up their season against Belmont with the Battle of the Boulevard against rival Belmont on Nov. 8, followed by the women’s Battle less than a week later on Nov. 14. Everything from sporting events across all sports to special Student Activities Board sponsored events, to usual favorites like Wednesday Night We Eat are taking place throughout the next few months, making Lipscomb’s campus a busy place. All sporting events take place at Lipscomb University unless otherwise noted. September: 16 Women’s Soccer Battle of the Boulevard vs. Belmont at 7:00 18 Wednesday Night Devo/Wednesday Night We Eat 19 SGA Coffeehouse Maggie Moo’s 9:45 p.m. Bison Square 20-22 Men’s Tennis MTSU Fall Tournament 20 Men’s Soccer vs. Appalachian State 7:30 p.m. Fun in the Square 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Almost Golf 20-21: Midnight Movie: Space Jam at The Belcourt 21 Volleyball vs. Kentucky 2:00 p.m. 22 Men’s Soccer...

‘Trouble with the Curve’ opts for broad sentiment over focused depth

While Clint Eastwood has recently been grabbing headlines with his RNC “empty chair” speech, let’s try to remember that this guy is one of the greats. Many believed Eastwood, a master-class actor and director, had made his grand exit from acting with 2008’s deeply affecting “Gran Torino.” But roughly four years later, Eastwood is back in his longtime collaborator’s (Robert Lorenz) first directorial effort. “Trouble with the Curve” suffers from its silly desire to be too much at once. First-time director Lorenz wanted this movie to be a moving sports drama, an affecting story about family and a 90s-era Disney comedy with bite. The film takes an almost Hallmark-ian approach to its material, giving its characters forced relationships, contrived dialogue and eye-rolling sentimentality. It’s a hammy affair, for sure – one anchored in a sea of sap. Eastwood stars as Gus Lobel, a veteran talent scout for the Atlanta Braves who is on the other end of his career. After realizing that his eyesight might be not up to par with that of a younger individual, he decides to make one last trip to North Carolina to see if a highly regarded high school player is worth a top draft pick. Eastwood’s busybody lawyer daughter Mickey (Amy Adams), who doesn’t exactly have a close relationship with her grumbly pop, reluctantly joins her father on the trip to help him with the scouting process (at the behest of John Goodman’s concerned head of scouting, Pete). While there, the duo runs into Justin Timberlake’s affable Johnny Flannigan (a fellow scout and former player), who, naturally, takes a liking to Mickey. Performance...

Movie Review: ‘The Social Network’ isn’t just for Facebook users, but it helps

More than 500 million people have Facebook accounts, so it seems the new movie “The Social Network” would have a built-in audience. But even if you don’t do Facebook, you will probably still enjoy what I consider to be a great movie. The film focuses on the story behind the creation of facebook.com. I would not consider this a “based-on-a true-story” film as much as a “loosely-based-on-a-true-story-but-greatly-dramatized-for-Hollywood” film. The film tells the story of Mark Zuckerburg and his inspiration for the Facebook website.  It follows the story from Zuckerburg, the site’s founder, sitting in his dorm room in college writing the code for the site, to moving its offices to California and growing it into the multi-billion dollar website it is today. The plot is not really about the website itself, but the confrontation between Zuckerburg and his colleagues.  In the film, Zuckerburg is presenting his case in two separate lawsuits, and describes how the website came to be and how it grew. The film made an estimated $23 million on its opening weekend, despite much criticism about its factuality. While a Facebook account is not needed to appreciate the film, users would understand some jokes and references in the movie that others would not. Anybody can relate to the drama that the characters go through in this film. The film is 120 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for language, sexual content and drug and alcohol...