Friday, February 9, 2007
Grammy predictions: Mary J. takes two
By Sean Mihlo
student life editor
This year's Grammy Awards, airing Sunday
Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. on CBS, is set to be unlike any
other in recent memory. If not for this reason only,
the Police, featuring all three original members,
Sting, Andy Sumners and Stewart Copeland, are set
to open the show after a 23-year-long "hiatus."
Jennifer Hudson, hot off of numerous major film
award wins for her portrayal of lead-singer-gone
back-up "Effie White" in Dreamgirls, will perform
along with her movie co-stars Beyonce and Anika
Noni Rose. Other performers announced for the
show include Justin Timberlake, Smokey Robinson,
Shakira (in her first Grammy performance) and
Wyclef, the Dixie Chicks, Christina Aguilera,
Gnarls Barkley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carrie
Underwood and Ludacris. all of whom are nominat
ed this year. With so much great music released
over the past year, who'll walk away with a statue?
Record of the Year: "Be Without You," Mary J.
Blige; "You're Beautiful, - James Blunt: "Not Ready
to Make Nice," the Dixie Chicks: "Crazy," Gnarls
Barkley; "Put Your Records On," Corinne Bailey
Rae.
It's weird to see Gnarls Barkley, a.k.a. former
Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo Green and DJ Danger
Mouse, nominated for a freaking Grammy. let alone
Record of the Year. But "Crazy" was undoubtedly
one of the best singles of the year, no matter how
much radio overplayed it. In this category, though,
Gnarls seems almost too radical to win. The freak
ish pop-gospel-psych-folk of "Crazy" can't top
Mary J.'s comeback single, - Be Without You."
While the Dixie Chicks struck back against critics
and former fans with "Not Ready to Make Nice,"
and newcomer Corinne Bailey Rae is still too
under-the-radar and obscure for this recognition,
Blige broke records with "The Breakthrough."
Released in 2005, it's the biggest first-week debut,
with 727.000 copies sold, for a female R&B artist in
Sound Scan history. She's drama free, and she'll
reign over this year's awards.
Album of the Year: Taking The Long Way, the
Dixie Chicks; St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley;
Continuum, John Mayer; Stadium Areadium, the
Red Hot Chili Peppers; FutureSex/LoveSounds,
Justin Timberlake.
FutureSex/LoveSounds is Timberlake and
Timbaland at the top of their game. Earlier last year,
music review website Pitchfork Media crowned
Timberlake the "new King of Pop," deservedly.
Wear a Yorkie on your feet, pay the price
By Deadra Walker
contributing writer
Surprise, surprise—the arctic tundra that we have
all come to know as Behrend in the winter is upon us,
and although the beast took its sweet time arriving
this year, it arrived -- with a vengeance. That means
time to break out the sweaters Grandma gave you for
Christmas, the tube socks and the boots. However,
contrary to what you may have believed, there is a
way to keep warm and look physically pleasing. One
has to keep a few things in mind when getting dressed
in the mornings.
First, young women please scroll back through last
year's "Beacon and find the rant regarding winter
boots. While I will openly admit that I wear insulat
ed boots over a couple of pairs of socks, my boots do
not closely resemble my family's Yorkshire Terrier.
If your boot looks like you should strap a leash on it
and take it for a stroll with a pooper scooper, that's
not aesthetically pleasing. Leave your pets at home
ladies and not on your feet.
The same is the case with hats. While at Sheetz last
week, I stood in line behind a young gentleman with
what looked to be an oversized rodent on his head,
and while I was only in line behind him for a few
Write for the Beacon! E-mail
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"My Love" was probably last year's best single,
with its warm rush of lusty synth-lines and subtle,
weepy vocals, showed how much of a minimal pop
master Timbaland is. And even though JT should
take the crown in this category, Timberlake is too
far ahead of Grammy's game. Grammy likes a bold
political statement, and the Dixie Chicks delivered
exactly that with Taking the Long Way. Country
radio isn't playing their records? They don't care.
People are still offended by Maines' Bush-bashing
comment? Actually, they still don't care. But
Grammy does, and they'll walk away with it.
Song of the Year: "Be Without You." Johnta
Austin, Mary J. Blige, Bryan-Michael Cox and
Jason Perry (Mary J. Bilge); "Jesus, Take the
Wheel," Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie
Sampson (Carrie Underwood); "Not Ready to Make
Nice," Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Emily
Robison and Dan Wilson (the Dixie Chicks); "Put
Your Records On," John Beck, Steve Chrisanthou
and Corinne Bailey Rae (Corinne Bailey Rae);
"You're Beautiful," James Blunt, Amanda Ghost
and Sacha Skarbek (James Blunt).
James Blunt: not a chance in hell. "You're
Beautiful" was last year's "I'm Too Sexy" you
hear it once, and you never, ever want to hear it
again. Corinne Bailey Rae: maybe in a few years.
"Put Your Records On" is a sweet little slice of soul,
but not enough to win voters over. "Jesus, Take the
Wheel" is a well-written song period, and Carrie
Underwood established herself as a strong presence
in the country and pop community, but Grammy
gives extra credit to big comebacks, so Mary J. will
nab this one too.
New Artist: James Blunt; Chris Brown; Imogen
Heap; Corinne Bailey Rae; Carrie Underwood.
Please, James Blunt, can yap go away? Please?.
Newcomer Chris Brown re-energized the pop-R&B
scene last year with "Run It," one of the many hits
from his 200.5 debut. But at 17 years old, it might be
too early on in his career to run away with the tro
phy. It's nice to see Imogen Heap, the former Frou
Frou front woman whose song "Hide and Seek" was
popularized on the TV show "The 0.C.," nominat
ed, but will anyone know who she is if she wins?
Exactly. 2006 was the year of the Idol: Carrie
Underwood. She won the People's Choice Award
for "Favorite Female Singer," the Billboard Music
Award for "Female Country Artist of the Year" and
"Country New Artist of the Year" and the Academy
of Country Music Awards for "Top New Female
Vocalist of the Year." No surprises here Carrie will
take the cake.
moments, they were the longest in my life. I spent
them not worrying if I had enough money in my back
pocket to pay for my sandwich, but praying that said
rodent was not staring me down, waiting to attack. If
you give your hat sporadic rabies shots, you'd better
leave that at home.
In addition, please look outside when preparing to
leave your respective residence for the day. There is
still a good foot of snow outside, and even if it
decides to melt in the upcoming days due to the dou
ble-digit temperatures we have returned to, it will be
back. With that in mind, flip flops, a mini-skirt and
knitted leg warmers are probably not a smart choice.
Those leg warmers probably won't be of much use to
you if your legs fall off on account of the frostbite or
some other lose of limbs. In response to the flip
flops, I guess you simply do not appreciate your toes.
Pants and closed toed shoes are your friends. This is
not Laguna Beach, California people. Say it with
me—Erie, Pennsylvania.
The fact of the matter is that we, for whatever rea
son, have chosen to live in an area that spends a good
chunk of the year blanketed in freezing fluffy snow.
Be wise and stay warm.
College legends and myths unmasked
By Patrick Webster
managing editor
College is a place of open and free communi
cation, which leads to a sharing of ideas and
knowledge. For the most part, this serves to
speed the educational process by making it easi
er for everyone to learn. However, such open
communication also has the drawback of allow
ing unverified and untrue information to spread
even more rapidly than the real story. As a result,
college campuses are often a hot spot for the
spreading of myths and rumors, such as the ones
below:
The roommate's suicide
One common myth among many college stu
dents is that the death of a roommate or similar
ly close friend or relative will result in the instan
taneous award of a 4.0 or other high grade for the
semester to the emotionally devastated student.
While many educational institutions have poli
cies in effect that will provide special considera
tion for a student in such a situation, such as
extra time to complete work or waiving certain
attendance requirements, no school, including
Penn State, will award grades without the com
pletion of the necessary coursework.
This myth is so prevalent that at least two fea
ture films, "Dead Man on Campus" and "Dead
Man's Curve," have plots that are generally
based on the same premise. It has also found its
way into numerous television shows, including
"The Simpsons" and "Law and Order."
The backwards PIN
Another myth that has been floating around
since at least 1998 is that entering your PIN
(Personal Identification Number) backwards into
an ATM or similar banking machine will alert the
police and your bank that you are doing so under
duress.
This tale likely has its roots in a patent issued
to Chicago entrepreneur Joseph Zinger, who in
1994 came up with the idea for a system installed
in bank teller machines that would alert authori
ties when the PIN was entered backwards. This
system has never been implemented by any bank,
though a few states have either passed or consid
..eitd legislation that would allow banks to do so.
They most famous incident related to this myth
was the carjacking and murder of Kimberly
Boyd, who was forced at gunpoint to withdraw
all her money for the carjacker before being mur
dered. Her husband Michael immediately lob
bied the Georgia State Legislature to enact a law
that would require banks to institute such a sys
tem. A bill was introduced in December of 2005,
but has never been voted or acted upon.
Favorite Chinese dish: cat
College students are always on the lookout for
one thing: cheap, good food. As a result,
Chinese restaurants are often popular choices on
college towns for their offerings of large quanti-
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ties of food for a reasonable price. Naturally,
cultural xenophobia quickly supplies a reason
why the price is so reasonable.
There is rarely a college student that has not
heard a joke or tale about a favorite Chinese
restaurant that actually serves cat meat in its
dishes instead of chicken. This myth is in fact
very old, with British newspapers printed as
early as the 1850 s alluding to cat being on the
menu in new Asian eating establishments. As
exemplified by the longevity of this myth, it is
very ingrained into popular culture. In 1995, this
rumor spread like wildfire in the city of Chicago
after a popular Chinese restaurant closed, even
after weeks of advertisement that the whole
national franchise was closing for business rea
sons. The United States Department of Health
reports that no restaurant, Chinese or otherwise,
has ever been closed for keeping cat meat in its
freezer.
While it is true that dog is consumed in very
few parts of Asia that have poverty-level
economies and in times of famine, the use of
what are considered pet animals in the western
hemisphere as food is rare even in China and
Korea.
Mystery shopping
Money is always on the mind of a modern col
lege student. As a result, an offer that would be
readily dismissed by someone who is financially
secure has a way of worming itself into the mind
of someone always looking for a few extra
bucks. A currently popular fraud is that of "mys
tery shopping," or being paid to go shopping and
writing reports about certain places of business.
While there are a few legitimate mystery shop
ping jobs offered by stores themselves, the vast
majority seek to separate gullible young adults
from their money quickly. In short, the Federal
Trade Commission advises that any mystery
shopping offer that includes the use of the
prospective shopper's own money is almost cer
tainly a fraud. This includes fees for "handling"
or "training" that one must undertake before
being given assignments, and programs that
promise to reimburse the shopper after certain
items are purchased. An offshoot of these prac
tices is called "reshipping," in which a victim is
instructed to purchase and reship items from
online auction services such as eßay and
Amazon, in return for promised compensation.
The good and bad offers can be difficult to dif
ferentiate; oftentimes they both advertise in the
same media. including newspapers, radio, and
the internet. An easy way to tell if the job is on
the up and up is to look at who is offering it: if
Sears is looking for mystery shoppers to test its
customer service, it's probably real. If, instead,
some third party is offering you the opportunity
and insists on certain fees or is not up front with
information, it probably isn't.
Special thanks to Barbra Mikkelson at the Urban
Legends Reference Pages and The Federal Trade
Commission.
The Behrend Beacon I